"How do you think he's doing down there?" Nami asked, growing a little impatient when they hadn't heard back from Daud for almost half an hour. "He didn't just make a run for it, did he?"
"Well, I could tell you the answer, if you really want to know, but that's kind of like helping, isn't it?" Cherry smirked, leaning her chair back far enough that it should have fallen over but somehow hadn't.
Nami narrowed her eyes at Cherry. She didn't think just that would count as helping, but she was a bit too stubborn to insist.
"It'd ruin the surprise if I did, so I won't say anything regardless," Cherry hummed.
"What surprise?" Nami demanded. She knew that Cherry's surprises were often better to know about than not.
Then there were screams outside.
Nami didn't panic. No, she sighed and went to the window, where she saw rats spilling out of buildings and scurrying into whatever storm drains or manholes that they could find. Naturally, this was an alarming sight for the average citizen just going about their day.
"I'd honestly be terrified by just how many rats that lady can mobilize at once if they weren't just regular rats and I weren't me," Cherry commented. "You're not me, though, so I guess you'd better come up with something to deal with them."
"Why do I have to deal with them?!" Nami cried. "They're clearly after someone else, anyways!"
"Yeah, Daud, who we sent down there to get a marine you don't even like," Reiju helpfully pointed out.
"I don't like Daud either!" Nami declared.
"Sure," Reiju shrugged. "I'm just playing devil's advocate, since somebody should."
"Good!" Nami said with a nod. "There isn't much else we really need here, then, is there? Let's get back to the ship."
"I guess there isn't," Cherry agreed. "I've stacked the deck pretty heavily in Corvo's favor, and I reckon he'd have managed by himself anyways."
"Oh? What did you do?" Reiju asked.
"Well, for example," Cherry said. "I've keyed him into all those 'wall of light' contraptions around the city, so they won't zap him when he passes through."
"Huh. What else?" Reiju wondered.
"I've given him a collection of 'evidence' that may or may not be useful, since I didn't bother to read any of it. Beyond what you gathered, mind you. I figured since I was blowing up the Lord Regent's office and house and other places, I might as well help myself to anything inside," Cherry laid out.
"Alright!" Nami shouted, unable to listen to any more.
""Alright?"" Cherry and Reiju questioned.
"Just… Just make sure that Daud and that rat bastard of a marine captain don't die… okay?!" Nami threw her hands up in surrender.
"Oh… okay?" Cherry looked confused. "I figured we were just leaving them to it for real. So you could save your last shopping day for yourself or whatever."
"I'm not worried about the damned shopping trips!" Nami decried.
"Alright, alright," Cherry raised her own hands in surrender. Then she smiled in that obnoxious way that she does, "It's not like you wouldn't bully me into doing it anyways. You know my weakness, after all."
Nami blinked. Then she groaned. Of course; she could just ask Robin.
"Whelp, I guess I'm moonlighting as an exterminator during my time off as a pirate," Cherry smiled and brushed her hands together.
…
Daud was slowing down. Even the marine, Captain Nezumi, had quieted down at this point, and he wasn't even the one running.
His burns, the rat bites, and general fatigue were simply too much to handle all at once, even for a man with his training and strength of will.
Thankfully, the rats had thinned as he got further away from the witch's lair, as he had anticipated.
His instincts tingled in the back of his mind. Something was off, but he couldn't quite place what it was. He didn't have the time to stop and think about it, either. He had to keep moving.
A shape stepped out into his path. Its identity was unmistakable; large and furry, and stinking like the worst Dunwall's underground had to offer.
"There you are, dearie," the voice was scratchy, high-pitched, and grating to the ear.
Immediately, Daud realized what he'd been missing. If he'd been chased by people he would have noticed it. They had been corralling him, leading him right into an ambush by presenting a path of least resistance.
He was currently at the end of a fairly long straight tunnel. Turning back wasn't an option because-
*screeching and scratching*
-the rats would catch up before he did.
At this point, he was choosing how he'd die. Under normal circumstances, he could probably take an elderly zoan type, but these weren't normal circumstances. He had a target to protect, his injuries, his exhaustion, all on top of whatever kind of immortality the witch possessed.
"Hey, marine," Daud said. "Would you rather get caught by the witch or eaten by rats?"
The marine answered with a whiny whimper. Daud couldn't blame him; he felt much the same way about the situation, even if he didn't voice it so pathetically. Actually, the marine couldn't even hear him, could he? He was probably just bemoaning his fate in general.
*FWOOOOSH*
A rushing roar of fire sounded from the rat swarm's side of the tunnel, and Daud didn't hesitate to charge towards it, even without seeing any light yet. If it came down to it, he'd rather burn to death. Otherwise, the fire would be his salvation.
He was wrong.
It wasn't fire, but a wall of white plasma that consumed the rats in short order. The witch let out a wail so loud that he could just barely hear it through his ear plugs.
He still didn't stop, fully intending on throwing himself into the inferno if he must. Each time his foot hit the ground, he could feel the lumbering rat beast closing behind him.
The very instant he would have plunged into his death, the plasma parted and revealed the object of his nightmares the previous night.
"Switch!" Cheapshot told him and bounded over his head.
His curiosity didn't allow him to keep running as he should have. He slowed just enough to turn his head and look back without tripping himself up.
Cheapshot had a sword in hand, one with electricity arcing down the blade. In a single, beautiful move, she decapitated the rat-witch and bisected her at the hip. The pieces fell in a heap at her feet, but strange Cheapshot continued to mutilate the corpse after half a moment of hesitation.
Right; time to go. No matter the reason Cheapshot chose to do that, he didn't want to be nearby any longer.
The plasma died down, but he still felt like he was in a blast furnace. Some of the walls were glowing red from the heat.
Then he saw it. A light from above, not from flame, but from sunlight. His way out, and the end to this mission from hell.
He let Nezumi down at the bottom of a ladder. He pointed up, and the man needed no further direction. Daud followed swiftly behind.
He never thought he'd be so happy to have another breath of Dunwall's air.