Lanonia did not take the train to The Breach, as it would be faster for her to walk there herself, although the walk there was not very pleasant, as she had to walk through a very run down area of the city. The neon lights were always flickering, the unfortunate poor always occupying street corners, run down buildings where unregulated technology is going haywire and damaging users with irreversible damage. The police weren't much help either, they would go out of their way to beat the homeless, deriving a sick form of pleasure from making the lives of the unfortunate even worse. The spread of drugs was out of control and no business would last here for more than a month. Lanonia figured a way around being stolen from and stopped by the corrupt cops, but it didn’t hide the ugly truth of this area and Delnox as a whole. She weaved through the alleys and the very glum streets, until eventually reaching an entrance blocked by a line of caution barricade tape and a bunch of thermoplastic caution cones, with a projection staff showing a massive octagonal red sign reading “stop” in bold white letters. Before Lenonia entered, she put down her case, and moved the sweater down her arm to show the inside of her forearm, with it still showing time, she peeled off her synthetic skin, revealing some of the cybernetics implanted inside her arm with a bunch of wires and computer chips cased in a unique type of metal that absorbed body heat creating enough current to power the built in clock and radio transceivers. The said technology had a built in tracker that traced every citizen’s movements, this was an issue in Lenonia’s case as if she crossed the signs, she would be given a criminal charge and she would be easily followed. To prevent that outcome, she has made a modification with the help of Felder that would jam the tracking signal to make it seem as if she stood in one place. The little modification was a little red button next to one of the radio transceivers that once clicked, would make it look like the signal is standing still. Once she pressed the button, she felt a shock in her upper arm, causing a reflex in her fingers to jolt and go numb for a second. She got used to it after doing this a few times in the past, but it never felt pleasant. Lanonia peeled the skin back into place, rubbing against the numbness recovered hand and picking up her case with her left arm to minimize the risk of dropping it. She raised the caution tape of The Breach over herself as she walked by all the warnings telling anyone who walked by to move along or not to go through the restricted area, Lanonia was careful once she walked through the barricade, as she didn’t want to step into any construction equipment or substances, she couldn’t come back with dirt on her clothes, as that would be one of the signifiers that she was in the area of The Breach, which wasn’t a severe crime, but she didn’t trigger the signal that she was in the restricted zone, which was much more severe, and if she was caught again alongside this more egregious crime, her horns would be sanded, and that was not a very pleasant thought. She walked the mostly clean path that she usually walked, walking around the construction equipment that laid there for the 20 years after the breach occurred. Lenonia wasn’t around when it happened, but she heard that that was very tragic, the breach was not too large, but there were many casualties, and that was the time the city was revealed of the existence of RSTs which caused a massive uproar amongst the populace that was only quelled after about a day with more police enforcers being released and after the information about the whole ordeal was clarified with the public, explaining the RSTs as another form of military branch, of course the whole debacle was very traumatic for multiple people and left behind a massive stain that would not be washed off very easily, which is why the multiple blocks around The Breach have become abandoned, as no one wanted to live next to a zone which was now considered to be the weakest point in the city’s defense. This was also partially the reason why the construction was not finished yet; the structures were all done with their exterior skeletons, but no one wanted to stay in the area for very long, feeling unsafe in an area with conditions that the workers could not control. So the construction only continued during the day to at least feel a sense of safety from seeing everything in the light. Which was perfect for Lanonia, as this was one of the few places where no one went to and she could do her business without being seen and handed to the police for illegal activity.

Lanonia walked the alleys of the construction zone on the odd times switching her holding hand, while still maintaining balance in her heels, she kept walking for a while, going to the furthest isolated area of The Breach. The far construction areas were mostly finished, so they could isolate sound, making them perfect for her activities, although around that area were still some unfinished projects last time she was there such as the exposed sewer drains at the walls. They didn’t get in the way, but Lanonia steered clear of them as they gave an unpleasant feeling whenever she walked by them, giving her the feeling like there was something in there. She walked by an almost finished building which already had some deactivated neon signs placed on them for NeuroSync, the biggest company that worked in cybernetic augmentation from receiving funding from the government. Lenonia didn’t know the reason why the government was paying this company her tax dollars, but she speculated that they were the ones that made the cybernetic augments for the RSTs. It made sense as to why this building was first to be almost finished, being a valuable asset to the government, but it still ticked off Lanonia as rather than trying to make the area more habitable, it’s just being filled with more corporate buildings. Granted, she did not see the majority of the reconstructing city block, but it did not help the case as more often than not, she would see a corporate building rather than a store or even apartments. She kept passing by all of the office buildings of the largest companies in Delnox, until she stopped in front of the building that she always stopped at. It was a massive warehouse which was unmarked by any signs, there was an isometric road block with a decent perimeter lined by a tall solid wall with the tops of the wall being covered in barbed wire and deactivated turrets, signifying the great importance of this facility. Lanonia could never actually enter the facility, with it being locked with a lot of secure locks and with the warehouse being connected to the walls of Delnox, it was easy to assume that it was an army facility. For the many times that Lanonia visited, the facility was not opened, and she assumed that no one actually was inside the facility, so it was safe for her to do what she wanted to do. As she walked by the warehouse, she went to a smaller building nearby that she could easily surmise as a storage house. The little house was always open, having nothing inside, not even a light switch. It was perfect as she could easily close the door and no noise would come out. As she approached to the door of the little storage house, she opened the door, carefully leaning forward and putting her case inside, she stood up straight, and repositioned herself to stand sideways to her right to the door entrance, unzipping her right heel, as she placed her right foot inside and unzipped her left heel, placing her left foot inside. Once both of her feet were inside, she opened up her case, taking out a rag, and some cleaning fluid. She picked up her right heel, spraying the sole and top heel, proceeding to wipe it with the rag to get rid of the dust, she then did the same on her other heel to ensure she left no trace of herself in the room. Once she sanitized her heels, she closed the door behind her. In the dark, she struggled to find her case, but once she did, she fumbled around in it for a while until eventually she took out her lantern, turning it while holding its base, lighting up the dark storage house. She shifted herself and her belongings to the furthest corner of the room away from the door, as to not signify that inside the storage room was a light source that’d signify her location to whomever could be out there. Before she sat down on the cold floor, she got a little mat from her case and placed it down on the ground, sitting down comfortably ready to play. The mat that she took out was covering the object of interest: Her guitar.

Once she took it out, she laid one of its sides on her left lap, and started to tune it, to ensure that it would sound right. After adjusting the strings, she placed her left fingers over the strings and started to play some cords, until eventually starting a melody. Lanonia’s mind wandered into a place of peace, without the worries of the world, imagining herself in a field full of green grass, sitting underneath a massive tree, with the shadow of the leaves covering her from the sun. Alongside her music, she started to feel lyrics cropping up in her mind, “I wish for summer, For the warm and gentle breeze…” her voice was soft, with her trying to invoke a feeling of longing. “I wish for comfort, In the grace of gentle arms…” her voice kept the same pitch, with her getting emotional and starting to slightly increase the pitch in the next verse, “I wish to feel it. To feel the kind embrace” holding the final note of the verse for slightly longer than the rest. “To know… that all will be fine…” she trailed off, with her eyes starting to gather up tears. Not wanting to ruin her makeup and blow her cover, she carefully put her guitar down and took out some tissues from her case and gently absorbed her tears into the tissue without damaging her eyeliner. She sat in silence, feeling empty and lonely in her little shelter from the world. There was no one that she could share this pain with, no one to talk to and attempt to fix this emptiness, no one to share her love for music, no one to truly see her. She moved her hand up to parallel her chest, as she stared into her palm, imagining another hand over her own. She wasn’t specific in how it looked, all she knew was that there was a hand there that provided comfort. She patted her cheeks to invigorate herself, picking up her guitar ready to play another song, until she heard something.

She heard a loud creak of metal doors moving and shifting open. She has never heard such a sound around here, she was very cautious when she organized her outings here, she made sure it was when everyone was away, and it was on days when the security would be lessened, so she never dealt with this scenario. In a panic, she quickly put everything she took out of her case in an organized fashion with the last thing she put in was the lantern that she turned off. As she closed her case, and started to put on her heels, she heard a car driving in, implying that this wasn’t an official matter, because if it was official, there would be at least three vehicles approaching. She stood up, with the case in her hand, as the sound of the car stopped and the metal doors creaked again to close, after hearing the doors shut completely, she peeked outside to check if the coast was clear, as her breathing become more paced and panicked, with her heartbeat ringing in her ears, worried over the consequences of her getting caught. She didn’t see anyone nearby, so she decided to get out of the empty storage house, walking as quietly as she could, not being helped by the fact that her heels were not made for stealth, so she moved her legs as slowly and carefully as she could to not cause any noise from the heels. Trying to avoid being seen, Lanonia walked in such a way that she would not end up in the middle of the road where she would be caught out by the people inside the facility, she kept walking away from the facility, until she heard something else, she heard another vehicle approaching. With that she quickly thought on her feet and as quickly as she could in her heels, she ran past the roadblock with her clumsily falling over, getting her clothes dirty in the process. In a panic, she picked herself back up, taking off her heels,picking them up in one hand and in the other her case, running to the nearest building, with her feet starting to feel hurt with the gravel under her feet poking at every part of her feet. She hid behind a building, and covered her mouth, as the vehicle got closer and stopped at the roadblock. Lanonia didn’t want to look, as she was scared that if she did any movements, then she would be heard and then caught. The pause of the vehicle not moving felt like hours as Lanonia’s heart continued to beat, with her mind bouncing all over the place, with her visualizing the pain she would experience after her charges would be read to her, she tried to think about how she would be fired from work, how she would be evicted from her apartment, how all of her friends would think of her. The thoughts kept piling up until she heard some people nearby. At first there was a very tough but at the same time very shrieky voice that spoke with a tone of annoyance “Don’t dawdle! We’re almost there!” A second voice spoke up, sounding very aggressive and deep, making Lanonia think it was someone with a lot of muscle. “It would’ve been easier if you helped!” “I’m already carrying my load, you better do your own for all of the talk you keep spouting on how you are the strongest!” “Well I had to distinguish myself SOMEHOW! I can’t just be another nameless soldier without any recognition!” The back and forth between the two grunts continued until a third voice spoke up, being distorted by a voice box making it seem robotic but still giving off a level of authority and sounding threatening: “ENOUGH. IF YOU TWO WILL CONTINUE TO BICKER, THEN YOU BOTH WILL LOSE THE FAVORS THAT THE EMPIRE GRANTS. ON YOUR FREE TIME, YOU MAY COMPLAIN TO EACH OTHER, FOR NOW, YOU FINISH THE JOB YOU’VE BEEN ASSIGNED.”

Lanonia stayed as still as she could, holding her breath, thinking that it was louder than it really was. Even in her panicked state, she heard the detail which the robot voice spoke of them being part of an empire. She didn’t see their figures but the first thought that came to mind was “Empire of Blood.” This caused her to be in an even bigger panic. As now, she wasn’t under threat of being imprisoned and her horns sanded, but now she was going to be killed. She had to get out of here. She peeked around the corner to see if there was anyone left to see her, and she proceeded to try to sneak around the gangsters without taking off her heels, knowing that the gravel would make her go off balance. She walked the direction she thought would bring her back to the same exit point as she entered, not wanting to raise suspicion as to why her tracker suddenly jumped to a different location, but as she walked back through the general direction back, she had a horrifying thought in her head: “There are more of them here.” Why would there be only a handful of these guys? They are blatantly using that warehouse without worry, so by that logic, there were enough of them to not be worried over being discovered, as they most likely have the numbers to make even the police look the other way. They probably placed people at the front to prevent people from getting in. She had to find an alternative to get out of here while still not getting caught by these guys. She kept walking with her bare feet, having them starting to get covered in cuts and bruises, but she kept walking, trying to avoid the gazes of the gangsters, who were now scattered all over the abandoned city sector, with more arriving in different types of cars. The more she wandered trying to escape, the more she started to feel hopeless, with every exit that she knew was covered with a pair of armed members. Whenever she looked out at the exits, she saw only barren streets. No homeless people, no officers, no one was there, in any other instance, that would be a blessing to Lanonia, as that would mean that she would be able to leave The Breach without any consequences with no one ratting her out, but in this case, this meant that there was no one out there ready to help her, and if she ran out, she would be a very clear target. All the exits were covered by these guys, but there had to be a way out. Because if there wasn’t- “This is so annoying!” She heard a voice not too far away from her, it was a female’s voice, but the voice sounded very hoarse and rough making that woman sound like she was a heavy smoker. She sounded like she was close, and next to her was a familiar voice. “Quit your bitching. The sooner we’re done with our patrol, the sooner we’ll get paid.” The voice was gruff but it carried a form of elegance. She heard a lighter being turned on and she started to smell the smoke, alongside some rattling and a gulp of a drink. After hearing her blow out the smoke, she heard the woman talk “You’re the one to talk! You get bonuses on the regular! Like yesterday!” “That’s because I do my job. Something that you clearly struggle with.” The two talked in a passive aggressive manner, but they did not go out of their way to antagonize each other. Lanonia’s curiosity got the better of her, and she decided to sneak a peek onto whoever these people were. The woman that she heard was slightly stout, having a spine implant with four thin wires coming from the different segments of the implant connected to the back of her neck. The woman was clearly a human, but she had some augments that caused her silhouette to be not as clear as it could have been. The figure standing next to her was far more interesting and surprising. By comparing his size and physique, she drew the connection that the woman was human. It was one that she recognized from this morning. The figure stood taller than the woman, covered in a black fur wearing a long jacket with jeans, his tail not moving. Lanonia was in shock that someone that she lived in the same apartment with was a member of this gang, the longer she pondered the more fear she started to feel. With both of their backs turned to Lanonia, she sneaked past them trying to keep moving. She didn’t produce any noise, but the pressure she felt that any little mistake would result in her getting caught and then killed was unbearable, making her want to scream. She continued to try to sneak around without getting caught by anyone, eventually seeing a person with the same mark that she saw everyday. They really were part of the Blood Empire. She kept on trying to avoid the newly arriving people, until eventually she wound up back where she started. The warehouse.

She was filled with nothing but fear, her feet were screaming from pain, her breaths were full of exhaustion and her legs were about to give out. At first, she wanted to just give up, just let the Empire take her and allow them to end the pain she was in, until she saw a glimmer of hope: the sewers. They probably led to other parts of the city, so there was a good chance that this would be her best escape if she was still not found. The only problem with this plan was that to get to the nearest sewer entrance was to run across at least four thousand feet of asphalt ground, with Blood Empire gang members all around ready to notice her and take her. This was a stupid plan, but she had no other choice, she opened up her case, placing into it her heels. It was a bit uncomfortable, as the heels took up a good amount of space. So by the end of it, she jammed the heels in, damaging their integrity, but now she had two hands to carry her case, allowing her to be able to run with a more controlled demeanor, without the case just wildly swinging around from inertia and start hurting her legs. As she stood up with her legging being torn and her feet covered in wounds, she was ready to make a sprint, but before she could start, the road block’s gate moved up with some of the vehicle’s moved out and a pair of gangsters bringing out a little frog legged man with a sack over his head. They were carrying him from his loose arms, and once they walked a certain distance, they took the sack from him. He was unconscious, covered in many bruises all over his face, making it look swollen in certain places. Lanonia gasped to herself, seeing someone in so much pain, who followed behind the pair of gangsters was someone dressed in a tiddy maroon suit wearing a mask over his head, with Lanonia not being able to see what race was this person. She could not tell if he had a tail, what his proportions were, and if he even was entirely there, all she saw was a maroon suit floating with a mask above it, overtaking a body that looked very gaseous and glitchy. Lanonia did not know what this technology was, as she never worked with anything of the sort, but it was clearly very advanced. This figure was the one in charge, as all the gangsters that it walked by were shaking in fear. The gaseous thing leaned towards the back of the left side of the toadgrung’s head looking like it was saying something, with Lanonia being too far away to hear it, until eventually from the car some members brought out a white plastic sheet. Lanonia was confused, why would these people have a plastic sheet? She learned the answer after the Toadgrung was thrown on the tarp, with a group of at least 5 members surrounding the toadgrung and each pulling out a pistol with an odd tube at the end of each of them, all pointing at the victim, in unison yelling out: “For the empire!” with them unleashing a volley of bullets, instantly killing the man with all of his blood spilling onto the plastic sheet. In that instant, Lanonia screamed, as she ran out into the open, her eyes filled with tears, her head being filled questions but what stook out the most was her repeating the same statement in her head: “Run” as if her mind willed it, her legs just kept running, no matter how much her feet hurt, no matter how much her legs were tired, no matter how many people were around her, some with guns ready to shoot, she kept running. She heard screaming around her with people starting to run towards her, trying to catch her, but she kept running. Somehow managing to out run all of them, eventually reaching the sewer entrance, and running in the dirty and cold water of the sewer, with many pursuers behind her.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Within the dark and cold sewers, lit only by very low power lights that did not help in revealing a service ladder, only showing the path of this long tunnel, not showing any different paths or turns, with the exception of the one that Lanonia experienced when she first came into the sewers. The splashing water echoed across the cylindrical walls of the foul smelling corridors. Lanonia kept running through the dirty water with her cuts starting to sting more with the bacteria infested water seeping into her wounds. Behind her, she heard more feet running in heavy boots, she did not know how many of them there were, not wanting to look back to see who was chasing her. They weren’t shooting her, which signified that they wanted her alive giving Lanonia some hope that she could outrun them, but it also brought to her a thought of dread of what they would do to her if they did catch her. With no time to completely process all of the possibilities of what would happen to her, she heard some of them screaming at her.

The first voice that she heard was very gravely filled with a tone of sadism “Why are you running, tiefling scum! You are nothing more than a meat sack carrying the sacred vitae!” Lanonia was distraught at the thought that these people were so cruel, all laughing and cheering at her struggle, calling out that she should keep running as warm blood full of energy was more preferable to their sire and they kept yelling about some sort of pit. Lanonia dismissed the latter as simply lunatic raving, trying to focus more on running. Her feet started to feel lighter, and the rate that the lights were going by was getting much quicker. Lanonia felt the wind rushing through her hair, she felt free, she felt like nothing was holding her down anymore as she kept running, she didn’t even notice how she ran past a turn. She kept running until she saw that in front of her was a dead end with a grated passage. She tried to stop, only slipping and falling into the ground, dropping her case, with all of the things inside clattering in their spaces. She tried to get back up, being slowed down by the water and dirt in the sewer, covered from her legs to her hair in muck ruining her favorite sweater, she gagged as she got out of the filthy waters of the sewer, trying to pull herself up with the help of the bars, putting her right foot straight up, trying to do the same with her foot until she felt a sharp pain in the said foot, unable to stand on it, realizing that she had twisted her ankle after she slipped. As she repositioned herself to make her back face the fenced off passage, holding up her left leg wanting to avoid the continuous pain in her left foot, she looked down the passage to see three figures who started to slow down to try to catch their breath, each with a varying body shape. They were all muscular, but they varied in height and width, each with a number of their own unique characteristics. The largest what covered in fur, with a long tail, most likely another werewolf, with this one’s fur being outlined from the light around him, being colored gray, with some form of cyan blue outline of his bare chest, looking like a glow-in-the-dark tattoo that was made for the purpose of trying to seem more intimidating by showing his impressive physique. The second of the three pursuers looked like a very muscular human, with half of his head being shaved off, revealing some form of minor head implants to augment the left half of his brian, he wore a leather jacket with some metal studs on its shoulders, making Lenonia assume that he was a random street thug punk now working for the Blood Empire, The last person that was now walking towards her was the smallest of the group, being extremely short in comparison to the other two, but he looked like he had a lot of bulk for how short he was, giving Lenonia the connection that this was a dwarf, she saw his blonde beard with some of the braids integrated into his beard and hair being robotic tendrils that each must have done something unique for this dwarf’s well being.

Lanonoia slumped down against the grated wall feeling despair as the trio started to talk amongst themselves of how they will enjoy draining Lenonia of all of her blood for making them run such a long distance, with the dwarf complaining on how after this he would have to go on cleaning duty. Lenonia was terrified of how these people talked about murder so nonchalantly as if it was a common occurrence to them, showing how numb they were to taking a life. Lanonia started to weep as she started to pray in her mind for something, anything to save her. With the three getting ever closer until another set of footprints could be heard. One which was much heavier in comparison to the rest, the trio looked back to see to whom these footsteps belong to, Lenonia did the same as she tried to look past her pursuers, unable to see who it was. She saw as the three figures pulled out their guns from their belts from their backs all pointing at the corridor with a new figure showing up, it stood as tall as the entire diameter of the tunnels, which she noticed that if she had a twin and the said twin stood on her shoulders, the twin would reach the ceiling with their head. The figure was covered in black body armor laced with minimal damages, with the right shoulder being covered in a symbol that was obscured to by the angle, with the details that she got Lanonia could not tell what the symbol was. She then heard a very deep voice booming from the massive figure with an odd speech pattern, sounding very monotone and stiff. “Situation analyzed; Hostile entities identified; Hostile entity count: three; Hostage civilian identified; Primary objective: patrol; Secondary objective: rescue hostage civilian of Cyber-City Delnox; Precaution: avoid injuring civilian.” Lanonia was confused by why this man was talking in such an odd way, but before she could process her situation, the three gang members started to shoot at the mysterious figure, with the noise echoing throughout the walls, making Lanonia’s ears ring. She covered up her ears and closed her eyes, hearing another weapon being used that sounded like it carried more of an impact, as if the initial three guns were just rain drops, and the final gun was the lighting strikes. The new weapon sounded off at least 3 times, with the sound came an odd splash spraying on Lanonia’s face, followed by a significant thud on the wall behind her feeling a warm substance covering her face and the right side of her hair. With the noise of the guns stopping, Lanonia opened her eyes to see two of the three gangsters lying headless on the ground in front of her, she scanned the room, noticing the human’s limp body lying right next to her. She pushed the body away from herself, looking down on her hands, covered in blood, surrounded by the bits and pieces of bone and chunks of brain splattered all over the place, including her. She was covered head to toe in their blood, with her hands shaking as she looked up, with her eyes starting to be filled with tears, looking up at the ginormous mass of metal and flesh staring at her through its six eyed goggles on its face. The more Lanonia looked at the freakishly huge creature, the more details she could define, figure was standing on bipedal digitigrade legs, hunching over its back, to the point that Lanonia thought it had a shell, what made her think otherwise was the massive naked tail behind it’s plated boots. The tail had many scars on it, with some of the last half of it being made out of mechanical segments that moved very smoothly and naturally, following the movement pattern of the organic part of the tail. Lanonia could not even speculate on why it was mechanical, with her thinking that after it killed those men, it would kill her too. The figure got closer to her, with her getting more details through her blurry eyes. The head shape showed rat ears, with the right ear having three holes connected to each other. This person had a wrist mounted gun, with smoke coming out of the one barreled cannon, with the barrel of the gun being the diameter of two fingers with the bullet belt connected from the right side of the gun leading to the creature's back, each bullet looked like it was as long as a pencil, and as thick as Lanonia’s palm. She flinched as he stepped in front of her, covering her eyes, scared of what he would do, but what the odd rat man said was more surprising: “Hostile entities eliminated.” Lanonia put her hands away from her face, not realizing that she covered her face with the blood on her hands, she stayed slouched against the bars with the look of shock not leaving her face, she shaked at every part of her body, with this seemingly heartless being in front of her. He was towering over her, with his shadow covering her entire body, she looked up in absolute terror, as her eyes eventually locked into place with the rat man’s goggles, she could not look away as he stood over her, with her continuing to shake, covering her head with her arms, starting to weep, feeling terrified of this figure’s imposing frame. As she wept, she wanted to yell out to this man, to ask him of why did these people kill that innocent toadgrung, why did he kill them without a second thought, what was she doing her, how did it all end up going down hill so fast, all of these thoughts just kept piling up in her mind, and she wanted for scream them all out, but all that came out was a very quiet and meek work, filled with only confusion and fear: “Why?” She hoped that the figure would not say anything, as that would have been more pleasant than any twisted justification he’d provide, she hoped that he would leave her alone, that he would just turn around and leave with her waking up in her little apartment, just to continue her dull, but safe and relatively comfortable life. The rat man spoke: “ Civilian was in danger from hostile entities. Hostile entities eliminated. Secondary objective: rescue hostage civilian; accomplished.” Lanonia did not know how to respond to such a cut and dry explanation, after the shock dissipated in her mind, she tried to stand up, but her legs would not move. She tried to pull herself up, only for her to stumble back down. After seeing such a struggle, the rat man lowered his body and picked her up while saying something: “Civilian not capable of standing on her own feet to reach a safe area. Probable status: severe mental trauma. Conclusion: Must provide physical support.” Lanonia was shocked when she was picked up by the rat man, not even five minutes ago, he killed three people and now he was picking her up because she could not move. Once he did pick her up, her tail subconsciously curled around one of the arms, trying to avoid the wrist mounted gun, for some odd reason, she felt safe in his arms. The rat man turned around and started walking through the tunnel that Lanonia went through, with her tail squeezing on his arm, with her blurting out in a tearful voice: “No, there’s more outside, they want me dead, they all want me dead.” She pleaded with the rat not to take her outside, to not throw her from the frying pan into the fire, having a bleak look on her face. Surprisingly, the rat listened. “Understood. Escorting tiefling civilian to a secure location.” Once he heard her distress, he turned to the tunnel that Lanonia failed to notice the first time she ran here. The rat carried her through the murky tunnels, with Lanonia failing to keep up with the path that the rat was taking, after a good amount of 30 minutes of the rat walking, Lanonia decided to break the ice, and asked him a question that has been bugging her ever since she saw him. “Are you… an RST?” She already knew the answer, but she wanted to see how the RST would react. “Affirmative. Designation: RST-106837” Lanonia was going to ask another question, but she was interrupted by the RST saying something out of left field: “Clot Factory is the largest factory for producing, and selling weapons to the public. It is especially known for selling its pistols and assault rifles.” Taken aback by the baffling statement that the RST just made, Lanonia could not help but laugh, it was out of nowhere and bore no relevance to either of their situation. She tried to converse with the RST further, being very curious around one of the killer machines she has heard so much about, and after seeing that he could talk about something that isn’t just following orders, then he must be capable of having a full conversation. “You can talk about guns, what else can you talk about?” The RST stayed silent for a moment, which in itself was significant, as it showed that he needed to think to process a sentence, revealing that his brain wasn’t entirely mechanical. After the moment of thought passed, he responded: “Mission reports. Status. Designation- The weapon model titled ‘rat rifle mark 8’ is currently the standard issue rifle being mass produced for the military.” The last statement felt out of place, as if the RST just interrupted his own thoughts to say something that he wanted to, but couldn’t due to some external factors. That didn’t bother Lanonia very much, being more curious to the fact that he talked about something he didn’t list beforehand, so she decided to ask him some follow up questions to his statement: “Why is it called the rat rifle?” The rat responded with no hesitation this time: “The weapon was titled the rat rifle because it is primarily used by the Rat Soldier Tool units, and it was due to Rat Soldier Tool units constantly upgrading it that its original name: ‘box gun’ was changed to ‘rat rifle’.” Lanonia continued to be intrigued by this RST’s weird brain, but she wanted to have a name associated with this RST, she didn’t want to just call him RST-106837, but she could not just ask him for his name, could she?

“Say, um… sir? What should I call you?” Lanonia asked, hoping that he would say something that would be less hard to remember and more common than just a string of letters and numbers. The rat did not give a direct answer, only responding in a statement: “Colt Manufacturing Co. was the first large gun manufacturing company, founded by a gnome artificer named Colt.” Lanonia was confused, so she repeated her question: “Okay? Sir… I was asking about what your name is.” The rat responded with another fun fact about Colt: “Colt was able to build his company after successfully creating the revolver pistol, which was a type of weapon that could be easily mass produced.” Lanonia realized that this RST will not actually give her a straight answer, so she came up with a solution: “Say… um RST?”

“Yes, tiefling civilian?” the rat responded with his same monotone speech. Lanonia, being slightly annoyed at being called a civilian, made a double request “Firstly, please call me Lanonia, and secondly, may I call you Colt?” She decided to call the RST Colt, due to the fact that he kept making fun facts about this historic figure. The rat man stayed silent until he responded with a reaffirming statement: “Changing designation of RST-106837 to ‘Colt’ under the request of civilian Lanonia.” Lanonia was at first confused, but she then smiled as she was more than satisfied with this outcome. “Then… Colt? Where are we going?” Lanonia was feeling concerned the further away she felt like she got from the city, she did realize that she would never be able to go back because of the Blood Empire, but she still felt like she was being pulled away from her usual life, especially because she didn’t have her case with her. Wait… she did not have her case. In a panic she frantically looked around, seeing that Colt was not carrying her case. With the sudden realization, she tried to break out of Colt’s grip, without much success due to his strength. “Colt, we need to go get my case back! I need it! I can’t leave it there!” Colt’s voice and demeanor did not change as he held onto Lanonia without effort: “Negative. That is no longer considered a safe zone. The primary priority for civilian Lanonia is to be escorted to a secure location to avoid endangering Lanonia.” Colt held her in his arms, as he continued to walk where he was walking, with Lanonia starting to cry, weeping for the guitar that she saw as her most valued possession, now probably lost to the Blood Empire. She didn’t care that she cried and ruined her makeup, that amounted to nothing in comparison to what that guitar gave her, not only that, but in that case were her high heels, her only form of footwear, and now that she was underground, she had no ways of actually getting any protection for her feet, that were still bleeding with the wounds highly likely getting infected.

After about another 20 minutes of walking, Colt eventually arrived at a rectangular shaped tunnel with a slight slope upwards, making the floors more dry than the previous tunnels that he walked through. There was a massive blast steel door at the end of the tunnel, at least the size of Colt’s frame, without any defining characteristics aside from the massive valve at the center of it. Lanonia was intrigued by the reason as to why there were doors in the sewers, as that seemed a bit counter productive to the whole reason to why sewers were even invented, being made to deliver and transport water, and if this was some sort of a facility, it was too far away from any nearby exits that Lanonia was aware off. She kept wondering, until Colt stood her on the ground and told her: “Stand still, civilian Lanonia.” Lanonia did as she was told, observing how Colt turned the valve counter-clockwise and then proceeded to pull. Behind the door, there was no light, but from the lights built into the walls, Lanonia could start to see some details in there, such as a desk that stood near the entrance of the blast-sealed door. After Colt opened the door, he looked at Lanonia and instructed her to get in: “Civilian Lenonia, proceed into the secure location.” Lanonia felt a bit off about this place, but seeing no other alternative, she stepped through the massive door frame, with the weak light behind her lighting around a foot into the room, unable to see what was in front of her. Colt walked in behind her, as he flicked a switch around Lanonia’s left, lighting up the entire room, with it being filled with a bunch of weapon racks, stocked with every unique type of weapon that Lanonia could ever imagine each with varying, size, quality and state of functionality, each and every one of them looking much bigger for her to hold, but alongside the weapons, she also saw a couple of boxes with locks on them, not paying much attention to them. With some of the guns disassembled and their parts lying on the table, looking like a custom weapon was being built. The room was massive, being three times as large as her apartment, with what was inside aside from the massive gun collection being very minimalistic. A massive bed looking like it was specifically made for Colt, covered in a lot of wrinkles and a one note black blanket, a working desk, and two more doors in the room, one being in front of Lanonia, the other situated at the wall to her left. She stepped through the cold floor, with her feet continuing to sting and leaving behind a trail of bloody footprints, until eventually collapsing at the big bed, looking at the wounds, seeing her feet covered in nothing but cuts, with some of them looking nastier than most. “Civilian Lanonia has suffered many physical injuries. Must provide first-aid medical support.” Colt stated after he viewed her feet, he walked to the working desk, getting out from one of the drawers a white box with a green plus on it, he walked towards Lanonia with the med kit in hand, and squatted on his hind legs, opening it up, and getting out a syringe that in his hands seemed normal, but to Lanonia looked huge, she shivered at the thought of it going through her foot and causing more damage. “Dosage unfit for the patient, smaller dosage is required.” Colt put the syringe back into the med kit, and he instead took out a little canister which was the size of Lanonia’s palm, he outstretched his open palm to Lanonia, who understood to take it, after doing so, Colt took out a thin tube made of metal with a window on it with a blue button on the top and a needle at the end of it, taking back the canister and pressing on the tube’s button for about 3 seconds. After doing so, he released his finger on the button. He then requested something from Lanonia. “Civilian Lanonia, do you consent to me injecting the healing fluid into your feet to speed up the healing process?” Lanonia was scared of this liquid, never seeing it before, but for some reason, she felt at ease with Colt next to her, so she answered with a brave smile and a sigh of relief “Yes please.” Before he did anything, Colt took off Lanonia’s thigh high leggings to ensure that the torn up clothes would not get in the way of the treatment. Colt raised Lanonia’s right foot with his left hand, and inserted the syringe into the sole of the foot and clicked the button, at first Lanonia felt the sting from the syringe, followed by a very odd sensation, as if there was something moving under her skin, she felt uncomfortable as the sensation continued to persist. Colt clicked the syringe again after a second, being left with half of the liquid in the tube, he took out the syringe while putting Lanonia’s foot down and starting to raise up her other foot, doing the same process as he did with the previous foot, emptying out the syringe. Lanonia felt her feet go numb as she sat on the bed, exhausted from the terrible day she had. Colt took out a little piece of fabric as he wiped the syringe of Lanonia’s blood clean, he put the syringe back into the med kit, getting out a pair of scissors and a roll of bandages. He tightly rolled the bandages on one of Lanonia’s feet, being careful to cover the entire foot, cutting the bandage after he finished wrapping the foot in a manner that would be the most efficient to cover the entire foot, not wrapping around the achilles tendon as there was no damage there. He did the same for the other foot, still being left with a good amount of bandage wrapping. After the whole ordeal, Lanonia felt her head drifting, as she closed her eyes, resting in the most comfortable bed she ever slept in.