The eleventh bell rings as I head down to the sewers. The wallet juggles inside my green substance as I held the sole ID in my hand. "Mont Grimes, huh?" I ask myself. "The wardens nearby didn't have anyone named that last I checked.. Maybe after lunch I'll bring it up there at the school. Could be a lead.. if that thing is still out there."

I head down deeper and deeper. The lights from above grow dim until they're nearly nonexistent. It didn't matter in the first place anyways. I've been down here for so long that I memorized the entire sector of the sewers. When I was with Twitch, he would've always drilled me about "his turf" to help keep surface dwellers off and snatch any "tribute" that they may or may not have. Ugh.. I glance over to the direction of his lair, deeper down in the depths. Wonder where the little fellas is. Hopefully he's not doing anything dumb or destructive.

"Hey! Check this out!" I hear someone shout in the distance. "I told you being down here isn't that bad! Those other punks are just cowardly rats! Wonder who made all the funny warnings though."

I look over at the corner and saw some the shadows of punks with mohawks and bats. Their arms and legs seem to be augmented and their mouths covered with breathers to avoid breathing the noxious disease ridden air. All I could hear is their chuckling and laughter as they ignore all of Twitch's signs and enter dangerous territory without parent permission. I think if I looked closely, I could see someone holding one of Twitch's posters to his head as if it was a funny mask of a stick figure rat.

"Alright! I did the dare! So.. where are my 20 cogs? you owe me 20 cogs! Hehe.."

I grumble. Why are punks always idiots? Their parents are always out doing grueling factory work and all these punks do is somehow get themselves killed in every single way. I stretched my arms on the ground and concentrated my chest to make it stand out, to make myself look bigger. I step back further and further, locking my eyes on the opposite end of the sewers. I stretched and stretched and stretched and then my legs let go. I slingshot myself to the other side. My body hits the floor with a loud "SPLASH!" The punks stepped back, pointing their bats and guns at the green mess of limbs in front of them. When I finally found my footing, I stand up, growing in height as I begin to tower over them, glaring at them in angry yellow eyes. I see them shake. I see them step back. I could imagine seeing their eyes, looking up at me wide and fearful. Their mouths wide, struggling to form the word "monster".

It only made me angrier. Good.

"LEAVE!" I shout as loud as I can, echoing across the many tunnels in this cursed labyrinth. Before I could even stretch an arm to disarm one of them, they run like chickens. Their rapid footsteps spreading echoes in the darkness that grow fainter and fainter every minute. Twitch's official warning posters that were used as a mask now fell to the humid floor, crumbled and tampered.

I pick it up, glancing at it. It was a simple green crayon drawing of a simple stick-figured angry rat holding 2 flasks. It said the following: "Don't enter Twitch's turf! OR ELSE!"

I could still hear their faint footsteps a mile away. As much as I hate to say this, they should be dead by now.. Twitch rarely leaves his sewers. His ingredients are always down here. He wouldn't go that far. I put the poster back in its place, hoping that it would actually do its job in steering people away here. "Where are ya pal?" I ask, glancing at it again.

Then I suddenly realize.. If they can get in here, what does that mean for…

I jerk my head in the direction of my home. I run as quickly as possible towards it. "He's safe. He's safe. He's safe. He's safe." I said to myself repeatedly, yet the creeping feeling lingers over me. I knew leaving him there would be a bad idea. I knew something awful would've happened. What could it be? Dumb punks? Chemists? Chem-baron thugs? Takeda's thugs?

I run and run and run and gasped at the sight of the furniture that was meant to block the pipe opening to the house suddenly replaced with a single tarp. The yellow lantern light that used to be there was no more. Scattered pieces of wood littered the floor as I walk towards it.

"Scratch?" I ask loudly, resisting the urge to cry. I slam the tarp down. The room was all black. "SCRATCH!?"

Suddenly, the lantern light was back. Its dim glowed revealed a tiny green scarfed, brown bipedal rat with an unconscious person below him with rustled gray hair, cracked goggles, yellow teeth and multiple scars across his face. He looked at me with worried eyes while I looked at it with hostility.

"Stay away!" I shout, moving Scratch away from the unconscious body. I looked at him, feeling his body. "Did he do anything to you?"

He nods no, but that didn't stop me from checking. I step back at the body in fear. "How.. how did he get in here?"

Scratch points to one of the drawings that lined the walls. One with a stick figure crying "help" as a young green blob jumps in to rescue the day. "Help".

I groan at the realization. "Scratch! You can let people in like this! You just can't!" I look at Scratch's eyes of confusion and fear at this act of heroism. "People can do pretty nasty things. And I don't want those nasty things to happen to you. Got it?"

He slowly nods, his hands clasped together, shivering.

"No more destroying the furniture. Just stay in here, and I'll come for you. We can do this saving heroism stuff later, but now, you should learn to protect yourself!" ZAC bends over to the body, mending the scars left in this fiasco. "Guess I'm taking this big fella to the homeless shelter," I look over to Scratch. I feel his fear emanating from his antenna. "And after lunch.. we'll find a new door. Maybe check up on our neighbor later. Guess you're spending an entire day with me, pal. Heh. So much for being alone."

His fear was still present. I sigh.

"Well.. let's go. Can't leave this fella for long.."

I wake up, groggy from the nap. I sit up, rubbing my pink eyes and feeling the tingling feeling on my skin missing. Their legs weren't present. My hand reaches up to the fur on my head and back, probing for the loyal roachmen that serve to sooth my needs after an awful nightmare. At first in the dream, everything was itchy. My body was itchy. I had to take off my coat. My weapons. My journals. My lets kept scratching and scratching but it wouldn't stop! It wouldn't stop and then I notice-

But they weren't there. They weren'tdoing their job. Were they sleeping? I growl at the lack of sensation. "Ugh.. Roachmen!" I shout, opening my eyes. "Why have you abandon- Aah!" I shout, squinting my eyes at the horrifying flickering green light. It's radiance rays stabs through my sensitive retinas as I struggle to get up. I stumble across the room, looking back.

The room was mainly empty with just a small human bed and a sink with a mirror. Why was I here? Why am I not in the sewers? Did they get me? Did they find me? Is this the extermination room!? Guess the bright light is their form of torture! Yes.. yes.. It had to be! So is the clean look.. The metals don't even have rust! Where's my crossbow.. my casks! I look down and all I see was this white gown.

"Did you hear about the new guest?" I hear some dumb human say with my large, all-knowing ears. "I hear his immune system is strong. Must be an interesting subject in the future.."

I can't stand being here. Not around these surface dwellers.. They'll kill me.. They'll destroy me! THEY'LL EXTERMINATE!

I blend in with my surroundings and opened the door slowly.

"Creeeeeak"

All conversation stopped.

"He's awake," I hear them begin to repeat. They know. Suddenly I hear footsteps. I slam the door open, and run as fast as I can while maintain my brilliant disguise.

"Gotta find a toilet! Gotta find a toilet! Gotta find a toilet!" I whisper to myself as I ran. I found the door to the restrooms. Yes.. I was home free! I opened the door and I hit something hard. I crumbled down on the floor.

"It's you.." I hear someone mumbled fearfully in front of me. I opened my eyes and saw what seemed to be a rugged man with large, rustled gray facial hair. "The plague rat! THE PLAGUE RAT!" He begins shouting and screaming hysterically.

"OUT OF THE WAY!" I shout, pushing him. He was easy to move in his stupid dazed state. The footsteps begin marching. I storm into a stall and slam the doors behind me. I open the lid and put my legs in the warm, slimy, mushy water. I feel brown mush and tissues around my feet. I begin to push the handle. Nothing happened. I push it again. The water rushes, but it didn't let me in. It was clogged!

The people now enter the room. They begin opening stalls one by one to find out what's actually happening. I blend in with my fur and got off the toilet. I crawled out from under the stall and watch as the humans look inside the stall next to me. I step back and back, seeing the door crowded with people and comforting the old man as he rocked back and forth in a fetal position. Stupid humans.. They're making things hard.. They're all here to exterminate me..

Suddenly, I feel the hardness of a wall behind me. The metal framing of a vent pressing behind my back. I turn around in my camofladged state and saw it, my escape.

I used my nails to slowly open the vents. One by one the nails pinning the vent down fell, but they didn't notice. Those humans are too busy and dumb to notice anything. Just a few more…

CLANK!

The vent falls to the ground. Everyone was silent as they watched me unscrew the vent. I froze, seeing their eyes peer into mine in fear and apprehension. The moment I hear the first footsteps, I ran inside. I crawled faster and faster and faster. Upwards. Up. Up. Up. I could hear the people taking their steps inside. I could see the rays of awful flashlights peering in. They were coming for me. They always came for me. Faster I climb. Faster I move. Faster I escape.

If there's a vent in front, unscrew it. If anything's in front, get it out of the way.

I see light.. I SEE FREEDOM!

I unscrew the last vent and I pop out, feeling the outside zaunite air hitting my fur comfortably. I stumble outside at what seems to be the back of the prison I escaped. There was a sign..

"Foundation for the Homeless Center"