James let himself enjoy the simple life of a puddle of tar for a while. The good news was that he hadn't fainted after infusing the phone, which he had quickly tested and confirmed to be functional afterward. The bad news was that he was now sporting a massive headache - or more accurately, a body ache, since his head was technically only fashioned to look humanoid since his mind and consciousness was spread throughout his entire body.

Letting himself go and no longer focusing on keeping a specific shape weakened the pain, hence why he was currently spread on the ground of his room. Using magic enhanced the pain, so he sadly couldn't practice, but he could meditate and watch over things via his connections to infused items - he probably should come up with a name for those, now that he thought about it.

He checked in on Goliath and Sam as they watched Captain Cyan-

"Captain! Indigo Wendigo is attacking the rangers' office in Color Canyon Park"!"

"Quick, Green Girl, Blue Boy, to the Cyan Copter!"

"I don't get it. Why use a helicopter if he can fly?"

"The other two can't. Now hush, it's going to be one of the best parts."

"Everything is one of the best parts to you."

-on Blanche and Foudre as they trained their rudimentary and self-taught martial art skills-

"I'm curious, have you ever considered a relooking?"

"Focus on the task at paw. Why do you even ask? It's not like we wear clothes or make-up."

"Well, we could. I'm considering asking papa for a monthly allowance for personal expenses, that way we won't have to look like sewer rats anymore."

"Blanche, we are sewer rats."

"Wrong. We are rats who were born in the sewers, big difference. A sewer rat wouldn't have a snout this fine, you know? And look at these ears!"

"Yeah, yeah. Why are you so obsessed with being pretty, anyway? I can understand not wanting to be dirty, but the rest?"

"Why is David such an idiot, why is Goliath such a sweetheart, why is Lucille so serious all the time... It's part of who I am, there's no particular reason."

"If you say so."

-even on David and Lucille, as they were hunting near one of the infused stones he had left around to sense if any threat was nearby-

"I don't understand why he wants to keep that Techlord around."

"Oh, miss perfect is angry at the old man?"

"Not angry, just... confused."

"Look, I don't like the guy either, especially after he made Goliath cry, but you gotta see it from the old man's point of view."

"Which is?"

"We both know he's not from here. Hell, he's the one who brings up he's from another world from time to time. Just like he told us he used to be human, once. Remember, when he showed us this shadow thingy to represent the whole 'surface-sewers' stuff?"

"Yes, I do."

"He used to be human. It ain't weird he got tired of only hanging out with rats."

"You think-"

"Oh, I'm sure he means it with the whole good guy speech, 'he needs help, I can help him' or whatever, but he's mostly doing it to have someone like him around."

"You think he isn't satisfied with us?"

"Look, Lucille. We're not even the same species. We're just his little pity project that grew out of hands. He didn't even want to be our father, remember?"

"That doesn't mean anything. He adopted us, you ungrateful brat."

"Hey, I'm just giving my opinion here."

"..."

"Meh, you can be as mad as you want, it ain't gonna change what I think."

"You're right. It won't. Now let's get back on track, I'm going to go catch a spider, you bring back some fish."

"Wait, fish? But those things are huge! I don't even know how to swim! Lucille! Come back!"

-and Soluble-

"So... What did you learn?"

"Not much. Nothing about the silhouette, but apparently Larry and Barry survived an attack by a horde of Patchees."

"Wait, what? Patchees? A horde of them? HOW?"

"Shut up, you idiot. But he's right, a horde? How?"

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"Apparently some of the Patcher's pets escaped. They rampaged around a bit and for some reason began to chase after the two idiots."

"And they survived?"

"Some kind of mech appeared and beat the Patchees to a pulp."

"A mech? Is their bosssss more of a big shot than we thought?"

"Dunno, but what I do know is that Sunburn was sent to catch the Patchees back."

"Wait, Sunburn? Why not another one of the Angels' goons? Why send their ace?"

"Do I look like an Angel, Jeffrey? I'm not in their head."

"I'd say it makes sssenssse. Sunburn is probably the only one who can scare those thingsss into sssubmission. You know, with the fire."

"If you say so, Mark. Anyway, the big man arrived just as the mech finished getting rid of the corpses, and it didn't take long for there to be nothing left but ashes of the big pile of junk."

"So their boss is at war with the angels?"

"Maybe. But he probably lost a lot of resources with that mech, so we have an opening."

"What's the plan?"

"Finish assembling the team, go wreak some havoc down below, overwhelm the silhouette, and get rid of it before it can get any more influence."

"I ain't convinced, Soluble. Seems like a very risky plan to get rid of a guy who hasn't done anything yet."

"If you won't follow me, I can't risk you leaking the plan to the enemy Jeffrey. We clear?"

"... Yeah."

"Good."

-before he got called out of his trance a few hours after it began by a member of Mischief scratching at his room's doorway, unwilling to enter James' personal space.

"Squeak?"

"Ah, yes, give me a moment..."

James reformed his body, going from being a puddle of tar to his usual dark humanoid figure as he approached the large black rat with purple highlights in its fur.

"Do you have something to report?"

"Pack... Saw... Two... Men..."

"Larry and Barry?"

"Yes..."

"Good, thank you for warning me. Oh, thank you for not entering the room too."

"Master... Calls... We... Answer..."

"Yes, yes. You're free to go now, I'll take care of it. Wait, on second thought, ask Polisson to come here."

The rat just squeaked once more before rushing off to Mischief's lair. James had installed it a little farther away from his, just to be sure anyone looking for them wouldn't also find James and the ratlings.

Guess those new weapons came at the right time...

James quickly slithered through the lair, getting back the two electroguns from the storage area before heading to the entertainment room to fetch his latest employee who was currently still watching Captain Cyan with Goliath.

"Wait, you're telling me Revenant is a technological expert but also a ghost? How?"

"Me and David think he used to be a brilliant inventor before he died, Foudre and Blanche think he picked up the skills after he died, and Lucille thinks he's not actually a ghost but uses a gadget to act like one."

"Huh, a dematerialization field of some kind? Or a phaser? It'd make sense..."

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but Techlord, the two other employees I mentioned earlier are arriving. Go wait for us in the war room. Meeting room? We should probably establish a proper name for it later on. In any case, you should meet them, if only to give them some precise orders for those new tools. Goliath, go fetch the others. Same thing, war room."

"Alright."

"I'm on it!"

James barely spared them a glance before he rushed to the tunnels, turning into his Skitter form on the way to become even faster by running with its long stilt-like limbs.

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

"Sooo... Do we tell him?"

"I... I don't know, Larry."

The ever-energetic duo of Barry and Larry walked in the sewer tunnels, Barry illuminating the way forward with his flashlight. The squishing of organic matter under their boots and the flowing of the dirty water were the only sounds that filled the tunnels aside from their voice, and both of the men could already use a shower. Larry's long greasy hair and goatee were in no better condition than Barry's muttonchops, and all of their brown and beige clothing was even more damaged than it was when they first met with their new boss. Frankly, the only things that hadn't worsened about their looks were Larry's red bandana with white flowers and Barry's aviator goggles.

"I don't know what he would do if he learned about it. Give us some equipment to be better prepared? Replace us?"

"I don't think the boss would replace us, Barry. He's a nice guy."

"If you say so..."

In a blink of an eye the tall lanky man and the short burly one had reached their destination, the usual meeting point between them and their boss, an unassuming tunnel among countless others whose sole remarkable feature was a massive hole leading to another tunnel, the one a monster had made when their boss first appeared. The place where they had met for the first time.

"Well, guess we only have to wait."

"How long do you think it will take, Barry?"

"How would I know, Larry?"

"Not any longer."

They both turned around as the third voice echoed in the tunnel, discovering their boss standing calmly behind them.

"Boss! Nice to see you!"

"It is nice to see you too, Larry."

"Boss. We brought what you asked last time, it's all in this."

Barry pointed to the large backpack he was wearing with his thumb, expecting his boss to just open it and take everything inside before giving a few more orders as well as their pay like he had done the last couple of times they had met since the Soluble incident.

He didn't.

"Marvellous. Barry, Larry, I think it's time you learned about our base."

Larry's eyes shined like never before, whereas Barry was a bit off-put by his boss' words.

"Sorry, 'our'?"

"You are my employees, are you not?"

"Uh... Yes sir..."

"Good. Then it is also your base. You are free to come as you please. But for now, let's hurry. I have to introduce you to the rest of the staff."

James slipped between the two men and began to make his way back to the lair.

"The rest of the what now."

"Barry! We have colleagues! We can throw them surprise birthday parties!"

"That's... That's a terrible idea, Larry."

"Come on you two, hurry up. We don't have all day."

"Yes sir!"

"Yes, boss!"

The two hurried after him as he picked up the pace, taking care to still be slow enough to be easy to follow but fast enough to force them to run somewhat.

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

"Good, here we are."

James slowed down as he arrived at the entrance to the lair. He had been forced to widen it a few days ago after he had saved Sam so that the boy would fit, going from its old mouse hole size to a proper doorway. He had still taken the time to make a fake wall to cover it up with thin slices of bricks, abusing his ability to fuse and defuse infused items to create it with broken pieces of stone he had left from some of his early digging sessions - though he had still left a large, fake broken-in hole at the bottom, for the ratlings and Mischief's use.

Larry and Barry arrived just after him, sweating a little but nothing beyond that. James remarked on that as he slithered a flat tentacle on the wall first, separating the thin part from the normal wall, then in the gap between the two to lift the fake wall out of the way.

"I must say, I'm impressed. I expected you two to be panting and gasping for breath right about now."

"Well, not to gloat or anything, but we're some of the fastest Coreless around."

"Running for your life daily is a great cardio exercise!"

"Yeah, that too."

"How... Awe-inspiring."

James lifted the fake wall and stepped to the side, inviting the duo in.

"Uh... Us first?"

"Unless I am mistaken and you have the strength and dexterity to perfectly reinstall a brick wall, yes."

"Eh, fair. Come on Larry, let's meet our doom."

"Don't you mean colleagues?"

"Sure, sure."

Soon enough the tunnel was back to normal. A regular tunnel, aside from the fact all of its bricks were darker than those in the rest of the sewers and that there was a hole in one of the walls.