boxofmisfits | (no subject)

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The Rat King didn't normally deal with the world above. He usually lived in the sewers, with his rats. The rats were his friends, and he understood them on a level that no other could. He saw through their eyes, and they were his spy network for the sewers and the city.

But even he had to admit that the world above had its advantages.

He didn't know how the man called Osiris had found out about him. Nor did he understand why the man had gotten in contact with the Rat King, of all people. One of his rats had returned with a note tied to his leg. The note referred to him by his old name, Dr. Victor Falco, and it spoke of wanting to meet up. The Rat King had sent a note back saying they would meet on his terms, away from any prying eyes. A go-between had been used, with the messenger putting his boss' offer on the table: a promise to give the Rat King his own private facility where he could conduct his experiments without interference, that would have plenty of room for his rats. All the Rat King had to do was get someone out of Osiris' hair. The Rat King had taken the offer.

The abandoned laboratory had been given to him first thing. Now he just had to keep up his end of the bargain for the other half of his "payment". The Rat King watched through the eyes of the rats he had scattered about the area, to keep watch for his target.

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Interesting. The man could shift into a non-human form. The Rat King wondered what kind of science was behind that sort of power. Well, there would be time to learn that once the Rat King kept up his end of the bargain.

He commanded the rat to follow a specific path, watching the chase through its eyes. He had to get the target alone. Once the rat had done its job, the Rat King, hiding in the shadows, whispered, "Now, that's not very polite."

Like a ghost, the scarred and robed figure of the Rat King emerged from the shadows, giving the man a sinister grin.

Dane was not a brave man. A strange trait for a mafia messenger, really. And he proved this by letting out a rather undignified yelp at the sudden voice from the shadows. Thinking it to be some bum holed up under the boxes, he had mere moments to calm down before the figure stepped out.

Drawing back even further, he looked over the man with open disgust. "Geeze," he muttered. "I see why you were hiding back there..." he was backing slowly toward the entrance of the alley. "Tell you what, you leave me alone, I leave your little friend alone. Sound good?"

The Rat King just gave a quiet chuckle, his bare feet making soft noises as he slowly approached the other man. Dane, the messenger had called him.

Even with his eyes covered in bandages, he gave the impression that his gaze was boring into Dane. Sitting on his shoulder was a white rat, which kept its eyes firmly on the target.

"I have another idea. You come with me quietly, and my army won't devour you." Right on cue, several rats suddenly came out of the shadows and various places within the alley, blocking off Dane's escape.

That rat on the shoulder was beyond disturbing, Dane decided he was going to make a break for it. But the moment he turned around the rats were swarming the exit making it impossible to bolt. Frantically his gaze swept the alley, only to realize it was possibly the worst possible place for him to be. Even with all the junk piled up, the walls were practically smooth on both sides. Even with chips here and there, there wasn't a good place to grab on to. No ladders or fire escapes. The roofs too high to reach from the dumpsters. Genuine fear started to claw at him from the inside.

"I-I'm not going anywhere with you," he insisted, trying to sound brave. "But look!" He pulled out his wallet. "I'll give you all the cash I've got! And...and my credit cards. Whatever you want just take it!"

The Rat King just laughed. It was a cold, harsh laugh. "That's not what I'm here for," What did the Rat King need with money anyway? He wasn't the sort of person who could just go into a store without attracting attention.

He took a few steps closer to Dane, reaching out a skeletal, bandaged hand. "What I want is you. You see, I have plans for you." The rats on the other end of the alley held fast, one of them darting out and gnashing her teeth threateningly.

A strange sensation bubbled up inside him. It started as dread, but became some sort of weird, twisted form of hope. He almost started to laugh when the rat darted out and he yelped again, yanking his foot away.

He looked back to the creepy old man, skeptical and still more than a little terrified. "Look. Buddy! You really don't wanna do that. My boss, he's not fond of people taking his stuff. And his employees are basically his stuff anyway. You don't wanna end up being fed to your pets, do you?" Then Osiris would probably feed the rats to his snakes or whatever he does for a hobby.

Again, the Rat King laughed. Had he the power to read this man's thoughts, he might have taken offense to the other man thinking of him as old. Though, if his current experiment proved successful, he would indeed be able to read this man's mind, and more. It was part of the reason the Rat King had taken the deal.

"No rat would ever harm me," He said, taking yet another few steps closer to Dane. "Nor will your boss. I'm quite sure of that. You might as well just do as I say." He reached out to try and grab Dane's wrist.

Instinct tried to make him back away, but he stopped himself before he waded into the sea of rats. The sudden stop threw him off balance, his arms flailing for a moment trying to right himself without taking another step back. That's when he felt the strange sensation of the man's fingers on his wrist.

"And if i don't?" He asked, without any confidence. He could transform. He could shift to a coyote and be out of there before the rats could lay a creepy yellow tooth on him. But it was like the gears were stuck, gummed up out of fear.

"You seem to be under the impression that you have a choice here," The Rat King sneered. Without giving Dane a chance to react, he pushed him into the swarm of rats, which converged around him and overtook him. The rats didn't harm him, but simply enveloped him in a swarm.

The Rat King led the swarm and their prisoner out of the alley, down a series of dark, winding tunnels. Before long, they came upon the abandoned laboratory that was now the Rat King's.

The swarm finally dissipated once they were on the top floor of the building, dropping Dane on the floor.

For a moment, he didn't fall. He fought frantically to keep his balance. That split second before gravity claimed him allowed him some glimmer of hope that it might not turn so ugly. But in the next breath furry bodies were swarming over him and he was screaming. He tried to shove free of the swarm, tried to transform, tried anything. But he could hardly make sense of up from down, let alone focus on something as complicated as transforming.

The moment the rats fell away he staggered to his feet. He was going to run, but still disoriented, he didn't know what way to go. He just held his head, trying to make it stop spinning.

The Rat King had locked the door, so the only way to go was out the window. A third story window, onto concrete.

Approaching Dane again, the Rat King sneered, "There's nowhere for you to run. You might as well accept your fate. You belong to me now."

Dane wasn't exactly the surrendering type. He ran to the door, yanking on the handle. Completely ignoring the Rat King. One foot planted on the wall, he tried to pry it open. But he was made for running, not strength. Giving up on that, he bolted to the window. If they were only 2 floors up, or if there were something below them, he might be able to make it. But at the dizzying height of three floors, he was screwed. And looking out through the window, he knew exactly where they were. That's when the dread really set in.

He backed away from the window, turning to face his captor. "You can't keep me here!" There was a quiver in his voice. If there was ever a time to figure out how to transform into something with wings, now was the time.

The Rat King watched the man vainly look for an escape. The few rats in the room watched along with their master, sitting by idly, waiting just in case their master ordered them to do anything. For a moment, the Rat King was afraid Dane would risk jumping out the window, but thankfully he had enough sense not to.

"Oh, but I can. I've been allowed to take you, and do with you what I please," The Rat King didn't like being someone's garbage man, but the lab was a lucrative deal and Dane would make for an interesting pet. "You're going to help me with a little experiment I'm conducting."

"I'm not helping you with anything!" he cried, a bit more shrill than he'd intended. He really didn't like the sound of that. Allowed to take him. With the location....that was enough to freeze him to the core.

But it was enough to give him a strange sort of focus. Enough to start transforming, slowly. A tail sprouted, his ears shot out large and furry. Much slower than before, but it was something. He had to get out of there.

"Once again, you seem to think that you have a choice in the matter," The Rat King sneered. He was willing to restrain Dane if need be. He had the means to do so, having anticipated that his captive would be resistant to Rat King's authority.

He watched with fascination as Dane began to change. The Rat King still wasn't sure how he was able to do this, but perhaps he could find out another day. Once again, his hand shot out to grip Dane's wrist, holding tight. "You're not going anywhere."

The sudden contact, or more the way that touch made his skin crawl, halted him mid-transformation. He looked ridiculous with those ear, but he didn't seem t care as he tried to wrench his arm fee.

"How're you gonna stop me?!" he demanded, digging his heels into the floor in an attempt to wrench free. "Your creepy vermin can't sit on me all day!"

"Maybe not," The Rat King agreed. "Luckily, I've prepared for just this thing." Giving Dane a good yank, he pulled the other man towards a metal chair that was bolted to the ground.

Reaching his hand out to a nearby counter, the Rat King grabbed a pair of handcuffs that were lying there, having been provided as part of the laboratory setup. Not wasting a second, he slapped one end of the cuffs onto Dane's wrist and secured the other cuff to the arm of the chair. Once his captive was secured, he roughly pushed him down into the seat.

Dane fought the whole way to the chair, growing increasingly scared. Who the hell had a chair bolted to the floor? There was never any good reason to have something like that. His shoes squeaked and s lid on the floor, lacking enough traction to stop himself from being dragged.

When the cuffs clicked shut, ice ran through his veins and his knees turned to water. He dropped hard into the chair with the shove. Okay, okay. Just gotta focus. Once he transformed the cuffs would just fall off, no matter how tight they were. But he couldn't focus, his thoughts chasing each other in circles, showing him all the horrible uses a chair like this might have.

He just hoped he was wrong about Osiris making this happen. That the creepy guy had just been stalking him and was making it all up. Because if Osiris had set this up, he would have given the guy that damn control collar Osiris kept threatening him with. The one that would stop him from transforming. If the Rat King had that, he was doomed.

The Rat King turned away from Dane, to retrieve another thing from the worktable. Now where was it? Aha!

The collar that Osiris man had provided him with. The Rat King had been warned about Dane's shapeshifting, and Osiris wanted Dane out of his hair, so he had been generous enough to provide the Rat King with enough tools to keep him from escaping.

Approaching Dane once more, he held up the collar so that his captive could see it. "You know what this does, don't you?"

The moment he saw the collar, his eyes went wide and all color drained from his face. Suddenly he found his urge to fight again, tugging hard on the handcuff that held him. It wasn't even that he couldn't make the shifting happen, but in that moment he forgot how to do it at all. His mind so paralyzed, it just refused to pull up the information.

"No, no, no..." he pleaded, desperate and frantic. "Anything but that. C'mon. You don't gotta use that. I'll...I'll do whatever you want!" It was a lie, of course. He'd transform the moment he could get himself calmed down enough and slip out of the cuffs.

The Rat King smirked, the expression making him look even more like a grinning skull. Slowly, deliberately, he approached the other man, holding the collar up.

"I'm afraid I can't take that chance," Finally in front of Dane, the Rat King slipped the collar around his neck and secured it. "If you prove that you can be good, I may be persuaded to remove this."

Edited 2017-11-20 03:00 (UTC)

The thing snapped shut with a soft click, but it may as well have been the slamming of a prison door for what it meant to Dane. Immediately, he tried to change anything. To get rid of the ears or tail. To push forward with his shift. But it wouldn't budge. It was like trying to smile after serious dental work. He knew the things to make it happen were still there, but he couldn't feel it anymore. No matter how hard he poked at it.

Dread started to sink in to his very bones. He yanked at the cuff holding him to the chair as if it would do anything.

"What do you want with me?" It was meant to be a demand, but it came out as a croak.

"It's quite simple, really," The Rat King replied, turning away from Dane to focus on a chalkboard with a rather long and complicated chemical formula written on it. The Rat King added a few notes to it as he spoke.

"This setup, your boss gave it to me, but it didn't come free. In exchange for this building, I had to get you out of his hair. So I did."

A few rats came up to Dane and stared up at him. It was so the Rat King could keep watch over him, because he needed Aristotle to watch the chalkboard.

The rats made Dane recoil, remembering the trip into this place a little too well. He sank in the chair, trying to kick the things away from him. But as he contorted himself in an attempt to do so, the man's words started to sink in and he froze.

He knew this had to do with Osiris, but he'd expected it to be a threat. Or this creepy guy trying to get back at his boss. But as far as Dane knew, "out of his hair' only meant one thing according to his boss. He eyed the rats near him with a new found fear. "What do you mean by...out of his hair?" His voice was suddenly much higher than before, feeling like his fear was strangling him.

"Apparently he grew tired of you, Dane Jonson," The Rat King said, casually writing a few notes on his chalkboard. He was close to perfecting the formula, he knew it.

"He gave me the message that I could do whatever I want with you." Osiris probably figured that the Rat King would just kill Dane, but he didn't specifically say that he wanted Dane dead. "Fear not, for I will not harm you."