Kai took a deep, steadying breath—or tried to. The air in the service duct was still thick with the metallic tang of ozone and the unsettling phantom scent of rat-fear that clung to the inside of his skull like greasy film. He forced himself to put one foot in front of the other, shuffling forward into the oppressive darkness, guided only by the faint, intermittent flickering pulse from the blown junction box further down the conduit.

  Following a rat. A rat he was now literally, biologically, System-ically fused with. Just peachy.

  The initial blinding shock of the Symbiosis Protocol had subsided slightly, but the aftereffects lingered, unpleasant and deeply weird. The [Symbiotic Shock] debuff lived up to its name, making his limbs feel heavy and unresponsive, like wading through invisible syrup. A low-grade headache pulsed behind his eyes, occasionally spiking with phantom neuralgic pain whenever he thought particurly harsh thoughts about his new… partner. Which was often.

  Stupid rat, he thought, then immediately winced as a faint throb answered behind his left temple. Okay, okay! Talented, intelligent, surprisingly clean rat, he amended mentally, rolling his eyes in the darkness. The throb subsided. Great. Now I have to use positive affirmations or the System electrocutes my brain. Is this Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: Forced Symbiosis Edition?

  The blue spectral overy of the System interface floated persistently in his vision. He couldn't not see it, a constant, annoying reminder of his predicament. He focused on the top line: HP: 14 / 40 [SHARED POOL]. Crap. Already down another point. The [Minor Energy Burns] were relentless, a slow, invisible bleed. At this rate, they had maybe… fifteen minutes? Less? Before their shared life pool hit zero. Fifteen minutes to navigate a fried service duct in the dark, avoid electrocution, deal with potential other hazards, and find an exit. No pressure.

  Ahead, he could hear the faint scrabble of Squeaks’s cws on the metal floor. The sound was cautious, deliberate. The rat was moving slowly, stopping frequently. What was it doing? Sniffing? Listening? Having second thoughts about following the loud, angry meat-sack who’d nearly gotten it vaporized?

  Hey… uh… Squeaks? Kai projected the thought, trying to keep the hostility dialed down to avoid another System-induced migraine. See anything? Smell anything? Besides impending doom and my dazzling personality? Report!

  He didn't get words back, of course. What he got was a sudden, disorienting fsh of… something else. For a split second, his own murky vision was overid with a different perspective – low to the ground, washed in shades of grey and movement-blur, dominated by overwhelming olfactory information. He smelled dust, ozone, rusted metal, faint traces of other creatures having passed through here long ago, and the sharp, dangerous scent of actively burning insution nearby. The visual fsh was gone almost instantly, leaving him blinking spots, but the smell lingered in his awareness, potent and informative.

  "Whoa," Kai breathed, stumbling slightly. He spped a hand against the cold conduit wall to steady himself. Was that… was that the rat's senses? The Sensory Link thingy? It was jarring, like having someone else's vacation photos fsh randomly behind your eyelids, except smellier and more likely to involve imminent danger.

  Okay, he thought, trying to process the sudden influx. Burning insution nearby. Got it. Helpful. And deeply unsettling. He also felt a prickle of caution emanating from Squeaks, a tightening ball of careful-danger-close.

  "See? We can work together!" Kai decred aloud to the darkness, trying to sound encouraging, mostly to convince himself (and maybe appease the System). "You smell the scary stuff, I... uh... provide witty commentary and occasionally trip over things? Perfect teamwork!"

  The feeling of caution from Squeaks intensified slightly, tinged with what felt suspiciously like exasperation. Or maybe that was just Kai projecting his own feelings onto the link. This whole shared empathy thing was confusing as scrap.

  He pressed onward, following the sound and the vague sense of rat-presence ahead. The flickering light grew marginally stronger, less intermittent, suggesting they were getting closer to the source of the disturbance. The conduit seemed wider here, rge enough to walk mostly upright, thankfully. Thick bundles of cables, some as thick as his arm, ran along the walls and ceiling, held up by rusted brackets. Several sections were clearly damaged, insution charred bck or stripped away entirely, exposing dull copper or silvery wires within. Loose wires snaked across the floor in pces – definitely something to avoid stepping on.

  The flickering light revealed the source: about ten meters ahead, a rge junction box mounted on the wall had been blown wide open. Its door hung mangled on one hinge, and inside, a tangled mess of circuitry sparked erratically, casting the pulsing blue-white light. The burning smell was strongest here. This was undoubtedly where the energy surge had originated.

  Squeaks had stopped just short of the damaged box, near the edge of the flickering light radius. Kai could just make out its silhouette now – low to the ground, whiskers twitching, body tense, tail shing almost imperceptibly. It was staring intently at the sparking mess.

  Kai approached cautiously, keeping his distance from the obvious electrical hazard. He squinted, trying to see past the junction box. Did the conduit continue beyond it? Or was this a dead end? HP: 12 / 40. Time was definitely not on their side.

  Well? Kai projected towards Squeaks, focusing on the space beyond the hazard. See a way through? Exit? Hidden stash of infinite power batteries and cheese?

  He got another jumbled fsh of rat-o-vision: Greyscale view of the conduit continuing past the junction box. More cables, another bend further down. But closer, right past the sparking box, the floor looked… weird. Uneven. Darker patches. Overying the visual was a strong olfactory hit: hot metal, ozone, BURNING, DANGER, PAIN-PLACE. And a strong feeling of NO-GO-THAT-WAY.

  "Okay, so... conduit continues, but floor is va, basically?" Kai muttered, interpreting the jumbled signals. "Got it." He edged closer, trying to see what Squeaks was warning him about.

  The flickering light confirmed it. The floor immediately past the blown junction box was buckled and distorted. Sections of the metal pting were charred bck, others seemed partially melted or warped upwards, creating jagged edges. Worse, small arcs of electricity occasionally leaped from the sparking box onto the damaged floor pting nearby. Touching that would be… bad. Very, very bad. Shared HP pool meant if one of them got zapped into a crispy critter, the other likely wouldn't be far behind.

  "Scrap," Kai breathed, surveying the obstacle. They couldn't go back (Grok). They couldn't stay here (HP ticking down). They couldn't walk across the electro-floor-of-doom. Wonderful.

  He looked up. The cables running along the ceiling seemed mostly intact above the damaged area, though they were thick and high up. Could he climb across using them? Maybe? His Strength score of 3 ughed humourlessly at the idea. He’d be lucky to hang on for five seconds before plummeting onto the sparking floor.

  What about Squeaks? The rat was agile, small. Could it climb the walls or ceiling, bypassing the floor hazard?

  Hey, Squeaks, Kai sent the thought, picturing the rat scrambling along the wall or cables above the dangerous section. Can you do that? Get across? Wall-crawl? Cable-shimmy? Impress me with your freaky rat powers?

  He felt a wave of uncertainty from Squeaks, but also… appraisal? Squeaks’s head tilted in the dim light, looking up at the cables, then back at the floor. Then, a feeling: CLIMB-YES. SLIPPERY. DANGER-FALL. NO-GUARANTEE.

  "Right. So maybe, but also maybe you fall and we both die," Kai summarized glumly. "Awesome."

  He leaned against the conduit wall, careful to touch only bare metal away from any obvious wiring, and looked at their status again. HP: 11 / 40. Burns still active. [Symbiotic Shock] still making him feel like mosses. They needed a solution, fast.

  Think, Kai, think. What did they have? Pitiful stats. One maybe-functional-if-it-wasn't-overloaded Danger Sense. A bratty human (himself) and a wary rat partner. And… junk? He still had his scavenging sack slung over his shoulder. He’d almost forgotten about it in the chaos.

  He swung the sack around, peering inside in the dim, flickering light. What garbage had he collected? Rusted bolts. A cracked capacitor (useless). A length of frayed synth-rope (maybe?). A bent piece of ferrocrete rebar, about half a meter long. A chipped ceramic insutor he’d thought might polish up nice (ha!). And… sg. Lots of sg.

  His eyes lingered on the rebar and the synth-rope. An idea, possibly stupid but better than no idea, sparked in his mind.

  Okay, Squeaks, Pn… uh… G? Stay put. Don’t touch anything glowy, Kai projected, focusing the intent strongly.

  He carefully untangled the synth-rope. It wasn't very long, maybe two meters, and looked brittle in pces, but it might hold his weight for a short duration. Maybe. Then he took the bent rebar. Could he use it as… a makeshift grappling hook?

  He looked up at the thick bundles of cables running overhead, passing directly above the sparking floor section. There was a sturdy-looking metal bracket holding the cables to the ceiling just beyond the hazardous zone. If he could somehow hook the rebar over that bracket, maybe use the rope…

  It was a long shot. His aim was probably terrible, especially with the debuff. The rope could snap. The bracket could be rusted through. But it was better than trying to jump or relying on Squeaks’s risky climbing attempt.

  He tried to mentally communicate the pn to Squeaks, projecting images: Rebar hooking bracket. Rope tied. Swing across. Avoid zappy floor. Got it?

  The response was a confused jumble of feelings: Question mark? Falling sensation? Metal thingy? Rope weak? Skeptical Rat. But there was also a flicker of… understanding? The rat seemed to look from Kai, to the rebar, to the bracket overhead, then back to Kai, tilting its head. Maybe some of the INT 6 was rubbing off. Or maybe it just thought Kai was nuts.

  "Right then," Kai muttered, finding a retively clear spot on the floor a few meters back from the sparking box. He tied one end of the synth-rope securely (he hoped) around the middle of the bent rebar piece. He tested the knot, pulling hard. It seemed to hold.

  He held the rebar, readying himself to throw it upwards, aiming for the bracket beyond the hazard zone. The flickering light made depth perception tricky. The [Symbiotic Shock] debuff made his arms feel unsteady.

  This is stupid. This is monumentally stupid, Kai thought, gritting his teeth. He took a deep breath, swung his arm back, and hurled the rebar upwards with a grunt.

  It flew through the air, trailing the synth-rope behind it like a weird metallic comet tail. For a second, Kai thought he’d actually aimed perfectly. It sailed towards the bracket… and then cnged harmlessly off the thick cables just below it, tumbling back down towards the sparking floor.

  "Scrap!" Kai yelped, yanking frantically on the rope to pull the rebar away before it nded on the electrified pting. He managed to drag it back to safety just as another arc leaped from the junction box, hitting the spot where the rebar had nearly nded. Close call. Too close.

  His heart hammered. Okay. Aiming was definitely an issue. Plus, the rebar didn't really have a hook shape, just a bend. Maybe it wasn't catching properly.

  Any brilliant ideas, Squeaks? he projected weakly, feeling foolish. Short of, you know, evolving wings and carrying me across?

  He received a jumble of sensation back. Smell of ozone. Sound of crackling electricity. Visual fshes of the falling rebar. And a distinct feeling of this-is-not-working-stupid-meat-sack.

  "Yeah, yeah, I get it," Kai muttered. He looked at the rebar, then back at the bracket. Maybe he didn't need to hook it perfectly? If he could just get the rope over the bracket...

  He recoiled the rope. This time, instead of aiming directly at the bracket, he aimed past it, higher, hoping the rope itself would drape over the top. He threw again.

  The rebar sailed high, missed the bracket entirely on the far side, and cnged against the conduit wall before falling. Kai pulled it back. Failure two. HP: 10 / 40. Their time was getting dangerously short. The burn debuff had maybe ten minutes left, but at this rate, zero HP would arrive first.

  Panic started cwing at the edges of his forced calm again. What else could they do? Try to crawl through the narrow space between the sparking floor and the low-hanging damaged cables? Insanity. Try to jump? Suicide.

  Wait. The floor wasn't completely impassable, was it? It was buckled, charred, and actively sparking in pces. But maybe... maybe there were isnds? Sections that weren't live?

  He peered intently at the damaged section again, his eyes adjusting better to the strobe-like flicker. Squeaks was also staring intently, whiskers twitching.

  Squeaks, that... that Danger Sense thingy you've got... is it working at all? Kai projected, focusing his question. Can you tell which parts of the floor are definitely going to kill us, and which parts are just probably going to kill us?

  He focused on the feeling from Squeaks. Fear-smell, burning-smell, yes. But also... differentiation? He got another series of sensory fshes: a grey-scale view of the floor. Certain patches seemed darker, pulsating with a visual representation of DANGER-ZAP. Other patches, though charred, seemed... neutral? SAFE-maybe? There appeared to be a narrow, winding path of these maybe-safe spots across the hazardous section. It looked incredibly tight, barely wide enough for one foot at a time, and right next to actively arcing electricity.

  And then, a clearer message, less jumbled than before, formed in his mind, carried on a wave of rat-instinct: PATH. FOLLOW. FAST.

  Kai stared at the floor, then back at Squeaks's silhouette. The rat hadn't moved, but the projected feeling was insistent. Trust the path? Trust the rat's maybe-functional, System-granted danger sense, interpreted through confusing sensory fshes?

  HP: 9 / 40.

  Did they have a choice?

  "Okay," Kai whispered, his voice tight. "Okay, Lead the way, partner. Show me the magic rat-path." He held his breath. "And please, please be right."

  Squeaks didn't hesitate. The moment Kai projected his tentative agreement, the rat darted forward. It didn't run blindly; it moved in a series of swift, precise dashes, zig-zagging across the buckled floor pting with uncanny confidence. It leaped nimbly over a raised, sparking edge, nded silently on a retively intact dark patch, skirted around a spot where arcs were actively dancing, then paused on the other side of the worst of it, looking back expectantly. It had crossed maybe three or four meters of death-trap floor in seconds, guided by senses Kai couldn't hope to match.

  Kai watched, heart in his throat. It worked. The path was real. Now, could he follow it? He was bigger, clumsier, and currently suffering from coordination-reducing debuffs.

  FAST. The urgency pulsed through the link again.

  Right. No time for doubt. Kai took a deep breath, fixed his eyes on the first "safe" patch Squeaks had touched, and leaped.

  He nded awkwardly but solidly. So far, so good. No zap. He quickly identified the next safe spot based on where Squeaks had darted, ignoring the terrifying proximity of a sparking wire just centimeters away. Another hop. Safe. Then a careful step over a buckled ridge. Another hop, nding closer to the sparking junction box than he liked, the hair on his arms prickling from the static discharge. He could smell the electricity intensely now. He held his breath, quickly shifting his weight to the next dark patch Squeaks had used.

  He was halfway across. Squeaks chittered encouragement, or maybe impatience, from the far side. Kai risked a gnce at his HP: 8 / 40. He didn’t dare linger.

  The st couple of meters involved navigating around the wreckage of the blown-open junction box itself. Twisted metal, sparking components – it was a tight squeeze. He had to turn sideways, shuffling carefully, praying no stray arc decided to ground itself through his skinny frame. He felt the heat radiating from the damaged circuitry.

  One final step onto blessedly solid, non-sparking, normal-looking conduit floor on the other side. He stumbled forward, almost falling, catching himself on the conduit wall. He’d made it.

  He leaned against the wall, panting, sweat dripping despite the cool air. Adrenaline coursed through him, momentarily overriding the sluggishness of the [Symbiotic Shock]. Squeaks scampered closer, sniffing cautiously at his boots, then let out a series of softer, calmer chirps. He felt a wave of shared relief wash through the link, diluting the constant background fear.

  "Okay," Kai gasped, wiping sweat from his forehead with a grimy hand. "Okay... good job, Squeaks. Seriously. Nice pathfinding. Didn't think... didn't think we'd make that." He looked back at the sparking deathtrap they’d just navigated. Never doing that again if he could help it.

  Squeaks just bumped its nose against his ankle briefly, then started exploring the new section of the conduit, sniffing intently at the air.

  Kai checked his status again. HP: 7 / 40. Still dropping. They needed to deal with these burns. "Alright, partner," he said, pushing himself off the wall. "Phase two: Find a leaky pipe that doesn't carry explosive chemicals, or figure out how to use rat spit as burn salve." He doubted the System tracked 'Rat Saliva Application' as a viable skill.

  The conduit here seemed less damaged than the section before the explosion. The cables looked mostly intact, the floor solid. It continued onwards, eventually curving out of sight. The air smelled marginally cleaner, less ozone, more standard damp metal and dust.

  Squeaks suddenly stopped sniffing the air and started scratching at the wall. Not frantically like before at the panel, but purposefully, at a spot where a thin seam ran vertically down the metal.

  "What is it now?" Kai asked tiredly, shuffling over. "Secret door? Hidden treasure?" He peered at the seam in the dim, ambient light filtering from further back. It looked like… another access panel? Smaller this time, maybe half a meter square, set flush with the wall near the floor. No visible lock, maybe just pressure-sealed or held by internal clips.

  Squeaks sniffed insistently at the seam, then looked back at Kai, projecting a feeling: OPEN. INSIDE. HELP?

  Help? What kind of help would be inside a random access panel? Maintenance drone parts? Maybe. Could be useful for crafting ter, if they survived that long. Worth a shot, anyway.

  Kai knelt, examining the panel. He ran his fingers along the seam Squeaks indicated. There seemed to be a slight indentation near one corner, maybe a recessed tch? He pressed it. Nothing happened. He tried prying at the edge with his fingernails. No luck.

  "Need something thin and ft," he muttered. He rummaged in his pitiful sack again. Nothing useful. His lockpick wire was too flimsy.

  Squeaks nudged his hand impatiently, then darted over to where Kai had dropped the bent rebar and synth-rope after the failed grappling attempt (he must have instinctively dragged it across the hazard zone with him). Squeaks sniffed at the thinner, less-bent end of the rebar, then looked pointedly back at Kai and the panel seam.

  Kai blinked. "You want me to use the… pointy stick?" He picked up the rebar. The end wasn't exactly sharp, but it was narrow enough. He wedged it into the seam near the corner and pried gently.

  With a soft hiss of escaping pressure and a faint click, the panel popped open slightly. Success!

  "Huh. Good call, Squeaks," Kai admitted, genuinely surprised. Maybe that Wisdom 3 wasn't entirely mispced. He pulled the small panel open. It swung inwards, revealing a dark cavity within the wall.

  Instinctively, he reached inside, feeling around. His fingers brushed against something soft, fabric-like. Then something cylindrical and cool. He gripped it and pulled it out.

  It was a standard Medigel tube. Old model, military surplus by the looks of the faded markings, but the seal at the nozzle felt intact. And miracle of miracles, the indicator strip along the side still showed a faint greenish tinge, meaning it hadn't completely expired into useless goo.

  Kai stared at it like it was made of solid gold. Medigel wasn't easy to come by down here, especially still-viable stuff. It was a basic emergency coagunt and tissue regenerator, standard issue for Authority patrols and military units ages ago. Exactly what they needed for the energy burns.

  "No fragging way," he whispered, holding it up to the faint light. How did Squeaks know? Had it smelled the faint medicinal tang through the metal panel? Or was it just dumb luck combined with plot convenience? Given his life so far, he suspected the tter, but he wasn't going to compin.

  HP: 6 / 40. Time to use it.

  He quickly unscrewed the cap and pointed the nozzle towards his arm, where the skin felt tight and hot from the energy exposure – the source of the burn damage, most likely. He squeezed the tube. Cool, slightly tingly gel extruded onto his skin. It stung for a second, then brought immediate, blessed relief.

  A new System notification popped up.

  [Medigel Applied - LV 1 First Aid Intervention Detected][Counteracting Minor Energy Burns Status Effect...][Success! Status Effect Removed.][HP Regen Initiated: +1 HP/min (5 mins remaining)]

  The steady HP drain stopped instantly. The shared pool even ticked up by one point. HP: 7 / 40.

  Kai let out a huge sigh of relief, slumping back against the wall. "Oh, thank the System… or the rat… or whoever stocked this random wall panel," he murmured. He quickly applied more gel to other exposed skin areas that felt burned. He wasn't sure if Squeaks had simir burns, but given the shared nature of the HP pool and status effects, treating himself seemed to treat the condition.

  He looked over at Squeaks, who was watching him intently, whiskers twitching. Well? Kai projected, holding up the half-empty Medigel tube. You need a smear of this miracle goo? Or does your mutated hide handle psma better than mine?

  Squeaks just blinked its unnervingly intelligent eyes, sniffed the air again, then gave a decisive little headshake before turning its attention back to exploring the forward path. Apparently, rat constitution was stronger than it looked, or the shared effect was enough.

  Kai carefully resealed the Medigel tube and tucked it safely into his sack. That was a literal life-saver. He felt significantly better now that the constant HP drain was gone. The [Symbiotic Shock] still made him feel fuzzy and slow, but the immediate crisis had passed. They had maybe half a tube of Medigel left, and a slowly regenerating HP pool. Things were looking up. Marginally.

  Now, they just had to find a way out of this damned conduit.

  He got back to his feet, feeling slightly more optimistic. "Alright, Squeaks," he said, projecting the feeling more than the words. "Let's see where this tunnel really goes. And try not to step on any more exploding boxes, okay?"

  Squeaks chittered softly, already padding ahead into the darkness. Kai followed, the faint blue glow of the System interface lighting his path, a weird, unwanted symbiotic firefly leading the way through the grime.

  The End.