The Eleventh Tale

The King-Candy, Turbo-Cybug hybrid froze in place, massive claws about to wrap around the tiny figure before him. His eyes went wide, mouth slightly agape as he stared. His face glitched between King Candy and Turbo.

“…What?”

Vanellope, flinching, had shut her eyes when Turbo had lunged at her. Slowly opening one of her eyes, she had tensed as she saw the claws still ready to grip her, only a few inches away from her body. She slowly looked up at Turbo, hands clenching into fists.

“I-I said, jumbo…” The girl started, glitching, “R-Ralph…”

She couldn’t contain herself. She began to cry, glitching more than she normally did. She felt weak in the knees.

“…H-He’s dead…W-When you threw him into the Fungeon one of your Cybugs was there and it killed him…”

Vanellope sniffled. She struggled to not cry, though this action caused her to start hiccupping, and before long she started to weep. Turbo watched this scene for a moment, mouth closing and his claws being drawn back. Ralph was dead?

Oh, this was news to his ears. A wide, sinister and toothy grin found its way onto his face as he snatched Vanellope in one of his claws, cackling.

“Hahaha!! That’s what you wanted to tell me?~” He purred, watching as the glitch yelped and began to struggle. “Oh, this is fantastic!” He giggled, falling over onto his back from the sheer joy he felt from hearing that Ralph was dead. Vanellope stared at him before beginning to snarl and attempt to claw at him. Her sorrow was replaced with anger.

“Hersh?”

“Yeah, Geoff?”

“You ready?”

“Yes. How about you?”

Geoffrey St. John smiled and finished setting up the visor; it was his visor, but he handed it to his wife, Hershey the cat, and placed it over her eyes, clicking a button on the side of the visor and turning it on. “Here, luv, it’s all ready and rarin’ to go.”

Hershey smiled at Geoffrey, and finished placing on her boots; she was wearing a black suit, with black boots and black gloves. She stood up and brushed her hair back, taking in a quick breath. “Thanks. This mission is important now more than ever, I don’t—I can’t--botch it.”

Geoffrey grinned and kissed Hershey on the nose. “You won’t. Now, start moving; I’ve gotten you this far, you finish the rest…”

Hershey smiled and kissed Geoffrey back, wrapping her arms around his neck; after the kiss was finished, she released him, and ran out and into the base—Eggman’s base, to be specific. Geoffrey looked on at Hershey for a minute or two until she vanished from sight; he then turned around, confident that she would complete her mission, and that he would complete his.

My name is Sky. I’m a fox, and I’m eleven years old. I live in a small town where everyone is happy and safe, and I live with my parents and hang out with my friends, Carmen and Dimitri. My parent’s names are Kara and Kane. My house is small and made of wood, and it’s colored white on the outside. We have a small porch out in the front, and inside we have this broken little radio that broadcasts the news and stuff…though it sounds funny most of the time, ‘cos there’s static whenever we turn it on.

I like it here. Life is, well, perfect! Though, tonight is..Well, weird. A bajillion things were running through my head, I thought I would explode--! Um…Anyway! I should probably quit it with the introductions and get on with the story….so….Um…I’m done. Yeah.

Anyways, I walked down the hall. We had flower-print wallpaper in the hallway. It was tearing a little, but me and my dad don’t mind (but my mom does!) . I opened the door to the bathroom and walked inside. It wasn’t that large, really. We had a small tub/shower sort of thing, and it had a blue curtain to close and open on it. We had a toilet too. The only thing worth looking at in there, (at least I think) is the mirror. I like the way it looks, ‘cos it’s a perfect square shape and it has a nice, wavy border on all the sides.

I grabbed a cup from the sink and turned on the faucet. I turned it off once I had enough water and I started to drink it, though was interrupted suddenly.

“Hey, kid!”

I looked up. Jumping up, I let out a surprised squeak, dropping the cup into the sink (the cup was plastic, so it didn’t make much noise).

There was a weasel in the mirror. Or, I think there was. I’m not sure. I just couldn’t see my reflection. I stared in shock, eyes wide open. The mobian muttered and took off his hat, picking dirt from it and looking disinterested for a moment.

“Yeah, I know; “Oh my god, a weasel in my mirror..!” …Yeah. I’m not sure m’self how ‘xactly I got in ‘ere, but you helpin’ me ta get out would be nice.” He placed his hat back on, and looked at me. His disinterested expression quickly turned to one of concern as he saw that I was going to scream, which I guess he didn’t want. His ears raised and he tried to shush me.

“Damnit, kid! Don’t scream, a’ight?” He muttered under his breath. “Already wanted fer fraud, grand larceny, kidnapping an’ murder….People might think ‘at I have some power ‘r somethin’ an’ they’ll be on my back in a snap…!”

I stopped as soon as he swore. I shut my mouth and stared at him; see…I was taught to never swear. And I haven’t.

And then to make me even more terrified, I just< i>had</i> to hear what he muttered. I open my mouth and started to stammer, gaining a confused look from whoever was in the mirror.

“Ohmygod…You—You—But people don’t do that!! Stealing’s bad and murder..Ohmygod should I get the police?!!” I started to panic, running for the door, which I left open…but it shut in front of me and locked itself shut!

I tried to pull the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. I lowered my ears and tucked my tail in, slowly going back over to the mirror.

“Hahaha!! We’ve hit the jackpot, boys!” The weasel, wearing a brown hat with a black stripe around it, brown gloves with metal plates, a brown belt and white shoes with brown wrapping at the foot, chortled as he hopped down from the ledge, rubbing his hands together as his yellow eyes greedily looked over the treasure before them; gems, gold, silver; the whole load! Not bothering to help the yellow polar bear and green duck down the ledge, the weasel scurried over to the treasure, and looking around a moment—he was sure that there would be a trap somewhere—he hesitated to take a step forward, until Bean darted over eagerly by the weasel’s side, blue eyes widening at the sight of the treasure.

“Shinnyyy…” The duck murmured, mesmerized. The weasel rolled his eyes, but paused and stared at the duck before a sly grin flashed upon his muzzle.

“Hey Bean…” He said slowly, before grabbing the duck and throwing him at the treasure, “…You go first!!” It was a flawless plan— throw the idiot in the way of possible traps, and if he dies then at least it’ll be safe for Nack and Bark to cross. If there were no traps…Well, he didn’t really care so long as he got his treasure.

Bean blinked as he was grabbed and flung…But spread his arms and flapped them up and down much like a Mobini bird would, though this proved useless due to Bean’s lack of wings. Still, this didn’t stop the duck from doing it and keeping a wide grin plastered onto his beak, and soon enough he landed into the treasure head-first—but with no traps springing with the duck’s momentary flight. Nack grinned. So the place wasn’t armed with traps here! Whoever built the place probably thought that previous traps (oh, and clever traps they were, Nack had to admit) would deter or kill whoever wanted the treasure here. ‘Well,’ Nack thought with a soft chuckle escaping him, ‘Best mistake to be made around me!’

The weasel took a step forward towards his treasure, eyes filled with greed…Until Bark pulled him back, giving a light smack upside the weasel’s head and giving him a disapproving look. Nack winced and rubbed the back of his head, glaring at the bear. “What? The little freak didn’t die. He probably wouldn’t have even if there were traps.” He snorted.

“Now…Let me get my treasure.” Nack said with glee, while Bark rolled his red eyes slightly, looking around the room—he had only just got in, and noted that it was made entirely out of rock (the floor had tiles of rock) and had moss growing on the walls, as well as plants with what little light shone into the room from the steep ledge that lead down to the treasure room. The ceiling was low. Looking forward and beyond the treasure, (in which Bean was lying back down in) Bark noted that there was a door. He tilted his head and wondered what was beyond it, but his attention was pulled to a loud ‘shfff’ sound, and turning his head, he saw that one of the tiles Nack had stepped on had sunk into the floor. He tensed; his first instinct was to take a step forward, but this instinct was stopped as he looked up at the same ‘shfff’ noise being made above. All three Mobian’s looked to the ceiling, but Nack was tensed and hunched over, frozen and eyes wide as he was going to be the first one to get hit with whatever was going to fall through.

A second passed and the weasel closed his eyes—but then another second, and then ten seconds. Opening his eyes, the weasel looked upwards. Nothing was at the opening. He narrowed his eyes, trying to process this—no trap? What, was it taking a while to work?

With this thought he decided to get out of the way before it actually started working. He took a step forward to move, though not before a cry was heard.

“Geronimo!!”  Came a cheery voice from above, before a small yelp was heard as a body—at least twice the size of the weasel’s—came plummeting down, falling on top of Nack’s lower back, causing him to yelp in pain as he fell to the floor and the same ‘shfff’ noise was heard as the trap closed again.

“Fuck!” The weasel shouted in pain as he struggled under the weight, “Get offa me!!” He snarled.

There was a slight groan of pain that came from the new arrival, but blinking, the surprise guest jumped off and helped the weasel up—having to bend over to do so. “Oh, I’m terribly, terribly sorry,” he said, with a slight, childish and warm grin. “Had to get away from whatever was up there,” He pointed upwards towards the trap with what looked to be an odd screwdriver.

“What the hell’s your problem?!” The weasel pushed himself away, still aching from being fell on that he stumbled a bit when pushing himself away. He glared at the new arrival—who was this guy? He had brown hair that was combed to one side of his head and he had green eyes. He wore a red bowtie, red suspenders, a white button up shirt, black pants and shoes and a brown tweed jacket with elbow patches. He looked…Human. Or Overlander? Bah, Nack didn’t care what the difference was.

Instead of listening to the odd man, Nack pulled his pistol from his belt, aiming it at the human..Overlander…whatever. He gave it a slight wave, watching as the new arrival put his hands in the air.

“Who th’hell are ya, and how’d ya get here?” The weasel demanded. Bean crawled out of the gold, hopping over to his boss and looking up at the man curiously. Bark joined the two, seeming more puzzled than interested.

“Hey, hey!” The man nearly shouted, “No need for guns, put that down.”

“Oh? An’ why should I, mate?” The weasel asked. “Tell me who ya are!”

“Alright, alright.” He said slowly.

Ileana leaned against the wall, looking about; when were they going to be here? She gripped her metal pole in one hand, leaning against the pole more rather than the wall now, letting out a soft sigh. She began to grow somewhat irate—if she was going to have to work with someone on a job, then they should meet her when they agreed to meet. It had to have been a while since she had arrived at the designated spot.

The designated spot being an old, abandoned brick building close to a somewhat large forest—the building was rather small, more like a storage area, and had plants growing in and around it. Roots clung to the snapped and broken sides of the building, making anyone wonder how it could still be standing. Inside of the building wasn’t much—a desk or so, a chair, and some rotted papers and food. More plants growing inside, and Mobini’s scurrying about here and there for a snack, or simply passing through. Ileana had seen plenty with the time she had spent here.

“Hey, lizard!”

Ileana turned, gripping her pole and raising it slightly, but lowering it to a neutral position as she saw that it was the group she was to be working with—the Destructix, they were called? She hadn’t met them personally, aside from when they both agreed to do the job together—it was a tough one, she had to admit. It would take all of them to pull it off, she thought. So did they.

She looked at them; the team consisted of a red fox with a fuzzy, peach muzzle who wore black clothing, (Ileana knew that she was Fiona, and the one who called her) a rather large gorilla wearing military clothing, a lynx, a frog wearing a flying cap and scarf, and a hawk.

“Yes?” Ileana stared at the fox for a moment before narrowing her eyes. “You’re late.”

“Yeah, like we didn’t know that.” She responded. “Look, we ran into some difficulties on the way here but it’s all good. Let’s just get the job over with. Run over the details first.”

Ileana tensed a little—problems? She was going to ask, but by Fiona’s quick change in subject and tone, she finalized that it could be put to rest then and there. She perked up at going over the details, and nodded before answering.

“We’re goin’ to a hideout a mile or so down from here—we’re goin’ to take out the leader there an’ get out. ‘At’s ‘at.”

Fiona nodded. “Right. So I’ve thought of this: The place is heavily guarded. We would be killed quickly if we go in all together, so what we’ll do is we’ll go in teams of two. There’re three pathways out of the dozens that are in there that basically go directly to the guy, so we’ll have three teams.” She looked at the Destructix for a moment and then Ileana.

“Alright, lizard—from what I know of you, you’re really skilled at sneaking around. You’ll be paired up with Predator. He sneaks around and is silent like you are, so you two’ll have a better chance if you go together. You two will go directly for the boss and the rest of us will meet you there at about the same time, after we’ve gotten through the guards. You’re probably going to meet some resistance, but only a little because you’ll go the silent way and sneak past most of them. You’ll be taking the path that deters from the target a bit, but all in all it goes directly to him. You’ll have an easy time getting through there.

“Lightning and Frog, you’ll be taking the second path—I had someone take a peek at the inside of the building earlier, and that path is riddled with traps. Lighting’ll be able to hear the traps before they go off. Frog is a freak, so he’ll be able to dodge the traps pretty well. There are also enemies there so you two are best suited to fight them off AND avoid the traps.

“Last up is me and Simian—we’re going to go down the path that’s most heavily guarded. He’s the strongest of us all so it’ll be easier to go down that path with him.

“Got it?”

They all nodded; Lightning, Predator and Simian stoic as they did so, but Frog grinning widely as he did so and tilting his head.

After a few moments Predator glanced at Ileana for moment and sneered. “Working with prey will be amusing.”

Ileana narrowed her eyes at him and raised her staff slightly. “I am not like your usual prey, bird. Remember ‘at.” She took a swing at him, though Predator caught the staff in his hand and the two glared at each other for a good minute or so. Fiona rolled her eyes at this while Frog chuckled quietly.

“Knock it off and get a move on.” She snapped as she began to walk away from the group. Ileana yanked her staff away from the hawk and followed her, as the Destructix followed as well.

  -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

  Soon, they got to the hideout; it stood tall above them, made of metal and having large doors with two guards standing in front of them; the guards being two large Mobian lizards holding laser guns, with packs strapped onto their backs and cameo pants.

Hiding in the forest that surrounded the hideout, Fiona gestured for Predator to take them out from above. The hawk nodded, and launching off of the branch he sat on, flew over the two lizards as silently as he could; before descending down onto them, kicking one in the neck, using enough force to snap it, and using the toppling lizard’s neck to launch himself at the other and secure his hand around the guard’s throat.

Shocked but snarling, the guard raised his gun and prepared to squeeze the trigger, aiming at Predator’s stomach, but the hawk swung himself around, planted himself on the lizard’s back, and clasped both hands around the guard’s neck—before digging in his sharp talons and yanking back as far as he could. His talons dug in somewhat deep, and blood dribbled out slightly. The lizard struggled and snarled, dropping the gun in favor of attempting to lift the hawk off of his back—but Predator released the lizard and wrapped his legs around the lizard’s torso to hang on, before grabbing his neck once more and yanking back fiercely and quickly. A grin formed on his beak as he heard what he needed to—a sharp snap,and the lizard gasped before going limp. Predator jumped back, allowing the lizard to fall over.

He landed on the ground, keeping his balance before gesturing for the others to come over—from what he saw, there were no cameras. Which meant that the lizard’s would have a device to speak to the other guard’s, so they only had so much time before someone checked in on them.

As the team ran over, Predator tore open the first lizard’s pack, sifting through it—before pulling out a card and key, tossing the card to Fiona and the key to Lightning. He then proceeded to go over to the other guard’s pack and pull out the same looking card and key. He handed the card to Ileana and slipped the key into his glove. “Each team—minus me and the lizard—will have one card or key to go throughout the building and paths. I am unsure if they will work for the path’s you will take,” He glanced at the other two teams, “But you will encounter more guards and you should find a key or card that will work. I am taking a key and the lizard a card because we will not be taking out as many guards, so we will need a better starting chance to have the correct key or card.”

“What if one of ‘em don’t work?” Ileana asked, flipping the card in her hand between her fingers. “’F one’uv the two teams—“ She gestured between Fiona, Lighting, Frog and Simian, “—Cain’t open a lock but th’others‘ave th’key, then what?”

Predator thought for a minute, but Fiona said, “Then we’ll have a meeting point. Simian can bust down most doors, but I doubt he’ll be able to knock down all of them, especially with all the guards we’ll be fighting. We’ll all need a key or card at one point. If any of you need a key or card and one of the other teams may have it, then we’ll meet back at a middle point if we can or we’ll try to give it to you via another way.”

“Sounds good enough to me.” Lighting said.

“Then let’s go,” Fiona said, finding a place to slip her card thru, watching as the massive doors opened. “We may not have much time before they realize that we’re inside.”

  -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

    Ileana and Predator were the first ones inside—Ileana ran while Predator flew at a low level, behind Ileana, and soon they were both inside the hall they needed to be; they hadn’t run into any enemies yet, nor any doors that they had needed to open thus far.

Ileana waited behind a corner, eyes narrowed as she glanced at the hallway past it; guards were lined up on both sides, about ten feet away from each other, all of them holding guns of some sort; they seemed to be average-Mobian height, so that meant that they would be less of a hassle than say, if they were larger Mobian’s like the guards that were outside. Ileana guessed that they couldn’t sneak past them—well, she could, being a lizard, but she guessed that if Predator tried to fly past them then they would hear him flying overhead and…Well, then that would be it.

The guards looked straight ahead, and after a moment Ileana pulled her head back and looked at Predator, who landed quietly behind her.

“There’re ‘bout ten ‘at I can see.” She whispered, “I’ll crawl along th’ceiling an’ take some of ‘em out an’ you do th’rest. Be a distraction so they won’t notice me at first—it’ll be easier.”

Predator stared at her for a moment before nodding, waiting for her to go on ahead.

Ileana did so, crawling up the wall and advancing across the ceiling—not long after a gunshot was heard and a small yelp followed after—Ileana didn’t look back, and made it across the guards, flipping backwards before landing on her feet, now facing the guards—Predator had already taken out two and was now on his third, reaching out to grab a terrified guard by the neck and lift him in the air.

“AAAHH!!” The guard screeched, and flailed his arms, dropping his gun, but still making a rather…sad attempt to flail away from the hawk, who rolled his eyes. Ileana concealed a small smile, keeping herself from giggling a bit, though this was short lived as a guard aimed his weapon at the lizard. Ileana, noticing this, narrowed her eyes and pulled her staff, running out of the range of the gun—and rather quickly getting behind the guard, giving him a hard whack in the skull with her pole.

He went down, probably knocked out. Ileana turned towards other guards, lunging at them—using her pole to knock them out, or slamming her tail into them. Predator took out his share of the enemies via digging his talons into them or picking them up, flying high and then dropping them, sometimes repeating this process more than once, or even driving them into the walls after he picked them up.

The fight lasted only a few short minutes, and at the end of it Ileana and Predator stood surrounded by unconscious (or dead) bodies of the guards. Predator and Ileana weren’t too tired from the fight, but regardless they searched through the bags of the unconscious enemies, finding cards and keys. With that business done, they opened the next door, slipping through it.

  -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

    Meanwhile with Lightning and Frog, they had taken out a somewhat larger scale of enemies – Lightning knelt down to shift through a guard’s pack, while Frog let out a short giggle, tapping a still conscious (but greatly weakened) guard on the shoulder, causing the Mobian to curl up and flinch, uttering a cry of, “Get away from me, freak!!”

“Frog,” Lightning turned to the amphibian, looking less than amused, “Check through the rest of the packs—we need to get the cards and keys. Fool around later.”

The frog pouted, but nodded and, moving away from the guard…gave a swift kick to his face, grinning as the guard yelped, stumbled backwards and passed out shortly after, eyes closing as he let out a quiet groan. Frog went over to the rest of the packs, pulling out all the cards and keys he could find.

  -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

    Fiona and Simian were forced to face a much larger group of guards—Fiona guessed about thirty, maybe even forty for each hallway they went down and each new door they had to go through. Great.

It wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, Fiona had to admit—the Mobian’s were normal sized and not too large, so she could take most of them fairly easily and Simian rarely had a problem. Mostly it was the problem of being outnumbered by guns and other weapons—the two hadn’t been hit too badly yet, but they weren’t letting their guard down.

  -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

  “That’s the last of ‘em,” Fiona stated, brushing her hair back. “The others better be doing well—but we still have a bit of a ways to go, don’t we?”

“Yes.” Simian replied, taking cards and keys. “But thus far it’s been fairly easy—I’m concerned that this target may be fooling us or have a trick up his sleeve.”

“We’ll find that out when we face him, then. No turning back now.” Fiona pointed out, but she had to agree with him—it was odd how easy it was to break through. They were told it would be a hard job, but Fiona decided to dismiss this troubling thought by assuming that the one who hired them hadn’t dealt with the sorts of things they had before.

“…By the way, what d’you think Predator is doing?” Fiona asked, watching as Simian turned to her. “Just out of curiosity, I know he has the whole “rawr prey” mentality going on, but he seemed sort of…y’know, smug towards the lizard like he “knew” she was lesser or something. I’m gunna take a guess and say it’s because of nature or something?”

Simian nodded and let out a small sigh. “Yes, that’s the reason. Natural selection has Predator hunting upon lizards.” He raised a brow.“ Why do you ask?”

She shrugged. “Well, y’know, wondering if he’s gunna eat her. So I can prepare and plan for if we lose a member.”

Simian paused a moment. “…I doubt it.” He said, “Predator does well at keeping his priorities and personal feelings separate—what you saw earlier was him being lenient and letting his personal emotions tread over his priorities.” He began to walk towards the next door they had to go through.“ But it won’t affect anything. This is business.”

“Right…” Fiona said, not fully convinced, but following the larger Mobian through the door regardless, leaving those thoughts behind.

  -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

  “We’re here, lizard.” Predator said, staring up at the large metal door before them. “How many cards do we have left?”

“Jus’ one.” Ileana said, and pulled out the last card, handing it to Predator.

Predator said nothing as he slipped the card through the slot; and watched as the massive door slowly opened, revealing a large room. Inside was a desk, some chairs, and a card slot on the wall as well as a phone. Sitting at the desk was a somewhat beefy looking Mobian ferret, who, even from where Ileana and Predator stood, would hover over them both. The ferret raised his gaze from the desk to the two Mobians, and had seemed to be thinking about something before they arrived. He thumbed at the purple jacket he was wearing.

“I was expecting you.” He said dully, not allowing his thoughts or emotions to be displayed on his face. “It took you longer than I had hoped, but you’re here now.” He gave a crooked grin.

“You’re here to kill me, aren’t you?”

Ileana pulled out her pole; and not answering the ferret, she began to run at him, swinging the pole backwards so as to whip it at him when she got close. Predator got ready to leap—not saying a word either—and awaited for the ferret’s first move so he may intercept it.

The ferret smirked, pushing his chair back and ducking his head as the lizard swung at him—and leaping from his chair, grabbing the lizard’s waist with one hand and the end of her pole with the other, attempted to shove her away and at the same time, yank the pole out of her grasp. Ileana snarled, raising her foot to kick the mammal away—aiming for his face, and a sickening ‘CRACK’ was heard as her boot connected with the ferret’s jaw and a sharp yell echoed throughout the room.

“Not very bright, ‘r ya?” the lizard questioned, watching as the ferret fell over, blood beginning to come from his mouth…but wheezing as she was yanked down with him, his grip tightening around her waist, both toppling over onto the ground with Predator leaping into the battle.

On the ground Ileana had squirmed free of the ferret’s grip when they had toppled over, and getting back on her feet, crouched, before lunging at the Mobian who now lay sprawled across the floor; she ignored his mild groan of pain as he rubbed his jaw, and she landed atop his chest, making him wheeze, as she grabbed for her pole; the pole still being in the ferret’s grip.

The ferret scowled, swiping it away from her and attempting to hold it high away from her—though at this current position it was difficult even for the much taller Mobian, and Ileana had her hand wrapped around the end soon enough. Growling, Ileana pressed her boot against his neck in the hopes that it would…encourage him to release her weapon.

“Let go ‘f it,” she snarled, digging her heel in. The ferret let out a low growl of pain and glared at the lizard, but with a smirk forming, he sneered.

“No.”

Ileana’s eyes narrowed. She raised her foot to slam it down on his neck, but stopped as he suddenly grabbed her ankle and flung her over the desk…and right into Predator, causing Ileana to release her weapon and for her to send them tumbling to the ground, roll a few feet, and ultimately wind up with Predator on top of Ileana.

Shaking his head for a moment, Predator snarled in the ferret’s direction, but looked at Ileana for a moment ; the lizard stared back, deadpan before narrowing her eyes.

“Hope ya realize ‘at this ain’t comfortable fer me. Get offa me. Th’ferret’s probably gettin’ up right now, we ain’t got time t’waste.” She snapped.

Predator narrowed his eyes back at her, before moving himself to get off—only to look up as the rest of the Destructix arrived, making him pause. Frog tilted his head and giggled.

“Oooh!~ Ready to make dinosaurs, are we?~” Ileana glared at the frog before pushing Predator away from her. “No,” she hissed, “Now focus on th’mission, toad.”

“Frog.” The green Mobian corrected, still smiling just as wide as before. He got into position to lunge however, as did the rest of the Destructix, who had not bothered to comment—they had more important things to deal with. Predator narrowed his eyes at the Ferret, who was rising to his feet, having a grip on Ileana’s pole. Staring at the Destructix, he narrowed his eyes and folded his ears back. Fuck, he could have handled the lizard and hawk, but with the monkey there and the added forces of the amphibian, lynx and fox, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

Still, as a boost to his ego and his confidence, he gave a smug smirk and puffed his chest out slightly.“Heh heh! Lookit who needs backup. So, which one’ve ya wants t’die first?” He made a “come hither” motion with his free hand.

Simian was the first to step forward, cracking his knuckles. The Ferret made the first move, jumping onto the desk and lunging at Simian, pole raised so as to smack him in the head with it—Lightning intervened, however, darting to the Mobian’s side and jumping, kicking it out of the ferret’s grip—or at least loosening it. The ferret turned his head to see this, and snarled, attempting to swing the pole at the lynx—but forgetting his original target, and suddenly found that a tight grip was had around his skull. He froze and began to squirm; dropping the pole in the process, and attempted to pry the hand away, but this didn’t do him much good.

“Let go you dumb ape!” He snarled, fangs and gums bared. Simian snorted in retaliation.

“You are pathetic; you may have strength and a following, but you’re distracted easily and that’s your downfall.” Simian said; before tightening his grip further, slowly crushing the ferret’s skull. The ferret was powerful, but was nowhere near having Simian’s strength (and few Mobian’s would come close; being handed the enhanced power by a near god, who would?) and his struggle against his soon to come death would be fruitless. Soon came the ‘CRACK’and ‘CRUNCH’ that Simian was expecting, and looking bored, he dropped the Mobian on the ground, shaking off the excess…bits that still lay on his hand. Turning to the sound of running, he clenched his hands into fists. Lightning tossed Ileana back her pole and the rest of the Destructix, and the lizard, prepared to fight.

A mutt—wearing a hat atop his head, a small pair of glasses set upon his muzzle and a rope wrapped around his neck, a sweater and a jacket, scrambled to the Underbone, his two-part bike. He hopped onto it, not even bothering to snatch his helmet that was sitting in the side car, and instead quickly revved his bike, ears flattening so as to get a better hear at what exactly those thugs were yelling at him. Upon hearing, he pouted to the insults, though regardless, he began to drive off just as the thugs were about to catch up to him on foot, lightening up and laughing as he heard them cursing. He didn’t see any bikes like his around, so the thought of them having vehicles to chase him down with escaped his mind for the moment, and he sped off, away from the spooky warehouse and thugs, and towards a city.

It was a bright morning, the sun high in the sky and hardly any clouds in the sky. In the city, during daytime, people were shuffling about to get to work or simple get around or find someone. The street, as usual, had its normal flow of cars and taxi’s going down the street—it wasn’t packed, but it certainly was a constant movement of vehicles. The street was lined with a bakery, art shop, small drive-thru places, and a clothing shop.

  A young skunk came out of the clothing shop holding a mannequin that was wearing a green, folded at the waist dress that had one sleeve. With effort, the skunk sat the mannequin down in front of the shop, heaving a sigh. “Goddamnit that thing was heavy…” She muttered, and wiped her forehead, leaning against the mannequin as she caught her breath, and then stood up straight. She let out a huff, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face. She wasn’t in a good mood today. After breaking up with her boyfriend just a few months ago and having to work more often to keep her apartment, stress was taking its toll.

 She wore an almost black shirt with two holes at the chest (And a name tag slapped onto the shirt, which read ‘Carmen’ in capital letters), and it had short sleeves, each sleeve having three holes cut into them. Two red pins were in her white-and-black streaked hair, and she wore plaid red pants and roller skating shoes. She looked at a clock, visible from where she was standing that was inside of the store, and tilted her head, squinting a bit to see it—it was almost her breaktime, though she figured that it wouldn’t hurt to start a bit early.

     She began to trot off to get some food, until she heard the loud rev of an engine. She turned, and suddenly saw a bike go past her at a shocking speed—she barely had any time to see who was driving it! She stared, watching as whoever was on the bike had to slow down because of the cars that were currently in the street, blinking slowly.

“What the fuck…?” She mumbled quietly, and jumped as she saw a few others—who looked like bikers, on their own motorcycles—speed after the bike she just saw, and…Leave a rather terrible odor behind, making her scrunch her nose and twitch. She groaned, and rolled her eyes, shouting, “’EY, TAKE A BATH!!”

“…”

She then stood, growling and bristling her fur a bit. A final biker drove by, behind the others, and ran into a puddle…splashing dirty, mucky water all over the skunk. She twitched, hackles raised and stood for a few moments, hands clenched and teeth bared before she stormed down the street. “Alright, that’s it!” To hell if she was going to take having dirty water sprayed all over her and not do anything about it! Her angry stomping soon turned to her bursting into a sprint to catch up with the biker, watching as he turned and headed into an alleyway.

She couldn’t help but be curious though. What exactly was going on with those guys, anyways?

  The mutt soon screeched to a halt, cursing as he realized he had reached a dead end after a few more turns—he thought that going into the alley would be a better option so people wouldn’t get hurt, and he didn’t intend to bring the thugs to the city, they chased him in! Regardless, he turned, tense as he saw the thugs line up, one by one, a few feet away from him. He slowly got off of his bike, ears pricked. Eyes narrowing, he spoke.

“Now, look—sorry about what happened earlier…” As he said this, a wide grin spread across his features as he grew smug, his smart-assedness peeking through. He continued, sarcastic as he spoke. “…But you had poor little me frightened!” He jested, and then added with a bit of seriousness, “An’ what’s with driving me into the city? There’re witnesses all around to call th’police ‘r somethin’ an’ get you guys caught, or were you guys just born as dumbasses?”

This earned a few low growls, and the mix snickered in response, waving them off—he was growing concerned, though, in his own mind, knowing that if police got involved he might be screwed as well if they asked why he was being attacked by thugs in the first place. Regardless, it was a shot and he had to escape without being beaten into a pulp. Because, y’know, he liked his face the way it was.

With his little comment, a thug began to step forward, grinding his teeth together, and knife at the ready to stab the dog. Carmen screeched to a halt as she appeared in the alleyway, panting, though still growling. She was tense, and layed her ears back, glaring. “OI!!”

The thugs quickly reeled around, glaring. The mutt gave the skunk a bit of a hard stare—Yelling at thugs wasn’t the best idea, even if they were idiots. And by the looks of it, the skunk didn’t look all that powerful at all.

Carmen tensed, flicking her ears and lowering them further, cooling off a bit and somewhat put off by the thugs, though was still upset and snorted. “What the hell’re you doing?! I have a bone to pick with you guys, one of you got me soaked and you were driving around like drunk monkey’s on crack!”  She then noticed the mutt, and stared, slowly frowning. She noticed one of the thugs waving a knife at the dog. She began to grow concerned and a bit suspicious as to what was going on, and narrowed her eyes. “What’s going on here, anyways?!” She repeated, “I wanna know, now!”

A few thugs glanced between one another, and one snorted, not answering the skunk. “Get outta here, girlie!” He then grinned somewhat and raised a pistol, “…’Lest you want to get shot, I suggest you take your fine ass outta here. Got it?” He said the last bit slowly, as if mocking her. Her fur bristled and she snarled, now taking steps towards the thug.

She snarled, “Are you mocking me?!”

He said with an amused grin, “Wow, she’s dumber than she looks!” A few of the other thugs laughed. The one that mocked Carmen stepped forward, gesturing for her to try to fight him. The skunk paused, looking unsure, though narrowed her eyes and stepped forward, cracking her knuckles. First, she was generally pissed off…That alone, she thought at the back of her mind, wouldn’t cause her to fight, but she didn’t like the look of the thugs gaining up on the dog. With all of this in mind, she then thought how she would fight a thug who had a knife when she had no weapons. She glanced about the alley and snatched a rusty metal pipe, gripping it tightly where it was the least rusted. A dozen thoughts slowly began to run through her mind, and the tense moment made her freeze up as the thug lunged at her.

She lunged out of the way in a somewhat awkward fashion, smacking into the ground hands-first, hissing in pain at the hard ground smacking against her palms. She was on her hands and knees now, and had the pipe still clenched in one of her hands, not even bothering to begin to check if the thug would lunge again—she had never really fought before, so she was mainly concerned with instincts of not getting hit that she forgot to try and swing the pipe and hit someone herself.

A few of the other thugs watched, not seeming to be taking anything at all seriously, before some turned back to the dog, weapons in hand. He growled lowly, ears laying back. He attempted to think of what to do about the situation—the skunk was sure to get hurt if he didn’t think of someway to help her, but he hardly had a weapon himself. Regardless, he scanned the thugs that were closing in on him, and snatched his helmet in his hand, running at one of the less-armed thugs and whacking the mobian as hard as he could in the face with the helmet before slamming the top of the helmet onto the thugs head, watching him slink down and groan. He yelped suddenly and sharply as he was stabbed in the side, and grinded his teeth together, turning. One eye was squeezed shut in pain, and he smacked the thug now infront of him with the helmet before stumbling backwards, gripping his side as he hissed in pain.

There were several more thugs left…The most he bothered to count was six, though he was sure that he would need to be prepared for more. He felt blood seep out and bleed through his clothing, though ignored it, twitching a bit as he removed his bloodied hand from his side and shake it off. Blood felt disgusting when it was mangled in his fur! He grunted and, with effort, went off to fight the rest of the thugs.

It took what seemed to the mutt hours, but in reality it was only ten minutes of fighting, maybe less. He had injuries all over, cuts, bruises, and even a bullet wound in his shoulder. He breathed heavily, ears flattened against his skull. He winced as he was shoved to the ground by a thug, the same one he had whacked with the helmet twice. The thug had blood dripping down the side of his head from other injuries, and placed his foot down on the dog’s side, pressing down painfully and giving a small grin of satisfaction as the dog let out a grunt of pain, yet still had the energy to spit blood on the thug’s shoe. The mobian twitched, and knelt down to pistol whip the mutt before grabbing him by the neck.

“Now, ya little smartass, you’ll learn why you don’t mess with the baddest mercenaries alive!”

Techno gazed up at him, vision blurry. His glasses had been broken and were somewhere on the ground. He replied slowly, “Sorry…But I don’t see any mercenaries here. Just a couple of guys who can’t admit their love for me, but are so distraught that I said “no” to hanging out with them because they have small—“ Before he could finished, he was pistol whipped again and knocked to the ground. He began to waver in and out of consciousness, letting out a small, yet mildly suppressed whine of pain. He glanced over to Carmen, watching in a daze as she was badly hurt as well, and being pushed against the alley wall and pinned against it by one of the thugs.

The skunk cursed quietly, wincing as she was pressed against the wall by the thug, too weak to even bother attempting to push him off, though that didn’t stop her from curling her lip up in disgust. What a creep.

She growled quietly. She had scars along her arms and bruises all over.  Carmen’s eyes traveled over to the mutt, and her ears swept back to the sides of her head as she saw how beaten and bruised he was—poor guy.

…Though then she realized something.

At the moment Carmen couldn’t remember all of the details, but she did remember that Techno was the only one there when she arrived that was against the thugs…And him being beaten down meant that nobody was there to fight them off besides her!

‘Fat chance’, she thought bitterly. Regardless, fueled by her annoyance and despair that all of this had even happened, she kicked, struggling to get away from the thug. He turned to her, having been distracted for a few moments by the mutt being beaten down, and glared at Carmen, giving a smug grin.

“Haha! Sweet. You think you can get away.” He pulled her close, and the skunk twitched with disgust at the smell of drugs as she was pulled closer. She was thrown to the ground, however. The thug walked over, pressing his foot down onto her back. She yelped and grinded her teeth together, struggling.

“Now…Here’s what’s going t’go down, sweetheart—We’ll toy with you two for a bit longer, an’ then book. Normally we would give more time for you, but, seeing as how we weren’t given any direct orders…” He took a moment to glance at Techno before fixing his gaze upon the skunk, “…We don’t want t’get in trouble with our boss. So we’ll be a bit lenient with you guys…” He kicked her in the side, “…But not by much.”

Upon saying that, he laughed, signaling the other thugs with a snap of his fingers, and the skunk and dog were beaten down even more—neither knew how long it had been until the thugs stopped and left, though the crooks must’ve heard something because they had glanced between each other and then booked it on their bikes.

Carmen was passed out—not at all used to being so roughed up— and the dog had slipped in and out of consciousness a few times, though now he was barely awake, and beside the skunk, letting out a soft groan. He muttered bitterly and spit out some blood onto the ground. His ears fell, and he stared at her for a few moments, seeming a bit alarmed—though then he heaved a heavy sigh. Good, she was still breathing…He took a few moments to turn his head, staring at his bike, frowning as he realized it had been completely totaled. On top of that, someone else had gotten hurt, and he had had his face smashed in anyways, even with his efforts.

He lay for another long few moments, panting. Everything hurt and his muscles burned whenever he moved. Maybe it would be a good idea to lie down for a while. He felt even less like moving than usual…He closed his eyes and drifted off.

When he awoke, it was awfully bright. He winced and shut his eyes tightly, letting out a soft groan...Everything still hurt, but it was numbed down. He attempted to open his eyes once more, finally adjusting to the light. He stared up at a blurry white ceiling. His head spun, and he tried to focus on one thing: how did he get there, and where exactly was he, anyways?

It was then that he noted he no longer had his glasses, and frowned, weakly raising his arm and feeling around for them—it was then that he felt a small tug, and he took the effort to glance at his arm. A needle…? He felt his shoulder, hissing in pain. It had a bandage around it, and the rest of his wounds were wrapped as well. He felt groggy, which he thought would be normal after being beaten to a pulp, though what he didn’t realize was that he was drugged so he wouldn’t feel any sharp pains, so long as he didn’t move.

“Hello, I’m glad to see that you’re awake!” A male voice chirped, making the dog leap. He stared, shocked at the sudden appearance of the other male. His vision was blurry, but he could…Sorta tell that it was a striped cat of some kind. The cat walked over, holding a clipboard and pen, smiling.

“We thought that you were a goner!” He said, continuing to speak about how he thought for sure that the dog was a goner as he checked the mutt over. He wore plastic gloves on his hands and wore a light blue coat, so the other male assumed that he was a doctor of some kind—too tired to think, he muttered.

“Hospital…” That was all he said. The mutt was damn close to wanting to simply roll over and fall asleep, but forced out that word, which was meant as a guess as to where he was. The cat blinked, though nodded.

“Yeah!” He smiled, giving a tilt of the head. “You should rest, man! You look like shit.” With that, he patted the dog’s head, walking away.

Within a few moments and with knowledge of where he was, the mutt had slipped into sleep once more.

When he awoke the second time, his body ached, but felt much better than when he first awoke. He looked down onto his lap to find a tray of food, mostly soft things, and began to eat, albeit slowly.

When he was finished with his food, he sat, bored out of his mind. A curtain separated him from two other beds, one of the left, one on the right, so he couldn’t be assed to try and converse with anyone who might be on the other side. He was about to fall asleep again, when the same cat from his previous awakening walked in.

“Hello!” He smiled. “You’ve been asleep for a while, huh? Been about a day since we brought you and her in here.”

The dog stared, slowly frowning. “Wah…?” He thought hard for a few moments, before it hit him. “Oh, yeah, that girl…Is she alright?”

“Yep! Totally fine, a-okay! Though she did make a fuss, she’s fine now, I think. If you want to, then she’ll be ready to talk to you tomorrow morning. Which is…” The doctor glanced at a clock inside the room, hanging on the wall, “…About twelve hours away!” He laughed. “You sure did wake up late, huh? But by the way, I don’t know if you can read the clock, but in twelve hours it’ll be eight a.m.. I’ll wake you when it’s time, okay? So just sleep for now.”

The mix nodded slowly, sighing as he flopped his head down onto his pillow. He lay in the bed, letting out a small cough. He couldn’t wait to leave this hospital.

Morning came, and along with the mix’s awakening, the familiar ache of his body. It was numbed down each time he woke up, but he would prefer it if his body would just stop aching so he could leave this place.

It was a few minutes before the cat would enter the room once more, and so he waited, twiddling his thumbs. He took a bag of crackers that had been set down beside him, and opened them, having the small snack as a result of boredom and hunger. He flicked his ears as he heard the door open, and watched as the cat, not alone this time, wheeled the skunk into the room via a wheelchair.

“Hey, ‘bout time,” He said, giving a slight wave to the two. The cat waved back enthusiastically, giving a goofy grin, as the skunk, looking irritated, huffed and gave a wave of her hand.

“Well, aren’t you miss sunshine!” The mutt raised a brow and grinned, amused as the skunk glared at him, though he noted a small giggle that escaped her.

Carmen may have been cranky, but the mutt’s small joke lifted her spirits a bit. It annoyed her, yes, but it was sort of a nice break from being stuck in bed for a long while.

The cat glanced between the two, and let go of the handles of the skunk’s wheelchair, walking so both could see him and smiling, hands placed behind his back and tail swishing about eagerly.

“Just let me know when you’re done talking, kids!~ Carmen, press that blue button on your wheelchair when you need me, and I’ll come running!” He winked, leaving the room.

A few moments passed, and the skunk and dog met eye-to-eye.

“So, what’s your name?” Carmen asked, tilting her head. “An’ why were those thugs chasin’ you?”