James had observed the thugs in the old abandoned warehouse for an hour now, and he had come to some conclusions.
One, these people were, indeed, fishy - especially the one called Jerome since he had a pair of gills on the neck and some goldfish scales on the cheeks.
Two, these people were probably some kind of drug dealers - as could be gathered from them selling "stuff", something they also sometimes called Red Dust, and Jerome's "I sell drugs for a living" tattoo. Jerome was a really weird guy.
Three, they planned to leave soon-ish. The guy in charge hadn't been specific but had mentioned relocating to another warehouse in a few days a couple of times now.
Really, James was quite glad these people either had no common sense, no memory, or a tendency to monologue - maybe a mix of the three?
"Say, what the gang's name again?"
"Are you serious?"
"W-Well, I know it's related to blood and angels, but I never know if it's 'Bloody' or just 'Blood'."
"It's Blood Angels, Jerome!"
"What? I thought it was Bloody Angels."
"Come on Bob, it's written on your jacket".
"Well, his jacket says 'Bloody'."
"What."
"Yeah, it's-"
"Joe, I swear to Firus-"
Ooor just plain stupidity. James really couldn't complain since, either way, he got all of the information he needed.
He had especially paid attention to the one called "Mickey", in other words, their main mutant. Or monster. James wasn't sure. What he was sure of, however, is that these people had no issue working with the man, thing, or whatever it was he wanted to be called. In fact, Mickey was one of the most well-liked thugs in the group. He was supposedly on watch duty - which made sense, considering the fact he looked like he could rip a man in half without shedding a sweat.
This display brought James' hopes of cooperation with regular people back up - but not past an unhealthy point. He knew better than to approach a bunch of criminals in the middle of their illegal activities and the fact that it was a group of thugs that so easily accepted something so inhuman as one of their own didn't mean anything, criminal groups were much more welcoming of diversity since familial-like bonds ensured loyalty and providing a place for parias and minorities usually made them forget to question orders.
But now wasn't the time for moral studies on gangs' manipulation of their normally discriminated members. It was the time to think about what James wanted to do.
On the one hand, James could simply ignore this group and just stick to his life with the ratlings in the sewers and- let's be honest, no one genuinely thinks this is an option. Even James internally rolled his non-existent eyes as he had this thought.
On the other - and almost certainly chosen - hand James could profit from his discovery, but the question was, how?
Warning the police? He had no way to contact them and doing so would put him at risk. If mutants were only thugs, what would something like him be seen as?
Joining the group? It didn't feel right and, let's be honest here, James was much too scared to even attempt a friendly relationship with hardened criminals - at least those still in activity, people who have done their jail-time earned their second chance after all - and especially not when one of them looked like some random anime's Dark Lord's general or right hand-man.
Warning another group? Even worse, James didn't know how to contact them and, again, he had no idea on how to interact with ruffians. Plus, who said that all gangs would be as welcoming to non-humans as this one? No, he had too little information on the inner workings of this world's, or at least this city's, society to risk it.
Stealing from them? Now THAT could be a somewhat good idea. Stealing this "Red Dust" would be an awful, terrible idea - taking away drugs from a gang specialized in dealing them was the best way to commit suicide and James wouldn't even have any use for it - but the rest? They would be disgruntled, sure, but they wouldn't go all out to chase after him since it would put their treasured Red Dust at risk.
It was still a terrible idea, of course, and James was VERY aware of it. But he was tired of just hiding in the sewers and reacting to what life threw at him. He wanted to be more proactive. He had to become stronger, both mentally and physically, if he wanted to ensure his safety and the ratlings' in this world filled with mutants, robots, and monsters.
Still, James knew better than to barge in and start plundering under the guards' noses. He had no idea if his body was immune to bullets and frankly he didn't want to test it out. There was also the matter of Mickey, who probably knew how to handle a fight better than James did. No, if he wanted to secure anything from the warehouse, the shadowy figure would need a plan.
It was time to scheme.
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"Kids, I'm home!"
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The ratlings turned around and looked at James as he entered the nest, going from his snake form to his regular somewhat humanoid one.
"You'll never guess what I saw today."
The ratlings exchanged a few glances, Lucille shrugging quite a few times before David volunteered to answer.
"Squeak?"
"David, I have no idea what you just said so I'll just assume you answered incorrectly."
The young rat scoffed.
"No, it's people!"
At that, all five rats tilted their head.
"Ah, right, you never saw people. Here, let me show you."
James' shadow began to grow and cover the entire wall in front of the ratlings.
"Neat trick, right? I figured out I could do all of that shadow manipulation stuff with my own shadow. It can't change state but I can make it completely disappear."
His audience just stared at him with annoyance.
"Fine, fine, here's the show."
The shadow on the wall shifted and twisted, going from an all-encompassing black mass to a reproduction of the nest itself, young rats and James included, done in silhouettes. The aforementioned young rats ooohed and awwwed - or, well, did the rat equivalent through squeaks.
"This, is our home."
The shadow changed once more, exiting the nest to explore the sewers, revealing the many creatures that roamed their tunnels and canals - and yet the nest stayed in a corner of the picture, giving the ratlings an idea of the true scale of the world around them. Goliath shuddered a bit when seeing the monstrous shapes take form, at which point all of his siblings - even David - hugged him at once, comforting the scaredy-rat.
"These, are the sewers."
The shadow shifted again, the scene shrinking and going upwards to reveal the surface world to the ratlings and how massive it was compared to their little sewers. They were all extremely impressed with the gigantic buildings that reached the skies, the cars and the train that rapidly traveled across the landscape, and, last but not least, by the people roaming the streets.
James' ability to manipulate shadows may have been too limited to make a full realistic reproduction of a city but this simple 2D representation on the wall was enough to spark dreams in the ratlings' minds.
"This, is a city."
David seemed fascinated by the cars, Blanche gazed curiously at the - admittedly quite bad considering it was black - imitation of the sun, Lucille didn't seem interested in anything in particular, neither was Foudre, and Goliath looked smitten with humans. Seeing their small, black - red in Blanche's case - eyes sparkling with joy and wonder brought a smile to James' face - or it would have had he had an actual face, again, he really missed having one of those.
"And these..."
The shadow transformed once more, this time only showcasing a few people in different outfits and with different body types.
"Are people."
The ratlings stared at the silhouettes on the wall, then at James, then at the silhouettes, then at James-
Lucille pointed at the figures on the wall then at James before tilting her head.
"Ah, well, I'm not exactly a person... Well, not anymore."
James dropped his shoulders and lowered his head at that, focusing on the ground. Sure, he had accepted the fact that he had stopped being human for a while now, but saying out loud still hurt. But he suddenly raised his head.
"No, I am still a person, just... Not a human one. Yeah, I'm still sapient and that's enough."
The ratlings tilted their heads once more. Today was a really confusing day. They had sensed James' sadness and were getting ready to hug him but, as they were getting ready, he had quickly become cheerful again without any reason - at least none they understood.
"Ah, right, you don't know about sapience. I'll really have to teach you more stuff at some point... But anyway, those are humans. Now, don't get confused, they may look like me right now but that's because I can't make colors. In truth, humans are among the most colorful species in the world thanks to their clothes. Trust me, no one could confuse me for one."
Lucille placed a paw beneath her chin and nodded along with James' explanation before pointing at the silhouettes and then at the ground.
"Ah, the ones I found. No, they weren't in the sewers, not that far away though. Those I found are thugs, BAD people."
Once more today, the ratlings tilted their heads - at this point, James was seriously considering making small signs with question marks for them to raise to prevent any future issue with their necks.
"Humans are normally rather peaceful, kinda like the regular cockroaches? But they are NOT food!"
The ratlings nodded along, though James was somewhat disturbed by how disappointed David looked when he had been told he wouldn't get to eat humans. Definitely had to look out for that.
"Thugs, however, are more aggressive, kinda like the cockroaches with armed antennae."
Goliath gulped at that, trembling a little, before quickly getting covered in concerned furry siblings and even a stray black tentacle.
"And, among those I found, one was mutated - like the glowing cockroaches. It's very likely that makes him the strongest one of the group."
The rats hummed - or, well, squeaked, as rats do.
"And we're gonna steal from them."
They went into a fury.
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"Lucille, for the last time, I'm perfectly fine!"
"Squeak!"
"I'm not mad, I have a plan!"
It had taken five, FIVE painfully long minutes to calm down the ratlings after his little announcement.
"Firstly, this isn't a hunt. If we have to fight against a single one of them it means the plan already failed and we have to get away."
"Squeak!"
"SECONDLY, I reiterate that I have, indeed, a plan."
"Squeak?"
"No, this won't be a repeat of the bladed cockroach incident."
"Squeak."
"Listen, it's simple. We're going to dig under their warehouse and make a small hole from which we will be able to get in. We only take small stuff and, in the case we do find something valuable but too large to pass through the hole, we'll take it and hide it somewhere else in the warehouse so that we'll be able to get it back once they leave."
"Squeak?"
"Simple, we'll have a distraction: me."
"Squeak!"
"I'll go first, I'll explore the place a bit and show you what I want you to take, then we begin to steal stuff but, instead of carrying it down the hole like you, I'll bring it down via the sewer inlet nearby - at some point, a guard will notice and, once they start searching for me, you'll be able to get more stuff and move what's already down there elsewhere."
"Squeak?"
"Of course, I'm not stupid. We won't bring anything directly to the nest, they could track it somehow. No, instead we'll have two caches, one hidden somewhere in the tunnel we'll make for our hole and another hidden in the main tunnels where I'll lead the thugs - and maybe introduce them to the local wildlife."
"Squeak..."
"Don't worry, we'll have a day or two of digging to figure out the details. Besides, if it really looks too risky once we begin, I'll prioritize saving our lives."
"Squeak..."
"Cautiousness is good, worry is not. Look, the others are getting hungry, we should go hunt something."
Lucille was a bit reluctant but, once she too began to hunger, she had to stop questioning James' plan and led the others - minus Goliath, who chose to stay behind with James to help him start digging his tunnel and to avoid any possible violent encounter - on another hunting trip. Young growing rats need lots of energy, after all.
And so James' and, by extension, Silhouette's first plot began. It wouldn't be the most impressive, dramatic, prolific, or spectacular one but it would be the first of a long, LONG line of schemes that would make Zalcien go mad.