Nox moved cautiously, following the path deeper underground.
The Lower District was a place forgotten by time—Nox passed rusted pipes and worn-out machines that sat silent, their purpose long abandoned.
In the dim glow of flickering lights, he finally spotted the cottage—Millio’s workshop.
A place full of memories for both of them.
They must have met ten years ago. Millio—awkward, brilliant, and as hyperactive as you’d expect from a Hyena. Although hes always fixing, always inventing, always searching for the next piece of tech to tinker with, a shame these hounds take most of his inventions with them, but to Millio this was home.
And Nox... Nox had never really felt like he belonged here.
The undercity had never gotten a special place in Noxes heart.
His father had called this place the Iron Coffin—a dead end where people were buried alive. No wonder he fled. And now?
Now, Nox was here instead—carrying the burden. He stopped at the entrance, Millio’s familiar figure looming ahead.
He snaps out, His friend, perched on the roof like a rogue architect, he had his hands buried deep inside a tangle of wires. His fur, a mix of dusty brown and ash-gray, was always messy, sticking out in tufts as if he had been electrocuted one too many times.
His coat—some patched-together, oversized thing covered in oil stains and burn marks—was a testament to how often he worked on things that shouldn’t be tinkered with.
A pair of goggles, lenses cracked and smudged with grease, sat on his forehead, pushing back the few stray strands of hair that refused to stay in place.
His thin but nimble fingers worked quickly, adjusting circuits with the confidence of someone who had spent his entire life taking things apart just to see if he could put them back together again. He didn’t bet an eye on Nox.
Noxes glance shifted toward the Undercity now clearly visible in the background of the Cottage.
"Coreline Expansion Project - Future Begins Below!"
The words felt like a cruel joke.
Cables hung like dead vines from broken scaffolding, swaying gently in the stagnant air. Somewhere deeper in the shadows, steam hissed from a cracked pipeline, the glow of molten liquid flickering through the jagged tear in its metal.
A defunct tram station sat buried under layers of neglect, its tracks twisted and cracked a reminder of the old rail system. A single tram car still stood there, half-drowned in a sinkhole, its doors pried open like a corpse picked clean by scavengers.
A market of the desperate had sprung up nearby—shady figures huddled under makeshift stalls made from old tarp and salvaged sheet metal, trading in things no one from the upper city would ever think about: black-market oxygen filters, synthetic food rations past their expiration date, scavenged augments with questionable functionality.
The people here moved like ghosts, their faces obscured by patched-up respirators, rebreathers held together with tape and hope.
Nox took a look back the mineshaft entrance itself loomed behind him—a jagged black maw in the metal earth, surrounded by crooked warning signs coated in rust and bullet holes. Someone had scrawled a message beneath the faded words:
"Nothing comes back up."
His thoughts went dark, thinking about that one faithful day again
“Nothing comes back up, and yet… Fuck, I didn’t want to to be bothered by this anymore, its been ten years...”
“It is what it is now.”
“I had no choice.”
Barely anyone has a choice down here. But at last he tried to make the best out of it
He couldn’t let his father down.
He glances at the old cottage again—moldering wood, rusty nails.
It had always been a place of both comfort and tension—a relic of an older time.
Now it was repurposed into a makeshift headquarters.
Broken tools and rusted scraps littered the ground, the remnants of a past that no one cared to remember. Millio, still preaching on the roof had noticed Nox now.
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The faint buzzing of electricity crackling stopped.
Millio leaned dangerously far over the edge of the cottage roof, his body half-bent backward like gravity had just given up. His goggles nearly slipped off his forehead
Upside down and grinning like an unhinged bat, he eyed Nox with sharp, mischievous eyes, his wild fur sticking out in messy tufts. The dim glow of ta lantern close by casting strange shadows across his face, making his already erratic presence feel even more chaotic.
"Heya, sunshine. You look like crap."
Nox smirked, shaking his head.
"Yeah, yeah. You’re lucky I’m not too tired of your endless tinkering."
Millio hung there for a second longer, blinking upside down at Nox like a confused bat. Then, with a quick, wildly unnecessary spin, he flung himself upright in one fluid motion—his coat flapping dramatically as he landed back on the roof with a metallic thunk.
His hat, now sitting even more crooked than before, barely held on as he straightened up, stretching his arms like he had just woken up from a nap.
"Whew! Alright—back to reality."
He cracked his neck, then immediately winced, rubbing the back of his head. "Okay, bad idea. Not built for that. Spinal cord is screaming. Moving on!"
Without missing a beat, he flopped back down onto his stomach, elbows resting lazily on the roof’s edge, chin propped up in his hands.
"You were dealing with the Hounds, weren’t you, guess I’m lucky you didn’t turn in to a chew toy yet, messing around with those mutts."
Nox sighed, rubbing his temples.
"What gave it away?"
Millio spun a wrench in his hand like a baton, nearly dropping it before snatching it mid-air. He waved it wildly, like a mad conductor leading an invisible orchestra.
"Oh, I dunno—maybe the fact that you look like you aged five years in a day? Or maybe it’s the stress lines forming on that foxy face of yours? Yeah, it’s definitely gotta be that. Hate to break it to you, buddy, b- hah- but you're about three sleepless nights away from looking like--"
Nox groaned interrupting Millios rant. "Okay okay, I got it, I look terrible-Not helping, Mill. Also, I can’t believe someone who cant even control his own hair tells me that. You know I gotta help then once a month."
Millio gave Nox an exaggerated finger-gun point, then casually flopped into a crouch, one knee up, the other foot planted firmly as he rested an elbow on it.
“ Yeah I know, but I also know you, and usually look-s is very important to you.”
Nox threw his paws up symbolizing a surrendering “ You’ve got me, I didn’t do my morning beauty routine today!”
Millio walked around Nox his gaze lingering all over him.
"You got the package?"
Nox hesitated for a second before tossing the stack of credits toward Millio.
"Yeah. Not sure how much yet. Not sure if I wanna know either."
Millio caught the bundle mid-air, flipping through the creds with his thumb like a deck of cards. Then—
"TEN. THOUSAND. CREDS?! BRO—ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"
Nox jerked back as Millio nearly lost balance gripping Nox with one hand while waving the stack wildly in the other.
"DUDE! YOU DID NOT TELL ME I BUILT A BUS-BOOMER FOR THIS MUCH MONEY!"
Nox blinked.
"You know this money doesn’t belong to us...Wait. A bus what?!"
Millio cackled, kicking his feet against the side of the building as he grinned at Nox.
"Relax, relax—it’s fiiine. Just a little disruption device. A happy accident. Mostly harmless. Probably."
He spun the credits between his fingers throwing them back to Nox climbing back on the cottage roof
"But hey! Since you clearly got your mission delivered on a silver tablet off my genius, guess what? Now you owe me."
Nox sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, kinda figured. What’s the deal?"
Millio leaned down dramatically, eyes darting side to side like he was about to tell Nox a government secret.
"There’s a junkyard nearby, the other side of the Mineshaft – Not easy to reach for scavengers but for you it’s a Cake Walk. Thers- a New disposal tomorrow. 14:00 sharp."
Millio clapped his hands together like a deranged salesman—and nearly toppled off the roof.
"Be the first one there. Grab the best loot. Take Chet with you—big guy’s useful when things get heavy. And! Bonus points! Don’t get jumped by scavengers on your way back. Probably. Hopefully. Maybe."
Millio suddenly gasped, snapping his fingers. "Wait! Maybe I should come, too! Actually—no, bad idea. Wait—yes, actually, hold on—"
Nox cut him off, waving a hand in front of his face. "Dude. Focus. Yes or no?"
“Millio grinned wide. Alright, alright, you two got it without me. I’m on a little project at the moment.“
Nox waved with paw
“Alright Millio I gotta go now, got handsome Fox things ahead of me.”
Millio laughed out loud rolling on his back.
“Hahaha before that make you missed out on your beauty sleep again!”
with a dismissive eye roll Nox turns around and starts waking back toward the Mine
The ground beneath Nox’s feet was uneven, a patchwork of reinforced steel plates and old cobblestone peeking through years of neglect.