Chapter 78 : Dane (Patreon)

After some time to rest and a few episodes of Captain Cyan to cool down, the whole family was back to the training room, this time to try and get the most out of the ratlings' new tricks.

For the occasion, James had created a living parkour course with a field of tentacles that the children were currently running through under the curious gaze of Trixie the ghost girl.

"David, you're a feral beast with air powers, take advantage of it. Just going fast at things isn't enough, you need to do it smartly. Plant your claws or teeth into your opponent and then jump away with air to rip out as much as possible, maybe even send out a couple of wind blades while you're flying off to do even more damage."

David groaned as he slipped underneath a swinging tentacle.

"I know how to make things bleed, old man!"

"Yes, but not every enemy bleeds. This is why, as good as you are with your body, you also need to master elemental attacks. Wind blades are cutting it so far but try to go even farther, make tornadoes or bullets. I'll get you all a book on elemental stuff when I can. Foudre, electricity is a very dangerous and powerful tool, so try to fool your opponent - throw an obvious electric attack that'll distract them while you rush in for the kill with a subtler one. Also, make use of your environment, water, and most metal are great conductors, so keep that in mind - both to catch enemies off-guard and to avoid electrocuting yourself or your siblings."

"I got it, dad!"

"Great. Environmental stuff works for you too, David! Messing with ambient gasses is a very good trick!"

"You've already done my turn, old man!"

"Yeah, yeah. Blanche, I'm unsure if what you're doing is gravity, telekinesis, or just pure force, but try and get more use out of it. You can repulse and attract-"

"And float sometimes!"

The cheerful albino diva illustrated her words by floating above a gap between two shadowy pillars she was supposed to jump over, her little demonstration running her momentum and obviously being less effective than a simple sprint and leap.

"-and float sometimes, but you should try to get more out of it. Try to freeze things mid-air, delete or create momentum and maybe try to invert gravity or increase it. An opponent suddenly dealing with a lighter or heavier weapon will mess up their blows and maybe even hit themselves or their allies. You could even make them float and hold them in the air, most people wouldn't have a way to escape from that kind of hold."

"I can't wait to juggle with the baddies, papa!"

"Lucille, I'm not an expert but I'm sure you can take your metal powers even further. You could turn your fur into needles to throw or maybe into some sort of temporary armor to block hits without being weighted down by keeping it on all the time. You should also experiment with sharpness, I'm sure you'd catch people off-guard if jumped in teeth first but then used your ears to cut them. Try to see if you can't shapeshift a bit too, being able to lengthen your limbs and tail could catch an enemy mid-dodge."

The grey rat nodded while stepping to the side to avoid a thrusting attack.

"Yes, father."

"Goliath, I'm still not sure what your full power set is either. It could be just heat or maybe fire or maybe something even beyond that like solar power, so you should experiment to try and go even further with what you can make, and maybe actually try to cool it down. Who knows, it could be a temperature control kind of thing. Your specialty is defense and using your body to hold down your opponent, so try to spread that heat to all of you rather than just your paw. If you're too hot for weapons to hit you before melting, that'll be a serious advantage. Still, try to figure out at least one ranged attack, like your siblings."

"Okay, daddy!"

The oldest ratling's merry smile as he burst through a wall of shadowy flesh specifically for this purpose was intoxicating. Metaphorically, of course. None of the ratlings had any acidic or toxic power. Yet.

Can't cross that out yet. Venomous, infected, or even poisonous rats are a classic trope, and since Captain Cyan is a legit and accurate representation of events that occurred... Yeah, tropes are a thing. Though it's unclear how much people are aware of them. Sam is aware my shadow theme is cliché, but his own Tech naming convention seems perfectly natural to him... Is it a lack of self-awareness, plain hypocrisy, or just that the shadow theme is seen as a fashion style would be?

"Great. We're going to continue this little training session for half an hour and then I'll leave you to rest while I drop by the Black Block."

"Leaving already?"

"Don't worry, I won't be gone for too long. I just need to check up on the shop, make sure the doc didn't get any ideas, maybe even try to recruit her while I'm at it or at least schedule some more tests for you, get you a book on elemental powers that do not necessarily require magic and then check out what's available nowadays. Who knows, maybe I'll find something useful at one of the stalls."

"You don't need to rant about your day, old man."

"David, I just want to make sure you know what I'm doing so that if anything happens you may have some clues as to what."

"Uh. Didn't think about. That's a great idea dad!"

"But nothing would ever happen to our dear papa, after all."

"Uh, remember that whole demon debacle the old man told us about?"

"Nothing would happen to him on the surface. The ruffians up there have nothing on him."

"Remember that time we raided a gang's warehouse and we ran off because a guy saw us?"

"That was a stealth mission, David. One which you ruined with your curiosity regarding this Red Dust substance."

"Oh come on, it was one time! And no need to act high and mighty with me, miss ever-perfect! The old man hammered it into my skull, no touching drugs."

"Guys, could you please stop fighting? Daddy didn't even leave yet!"

"Goliath is right, kids."

Blanche and David were immediately sent flying into the air by surprise tentacles, Lucille barely avoiding the same fate with her quick reflexes prompting her to dodge just in time.

"No arguing in the middle of the action. It leaves an opening any intelligent foe will take advantage of."

"We haven't seen a lot of those around here, dad. Maybe it'd be good for us to spar with the Commando? we already know each other's moves and the Mischief guys are pretty predictable. Polisson is the only interesting one and he's always busy managing the others."

"The Commando is currently busy in the Sunken City, so no. But I promise, as soon as we settle down in the nice part of the city, I'll find you a trainer in a dojo or something. I'm sure there must be people specialized in preparing folks for Hero trials."

"Just not a turtle, please. Those guys are slooow."

"You're thinking of tortoises, Foudre. And no, they're not slow. Those reptiles are deceptively fast when they're determined."

"Yeah, sure, next you'll tell me they're ninjas."

"There's a pretty famous story about that where I come from..."

_____

Dane was grumpy. They hadn't seen Guy since he had let Igne kick them into a wall after stealing their intel, and they hadn't had a lot of luck selling information on their own. The people of the slums weren't very trusting of street urchins like them, especially since they preferred to keep as much of their body concealed as possible with their black hooded coat far too big for them and their dark green scarf. Dane didn't like people looking at their blue skin. They didn't like it one bit.

Their stomach grumbled and Dane groaned. What little coin they had managed to scrape by since then wasn't exactly enough for a full meal every day. Usually, that meant the rest of Guy's sources pooled a little together to help out, they were all in the same boat after all, and Guy had told them all about trust and appreciation between allies, but... Dane wasn't exactly popular. Igne wasn't either, but at least she compensated by being really good and getting paid tons.

Dane slid a gloved hand over their poor empty belly and tried to massage it to calm it down. They couldn't afford to get distracted now, they needed to be on the lookout for anything useful to tell and...

There! Coming out of an alleyway into the Black Block, sneakily merging into the crowd of the market that went from stall to stall and shop to shop, was a tall black figure void of any traits. Dane had already seen them once before, not long before they went to talk to Guy...

"Silhouette..."

Before he disappeared, Guy had told everyone not to say anything about Silhouette to anyone, except that they were honorable and trustworthy, and to focus on getting info on Runar. Some of the other kids were sure Silhouette was responsible for Guy's disappearance, but Dane didn't believe it one bit. As much as he annoyed them they knew Guy wasn't just an old man. He made a living out of telling gang members about each other and yet had managed to live for so long, so he obviously knew better than to anger some weird newcomer. No, Dane was sure Guy was just taking a surprise vacation or something. It wouldn't be the first time according to some of the other kids, those old enough to start having kids of their own. What a dumb idea, growing up and having kids. Dane would be ten forever!

Wait, no, focus. Guy may have said not to say anything about Silhouette to anyone, but he wasn't around right now. Dane had seen the kind of pay Runar's goons had offered Igne when they found out she knew so stuff, but as usual, she was far too loyal to Guy to see a great opportunity to make money. If Dane could offer some new intel, however... They'd be the one getting the jackpot.

Following Silhouette wasn't that hard. Despite their best attempts at stealth by mixing in with the crowd, they were still a tall dark unusual thing. To Dane's trained senses, they were incredibly easy to track, and shadowing them was a piece of cake. Dane knew what cake was, they even got to taste a small one they had stolen from some guy who had just exited Sweet Pete's! They got a good beating and couldn't parkour for a week, but it tasted great!

Dane followed Silhouette to their shop, the one they had set up near Maviza's magical junk place. They hadn't dared to enter it yet, kids like them were never welcome in nice places like that, but they easily recognized the strange facade of the building. Gone were the exposed bricks behind the crumbling paint of the old walls, now they were a pristine white that almost shined in the bleakness of the slums, with a big black stripe at the bottom and black shingles on the roof as well as windows of black glass, stuff that Dane knew could only be seen through from one side, Guy had told them about it once. It was a strange sight in the slums, but had it been just that it wouldn't have been that weird. No, the really weird part came from the black tentacles painted on the black surface, emerging from the black stripe like a Kraken's limbs from the ocean like in that one drawing Dane had seen a long time ago. They were happy there were no Krakens nearby.

Silhouette stopped in front of the shop for a few seconds before entering, and from the outside, Dane could hear a little bell chime as they opened the door. They couldn't just go inside, it would obvious they were following Silhouette and even if it weren't kids like them were always kicked out, but they couldn't peek through the weird windows either. Calling this information hunt off might be for the best, but then what? All that Dane had learned so far was that Silhouette came to their own shop. There was nothing interesting about that, at least nothing that would make Runar's goons pay up.

Unbeknownst to them, some of Runar's men had noticed the informant sneaking around, and they were more than happy to know exactly where Silhouette was...