Second of three chapters being posted today.
As always the standard disclaimer applies: I do not own the Happy Tree Friends; they are the property of Mondo Media. In addition the character of Fresko the Feline belongs to Deviant Art user Yoshi Lord. I own only my own characters and this story.
Now here's chapter 42:
42 – CLEAN-UP
Fresko turned away from Durago's body. The bear and lion who had watched the fight both came up to him.
"Captain, you're bleeding" said the bear. Fresko ran a paw down his side where Durago had cut him. Fortunately he could tell at once that it was not at all serious. In fact it was really just –
" – A scratch" said Fresko, "nothing worse. I'll get it seen to as soon as we mop up here."
The battle was quite clearly won. Wherever Fresko looked he saw animals in charge of the territory. The Marauders were all dead, captured, or run away. Fresko reached over to his comm-link and opened a channel.
"Loco" he said, "we're ready to clean up this mess."
"Acknowledged" came the reply, "we're on our way."
The battle field was quickly taken care of; Loco arrived with the foot soldiers and they began the work of determining the results of the fight. The casualty count came in quickly; on the Marauder side it was very high, with over half of the Marauder forces either dead or seriously wounded. A majority of the rest of the Marauders were taken prisoner, with the remainder (presumably) running away from the battle. Loco sent a squad of trackers out to round up any strays that they could find and, what with animal senses being a lot finer than human senses, they were very successful, catching almost everyone who had fled the battle. Those who surrendered were taken into custody; those who resisted were killed. Not many resisted.
Animal casualties were very low; the element of surprise had weighed heavily against the Marauders, keeping animal deaths down. But as Fresko had said to Loco more than once, "even one casualty is too many." All of the animal dead were carefully gathered up for transport back to the city, to be given to their families for burial. The Marauder dead were all piled up in the center of the field and then unceremoniously vaporized. All of the prisoners were taken back to the Animal City and held in close confinement until it was decided what should be done with them.
Fresko surveyed the clean-up work with both satisfaction and regret. Satisfaction that his forces had performed so well, and regret because there had been a battle in the first place. His paw touched the bandage on his side. The medics had dressed his wound as soon as they arrived, and then he had gone out to join Loco to watch the cleaning up of the field.
"You did a great job Captain" Loco said to Fresko as they watched their troops go about their work, "we couldn't have asked for a better result."
"Looks like we'll be safe for a little while sir" Fresko said.
"At least as long as XL-Jack-3 decides to leave us alone" replied Loco, "he won't be happy when he hears about this."
"I wish Durago hadn't killed himself" said Fresko, "he would have been a prize."
"Yes he would have, but XL-Jack-3 would never have let him live once he heard about this battle" said Loco, "you know how it is with him: failure equals death."
"It's a wonder he has any men left." Loco nodded.
"I had Lifty and Shifty sent back to the city right after our conversation the other day" he said, "the Mole has them in custody now but he sent me a message saying he was going to wait until after the battle before speaking with them so that I could be there when he did. Do you also wish to be present?"
"No" said Fresko, "there's no need to make it any more personal than it already is. But let me know how it turns out."
"All right" said Loco.
(To Be Continued)