A small gray furball wandered down the hallway, preparing for his first mission ever. He pat at the knapsack he carried as he talked with another experiment that walked with him, excited.
"So you're coming with me?" he asked happily, his tail twitching as he looked back to 414.
"Ih, meega ita 453." She grinned, her tail wrapped around her waist as she walked. 453 nodded, thinking. He'd realized…in his entire two weeks of living, he'd never actually found out what he looked like. He thought quickly about where the nearest mirror was, willing to make a quick detour.
"Hang on 414…I gotta check something out." He handed her the knapsack, tilting his head. "Can you put something edible in here? We might need it." He explained. She nodded and took it, squeaking softly in surprise. He scurried off quickly, running to a side-room usually used for fitting armor for the experiments that weren't bulletproof.
The door slid open without protest as he opened it, and he walked in slowly. The wall too his left was nothing but a mirror, and he examined it curiously. A gray experiment stared back at him, which wasn't a surprise. He always had known he had gray fur, with light gray fur on his stomach and chin, and he supposed around his eyes. He wandered over to the mirror to get a better look, standing on his hind legs.
The experiment in the mirror had dark eyes, black at first glance, but upon closer examination proving to be dark red. He had two large triangular ears that jutted from the side of his face, angled up about forty-five degrees from the horizontal. Inside, they were the same light gray as his stomach, but the tips were funny. On the inside, they were yellow triangles, the kind of yellow that would be hard to miss even in fog. He mused over this for a few moments, thinking that it would be a problem if he was supposed to do recon.
His tail twitched, and he looked at it…It was about half as long as he was tall, and fluffy. It was two-toned, black on the top in a jagged pattern that confused him. He turned around slightly, looking at his back the best he could. The black pattern on his tail went up his back, forming a black arrow that narrowed into a line between his shoulder blades before becoming another triangle on his head that stopped just above his nose. He blinked; staring at another bright yellow marking…it was his sensory frill, a yellow feature that jutted from the middle of the arrow. It had two prongs that seemed to just spike up right below his neck, and seemed sharp to his touch…defensive armament, he decided. He looked at his face again, and noticed another frill on his head between his ears. It had two forward-swept spikes and when he touched it, it sent an odd sensation through him, like a cat's whiskers would. He could feel every hair on his paw as he rubbed the sensor, and it felt strange to him. He sighed and looked himself over again in the mirror, grinning. He had always assumed he was an odd experiment, compared to the others…now he knew he was right.
"Gaba, 453?" 414 tilted her head, confused. He had been explaining what he thought was a good plan, but she hadn't gotten it at all. It'd taken them three days to get to the lab, even with a spaceship, and now that they were on the roof of the facility, they realized they had no plan at all. "Ita plan again? Soka, meega nag understand." She grinned apologetically, and then looked around.
453 sighed, chuckling to himself softly as he ran a paw through the fur on his forehead. "Ok, once more…I'll try to explain it slower this time." He explained it again, trying to keep it simpler this time…he hadn't meant to confuse his friend, and knew that other people would probably be confused. He was going to go into the research lab through an air-conditioning duct, get the materials, then get out through an air-vent in the lab that led to the stairwell to the roof. It was easy enough to do, but hard to explain without knowing all the specifics of what 414 should do. She listened, nodding when she understood it.
"Now, to business…" he rubbed his paws together, looking over at the air conditioning duct he was to turn into a door. He looked over at 414 and nodded, and she nodded back. She was to keep lookout on the roof incase anyone showed up, and was clutching a small plasma pistol tightly, a walkie-talkie headset on her head so she could warn him. She giggled as he put his headset around his neck, the earpieces being shaped wrong for his ears. He glared at her jokingly, and then walked over to the vent, unscrewing the screws with an index claw as he hummed to himself. It wasn't breaking and entering, after all. He was going to use a copy machine; he wasn't stealing the original documents.
He giggled to himself as he slid down the vent, enjoying the ride as he rode the vent head first into the building. Before too long, he was bursting through a weak grate into the lab that was his target. He got onto all fours after smashing into the floor, and shook himself off. He stood on two legs again after this, his tail twitching as he looked around curiously. He jumped onto a table with papers on it, but they weren't the papers he needed. One caught his attention, however. It was a document on an improved genetic theory, something he figured Jumba might like. He stashed it into his knapsack, making a mental note to find a copy machine as soon as he could and return the original documents. After all, he reasoned, he wouldn't want someone taking something from him.
453 looked around again, trying to take in every detail he could. He spotted another table, this one with several documents and holo-discs on it. He crouched down, and with a spring-like motion landed onto the other table, sending discs scattering onto the floor. He blinked, confused, but unconcerned. Down the hall, however, a security-bot had been activated by the ruckus.
A sudden breeze prickled at 453's frills, and he sat up, still as he could be as he listened. The door had opened, apparently on its own, but his frills were telling him there was something in the room. The security-bot, unbeknownst to 453, had turned invisible, and was slowly taking aim at this small intruder. The experiment hurried and put the information he had found into the knapsack, wary still of his surroundings. A small 'phfft' to his right caught him by surprise, and he jumped to see that the table he had been on had exploded, and green plasma was sticking to the flaming ruins of the table. He hid under another table, his tail curled around the knapsack as he looked all around, unable to see his assailant. He closed his eyes tightly, afraid, whimpering lightly.
An odd noise, however, snapped him to reality again. A blue glow, cackling with electricity, had filled the room, and a robot was appearing to have a seizure of sorts as the electrical energy surged through it. The furball watched in amazement as the robot shut off and fell to the ground with a loud clang. He looked at his fur, feeling rather uncomfortable. He looked at the fur on his arm, and saw that it was erect with static electricity, little sparks coursing through the hairs. "I've gotta ask Jumba about that…"
414 glanced nervously around, hearing what had happened through the walkie-talkies and afraid for her gray friend. A rattling noise behind her caused her to spin around, the small plasma pistol at the ready as 453 climbed out of the vent, his fur discharging it's extra energy into the metal as he did. He glanced over at her and fell over in shock, laughing.
"Gah, I'm sorry! Don't shoot." He stood up again, holding the knapsack aloft, his tail twitching. "I got the information…a dang robot kept me from getting to a copy machine, so I'll have to use Jumba's." He grinned apologetically, and 414 giggled, lowering the pistol.
"Meega soka, youga scare meg." She giggled again, her tail uncurling from her waist and curling around the knapsack as 453 walked over. He gave her a friendly hug, and she squeaked in surprise.
"Nah, I'm the one who didn't go with the plan…oh well. Ready to head home?" he asked, putting the pistol into the knapsack and gesturing in the direction of their ship.
"Ih!" 414 scampered off the roof, hoping to beat him to the ship and thus claim pilot rights. 453 laughed and followed, flipping off the building as he did. It had been a good first mission.
Ok, chapter two is up three days early. Ah well, it's because I finished an illustration for chapter one alot sooner than I thought I would. Anyways, as promised, this chapter is just slightly under twice the size of the last chapter. So, R&R please...or, just review, because by this time you'll have already read it, seeing as how this is at the bottom. Yeeaah...anyways, thanks for reading! Chapter three will be up sometime tomorrow or Saturday. Bonus points for anyone who figures out what all this research Jumba had 453 get is eventually used for.