Grand Opening!
This Tuesday!
Today!
Little Pet-shop of Fun
Custom Pets, designed while you wait.
Upgrades for existing pets.
Reptiles a specialty!
Is your dog too stupid? Ask for CaniBoost™! Adds 30 IQ points or your money back!
Entire Dexterous Feline Products® range available from stock. Thumbs for cats! Buy one, get the other one free today only*
Special Requirements? Eldritch Horrors can be made to order. PRT license must be shown before purchase. Please note that
Tentacle Beasts must be kept on a leash at all times within city limits, under bylaw BB/GOO/666.
©2011 LPF Inc, a division of BBFO, LLC
Complaints should be directed to head office, DWU Building 29, Brockton Bay (555) 3537 4824
Timewasters and unsolicited callers will be eaten.
*not recommended for Siamese cats. No refunds given. LPF is not responsible for feline takeover bids.
Hannah stopped dead, looking at the sign, her eyes so wide that they were almost in danger of falling out. 'Oh, god,' she thought in shock. Raising her gaze she looked into the window of the shop, then flinched violently. The kitten on the other side of the glass peered cutely out at her, hanging head down from the window on suction-cupped feet and staring between its forelegs with wide purple eyes.
Which were visibly glowing.
The deep green fur with darker stripes like a tiny oddly colored tiger was also a little off-putting.
Gaping at it, she watched as it tasted the air with a forked tongue, then rotated in place with lots of little popping sounds she could hear even over the sound of the street, before scuttling up to a hammock sort of thing in which she could see three more, all different colors, looking down at her.
Shuddering a little, she cautiously inspected the other… things… in the window display.
The tank of… were they fish? She desperately hoped they were fish. Anyway, the tank full of those things looked more or less normal, until she noticed that the brilliantly metallic creatures were swimming in and out of a little sculpture on the bottom, which in itself wasn't all that unusual.
The way that a particular 'fish' would enter the sculpture, then immediately swim out of another on the other side of the tank, though… That was a bit weird. A lot of the plants waving in the water were very strange too. Such as that one that was waving at her…
Closing her eyes, she shook her head, then cautiously checked again.
Yep. She wasn't imagining it.
Sighing helplessly, she glanced at her companion. Ethan was also gaping at the contents of the window, but, worryingly, was starting to grin.
"Do you think Battery wants a pet?" he finally asked, staring at something that looked like a cross between a ferret and a spider with a cat's head and scales. It was weirdly cute, in a totally brain-freezing manner. She stared at him, then it, then him again.
Hannah sighed heavily.
"I really don't think that's a good idea," she muttered.
"What about that?"
He pointed.
She looked.
She closed her eyes again.
"No. Definitely not."
When she opened her eyes she let out a little yelp, finding that Saurial was peering at her from about a foot away, her head cocked to the side curiously. "Hi! Are you OK? Only you're a bit pale."
"I'm..." She tried, but couldn't honestly say 'fine,' no matter how she tried. The lizard-girl didn't look upset, merely mildly puzzled.
"Want to come in and browse?" she asked happily. "Fifteen percent discount for Protectorate members and PRT employees."
"I don't think so, thank you," Hannah replied quickly. "To be honest, I doubt that you'll get much business from the..."
"Isn't he cute?"
The familiar voice, female, young, and high-pitched, cut her off. She turned to see Vista and Clockblocker coming out of the shop. The young girl had one of the suction-cup-footed lizard-kittens clinging to her chest while staring into her eyes and purring. Sort of. To be honest, Hannah couldn't really say what the sound the thing was making was, but it was… different. Contented, but different.
"He's pretty cool, Vista," the other Ward replied, neither of them having noticed Hannah or her companion. "What did Ianthe say he ate?"
"Pretty much anything," the girl replied happily, cuddling the thing, which squeaked at her. "Watch!" Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a small bag which she opened, removing what looked like a marble. Tossing it into the air in front of the creature clinging to her, which had rotated its head like an owl to follow her hand, she giggled when a pair of two-foot-long, slender tentacles shot out of the thing's suddenly wide-open mouth, snatching the small sphere out of the air and retracting with lightning speed.
It chewed, crunching sounds coming to Hannah and Ethan, who had abruptly stopped grinning.
"Cool," Dennis chuckled.
"They like glass, she said," Missy nodded. "Do you have his little house?"
"Yep, here you go," Dennis said, fishing in his pocket and removing a…
Hannah shook her head violently.
The warped space around what seemed to be a sort of cube made her brain itch. Ethan gargled a little beside her. Missy merely looked at it, then smiled. "Go on, in you get, Shoggy."
"Shoggy?" Clockblocker queried.
The girl shrugged. "He seems to like it." They watched as the suction-cat made its way along her arm, then dived into the peculiar thing she was holding, seeming to fall away into the distance without moving. She smiled, then put it and the bag both into her pocket. "I don't want him falling off when we get moving," she explained, motioning to the other side of the street, which was suddenly right next to her. The two teens took a step, then reality snapped back into shape.
Hannah stared after them for some time, before slowly turning to Saurial and Ethan, the lizard-girl looking pleased and her fellow hero looking very, very confused.
"It's always nice to see someone with a new pet," Saurial smiled. "Sure you don't want to come in?"
Hannah wordlessly shook her head.
"OK. It was nice seeing you." Looking past her, she grinned widely. "Lucy! How's Newell doing?"
Turning her head, Hannah stared at the Chinese girl who was approaching them, a very large lizard wrapped around her shoulders. The thing was looking around much more alertly than seemed reasonable for such an animal.
"He's fine, aren't you, Newell?" the girl Lucy smiled, tickling her lizard under the chin.
The damn thing nodded.
Saurial made a few odd hissing sounds, that weird Family language that always sent a chill down Hannah's back. Newell stared at her, then seemed to grin.
"I need to go," Hannah said quietly, turning around and walking off.
"Bye, Miss Militia," Saurial called pleasantly.
As she turned the corner, she heard the cape greet someone else. "Hello, Mr Anders. We've got your modified wolf finished. Remember the contract you signed, though, he must be kept on a leash at all times when out of the building under the Fenrir Protocols. Agreed?"
"Of course, my dear girl," the familiar voice of Max Anders replied smoothly. "You can trust me."
"Oh, I know I can, Mr Anders," the reptile replied just as smoothly, a grin in her voice, along with a lot of teeth. "I know I can."
Even from where she was speeding up, Hannah could swear she heard the Medhall owner swallow dryly.