AUTHOR'S NOTES -- Since I forgot to mention it in my last two chapters (like the fool I am) Wizlow is not my character, but belongs to a good friend of mine (she is the ultimate Sloth fan and you can find her on neopets under the username Wizlow) And during my early morning musings as I sat here writing this, I have come to the conclusion that Squick shall henceforth have Bobcat Goldthwait's voice. Thank you o.o;;
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"Hmph..." Sloth grunted as he disdainfully peered through the plexiglass at his two subjects. Karma and Glitz slept close to one another, his malformed club of a tail twined protectively around her left thigh.
"Awww, frickin' love!!" Squick gagged loudly, quickly rewarded by a kick in the rear with the toe of the doctor's boot. "Owwww...." he whined, rubbing at his bruised rump as he shambled out of reach of Doctor Sloth's feet.
"Where did those burns come from?" Sloth inquired to no one in particular, looking at the angry red welts that blistered all over Karma's skin.
"Ahhh...heh...zose are not burns, doktar....zey are an allergic reaction to...." the scorchio began, silenced with an icy glare from Sloth.
"Don't play dumb with me, professor." he warned. "I've been a doctor long before you were a twinkle in your father's eye. What's been going on here?"
"Nozing! Nozing at all!" the scorchio said hurriedly, laughing nervously in an insanely high pitch. "Vhy would zomethink be going on??"
"Because to be perfectly honest, I trust you about as far as I can pitch you." Sloth growled, leering through crimson eyes at his assistant. "And the two things I can think of off the top of my head that would cause abrasions such as those are acid and...perhaps...a laser." he said accusingly. The professor noticeably cringed at this, confirming Sloth's suspicions. "You insubordinate---" he began, clenching his teeth.
"Hey boss!" Squick squealed, momentarily distracting the doctor just long enough for the professor to hastily scramble backward across the laboratory and out of reach.
"Squick.....?" he sneered, clenching his fists. The mutant kacheek was looking bemusedly at a sharpie marker it had robbed from a clipboard and turning it over in its paws.
"How many of these babies do ya think it would take to color all of Maraqua?" he inquired, pulling the lid off and sniffing at it curiously. There was a meaty thwap as Sloth loudly slapped his forehead in utter frustration with his entire crew. If they weren't blatantly ignoring his orders, they were flaming retards, he decided.
"Get out." he hissed. "All of you...GET OUT!!!!!" There was nothing short of a stampede as his lab technicians and gathered staff hurriedly filtered out of the laboratory and left Sloth alone with the enclosure. His roar of anger...or perhaps the ruckus as his staff evacuated the laboratory, had startled both Karma and Glitz awake from their slumber and they goggled up at him tiredly. Karma had come out of her ether-enduced stupor roughly an hour after the professor had returned her to the enclosure and, after she and Dr. Death had reassured one another that they were alright, they had both gone back to sleep.
"Nnngghhh..." Karma groaned as the various burns on her body stung wildly. Glitz moved to place a hand on her arm to comfort her but drew it back at the last moment, deciding touching her would cause more harm than help.
"You alright?" he asked her wearily.
"I don't know." she replied, wincing as she drew herself to her knees. She may as well have been naked, she thought with chagrin, as she looked at the tattered remnants of the dress hanging from her body. The circular burns in the fabric revealed her skin in several areas and the white fabric of her undergarments was plainly visible. And if that wasn't enough she was trapped in the same room with two men. Just wonderful. However, if either Sloth or Glitz had noticed, they didn't let on.
"Had one too many turnabouts with the lab ray, I see." Dr. Sloth remarked dispassionately as he eyed the frog's several burns and abrasions. She scowled and protectively crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't suppose either of you remember what happened last night?"
"What the hell do you care?" the techo spat, leering at the doctor.
"I care..." Sloth began. "...because this magnificent fool I call a professor has thrown us back days of research by tampering with the results. We're back to square one unless either you remembers how many times she was dosed." He looked first at Karma and then at Glitz, smirking at the cluelessness in both their expressions. "That's what I thought." he said, still smirking though with no humor in his voice. He eyed Karma's wounds again and shrugged. "I'll give her a grace period of two days to heal before we begin testing." His words made the techo feel sick and impulsively want to hide Karma away from all of that was happening.
"And I suppose I'll see you back on the slab in an hour." he added as a parting shot to the mutant techo who issued a low growl from between his clenched fangs, much to Sloth's amusement as he turned and left. Karma waited until she was sure he was gone until she allowed herself to double over in combined misery and pain.
"You all right?" Glitz asked.
"No." she whimpered. "Ahh...damn." she cursed, rubbing at a large blister on her shoulder. "I still can't believe all of this was from that stupid ray..."
"At least you didn't end up looking like me." he offered. "Thank god for small favors, eh?"
"Whatever." she muttered, forcing herself to stand and work the pins and needles out of her legs. Her hair felt unpleasantly greasy and gathered in a gnarled mat around her shoulders...though she didn't suppose bathing was something Sloth had in mind for her as she retreated to the faucet in the corner of the enclosure and cracked the tap, holding her palm beneath it as a thin trickle of blessedly cool water ran over her fingers and she used it to carefully dab at the burns on her belly and shoulders. It wasn't much, but it offered her temporary relief.
Glitz silently watched her from here he remained in a half-crouch on the floor. For some inexplicable reason, he felt a mounting pity for her despite the fact that he had been through his share of hell as well. Feeling his eyes on her, she turned her head.
"What?" she asked sharply. He flinched a bit.
"Nothing." he said quickly. She cocked a brow at him and then returned to her water. "You know, that dress isn't going to last you much longer." he informed her.
"How observant of you to notice." she replied disinterestedly, self consciously tugging at the scraps of cloth to better hide her body. What point was he trying to make, anyway? It wasn't as though she had a spare set of clothes she could change into and if he was bothered by it then that was just tough, wasn't it? She heard him stir and then come up behind her and tensed slightly, expecting him to have something snide to say to her. Instead, she felt something drop across her shoulders and blinked, reflexively reaching back to feel what it was.
"You know, I don't think this does much for our relationship when we're ready to kill each other the first time we run into a puddle of bad luck." he said matter-of-factly as she looked puzzled at the fact that he had given her his lab coat to wear.
"Its....its a little more than just a puddle of bad luck." she told him. "I mean, look at you. Look at US! He wants to pick us to pieces, Glitz, and we can't do much to stop him, can we??"
"No." he grumbled. "But if its all the same to you, I'd really rather not spend my last few days trying to pretend you're not five feet away from me on the other side of this damn cage either." She regarded him flatly for a long moment and then nodded.
"Alright." she said in resignation, tugging the coat over her shoulders a bit further. She looked the mutant techo levelly in the eyes, not quite as repulsed by his twisted appearance, but still a bit unnerved. "Thank you."
"You need it more than I do." he informed her. "Unless you enjoy those mutants stealing looks at your chest when they think you're not looking." In spite of herself, Karma snickered and calmed a bit, favoring him with a lopsided smile. "So this is you now, huh?" she asked, reaching out and touching the tip of one of his eye ridges.
"For now, at least." he sighed. "If..." he stopped and corrected himself. "WHEN we get out of here, I'm pretty sure Kauvara would be more than happy to sell me one of her potions." he shrugged. "We'll see, I guess." Karma nodded and then, gingerly, leaned in and gave him a gentle hug. He simply stood, accepting it and not wanting to return it as he was mindful of her burns.
"I'm sorry for all of this." she whispered. "If I hadn't wanted to go to the woods we wouldn't be here."
"Its not your fault." he assured her. "From the way Sloth talked, it sounded like he just wanted me and you ended up coming along for the ride because you were with me. So if anything, its my fault."
"For what?"
"For being a jackass, apparently...that's the only reason he chose me. He knew nobody would miss me." Glitz explained.
"No...that can't be it." she tried to assure him.
"Karma, he told me flat-out." he interrupted. She silenced at once and looked at the ground.
"Oh." was all she said. He sighed and stepped away, retreating to the corner of the enclosure and plumping down on his rear. The tattered slacks he wore gave a protesting rip as one of his newly-acquired spines tore against the fabric. He didn't notice, or if he did, he didn't care as he looked plaintively out through the glass wall. Karma hesitated and then approached, sitting beside him and nuzzling up against him carefully, trying not to irritate her skin. "Let's just stay like this for awhile." she told him. He didn't answer, but complied as he wrapped his arms around her and for a long time, they simply held one another in silence.
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The day seemed to drag on forever as Wizlow retired to her quarters once again, but this time had no intention of winding down for the evening. She had sat through another testing session with the male techo again, this time resulting in four no-changes, a species change to a lupe, and a color change to split before they had stopped for the day and returned him to the enclosure. She had made up her mind after catching the professor the night before, that she was going to do something very unorthodox....she was going to let the two subjects go.
She had more than one reason for this decision....the main one being simply that she was tired of the idea nagging at her that one or the other of them was going to die and the other being that she didn't think it would be terribly hard to make it look like the professor's fault that they had gotten out and she was more than eager to see the way Frank would rearrange his face.
Wizlow unshouldered her trenchcoat and pulled her shirt over her head as she made her way to her closet, picking through the scant assortment of clothes that hung from hangers inside. She shoved through them, impatiently looking for one in particular. After a moment, she found what she was looking for and pulled it out, holding it in front of herself. The dress reached the floor in a flourish of black satin and a soft film of chenille and had thin straps that fit over her shoulders.
The only time she remembered ever wearing it, or any dress in general really, was when Sloth had, a long time ago, agreed to a peace talk with some of Neopia's powers-that-be and had taken her along as well. The talk, of course, had gone badly and had resulted in another of Frank's attempts to "reclaim" Neopia for his own.
Removing the last of her clothes, she hurriedly slipped into the garment and straightened it, giving herself a cursory glance in the bedroom mirror. She didn't particularly care for the way she looked in a dress, but it would have to do, she decided, as she returned to the closet to fish out a pair of black loafers to go with it. Taking a deep breath, she exited her room in a whisper of her skirt and proceeded in the direction of the laboratory.
She hadn't gotten halfway down the hallway when a loud whistle pierced the darkness and made her freeze, her breath catching in her throat. "Heeeey! Not bad, Wizlow!" a familiar voice jeered. She clenched her teeth, feeling her tiny fangs grinding together. "On your way to yer own funeral, I hope?" Squick asked, poking his head out of where he had been watching her from the doorway of the men's bathroom. She was just going to kill him...that's all. Nobody would notice. He wouldn't even scream till after he was dead, she decided as she turned sharply, favoring the mutant kacheek with a piercing glare.
He grinned, showing off his rows of oversized needly teeth as she stormed back toward him, seizing the first thing her hand closed around....one of the janitorial brooms, and swung it at him. Squick, knowing Wizlow's temper, had seen it coming and easily dodged out of the way giggling. "HEY! You should be ridin' that thing! Not swingin' it!" he cackled. His merriment was shortlived, however, as she caught him with it on her second try, making him squeal in pain as she trapped him between the end of the broom and the wall, sneering at him.
"Shut....up." she said quietly. "Just shut your stinking piehole. The next time you talk to me, I'm going to squash you. Do you understand me? I don't care if its to say good morning, I don't care if its to ask me a question, I don't care if its to tell me my hair is on fire. The next time you talk, you'll die. Do you understand??" she growled. The kacheek whimpered and hurriedly nodded as she drew the broom backward and threw it angrily aside, leaving the bewildered mutant where he was as she continued on her way to the laboratory. Squick watched her go, rubbing at the bruised area on his throat. He considered screaming a parting shot at her, but decided against it, thinking she really might be serious about killing him this time as he half-scampered, half-limped into the shadows.
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"Ugh...beans and sausages AGAIN??" Chomby groaned, watching as Yahoo emptied the brown slop out of a can and into two bowls.
"Hey, you think cooking is easy? I'd like to see YOU come up here and try it!" the cybunny snapped.
"I know, but we've had that for the past four days for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner. I'm tired of it." the blue chomby complained. "Can't we go get some chocolate or something?"
"Gee...lemme think. NO." Yahoo replied. "We spent all our neopoints this morning feeding that stupid doglefox." Upon hearing mention of himself, Snap poked his head around the corner of the kitchen and whuffed softly. Rose had asked them to take care of the petpet because she wasn't home enough to do so lately.
"Hmph....was just asking." the dinosaur sniffed, bending over to pick up Snap and cuddle him. The doglefox lapped at his face, but not quite with the same enthusiasm he would have if Chomby had been his real owner. He sighed as Yahoo finished dividing up the beans and picked up both bowls, carrying them to the table. Setting Snap down, he resigned himself to meandering out of the kitchen to eat. Maybe if he pretended really hard, what was in the bowl would taste like something else.
"Oh stop dragging your feet." Yahoo grumbled, sitting down and spooning up a mouthful. "In a few minutes you'll have a full belly and won't be able to taste it anymore anyway."
"Yeah whatever." Chomby sighed, wishing for something else ANYTHING else to be residing in his bowl as he sat down, Snap trotting toward his chair and seating himself at the tableside to begin his appointed begging. As he spooned up a small amount of the brown glop, he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Fer crying out loud..." Yahoo began, shoving away from the table. Chomby, glad for a distraction from the meal, eagerly got up from the table and galloped toward the door.
"I'll get it!!" he howled. Snap, yapping excitedly, ran up behind him as he seized the doorknob and threw the door open, revealing a somewhat perplexed Rose standing there, clutching two grocery bags.
"Well!" she smirked with a toss of her mane. "I can't say anyone's ever been quite THAT happy to see me before. I come baring gifts." she added, giving the bags she held a shake.
"Food??" Chomby asked hopefully.
"Maybe." the uni smiled, setting them down as Chomby eagerly began sifting through them. She walked past him and seated herself on the couch, groaning and stretching her back. "Our police force is a joke." she said to no one in particular.
"Why's that?" Yahoo asked as he returned to the dinner table and fed himself a large spoonful of sausages and beans.
"I've spent two hours in their office after work for the past week and they STILL haven't turned anything up on the doctor OR Karma." she explained. "And now they're trying to tell me that maybe the two of them just up and left Neopia."
"Feh." Yahoo grumbled around his mouthful of beans. "Just went for a walk and suddenly decided Neopia sucked and it was time to bail? Didn't pack or anything?"
"Exactly the point I tried to make." the pink uni sighed. "So I've given up on going to them for any more 'help'."
"Gibben ub??" Chomby asked around a mouthful of the chocolate moehogs he had discovered in one of the bags and been stuffing his mouth with.
"If they haven't turned them up after a week, chances are they're not going to keep looking." Rose shrugged. "So I guess you guys are just going to have to hope with me that everything turns out alright."
"Did they check the Snowager's cave again?" Yahoo questioned.
"They interviewed him personally, or so they claim." she told him. "And that temp is driving me crazy, let me add. All she does is scare the adopters and stuff her face." Yahoo laughed at this and set his spoon down.
"What a charmer." he giggled.
"How are you guys getting along?" she inquired.
"Eh, we're survivi---"
"Terrible!" Chomby interrupted, finishing his moehogs and moving on to the box of pink sprinkled donuts. "We've barely got anything to eat and its been forever since I've had a decent tucking in."
"I tucked you in for the past three nights! What're you talking about??" Yahoo demanded.
"You give me nightmares!" the chomby replied accusingly. "You keep singing that stupid Johnny Burbeck song!"
"So?" the cybunny retorted...and then began to sing loudly "OHHHHH Mister Mister Johnny Burbeck, how couldja be so mean..."
"Quit it!" Chomby wailed, clapping his paws over his ears.
"I toldja you'd be sorry for inventing that machine. And now the neighbors, cats, and dogs will nevermore be seen...."
"I'm warning you!"
"They'll ALL BE GROUND TO SAUSAGES IN JOHNNY BURBECK'S MACHINE!!!" he cried out, laughing and ducking as a donut flew across the room, narrowly missing his head. From where she watched on the couch, RoseMadder rolled her eyes as the two neopets proceeded to argue and wrestle with one another on the carpet. What a mess everything had turned out to be....who would have thought that things would have been turned upside-down just because two people went a-missing?
As it stood, people were afraid to come INSIDE the pound anymore let alone actually adopt or abandon. Ms. Whorley was just as mean as she was fat and if people had been afraid of Dr. Death, they were terrified of her. Rose had never looked more forward to her day off in her entire career....not even the bickering of the neopets could upset her.
"Boys." Rose said above the clamour as they stopped in mid-struggle to look at her. "I'll stay over tonight and help get things back in order. How's that?" Like magic, the cybunny and chomby instantly ceased fighting.
"Okay!" Chomby agreed eagerly, bucking Yahoo off of his chest and standing, his tail wagging.
"Good...you guys put the food away and I'll do the dishes." she smiled, getting up off of the couch. They both agreeably picked up a paper sack and scurried into the kitchen with it and the air was soon alive with telltale clinks and clatters of things being put into the cupboards. Truthfully, playing referee for Karma's pets really hadn't been Rose's idea of an ideal day off, but she supposed it was just another IOU she could chalk up for the doctor, when and if he ever came back.
She skidded to a stop as she entered the kitchen, ogling the enormous pile of dirty dishes stacked in the sink. It looked as though the two neopets had managed to dirty every cup, plate, bowl, and piece of silverware in the entire house in just four days. Up until now, she wouldn't have thought such a thing was possible, but apparently Chomby and Yahoo had proved her wrong. The uni took a deep breath and let it out slowly, determined she would keep her cool as she approached the sink and turned on the hot water, grabbing the first of the plates on which a thin crust of food and gravy had dried. It would be an hour-long project at best, she decided.
There was a tug at her tail and she turned to see Chomby looking eagerly up at her.
"Will you make pancakes tomorrow morning??" he asked. She bit her lip but forced herself to nod. Apparently she had no idea what she had just gotten herself into.
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"Its NOT a good look for me." Glitz pouted indignantly as Karma laughed, giving his now-fluffy tail a tug.
"Its better than what you were this morning. Give it that at least." she offered. The split lupe grumbled irately, grabbing his orange and purple tail away from the frog and laying it across his lap.
"At least I have fur to cover myself now." he said, curling his lips away from his maw of fangs and sighing, his pointed ears laying along the bullet of his skull. "Those pants disintegrated after three blasts with that stupid ray."
"Could have been worse." Karma reminded him.
"Yeah...Rose might be here to see me like this." he huffed, shuddering at the thought.
"I don't know...I think it makes you look refined." she teased, reaching up and scratching him briskly between the ears, laughing as his foot began to thump against the floor reflexively.
"Stop that!" he barked, jerking his head out of reach.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist." she snickered. "Really though, its better than being a mutant, right?"
"Its driving me crazy." he informed her. "Everything's about four times as potent with this nose...and the pine shavings are giving me a headache now."
"Aww....poor baby." she smirked, resting her head on his chest. He glared down at her, irritated by her mood swings. She had been in a very irate frame of mind up until he had returned from testing not too long ago in his new body and now she seemed to be back to normal and teasing him every chance she got. Before he had a chance to formulate a retort, however, there was the sound of a knob turning, making the both of them whip their heads in the direction of the door. A low growl began to issue from Glitz's throat as his arm unconsciously went around Karma's shoulders in a protective manner.
The door opened a crack as the duo watched, both expecting to see the wild-eyed professor again, wanting to spirit Karma away. Dr. Death had no intention of letting it happen again....he didn't care WHAT sort of damned stun gun the scorchio threatened him with, he vowed that as soon as he entered the enclosure, he'd tear him to shreds. However, the rage was shortlived as the person who entered was not the professor at all, but rather one of the other lab personell, and she was clad in some sort of formal attire.
"What do you want?" Glitz snarled at her, his jaws hanging slightly open as he showed his teeth. One thing could be said for his new body....lupes had much more power to look intimidating than techos ever did.
"Stuff it." she answered curtly, crossing the laboratory and looking as though she was about to jump out of her skin every step of the way. His purple and orange fur bristled as she came near the enclosure and the arm around Karma tightened. "And you can cut the macho BS. I'm not after your girlfriend." she added as she approached the numberlock. "I'm busting you guys out." Had Wizlow cared to notice, she would have laughed at the fact that both of their mouths had dropped open at the same time.
"You....but...." Karma faltered, trying to get a grip on her words. "Why?"
"I have my reasons." she replied simply as she keyed in the access code and waited for the accepting click of the bolt being drawn into the lock. The lupe and frog watched in bewilderment as the door yawned open invitingly before stumbling to their feet and exiting, breathing deeply of the outside air. "Now listen, don't get too excited, alright?" she told them both sharply. "All I can do is let you out. If you get caught by the guards, you're both on your own. I've stuck my neck out enough."
Karma and Glitz exchanged a slightly troubled look as Wizlow made a gesture toward the door leading to the lab ray. "There's a passage back there into the storage rooms and from there, a vent duct that should be big enough for you two to squeeze into. I don't know where it goes, but chances are you'll find the outside eventually. Now get out of here." she ordered, giving Glitz a small shove in the direction of the door.
"Thank you." Karma began.
"You think I'm kidding?? Go on! MOVE!!" she cried, spurring the frog into action as she and Glitz scurried in the direction of the testing facility and quickly disappeared behind the door. She smiled thinly, slowly counting to ten, before quietly exiting the lab again. She had bigger fish to fry, after all.
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Frank Sloth looked up from his computer monitor, irritated malice gleaming in his eyes as a security breach alarm twittered on a nearby console. He waited a moment, and when the alarm continued to squeal, he slammed a fist down on the tabletop as he angrily got up from where he was sitting. He may as well not have had a damned guard system at all for all of the "security" they provided as he examined where the alarm was sounding. The third floor laboratory. He felt his fists clench in rage and decided that if he caught a certain scorchio up to dickens again, he just might make an exception on his "No Death Within These Walls" policy.
He turned back to his computer, quickly exiting the program he had been using. The screen went black and a small "Please Enter Password" message appeared. Satisfied that things were protected from prying eyes, he set off after the source of the trouble with purpose in his stride, silently making a list in his mind of what he'd do to whomever had interrupted him this time. Was it so much to ask to have a competant staff to deal with mishaps like this? Apparently so. He stormed up the flight of stairs, beginning to hear the faint telltale buzzing of the alarm and winced as it pierced his ears with its whining voice.
Sloth paused at the head of the stairs, peering down the dark hallway and noting that the alert light above the testing facility was blazing an angry red color. Just as he had thought. The doctor broke into a trot, hoping to catch the offending party in the act as he grabbed hold of the door, which hung slightly agape, and yanked it open.
"Someone, apparently, has a death wish." he growled into the darkness as he reached for the lightswitch on the wall. Before he could flip it, however, another hand alighted on his, making him jerk backward as though he had been burned.
"Frank..." He recognized Wizlow's voice immediately.
"Wizlow, are you daft??" he hissed. "What if I had been carrying a gun?" She chuckled in reply.
"Frank, Frank, Frank...." she sighed. "The things I have to do these days to get your attention. I didn't used to have to set off alarms to get you to look my way." Truthfully, Wizlow hadn't set off the alarm at all. It had been the enclosure that had once held Glitz and Karma. The door was set on a timer that would set off an alarm if it was jostled or left open for longer than two minutes....and though she hadn't planned on its sounding, it had played into her plan perfectly. Originally, her intent had been to distract him....but found that she had her own motives in the ordeal as well.
"YOU set it off??" Sloth asked vehemently. "You mean to tell me that I abandoned a perfectly good ten minutes of work to play one of your stupid ga---" he trailed off as she flicked the lightswitch and flooded the laboratory briefly with bright flourescent light, illuminating herself in the sleek black dress she had selected from her closet before switching the lights off again.
"All work and no play makes Frankie a dull boy." Wizlow said solicitously. He felt one of her hands give him a gentle shove and then heard her retreating footsteps as she went further inside.
"Well....maybe a small break wouldn't hurt." he heard himself say, closing the door and plunging everything into total darkness.
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"Have you got it yet?" Karma asked as Glitz strained to pull the grating off of the duct.
"Almost...." he grunted, feeling the pads of his paws beginning to slip. The metal grating shuddered as the rusty screws holding it in place struggled to keep their hold in the wall "C'mon....." he growled. There was a groan from the metal as it bent slightly, and suddenly came free in his grip, sending him toppling tail-over-applecart backwards and into a large drum of floorwax in the corner of the closet. "Owww...." he groaned, rubbing at his head as he sat up.
"You alright??" Karma asked worriedly.
"Yeah..." he muttered, getting to his feet and looking at the duct. The entrance was all but clogged with mats of dust and dead insects. "After you." he offered.
"Oh please. DO lead on." Karma told him, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"You sure?" he asked, cocking a brow at her.
"Feh. I'd rather look at your furry butt while we crawl around in the dark than worry about whether or not you can see my underpants." she grumbled, making him snicker.
"Alright, fair enough." he told her, kneeling and brushing the cobwebs and dust away with a flick of his wrist before poking his head into the duct. It would be a tight fit, but not enough for them to get stuck if they were careful. He drew back suddenly, the dust irritating his nose and making him sneeze loudly. "Give me a five second head start and then follow after me." he told her after he had recovered. The frog nodded and knelt, watching as he tentatively slid his head and shoulders into the metal tunnel and then disappeared with a flick of his split tail.
After slowly counting to five, she followed after him, shuddering in disgust as the tacky silk of a cobweb carressed her cheek. The inside of the duct was lined with a thin carpet of dust that swirled and clouded as they clamoured through it. Ahead of her, Karma could hear Dr. Death repeatedly sneezing as the dust made her eyes water. Up ahead, the spindly shadow of a large cockroach scuttled past with a small chittering sound as they moved.
"What do you see up there?" Karma asked.
"Not....CHOOF!! buch ubb anything..." he replied, his nose sounding stuffed. His eyes were bleary and the walls of the duct had lost their definition, fading to a wavery gray void in front of himself. He pulled himself forward another three feet or so, heaving his weight forward so that he would be in front of the dust before it clouded up. This, however, proved to be a mistake, as he gathered his paws beneath himself for another shove....and suddenly found that there was no longer a floor beneath him. With a strangled cry, he toppled forward, one paw blindly snatching behind him for something to catch himself with.
Karma had no sooner formed the sentence "What's wrong?" in her mind before the lupe's groping paw closed savagely around the neck of the baggy white labcoat she wore, yanking her forward as he lost his balance and sent the both of them toppling over the edge of a large elbow joint in the vent. There was a brief sensation of flight and then a crunching thud as they landed roughly ten feet below. However, there was not enough time to reflect on this as their forward momentum sent them both tumbling forward in a tangle down the next length of vent.
Their helpless rolling carried them over a rusted ceiling grate that, apparently, was too old and feeble to hold both of their weight as it spewed open with a groan, sending them both plummeting out of the duct and into a spacious concrete room on top of a pile of musty cardboard boxes that disintegrated with a faint crumple beneath them.
"Ugh...." Karma groaned, rolling over and blinking dazedly at the ceiling of the strange room.
"Nnghh....you alright?" Glitz groaned, finding himself staring directly at his own tail from the upside-down accordianed position his body had fallen into as he winced and uncoiled himself.
"I think so..." the frog's voice floated up from the rubble of boxes as she slowly sat up, rubbing at the back of her neck. Her shoulders ached, but nothing seemed out of commission as she woozily got up. "Where are we?"
"Hell if I know..." he grunted, rolling over and reaching up with one paw to brush his tangle of silver hair out of his eyes. The room was chilly and vacant, and looked as though it hadn't been looked after for years. It smelled thickly of mildew and off in the distance, water dripped incessantly. Probably the basement, he guessed as he got to his feet and winced as he straightened his back with a pop. "Nice digs." he commented sarcastically.
"Smells like my gramma's house." Karma commented, looking down at the crushed remains of the boxes they had fallen into. There were rotted newspapers inside that were beyond being readable and had liquified into gray pulp.
"Well, now what?" Glitz wondered aloud, looking about. The only way out seemed to be a rickety wooden ladder that led up to a trap door in the ceiling....and he wasn't about to be gotten that easily. Chances were, by now Sloth had people crawling all over the building looking for them and if they chanced that, they were likely to find themselves right in the middle of a cluster of guards.
"Maybe we should stay here awhile." Karma suggested. The lupe shook his head.
"No. That'll just make it easier for them to corner us." he sighed, his eyes skating the room. Aisde from the vast collection of rotting boxes and crates around them, there wasn't terribly much else. Against the far wall, there was a stack of plastic-seated black chairs with metal legs, dusty and growing mold from lack of use. Alongside these was an ancient-looking wooden table that looked as though it had once been part of the laboratory furniture, however now its legs had been eaten through by woodlice and termites and it was basically useless.
Also, standing off in one corner which somewhat surprised Glitz, was a large grayish-white metal box with a small window portal on the front. On top sat a few bottles of fabric soap.
"A washer?" he asked incredulously. "The great Doctor Sloth has a friggin' maytag?"
"Well....I don't know what to tell you except that I don't imagine his clothes clean themselves..." Karma shrugged, wondering why it had come as such a surprise.
"Nevermind." he said, shaking his head as an idea formed in his mind. "Help me move it." he told her, heading in the washer's direction. It was larger than the standard household one...likely used to clean more than one person's laundry at a time. Karma hesitated, but followed him and stood beside him as he braced his shoulder against it. "On three." he told her. "One, two....three!" The washer made a snarling sound as it was pushed along the concrete, protesting a bit. From beneath, a cluster of silverfish and spiders scattered in a flurry of tiny legs to find new hiding places.
As the washer protested and wouldn't be pushed any further, Glitz eagerly peered behind it, breaking into a grin. "AHA!" he announced, squeezing behind the washer and heaving it away from the wall a foot or so.
"What?" Karma asked.
"Its one of THESE kinds." he told her, pointing at the large hose that connected to the back. "We're right next to a sewer and this thing deposits the water directly into it when its done washing....so if we can just open it..."
"Oh please, spare me..." Karma groaned. "We just crawled through the lair of the dust bunnies and now you want to wallow around in the sewer too?"
"Unless you have any better ideas..." he replied waspishly, kneeling and attempting to unscrew the bolts holding the rubber hose in place. His claws and pads, despite the fact they had good gripping power, didn't seem to be able to hold the bolts very well as they refused to budge. "Little help?" he shot over his shoulder at her. She glared at him and seized the large hose, giving it a yank. The aged rubber, its bounce long gone, cracked in several places and split at the top, making him pause and look numbly at it for a moment. "That works too..." he sighed, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation before working his fingers into the split and pulling.
A swampy aroma began to issue from inside as he widened the gap and then, with a sharp pull, he found himself showered in a small cascade of freezing, fetid water that had been sitting inside the hose for god only knew how long. "AUGH!!" he cried, shaking his head and spitting. It was all Karma could do to keep from laughing as he clumsily got to his feet, stormed a short distance away and shook the foul water out of his fur wildly.
"Beautiful. You smell just like a flower." Karma grinned as he returned, his face screwed up into a look of disgust at the putrid stench caked into his fur.
"Shut up." he growled. "You're about to share in that experience."
"Sorry. I'll go first this time." she offered. He shrugged, giving no protest and gestured toward the hole in the wall where a fragment of the broken hose still hung. The frog crouched in front of it, poking her head inside and gagged almost instantly on the horrible gassy odor inside. How lovely....oh well. Bracing herself, she placed her hands inside of the circular metal mouth and began to inch in, wincing as the cold slimy jelly of the sides slid over her flesh as she was swallowed up by the passage.
Luckily, she didn't have terribly far to go, and could already hear running water on the other side as she wriggled forward, eyes clenched and mouth pursed shut to keep any of the foulness around her from getting inside. Much to her relief, as she reached forward to heft herself along again, she felt her hands break into open space, failing a moment before they found the lips of the exit.
"You alright in there?" Dr. Death called after her, his voice echoing off of the walls of the tube and sounding robotic.
"I'm fine!" she called back, squirming out of the mouth of the large pipe and standing carefully on what felt like concrete, not wanting to hit her head on the ceiling if it was low-hung. "Its alright, its only about an eight foot crawl." she added. There was a pause, and then scuffling from inside the pipe. A few moments later, the lupe's head emerged, a tendril of black slime across his muzzle as he wriggled out and joined her.
It was hard to see inside, the meager light from the mouth of the tube, providing a dim ray of light but from what they could see, they were now standing in a long tunnel, a river of filth between them and the other side of it. "Well....I guess we start walking." he commented.
"Guess so." she shrugged as they began to tenatively walk in what they thought to be the right direction, careful not to slip.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I'M TELLING YOU, SHE STOLE MY CYBUNNY!!!" the unkept boy behind the counter insisted, pounding one filthy fist on the desk. "SHE STOLE IT AND IT WAS LEVEL TWENTY ONE!!!"
"Sir, a minute ago you said it was level seventeen." Rose said, clinging to her last shreds of decency as she felt her teeth grind together. The loud (and rather obnoxious) child was tapdancing on her final nerve and she felt she wasn't terribly far away from simply grabbing him by the seat of his pants and hurling him outside. To make matters worse, Ms. Whorley was acting as though nothing was even happening as she methodically tossed handfuls of nachos into her mouth as she idly read the Neopian Times. So much for a stressless day at work. He had been ranting about this cybunny for an hour solid, as though he expected her to be able to do something about it. She had told him five times that the police would deal with it better than she would, and all five times he had ignored her.
Nevermind the fact it was impossible for one to "steal" another's pet in Neopia. Not without the proper forms signed, at least, and there was nothing stopping the cybunny from running away the first chance it got and back to its real owner if it truly HAD been stolen.
"So I forgot! I'm sorry!" he whined. "But I want him back!! You have to help me!!!"
"What do you want me to do about it?" Rose asked, beginning to get disgusted with the entire ordeal.
"I WANT HIM BACK!!!" he screeched, making Rose wince and cover her ears.
"Look...." she tried to explain for the last time before feeling as though she'd lose it for good.
"Joeycucamunga, what the heck are you blabbering about??" a voice cut in, making both Rose and the boy turn their heads to see a rather irate young man standing in the doorway clad in a white T-shirt, a black vest, and leather pants, flanked by two lupes, one fiery and one red, that leered dispassionately at the spectacle at the front desk. On his head was a combed-back tangle of red hair and he looked to be one of Neopia's typical bullies. "I mean, for cryin' out loud, I'm growin' a beard over here!!"
"I'll be with you in a moment, sir." Rose informed him dryly, sighing.
"I ain't talkin' to *you*, girly." the young man huffed, putting his spindly arms on his hips. "I'm talkin' to THIS loser." he said, approaching the desk and glaring at the boy.
"I wasn't talking to you, so butt out!" the boy snorted, puffing out his spindly chest in defiance, clearly not a match for the older challenger. "I'm just trying to get back what's mine!!"
"Look, egghead, does this horse look like she cares??" the punk demanded, pointing a finger at Rose. "I got some business to take care of, so get lost!"
"But---"
"Buzz off! Make like an ameoba and split! Put an egg in your shoe and beat it!!" he said, giving the boy a shove. The whiner stumbled and fell squarely on his rear, blinking bewilderedly up at the punk a moment and clearly not used to being told what to do before his face dissolved into tears as he stumbled to his feet and fled the pound, braying loudly. "Oh brother, what a LOSER!!" the punk said with a high-pitched chuckle.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate that." Rose admitted, smiling faintly.
"Yeah, whatever." he grunted. "Look girly, I need a new pet for my pack. Ya got any?"
"We've got plenty." Rose nodded, getting up and opening the door to the back room as she motioned him to follow her. The kid followed, the heels of his boots clicking on the floor as Rose motioned to the lines of cages, relieved that he hadn't been here to abandon one of his pets. The two lupes bounded ahead of him and began filtering through the cages, snuffling at the pets inside.
"You ever find that goon you work with?" the boy asked conversationally as he peered at a large yellow skeith that was contentedly munching on its bowl of kibbles.
"News travels, eh?" Rose smirked. "No we haven't yet. As a matter of fact, he's---"
"Hey boss, how 'bout this one??" the red lupe barked, interrupting Rose as the punk pushed past her and strode toward the cage in question, peering inside.
"Are you nuts??" he demanded to know, peering at the blue poogle inside. "What a runt!"
"Level thirty-three." the lupe winked knowingly at his owner. The punk's eyes instantly lit up.
"Hey horsie, lemme have this one." he called at Rose. She rolled her eyes, flustered that the nickname he had chosen for her was the same thing that Ms. Whorley called her....horsie. Bah! Couldn't they see the horn on her head? Never the less, she moved forward to unlock the cage.
"What's yer name, kid?" the fire lupe inquired in a rough voice as the door swung open.
"Eggpee." the poogle said somewhat embarrassedly, glaring at the two lupes as they began to snicker. "Shaddup!" he ordered, drawing back one stubby paw and striking the fire lupe squarely across the jaw. The beast toppled over backwards with a yelp of surprise. "You make fun of my name again and I'll flatten you!!" The punk, obviously pleased, grinned toothily and reached out, giving the poogle's head a scritch before standing again.
"How much I owe ya, girly?" he asked.
"I'm going to take an estimate of two thousand, given how strong that particular pet is." Rose informed him. The boy arched one red brow.
"Eight hundred." he told her. If Rose had fists, she'd have clenched them at that moment.
"Two....thousand...." she said, beginning to tremble, feeling herself on the verge of a breakdown.
"Hey, I got that moron off your back. How 'bout a discount?? Twelve hundred big ones." he retorted. The uni had put up with a lot in the days that Dr. Death had been missing....rude people, double-shifts, an obnoxious co-worker, people trying to scam her, but this boy having the gall to HAGGLE with her over the price of his adopted pet was the straw that broke the Apis's back. Something inside Rose's head snapped as she tilted her head ceilingward and screeched at the top of her lungs.
"Geez laweez!!" the punk complained, clapping his hands over his ears. "Alright, alright FINE!! Take yer lousy money!" he huffed, reaching into the pocket of his faded jeans and producing a black leather wallet, tethered to his body by a thin silver chain as he counted out the neopoint bills before crumpling them and quite literally throwing them at Rose before grabbing up the poogle and hurrying out of the pound, his lupes following quickly behind.
"Hey, what's the racket back there??" Ms. Whorley demanded to know. Shortly after she spoke, Rasvar appeared in the doorway to find the source of the noise and stopped short as he noted Rose, her nose pointed ceilingward and tears rolling down her face as she loudly cried. Not saying a word, the red blumaroo whirled around and returned to the front. "Whaddaya mean horsie's lost it?" she demanded to know. "Tell her to get over it and get back out here!" A moment later, Rasvar reappeared.
"Umm...Miss Rose?" he asked timidly. "Mum says...."
"I HEARD HER!!!" Rose screamed, amid sobs, making the blumaroo scramble backward and vanish again. Instantly, she felt terrible for frightening him, but hadn't been able to help herself. She was quite literally going crazy with all that had happened lately and between doing twice her workload at the pound, taking care of Karma's neopets, and trying to have a life of her own, she felt she was fighting a losing battle about keeping her head above water.
Bit by bit, she got herself back under control until her sobs had died away to small hitches as she walked back out front and gingerly sat down on her side of the desk, heaving a long sigh and being careful to keep her eyes directly on the desktop in case something else set her off. The pink uni focused her thoughts on things that made her happy....freshly cut plurby bouquets, warm mugs of cocoa with raspberry marshmallows melted inside, soft summer evenings, curling up under her feather comforter and at night to sleep.....
"Hey horsie, check this out. You might be stuck with me longer than ya think." Ms. Whorley informed her around a mouthful of chips. Rose's nirvana was shattered as a piece of newspaper was slid across the desk and in front of her nose, one of the human woman's pudgy fingers tapping a particular article. In spite of the fact that reading the paper was the last thing she felt like doing, Rose peered at the article in question, drawing in a small gasp of horror as she read.
_____________________________________________
LOCAL POUNDKEEPER BELIEVED TO BE DEAD
Police investigators, on the case of the strange disappearance of Dr. Death (employee of Neopia's adoption facility) for nearly a week, report today that an, as of now, unidentified scatter of bones has been discovered in the outskirts of the Haunted Woods. Testing has yet to be done to determine the species of the find as the skull was missing, but detectives at the scene found the techo practicioner's identification badge nearby and are not ruling out the possibility that he may have been attacked and devoured by one of the inhabitants of the woods.
"We've been telling people time and again to take care when going into those woods." says Chia Chief Fuzzlegrutt. "If people would practice a little common sense, we wouldn't end up with cases like these. Neopians honestly need to look out for one another better than this."
Being that this is the only lead investigators have found after tiresome searching, all further attempts will be called off as of midnight tonight to find the doctor. Neopian citizens are reminded by the Chia Police Force to always bring a partner when traveling to Neopia's far-away lands as they are vastly unexplored and still are home to many dangerous creatures.
________________________________________________
As she finished the article, Rose found that she had, again, burst into tears as she lowered her head to the desk and sobbed bitterly. It wasn't fair....it just wasn't. Ms. Whorley, dispassionate to the uni's crying, tugged the paper back into her own hands and continued to leaf through it.
"Ohh stop it." she grunted. "Here, I know what'll make ya feel better....RASVAR!!!" she bellowed. "Go get me and horsie some peach ice cream!!!" Rose, amid her crying, suddenly was overcome by a wave of sickness as she shoved back from the desk, whimpering raggedly, and made a dash for the restroom, slamming the door behind her. "Nevermind....just one." Ms. Whorley called to the blumaroo with a shrug.
TBC.........................
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"Hmph..." Sloth grunted as he disdainfully peered through the plexiglass at his two subjects. Karma and Glitz slept close to one another, his malformed club of a tail twined protectively around her left thigh.
"Awww, frickin' love!!" Squick gagged loudly, quickly rewarded by a kick in the rear with the toe of the doctor's boot. "Owwww...." he whined, rubbing at his bruised rump as he shambled out of reach of Doctor Sloth's feet.
"Where did those burns come from?" Sloth inquired to no one in particular, looking at the angry red welts that blistered all over Karma's skin.
"Ahhh...heh...zose are not burns, doktar....zey are an allergic reaction to...." the scorchio began, silenced with an icy glare from Sloth.
"Don't play dumb with me, professor." he warned. "I've been a doctor long before you were a twinkle in your father's eye. What's been going on here?"
"Nozing! Nozing at all!" the scorchio said hurriedly, laughing nervously in an insanely high pitch. "Vhy would zomethink be going on??"
"Because to be perfectly honest, I trust you about as far as I can pitch you." Sloth growled, leering through crimson eyes at his assistant. "And the two things I can think of off the top of my head that would cause abrasions such as those are acid and...perhaps...a laser." he said accusingly. The professor noticeably cringed at this, confirming Sloth's suspicions. "You insubordinate---" he began, clenching his teeth.
"Hey boss!" Squick squealed, momentarily distracting the doctor just long enough for the professor to hastily scramble backward across the laboratory and out of reach.
"Squick.....?" he sneered, clenching his fists. The mutant kacheek was looking bemusedly at a sharpie marker it had robbed from a clipboard and turning it over in its paws.
"How many of these babies do ya think it would take to color all of Maraqua?" he inquired, pulling the lid off and sniffing at it curiously. There was a meaty thwap as Sloth loudly slapped his forehead in utter frustration with his entire crew. If they weren't blatantly ignoring his orders, they were flaming retards, he decided.
"Get out." he hissed. "All of you...GET OUT!!!!!" There was nothing short of a stampede as his lab technicians and gathered staff hurriedly filtered out of the laboratory and left Sloth alone with the enclosure. His roar of anger...or perhaps the ruckus as his staff evacuated the laboratory, had startled both Karma and Glitz awake from their slumber and they goggled up at him tiredly. Karma had come out of her ether-enduced stupor roughly an hour after the professor had returned her to the enclosure and, after she and Dr. Death had reassured one another that they were alright, they had both gone back to sleep.
"Nnngghhh..." Karma groaned as the various burns on her body stung wildly. Glitz moved to place a hand on her arm to comfort her but drew it back at the last moment, deciding touching her would cause more harm than help.
"You alright?" he asked her wearily.
"I don't know." she replied, wincing as she drew herself to her knees. She may as well have been naked, she thought with chagrin, as she looked at the tattered remnants of the dress hanging from her body. The circular burns in the fabric revealed her skin in several areas and the white fabric of her undergarments was plainly visible. And if that wasn't enough she was trapped in the same room with two men. Just wonderful. However, if either Sloth or Glitz had noticed, they didn't let on.
"Had one too many turnabouts with the lab ray, I see." Dr. Sloth remarked dispassionately as he eyed the frog's several burns and abrasions. She scowled and protectively crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't suppose either of you remember what happened last night?"
"What the hell do you care?" the techo spat, leering at the doctor.
"I care..." Sloth began. "...because this magnificent fool I call a professor has thrown us back days of research by tampering with the results. We're back to square one unless either you remembers how many times she was dosed." He looked first at Karma and then at Glitz, smirking at the cluelessness in both their expressions. "That's what I thought." he said, still smirking though with no humor in his voice. He eyed Karma's wounds again and shrugged. "I'll give her a grace period of two days to heal before we begin testing." His words made the techo feel sick and impulsively want to hide Karma away from all of that was happening.
"And I suppose I'll see you back on the slab in an hour." he added as a parting shot to the mutant techo who issued a low growl from between his clenched fangs, much to Sloth's amusement as he turned and left. Karma waited until she was sure he was gone until she allowed herself to double over in combined misery and pain.
"You all right?" Glitz asked.
"No." she whimpered. "Ahh...damn." she cursed, rubbing at a large blister on her shoulder. "I still can't believe all of this was from that stupid ray..."
"At least you didn't end up looking like me." he offered. "Thank god for small favors, eh?"
"Whatever." she muttered, forcing herself to stand and work the pins and needles out of her legs. Her hair felt unpleasantly greasy and gathered in a gnarled mat around her shoulders...though she didn't suppose bathing was something Sloth had in mind for her as she retreated to the faucet in the corner of the enclosure and cracked the tap, holding her palm beneath it as a thin trickle of blessedly cool water ran over her fingers and she used it to carefully dab at the burns on her belly and shoulders. It wasn't much, but it offered her temporary relief.
Glitz silently watched her from here he remained in a half-crouch on the floor. For some inexplicable reason, he felt a mounting pity for her despite the fact that he had been through his share of hell as well. Feeling his eyes on her, she turned her head.
"What?" she asked sharply. He flinched a bit.
"Nothing." he said quickly. She cocked a brow at him and then returned to her water. "You know, that dress isn't going to last you much longer." he informed her.
"How observant of you to notice." she replied disinterestedly, self consciously tugging at the scraps of cloth to better hide her body. What point was he trying to make, anyway? It wasn't as though she had a spare set of clothes she could change into and if he was bothered by it then that was just tough, wasn't it? She heard him stir and then come up behind her and tensed slightly, expecting him to have something snide to say to her. Instead, she felt something drop across her shoulders and blinked, reflexively reaching back to feel what it was.
"You know, I don't think this does much for our relationship when we're ready to kill each other the first time we run into a puddle of bad luck." he said matter-of-factly as she looked puzzled at the fact that he had given her his lab coat to wear.
"Its....its a little more than just a puddle of bad luck." she told him. "I mean, look at you. Look at US! He wants to pick us to pieces, Glitz, and we can't do much to stop him, can we??"
"No." he grumbled. "But if its all the same to you, I'd really rather not spend my last few days trying to pretend you're not five feet away from me on the other side of this damn cage either." She regarded him flatly for a long moment and then nodded.
"Alright." she said in resignation, tugging the coat over her shoulders a bit further. She looked the mutant techo levelly in the eyes, not quite as repulsed by his twisted appearance, but still a bit unnerved. "Thank you."
"You need it more than I do." he informed her. "Unless you enjoy those mutants stealing looks at your chest when they think you're not looking." In spite of herself, Karma snickered and calmed a bit, favoring him with a lopsided smile. "So this is you now, huh?" she asked, reaching out and touching the tip of one of his eye ridges.
"For now, at least." he sighed. "If..." he stopped and corrected himself. "WHEN we get out of here, I'm pretty sure Kauvara would be more than happy to sell me one of her potions." he shrugged. "We'll see, I guess." Karma nodded and then, gingerly, leaned in and gave him a gentle hug. He simply stood, accepting it and not wanting to return it as he was mindful of her burns.
"I'm sorry for all of this." she whispered. "If I hadn't wanted to go to the woods we wouldn't be here."
"Its not your fault." he assured her. "From the way Sloth talked, it sounded like he just wanted me and you ended up coming along for the ride because you were with me. So if anything, its my fault."
"For what?"
"For being a jackass, apparently...that's the only reason he chose me. He knew nobody would miss me." Glitz explained.
"No...that can't be it." she tried to assure him.
"Karma, he told me flat-out." he interrupted. She silenced at once and looked at the ground.
"Oh." was all she said. He sighed and stepped away, retreating to the corner of the enclosure and plumping down on his rear. The tattered slacks he wore gave a protesting rip as one of his newly-acquired spines tore against the fabric. He didn't notice, or if he did, he didn't care as he looked plaintively out through the glass wall. Karma hesitated and then approached, sitting beside him and nuzzling up against him carefully, trying not to irritate her skin. "Let's just stay like this for awhile." she told him. He didn't answer, but complied as he wrapped his arms around her and for a long time, they simply held one another in silence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The day seemed to drag on forever as Wizlow retired to her quarters once again, but this time had no intention of winding down for the evening. She had sat through another testing session with the male techo again, this time resulting in four no-changes, a species change to a lupe, and a color change to split before they had stopped for the day and returned him to the enclosure. She had made up her mind after catching the professor the night before, that she was going to do something very unorthodox....she was going to let the two subjects go.
She had more than one reason for this decision....the main one being simply that she was tired of the idea nagging at her that one or the other of them was going to die and the other being that she didn't think it would be terribly hard to make it look like the professor's fault that they had gotten out and she was more than eager to see the way Frank would rearrange his face.
Wizlow unshouldered her trenchcoat and pulled her shirt over her head as she made her way to her closet, picking through the scant assortment of clothes that hung from hangers inside. She shoved through them, impatiently looking for one in particular. After a moment, she found what she was looking for and pulled it out, holding it in front of herself. The dress reached the floor in a flourish of black satin and a soft film of chenille and had thin straps that fit over her shoulders.
The only time she remembered ever wearing it, or any dress in general really, was when Sloth had, a long time ago, agreed to a peace talk with some of Neopia's powers-that-be and had taken her along as well. The talk, of course, had gone badly and had resulted in another of Frank's attempts to "reclaim" Neopia for his own.
Removing the last of her clothes, she hurriedly slipped into the garment and straightened it, giving herself a cursory glance in the bedroom mirror. She didn't particularly care for the way she looked in a dress, but it would have to do, she decided, as she returned to the closet to fish out a pair of black loafers to go with it. Taking a deep breath, she exited her room in a whisper of her skirt and proceeded in the direction of the laboratory.
She hadn't gotten halfway down the hallway when a loud whistle pierced the darkness and made her freeze, her breath catching in her throat. "Heeeey! Not bad, Wizlow!" a familiar voice jeered. She clenched her teeth, feeling her tiny fangs grinding together. "On your way to yer own funeral, I hope?" Squick asked, poking his head out of where he had been watching her from the doorway of the men's bathroom. She was just going to kill him...that's all. Nobody would notice. He wouldn't even scream till after he was dead, she decided as she turned sharply, favoring the mutant kacheek with a piercing glare.
He grinned, showing off his rows of oversized needly teeth as she stormed back toward him, seizing the first thing her hand closed around....one of the janitorial brooms, and swung it at him. Squick, knowing Wizlow's temper, had seen it coming and easily dodged out of the way giggling. "HEY! You should be ridin' that thing! Not swingin' it!" he cackled. His merriment was shortlived, however, as she caught him with it on her second try, making him squeal in pain as she trapped him between the end of the broom and the wall, sneering at him.
"Shut....up." she said quietly. "Just shut your stinking piehole. The next time you talk to me, I'm going to squash you. Do you understand me? I don't care if its to say good morning, I don't care if its to ask me a question, I don't care if its to tell me my hair is on fire. The next time you talk, you'll die. Do you understand??" she growled. The kacheek whimpered and hurriedly nodded as she drew the broom backward and threw it angrily aside, leaving the bewildered mutant where he was as she continued on her way to the laboratory. Squick watched her go, rubbing at the bruised area on his throat. He considered screaming a parting shot at her, but decided against it, thinking she really might be serious about killing him this time as he half-scampered, half-limped into the shadows.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ugh...beans and sausages AGAIN??" Chomby groaned, watching as Yahoo emptied the brown slop out of a can and into two bowls.
"Hey, you think cooking is easy? I'd like to see YOU come up here and try it!" the cybunny snapped.
"I know, but we've had that for the past four days for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner. I'm tired of it." the blue chomby complained. "Can't we go get some chocolate or something?"
"Gee...lemme think. NO." Yahoo replied. "We spent all our neopoints this morning feeding that stupid doglefox." Upon hearing mention of himself, Snap poked his head around the corner of the kitchen and whuffed softly. Rose had asked them to take care of the petpet because she wasn't home enough to do so lately.
"Hmph....was just asking." the dinosaur sniffed, bending over to pick up Snap and cuddle him. The doglefox lapped at his face, but not quite with the same enthusiasm he would have if Chomby had been his real owner. He sighed as Yahoo finished dividing up the beans and picked up both bowls, carrying them to the table. Setting Snap down, he resigned himself to meandering out of the kitchen to eat. Maybe if he pretended really hard, what was in the bowl would taste like something else.
"Oh stop dragging your feet." Yahoo grumbled, sitting down and spooning up a mouthful. "In a few minutes you'll have a full belly and won't be able to taste it anymore anyway."
"Yeah whatever." Chomby sighed, wishing for something else ANYTHING else to be residing in his bowl as he sat down, Snap trotting toward his chair and seating himself at the tableside to begin his appointed begging. As he spooned up a small amount of the brown glop, he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Fer crying out loud..." Yahoo began, shoving away from the table. Chomby, glad for a distraction from the meal, eagerly got up from the table and galloped toward the door.
"I'll get it!!" he howled. Snap, yapping excitedly, ran up behind him as he seized the doorknob and threw the door open, revealing a somewhat perplexed Rose standing there, clutching two grocery bags.
"Well!" she smirked with a toss of her mane. "I can't say anyone's ever been quite THAT happy to see me before. I come baring gifts." she added, giving the bags she held a shake.
"Food??" Chomby asked hopefully.
"Maybe." the uni smiled, setting them down as Chomby eagerly began sifting through them. She walked past him and seated herself on the couch, groaning and stretching her back. "Our police force is a joke." she said to no one in particular.
"Why's that?" Yahoo asked as he returned to the dinner table and fed himself a large spoonful of sausages and beans.
"I've spent two hours in their office after work for the past week and they STILL haven't turned anything up on the doctor OR Karma." she explained. "And now they're trying to tell me that maybe the two of them just up and left Neopia."
"Feh." Yahoo grumbled around his mouthful of beans. "Just went for a walk and suddenly decided Neopia sucked and it was time to bail? Didn't pack or anything?"
"Exactly the point I tried to make." the pink uni sighed. "So I've given up on going to them for any more 'help'."
"Gibben ub??" Chomby asked around a mouthful of the chocolate moehogs he had discovered in one of the bags and been stuffing his mouth with.
"If they haven't turned them up after a week, chances are they're not going to keep looking." Rose shrugged. "So I guess you guys are just going to have to hope with me that everything turns out alright."
"Did they check the Snowager's cave again?" Yahoo questioned.
"They interviewed him personally, or so they claim." she told him. "And that temp is driving me crazy, let me add. All she does is scare the adopters and stuff her face." Yahoo laughed at this and set his spoon down.
"What a charmer." he giggled.
"How are you guys getting along?" she inquired.
"Eh, we're survivi---"
"Terrible!" Chomby interrupted, finishing his moehogs and moving on to the box of pink sprinkled donuts. "We've barely got anything to eat and its been forever since I've had a decent tucking in."
"I tucked you in for the past three nights! What're you talking about??" Yahoo demanded.
"You give me nightmares!" the chomby replied accusingly. "You keep singing that stupid Johnny Burbeck song!"
"So?" the cybunny retorted...and then began to sing loudly "OHHHHH Mister Mister Johnny Burbeck, how couldja be so mean..."
"Quit it!" Chomby wailed, clapping his paws over his ears.
"I toldja you'd be sorry for inventing that machine. And now the neighbors, cats, and dogs will nevermore be seen...."
"I'm warning you!"
"They'll ALL BE GROUND TO SAUSAGES IN JOHNNY BURBECK'S MACHINE!!!" he cried out, laughing and ducking as a donut flew across the room, narrowly missing his head. From where she watched on the couch, RoseMadder rolled her eyes as the two neopets proceeded to argue and wrestle with one another on the carpet. What a mess everything had turned out to be....who would have thought that things would have been turned upside-down just because two people went a-missing?
As it stood, people were afraid to come INSIDE the pound anymore let alone actually adopt or abandon. Ms. Whorley was just as mean as she was fat and if people had been afraid of Dr. Death, they were terrified of her. Rose had never looked more forward to her day off in her entire career....not even the bickering of the neopets could upset her.
"Boys." Rose said above the clamour as they stopped in mid-struggle to look at her. "I'll stay over tonight and help get things back in order. How's that?" Like magic, the cybunny and chomby instantly ceased fighting.
"Okay!" Chomby agreed eagerly, bucking Yahoo off of his chest and standing, his tail wagging.
"Good...you guys put the food away and I'll do the dishes." she smiled, getting up off of the couch. They both agreeably picked up a paper sack and scurried into the kitchen with it and the air was soon alive with telltale clinks and clatters of things being put into the cupboards. Truthfully, playing referee for Karma's pets really hadn't been Rose's idea of an ideal day off, but she supposed it was just another IOU she could chalk up for the doctor, when and if he ever came back.
She skidded to a stop as she entered the kitchen, ogling the enormous pile of dirty dishes stacked in the sink. It looked as though the two neopets had managed to dirty every cup, plate, bowl, and piece of silverware in the entire house in just four days. Up until now, she wouldn't have thought such a thing was possible, but apparently Chomby and Yahoo had proved her wrong. The uni took a deep breath and let it out slowly, determined she would keep her cool as she approached the sink and turned on the hot water, grabbing the first of the plates on which a thin crust of food and gravy had dried. It would be an hour-long project at best, she decided.
There was a tug at her tail and she turned to see Chomby looking eagerly up at her.
"Will you make pancakes tomorrow morning??" he asked. She bit her lip but forced herself to nod. Apparently she had no idea what she had just gotten herself into.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Its NOT a good look for me." Glitz pouted indignantly as Karma laughed, giving his now-fluffy tail a tug.
"Its better than what you were this morning. Give it that at least." she offered. The split lupe grumbled irately, grabbing his orange and purple tail away from the frog and laying it across his lap.
"At least I have fur to cover myself now." he said, curling his lips away from his maw of fangs and sighing, his pointed ears laying along the bullet of his skull. "Those pants disintegrated after three blasts with that stupid ray."
"Could have been worse." Karma reminded him.
"Yeah...Rose might be here to see me like this." he huffed, shuddering at the thought.
"I don't know...I think it makes you look refined." she teased, reaching up and scratching him briskly between the ears, laughing as his foot began to thump against the floor reflexively.
"Stop that!" he barked, jerking his head out of reach.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist." she snickered. "Really though, its better than being a mutant, right?"
"Its driving me crazy." he informed her. "Everything's about four times as potent with this nose...and the pine shavings are giving me a headache now."
"Aww....poor baby." she smirked, resting her head on his chest. He glared down at her, irritated by her mood swings. She had been in a very irate frame of mind up until he had returned from testing not too long ago in his new body and now she seemed to be back to normal and teasing him every chance she got. Before he had a chance to formulate a retort, however, there was the sound of a knob turning, making the both of them whip their heads in the direction of the door. A low growl began to issue from Glitz's throat as his arm unconsciously went around Karma's shoulders in a protective manner.
The door opened a crack as the duo watched, both expecting to see the wild-eyed professor again, wanting to spirit Karma away. Dr. Death had no intention of letting it happen again....he didn't care WHAT sort of damned stun gun the scorchio threatened him with, he vowed that as soon as he entered the enclosure, he'd tear him to shreds. However, the rage was shortlived as the person who entered was not the professor at all, but rather one of the other lab personell, and she was clad in some sort of formal attire.
"What do you want?" Glitz snarled at her, his jaws hanging slightly open as he showed his teeth. One thing could be said for his new body....lupes had much more power to look intimidating than techos ever did.
"Stuff it." she answered curtly, crossing the laboratory and looking as though she was about to jump out of her skin every step of the way. His purple and orange fur bristled as she came near the enclosure and the arm around Karma tightened. "And you can cut the macho BS. I'm not after your girlfriend." she added as she approached the numberlock. "I'm busting you guys out." Had Wizlow cared to notice, she would have laughed at the fact that both of their mouths had dropped open at the same time.
"You....but...." Karma faltered, trying to get a grip on her words. "Why?"
"I have my reasons." she replied simply as she keyed in the access code and waited for the accepting click of the bolt being drawn into the lock. The lupe and frog watched in bewilderment as the door yawned open invitingly before stumbling to their feet and exiting, breathing deeply of the outside air. "Now listen, don't get too excited, alright?" she told them both sharply. "All I can do is let you out. If you get caught by the guards, you're both on your own. I've stuck my neck out enough."
Karma and Glitz exchanged a slightly troubled look as Wizlow made a gesture toward the door leading to the lab ray. "There's a passage back there into the storage rooms and from there, a vent duct that should be big enough for you two to squeeze into. I don't know where it goes, but chances are you'll find the outside eventually. Now get out of here." she ordered, giving Glitz a small shove in the direction of the door.
"Thank you." Karma began.
"You think I'm kidding?? Go on! MOVE!!" she cried, spurring the frog into action as she and Glitz scurried in the direction of the testing facility and quickly disappeared behind the door. She smiled thinly, slowly counting to ten, before quietly exiting the lab again. She had bigger fish to fry, after all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frank Sloth looked up from his computer monitor, irritated malice gleaming in his eyes as a security breach alarm twittered on a nearby console. He waited a moment, and when the alarm continued to squeal, he slammed a fist down on the tabletop as he angrily got up from where he was sitting. He may as well not have had a damned guard system at all for all of the "security" they provided as he examined where the alarm was sounding. The third floor laboratory. He felt his fists clench in rage and decided that if he caught a certain scorchio up to dickens again, he just might make an exception on his "No Death Within These Walls" policy.
He turned back to his computer, quickly exiting the program he had been using. The screen went black and a small "Please Enter Password" message appeared. Satisfied that things were protected from prying eyes, he set off after the source of the trouble with purpose in his stride, silently making a list in his mind of what he'd do to whomever had interrupted him this time. Was it so much to ask to have a competant staff to deal with mishaps like this? Apparently so. He stormed up the flight of stairs, beginning to hear the faint telltale buzzing of the alarm and winced as it pierced his ears with its whining voice.
Sloth paused at the head of the stairs, peering down the dark hallway and noting that the alert light above the testing facility was blazing an angry red color. Just as he had thought. The doctor broke into a trot, hoping to catch the offending party in the act as he grabbed hold of the door, which hung slightly agape, and yanked it open.
"Someone, apparently, has a death wish." he growled into the darkness as he reached for the lightswitch on the wall. Before he could flip it, however, another hand alighted on his, making him jerk backward as though he had been burned.
"Frank..." He recognized Wizlow's voice immediately.
"Wizlow, are you daft??" he hissed. "What if I had been carrying a gun?" She chuckled in reply.
"Frank, Frank, Frank...." she sighed. "The things I have to do these days to get your attention. I didn't used to have to set off alarms to get you to look my way." Truthfully, Wizlow hadn't set off the alarm at all. It had been the enclosure that had once held Glitz and Karma. The door was set on a timer that would set off an alarm if it was jostled or left open for longer than two minutes....and though she hadn't planned on its sounding, it had played into her plan perfectly. Originally, her intent had been to distract him....but found that she had her own motives in the ordeal as well.
"YOU set it off??" Sloth asked vehemently. "You mean to tell me that I abandoned a perfectly good ten minutes of work to play one of your stupid ga---" he trailed off as she flicked the lightswitch and flooded the laboratory briefly with bright flourescent light, illuminating herself in the sleek black dress she had selected from her closet before switching the lights off again.
"All work and no play makes Frankie a dull boy." Wizlow said solicitously. He felt one of her hands give him a gentle shove and then heard her retreating footsteps as she went further inside.
"Well....maybe a small break wouldn't hurt." he heard himself say, closing the door and plunging everything into total darkness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Have you got it yet?" Karma asked as Glitz strained to pull the grating off of the duct.
"Almost...." he grunted, feeling the pads of his paws beginning to slip. The metal grating shuddered as the rusty screws holding it in place struggled to keep their hold in the wall "C'mon....." he growled. There was a groan from the metal as it bent slightly, and suddenly came free in his grip, sending him toppling tail-over-applecart backwards and into a large drum of floorwax in the corner of the closet. "Owww...." he groaned, rubbing at his head as he sat up.
"You alright??" Karma asked worriedly.
"Yeah..." he muttered, getting to his feet and looking at the duct. The entrance was all but clogged with mats of dust and dead insects. "After you." he offered.
"Oh please. DO lead on." Karma told him, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"You sure?" he asked, cocking a brow at her.
"Feh. I'd rather look at your furry butt while we crawl around in the dark than worry about whether or not you can see my underpants." she grumbled, making him snicker.
"Alright, fair enough." he told her, kneeling and brushing the cobwebs and dust away with a flick of his wrist before poking his head into the duct. It would be a tight fit, but not enough for them to get stuck if they were careful. He drew back suddenly, the dust irritating his nose and making him sneeze loudly. "Give me a five second head start and then follow after me." he told her after he had recovered. The frog nodded and knelt, watching as he tentatively slid his head and shoulders into the metal tunnel and then disappeared with a flick of his split tail.
After slowly counting to five, she followed after him, shuddering in disgust as the tacky silk of a cobweb carressed her cheek. The inside of the duct was lined with a thin carpet of dust that swirled and clouded as they clamoured through it. Ahead of her, Karma could hear Dr. Death repeatedly sneezing as the dust made her eyes water. Up ahead, the spindly shadow of a large cockroach scuttled past with a small chittering sound as they moved.
"What do you see up there?" Karma asked.
"Not....CHOOF!! buch ubb anything..." he replied, his nose sounding stuffed. His eyes were bleary and the walls of the duct had lost their definition, fading to a wavery gray void in front of himself. He pulled himself forward another three feet or so, heaving his weight forward so that he would be in front of the dust before it clouded up. This, however, proved to be a mistake, as he gathered his paws beneath himself for another shove....and suddenly found that there was no longer a floor beneath him. With a strangled cry, he toppled forward, one paw blindly snatching behind him for something to catch himself with.
Karma had no sooner formed the sentence "What's wrong?" in her mind before the lupe's groping paw closed savagely around the neck of the baggy white labcoat she wore, yanking her forward as he lost his balance and sent the both of them toppling over the edge of a large elbow joint in the vent. There was a brief sensation of flight and then a crunching thud as they landed roughly ten feet below. However, there was not enough time to reflect on this as their forward momentum sent them both tumbling forward in a tangle down the next length of vent.
Their helpless rolling carried them over a rusted ceiling grate that, apparently, was too old and feeble to hold both of their weight as it spewed open with a groan, sending them both plummeting out of the duct and into a spacious concrete room on top of a pile of musty cardboard boxes that disintegrated with a faint crumple beneath them.
"Ugh...." Karma groaned, rolling over and blinking dazedly at the ceiling of the strange room.
"Nnghh....you alright?" Glitz groaned, finding himself staring directly at his own tail from the upside-down accordianed position his body had fallen into as he winced and uncoiled himself.
"I think so..." the frog's voice floated up from the rubble of boxes as she slowly sat up, rubbing at the back of her neck. Her shoulders ached, but nothing seemed out of commission as she woozily got up. "Where are we?"
"Hell if I know..." he grunted, rolling over and reaching up with one paw to brush his tangle of silver hair out of his eyes. The room was chilly and vacant, and looked as though it hadn't been looked after for years. It smelled thickly of mildew and off in the distance, water dripped incessantly. Probably the basement, he guessed as he got to his feet and winced as he straightened his back with a pop. "Nice digs." he commented sarcastically.
"Smells like my gramma's house." Karma commented, looking down at the crushed remains of the boxes they had fallen into. There were rotted newspapers inside that were beyond being readable and had liquified into gray pulp.
"Well, now what?" Glitz wondered aloud, looking about. The only way out seemed to be a rickety wooden ladder that led up to a trap door in the ceiling....and he wasn't about to be gotten that easily. Chances were, by now Sloth had people crawling all over the building looking for them and if they chanced that, they were likely to find themselves right in the middle of a cluster of guards.
"Maybe we should stay here awhile." Karma suggested. The lupe shook his head.
"No. That'll just make it easier for them to corner us." he sighed, his eyes skating the room. Aisde from the vast collection of rotting boxes and crates around them, there wasn't terribly much else. Against the far wall, there was a stack of plastic-seated black chairs with metal legs, dusty and growing mold from lack of use. Alongside these was an ancient-looking wooden table that looked as though it had once been part of the laboratory furniture, however now its legs had been eaten through by woodlice and termites and it was basically useless.
Also, standing off in one corner which somewhat surprised Glitz, was a large grayish-white metal box with a small window portal on the front. On top sat a few bottles of fabric soap.
"A washer?" he asked incredulously. "The great Doctor Sloth has a friggin' maytag?"
"Well....I don't know what to tell you except that I don't imagine his clothes clean themselves..." Karma shrugged, wondering why it had come as such a surprise.
"Nevermind." he said, shaking his head as an idea formed in his mind. "Help me move it." he told her, heading in the washer's direction. It was larger than the standard household one...likely used to clean more than one person's laundry at a time. Karma hesitated, but followed him and stood beside him as he braced his shoulder against it. "On three." he told her. "One, two....three!" The washer made a snarling sound as it was pushed along the concrete, protesting a bit. From beneath, a cluster of silverfish and spiders scattered in a flurry of tiny legs to find new hiding places.
As the washer protested and wouldn't be pushed any further, Glitz eagerly peered behind it, breaking into a grin. "AHA!" he announced, squeezing behind the washer and heaving it away from the wall a foot or so.
"What?" Karma asked.
"Its one of THESE kinds." he told her, pointing at the large hose that connected to the back. "We're right next to a sewer and this thing deposits the water directly into it when its done washing....so if we can just open it..."
"Oh please, spare me..." Karma groaned. "We just crawled through the lair of the dust bunnies and now you want to wallow around in the sewer too?"
"Unless you have any better ideas..." he replied waspishly, kneeling and attempting to unscrew the bolts holding the rubber hose in place. His claws and pads, despite the fact they had good gripping power, didn't seem to be able to hold the bolts very well as they refused to budge. "Little help?" he shot over his shoulder at her. She glared at him and seized the large hose, giving it a yank. The aged rubber, its bounce long gone, cracked in several places and split at the top, making him pause and look numbly at it for a moment. "That works too..." he sighed, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation before working his fingers into the split and pulling.
A swampy aroma began to issue from inside as he widened the gap and then, with a sharp pull, he found himself showered in a small cascade of freezing, fetid water that had been sitting inside the hose for god only knew how long. "AUGH!!" he cried, shaking his head and spitting. It was all Karma could do to keep from laughing as he clumsily got to his feet, stormed a short distance away and shook the foul water out of his fur wildly.
"Beautiful. You smell just like a flower." Karma grinned as he returned, his face screwed up into a look of disgust at the putrid stench caked into his fur.
"Shut up." he growled. "You're about to share in that experience."
"Sorry. I'll go first this time." she offered. He shrugged, giving no protest and gestured toward the hole in the wall where a fragment of the broken hose still hung. The frog crouched in front of it, poking her head inside and gagged almost instantly on the horrible gassy odor inside. How lovely....oh well. Bracing herself, she placed her hands inside of the circular metal mouth and began to inch in, wincing as the cold slimy jelly of the sides slid over her flesh as she was swallowed up by the passage.
Luckily, she didn't have terribly far to go, and could already hear running water on the other side as she wriggled forward, eyes clenched and mouth pursed shut to keep any of the foulness around her from getting inside. Much to her relief, as she reached forward to heft herself along again, she felt her hands break into open space, failing a moment before they found the lips of the exit.
"You alright in there?" Dr. Death called after her, his voice echoing off of the walls of the tube and sounding robotic.
"I'm fine!" she called back, squirming out of the mouth of the large pipe and standing carefully on what felt like concrete, not wanting to hit her head on the ceiling if it was low-hung. "Its alright, its only about an eight foot crawl." she added. There was a pause, and then scuffling from inside the pipe. A few moments later, the lupe's head emerged, a tendril of black slime across his muzzle as he wriggled out and joined her.
It was hard to see inside, the meager light from the mouth of the tube, providing a dim ray of light but from what they could see, they were now standing in a long tunnel, a river of filth between them and the other side of it. "Well....I guess we start walking." he commented.
"Guess so." she shrugged as they began to tenatively walk in what they thought to be the right direction, careful not to slip.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I'M TELLING YOU, SHE STOLE MY CYBUNNY!!!" the unkept boy behind the counter insisted, pounding one filthy fist on the desk. "SHE STOLE IT AND IT WAS LEVEL TWENTY ONE!!!"
"Sir, a minute ago you said it was level seventeen." Rose said, clinging to her last shreds of decency as she felt her teeth grind together. The loud (and rather obnoxious) child was tapdancing on her final nerve and she felt she wasn't terribly far away from simply grabbing him by the seat of his pants and hurling him outside. To make matters worse, Ms. Whorley was acting as though nothing was even happening as she methodically tossed handfuls of nachos into her mouth as she idly read the Neopian Times. So much for a stressless day at work. He had been ranting about this cybunny for an hour solid, as though he expected her to be able to do something about it. She had told him five times that the police would deal with it better than she would, and all five times he had ignored her.
Nevermind the fact it was impossible for one to "steal" another's pet in Neopia. Not without the proper forms signed, at least, and there was nothing stopping the cybunny from running away the first chance it got and back to its real owner if it truly HAD been stolen.
"So I forgot! I'm sorry!" he whined. "But I want him back!! You have to help me!!!"
"What do you want me to do about it?" Rose asked, beginning to get disgusted with the entire ordeal.
"I WANT HIM BACK!!!" he screeched, making Rose wince and cover her ears.
"Look...." she tried to explain for the last time before feeling as though she'd lose it for good.
"Joeycucamunga, what the heck are you blabbering about??" a voice cut in, making both Rose and the boy turn their heads to see a rather irate young man standing in the doorway clad in a white T-shirt, a black vest, and leather pants, flanked by two lupes, one fiery and one red, that leered dispassionately at the spectacle at the front desk. On his head was a combed-back tangle of red hair and he looked to be one of Neopia's typical bullies. "I mean, for cryin' out loud, I'm growin' a beard over here!!"
"I'll be with you in a moment, sir." Rose informed him dryly, sighing.
"I ain't talkin' to *you*, girly." the young man huffed, putting his spindly arms on his hips. "I'm talkin' to THIS loser." he said, approaching the desk and glaring at the boy.
"I wasn't talking to you, so butt out!" the boy snorted, puffing out his spindly chest in defiance, clearly not a match for the older challenger. "I'm just trying to get back what's mine!!"
"Look, egghead, does this horse look like she cares??" the punk demanded, pointing a finger at Rose. "I got some business to take care of, so get lost!"
"But---"
"Buzz off! Make like an ameoba and split! Put an egg in your shoe and beat it!!" he said, giving the boy a shove. The whiner stumbled and fell squarely on his rear, blinking bewilderedly up at the punk a moment and clearly not used to being told what to do before his face dissolved into tears as he stumbled to his feet and fled the pound, braying loudly. "Oh brother, what a LOSER!!" the punk said with a high-pitched chuckle.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate that." Rose admitted, smiling faintly.
"Yeah, whatever." he grunted. "Look girly, I need a new pet for my pack. Ya got any?"
"We've got plenty." Rose nodded, getting up and opening the door to the back room as she motioned him to follow her. The kid followed, the heels of his boots clicking on the floor as Rose motioned to the lines of cages, relieved that he hadn't been here to abandon one of his pets. The two lupes bounded ahead of him and began filtering through the cages, snuffling at the pets inside.
"You ever find that goon you work with?" the boy asked conversationally as he peered at a large yellow skeith that was contentedly munching on its bowl of kibbles.
"News travels, eh?" Rose smirked. "No we haven't yet. As a matter of fact, he's---"
"Hey boss, how 'bout this one??" the red lupe barked, interrupting Rose as the punk pushed past her and strode toward the cage in question, peering inside.
"Are you nuts??" he demanded to know, peering at the blue poogle inside. "What a runt!"
"Level thirty-three." the lupe winked knowingly at his owner. The punk's eyes instantly lit up.
"Hey horsie, lemme have this one." he called at Rose. She rolled her eyes, flustered that the nickname he had chosen for her was the same thing that Ms. Whorley called her....horsie. Bah! Couldn't they see the horn on her head? Never the less, she moved forward to unlock the cage.
"What's yer name, kid?" the fire lupe inquired in a rough voice as the door swung open.
"Eggpee." the poogle said somewhat embarrassedly, glaring at the two lupes as they began to snicker. "Shaddup!" he ordered, drawing back one stubby paw and striking the fire lupe squarely across the jaw. The beast toppled over backwards with a yelp of surprise. "You make fun of my name again and I'll flatten you!!" The punk, obviously pleased, grinned toothily and reached out, giving the poogle's head a scritch before standing again.
"How much I owe ya, girly?" he asked.
"I'm going to take an estimate of two thousand, given how strong that particular pet is." Rose informed him. The boy arched one red brow.
"Eight hundred." he told her. If Rose had fists, she'd have clenched them at that moment.
"Two....thousand...." she said, beginning to tremble, feeling herself on the verge of a breakdown.
"Hey, I got that moron off your back. How 'bout a discount?? Twelve hundred big ones." he retorted. The uni had put up with a lot in the days that Dr. Death had been missing....rude people, double-shifts, an obnoxious co-worker, people trying to scam her, but this boy having the gall to HAGGLE with her over the price of his adopted pet was the straw that broke the Apis's back. Something inside Rose's head snapped as she tilted her head ceilingward and screeched at the top of her lungs.
"Geez laweez!!" the punk complained, clapping his hands over his ears. "Alright, alright FINE!! Take yer lousy money!" he huffed, reaching into the pocket of his faded jeans and producing a black leather wallet, tethered to his body by a thin silver chain as he counted out the neopoint bills before crumpling them and quite literally throwing them at Rose before grabbing up the poogle and hurrying out of the pound, his lupes following quickly behind.
"Hey, what's the racket back there??" Ms. Whorley demanded to know. Shortly after she spoke, Rasvar appeared in the doorway to find the source of the noise and stopped short as he noted Rose, her nose pointed ceilingward and tears rolling down her face as she loudly cried. Not saying a word, the red blumaroo whirled around and returned to the front. "Whaddaya mean horsie's lost it?" she demanded to know. "Tell her to get over it and get back out here!" A moment later, Rasvar reappeared.
"Umm...Miss Rose?" he asked timidly. "Mum says...."
"I HEARD HER!!!" Rose screamed, amid sobs, making the blumaroo scramble backward and vanish again. Instantly, she felt terrible for frightening him, but hadn't been able to help herself. She was quite literally going crazy with all that had happened lately and between doing twice her workload at the pound, taking care of Karma's neopets, and trying to have a life of her own, she felt she was fighting a losing battle about keeping her head above water.
Bit by bit, she got herself back under control until her sobs had died away to small hitches as she walked back out front and gingerly sat down on her side of the desk, heaving a long sigh and being careful to keep her eyes directly on the desktop in case something else set her off. The pink uni focused her thoughts on things that made her happy....freshly cut plurby bouquets, warm mugs of cocoa with raspberry marshmallows melted inside, soft summer evenings, curling up under her feather comforter and at night to sleep.....
"Hey horsie, check this out. You might be stuck with me longer than ya think." Ms. Whorley informed her around a mouthful of chips. Rose's nirvana was shattered as a piece of newspaper was slid across the desk and in front of her nose, one of the human woman's pudgy fingers tapping a particular article. In spite of the fact that reading the paper was the last thing she felt like doing, Rose peered at the article in question, drawing in a small gasp of horror as she read.
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LOCAL POUNDKEEPER BELIEVED TO BE DEAD
Police investigators, on the case of the strange disappearance of Dr. Death (employee of Neopia's adoption facility) for nearly a week, report today that an, as of now, unidentified scatter of bones has been discovered in the outskirts of the Haunted Woods. Testing has yet to be done to determine the species of the find as the skull was missing, but detectives at the scene found the techo practicioner's identification badge nearby and are not ruling out the possibility that he may have been attacked and devoured by one of the inhabitants of the woods.
"We've been telling people time and again to take care when going into those woods." says Chia Chief Fuzzlegrutt. "If people would practice a little common sense, we wouldn't end up with cases like these. Neopians honestly need to look out for one another better than this."
Being that this is the only lead investigators have found after tiresome searching, all further attempts will be called off as of midnight tonight to find the doctor. Neopian citizens are reminded by the Chia Police Force to always bring a partner when traveling to Neopia's far-away lands as they are vastly unexplored and still are home to many dangerous creatures.
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As she finished the article, Rose found that she had, again, burst into tears as she lowered her head to the desk and sobbed bitterly. It wasn't fair....it just wasn't. Ms. Whorley, dispassionate to the uni's crying, tugged the paper back into her own hands and continued to leaf through it.
"Ohh stop it." she grunted. "Here, I know what'll make ya feel better....RASVAR!!!" she bellowed. "Go get me and horsie some peach ice cream!!!" Rose, amid her crying, suddenly was overcome by a wave of sickness as she shoved back from the desk, whimpering raggedly, and made a dash for the restroom, slamming the door behind her. "Nevermind....just one." Ms. Whorley called to the blumaroo with a shrug.
TBC.........................