Chapter 1: The Debt, The Dumpster, and The Accidental Vow
The sky over District 9 didn't rain water; it rained consequences.
Today, the consequences tasted like battery acid and looked like a thick, oily sludge that coated the rusted skyscrapers of the Scrapheap. Neon signs buzzed and flickered, casting seizure-inducing lights over the wet pavement, advertising things Kaelen couldn't afford: Synthesized Dragon Meat, Mana-Infused Beer, and Premium Life Insurance (No Goblins Allowed).
Kaelen sprinted through the alleyway, his boots splashing through puddles that hissed against the leather. His lungs burned. His legs felt like jelly. But he didn't stop. You didn't stop when Grog was behind you.
"Kaaaaaaeeeeelen!"
The roar vibrated through the corrugated iron walls of the alley. It sounded less like a voice and more like two tectonic plates grinding together in frustration.
"I'm not home!" Kaelen screamed back, banking hard around a corner, his shoulder checking a rusted pipe.
"My money, little mouse! Grog wants his money!"
Heavy footsteps thundered behind him. Thump. Thump. CRASH. That last sound was likely a dumpster being punted into orbit.
Kaelen wasn't a warrior. In this world—a grimy, industrial hellhole where strength was the only currency—Kaelen was broke. He had zero mana aptitude. His bones were brittle. His muscles were purely decorative. He was a 'Scavenger,' a polite term for a professional trash raccoon who dug through the refuse of the wealthy districts to find broken tech to sell.
He owed Grog, a debt collector for the Iron Tooth Syndicate, exactly five hundred credits. It wasn't a lot of money—enough to buy a decent sword or a night with a low-tier succubus—but to Kaelen, it might as well have been the national debt.
He spotted a narrow gap in the wall ahead. It was a fissure in the side of a decommissioned fusion reactor that had been converted into a tenement building. The gap was barely wide enough for a starved dog, let alone a human male.
Perfect.
Kaelen dove. He sucked in his stomach, exhaled all the air in his lungs, and scraped his way into the darkness. Metal shards tore at his jacket, and the smell of ancient coolant fluid assaulted his nose, but he shimmied deeper until the darkness swallowed him whole.
Outside, the thumping stopped.
"I can smell your fear, mouse," Grog grumbled from the alley. A massive, green hand the size of a shovel slammed against the fissure, trying to pry it open. Sparks flew. "And you smell like... cheap noodles."
"They were on sale!" Kaelen whispered frantically to himself, pressing his back against the cold inner wall of the reactor casing. "Go away, go away, go away..."
Grog grunted, then sighed. The sound of metal straining stopped. "Fine. I wait. You have to come out. Humans need to pee. I have time. I have a sandwich."
Something heavy slumped against the wall outside. The Ogre was camping.
Kaelen slid down the wall, putting his head in his hands. This was it. This was how he died. Not in a glorious battle against the Void Beasts, but starved to death in a hole because he bought a faulty navigation compass that led him into a casino instead of a safe zone.
The interior of the reactor casing was pitch black, save for a faint, rhythmic pulsing of blue light coming from the far corner.
Kaelen blinked. Wait. Reactors don't pulse. Not unless they're about to explode.
He squinted, his eyes adjusting to the gloom. It wasn't a machine.
It was a girl.
She was curled up in a feral ball amidst a pile of copper wires, shivering violently. Even in the dim light, Kaelen could tell she wasn't human. A pair of fluffy, triangular ears on top of her head twitched erratically, swiveling toward him. A long, sleek black tail was wrapped tightly around her waist like a belt. Her clothes were shredded rags of black silk, clearly not from this district.
A Cat Kin.
Kaelen stiffened. In the Scrapheap, Cat Kin were rare. They were usually fast, agile assassins or high-end slaves for the nobility. They were predators. And this one was looking at him with glowing, vertical-slit pupils that screamed murder.
"If you move," she hissed, her voice sounding like wet gravel, "I will rip your throat out."
Kaelen raised his hands slowly. "Easy, kitty. I'm just hiding from a giant green landlord. I have no quarrel with you."
"I am... not... a kitty," she wheezed. She tried to push herself up, but her arms gave out, and she collapsed back onto the wires with a pained whimper.
Kaelen hesitated. Survival instinct told him to run. Injured beasts were dangerous. But looking closer, he saw the problem. Three deep, jagged claw marks raked across her ribs. The wounds were glowing with a sickly purple light.
"Poison," Kaelen muttered. "Viper Gang poison. Nasty stuff. It boils the blood."
"I know... what it is," she snapped, her eyes squeezing shut as a spasm of pain racked her body. "Leave. This is my grave."
Kaelen looked at the entrance where Grog was eating a sandwich. He looked back at the dying girl.
"Well, the exit is currently blocked by about four hundred pounds of Ogre," Kaelen sighed, sliding down to sit opposite her, keeping a safe distance. "So it looks like we're roommates until one of us dies. Probably you first, to be honest."
The girl didn't respond. She was panting, her breath coming in short, shallow rasps. The purple glow was spreading up her neck.
Kaelen felt a pang of guilt. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, crumpled vial. It was low-grade healing salve—barely better than mud—but it was all he had.
"Hey," he whispered.
Her eyes snapped open, dilated and wild.
"I'm going to toss this to you," Kaelen said gently. "Drink it. It won't cure the poison, but it might stop your insides from liquefying for an hour."
He slid the vial across the floor. It clinked against the metal and stopped near her hand.
She stared at it, then at him. "Why?"
"Because I don't want to smell a rotting corpse in here," Kaelen lied. "It's tight enough as it is."
She hesitated, her nose twitching as she sniffed the vial. Then, with a speed that blurred in Kaelen's vision, she snatched it, uncorked it with her teeth, and downed the contents.
She slumped back, her breathing easing slightly. "You are... a strange human."
"I'm a broke human. That cost me ten credits."
They sat in silence for a long time. The only sound was the muffled chewing of the Ogre outside and the hum of the city.
"Mina," she whispered suddenly.
"What?"
"My name," she murmured, her voice fading. "Mina. Shadowstalker Clan."
"Kaelen. No clan. Just... Kaelen."
"Kaelen," she repeated, tasting the word. "You smell like rust and anxiety."
"Thanks. It's a cologne I'm working on."
Suddenly, Mina arched her back, a guttural scream tearing from her throat. The purple poison flared violently, turning her veins black.
"It's... it's reached the heart," she gasped, clutching her chest. Her claws dug into her own skin, drawing blood. "Too strong... need... stabilizer..."
She rolled onto her side, her glowing eyes locking onto Kaelen. But the intelligence was gone from them. There was only instinct. The instinct of a dying creature seeking a lifeline.
"Wait, hold on," Kaelen scrambled back, hitting the wall. "Don't look at me like that. I'm not food!"
"Mana..." she groaned. "Life force... must... bind..."
She lunged.
Kaelen tried to dodge, but he was a human with F-rank reflexes. She was a Cat Kin, even on death's door. She tackled him, pinning his shoulders to the ground with shocking strength. Her face was inches from his, her fangs bared.
"Hey! No biting! Bad kitty!" Kaelen shouted, trying to push her away.
"Accept... the pact..." she deliriously mumbled.
Before Kaelen could ask what a pact was, she buried her fangs into his forearm.
"GAHHH!" Kaelen screamed.
It wasn't just pain. It felt like she had injected liquid nitrogen into his veins. A cold, electric shock surged up his arm, slammed into his chest, and exploded in his brain.
His vision went white. The world dissolved.
He wasn't in the reactor anymore. He was floating in a void of scrolling text and blue boxes.
[ALERT: FOREIGN SOUL ESSENCE DETECTED.]
What is this? Kaelen thought, his mind reeling. Am I hallucinating? Is this what death is? A popup ad?
[Subject: Kaelen. Race: Human (Standard). Mana Core: Null.]
[Trying to reject intrusion...]
[Rejection Failed. Subject is too weak to resist.]
[INITIATING SYMBIOTIC OVERRIDE.]
[Source: Mina (Cat Kin / Shadow Lineage).]
[The Source has initiated a Life-Link Ritual. She is attempting to use your soul as a battery to filter the poison.]
Great, Kaelen thought hysterically. I'm a Brita filter for a cat girl.
[ANOMALY DETECTED.]
[Subject's DNA contains Dormant Marker: 'The Empty Vessel'.]
[The Vessel does not filter. The Vessel ADAPTS.]
[System Error... Recalculating...]
[Congratulations! You have accidentally married into the Shadowstalker Clan.]
"I what?!" Kaelen's mental voice screamed.
[Marriage Vow Acknowledged. Consummation (Biting) Complete.]
[Unlocking Racial Resonance System.]
[Slot 1: CAT KIN (Acquired).]
[Rewriting Biology... 3... 2... 1...]
Real world sensation crashed back into him. Kaelen gasped, arching his back off the dirty floor.
It started in his spine. A grinding, popping sensation as his vertebrae rearranged themselves, becoming more flexible, more elastic. Then, his ears burned. He felt the cartilage shifting, moving up the side of his skull, elongating, becoming pointed and sensitive.
"Oh god, my butt!" Kaelen yelled as a strange pressure built at the base of his spine. With a sickening pop, a tail burst through his trousers, lashing out involuntarily and hitting the metal wall with a clang.
Mina released his arm and collapsed on top of him, unconscious. Her breathing was steady now. The purple glow on her skin was fading, drawn out of her and... into him? No, dissipated by the connection.
Kaelen lay there, panting, staring at the ceiling. He felt... different.
The darkness wasn't dark anymore. It was a kaleidoscope of grays and blues. He could see the individual dust motes floating in the air. He could hear the heartbeat of the Ogre outside—thump-thump, thump-thump—slow and rhythmic.
He sat up, shoving the unconscious girl off his chest. He looked at his hands. His fingernails were gone, replaced by retractable, black claws.
"What... what did you do to me?" he whispered.
His voice was different. Deeper. It had a rolling, purring vibrato that wasn't there before.
He reached up and touched his head. Fluffy ears. He looked behind him. A black tail was swishing back and forth, seemingly with a mind of its own.
A blue holographic screen popped into existence in front of his face.
[Status Window]
* Name: Kaelen
* Race: Human / Cat Kin (Hybrid Form)
* Rank: E- (Upgraded from F)
* Active Form: Cat Kin (Level 1)
* Abilities:
* Night Eyes (Passive)
* Feline Agility (Active)
* Claw Strike (Active)
* Current Objective: survive Grog.
"I'm a monster," Kaelen horrified whispered. "I'm a furry."
CRUNCH.
The metal wall behind him groaned. Light flooded the crawlspace.
Kaelen spun around. Grog had finally gotten bored of waiting. The Ogre had wedged a crowbar into the fissure and ripped the plating open like a sardine can.
"Peek-a-boo!" Grog laughed, his massive frame blocking out the neon lights of the city. He peered inside. "Time to pay, little mou—"
Grog stopped. He blinked his beady eyes.
"What you?" Grog asked, confused. "Where mouse go? Why you have ears?"
Kaelen froze. His heart hammered against his ribs—but it wasn't the frantic, erratic beating of a scared human. It was the rapid, high-octane engine of a predator.
"I..." Kaelen started, then hissed involuntarily as Grog reached a hand inside.
"Don't care!" Grog decided. "You have Kaelen's jacket. You pay Kaelen's debt!"
The massive green hand lunged for him.
In the past, Kaelen would have curled up and accepted the beating. His brain knew the hand was coming. His brain knew he couldn't stop it.
But his body didn't wait for his brain.
Before Grog's fingers could close, Kaelen's world shifted into slow motion. He saw the twitch in Grog's shoulder muscle before the arm moved. He saw the trajectory.
Jump, his instincts screamed.
Kaelen exploded into motion. He didn't just stand up; he launched himself. He pushed off the floor with legs that felt like coiled springs. He backflipped—actually backflipped—over Mina's unconscious body, planted his feet on the wall, and rebounded.
He flew right over Grog's outstretched hand.
"What?!" Grog yelled, grabbing empty air.
Kaelen landed on the ceiling—or rather, he clung to the overhead pipes with his new claws, hanging upside down like a bat.
Holy crap, Kaelen thought, staring at the ground ten feet below. I stuck the landing.
[System Note: That was cool. Do it again.]
"Get down!" Grog roared, swinging his crowbar at the pipes.
Kaelen dropped. He twisted in mid-air, landing on all fours in the alleyway behind Grog. The landing was silent. His boots had burst, revealing paws that absorbed the impact perfectly.
He was out. He was free. He could run.
He looked at the open alleyway. He could sprint now. With these legs, he could probably outrun a hover-bike. He could leave the debt, the Ogre, and the Scrapheap behind.
He took a step.
Then he stopped.
His ears swiveled back toward the hole in the wall. Mina was still in there.
"Found you!" Grog yelled, peering back into the hole. "Oh. Another one? Sleepy cat girl? Maybe Grog take you instead. Cat girls sell for good money."
Kaelen's tail puffed up to three times its size. A low, vibrating growl started deep in his chest. It wasn't a conscious decision. It was a biological imperative.
That is my Wife, a voice in his head said. Wait, wife? No, she's a stranger who bit me!
She is Pack, the cat brain argued. We do not leave Pack.
Grog reached for Mina's leg.
"HEY! SHREK!"
Grog paused and turned around. "You call Grog name?"
Kaelen stood at the mouth of the alley. He extended his right hand. Snikt. Five razor-sharp, obsidian claws extended from his fingertips, glinting under the neon rain.
He crouched low, his pupils narrowing into slivers. He didn't know kung fu. He didn't know magic. He didn't know what level this world was or that he was currently standing at the bottom of a food chain that spanned galaxies.
He just knew he was really, really fast.
"Touch her," Kaelen hissed, a grin spreading across his face that was entirely too wide and filled with too many teeth, "and I'll turn you into a scratching post."
Grog laughed, hefting his crowbar. "Stupid cat man."
[Combat Mode Initiated.]
[Quest: Defeat the Tier-E
Ogre.]
[Reward: Survival. Continued marriage.]
Kaelen pushed off the wet pavement, blurring into a shadow.
"Let's see if cats really have nine lives."