Disclaimer: I don't own Flushed Away or any of its characters. They belong to Dreamworks entertainment.

Chapter 2: Working in the Sewers (Teenage Years)

The steady hum of the ship was the only sound that Rita heard as she steered the mighty vessel towards her destination. On the dashboard before her was a box filled with neat objects she found for her ever-growing family. It had been her turn to scavenge for some supplies that her brothers and sisters could use; right now her Dad was at home, helping Mrs. Malone and Granny out with the housework.

The young rat's emerald eyes strayed towards a framed picture that rested on the dashboard of the ship. It was a picture of Mr. Malone and her, steering the boat together when she was eight.

The corners of her mouth rose in a smile and she firmed her hold on the steering wheel. When was that, nine years ago? Yes, she remembered now, it had been a year since she got her license to drive, not like she needed one. She was one of the most skilled drivers London had, and that was no lie.

She lifted her hand to her hair and tightened the ponytail on her head, hoping to keep the red stands from getting in her face as she drove. She fingered an object she had in her pocket, it was a special item, nothing like the candy hearts and old toys she had in the box.

Her fingers grasped the item and she lifted it up above her head to gaze at the strange item.

It was a coin of some sort. It was too small to be a human coin, but it fit perfectly over her palm so her fingers would barely just bend over the top.

She looked at the image of a crown that was engraved in the golden surface and she smiled, she had found it near the west side of the city in the water, and it obviously fell from a vent above the ceiling.

The water had long since dried from it, and now it gleamed with an amazing luster which cast a faint glow upon her face. She was sure she could get a good sum of money from selling it; it would at least get her family some decent appliances, their stove looks like it would fall in the floor any moment. Taking one last glance, she placed it in the front pocket of her jeans and continued sailing onwards.

The sound of another ship crossed her attention and she turned her head to see a sleek black and red speedboat coming towards her. She shaded her eyes from the sun with her hand and groaned softly as she saw a large white rat and a smaller sidekick of his coming towards her.

"Great…The Toad's cronies…" she kicked the boat into high gear and it sped forward through the tunnel. She took the wheel and swerved to the right at the closest intersection, hoping the henchrats would have to slow down to make the turn.

Her hands furiously worked the controls, she dealt with these creeps before, but they were always close in trying to catch her. Obviously they were after the coin, and she couldn't help but wonder, how did they know she had it?

"Alright, Jammy me old mate, let's see what you've got." She shouted as she cranked the lever as far as she could, allowing the boat to shoot forward at incredible speeds.

The wind furiously pounded at her as she sped on, and every time she would chance a glance back, the two rats would always be right on her tail. They were now joined by three others who rode on miniature helicopters which buzzed loudly in the air as they drew near.

"Oh come on!" Rita shouted as she reached a paw over to her right to control the arm of the boat, "Where in the world did they get those from?"

The enemy crafts drew nearer and a large U-turn in the sewer line was coming up. The Jammy Dodger continued at 60 MPH, and Rita gasped as the curve came up and she furiously pulled against the faucet handle.

The ship turned, but because of its momentum, its side crashed against the side of the tunnel walls, throwing the scavenger to the deck of the boat.

"Oi…" Rita muttered as she pushed herself up and rubbed the back of her head which throbbed in pain, "Didn't see that coming…"

The beating of helicopter blades snapped her back to action and she quickly pressed in the gas pedal and tried going forward. However, the sides of the boats scraped across the sides, and the speedboat had just pulled in next to her.

At the same time, the remote-controlled helicopters landed on the sidewalk and her boat was stormed with the henchrats. Rita managed to swipe the ones who rode the helicopters off of the deck, but the largest one grabbed her by the tail and flung her against the back of the boat. She tried leaping up to retaliate, but he shoved his foot against her, pinning her to the rear of the ship.

"Augh! Let go of me you white hairball!" the teen shouted as she tried pushing against his foot. The large rat just turned his head back to look at his smaller partner and he pointed at her, "I caught her, Spike."

She wanted to yell "No dip", but thought that would make matters worse. She tried instead to concentrate on reaching out for a bar that was just a few inches from her outstretched hand. She strained harder and harder, her fingers brushed the sides, but she couldn't reach any further.

"Great job, Whitey! The smaller, twitchy rat said as he walked at the side, kicking the bar further from her hand, "We wouldn't want to have an accident, now would we?" he asked the trapped rat with a dark glare.

Rita let her arm fall limp and she glared back at the young, hyperactive henchrat, "What do you want? Come to do The Toad's filthy work for him?"

Spike leaned down and held his hand out, "I'm here for that coin you have, and for your information, The Toad hand chose us for retrieving it. Now hand it over before we use force."

"I don't think we should use force, Spike," Whitey said aloud, "She's just a little one."

"So am I," Spike yelled in his high-pitched voice, "But you don't see me complaining!"

Rita took that chance to pull back her head and propel a gob of spit at the small mouse's face. He turned just as she let it fly and it landed right on his forehead.

"Ha ha! Direct hit!" she shouted in triumph as Spike began to jump around, furiously wiping his head. A look of pure disgust and anger was planted clearly upon his face.

Whitey laughed at the antic and winked at Rita, "Good shot, mate. I could never spit that well." He then saw his partner's eye twitch and he cleared his throat, "Right…find the coin, got it!"

His foot lifted and Rita burst forward, trying to get away from the two. However, the larger rat grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her back, holding her out a safe distance so her kicking feet wouldn't touch him.

Spike took the opportunity to reach out and snatch the coin from her front pocket, easily dodging her lashing feet and tail.

"Alright, Whitey, we got it! Let's go now!"

Rita felt the large rat push roughly against her back. She crashed head-first into the other side of the boat, and darkness overwhelmed her senses.

"Hey, is she okay?"

"I don't know, that bruise on her head looks pretty bad."

Rita groaned and her eyes slowly opened to view the world around her. She looked for the source of the noise, but could only see the steel wall of the boat, and she realized she was lying on the deck.

"Ugh…what happened?" she asked as she got up to her knees and held her forehead, "That really hurt…"

"Hey look, she's up!"

Her eyes focused on the two, beady eyes of a slug, which blinked at her as she stared face-to-face with it.

"Whaagh!" she shouted as she fell back on her rear, "Gosh, don't scare a girl like that." She said as she lifted a hand to her chest, "You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry, Rita," One of the slugs, green in color, said softly, "We were just worried about you, we saw what happened from across the river and we came across the ceiling as fast as we could."

Rita tried imagining the slugs doing their best to scurry over after the rats attacked, but she couldn't seem to focus properly, "Wow, that was some bump…" she muttered as she slowly got up, dizzily at first, but growing more steady as her vision stopped swirling around so much.

"Did you see anything else before I was knocked out?" She asked the two slugs as she walked to the control panel of the Dodger, "Any sabotage?"

The slugs both shook their heads and the second one, a brown colored one, replied, "No, they just took the coin and left. Obviously they wanted to get away from here, and fast."

"Hmm…" Rita looked at the dashboard and gasped, "My picture's gone!" she bent over to look beneath, but there was no sign of it, "It must have flown off while I was escaping!"

The slugs inched towards her and looked at each other in confusion, "You sound so worried just for a picture…" the green one muttered as he looked up at her, "I'm surprised you're not happy that you're still alive after facing that bunch!"

"Augh, I don't care about that!" she shouted as she leaned over the wheel to look at the front deck, "That picture means everything to me!"

After an hour of frantic searching, she sighed and finally gave up, "It's probably long gone by now…" she muttered as she pulled the starter cord of the boat, "I'll have to tell Dad…"

"I'm sorry, Rita," the brown slug said sadly as his bulgy eyes peeked up from the stairs that led to the storage room, "I can't find it anywhere."

"Don't worry about it, mate." She muttered as she started the boat up and turned it around, "Let's just go home."

The missing picture wasn't the only thing that was bothering her. She wanted to better defend herself against attacks like that, instead of being tossed around like a rag doll. If her father was the one driving, he would have sent those rats crying back to their boss in no time flat…

"I'm sorry, Dad…" she whispered as she kept the ship at a steady course towards home, "I failed you…"

When she arrived at home, she gazed up at the sectioned house in disappointment. Since new siblings were coming in left and right, more rooms had to be built, and that meant that they had to pull the house away from the sidewalk and make it float in order to keep it from sinking in.

She parked the Dodger next to the dock that jutted from the patchy home and grabbed the box in one arm while tying up the boat with the other. She was getting good at taking care of the Jammy Dodger. Her and her dad always made sure that everything was in ship shape for the next day, week, however long it would take for them to search out for more supplies.

When she entered the house, she was soon surrounded by kids ranging from ages 4 to 12. All were her little brothers and sisters, and all of them were crowding around her to see what she brought.

She began to hand out toys to the kids, occasionally breaking up some fights here and there. She was beginning to run out of toys just as Mr. and Mrs. Malone walked into the room.

"Rita, you're back." Her mother said as she enveloped her in a warm embrace, "I'm so glad you're safe."

The younger rat smiled and took out some fabric from the box and handed it to her mom, "Here, I hope it's enough to make Fergus some new clothes," she pointed her thumb over her shoulder at her largest sibling, "He's definitely growing fast."

"Aye, he sure is," Mrs. Malone turned around and walked towards the stairs, allowing her husband to greet their daughter.

"So, I see you're work day was a success." Mr. Malone said as he wrapped an arm around Rita's shoulder and led her to the kitchen, "did anything exciting happen on the Dodger? Or was it just a bloody boring day?"

Rita didn't know whether to tell him about the experience or not, but he had said that there would be no secrets kept between them.

"Erm…Dad..." she muttered softly, "I had a bit of a problem today."

His smiling face took on a more serious countenance and he stood in front of her hand held her shoulders in his hands, "What?" His hazel eyes locked onto the bruise on her forehead and he gasped, "What happened?"

She grabbed his arms and lowered them at his side before turning aside so she didn't have to speak to his face, "I…I found a wonderful coin, by the city limits. It fell down a grate on the sidewalk Up Top into the water." She sighed and looked up at the ceiling, "It was beautiful, and I knew it would be worth something, so I hoped to bring it here so we could sell it to get a bit of extra money."

Her eyes slowly turned to him and he nodded, urging her to continue her story, "Well, I was on my way home when I was attacked by The Toad's henchrats. I kept ahead of them for most of the time, but then a U-Turn came up on the river and I missed it." She sighed, "That move cost me the fight, and the coin." Her head bowed down in shame and she whispered, "I'm sorry…"

Mr. Malone looked at her and he gently took her arm in his hand and pulled her to his chest to hug her close, "I don't care about no coin, I'm just glad you made it out all right."

Mrs. Malone had begun to come down the steps and Mr. Malone lowered his voice, "Just don't tell your mother, or anyone else for that matter. We don't want them all to get worked up about it."

Rita nodded in agreement and yawned softly, "Oi, it's been a while since I've slept in a regular bed; I think I'd like to catch a few Z's before I get ready for the weekend."

Her dad nodded and motioned towards the stairs, "I'll see you in the morning. We're all going to the city square to watch a football game."

Rita smiled and walked up the stairway, her father's words repeating in her mind.

"I don't care about no coin, I'm just glad you made it out all right."

As she climbed each creaky step, she wondered if she would be as lucky as she was today. What stopped those rats from killing her? Were they using her to find the artifacts so they could steal them? It seemed like a good possibility, but how could they spy on her like that?"

She was in her room on the second floor before she could finish her thoughts. Everything in her mind seemed to fade away as she dragged her feet across the floor to her bed. She didn't even feel like changing, she just collapsed onto the plushy mattress and weakly pulled the covers over her. She then let the comforting sounds of her home lull her to sleep. The kids shouting downstairs, her Granny listening to oldies music upstairs, her mother humming while she sewed some new clothes; all of that was music to her ears, and within seconds, she was fast asleep.