Deep underground, beneath New New York, Under the Undercity in the old storm drain system where fluid now escaped into the cavities left by the retreated ocean, there was a meeting. It was a very important meeting, occurring directly in the centre of Rat City in the overturned bathtub where rats worshipped humans and all young rats had to go to report the moment they returned from an expedition where they’d gained a name.

  Around an upside down biscuit tin sat the most important figures in rat society, each one a veritable legend in of themselves. There was the high rat Keel Eet, Itzclimin Mycurtan; wastewater redirector, Eww Goway; controller of information, Thatsmaphon Givetbak; human technology replicator and lastly Jerrywherzma Cheeseballs; peacebringer. Together this elite group made up the leadership of the organisation known as CRUMB or Competent Rats Understanding of Movements Below.

  For all five of these rats to be in the same place something unprecedented must have occurred and indeed it had for they were joined by one more rat today, a rat more famous than all of them combined: Wat-haf Wedon.

  None of the rats had spoken at this meeting yet, they were all staring at Wat-haf Wedon’s greenish reanimated body with various expressions of incomprehension and disbelief. Finally Keel Eet broke their silence. “Praises to him, the saviour has performed his sacred duty and returned our primogenitor.”

  “How?” asked Thatsmaphon, sniffing and prodding the picked rat with his long dextrous nose.

  Thatsmaphon Givetbak spearheaded the rats technological development, striving to repurpose human technologies to fit rats, he was one of the few rats that knew the paths through the overcity and spent most of his time habitting the ancient paperback libraries left dotted around as relics of the past. Due to this background in science he found it the hardest out of all the rats to believe in supernatural occurrences.

  “Hah, would you believe me if I said it was magic?” Wat-haf said, chuckling hoarsely.

  He tracked the other rats in the room with his beady eyes before taking charge of the meeting, not even letting anyone respond to his previous question “So you lot are the leaders of the latest generation of my descendents are you?”

  Keel Eet for the first time in a while looked a bit nervous. “We are, do we live up to your expectations, great one?”

  “One could say that, I’d never have thought our numbers would boom this much. I did do some statistics at some point to estimate the maximum possible population growth of rat city, but those were optimistic estimations and somehow you lot have met and long since surpassed them.”

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  Eww Goway, who was normally content to sit silently and listen in meetings, spoke up. Everyone else immediately paid him close attention for his questions were always remarkably well thought out. “Why did you plan for such a large population? The amount of rats we have is one food crisis away from halving, it’s really not sustainable.”

  “You’re a wise one indeed,” Wat-haf narrowed his eyes at the elderly rat, “To tell the truth I’ve kind of given up on my original goal, which was to have the numbers to completely overrun cubecorp tower via sheer force, to stop the intelligence experiments once and for all. I found out from that ferret Icey that those experiments are long since over, but I fear what they are doing instead, seeing as they have no need for us anymore. The saviour has the potential to help me with my plans, but we owe him currently for my resurrection, and that needs to change.”

  “How can we pay back such a service?” inquired Keel.

  Eww answered this time, “CRUMB agents have found that the saviour recently overtook a gang, the JJJ. He seems to be amassing forces and has begun directing his men to be more aggressive towards other gangs. I suggest we aid him in his endeavour using the full might of our information network.”

  The rats discussed loudly for a few minutes before they all quietened down again and came to an agreement.

  “Who will be our point of contact?” asked Thatsmaphon.

  Wat-haf Wedon did the rat equivalent of shrugging, “The one we’ve currently got.”

  Keel Eet twitched his ears, “Rho Dent stayed with the saviour?”

  “Yes, they seemed to be getting along quite well, she’s trying to learn English from the human.”

  Keel Eet scratched the flaps of flesh under his droopy muzzle, “I had wondered if sending her was a mistake, but it turns out she is the ideal emissary.”

  After a bit more idle discussion the circle of rats organised a second party to be sent to the saviour, this one would be spearheaded by Wat-haf and Eww, but the composition of the rest of the party would remain the same as the last one, should Rho Dent’s family wish to participate again. No one had any doubt that they wouldn’t, they seemed an adventurous bunch.

  Keel Eet sighed when they reached the end of their discussion, “If only I could join you fellows, but I cannot leave, the team widening the exit for me has made little headway these past few weeks.”

  Wat-haf turned his nose towards the living blob, the most unhealthy looking of all his descendents so far that he’d seen. “You could just… lose weight?”

  Keel Eet's little face would have gone red if it was capable, but as it wasn’t his eyes bulged instead. “Me lose weight? Preposterous, why would I want to do that?”

  Thatsmaphon giggled, “Losing weight decreases your volume and makes you smaller.”

  Keel Eet looked at a loss for words. “It does?” he eventually whispered.

  Wat-haf Wedon imitated a human facepalm. Some of his descendents weren’t the brightest bulbs in the shed.

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