Tunnel Rat

Belinda woke each morning with the feeling she was drowning. She swam for the surface, the light getting closer each morning, but never reaching the surface. Kicking drug addictions is incredibly difficult even with the help of advanced medical technology and she'd been on these drugs all of he life. Worse, she wasn't meant to ever be off of them, according to her old doctors. Her pod was scrubbing her body each night to pull any remaining drugs out of her while using an everchanging cocktail of placebos to help her get over the withdrawal symptoms.

One morning she woke up, feeling like she'd reached the surface, able to push forward and not be dragged back under. Her thoughts were clearer and didn't spin off into crazy loops of paranoia or endless recurring memories. She had a long way to go, physically, but emotionally she was getting stronger.

She also came to a decision. Milo was crazy, and if there were too many problems around him, he'd work himself to death trying to fix everything. She owed him, big time, so it was her responsibility to start doing what she could to lighten the load. To do that, she had to get past a formidable obstacle: Mama.

Mama was the center of their extended family, and Belinda needed her on her side. The family had decided that Milo was on vacation, and Belinda wanted to keep it that way. Which meant not mentioning what she wanted to work on to Milo. He'd start thinking about things and want to help. Luckily, Mama agreed with her, a huge relief. She listened to Belinda and joined the conspiracy.

"Sure, I can see that. That boy can't sit still and eat even when he's starving himself to death. When he gets out of his pod, I feed him as much as I can and make sure he gets some rest. But he's always thinking, and thinking can put a strain on him. Now, that's a lot less harmful than running around inside some superhero armor and getting shot, but still stressful. If you can fix a few things around here and lighten his load, and can at least not mention what's going on. What are you going to be doing?"

"Well, firstly I need to deal with my Father. I've dodged him for weeks now and the only thing keeping him from going crazy and calling in the authorities to find his missing girl is Eric. Eric has him convinced of a version of the truth, that I'm in hiding because of Victor and people like Victor, and that I'll be back when I turn 18 in a week. That triggered 83 emails from John about planning a big birthday party for me. With clowns! After playing Run, Run Ramona I never want to see clowns again." Milo didn't like clowns and was convinced they were one of the scariest things in the world. After playing his game, everyone agreed with him. Clowns were the worst

"Well, it's good that he's worried about you. There are a thousand kids up in the hab whose parents don't worry about them at all. Get that birthday behind you so you have more control and then straighten things out with him. Meanwhile, what is it you plan to do up here? Besides eating regular meals, getting time in your pod to keep you healthy, and starting your physical rehabilitation? You were nearly walking normally before this. I don't like seeing you back in that chair."

"Right, well besides all of those logical things you just mentioned that I will certainly be doing, I need to do some research. Milo sort of borrowed all of my medical data along with all the data from my parent's biotech business and who knows what else. It's stored on huge discs that I can only read with Rusty's help in one of his special areas."

"The areas where people can't breathe the air and Rusty keeps locked off?"

"Yeah. One of those. But he says it has regular air inside the room I need to use, and once I'm there I can take off my helmet."

"Hmmm. Do you mind if I check with Rusty on that? Just to ease my mind?"

Belinda noted that a lot of the time Mama said things that sounded like questions but weren't really questions. It was a skill she wanted to acquire. Eric could do it, but John was terrible at it. Before she could even answer Mama, Rusty started talking.

"Don't you worry Mama, I'll take care of the little nipper, and have her home in time for her nap."

Mama sighed, wondering who had been watching those cartoons with Rusty. "Thank you, dear. Is it safe to go down there?"

"Oh, very safe. Her wheelchair is electrical and unaffected by the inert gases used in the facility and the full suit Milo made for her has a helmet with a detachable air supply. Running down there to watch a few boring videos and look at numbers is as easy as bouncing up a tree."

"Fine, then running around Downtown for a couple of hours to test the air storage system is equally as easy."

That, Belinda thought, was a very good idea. Even if Milo had made her gear, it was still up to her to maintain it and make sure it was safe. Trying to breathe the argonite gas in the hallways was far too much like drowning. Her lungs would pull it in, but she'd die from lack of oxygen. A test run would be good, and she could combine it with another chore. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

"Or maybe start my physical therapy and take a nice slow walk around the park a few times."

"Good thinking. I'll pack some snacks to send with you. If you're going to miss a meal, send me a message. I'm sure Max or one of his friends won't mind taking a hot dinner down to you. Those little gadgets are so helpful to have around."

Milo had his own work to do and needed a secure place to do it with no possibility of someone spying on him. Since no one was looking for him in connection with Eel-maggedon he felt safe staying in his human form without wrapping himself in cast-off rags. There was one thing that bothered him though: He didn't have a spanner. The large adjustable wrenches were a useful tool or weapon, but also a sign of an Engineer's status. It felt wrong not to have one on his belt. His old one had been gifted to his friend, Vladimir Twosouls. It was a travesty that such a talented individual wasn't accepted fully by either side of his convoluted family tree. The half-elf/half-dwarf magi-tech specialist had taught Milo so much in the few days they'd spent together, including a system of clever runic script of his own devising. Inducting him into the Deep Rock Engineers as a Senior Engineer had been the right thing to do.

A screwdriver on his belt just didn't feel the same, even a special one like this. Of course, it wasn't a screwdriver all the time. The versatile tool was also an implement for applying force. Maybe one of its forms was an Engineer's spanner? That made sense to Milo. Of course, things didn't always go well when he experimented with things. It wouldn't be good to try anything close to the new docks and housing for the fishermen. But there was an abandoned home near two vacant lots just a little way into the no man's land of shanties and bars. A sign on the door claimed it was owned by Clan Shark after non-payment of gambling debts by the old owner. It was a narrow, four-story tall house, once owned by a merchant. It took Milo only a moment to scramble up to the top of the roof and hide in the shadows behind the chimney.

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Holding the screwdriver, he thought of how he could change it into a mace, then conceptualized a spanner of the same material, and held the tool above his head. "Spanner!" Whatever he'd done, the pre-system tool seemed to understand and it changed into a heavy Engineers spanner made from a dull black metal with intricate runic script running up the handle and several knobs to adjust it. He was ecstatic for a moment, at making it work.

Then he felt the change in the air. His fur stood on end, and he could smell ozone. Static electricity was building up around him. A bolt of lightning lanced down from the roof of the city, turning a large stalactite to powder, hitting the spanner, then running through Milo and into the roof of the house, which promptly exploded as the beams of the roof were far poorer at conducting electricity than either Milo's rune enhanced bones or his new wrench.

Milo fell through the hole in the roof and the interior of the shattered building until he landed on the first floor. Debris was pouring down from the top floors, part of the house was on fire, and everything was swaying back and forth as the unsupported chimney began to topple. Milo dove through a front window, rolled, and kept running, completely panicked by the events. The house swayed back and forth and then came crashing down into a pile of rubble, looking like many other houses in the area. Milo didn't stop until he was in another part of the city, high on the rooftops.

While anyone in the city saw the flash and felt the thunder, only a few people were able to see the house's destruction and its occupant's hasty retreat. A crew of fishermen getting their boat ready to sail saw the flash and laughed as someone dove out a window and sprinted away, scared out of his mind. They shrugged and got their nets ready. Another crew had told them the crabs were coming back into the bay and they wanted to find out for themselves. Three pirates were staggering along the docks, so drunk that the thunder knocked them down. The only person lucky enough to see the entire event was the Ganglord, Squint. His eyes had somehow seen Milo on the roof, and he'd wondered what one of his Kulags was up to. He saw Milo raise his wrench above his head and glow brightly as the lightning arced through him before the whole house came tumbling down. "Damn, that was neat! I'll have to get him to show me that trick!"

It was a very sore and exhausted Milo who trudged across the bridges to the Adventurers Guild. Parts of him were regenerating and that made him hungry. The halfling cheese merchants were doing a brisk business today, selling 'Cheesy Breakfast Sandwiches to a gang of ratkin players. Milo stopped to observe.

"Get them while they're hot, guys. Cheap at half the price and worth every silver you're forking over. A balanced diet that will keep you going all day. And tasty! So tasty! Who needs a healthy breakfast? Buy two for the price of three and eat well all day!"

The sandwiches seemed to consist of a small loaf of bread with bacon grease on one side, cheese sauce on the other, and a slice of grilled eel in the center. Unlike the Razor Claw gang members, he passed on both the dubious breakfast and a slice of cheese. He had cheddar in his pouch, and there there was a bakery selling fresh nut rolls that his nose led him to. He bought an extra and entered the Guild Hall. Bernard saw him coming and his nose detected the scent of the freshly baked pastry.

"I'm running a special today. One nut roll and I'll be your new best friend. Limited time on the friendship depending on future deliveries."

Milo handed him the extra roll, "As it happens, new best friend, I have a favor to ask. Does the guild offer banking services?"

Bernard had finished the pastry in three bites and sighed as the rumblings in his stomach were temporarily sated. "Well, if you mean loans, that's a big no. We'd be broke paying money to every player who wanted to buy gear he couldn't afford. If you mean you want the guild to take in your cash for safekeeping, then we offer excellent and discreet customer service of the finest variety. And by finest, I mean in this city which has not been blessed by the gnomes."

"I have gold that's taking up too much space."

Bernard looked at him strangely, then considered who he was talking to. "Well, how about you step into my office and we'll handle this."

The halfling's office was a door with enough locks of an intricate variety that Milo didn't think he could open them in a month. Two thieves were sitting in front of the door, taking turns trying to open the bottom lock, a pile of broken lockpicks on the floor between them. Bernard wasn't surprised at all to see them. "Playtimes over boys, hope you got some experience points. Come back in an hour with another tasty bribe and you can try again." A large set of keys was produced and the dozen locks were dealt with before Bernard held open the door for Milo to enter and followed him.

His office was huge, with a large desk, a larger kitchen and pantry, and a long room with banks of small locked doors. Some were as small as half a foot square and others took up significantly more space. Bernard gestured to the wall, "Safe deposit boxes, guaranteed safe, for a small monthly fee. These little ones are great for a few rings or a purse of emergency coins. The biggest give a square yard of storage, but they get a little pricey. The guild charges 50 gold a month for those. Very popular with the adventuring guilds that need storage for quest items and the occasional windfall.

"I need four of the large ones, please. And I'll pay a year in advance."

Bernard smiled, showing all his teeth. "I might even keep you as a best friend for longer than a day. Take the two at the end, dump what you need in there, set the password on the dial, and confirm it. I'll get a snack and give you some privacy."

A half-hour later, Milo had emptied half of the coins from his smuggler's stash and dismissed it. He borrowed a pot from a confused Bernard to help him scoop out the drawer and put most of it into the safe deposit boxes, filling one of them.

Next was his brand spanking new Arcane Workshop. It appeared as a door on the blank wall, and when opened showed the workbench. The area above the bench held a jumble of cables and tools he'd used to open the vault, along with his diving gear. That all went into one of the safety deposit boxes. Drawer #6 with its 64 cubic feet of space was stuffed full of coins and ingots. He started scooping them out and filling another box, leaving most of the ingots and some of the coins. There was still a lot of gold left, so he decided to pay Bernard five years of rent ahead. Calculating the equivalent value in gold ingots, he put them on the halfling's desk. He made sure to refill his belt pouch. Fish Tacos weren't cheap and he was getting hungry. Closing everything up and setting his password took only a minute and he yelled for Bernard.

The sight of the ingots almost made Bernard drop his muffin. "What did you do? Rob a dragon's hoard?"

"Something like that."

"Well, don't worry. I'm nothing if not discreet when keeping the secrets of my friends."

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