Carbuncle! The SD Gundam Story, Chapter 3
Shute slips farther into fauna as his eyes and nose come in...
Shute spent the next two hours in his hospital room with Nana. He spoke with her during that time, and this is the conversation they had.
"Nana, what the heck's going on with me? (Nana would babble incoherently between Shute's sentences, leaving him time to think about what he was going to say.) I never made the MRI machine blow up before! I mean, the fur and the thing that's growing out of my head now, don't touch it, Nana. What it is, a ruby? Ew! This is insane! I've already bitten myself on the cheek with my fangs, and I have to admit, Nana, the fangs are kinda neat. I can't change back into a human with my magic, either, it doesn't work. I stay like this. Nana, don't touch the ruby, you might turn into a me. What's next? Am I gonna get a tail? 'Cause that's what I feel like. Well, that and like I swallowed a buzzy firecracker. Nana! Sawaranaide! Don't touch it! That's it, I'm putting you back with Mom! MOM!"
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Bakunetsumaru yelped "YAH!" at the surprise of a wooden something-or-other slapping him in the fanny. He pivoted about like a top and met a green-eyed blue thing peeking out from the doorway, holding a small pink blotch. He just barely recognized it as Shute. "Hi, Shute. What's wrong with your eyes?"
The statement sent a shock of mild surprise through the center of Shute's chest, he could tell, and the fur on his neck ruffled as a response, but his face didn't show it. "I don't know." Shute handed Nana to Bakunetsumaru. "Take her, she keeps trying to touch the ruby in my forehead."
As Shute's arm gave Nana to Bakunetsumaru, the flourescent light of the hospital hallway leaked through the doorway, and, lo and behold, two bright patches of green flashed into view!
Baku jumped, snatching Nana out of Shute's hand. His GunSoul began beating quickly; whatever it was, and he had a pretty good idea of what it was, was pretty!
"Shute, lemme see your eyes!" Baku ordered. "There' s something weird about 'em!"
Shute ducked back behind his door. "No."
"Come on!" Baku gave the doorknow two swift tugs. "I saw something cool! Come on out!"
"No!" Shute slammed his door shut. "The light hurts my eyes, I'm not coming out!"
Nana began reaching towards the door. "Shoo! Shoo!"
"Aw, come on, Shute!" Baku twisted the doorknob and began to open the door, stopping once he felt Shute tugging back. "Nana wants to see you!"
"I said no!" cried the young one.
Zero floated through the hallway at that point; he held a dollar bill in his hands, and was going to ask Shute if he wanted a Charleston Chew bar from the snack machine. What he found himself doing was floating above Baku threateningly. "Bakunetsumaru, leave Shute alone!"
"Lemme see!"
With a sudden show of force, Baku slung the door open, sending Shute into the ground in front of room 465 of Neotopia National Hospital. Zero scrambled to the floor to pick him up, lifting him into the air by his armpits like a three-year-old picking up a cat. But now Baku was appeased; Shute's eyes, just like he thought, were now diamond-shaped, completely green, and reflecting an emerald shine just like a cat's!
"He's got eyes like a rabbit!" Baku screamed, his eyes wide... and happy! "That is so cool!"
"I what?!" Shute slid out of Zero's arms and back into his room and into the bathroom, where in the mirror he saw his big rabbit eyes slowly changing from green to black. Not only that, but his nose was shrinking, becoming more and more like an animal's by the second. "I AM TURNING INTO THE DOG!"
A twing of guilt and rememberance jabbed Zero's chest. "Actually, you're under the Carbuncle's curse."
Both heads - robotic and organic - turned to Zero. "He's what?," Baku urged.
"I just remembered a few minutes ago." Zero took a deep breathe and began. "The Carbuncle is a god of light in a dimension called Vana'diel. Its ruby is supposed to hold great power," Zero explained calmly.
"However, it is cursed because of what the Carbuncles did aeons and aeons ago - they allowed themselves to be domesticated so that humans..." He paused for a second, wondering what words to use."...and other races could harvest their rubies. Thus, the ruby is cursed in two ways."
"Two ways," Shute repeated, trying to comprehend.
Zero held up one finger. "One: those with weak wills are drawn to it violently. And Two: Whoever touches it gets turned into a Carbuncle."
Silence filled the room. At least, until Shute bursted out, "NANI?!"
"Well, it's what I was taught!" Zero growled.
Baku's eyes widened. "So you mean Shute's gonna turn into that weird little rabbit thing just because those freaky little rabbit things let themselves be domesticated?!"
"Machigattemasu!" Shute screamed (in Upper Neotopian, like he usually did under stress). "Sore wa fukanou desu!"
"Shute, I can't understand what you're saying!" Zero screamed back.
"He says it's impossible, WHICH IT IS!" Baku began swinging his fists in anger while Shute had to duck. "There is no way he can be turned into an animal that doesn't even exist in this dimension!"
"Don't question me, tiny-brain!" Zero snarled.
Shute was about to make them stop, but something caught his nose... sniff snifff... was that chicken-fried steak? HIS FAVORITE! Without thinking, he slipped out the door and down the hallway, leaving the Gundams to fight between themselves.
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Three floors downstairs...
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Shute tried not to make a spectacle of himself in the cafeteria, so he hid behind the buffet counter and ate out of the public's view. He savored his little bit of chicken-fried steak, which he was eating with his hands because he didn't dare to go and get a plate. The fur on his fingers was greasy, sure, but thanks to his new "Carbuncle' sense of smell, his steak tasted better than ever! He yawned as he ate, accidentally snipping his lip on his teeth.
As he finished off his last piece of steak, he turned around to face his reflection in the stainless steel buffet counter. His fur pattern was becoming more complex; his belly was pale white, and as he turned his head he could see a dark stripe running down his neck and presumably down his back. His head had nearly completely reshaped itself into that of the Carbuncle that had head-butted him. His ruby was framed by his forehead frill, which still made itself stick out of what was left of his hair. As he watched, his ears began to smooth to a point and grow, ever so slowly. He remembered how that stupid Carbuncle had those humungous ears and whimpered. "Baku was right. This is stupid. There's no way I can change into a Carbuncle. I don't even really know what it is. There's no way."
"THERE HE IS!"
The poor boy barely had time to react as three orderlies and Dr. Philip, his pediatrician, grappled him and hoisted him into their arms!
"AA!" Shute struggled and kicked against the orderlies' arms. They began to bind his hands behind his back with Plasti-Cuffs, which made Shute panic even more and CHOMP!
"IT BIT ME!" cried an orderly as it dropped him on his chin. "IT BIT ME!"
And the other two orderlies swarmed on him! And they weren't nice about it at all, oh no, they squeezed his neck and pinched his shoulderblades and hurt him all sorts of ways before Zero came to his rescue.
"What are you doing?!" The Winged Knight, who was hovered high above the doctor's heads, held out his hand. "Les mains ne peuvent pas tenir mon ami!" (The hands cannot hold my friend!)
Shute shot out of their arms like a bar of soap, sliding under the legs of a few escaping citizens, and was quickly scooped up by Bakunetsumaru.
"Get out of my way!" yelled Phillip.
"What are you doing to him!?" Bakunetsumaru shouted, pulling Shute to his feet and letting him go.
"I'm bringing him back to his room," Dr. Philip stated, crossing his arms. "He is under quarantine until we can determine whether or not he is contagious!"
"He's not contagious!" Zero growled. "I told you that already!"
"IT BIT ME!" cried the whiny, bitten orderly. "I'm gonna change into it!"
"It?!" Shute whimpered.
"You will not!" Zero snapped. He heard a sniffling noise behind him, and turned around to give Shute a quick pat on the head. "It's okay, Shute, he didn't mean it."
Philip winced in anger. "Well, it's not like we can let it out in public!"
Shute's eyes began to tear as the entire inside of his chest collasped like a house of cards. "IT?!"
Zero gasped in disbelief. "I don't believe you!"
"Come on, Shute, you're coming with us!" Baku pushed Shute towards the door, Zero floating behind him. "Just wait until Captain finds out what this guy's doing..."
And Shute smiled, in spite of himself, his chest still feeling hollow and cold. Dr. Philip, who had been his doctor since the day he was born, called him an "it"...
Chapter three is done! Notes: Hospital chicken-friend steak isn't that bad. It's what I ate the day my brother was born. It was tasty. That's all I can think of.
