THAT took a bit longer than expected. Sorry, guys... I know you've all just been hanging on by your fingernails with nothing else to do (sarcasm. Really, really heavy sarcasm. It's just what I do.) all day, what with the World Wide Web being so boring and all.
To be honest, I'm slightly bummed that I've gotten no reviews. At all. Is anyone even reading this by now?! Are you all peacefully ignoring me like a annoying little kid?!
I feel like I'm only typing for that one special person who has nothing else to do. *sighs and then sings* "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me; I guess I'll go and eat worms..."
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The cat's senses awoke before she did, and she began to get the sense of several familiar things. She heard the almost soothing beeps and whirrs of advanced technology; the air around her had a cold, clinical, chemical smell that reminded her of the holding chamber she had been kept in for years. She even sensed that if she didn't wake up soon, Shadow would Chaos Control into the room and jump under the covers with her, tickling her until she got up. Then she realized that she wasn't sleeping on the floor of her cage.
Her eyes flew open, and the first thing she saw were crisp white sheets tucked around her. With a feeling of panic, she ripped them off of her and jumped from the bed, flinching slightly as she felt the cold floor beneath her feet. A sudden stinging in her right hand made her look down; in her panic, she had ripped an IV needle right out of her skin. As dark green drops fell to the linoleum floor, an alarm went off, and someone sitting in a chair by the door jerked awake.
"Huh? Wazzat?" he mumbled sleepily, and then his eyes snapped open. "What the-?!" The cat backed away quickly, knocking over a tray of medical equipment that fell to the floor with a startling clatter. She recognized Splendid, who had shot to his feet and was slowly advancing on her. Without thinking, she tried to spread her wings to flee, and realized that they were pinned down by the hospital gown she was wearing.
Splendid lunged and grabbed her, pinning her down with his super-human strength. She squirmed and spat, raking her claws across his face, but no sooner had she stratched him deeply that new skin grew back over the marks she made.
"You might as well give up, 666," he said, shutting his eyes and turning his head so that her claws wouldn't gouge his eyes out. She only fought harder as hospital staff swarmed into the room.
"NO! LET ME GO, NOW!" the cat screamed. In the struggle, the IV wound on her hand scraped against the metal railing of the bed and the tiny puncture ripped wide open, making her smear blood all over the clean white sheets as her skin peeled back. Splendid held his breath to avoid the smell of her Kryptonut-infused blood, waiting for her to grow weak from blood loss. It took a full ten minutes of sweating and struggling, as she writhed to get away, for her to grow weak enough to let him pick her up. It was fortunate that one of the nurses had the presence of mind to slip a mask over Splendid's nose and mouth, permitting him to breathe again.
At last, the cat became almost docile and curled up in a ball in Splendid's arms, shaking from over-exertion. Splendid held her while nurses changed the sheets on the bed, wiped the blood off of the floor and stuck a new IV into her left hand. The whole time he didn't say a word, knowing that anything he said would probably anger her further. She seemed so sweet, but the looks she was giving him were filled with pure hatred as she snuggled against him. Splendid bit back the tempting urge to hit her back, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel almost miserable. She was his daughter, for God's sake! Didn't she love him way deep down?
When there were clean sheets on the bed, he settled her back down and a nurse tucked her in as if she were a child, not a half-mad alien that had tried to kill a superhero and assorted medical staff. When Splendid scooted his chair closer to the bed, she wriggled away from him, up against the wall, as if his presence was hurting her. Splendid could see that she was still afraid of him.
"Well then...you put up a fight there, didn't you?" he asked lightly, doing his best to hide his hurt feelings. She didn't reply, but glared at him steadily with a wicked snarl on her face. "Yeah...you've got fighting strength in you, for sure." Just like her old man. Too bad she was too busy making a face like a rabid dog to talk to him. "Aren't you going to say something? Anything?"
"Where am I?" she finally asked, forcing as much hatred she could into every word. Splendid resisted the urge to get up, find a book about space and geography, come back, and shove it down her throat.
"Oy..." he said wearily. This was shaping up to be a looong day. "You are on the Happy Tree World, also known in some religions as the Summerland. Souls come here to be reincarnated, but we live here, so we can live forever. Anything else?"
"Right..." the cat replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she ignored his very sarcastic question. "...I guess you're the almighty Happy Tree King, aren't you?" Splendid rubbed his temple, where a nasty headache was forming.
"There's no need to be rude, 666," he said in a tired tone. "I'm being perfectly serious." He glanced out the window as if the trees outside could give him a clue as to what to say. "You know, I'm slightly curious as to why you decided to leave Mobus. I'm sure you know it isn't safe here." Why here? Why now? Why the fuck did you decide to come and bother me?!
"As if I'd tell you anything! You freaking killed me!" the cat screeched. Splendid rolled his eyes.
"The whole 'killing' thing is besides the point..." he said. "...And there isn't much about you that I don't know, 666, even without you telling me. After all, Dr. Ivo was an...er...acquaintance of mine. I'm just wondering how you ended up here, that's all." The cat snorted with disgust. If she hadn't been feeling so weak, she would have leapt up and torn him to shreds for being so uncouth, the nosy bastard.
"If you really have to know, your little 'friend' abandoned me like any other failed experiment when King Acorn sent his troupe of spies. That's why I'm here, though I'm sure I've leapt right out of the frying pan and into the fire. I just couldn't stay on Mobus now that Dr. Ivo was in hiding. They were going to terminate me." She looked down at the IV in her left arm. "What happened to me, anyways? I mean, did I pass out, or...?"
"You died," Splendid replied simply, as if it was nothing at all. "And it wasn't my fault. I merely made you crash, but Flippy's the one who slit your throat as soon as I went off." He felt a wave of irritation creep over him, wondering what would have happened if Flippy had turned out to be wrong. "You know, you're really, really lucky," Splendid said after a pause. "Had Flippy misjudged, you'd be long gone and buried." The cat shrugged.
"Why? I'd come back, right? I thought that's how things work here."
"Sometimes it doesn't happen like that. Pop's wife, for example, died and never came back, no matter how long he waited," Splendid replied. "I'm relieved that the same didn't happen to you..." I'm lying through my teeth... I think. Hmm...
"Why? What the fuck do you care?" the cat snapped, suddenly angry again. It was almost as if she knew that half of him wished she were still dead. Splendid flinched at the harsh tone of her voice.
"Well, it's not like I'm the only one. Mime was worried too, you know." Worried was an understatement. Mime had been squeezing her dead body to his chest like she was a new kind of stuffed animal and then refused to let her go, riding in the back of the ambulance with her and clinging to her until hospital orderlies had pulled her away. Then he had visited every day, but today, Splendid had made him go home early. He didn't want him around as she was waking up, just in case things turned nasty.
"Who's Mime?" the cat asked, moving slightly closer to Splendid. Her curiosity was getting the better of her.
"Mime is that deer that kept holding your hand." Splendid replied. Then he carried you. Then he wouldn't freaking let go of you. I think you might remember him. "I get the feeling he really wants to meet you, but he never talks, so I can't be sure. I could introduce you sometime, but now..." He stood up and leaned over her, sliding his hand under her. "...May I?"
"May you what?" the cat asked, her temper flaring at his touch, but he merely helped her sit up. He pulled the back of her hospital gown down and carefully looked at the serial code tattooed on her back.
"666-B..." he said quietly. "...It really is you. I honestly never thought we would meet." He straightened up. "Dr. Ivo told me you were a failed experiment, but you seem fine to me." He sighed, wondering what he was going to do. He couldn't just get rid of his own daughter. Turning around, he pressed the call button on the wall and waited patiently for a nurse to come. They sat together for a long time, neither of them saying anything.
"You know, I need a name for you," Splendid muttered, anxious to break their awkward silence. "Just calling you by a serial number won't do."
"What's wrong with my number?" the cat asked icily, her ears flattening back in irritation. Splendid glared at her as if he wanted to prove that his attitude was just as big as hers.
"Because you're a person, not a robot. Now..." He looked her up and down thoughtfully. "I remember Dr. Ivo telling me once that Shadow had named you. I can't remember what it was, but it pissed Ivo off pretty bad..." The cat thought long and hard; she hadn't seen Shadow for several years.
"He called me Gryffin," she said slowly, a tiny smile tugging the corners of her mouth.
"Gryffin, huh? It seems like a great name for you," Splendid said, grinning for the first time that day. It was true that, if she had a beak, she would look very much like a griffin.
"Then, I guess...I guess that's my name now," the cat said. It felt strange to have a name after being known only as her serial number for so long, and she decided that the feeling was going to take some getting used to.
The nurse, a pretty pink chipmunk, finally arrived, and Splendid had her check Gryffin over to ensure that she was ready to leave. When Gryffin had been given a clean bill of health, the chipmunk, whose name was Giggles, handed a letter to Splendid with a smile.
"This is from Petunia," she said in a high, sweet voice. "She told me to give this to you if I saw you." Splendid smiled back and a blush went across his face.
"Thanks, Giggles. Gryffin, here." Splendid gave her back her robe. It had been washed for her, and she gratefully slid it on and tied the sash snugly around her waist. She and Splendid left together, and when they reached the door of the hospital, he turned to her with an impish grin on his face.
"You know, you fly pretty fast..." he said slowly. "...Why don't we see just how fast you really are?"
"Huh?" Gryffin asked, but she had spoken to air; Splendid had already taken off. Gryffin whooped and leapt up, spreading her wings and taking off after him. He looked back and laughed, but his grin fell when he saw her quickly catching up. He tried to lose her, but it was no use; she had clearly inherited his flying prowess, just as he had hoped. Soon they were side by side, playfully taunting each other.
"You silly thing, hasn't anyone told you that cats can't fly?"
"What's your excuse, then? You're a squirrel!" Splendid didn't reply to that, but he gave a mischievous grin and came to a full halt. Gryffin tried to stop too, but she was going too fast to come to a standstill and managed to become ensnared in the treetops of the forest. Splendid hovered over to her, laughing.
"Maybe you should pay attention more," he said, wiping his streaming eyes. Gryffin looked up from where she was, tangled firmly in a tree's branches.
"I was just trying to make you laugh. That was intentional." She untangled herself and flew up next to him, and they started their race again, laughing the tension away.
Well, Splendid thought. That didn't take too long.
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As it was growing dark, they both tired and Splendid began to guide her to his house.
"You'll be living with me, of course," he said in a matter-of-fact kind of way.
"Yes, of course I...wait...what?!" You can't be serious. I just know you're shitting around with me.
"I'm serious. It's not like there's anywhere else for you to go, and besides, I could use the company." He smiled kindly at Gryffin, and she smiled back, feeling slightly bewildered. Had Dr. Ivo been in Splendid's place, Gryffin knew he would have left her at the hospital or in the woods and gone home. She wasn't used to this kind of kindness, and almost didn't know what to do. What did people say when given a gift? She couldn't remember.
"Thank you..." she said haltingly, the words unfamiliar on her tongue. "...For being so nice to me. I can see you're not like my creator at all." Splendid grinned a wry, affectionate smile.
"Well, that's a relief!" he said, laughing. "I never really liked Ivo. He was cold and mean and...well...he...mentioned you once or twice." He didn't say that Ivo only talked about her when he was angry, and that he had called her, among other things, a retard and a badly behaved animal. He already had a feeling that she had heard him say that before.
They arrived at Splendid's house, a huge, acorn-shaped abode resting on top of a tree trunk so big that Gryffin marveled at the sheer size of it. They flew in a huge window on one side and landed in a good-sized study that was full to bursting with books. Gryffin turned on the spot, gazing about her with wide eyes. She had never seen so many books in her entire life.
"This is where I live," Splendid said, smiling at her obvious wonder. "Well, this is just the study. My house is a complete mess, so you might want to be careful that you don't trip over anything."
"Okay..." Gryffin said absent-mindedly, a bewildered smile on her face. Her mind was reeling with the thoughts of what those books could contain. Splendid looked at her and felt a feeling of affection surge up in his chest. Suddenly he wanted to gather Gryffin in his lap and hold her. He wanted to tell her how horrible the past few years had been, thinking that the little creature he had helped create was either dying or dead, and that he hadn't even seen her. Oh, damn...He hoped he wouldn't start crying.
A siren split through the air, roughly jerking the two Happy Tree Friends away from their very different thoughts. Gryffin froze where she was, but Splendid had gone through this too many times to count.
"Damn it!" he snapped, walking over to the window.
"What's going on?" Gryffin asked, looking alarmed. The siren had begun to hurt her sensitive ears, and she slapped her hands over them in agony.
"It's Lifty and Shifty. I'm sure you'll meet them sooner or later, but you might as well know that they're a couple of thieving little toerags. They're rude, they're annoying and---THAT DAMN ALARM! WHY WON'T THEY JUST SHUT IT OFF!?!" Gryffin couldn't help but smile at his outburst; it was true that the alarm had grown steadily louder until it seemed like she had a police car jammed tightly in both ears.
"What are you going to do about them?" she asked, glad when the alarm faded and died away. He glanced at the window, and they both noticed that the sky outside had grown dark.
"I'll kick both their asses, that's what," he said growlingly, clenching his fists. "I'll be back, okay? Just make yourself comfortable." He took off, and Gryffin waved after him.
She wandered through the house for a little over an hour, and was amazed to find that people did not sleep in cages, like she did. Almost every room had a bed. She remembered, feeling like an ignorant child, that she thought beds were only for the sick. Upon exploring the kitchen, she found that Splendid didn't eat laboratory pellets in a bowl on the floor. Apparently, he ate at a table, using utensils and eating foods that seemed beyond strange to her. She wanted to taste them, but decided to wait.
All this extravagance, no matter how unkempt and messy, was making her feel slightly odd. Suddenly she felt lower than a dog and shame at her own ignorance forced tears out of her eyes. She didn't belong in a nice, if somewhat messy, house! She belonged in a cage, drinking from a bottle attached to the side that often was empty, and eating from a bowl on the floor. She wondered if Splendid considered her to be dirty, and therefore so would be anything she touched. Thinking thus, she hastily put a picture of Splendid and a very pretty skunk back on a shelf and glanced at the clock.
Splendid had been gone for nearly two hours. Gryffin felt a cold feeling develop in the pit of her stomach as she wondered what could be keeping him. She made her way to the window and flew out, listening hard for anything that sounded remotely similar to Splendid's voice.
She flew over the forest, searching, and soon had made her way into town. There, on the outskirts, was a small museum and in front of that museum was Splendid, bent double on the grass. Gryffin could see a strange green light coming from a box that was held by one of two figures that were standing in front of him. A horrible retching and splattering sound met her ears, and the two began to laugh.
Gryffin swooped down and landed in front of Splendid, shielding him from view with her wings.
"I told you to stay at home," Splendid weakly protested before throwing up again. Gryffin ignored him and turned her attention to the twins. They could only be Lifty and Shifty, she realized. They were completely identical, right down to the smirks on their faces and the rings on their raccoon tails. One of them, whom she assumed was Shifty, was wearing a fedora.
"Hey, man, look at the little bitch!" Lifty said. "She's so small!" He crouched slightly so he could be on her eye level, then began to point and laugh.
"Yeah, man, and what's up with the wings? You a chicken, you little pussy?"
How original. The word pussy used in reference to an actual cat. Yes sir, Shifty's one bright son of a bitch.
"Go on and kick her ass, Lifty," the son of a bitch ordered, shifting the gem to one hand and pointing at her with the other. Gryffin smiled a grim, evil smile. Something inside of her rose up in anger like an irritated snake, and as her light grey eyes turned blue, she threw her head back and laughed, letting the demon have full reign.
The first thing the demon did was let loose a blast of magic and foul language, spitting curses and promises of pain at the two of them. Lifty and Shifty both froze, a look of horrible familiarity on their faces. They knew that sound, but they couldn't believe it wasn't coming from a demented bear with green eyes.
"Uh...Shifty?" Lifty said nervously. Shifty didn't answer at first, but stared at Gryffin, too terrified to move.
"She...she sounds just like..." he began to say, but Gryffin launched herself at his throat. Lifty felt feeling come back to his frozen limbs and ran, not daring to look back through the dreadful screams that met his ears.
Gryffin smiled wickedly as she straddled Shifty's chest, raking her claws across his face. He yowled in pain, trying to writhe away before she scratched his eyes out, but she held him still.
"Go on then, scream," she said in a deathly calm voice, putting her lips up to his ear. "Too bad that your coward of a brother has run away. We could ask him to join in." She almost carressingly touched his face, then dug her claws into his pupils and yanked up with all her strength. Shifty yowled again, blood pouring out of his empty eye sockets.
Splendid looked on, disgusted but tranxfixed as Gryffin plunged her hand into Shifty's stomach and grabbed a fistful of his intestines. She pulled them out, then looped one around his neck and slowly strangled him. Another grim smile lit her face as he gasped for breath, trying to plead with her through the pain.
"Gryffin...WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Splendid yelped. She turned to face him and hissed, the pupils of her bright blue eyes contracting until they were slits.
"Stay out of this, squirrel!" she shot at him. "He doesn't deserve to live!" She suddenly whipped back around and buried her teeth in Shifty's chest, ripping his heart out. He shuddered and died, his head lolling to the side and his jaw slack. Splendid tried to get up, but the light from the gem hit him again and he fell back on the ground, vomiting and bringing up nothing but bile.
Gryffin stood up, kicking dust onto Shifty's unmoving face. She smiled coldly and began to laugh; a high, mirthless laugh that made Splendid feel cold down to the marrow of his bones. Suddenly she gasped and put her hand to her forehead, sinking to the ground.
"G-Gryffin..." Splendid managed to choke out before he retched again. Her eyelids fluttered and opened, and she seemed to shake herself.
"What the-?" she asked before catching sight of Shifty's mangled body and tasting the blood on her lips. "W-what the fuck just happened?!"
"Forget that...help me..." Splendid gasped. Gryffin found the gem and placed it back in its box. She then set it on the ground and walked over to Splendid, holding the hem of her robe up so that it wouldn't trail through the puddles of blood and sick.
"Are you alright, love?" she asked kindly, kneeling by Splendid's side. "Can you still fly?" He spat, trying to get the taste of puke out of his mouth, and wiped his lips with a shaking hand.
"I c-can't even get up..." he said tremblingly. Gryffin thought for a moment.
"Would you like me to carry you?" Splendid dubiously looked up at her, a wry grin lighting his face.
"Can you even pick me up?" he asked. Gryffin shrugged, then gently scooped him up and managed to cradle him securely, despite the fact that he was twice her size.
"Like this?" she asked innocently. Splendid managed to laugh.
"Fine then, but can you fly while carrying me? That's the real question." Gryffin strained her wings and managed to lift them both, and Splendid grinned wider. "'Atta girl..." he mumbled sleepily. It was extremely late, and he hadn't slept in days. He decided that it wouldn't hurt to close his eyes for just a few minutes...
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*pauses in eating worms* I'm so depressed that I could just curl up in to a ball of Emo. *makes disgusted face* And I don't even like worms!
Poor Splendid...throwing up like Anna Nichole Smith did before she died...it makes me feel kinda bad for him, you know? Being a superhero must be a really, really thankless task...
To any of you that are Lifty and Shifty fans (...which, I'm guessing, is almost all of you...), I want to apologize for Gryffin's despicable behavior. I promise she might do it again.
To further my ever-growing list of excuses, I couldn't get this online as soon as I hoped because I was busy with a musical our school was putting on. I have the role of the curtain monkey.
Dance, monkey, dance!
The next chapter will be around soon. If my laptop keeps acting up the way it is (acting up meaning being broken), then it might be a bit late. Cheers!