"Lee, wake up! Mamoru is trying to go out again!"

"I am not, Makoto! Stop tryna be a squick!"

"What did you call me?!"

Lee leaned back in his ratty hammock, feeling the coarse fabric rub against his skin. He blew a few strands of his hair from his face, and stood up on shaky feet. Pulling his hair back into a loose ponytail, the teen rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

The room was still as much of a mess as he had left it. Crusty stains covered the walls with only a patchwork of dirty clothes and debris to cover them. Wires from a broken ceiling hung low, and Lee carefully checked the bulbs on the wires to make sure they weren't cracked or broken. When he found nothing wrong, he breathed out a sigh of relief and flicked the lights on, letting the room flicker into view as the power of their housing block stuttered to life.

He blinked as the lights came on, and then he stumbled over to where a clean crib lay in one corner of the room. His baby brother wriggled around in the crib, frowning in his sleep and grasping for something with his tiny hands.

Lee took his baby brother up onto his shoulder, making sure not to wake him.

Adjusting the baby on his shoulder, Lee then marched through the thick cloth that served as a door to his room. A long hallway with five doorways covered by cloth greeted the teen, but Lee didn't pay it any mind as he ambled down the hall to the argument that grew louder and louder.

"Mamoru, stop it! You're just going to cause big brother to worry and skip his work to make sure you don't die, or get swindled, or get kidnapped, or get–"

"Shut it, Makoto! Ya ain't the boss of me! I'ma go out there an' get Bits, too. It beats stayin' in here an' lookin' after that fuckin' bit–"

"Speak like a normal person, idiot! Big brother paid a lot for us to get those Holo classes."

Lee came around the end of the long hallway where it opened up into a large, cubical room. Like his own room, it was a mess. Walls stained from long ago, and plastic trash littered the floor. The lights above flickered periodically, and Lee frowned as he realized he might need to see about replacing a few.

He searched the room, finding the three occupants. His little sister, Makoto, and his little brother, Mamoru, were arguing in the kitchen like usual. An old, circular table took up most of the space in the small kitchen, but the two of them just leaned over it to reach into one of the cupboards to grab small, plastic packets, which they ripped open to drink the blue liquids inside.

Lee saw the small mountain of empty packets on the table, frowning as he saw them shove the wrappers on the floor when they saw him.

"You two…"

"It was Makoto's idea!" Mamoru pointed at his sister, earning a betrayed look from the girl.

Makoto blushed, fiddling with the tattered gray long sleeve she wore. "Sorry, Lee… I read on the Holonet that many nutrition packets often don't have the ingredients listed on them, so they recommend you drink a couple of them to actually get your day's worth of… stuff."

"What she said!"

Lee bit back a curse, adjusting his hold on his baby brother and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Those were supposed to be eaten sparingly. We're already low on funds after needin' to replace the fridge, so I can't buy more than liquid meal packs."

"Then let me go out and do some gigs, too!" Mamoru stood up, but Lee found that his brother barely reached his stomach even when the kid got on his tiptoes. "I've been gettin' stronger, and I know I can help out! Besides, weren't you an' that Bloodhound guy already doing gigs at my age?"

"Nuh-uh! I read on a couple forums that the Bloodhound only started recently. Big brother started way earlier, and that doesn't mean you can do the same. I doubt anyone would let a shrimp like you into their gigs!"

"Shut it, nerd! Why don't you go read somethin' some squick found about a corporation given' a shit!"

"Mamoru." Lee cut in, staring at his little brother. The dark-haired boy trembled, looking down at his feet. "Apologize to your sister."

"But!"

"Do it."

Mamoru heaved a sigh of strenuous effort. "Fine. Sorry for bein' mean, sis."

Makoto huffed, and Lee leveled a glare her way. "You too."

"Sorry for calling you a shrimp, Mamoru…" she said after a period of silence.

Lee nodded when he saw they weren't going to cause any more trouble, turning to Mamoru. "And you're not allowed to take any gigs. Just stay on this floor and call my Holo if you need help. I know a couple guys on this floor who might need some extra hands, so if you behave, I can see if they want to hire you."

"Really?" Mamoru bounced up, smiling bright.

Makoto scoffed, but she clammed up when Lee turned to her. Seeing that his little sister wasn't about to go on another tirade, Lee jerked his chin over to the couch in their living room. The kitchen and the living room didn't have much difference beyond the fact that one had a circular table with a broken fridge and the other was just a tattered rug and equally ratty couch.

The main thing was the person who was currently laid out on the couch. An older, black haired woman. She shared many features that all four siblings shared. Dark hair that cascaded off the couch in messy lines and dark eyes that caused many to associate them with the Yakuza who lived only a floor below. Perhaps at one time, Lee considered that their mother could have been in the gang, but now that her pale skin was covered in ugly tattoos and faded needle scars, Lee knew no one would want her back.

A soft mumble escaped the woman's mouth, and Lee frowned as he saw empty bottles on the floor near the couch. He held back a reflexive snarl of disgust, reigning in his anger as he brought his attention back to his younger siblings.

"She come in with anyone?"

Mamoru shook his head, but he didn't hide as he glared at the woman they all called mom. "No, the Bitch at least knows better. Could'a been shit if they tried grabbin' sis again…"

Makoto shivered, rubbing her arms. "Yeah."

Lee pursed his lips, looking between the two siblings. He hesitated for a moment before he stroked Makoto's hair, eliciting the girl to lean into his side.

"Don't worry, if something like that happens again, make sure to scream as loud as you two can. I paid off a couple of our neighbors to hopefully help us out."

Makoto nodded but Mamoru scoffed. "What are they gonna do? They just run at the first sign of a scrap going down."

"Either way, just do it." Lee said, staring at his siblings till they both nodded their heads. "And don't get into trouble until I get back. I might be working late today, so–"

Lee paused as he felt his Holo buzz. He glanced at an unread message from Oliver before he dismissed it. Jason might not have gotten the memo, but he had when one of his friends told him that they had seen Oliver in the Zoo's territory.

A spike of betrayal lanced through the back of his mind as he remembered that. It was no secret that the Zoo held the majority of their City Pillar's drug trade, and between the three friends, it was no secret how much Lee abhorred the harder drugs that had turned his mom into something not even a Drakken could love. Ignoring his ex-friend was the biggest mercy Lee could give to Oliver.

"Big brother…"

Lee tore himself from his swirling emotions to face his little sister. "Sorry, I was… thinking about somethin'. Did you want me to get you anythin'?"

"No," Makoto shook her head, still holding onto Lee's shirt. "Be careful. I read on the Holonet that there were a lot of kidnappings lately. I'm pretty sure it has to do with that new corporation that's trying to move into our City Pillar."

Lee grew serious, narrowing his eyes at his sister. She might be only fourteen this year, but he knew not to doubt her intelligence. "What do you think it is?"

Makoto shuffled in place, shyly tugging at his clothes while she thought. "I… don't think its the corporation, but a new system of currency introduced into the Blues will definitely stir up some people. The gangs might also start a few more businesses within the Blues, but I'm worried about these kidnappings. There's something happening that people are ignoring with the introduction of new things."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Thanks for the deets, then." Lee nodded to his sister, tousled her hair, and held out their baby brother. She gave him a weak smile when she took their baby brother from his arms. "I'll keep an ear on the ground for what you told me, so you gotta watch Jun, 'kay?"

"M'kay."

"Love you two." Lee said, stretching as he made his way to the door.

The soft "love you" from Makoto, and the whisper-quiet "you too" from Mamoru brought a smile to Lee's lips as he left for his work.

----------------------------------------

Lee didn't work far from the floor his siblings lived on. It saved him time, and was much safer when he knew who he'd be working alongside. The only problem was that most of the safe and stable jobs on the lower Blues were associated with corporations, which wouldn't be an issue so long as Lee wanted to sell his soul away.

As such, the teen had to work in one of the more dangerous areas within the City Pillar: the atmosphere stabilization vents.

The vents were claustrophobic metal tubes, barely large enough to fit a single person. Lee had to be strapped in with a heavy harness that clipped onto railings attached to the side of the walls to stop him from being pushed and pulled by the hurricane-force winds that ripped through the vents at random.

His body was cloaked in a heavy duty suit that was hermetically sealed. Even then, Lee had heard that this much protection might not save him from the most dangerous aspect of the stabilization vents.

Mana.

The main thing these giant vents did, beyond preventing the air from being equivalent to dust clouds, was prevent the atmospheric mana from getting to dangerous levels. There was plenty of evidence, Lee had heard from Makoto, that when atmospheric stabilizers failed that many people started to show signs of Abyss Infection, or an increase in Delver population. Of course, this came with the caveat that many people would die in the process.

As such, while everyone understood that more atmospheric mana was necessary to become a Delver, it was more beneficial to keep the levels low. After all, it was common for those with talent to become Delvers to awaken under a steady level of atmospheric mana.

Lee, however, could not wait until then.

The teen trudged through the vent he had been in charge of, slowly making his way down as he scraped the walls of filth. He felt a low hum in his chest the closer he got to the fans at the end of the vent, and even with a supposedly airtight suit he still smelled the rotting entrails that coated the walls of the vent.

He leveled his large mop and propped himself up with the straps that held him in place. Methodically, he cleaned up the large amount of mutilated animal corpses that had been sucked in through the outside fans, holding back a gag as filth coated his arms and legs.

Eventually, he made his way all the way back to the fan of his tunnel. A large fan spun at rapid speeds behind a thick grate of metal. Lee could see odd characters flash along the surface of the grate as something he couldn't see continually collided with the metal.

A wondrous awe filled the teen as he stared at the grate. He didn't understand those letters, but he knew that it was something Delvers hoarded with all their might. The fact that such a thing was so openly displayed as an air filter was something that spurred Lee's growing desire to become a Delver himself.

He craved to be one. Not only for himself but for his family, too. It was why he didn't like Jason's lukewarm attitude about being a Delver; the other teen had the opportunity that Lee could only endlessly salivate over, and Jason chose to just slum it with them in the Blues.

Lee couldn't help but ridicule his friend's naivety. Becoming a Delver was something that Lee could use to elevate his family from the lower Blues, and he wouldn't even mind being a cog's lap dog if he could get his little brothers and sister from the floor they lived on. However, even if Lee ridiculed his friend's half-heartedness on the topic, it didn't change the fact that Lee was not a Delver.

That didn't stop him from trying to become one, though.

Lee grinned to himself as he looked down at a small bottle that was tied next to the metal grate. The teen excitedly bent down to unlatch the bottle from the grate, holding it up to his faceplate to inspect it.

The bottle itself was covered in grime and filth, but that didn't obscure the viscous, black liquid that swished around within it. Lee wiped away the grime on the outside of the bottle, revealing a couple of crude etchings on the side that resembled the markings on the metal grate. A sort of childish glee filled him as he smiled widely from his experiment.

"Marking number one hundred and seven was the correct one, then…" Lee murmured, cradling the bottle to his chest. The bottle was cold against his skin even though there were several layers of clothes between them.

After a moment of excitement, Lee hid the bottle in one of his suit's pockets before he turned around. He worked in a haste, hoping that after today he wouldn't need to go back to these godawful vents.

Even in his exhilaration, it still took Lee almost all day to finish cleaning the vent he was assigned. In a slight hurry, the teen had rushed out of the changing rooms, making sure to hide the dirty bottle in his pant's pocket as he passed by the familiar faces of those who also relied on vent cleaning to pay their bills.

"So I was saying that– Oh, hey kid."

Lee slowed to a stop as he passed through the breakroom, waving to one of the other cleaners. The square-jawed man nodded, smiling at Lee. Another skinny worker nursed a steaming cup of coffee within his hands, waving at Lee as well.

"You finished quickly. Not a lot of living ones this time?" The square-jawed man asked.

Lee shook his head, shifting on his feet and eager to get home. "Not really."

"I'd be careful," the other skinny man said. "I 'eard tha' some guys 'ave been seein' some critters lately. Somethin' 'bout ah wha' s'it called? Euri-somethin'."

"Eurithos. Nasty buggers, I'd say. They stink up the place, so if you start to smell somethin' funny, just run away" The square-headed man finished.

"I'll keep that in mind, but I gotta go home and see my siblings, you know."

"Alright, good work today, kid!"

"You too!" Lee said, taking off.

The office for the Atmospheric Vents Cleaners was located within the ceiling of the floor, so Lee was forced to climb down a series of ladders that scaled up the sides of housing blocks to get down. A quick trip down the perilous series of ladders barely took more than an hour or two, but Lee was ready to get home as the bottle in his pocket felt like ice pressed against his skin.

The teen fiddled with the bottle in his pocket, wondering if his plans were too crazy or not. He had sealed the bottle, so the viscous, black liquid could not escape, but there was still the possibility that he had missed something. At the same time, the dangers of his actions came to the front of his thoughts.

If he drank the contents of the bottle, there was always a chance of death. Becoming a Delver was always an uncertain lottery, and no one could guarantee a one hundred percent success rate. At most, the only guarantee was that Abyss Infection was absolutely going to happen. Whether said mutation would kill the person was an entirely different matter.

Lee stopped playing with the bottle as a tired sigh escaped him. He needed to make some assurances for his siblings on the chance he didn't make it.

When his Holo buzzed again, the teen put those morbid apprehensions to the back of his mind. Lee moved his attention to his wrist where he saw another string of messages from Oliver. He hissed through his teeth, glaring at the screen as if it could send his ire through it.

However, it would be a lie to say that Oliver's frequent messages didn't stir some curiosity in him. Oliver was one to be perfunctory in his messages, giving out locations or getting to the point immediately. At most, the redhead would only send four messages.

Lee warred with indecision for a second before his curiosity got the better of him, letting Oliver's messages play over his Holo. The second he read the first couple, the teen had frozen in place. Horror spread across Lee's face up until he read the last of Oliver's string of frantic warnings.

"If you get a call from me, consider me dead." Lee repeated aloud, staring blankly at his Holo. He knew that getting wrapped up in the gangs was a dangerous game, and that there was a good chance Oliver would kick the bucket. Still, he hadn't expected things to escalate to this point.

Shaking the revelations of Oliver's betrayals out again, Lee sobered up and broke into a mad dash back home. He weaved through the cramped corridors of his floors, getting cursed at as he ran through a couple of teens who hung out at intersections of pathways. A couple times, Lee had been accosted by idiots, but he lost them in the maze of corridors that he memorized like the back of his hand.

By the time he had made it back home, Lee's breath came out in sweaty gasps. His hair clumped up on his forehead, sticking to his sweaty skin. He calmed down when nothing looked out of place, but he paused as an odd scent tickled his upper lip. The teen found his body frozen at the front of his housing block as if he had suddenly found himself swallowed up by the ground.

Lee clenched his teeth, knowing that anything out of the ordinary definitely meant that a Delver had a hand in it. Various scenarios flashed through his mind, but Lee dismissed them as he struggled to understand what a Delver would want in the lower Blues.

At the same time, Lee noticed that his Holo was buzzing. An incoming call opened up on his Holo, and a familiar voice echoed out from the other end.

"H– hey buddy! Sorry to call you out of the blue, but I might need your help." Oliver's voice was distorted as if he was talking through something. Lee couldn't even look down at the hologram on his wrist to see if it actually was his ex-friend on the other end. "I uncovered a crazy plan! The Boss is going to kidnap– I need you to join the Zoo, please! Don Zacchelli needs more people. Lee, we need you to help us out!"

"F– fuck…" Lee struggled to so much as curse. He remembered what Makoto had told him before he left for work this morning; about a string of kidnappings happening within the City Pillar. At the same time, Oliver's message told him about a don, a title reserved for the leader of the Calderones.

Try as he might, the teen failed to put all the pieces together. All he could do was stew in his thoughts as he body started to move against his will. His limbs jerked around randomly before they regained some semblance of motor skills, raising up his Holo to the door. It slid open as Oliver's voice continued to echo out in the silence.

"L– Lee! The don doesn't like to be kept–" Oliver's voice broke off and changed to mimic someone else. "B– big brother! Help! Help us out! The Zoo needs our help!"

Lee couldn't stop his body as it walked into the housing block. The hallway's lights flickered more than this morning, and Lee found that there was an odd purple smoke that hung in the air. The smoke curled around his ankles and face, guiding him forwards as Makoto's voice continued to tell him to join the Zoo.

As he walked deeper into the housing block, a haze entered Lee's mind like someone tried to filter his thoughts. He barely could think straight, and if it wasn't for the cold sensation of the bottle in his pocket, Lee was sure he might not even remember that his body wasn't moving the way he wanted.

However, with the small amount of clarity, Lee could focus on the red hot anger that settled into his veins. That was his sister's voice! Something was happening to his family, and he couldn't even move his body because of this purple smoke!

Lee screamed in his mind while his body slowly came to a stop at the end of the hall. Sitting on the floor was a tattooed man in a gaudy purple coat. Lee's thoughts wavered for a moment as his don smiled at him with black teeth.

"'Ello, no 'ard feelin' s'right?" Don Zacchelli spoke, and while Lee screamed in his head, his body knelt before the man. More men appeared from their rooms, kneeling along with Lee. "I'm someone who ain' fond of variables, ya know? I need some insurance. Yer friends with those bastards' newest dog, yeah? Bloodhound, wasn' it?"

"Yes… sir." Lee's lips moved for him, but he and his don noticed the stilted nature.

"Intrestin'..." Don Zacchelli leaned in, and Lee's mind wavered as more purple smoke forced its way down his throat. "Is this what they call friendship? Well, I only need a couple seconds from ya 'nyways. Stay still an' maybe I'll make a garden for yer siblings to run 'round in."

Lee's mind warred with itself as the cold bottle in his pocket kept bringing him back from complete subservience. However, even if he gained that advantage, Lee could only cry out inside his head while his body continued to move along another's tune.