Kaleb sat bolt upright and worriedly looked around. He tried to find the small rat-person thing again. But it was long gone. Hidden within the walls of the bar. Kaleb’s tense posture did not go unnoticed by Abby, who joined him in scanning the bar. Probably thinking he’d seen a threat. Which was only half-right.

The voice was one Kaleb hadn’t heard in a while. But it’s clarity and the smoothness of the voice freaked him out. The last time he heard that voice it had been growly and almost primal. Now it was much calmer. But it still had an edge to it. Like a predator ready to play with its prey. Kaleb shuddered and reached for the drinks the rat-waiter had placed on the table.

Then he froze. What if the rats had done something to the drinks? Was he in danger of being poisoned? Abby looked at him, confusion written large on her face. His hand was frozen on its way to the mug on the table, and Kaleb was sure he was grimacing. Finally, she sighed and leaned over the table.

“What is it?” She whispered.

Kaleb glanced around the room one last time before he whispered back. “Rat-Man.”

Abby snorted and quirked an eyebrow as she sat back. “I’m sorry?”

“My Nemesis. A giant super-strong, telepathic mutant rat. He’s here or close by.”

“How is that your Nemesis? Also, so what? We still have a job to do, right?”

Kaleb sighed and finally gripped the drink on the table. If it was poisoned, he was screwed. But he was sure he was being paranoid. He sipped the drink and immediately scrunched up his face at the taste. It was so sour that it made his eyes water. He forced it down and sat the mug on the table. Airing out his tongue for a bit, Kaleb explained about Rat-Man and Dr. Kane.

It had been when he was working with Deckart and his nephews. They had been captured by a villain named The Rat King. Otherwise known as Rafelos Kane. Kaleb went through the whole adventure. His party’s capture by Kane, their escape, his procurement of Dr. Kane’s research, and the final fight with Rat-man. Or as the system wanted to call him, Man-Rat.

“Which is a completely awkward and stupid name.” Kaleb finished as he played with the rim of the tray on their table.

Their drinks sat untouched as Kaleb told his story. Abby didn’t seem eager to try hers after the face Kaleb had made, and he didn’t blame her. It wasn’t poisoned as far as Kaleb could tell, but it was disgusting. Abby crossed her arms as she asked again.

“So you arrested a giant mutated rat and his master got away? Now you consider this Man-Rat to be your nemesis?”

“The system picked him as my Nemesis. Which means the rewards are greater if I fight and capture him. But so are the penalties. Also, he gets stronger every time he defeats me.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t kill him.”

“I tried! He is a strength-based Mutant, though. I gouged out an eye and hit him with everything I had. In the end, I got extremely lucky and he was more of a brute than anything. But based on what I just heard, that might not be the case.”

“Wait! You heard him?!”

“Our server is a two-foot rat. When I made eye contact with the little creature, Rat-man spoke to me.”

Abby stood up and glanced around the room. The suddenness of the move drew a few eyes. But most went back to doing what they were doing. Abby glared at everything as Kaleb tried to calm her down.

“I don’t think he's here. He was probably just using the rat as a scout or something.”

“He can do that?!”

Kaleb shook his head. “Not that I know of. But in all honesty, he might have gotten stronger since we last met.”

Abby threw herself into her seat and groaned. “So what do we do?”

“Well, two options. One, we get the hell out of here and don’t look back.”

Abby grimaced, and Kaleb nodded his head. That course of action didn’t sit well with him, either. Rat-Man was tough, but Kaleb sure as hell wasn’t going to run from him. He was a mid-tier Super at best the last time they fought. Kaleb was tougher and more prepared this time.

“Or two,” Kaleb continued. “We keep investigating the demon gang. Keep our eyes open for an almost eight-foot tall, muscular rat that walks on two feet.”

Abby nodded slowly and sat back. Her hand reached out for the drink on the table, but she thought better of it and stopped herself. Kaleb nodded at the smart move and slowly scanned the bar again. He caught a few people’s eyes as he looked around. But they quickly looked away. Some had greedy looks in their eyes, and Kaleb was sure they were going to be tailed when they left.

Without looking at her, he asked Abby. “See any familiar faces or gang colors?”

“No.” Abby answered. “Lot of greedy looks, though, and more than a few pervy ones.”

“Yeah, we’re getting tailed as soon as we leave.”

“So let’s leave.”

“What?”

“Let’s get up and walk down the street a bit. We turn into an alley and then ask our pursuers any questions we want.”

Kaleb tilted his head. “And if they know nothing?”

“We find another bar and do it again. It’s the Claire-Bear method of information gathering. We did it a lot topside while you were off playing in your lab.”

“Yeah, how’s that armor treating you, short-stack?”

“Bullshit! You stole this armor and then borked the tech in it. If anything, you gave the team half-broken equipment. Meanwhile, you’re making weapons for other groups.”

“Our allies!” Kaleb exclaimed, wondering how they had gotten to this conversation. “Those weapons have gotten us NPC guards for the hangar and given us a better position with the Hunters.”

Abby put a hand up in a ‘calm down,’ gesture. “I get it. I was just needling you. You’ve done fine work as a crafter. I’m just saying that your work has mostly been around weapons. When’s the last time you made some armor or something?”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Kaleb wracked his brain. But when no answer was forthcoming, he merely shook his head. Abby nodded and smiled.

“See, and you were just talking about having a super-strong Nemesis. I’d get on some countermeasures as soon as possible, Prof.”

Kaleb rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “Yeah… But I figured I was in the clear. Rat-Man was thrown in prison and we’ve been busy.”

“We are always going to be busy. You’ve made time for your other projects. Make time for some rat repellent. Also, you know jail breaks are a near-daily occurrence, right? I mean, players are breaking out of prisons with shocking regularity. And they are taking scores of NPCs with them each time. That’s not counting the number of players who break into prisons to get their buddies out.”

Kaleb nodded as he stared at the amber-colored liquid in their mugs. It frothed and bubbled under his gaze as he tried to think of ways to stop Rat-Man in his tracks. Shaking the thoughts away, Kaleb crossed his arm and looked across the table at Abby.

“Ready to do this?”

“Yeah. Let’s head out.”

Kaleb nodded and left a credit chit on the table for the drinks. On the way out, he kept his eyes open for anymore rat waiters. But either there were none around, or they were really sneaky. The people who weren’t sneaky were the asshats that were glaring at him and Abby as they left. More than a few were being extremely obvious as they tracked them across the room. Kaleb followed along behind Abby, acting as a guard in case someone snuck on them both. But they cleared the entrance quickly.

Kaleb noted that the dead door guard had been replaced by an equally huge, animalistic guard. The furry T-Rex humanoid gave them a nod as they crossed the threshold and went back to looking scary. Abby stared at the weird-looking guard for a few steps after leaving, but she spun back around and whispered.

“Three of them. Not even hiding.”

Kaleb started. She hadn’t been watching the T-Rex. She had been keeping an eye out for their tails. Kaleb wanted to smack himself. He was still distracted by the possible Rat-Man sighting. Giving Abby a quick nod, Kaleb fell in slightly behind her and followed. She gave him a confused look, but eventually rolled her eyes and walked down the dark street.

Under-town’s artificial light from above cast everything in long shadows. Shadows that followed them as they hurried westward. Abby took them a full block down the street before she turned into an alleyway. Kaleb quickly followed and was unsurprised to see that the woman had disappeared. Thinking quickly, Kaleb walked down the alley a short distance and turned. He momentarily worried about someone going around and coming from behind him. But when three shadows darkened the opening to the alley, Kaleb smiled.

The three multi-colored aliens grinned as they saw Kaleb waiting for them. Like other members of the Phreaks, each alien had somewhat animalistic qualities. Their leader, a gold alien with blue strips had fur in odd places. The two big purple and green aliens just behind the leader both had clawed hands and sharp teeth. They snarled at Kaleb as he drew his pistol.

“Hi!” Kaleb said, as cheerful as possible. “It seems you and your friends want to talk to me. What can I do for you?”

The leader froze as his brain processed everything. Kaleb saw the alien’s eye grow wide.

“Where’s the woman!?” He cried just as Abby shot out of the shadows like a cannonball.

Her slight form slammed into one of the two brutes behind the leader. So Kaleb raised his pistol and unloaded into the second brute. The leader dove toward the wall of the alley. But Kaleb ignored him as he watched his blaster shots get absorbed into the purple and green alien’s flesh.

Hissing to himself, Kaleb pulled a plastic egg from his coat pocket. But the big alien wasn’t going to just stand there. With a glance at Abby slicing into his friend, the second brute charged Kaleb, skin glowing blue as it absorbed the energy from his pistol.

The alien was three steps from him when Kaleb tossed the taser-egg. The yellow plastic cracked and spring-loaded wires wrapped around the alien’s body. A quick jolt of electricity made the alien tense up, and Kaleb used the moment to charge forward. Holstering his pistol, Kaleb reared his robotic arm back and let his metal fist fly.

His paralyzed foe grimaced as Kaleb's fist slammed into the side of his face. Sending the alien sideways. Kaleb lashed out with a kick, trying to trip the alien, and succeeded in making the man fall to his knees. Pulling his Sun Gun, Kaleb proceeded to unload shots into the man’s face at point blank range. The alien’s skin glowed as it absorbed the energy, but soon the alien’s skin became flabby and drooped disgustingly. Then the glowing stopped.

As Kaleb kept firing, his yellow balls of energy finally began burning the poor alien’s skin. A roar from his left brought Kaleb around to see the leader charging at him with his hands raised. His nails were visibly growing, and he held them, ready to stab Kaleb. Quickly shoving his brute aside, Kaleb ducked low and caught the charging leader with his right shoulder. Sharp pain exploded on his back as the leader stabbed at him and Kaleb quickly stood, taking the alien leader with him.

With a grunt, Kaleb lifted the alien by his legs and tossed him as hard as he could over his shoulder. The alien thudded to the ground and Kaleb spun, robotic hand drawing his Cybar again. With both pistols on the alien, Kaleb placed a boot on the man’s neck and waited. Abby was still dealing with her alien. But from the way she was ducking and dodging around the bigger alien, Kaleb figured she’d be fine. Especially cause she kept carving pieces off the more guy with her shadow-blades.

With a shout, Abby launched herself at the taller alien’s face and jammed both her blades into the guy’s eyes. The alien’s body went still and Abby huffed loudly. Her two shadow-blades disappeared, and she glared at Kaleb.

“What?”

“You weren’t going to help at all?”

“I’m watching the prisoner.”

“You have a gun!”

“And you have shadow powers that allow you to create random constructs. Make a damn gun!”

“Tha-” Abby started to say, but stopped herself.

Kaleb could see the thought had never occurred to the short woman. With a sigh, he turned back to the alien leader and smiled again. The thug hissed and scratched at Kaleb’s boot. But Kaleb applied some pressure, and the alien froze. Reaching down, Kaleb quickly grabbed the alien by his shoulders and threw him against the alleyway wall. The metal wall wobbled dangerously, but Kaleb put a hand on it as he shoved his Cybar under the alien’s chin.

“Okay, listen here. We want all the information you have on a gang called the Demons.”

The alien glared at him before choking out a laugh. “Ha! Fuck you, cop! I ain’t telling you shit.”

Kaleb hit the venting switch on his Cybar and let steam fill the space between the two of them. The gun beeped as the venting process finished and Kaleb nodded to himself.

“Well then, you will have to talk to my associate. But I can guarantee, though, that she is not as polite as I am. I’ll just shoot ya, but Abby here. Well…”

Kaleb trailed off as he moved to give the thug a good view of the short woman behind him. He didn’t turn around so he couldn’t see the face Abby was making, but the alien didn’t like it. Kaleb saw the man gulp as his gold skin went slightly pale. His wide eyes returned to Kaleb, and the two stared at each for a long time.

“I… I don’t know about any demons. They ain’t a group represented down here. I mean, they might be a small-time group like we were. But if you ain’t part of the Big Four, you ain’t worth knowing. At least to most of us.”

“So who would know?” Abby asked from behind Kaleb.

The alien’s eyes widened again, and he struggled briefly in Kaleb’s grip. Kaleb jammed his pistol into the alien’s chin and shook him until he stopped squirming. The alien got a hold of himself and glared at Kaleb before he answered.

“There’s a guy, works for the UGB, he's an information broker. He’d might know something.”

Kaleb nodded slowly as he asked. “How can we find th- FUCK!”

Kaleb’s vision was obscured by a giant blue window and he almost let go of the alien. Tightening his grip, Kaleb hissed behind his teeth as he read the notification. Abby tapped his shoulder, forcing him to glance at her.

“What’s up?”

Kaleb gave an annoyed smile as he told her what he was seeing.

Nemesis Alert

Your Nemesis is in the area. Double experience and skill growth when hunting down and capturing your Nemesis. Experience gained when not in pursuit will be halved. Once confronted, a special instance will be created for you to battle your Nemesis uninterrupted. Other players may watch but not participate unless they are part of your party. If one party escapes, then a small portion of Experience will go to the one that stays in the assigned area.