(A/N: Chapter 9 - Vent Escape Velocity! Or maybe just Vent Escape Velocity... Eventually! Will they make it before the shiny death Roomba notices? Tension! Grime! Probably some compining! LET'S GOOO! FFF for non-lethal vents! (? ??? ? ??? )? )

  The drone began its slow, silent glide back down the corridor towards their alcove. Every meter it covered felt like a hammer blow against Kai’s already frayed nerves. Its blue optical sensors swept impassively left and right, methodical, patient, inevitable. Sixty seconds? Less? Not enough time. Never enough time.

  High above, Squeaks scrabbled furiously at the edges of the dusty ventition grate. Kai could hear faint scraping sounds, metal protesting against metal, punctuated by determined little grunts he felt more than heard through the link. Dust rained down, coating Kai’s shoulders and hair in a fine grey powder. Delicious. At least it matched the décor back in the service duct.

  Come on, come on, come on, Kai urged mentally, eyes flicking between the approaching drone and the struggling rat. Pop open, you stupid piece of scrap!

  He felt Squeaks’s frustration – the grate was stuck fast along one edge, likely rusted or bent. The rat shifted tactics, throwing its surprising weight against one corner, then another, trying to pry it loose. More scraping, louder this time. Kai winced, gncing nervously towards the drone. Had it heard?

  The drone continued its steady approach, seemingly oblivious. Its internal audio sensors were probably calibrated to ignore minor ambient noises in favour of louder threats or specific keywords. Lucky break? Or was it just lulling them into a false sense of security before activating its 'non-lethal face-melter' setting?

  Force it! Kai projected, focusing his desperation towards Squeaks. Use… uh… leverage! Or bite it! No, don’t bite it.

  He felt Squeaks brace itself, hind legs finding purchase on the smooth wall. Then, a surge of focused effort. The rat wasn't just pushing randomly now; it seemed to have found a weak point near a corroded corner screw. It pushed and pulled simultaneously, using its cws and teeth (carefully, not biting through, just gripping) to wrench at the weakened corner.

  SCREEECH!

  A loud, protesting screech of tortured metal ripped through the quiet corridor. Kai flinched violently, cpping his hands over his ears instinctively. His gaze snapped towards the drone.

  The drone stopped. Dead still in the middle of the corridor. Its silent glide ceased. Its blue optical sensors swiveled directly towards their alcove, fixing on the source of the noise. Uh oh.

  [STATUS: Active / Patrol Mode / Alert Level: ELEVATED - Investigating Auditory Anomaly]

  The System notification fshed red in Kai’s vision. Elevated alert level?! Scrap!

  The drone began moving again, faster this time, gliding directly towards their alcove. No more leisurely patrol. It was coming to investigate. Thirty seconds? Twenty?

  High above, the screeching noise was followed by a ctter. The ventition grate, finally yielding, swung outwards and downwards on protesting hinges, hanging open like a rusty metal tongue. Success! Terrible, noisy success!

  Squeaks immediately scrambled through the opening, disappearing into the darkness beyond the grate. IN! QUICK! CLIMB! NOW! The mental projection was pure, frantic urgency.

  Right. Climb. How? The opening was three meters up a smooth wall. Kai looked down at his hands, then at the rebar still attached to the frayed rope in his scavenging sack. Could he…?

  No time for eborate pns. The drone was closing fast. Ten meters away. Its sensors were undoubtedly scanning the alcove now, mapping the space, detecting the open vent, detecting him.

  He needed to get up there now.

  He jammed the sack containing the rebar and other junk higher onto his shoulder. He looked up at the opening. Desperation lent him a surge of adrenaline that momentarily pushed back the lingering [Symbiotic Shock] debuff (still active, just less debilitating now). He jumped, reaching as high as he could, scrabbling for purchase on the smooth composite wall. His fingers found nothing but sheer surface. He slid back down, nding awkwardly.

  "No!" he hissed under his breath. Useless!

  The drone was five meters away. Its blue sensors felt like physical pressure against his skin. He could hear the faint hum of its anti-gravity emitters now. Any second, it would raise the arm, or deploy those 'deterrents'.

  SQUEAKS! HELP! Kai screamed internally, pure panic overriding everything else.

  From the darkness of the vent opening above, the frayed end of the synth-rope dropped down, dangling right in front of Kai’s face. Squeaks! The rat had dragged the rope – the same one Kai had used to swing across the sparking floor, the one still attached to the rebar in Kai's sack – into the vent with it!

  Kai stared at the rope for a split second, dumbfounded by the rat's foresight (or maybe just its pack-rat instincts). Then, instinct took over. He grabbed the rope with both hands.

  PULL! he projected, bracing his feet against the wall.

  He felt Squeaks straining from above. The rope went taut. Could the rat actually pull him up? No, Kai was way too heavy. But maybe… maybe just enough to help him find purchase?

  He started scrambling again, using the rope for leverage, trying to walk his feet up the wall. It was clumsy, awkward, desperate. He scraped his knees, his shoulder bumped the wall hard, the sack flopped around annoyingly.

  The drone arrived directly in front of the alcove. It hovered silently, its multiple blue eyes fixed on Kai’s pathetic, scrabbling ascent. He was completely exposed. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the zap, the spray, the glue…

  Nothing happened.

  He risked cracking an eye open. The drone just… hovered there. Watching him. Its sensors glowed steadily. Was it… confused? Did 'man climbing into dirty vent using frayed rope pulled by giant rat' not compute in its programming? Was it waiting for authorization before engaging?

  Or maybe… maybe its 'non-lethal deterrents' were designed for ground level? Maybe it couldn't target him effectively while he was pstered against the wall two meters up?

  Whatever the reason, it wasn't attacking. Yet. But it definitely knew he was there.

  "Come on, come on…" Kai grunted, straining, pulling himself upwards centimeter by painful centimeter. Squeaks pulled from above, tiny cws scrabbling for purchase inside the vent, adding just enough counter-tension to keep Kai from sliding back down completely. It was a ridiculous, exhausting, two-species tug-of-war against gravity and smooth walls.

  He finally reached the level of the vent opening. His arms burned, his lungs heaved. He could see into the vent now – pitch bck, thick with dust that swirled in the faint light spilling from the corridor. The smell was thick, stagnant, ancient.

  He got one hand onto the lip of the vent opening. Then the other. He kicked off the wall, trying to swing his legs up. His heavy sack shifted, throwing off his bance. He nearly slipped.

  PUSH! he felt Squeaks project, accompanied by a physical nudge against his shoulder from inside the vent.

  With a final, desperate heave, Kai wriggled and scraped his way through the opening, colpsing onto the dusty floor of the ventition shaft in an undignified heap. He coughed, gagging on the thick dust, his body aching all over.

  He immediately twisted around, looking back through the opening. The drone was still there, hovering silently just outside the alcove, its blue sensors now aimed directly up at the open vent. It hadn't followed. It hadn't attacked. It just… watched.

  Then, it raised one of its maniputor arms. A small nozzle extended from the tip. Oh scrap, here it comes!

  But instead of spraying neurotoxin or glue, a fine, powdery mist sprayed upwards, coating the outside of the vent opening and the surrounding wall area. The mist seemed to shimmer faintly, then solidify, forming a hard, opaque white seal over the grate and the wall.

  It wasn't attacking Kai. It was sealing the breach. Containing the contamination. Them.

  With a final, almost dismissive sweep of its sensors, the drone lowered its arm, turned smoothly, and resumed its silent patrol back down the corridor, its alert level presumably dropping back to normal now that the 'anomaly' was 'handled'.

  Kai stared at the rapidly hardening white seant covering the opening, effectively trapping them inside the ventition system. They were safe from the drone. They were also completely cut off from the clean corridor and whatever potential exit it might have offered.

  "Well," Kai coughed, pushing himself into a sitting position amidst the dust bunnies and grime. He patted Squeaks, who was huddled nearby, also covered in dust. "Good news: We're not drone food. Bad news: We're now trapped in… whatever this pce is."

  He looked around. They were in a square metal duct, roughly a meter wide and tall. Enough room to crawl, barely enough to sit up. The darkness was absolute now that the opening was sealed. The only sensory input was the thick smell of dust and stale air, the feeling of gritty surfaces beneath him, and the faint sounds of Squeaks grooming dust off its whiskers nearby.

  Okay. Situation assessment, take three, Kai thought, sighing. Trapped in ventition shaft. Unknown location, unknown destination. Minimal light (none). Minimal supplies (junk). Minimal MP (basically zero). One rat partner (dusty but functional). Outlook: Grim to Potentially Fatal.

  He checked their status mentally. HP: 13 / 40. Stable, at least. MP/STM: 1 / 25. Needs regen badly. He hoped it recovered passively over time. The [Symbiotic Shock] debuff indicator was still present, but the timer read only [12 mins remaining]. Almost gone. That was something.

  Alright, Squeaks, he projected, trying to sound more confident than he felt. Which way does the Undercity escape artist convention go from here? Any drafts? Any suspiciously less-dusty paths? Use those super-sniffer powers.

  He felt Squeaks move nearby, the soft padding of paws on dusty metal. Then, silence, punctuated by faint sniffing sounds. Kai waited, trying to let his own eyes adjust to the total darkness, which was proving completely useless. He really wished he had night vision. Or a fshlight. Or a winning lottery ticket and a teleporter.

  After a minute, Squeaks projected back: TWO-PATHS. LEFT... SMELL-LIKE-OLD-METAL-DUST. VERY-STILL-AIR. DEAD-END-FEEL. RIGHT... SMELL-LIKE-OLD-METAL-DUST-TOO. BUT... FAINT-MOVEMENT-AIR. FAR-AWAY. AND... OTHER-SMELLS. FAINT. WEIRD. UNKNOWN.

  "Unknown weird smells and moving air it is, then," Kai decided instantly. "Dead ends are boring. Lead the way to the right, oh Maestro of Mustiness."

  Squeaks started crawling off to the right in the oppressive darkness. Kai took a deep breath, hitched his sack higher, and got down on his hands and knees, ready to follow. Crawling through dusty, pitch-bck ventition shafts wasn't exactly his idea of a good time, but it beat getting 'non-lethally deterred' by corporate security bots. Probably.

  He started crawling, the gritty dust coating his hands and knees immediately. The space was cramped, the air thick and unpleasant. He bumped his head almost immediately.

  "Ow! Fragging duct!" he muttered, rubbing the spot. This was going to be fun.

  He focused on the faint sounds of Squeaks moving ahead of him, trying to keep up. The darkness felt absolute, pressing in from all sides. His own breathing sounded unnaturally loud. How long had this shaft been sealed off? Decades? Centuries? What other forgotten things might be lurking in here with them?

  Don't think about that, Kai. Just crawl. Crawl towards the weird smells. What could possibly go wrong?

  The End.

  (A/N: They made it! Into the vents! Hooray? Now they're crawling through pitch-bck, dusty shafts towards 'unknown weird smells'. Cssic adventure start! What awaits them in the ventition system? Find out next time! Thanks for reading, FFF keeps the dust bunnies away! (づ??????)づ )