The eastern maintenance corridor spat them out into a sprawling, subterranean shantytown. It was a miserable collection of corrugated metal lean-tos and flickering bioluminescent moss cultivated for cheap light. As the three POND uniforms stepped into the narrow, sludge-filled streets, the ambient murmur of the settlement died.
Darian took a deep breath, dropping the rigid posture he used for the upper city. He kept his hands empty and visible, approaching a ramshackle stall where an exhausted woman was scrubbing synthetic tubers.
"Excuse me," Darian said softly. "We aren't here to make trouble. Have you seen any monsters around here lately? Or anything weird happening on this block?"
The woman didn't even look up at him. She just scrubbed harder, her hands trembling. "I don't care about your monsters," she whispered, her voice cracking. "My son didn't come home last night. Have you seen him? He's eight. He was wearing a red sweater."
Darian blinked, caught off guard by the raw desperation. "I... I'm sorry, ma'am, we haven't."
Ravion scoffed quietly and moved down the street, approaching a group of scavengers huddled around a barrel fire. "Listen up," Ravion commanded, his tone sharp. "Any of you seen heavy feral activity migrating through this block?"
A gaunt man looked up, his eyes bloodshot. "Ferals? No. But my niece was taken two days ago. Right off the street. Please, you have to find her."
Ravion frowned, stepping back.
It didn't stop there. They moved through the labyrinth of the undercity, stopping at mechanics, black-market vendors, and off-shift laborers. Every time they asked about the origins of the beast, they were met with the exact same frantic plea.
Missing. Gone. Vanished.
"Guys," Zeri called out, floating to a stop on her monorover in the center of a crowded intersection. Her usual apathy was entirely gone, replaced by a cold, creeping realization. "It's not just one or two. I've been counting the flyers on the walls. Dozens of kids are gone. This whole block is bleeding."
"That thing we killed didn't do this," Ravion said, his jaw tight as he scanned the terrified faces in the crowd. "A feral that size leaves a slaughter. A mess. It doesn't just make dozens of kids vanish without a single trace."
"Something else is happening," Darian muttered, a chill running down his spine.
A quiet scraping sound drew Darian's attention. He looked down an adjacent, pitch-black alleyway. Huddled behind a rusted dumpster was a small boy, clutching a piece of jagged scrap metal like a knife. He couldn't have been older than ten.
Darian slowly crouched down, ignoring the sludge seeping into his uniform pants. He didn't offer a ration bar this time. He just offered a calm, quiet voice. "You're hiding from them, aren't you?"
The boy flinched, his wide eyes darting to Ravion and Zeri before settling back on Darian. "They didn't get eaten," the kid whispered, his voice trembling violently.
"What?" Darian asked gently. "What happened to them?"
"They just walked away," the boy choked out. "Like... like they were asleep, but their eyes were open. They said they were going to play. They even asked me to come with them." He gripped the scrap metal tighter. "They smiled at me, but it didn't look like them. They just kept walking down the east tunnels."
Ravion stepped forward. "Where do the east tunnels lead?"
The boy swallowed hard. "To the old Rail Yard."
"That place has been decommissioned for a decade," Zeri said, her voice tight. "It's completely abandoned."
"Not anymore," the boy whimpered, shrinking back into the dark. "That's where they're playing. But nobody who goes to play ever comes back."
The three POND cadets shared a long, heavy look. The petty bickering from the training room was completely gone, burned away by the sickening reality of the undercity.
Ravion didn't say a word. He just unclipped his spear, the metallic clack echoing sharply in the damp air, and turned toward the east tunnels. Zeri's hoverboard whined as she followed right behind him, her shoulder cannons already spinning up with a violent violet hum.
Darian looked back at the terrified boy, gave him a small, reassuring nod, and drew his blade.
They weren't looking for a monster's nest anymore. They were going to the rail yard.