James infused the ratlings' newly-made equipment with shadows.
Or at least, tried to.
"Argh! My head!"
James formed a dozen of small tentacles to massage his head in a vain attempt at easing the pain, which proved to be an efficient placebo, at best - it wasn't a brain located in his head that was hurting, after all, but his Core.
The ratlings gasped before piling up on James to try and comfort him, their paws partially sinking in his goo-like body.
"I'm fine, I'm fine... Ugh... So, taking my infusing ability a little too far not only blocked regular shadow shifting but also shadow manipulation and infusion? Yeah, makes sense. It's a pain though. Literally."
James took the rats with his numerous appendages and lowered them down on the ground before kneeling to properly face them.
"Sorry kids, looks like I won't be able to upgrade all of your stuff for now."
Lucille and Goliath were more worried about him than their newfound items, whereas David hadn't cared all that much in the first place. Foudre and Blanche, meanwhile, were a bit disappointed the scraps they had would have to stay a misshapen mess for now.
"But hey, I'm sure we can do other things until I can infuse stuff again. We could train, hunt, try to scavenge more stuff..."
Quite a lot of small, high-pitched ratty groans were a clear indicator of what the young ones thought of his ideas. Goliath even tried doing the puppy eyes, again.
"Or watch a movie or something. Fine. But only one, then it's back to work!"
----------------------------------------
"Captain Cyan's Culling of Curious Catastrophes, Episode 23 : Reverse Revenant's Red Ray!"
"I can't help but feel like I lost, somehow."
""Squeaks!""
"Sorry, I'll shut up. Kids these days..."
As expected, James and the ratlings had decided to watch something on the phone. They argued over what they would watch, an argument which ended with a fight between David, who wanted to watch a slasher movie, and Blanche, who wanted to watch some kind of romance movie about an alien princess and her Terran dryad lover. James had to intervene and punished everyone by choosing a show none of them had been interested in, something about a blue superhero saving a city that was on the brink of destruction every week or so.
What he hadn't expected, however, was for the ratlings to become so engrossed in the show's stupid and whacky plotlines that they had, somehow, collectively successfully threatened him into letting them watch more than a couple of episodes, as they had planned. Seeing a snarling Goliath had been surprisingly terrifying.
Guess they're still kids, after all...
Currently, Captain Cyan, an overly muscled man in cyan spandex and a deep blue cape with a cyan "C" emblazoned on it, wearing a cyan domino mask, was on top of a building's roof and facing his nemesis, Reverse Revenant, a red cartoonish ghost with a yellow pointy domino mask - for some reason.
"It's over, Revenant! I caught you now and you'll be spending some time behind the bars!"
"Ah ah! It's never over, Cyan! I will always phase through the prison's walls and be back outside in a blink of an eye!"
"But this time, we have an Antighostium cell ready for you!"
"Ah! Antighostium? The sole material that drains ghosts of all of their powers? How could Cyan City afford an entire cell?"
"It's simple, Revenant! The cell is the size of an oven!"
"YOU! You would DARE entrap me in a box, knowing full well that I am claustrophobic? You monster!"
"I'm no monster, Revenant. I'm a Hero. I fight monsters and people like you!"
"You buffoon! You almost had a good one-liner! No matter, you cannot stop me this time, Cyan!"
"Oh? What makes you so confident, Revenant?"
"Because, this time, no one will try to stop me! Because, this time, what I'm going to reverse is YOU! Mhwahahahahaha!"
"Who wrote those dialogues? This doesn't feel like a super-hero show but a parody of a super-hero show in a regular show."
"No! Ha! Impossible! My good... Is being turned into EVIL!"
"Squeak!"
"Ahaha! Yes! YES! Soon Cyan City will kneel to me, the REVERSE REVENANT!"
"What? As something that clearly has superpowers of some kind, I object to this representation. Besides, when I'm being coerced into watching a show, I have every right to complain about its quality."
"How foolish I was, to believe in peace. Yes, now let them all fear the name of THE RED RAGE!"
"Squeak Squeak!"
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"Yes, my glorious creation, YES!"
"Look, the suspension of disbelief can only go so far."
"And I will start with YOU!"
"Squeak!"
"What? no! Impossible!"
"Huh?"
Goliath paused the episode - much to his siblings' dismay - and began browsing about the show, showing David a small article about it.
"Captain Cyan's Culling Of Curious Catastrophes is a well know animated series loved by children all over the ACS, having gone through numerous iterations and reboots. What is less known, however, is that the series is based on true events : Captain Cyan was indeed a Hero defending Cyan City from numerous Villains, including his Nemesis, Reverse Revenant, fifty years ago."
"Huh. Guess I was wrong. The dialogue is still awful."
Goliath pointed at another paragraph.
"All dialogues spoken by the characters are real, based on the recordings of Captain Cyan's ingrained camera and mic as well as on reports of witnesses."
James stared at that line of text for a few seconds, much to the ratlings' confusion.
"I suppose I'll have to lower my expectations standards of this world's common sense and logic even more. By the way, I don't remember teaching you how to read."
Goliath shrugged before putting the show back on, a fact his siblings enjoyed.
"You were supposed to obey meee!"
"But you know, we should really go back to training once this episode is done."
His suggestion was met by a volley of cold, harsh, stares.
"I obey no one, all shall obey ME!"
"How do you think Captain Cyan got so strong? He may have had powers due to his alien heritage but it was rigorous training that turned him into a weapon of justice."
The ratlings' eyes narrowed.
"This isn't over, Red Rage! The Revenant always comes baaaaack!"
"Isn't that the whole point of Blue Boy and Green Girl? A pair of prospective heroes with great powers but no training. Doesn't Reverse Revenant win whenever he fights them without Captain Cyan around? Do YOU want to be Blue Boys and Green Girls all your life?"
They all gasped in shock, they wanted to be Captains Cyan, not sidekicks! David paused the episode and rushed to the loot piles to find his makeshift metal claws, closely followed by Lucille, Foudre, Blanche, and even Goliath.
"It doesn't have to be right now-"
James didn't even have the time to finish his sentence before the ratlings were neatly lined up before him, each one making a small salute.
"Or we can begin straight away, sure. So, what do you want to do? Exercise? Spars? Hunting trips? Scavenging?"
The ratlings all looked at each other before each squeaking in a different tone. Apparently, their answers hadn't been what they expected of each other and squabbling ensued.
Maybe I should have let them watch their show...
James snatched up David in the air before he could finish a lunge to bite on Lucille's tail and shielded Goliath from Blanche's rambling with a couple of tentacles between them.
"So, since you can't agree on anything, I'll pick."
And it won't be like the show this time...
"David, you know how to hunt and how to fight, at least the basics. So, you're going to exercise. Don't give me that look, your body's strength is as important as technique. When you're done you'll have to learn some finesse, mindlessly running is not a good strategy."
David begrundgedly agreed.
"Lucille, you have good technique and good hunting habits, so, exercise too. Maybe give David a few pointers?"
Lucille nodded.
"Blanche, your technique is good and you have rather good endurance and strength but your actual hunting skills are abysmal. Foudre is similar, so us three will go together to kill two birds with one stone."
The two had nothing to say against this.
"Goliath, your body is already good and your paranoia is surprisingly effective in hunts, your biggest issue is actually fighting. You need to get over that fear. It's fine if you don't want to hunt but you need to be able to defend yourself. Help Lucille and David exercising and then they'll help you with some LIGHT sparring, alright David?"
The youngest ratling scoffed while the oldest one nervously nodded.
"Great. Well then, let's go."
James began to leave, followed by Foudre and Blanche.
"Squeak?"
"Huh?"
James turned around to discover a confused Goliath raising his paw.
"Yes Goliath, what is your question?"
"Squeak squeak?"
The ratling showed him the nest with both of his paws. James didn't understand.
Why is Goliath showing me the nest? Did he clean it and wanted me to congratulate him? I mean, I can. At least he didn't have to deal with dust under the furniture since there is none... Oh.
"We don't have any exercising equipment, do we?"
"Squeak!"
"Well... Hum... David, Lucille, you'll start with sparring. Goliath, in the meantime, could you improvise some things? Some weights, an obstacle course, maybe a running track? I trust you to know what to make to help your siblings train their bodies. Will it be fine?"
"Squeak!"
Goliath was determined to finish the impromptu gym before James would be back. He even did a cute little salute. James really had to take a few pics of the ratlings at some point.
"Very well then. NOW, let's go."
And away they went, for a brand new adventure.
----------------------------------------
James, Foudre, and Blanche roamed the sewer tunnels in search of prey. Or, well, Foudre and Blanche were searching, James - thanks to his domain and prior scouting - knew exactly where potential prey was hidden. He was currently in his Skitter form since his humanoid form's main means of movement relied on his foot being made out of shadows, something that was currently impossible due to his headache.
"So? Found anything yet?"
The two female rats shook their heads. This is how they had spent the last half hour : James let the two lead the march, only interfering when they were about to enter a more dangerous area and asking them if they had found a potential trail from time to time.
It appeared that either their more civilized lifestyle had ruined their instincts, which was a real possibility, or that they relied way too much on James' and Lucille's tracking skills. It didn't matter in the end, the goal of this little excursion was to bring those instincts back and not to deal with the reason why they had disappeared.
James wasn't that surprised that Blanche wasn't good at tracking, the little diva hated all things dirty and, even now, refused to truly smell anything down in the sewers - something that James empathized with, truly. She didn't want to dirty herself by examining footprints, either. He really had to find a way to help make her a bit more manual.
Foudre's failure, on the other hand, had been unexpected. James couldn't figure out why she couldn't find prey, whether through tracking their scent or listening to the sounds they produced. It's only when she thought to have found something that he realized the cause of the problem : Foudre had taken a habit to only react, never act first. It was the basis of her fighting style and, right now, her tracking method : she wasn't hunting anything, she was running around and waiting to be ambushed.
"Ok, let's stop right now. You two won't find anything like that."
"Squeak?"
"Blanche, I know the sewers are not a pleasant place to be in but, if you want to track something, as a rat, you have to use your sense of smell. Nature didn't give you such a precise nose to waste it. And don't worry about getting your fur dirty, I'm sure we can improvise a shower at home."
"Squeak..."
"And Foudre, stop waiting for something to attack you. Sometimes you have to attack first, or in this case search for them. Okay?"
"Squeak."
"Good. Now try again. Maybe you could work together, to make it easier?"
The two ratlings looked at each other before nodding. Foudre and Blanche took a deep breath, Blanche nearly choking on the sewers' putrid air, before turning toward a side tunnel James knew was home to a small group of cockroaches.
The two entered the tunnel, James following closely behind them, and got ready to hunt.