A rat could not get more ordinary than me. I never wanted to make trouble or attract attention to myself. All I wanted was to live a pretty ordinary life, eat food, and find a decent mate. Of course, even the best laid plans can somehow go awry.

I was born in an ordinary family of rats in the Fourside sewers. I grew up there and learned the most basics lessons of life- never attack someone bigger than you and humans are not to be trusted. I think I lived a rather good life for a rat. We always had enough to eat, as we lived directly under a place the humans called Jackie’s Café. At night, we could come out of the sewers and steal the leftovers they threw out.

On my diet of half-eaten sandwiches and stale coffee, I grew to a considerable size. In my adulthood, I guarded my territory fiercely, and other rats learned to stay away from my part of town. I took a mate and she bore me children, to whom I taught the same lessons I had learned when I was a young rat. And of course, I taught them how to steal the leftovers at Jackie’s Café. I had achieved my dream life, and I was content.

One night, when my children were too small to fetch food for themselves and my mate had to stay with them, I crept up to the café. At two in the morning, few humans were about, and it was the best time for scavenging. I poked my nose out of the sewer and sniffed, then crawled out and darted across the open sidewalk. It was then that I heard the rumble of tires on pavement and a large truck pulled up in front of the café. I froze. Two humans got out, one of whom I recognized as the owner of Jackie’s Café.

“Where d’you want it again?” he asked the other man, who looked very out-of-place in this part of town. He was older, and had the look of a business man. However, his eyes darted quickly from shadow to shadow, and ducked his head low, as though he was engaging in illegal activities.

“In the back of your storeroom,” the older man said. “I do not want your workers stumbling on it by accident.”

“Okay,” the owner said, opening the door at the back of the truck. Inside was a golden statue of a horned man holding a sword to his chest. There was nothing special about it. In truth, it was not even that pretty. However, it glowed strangely. There was a compelling aura surrounding it, and even though I knew I should run for the sewers and forget the humans and the statue, I could not move.

A brief vision passed through my mind. In it were four human children, three males and one female. They too were not particularly remarkable themselves, but I suddenly felt the oddest urge to attack them. It went against the first rule I based my life on. I would be attacking not one person bigger than myself, but four. For the first time, I did not care. I felt powerful. I knew that I was rather large and strong by rat standards, but now I felt as though I could take on even grown humans and win.

The men struggled to lift the statue and place in on the sidewalk. Emboldened, I slunk out of my hiding place and faced the statue. At that moment the owner caught sight of me.

“Rats!” he exclaimed. “Always raiding my stores…” He moved menacingly toward me.

“No,” the other man said, causing both the owner and me to look at him. “He’s one of Giygas’s.” The man spoke with more authority now, and he straightened up. “I suspect that little rat will serve an important purpose later,” he continued, chuckling a little. “Look at the way he stares at the Mani Mani Statue.”

Indeed, my eyes were fixed on the statue. I was unable to look anywhere else. For the first time, I wanted something more than to live the ordinary existence of a rat. I had a sense of identity and purpose. A phrase came into my mind. I was the Plague Rat of Doom. I was to protect the place where the sewer connected to a certain building’s backyard. This was the most important thing I could do- more important than my family or my territory.

I ran back into the sewers and towards the place I had been told to guard. The other inhabitants of the sewers moved aside for me. They recognized me as their master. The Mani Mani Statue told me I was master of the fifth Your Sanctuary, a place called Magnet Hill. An hour ago, that would have meant nothing to me. Now, I knew I had to protect that place from those four humans by any means possible.

I reached the appointed place, and I waited. I lost track of time as I stayed under that hole, and grew stronger and larger, until I was the size of a human child. Once, I nearly lost sight of my goal. A ripple of power washed through the city, and something told me that the Mani Mani Statue had broken. However, the Mani Mani Statue was merely a device, and my sense of purpose remained.

Some weeks after that, a new sound reached my ears. Four large objects were moving through water towards me, fighting things as they drew closer. Human voices touched my ears, and the first object rounded the corner. From my vision all those weeks ago when I first gazed upon the Mani Mani Statue, I knew this was one of the four humans I had to destroy. I grinned evilly as I gazed at his pitiful looking baseball bat.

“We’re here,” he called back to the other humans as he caught sight of me. He climbed up the ladder out of the water and reached back to pull the second human, a female with a frying pan, up the ledge next to him. Two more boys followed her. None of them looked especially powerful, and my grin grew wider. To think that humans could try to kill me with baseball bats and frying pans! However, they children walked right up to me, defiance on all their faces.

“You finally got here,” I told them smugly. “This is the fifth ‘Your Sanctuary’ location. But it’s mine now. Take it from me, if you dare…”

“I dare!” the girl said. “PSI Fire!” Flames flew from her fingers and scorched my fur, leaving me slightly weaker. I had no time to marvel that the kids could use some kind of magic before I felt a bottle rocket slam into my side. The blonde boy and the girl high fived, and I suddenly realized that this battle was going to be a whole lot harder than I anticipated.

Infuriated by their triumph, I bit the blonde boy, hard. He stumbled backwards, and the last boy said, “PSI Lifeup.” The boy in the red cap then said, “PSI Rockin!” I did not understand the nature of his attack, but it dealt me enough damage to cause concern.

Our battle wore on, and I discovered that I could use the same sort of power they could. However, there were more of them, and they had defenses against some attacks. Something was happening that had not happened to me in a long time- I was losing. Somewhat desperate now, I bit the girl, poisoning her. The boy in the red cap looked furiously at me.

“Don’t hurt my friends,” he said coldly. “PSI Rockin!” Even before his attack hit, I knew this was the death blow. His power washed over me and I felt my power leave. I shrank back to the size of an ordinary rat, and it almost felt as though I was awakening from a long dream. I could not remember why that place had been so important to guard, or why I needed to attack the humans.

I ran back to my territory and discovered it had been taken by another rat. There was no sign of my mate either. The new rat eyed me warily, but I had no desire to fight another battle. There was no place for me left in the Fourside sewers. After all I had experienced, there was no way I could return to being an ordinary rat. I would never be satisfied with that life again.

At last I found another city, and settled in behind a bakery. I saw two of the humans again once. They boy with the red cap and the girl came to the bakery one morning and requested some bread to make sandwiches. Apparently they were going to the boy’s baseball game that afternoon and needed snacks.

“Good luck,” I told the boy as the two left. He smiled at me.

“Thanks, little rat,” he said with a grin and teleported away. Neither of them recognized me, and I slunk back to the bakery to sleep.