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Ronken gave a small smile to Switch for the light, and took a deep hit. Doing his best to let the fumes calm his shattered nerves. He could snag something from his 'happy bag', but he wanted to be on alert. And there were... other reasons. So no. For now he was content with a cigarette. He blew the smoke out with a chuckle, relishing the feeling. It felt like a thousand hits of happyroot or purple Nancy. It felt like life.

He nodded along to Switch's explanation of the would be assassins, only understanding about half of it. He still wasn't sure what she meant by 'people like us'. But again. He was saving questions for when he was safe. "Not the biggest fan of the gal behind the mask myself, but arrows are prolly a bit much." He took another hit and continued. "An Crystal Knife? Seems a bit much. Never seen a job a shiv couldn't do." He joked. He knew it wasn't all that funny. He just needed to make fun of the people that killed him. No. Almost killed him. Second chance and all that. 

He took another hit trying to forget the sound he made when he hit the ground.

"You delivered the letter, right? Switch asked.

Ronken frowned like an upset toddler and sighed. "I don't bloody know!" He flung his arms in sudden anger. "That girl was a bloody psycho!" He stroked his hand across his temple, calming himself back down. "We beat the shit outta each other. Eventually I think I got her to take it, I-I think." He sighed again. He really couldn't remember. He wasn't proud to admit it. "It's a big ol' blur. Whether she kept it and read it, I have no clue." He then pointed quickly at Switch. "But I'm!-"

"You coming? If you get left behind I'm not coming back for you again." She was already walking away.

His frown was back. "Yeah, I'm comin." He mumbled. He followed her out of the alley. He tossed his cigarette into a puddle in the cobblestone street. He ignored that it was blood, he also ignored what he thought was an arm poking out of some rubble, and he pretended he didn't hear some faint cries from the other direction. 

He tried to forget what it felt like to fall three stories.

Ronken had to sprint to catch up to Switch, but once behind her he settled into a run. He yelled to her, "Even if the note didn't get delivered, I'm keeping my money!" After everything he had been put through, that sack of coins was the only good thing he had going for him. 

As they ran it was quiet. Not completely quiet. There were still the occasional shouts and cries. But where once the whole city was screaming as one, now it had nearly fallen silent. Smoke still rose from buildings, making every breath Ronken took remind him of a bad hit. He scanned the skyline, he could faintly make out smoke coming from certain buildings. 

Over there was the Parliament building, couldn't see the structure from here, but you could see the smoke. Enough of it was coming that it would block out the sun depending on where you stood. Crowds would have hit that place hard. He wondered if anything was still standing, or if it was all ash. Good riddance.

In the other direction was Market Row. A few different colors of smoke ranging from red, orange and yellow painted the sky. Probably due to all the spices that were sold and stored down there. Not a huge target for revolution, though some merchants made a habit of getting involved in politics. Looters on the other hand were probably having a field day right now. If it weren't for his survival instincts Ronken would probably be down there stealing for old time's sake. 

Then there was the clock tower which was growing smaller in the distance, Ronken wondered if his client would in fact be ok as Switch had said. He wasn't worried enough to ditch Switch and go running back to check, but still, arrows were arrows. No one deserved that kinda trouble unless you were a real git. 

He turned a corner and stopped in his tracks. In front of him was every child and elderly man's nightmare. The thing where riots ended and rivers of blood began. The thing that had taken more than a few friends from Ronken over the years. A mech. In all it's horrible glory. Only this one wasn't horrible, much less glorious. It was just sad. It was stuck in a cycle of pointless movement, shaking around its eaten pilot like a morbid doll. So many rioters crippled, maimed, killed. Whenever you heard one walking down a street, you scattered. Even if you hadn't done anything wrong, you just did. Ronken used to have nightmares about these machines. Hell, he still did sometimes. But now, seeing the thing forever stand up and down, it seemed silly. He spat on the mech and turned to catch up with Switch.

Luckily she had slowed down for him. He didn't comment on stopping at the mech, it wasn't her business. 
"I saw some people running this way earlier," Now that he looked around, he did recognize this street. And considering the current state of the city, he could probably guess where she was going with this. "You know this city. There's an emergency shelter, isn't there? Underground? Somewhere like a cave."  

He adjusted his stride to be side by side with her and nodded. "Yeah, ol' catacombs." He watched as a boy carried a toddler into the shelter. His heart suddenly felt a lot heavier for some reason. "Church folk tried to turn em' into an end times shelter. Place to hand out food n' blankets. All that." He bent over and pulled up the manhole with a grunt. If they wanted people to get in during emergencies, then why the hell did they make these things so damn heavy? 

"Problem was, there weren't a whole lotta end times to go round." He looked down at his old familiar friend, it'b been a good week since he'd visited the 'shelter'. "So us criminal vagrant types took to doing what criminal vagrants do." He gave a small chuckle and continued. "Sell drugs, do drugs, lay on our asses, beat each other's asses." He grinned and puffed his chest. "I'm something of a champion. Holder of the 'Shelter Brawl Ring' title. Shit name I know." 

Switch just grinned and said, "Ladies First"

"Oh you're a real riot, aren't ya?" He shook his head and began his descent, the familiar stuffy air hitting his nostrils. He prayed for the millionth time that today wouldn't be the day that the metal staircase broke. 
____________________________

Nearly half of Ronken's memories involving the shelter were him lying on the rusty metal floor in a drug haze. Half constructed thoughts flittering through his consciousness, the only real worry being when next to shoot up, and if any of the other junkies were going to shank him. 

One quarter was him working in the fight ring. Having his sense and teeth knocked out of him, and knocking it out of other people. People had died in that ring. Some friends, some enemies, all deadbeats. One or two even died by his hands, as much as he wished his drugs would say otherwise.

 The last quarter was spent helping the local gang smuggle items through the tunnels. Not just spices or silk to dodge taxes. Weapons and harder drugs than he had ever done. And though he had never helped with it, he knew that the catacombs had even been used to smuggle people.

All this was to say that this place wasn't for children. And what was there, almost exclusively, down here now? Children. And a whole lot of missing parents.

Ronken stood stunned at the entrance of the room. Running a hand through his hair. "Shit." He looked to Switch and back to the room. "Just.. Shit."

 "Well this is a massacre waiting to happen." 

"No kidding." He nodded. "Things are bad. I've spotted three different gang colors down here, any other time, they'd tear each other apart." He looked out across the crowd for more gang colors, making sure no one was looking for a fight. 

"So what are we doing down here?" He didn't see any turf wars breaking out but, over there, in a crowd of kids. Ronken knew what someone looked like when they were about to start a fight. This guy had the body language all over. What was even more worrying was that he had that body language next to a crowd of kids. Not good.

Ronken tapped Switch on the arm and pointed to the man, then made a fast beeline to him. He didn't know if she would follow but it didn't matter at the moment, the guy looked dangerous. He pushed past a kids half his size with a half muttered apology and now stood a few feet from the man. Couldn't tell how old he was, had his face covered. But he was a decent height so he had to at least be of age. No guilt punching him then.

Ronken positioned himself between the man and as many kids as possible. He then reached out to the man's right shoulder from the side. He kept his other hand at his side in a fist. He was hopefully ready to block a punch if needed, but he didn't want to threaten the man if he could avoid a fight. Not in front of kids. "Hey Mate, you okay there? Seem on edge."
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