I am writing this on my phone while on the bus so be warned there are crimes against human grammar here.
Ciaphas Cain the Crime Lord - Everyone starts somewhere
"Cyyy~! I am hungry! And bored!"
"Shush!"
Young Ciaphas looks around while jumping next to the little boy and putting a hand on his mouth.
The high pitch voice of Erl could travel a great distance in the middle of the night and Ciaphas didn't want to encounter the kind of people who roamed around this part of the Underhive at this hour or rather any part of the Underhive at any hour.
Ciaphas or Cy for the small group of street urchins that had stuck to him like so many lice for the sole reason that he was the biggest and strongest teen (was he a teen already? Ciaphas wasn't entirely sure how old he was) that didn't beat them.
While having extra hands and eyes was helpful when scavenging for anything useful or edible the urchins always found ways to get Cy in trouble, usually by doing nothing more than opening their mouths.
Once Cy was sure no one heard Erl's whine he fixed him with his best stare which already made the little boy tear up so Ciaphas aborted the lecture he was going to give him.
"Erl, go back with the rest, I'll look around a bit more and join you later."
"You promise?"
"Yes, I promise now go and make sure no one follows you."
Cy waits until he can no longer hear the sound of Erl's bare feet before moving to the next pile of trash. This one looks promising or at least new so he should be the first looking through it.
The whole pile reeked of blood which gave Ciaphas a good idea of who dumped it here.
No tech he could trade and nothing edible but he did find a very nice coat.
It was black with red accents and in the back what looked like some kind of feline beast Ciaphas found curiously familiar.
...
With a new coat to keep him warm and it's pocket filled with the trash Cain felt he could trade for some food he moved warily through the more populated areas where he may find someone willing to trade him some food.
"Hum..!"
Ciaphas turned to find a fella that looked rich looking at him nervously. It was obvious he had showered in the last month and you could tell what colors his clothes were originally. Plus he was almost fat.
Ciaphas immediately put his serious face and it seemed to work because the guy started to sweat profusely.
"Whadda ya want?"
"Uh... I... I had nothing to do with that, trust me"
Ciaphas nearly took off running when the man started to rummage through his pockets but old man Cain, who had named Ciaphas and all the urchinds before dying from that weird cough, had taught Cy to never run unless people were already chasing him. If he ran it signaled everyone he had something of value even if that something was only his life others would try to take it from him.
The man eventually produced two pieces of tech that Ciaphas had never seen from up close, a battery and a weird box the size of his hand with a big red button on top of it.
"This is the quota, all to yourself! Just remember that old Line is your friend!"
He handed the items to Ciaphas and took off power walking until Ciaphas lost sight of him in an alley.
Ciaphas was more than confused but he had heard rich folk were crazy so he took his unexpected prizes and decided to try one of the fancier traders and get some good food for him and the urchins instead the old man he always visited.
...
This was a really weird night for Ciaphas.
First the rich guy gave a couple of tech and when he tried to trade them for food the old woman took one look at hin with his new coat and handed him food for free.
He even got some meat. Of a variety he didn't want to confirm but still, Meat!
He was taking a long detour to see if anyone was following when he saw one of the girls working the night.
He had a couple of valuable tech and a full stomach so he decided the urchins could wait a couple of hours and thought to test how lucky he was tonight.
...
Turns out, very lucky indeed. The girl didn't even charged him!
"Siento lo de tus amigos" Ciaphas was not sure what language she spoke but he was pretty sure they were friends now.
"Los Tigres siempre fueron buenos con nosotras y con el barrio"
Watching the girl dress herself was almost better than warching her undress.
"Me alegra que hayan algunos de ustedes aun, pero cuidate pues los Lobos deben estar cazandote"
Ciaphas just nodded to her and put in his new lucky coat and walked out of the small room and back onto the street.
He was feeling great right until he noticed the group of five gangers in blue jackets and far too may spikes coming out of an alley.
"Woah! Look at that Sere, there was one left!" Yelled the biggest ganger.
"You were in charge of counting. Frak the boss will be pissed."
"Nah, we just take care of this one and we are good."
The gangers started to pull out makeshift knives, really just pieces of metal with sharp points and a shadow of a blade. They surrounded Ciaphas with grins on their faces.
Cy took his new coat and carefully folded it before putting it on the floor, out of the way.
"I suppose this had to happen, it was too much good luck for a night."
...
A couple hours late Erl was getting antsy. Cy was late and the others started to blame him for that.
Luckily the old door of their little hideout opened and Cy walked in. He had a scratch on a cheek and one of his eyes was swollen shut but he also was carring a lot of food.
"Guys you wouldn't believe the night I just had."
"What happened to your eye?!" Erl wasn't sure who asked but he also wanted to know. Cy was the strongest guy he knew.
"I think I started a gang" was Cy's nonanswer.