Silhouette

James' head hurt, a lot.

He felt like he had taken a pounding before being dunked into a sea of beer, being denied of any alcoholic pleasures, and only suffering from the worst side effects. Hell, he was so groggy it took him a full minute to realize he was back at the nest and that all five of the ratlings were worriedly looking at him.

He began to rise from the puddle in which he had slept, all of his goop hurting like his back sometimes did after he didn't sleep well, and - roughly - turned back into his humanoid form, though much more slouched than usual.

"Hugh... Note to self: never attempt to infuse with shadows anything more complex than a toaster."

The ratlings rejoiced at seeing him awake, even David couldn't help but let out a squeak of excitement before remembering he was supposed to brood and walking away to his corner, though this time he didn't try to avoid James' gaze.

"Hum... Hello everyone..."

""Squeaks!""

"I'll assume this means 'good morning'... Or 'afternoon'... Or 'night'... How long did I sleep?"

Goliath began trying to count on his paws - James didn't remember teaching them how to do that - before Lucille interrupted, pointing to a corner of the nest.

There, lying next to the mechanical spider - which was in a different pose than last time, another weird thing to add to the list - were the remains of the giant cockroach he had slain. Giant cockroach which was the size of a large dog. Giant cockroach which should have been enough to feed the ratlings for a day or two. Giant cockroach that was now only pieces of chitin - and a weird green orb for some reason?

"Oh."

James turned toward the rats.

"How long ago did you finish it?"

Lucille began to scratch the chin of her snout before Goliath interrupted, making a two with his adorable little paws - no, now wasn't the time for James to appreciate the young rat's cuteness.

"Two hours?"

Goliath shook his head.

"TWO DAYS?! Ah, no screaming, headache, right."

Goliath nodded.

"Two days since you finished that thing, which probably took you a day to do, so three days?"

Goliath waved his hand, gesturing that James was close.

"Three days of sleep, grogginess, and a headache for a single phone? Gosh, infusing that spider would have killed me..."

All of the ratlings raised their heads, reacting in worry to James' words. They didn't want to lose a parent again. Goliath and David even began to cry.

"Wait, no, don't worry, I won't try it. Shuuush, come here now, it'll be fine."

James formed tentacles, grabbing all of the ratlings and hugging them together all at once, close to his chest. They held like that for an entire minute before James' exhausted mind caught on to a couple of things.

"Wait, how do you know how many days passed? There's no sun down here. And how do you even know how to count? AND to show what number you're thinking of?"

James undid his tentacles, releasing the ratlings, who exchanged a few guilty glances, David even tried to whistle while looking at the ceiling - which was definitely not natural rat behavior.

"Why can't I help but feel like you all did something dangerous and stupid?"

Then it hit him.

"Wait."

Had he taken the phones? As groggy as he was maybe he dropped them but, it didn't feel right. He had turned into sludge and partially melted, so his body should have been sticky. They should have stayed inside. And, looking closer, he found the two normal ones were indeed right there, stacked on top of each other in a small corner of the nest the ratlings had apparently turned a storage area for all of their ill-gotten loot.

"But where's the third one? Don't tell me..."

And yes, there it was, set up on the spider's head to hold it in place like a screen.

"Don't tell me you used it?! Ah, my head."

James flinched and sat back down, rubbing his temps with a pair of tentacles. Goliath quickly rushed next to him and began to rub himself on James' foot-leg-thing - whatever it was it connected his body to the ground.

"Oh, thank you Goliath- Wait, I'm still mad. Do any of you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

The ratlings shook their heads, except for David who just shrugged.

"I filled that thing with shadows, imagine what could have happened if I had done it wrong! It could have exploded!"

James' declaration was met with five tilted heads. He let out a sigh before mimicking an explosion with his body, forming a small bubble that grew before bursting - and did it again, this time with five small figures to represent the rats getting blown away since the bubble alone had no effect.

"Or worse! I have no idea how these things would interact with your bodies!"

The rats at least had the decency to look ashamed, holding their heads down. Was David rotating his heel?

"This thing could also have given away our location! Someone could have to take it back or use it to spy on us!"

Now the rats were directly facing him, trying to appease him by making big eyes. James held strong, his will unshaken-

For a few seconds.

"Fine, fine. Try not to do it again, alright? It was really dangerous."

They all nodded before Lucille pointed her paw at him.

"Yes, I won't try infusing shadows into overly complex items anymore, okay?"

Lucille was pleased, crossing her arms- wait, no, her forelegs. And, now that everything was fine and everyone was happy again, Goliath was excited to show James all of the things they had done with the phone, taking some of his body in his paw to try to pull him to the device, making him chuckle.

"Yes, Goliath, I'm coming, I'm coming."

Once they reached the phone, Goliath gestured to him to sit down and let him handle it, which James did. The young rat climbed up the spider's leg before standing on his hind legs on its head. He pressed the phone central button and the screen lit up.

It was pretty simple: a generic background - some kind of mountain at dawn - and basic information, such as wifi, battery, hour, and date - the latter two indicating it was currently two in the morning on a Tuesday. There were a couple of oddities, however, namely that they apparently had wifi down in the sewers - which sounded surprising but James didn't know enough about the inner workings of sewers and wifi signals to say it was abnormal - and that the battery was full and even charging, with a small black pearl symbol next to it.

"Uh, I have no idea what that black pearl is."

Goliath shrugged before swiping on the screen, directly going to the home page without any sort of code input - there probably was none in the first place and James doubted the ratlings would know how to make one, nevertheless why.

There were a couple of apps, all of which seemed like default ones - again, the ratlings probably had no idea on how to download anything. They knew how to use the Internet, however, going by the fact that Goliath had no trouble opening a page in a browser James had never seen before, with a little spider with large beady eyes as a logo.

Goliath then began to show him the browser's front page, mostly news, recommended videos, and the likes. The news is what really got James' attention.

"Zalcien's Hero Union is recruiting! Are YOU the next big-time Hero?"

"The Hero Union's Hall is recruiting, could your neighbor be a Hero?"

"Top ten Villains who the public likes the most!"

"Warning! Sunburn has broken out of Zalcien's Center for Super Criminals! Look out for fires!"

"Krustian Craboff and Squila Sharem seen together at The Ocean Palace! Are the two sea-stars dating?"

"Senator Sigmund advocates for the suppression of the tax on superweapons."

"Xenocorp's new breakthrough: a drug to help Core formation."

"Vigilantes: unsung Heroes or charismatic Villains?"

"Mecha Man's new record: three months without a rogue invention."

"Technotips' new invention could render Heroes useless! Find out why!"

"Hivines: cult, religion, philosophy of life or Villainous scam? The latter is the most likely."

"Abrakaboom strikes again! Fifth time Zalcien's Museum of Explosives needs to be rebuilt this year alone."

"Blood Angels: how small gangs can rival major Villains."

"What truly happened to Natrashka: what the Hero Union and Xenocorp don't want you to know."

"The Empress' current inactivity: what is Zalcien's biggest Villain's next plan?"

"Should robots lose citizenship? Doctor Ivan Decanov says no before threatening 'whoever had that idiotic idea'."

"Experts are concerned about the rise of Villainy, Hero Union claims there is 'no need to worry'."

"Is a war between Draskia and the ACS in the brewing?"

"Well... That's quite a lot of Hero and Villain talk. I'm guessing this isn't about a movie, is it?"

Goliath shrugged before tapping his little paw on a recommended video, a program for children to learn numbers and the alphabet.

"Oh, THIS is what you wanted to show me..."

Goliath turned around, worried James was disappointed.

"Oh, no, this is very good! I'm glad you all began to educate yourselves!"

Goliath was recomforted and pleased, even having a little smug look on his ratty snout.

"Oh, and David."

David, who was currently trying to sneak away to avoid the conversation he knew was coming, flinched and froze. Of course, James would notice him. Of. Course.

"We need to talk about what happened that day."

"Squeak."

"I'm sorry."

"Squ-Squeak?"

"I am sorry I avoided the conversation and ignored what you could have said to defend yourself. I'm still mad that you didn't follow the plan and put us all in danger, just because you were interested in those... Drugs."

The young rat had the decency to be ashamed, or at least look the part.

"So here's what we are going to do: from now on, whenever I'm not around, Lucille is in charge. If that's fine with you, Blanche, Foudre, Goliath?"

The three ratlings nodded.

"Good. If you ever disobey her orders, David, you will be punished. You will also be punished if you ever try to take any drugs. Are we clear?"

"Squeak."

"Also, you will never get to stay alone - for now. There will always be someone to check on you. Which also means no hunting trips in the dead of night when everyone else is asleep."

James had seen him do it a couple of times and had tolerated it, before the incident. Sure, he had discreetly followed, and therefore David had never been truly alone, but HE didn't need to know that.

"If we are clear, then this is the extent of your punishment, for now."

David nodded solemnly. He hadn't seen James truly angry so far and he didn't want to be the thing that would madden his kind soul.

"Well then, shall we finish our little loot inspection? I'm sure we could find some things for all of you."

At this, several young, small furry mammals - as well as a few black tentacles, James was just as curious - jumped into the neatly organized piles of items, much to Lucille's displeasure. She had been the one to organize them in the first place. Oh well, they had already been turned into a mess, might as well partake in the fun.

Blanche quickly found a nice little spike, probably some kind of long nail. She probably could - and, let's be honest, would - use it as a spear or a lance. She only seemed somewhat grumpy about its rusty state.

Goliath found a few odd pieces of scraps, bent and broken which, once pulled together with some strings, provided a basic form of protection. It was closer to the safeties used when riding a bike than actual armor but Goliath was glad to have it.

Foudre took a special interest in the batteries, asking Goliath to fiddle with them and some wires to somehow produce a contraption that looked like a backpack from which extended a pair of wires, each one connected to a small needle with a leather handle. All in all, it looked like someone had taken a flamethrower and replaced the gun-like part with two daggers.

David didn't seem interested in most of the loot, only taking a few minuscule scraps to make metal claws, a set of four for each of his paws.

Lucille looked around for a bit but didn't seem to find anything that fit her, only reluctantly taking a pair of needles, a bit longer than Foudre's but still smaller than nails, and quickly trying to sharpen them with a piece of scrap.

James watched over them, studying each of their choices, getting quite surprised at how creative they could be with this stuff - especially Goliath, the armor was one thing but improvising some kind of shocking device out of scraps was remarkable - before taking a decision.

"So, is everyone happy with what they chose?"

""Squeaks!""

"Good, good. Let's try improving them, though.

And he infused all of their equipment with shadows.