Quicksand

The sun glares down through the canyon, giant ribs forming stripes along its floor. Inside the huge skull, there was a shelter built off the back of the skull such that you have to walk through the giant mouth of glistening teeth to get there. It’s made of crudely sewn tarps and tents. Catra inspects the space. It’s full of loot and a random assortment of trophies from past fights. A finger here, a necklace there, varying weapons and clothing. She sees Scorpia approach a pair of fancy-looking boots, leather with silver plating and design with a spiked steel toe. Catra steps back outside of the makeshift room. 

“You! Where do the rest of you stay? This can’t be the whole place.” The gang member squeaks in surprise and straightens his posture before replying,

“There are supposed to be more tunnels underneath, but Lashor didn’t talk about them.”

“Show me.”

They walk back into Lashor’s loot room, and the member walks over to the back corner, lifting a trap door under a rug on the floor. Catra gestures to Scorpia to follow them. They descend a ladder into the dark of the bunker. The gang member lights a torch on the wall. It reveals a long metal-walled hallway with wooden support beams holding a sagging ceiling. 

They walk along until another tunnel shoots off to the side. Following this, there are rooms with a few sorry-looking prisoners and others with just piles of dusty bones. 

“Where are the keys?” Their companion squirms.

“L-Lashor just shoved the doors on, there weren’t any keys.” 

Catra looks over at Scorpia. “Take the doors off.” After a big pull and a cloud of dust, the prisoners looked up in wonder, squinting against the light of the torch. Catra clears her throat.

“I don’t give a shit what you did, if you can prove yourself to me I’ll let you stay. If not, your new prison is tied up outside until you’re fried alive. Got it?” They nod. “Good. Now that that’s out of the way, you!” She points at the gang member. “Grab a handful of your friends and fix this place up. I want a map of every tunnel, and I want it to be structurally sound by the time I come back.”

They walked back the way they had come, Scorpia blabbering about how Catra makes such a good leader. When they make it outside, Catra turns to her. “If you like those boots, take them. Then I need you to find out how they’re getting food and where the rest of them sleep.” She finds a nicer dagger than the one she took from the bar and exchanges them on her belt. 

“You got it, boss!” Scorpia starts to walk away.

“And Scorp?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t ask, tell. And... thanks. This is gonna be fun.” Scorpia grins.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The underground compound is similar to a Horde bunker, the tunnels forming a large maze with off-shoots and rooms. There’s a large center room with a bunch of machinery and old crates full of various supplies, and another larger exit on the opposite side. There’s even a well in the deepest part of the tunnels. Catra went through the map re-labeling rooms for their new purposes. The prisoners that she had recruited were too weak to fight, so she set them about taking inventory. When she received the list back, her eyebrows shot up in surprise. 

“Lashor had skiffs? And he didn’t use them? Wow this guy was even stupider than I thought.” She walks out of what she had turned into a command tent, all of the loot stashed in a room down below. 

“Which one of you is good with tech?” A few hands raised. “Good. I want all of you downstairs now. Your mission is to fix and build as many skiffs as you can. Make them different sizes and make them go fast .” The small group looks around at each other. “Did I stutter? Get down there NOW .” They all scramble past her down the hatch. 

Scorpia reports back to Catra. “They said that they mostly steal food from whoever walks through, or they go on pillaging towns but the towns are so far that most of the food gets eaten on the way back. Oh and they sleep on the ground between the ribs.” 

“Yeesh this guy did NOT know how to run a gang. Lucky for them, I’m in charge now.”