As one of the few habitable places present on this trash planet, Junk Bunk wasn't only home to the people dumped here by the Maginum Kingdom.
Home to a number of plants and animals adapted to the harsh environment riddled with chemicals and metal, despite the Gangsters best wishes, they couldn't force them out without a cost, letting them reside in the darker corners of the megastructure.
That decision was in the midst of literally biting them in the ass.
Vexed by the grating laughter formed from the sound of shattered glass, Skeleton wasps, Klatuls, Crawlers, Bellowbogs and whatever the void else resided within the megastructure's cracks and crevices emerged from the darkness,, attacking whatever was closest.
It was just that the nearest thing that bordered their territories were humans.
A menagerie of hisses, scraws, roars and hollers echoed within Junk Bunk's many halls as gangsters hurriedly fought back against the sudden rise of beasts and bugs.
Using a collection of whatever was most convenient, the modded gangsters hollered loudly as they smashed weapons into the bodies of the animals running rampant in their territory.
'Chaos found itself quite at home here in Junk Bunk'
Eva leaned against the wall as she watched another one of the gangs that infested Junk Bunk pass by her position, they shoved past the quickly emptying streets as they moved to reinforce their members currently fighting off a swarm of Skeleton wasps.
Watching as they passed by without a word, the weight of the knife in her sleeve pressing down on her conscious mind, a small hand picked at her sleeve.
Turning to look at the owner of said hand, it belonged to the short slum rat that dropped the car besides she and him a few five days ago, now carrying a small board with wheels on their back.
They were still holding it in one of their gloved hands.
"Big sis, are you sure you can't stay with us?"
Eva rolled her eyes as she fiddled with the knife. [For-for the last t-time kid, I can't, I'm w-waiting for some-someone.]
"That guy you were with? He's been taken by the Beforetimes, they might be better than the other gangs around this floor, but if he's as good at fixing stuff like you say he's not getting away."
[That still d-doesn't mean t-that I c-can s-stay with you a-and your b-brother.] Eva eyed the road as another gaggle of gangsters hurried to reinforce the others fighting off the Crawlers.
"Why though?" The Slum rat looked up, their hood failing to hide the confusion in their eyes. "Why are you still waiting for him?"
[Honestly s-sometimes I-I think that he's f-full of it.] Eva continued to lean against the wall as she stared at the people continually shuffling by despite the combat happening not even ten meters away, her speaker crackling.
[He's a dreamer to put it bluntly, one with-with an impossible dr-dream.]
"That doesn't answer my question."
[W-what I-I guess I'm t-trying to say is-is that there's n-no big reason b-behind it] Eva shrugged. [I just like h-him l-like you l-like your brother.]
"Oh..." Going silent at the mention of their brother, Eva changed the subject.
[I-Is the coast c-clear kid?]
"The coast is clear big sis."
Staring at the little slum rat who still seemed to be a bit down, she focused on channeling her thoughts into words. [T-This is the l-last time I-I'm helping by-by the way, if-if your brother is-isn't here I-I won't he-help you again.]
"You said that last time, now c'mon big sis." Pulling at the hem of her sleeve not hiding the blade, the little slum rat pointed at the house across the concrete road.
[T-this time I-I really me-mean it.] Eva quietly responded, her hand fiddling with the knife as she followed the slum rat to the house across the road.
Her peculiar actions caught a few curious glances from the slum rat, but upon realizing that they were playing with the knife in the other sleeve, they looked away, uninterested.
Eva did notice that they were keeping a looser grip on the hem of her sleeve though.
Following the slum rat across the road to the house located just opposite of where they just were, the slum rat let go of Eva's sleeve as they opened up their toy car to reveal a set of lock picking tools.
It was quite a surprise to find out that the toy car Ester had stepped on was actually a lockpicking kit in disguise, but it made sense to hide what you could hide.
It was also quite creative.
"Could you keep a watch out for the owner? It's not going to take long." The slum rat said as they picked up their tools, slipping them into the mechanical lock blocking the door.
Leaning against the wall bordering the door in response, Eva continued to fiddle with the knife in her sleeve as her eyes swiveled across the road, her thoughts quietly pondering about a man.
'...Just what does that bastard want?'
That man wasn't Ester.
Thinking back to five days ago when she had tried to lose the Cyborg persistently tracking her, she accidentally bumped into someone... unpleasant.
Even thinking about it now made Eva want to instinctively let out a sigh of disbelief, something she wasn't able to thanks to this ARCHITECT-
"Are you okay big sis?"
Blinking at the sudden interruption of her train of thought, she quickly brought down the hand wrapped around her metal neck and nodded. [Y-Yeah, just c-continue w-what you're d-doing.]
"...Okay." Looking back at Eva one more time before focusing and moving to the second of the three locks, Eva let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding as she returned to keeping an eye on their surroundings.
...She also was in the midst of trying to understand what the void the leader of the Handsy Weed was doing here.
'What's the gameplan here Daniel?'
Helping her escape the pursuit of the naked cyborg by bringing her into a room that opened up in three different directions, Eva was under no misconceptions that he was doing it out of the good of his heart.
Especially when soon after they had shaken the cyborg off of their trail, Daniel decided it was a good time to pitch his capabilities as an Info Broker.
Bragging about how many connections he had as an intermediary between the carnivorous flower and the other major powers currently playing in the trash planets underworld while making not so subtle threats about disseminating the knowledge he had for a high price.
When Eva raised a knife to his neck, he 'accidentally' let slip that he had a data packet on a timer that would release data if he didn't go back to stop it.
The contents of the data?
None other than news of their survival.
It was basically all threats.
The reason for these threats?
Eva was still trying to puzzle it out herself.
'...Wait.' Eva furrowed her brows as the slum rat moved on to the third lock, an idea on the verge of forming. 'Maybe I'm asking the wrong question.'
Instead of asking why Daniel was here making all of these threats, she should be asking how is he here making all of these threats.
Two questions that when reworded slightly, meant two entirely different things.
'Since me and Ester didn't exactly tell anyone where we were going because of obvious reasons...' Eva spun the knife in her sleeve absentmindedly.
'Either Daniel has a better network than I gave him credit for... or he's tracking us through something.'
Eva stopped playing with the knife as her gaze sharpened. 'One is more obvious than the other, and I think I know how its happening.'
Thinking back to the little sigil that Daniel left behind, Eva made a mental note to get Ester to throw that thing away just as the door the little slum rat was picking opened.
"Big sis."
[Y-yep]
Stepping through the opened door followed by a slum rat hurriedly packing everything back into the melted casing of the plastic car, they were both greeted with a small, dark room.
'Where are the lights here...'
Instinctively looking around for the light switch in this place, upon flicking it on, the cheap fluorescent lights revealed everything in the small room.
It was honestly quite bland.
Containing the usual furniture you would expect in this place, it was complete with a table covered in tools, a bareback chair on its last legs, a human chained to a wall, a dirty mattress stained with something unknown, stacks upon stacks of boxes containing random things and a large bone saw stained with blood.
One of these wasn't like the others.
"Big brother!"
Instantly running towards the side of the human being chained to the wall, Eva closed the door behind them as the slum rat began to hurriedly fuss about the man who weakly responded to the frantic movements.
"Huuh...?"
Upon confirming that he was still alive, he hurriedly got down to the ground.
"Hold on big bro! I'll get you out!"
Opening the plastic car and pulling out their tools before moving to the first of eight locks, whilst this was happening Eva took the time to take a closer look at the man.
They were in bad shape.
Skin pale from a lack of blood, both of his legs had been cut off with the bloodied bone saw hanging off of the wall in addition to... a lack of mouth to scream out for help with.
'...'
Silently touching at the metal casing around her neck, Eva's hand clenched into a fist before she grabbed the slum rat by the shoulder just as he was about to move on to the second lock.
"Hey! I was just about to-!"
Eva kicked the chain before he could continue.
Aether supercharging the limb momentarily before it smashed through both the iron and concrete, the slum rat stared wide eye as he exchanged glances with Eva's glowing leg and the broken chain.
"...If you could do that all this time and you didn't break down the door?"
[W-what if y-your brother-ther was behind it-it?] Eva glanced at the pallid skinned man breathing heavily.
Understanding that it would've killed his brother, the slum rat hesitated for a moment before moving away from the remaining locks chaining his big brother to the wall, allowing Eva to kick through the rest of the locks.
Catching his big brother before he could fall down, the slum rat spoke. "Are you okay big bro?"
[H-he's d-doesn't have a jaw and h-he's n-not in-in the best state.] Eva pointed out. [I-I don't think h-he can answer.]
"Right, right, yeah, okay, I've seen worse." Gingerly adjusting his grip so that the man was now facing upwards, the slum rat pulled out a flask from which he poured the water down his brother's throat. "There was this one guy who was hanged by his own intestines you know?"
[D-did he do t-that himself or d-did s-someone else do it?]
"The second one." Pulling off the small flat board with wheels from their back, the slum rat placed their big brother on top of it before looking up at Eva. "If we leave now I can get you that thing you wanted."
Nodding towards him as she opened the door, Eva stopped in place when she saw someone fall against the ground in front of her, blood leaking out of their neck despite how desperately he tried to stem the bleeding
Turning towards the cause of it, it seemed that the gangsters had failed to hold back the beasts as a crawler turned to look at them.
Staring at the insect whose limbs were all blades, Eva cursed inwardly.
It seems that the slum rats payment would take longer to get than she thought.
---
25 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRST FIRED ITS FLAMES
13 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRED ITS FLAMES THE SECOND TIME
13 DAYS SINCE THE CORRUPTED OF C-POINT BEGAN 'HER' HUNT
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The problem with writing smart characters is that a tree is generally dumber than them.
Tree that has a bit of a gaming addiction (Might be a contributor in the recent decline in chapters)
Tree that also has a not saving chapters problem