It was two days later that Ty thought that Dustin and the others had suffered enough time in the sewers.
He had altered the rat family a bit. All three would understand him and gained some knowledge and strength rats wouldnīt have normally, but would still be natural with. Grinning at the terrarium he wished for Dustin, Alex, Colin and Steve to first regress to the same age as the younger rats before appearing in the terrarium. The mother rat he now called Hope would see them as her own children and care for them, but also punish them for misbehavior. Both the original children, called Rick and Norman after two other friends of the group, would be their brothers, but as they were stronger then the boys would have fun with them, further humiliating Dustin and the others, who would be weak to them. And Ty made sure they wouldnīt realize who was a changed human and who not. They would recognize the names and know at least one other rat was former human, but with a wish Ty also made all think the others acted like normal rats. Alex, Colin and Steve wouldnīt remember that they were changed together, each would think that like Dustin they were alone. Maybe over time Ty would allow them to recognize each other and their acting was wrong.
After a minute or so four small rats appeared in the terrarium, and each one looked around confused. Ty made himself able to hear their thoughts if he wanted, and all four of them werenīt happy about their shrinking, not realizing they were also younger, but at least out of the sewers.
Watching them interact made Ty laugh. Dustin was uncomfortable with all the unknown rats around him and fled into a corner, and Ty heard him whimper how mean others rats could be. Colin was moving around exploring the terrarium carefully, while Alex and Steve were inspecting each other. Soon Rick started chasing Colin around, while Hope came over to Alex and Steve. To Ty it seemed as if she was already lecturing them, and their thoughts reflected the same. Colin was yelling like mad in his panic, fearing what rick would do with him. Norman approached Dustinīs corner, and Ty heard him whimper in fear and calling for help.
When Ty fed them shortly later, all four boys were mentally pleading to be changed back, Dustin still as small as possible in his corner, but Ty ignored it, just petted each of his pets a bit before leaving them again and just watch.
Over the next week the boys settled in a bit. None of them acted like a real rat, and got lectured by Hope for it. Rick and Norman used their strength to show their weaker siblings their place, and soon they adapted to do the same to each other. It wasnīt long before there was some kind of hierarchy between them, and Ty laughed as Dustin was the lowest. Ty didnīt indicate knowing them as anything other then his pets, but cared for them all the same. He let them plead mentally to be changed back, but that slowly decreased as they got more settled in with their new life. Ty had changed their memories a bit, so to them they had been this young from the beginning in the sewers. It was now that they had escaped after a week in the sewers, not remembering being ported in deeper when trying to leave earlier. They had been caught after that and Ty had bought them in the same pet shop he had the family from, so to them he wouldnīt know it was them.
Dustin still feared the other rats, part of the reason he was the lowest in the hierarchy now. Ty had looked into Dustinīs memories and found he had been attacked more than once while in the sewers, and after searching the others found out that at least Alex had been one of his enemies down there.