If you can´t win by force, you have to outsmart your opponent


Mime is going through the medication schedule of several patients. With Lifty and Shifty he has to take care of some emergency schedules. Medicine which is taken in emergencies like anticonvulsants, mostly against Shifty's seizures.

"Mime? Lifty's bandages need to be changed. Could you do that for me please?" Mime did so without hesitation, one more reason Sniffles accepted his mute state. He may not talk but regardless of that he´s the best assistant Sniffles could ask for, disciplined, competent, zealous and determined to help wherever he can. Besides, being mute just means that he doesn´t argue rather much, another upside and another feature Sniffles admired from his assistant, he never argued with him about anything. Sniffles gives orders and Mime executes them, perfectly.

Mime removes the bandage from Lifty's left arm, as he removed the patch below it he recognized something marvelous. The wound developed an incrustation, he gives Sniffles a sign to come over. "It seems his wounds are slowly beginning to heal. Whatever Shifty is doing in there, it seems to work." Happy at that, Mime puts a fitting bandage after disinfecting the surface with iodine solution. On a sudden the hospitals' alarm starts off, startling both.

"What is the matter? Any emergencies?" At the entrance of the hospital a wounded porcupine was brought in, it is Flaky, and she is gravely injured. "Calm down Flaky, you´re going to be ok. Mind telling me what happened while Mime and I are getting you to a room to tend your wounds?" But Flaky just lied there shivering with her eyes pried wide open, whatever the cause of her state may be, it is sure that it was something horrific. "I…I…" She couldn´t muster anything meaningful, she is stuck in a state of logorrhea, babbling the same pronoun. "Well we can´t help her with that now, get her in the room with Lifty and Shifty. There is still space and she cannot possibly disturb them in their state." Mime nodded and did as he was told.

Upon further investigation, Mime recognized that Flaky was, you could say, perforated with several stab wounds on her right thigh. He wipes off the blood gently and cleanses the wound with an isotone sodium chloride solution, making sure to cause as less pain as possible. The fact that someone is taking care of Flaky eases her shivering. She almost got calm enough to tell what happened. She never came that far, suddenly horrific screams emitted from the hallway before the room. First screams, then suffocated gargling, the spurting of liquids and then…silence. He quickly wraps the bandages around her right leg and provides her with some strong analgesics before he went outside to check upon the source these alarming sounds. The moment he peeked out of the room he recognized small stains of blood on the walls and decided that it would be smart to arm himself with something, but an empty syringe was the best thing he had at the moment. In the distance he could see something dangling from the ceiling. In horror he could recognize the shape of an ant eater, and to his knowledge, there was only one ant eater working in this hospital. The closer Mime came the clearer was his greatest apprehension now a proven fact. It was Sniffles, mutilated as his guts are outside, his intestines used as a rope to hang him. Mime slowly approaches the corpse for a reason he didn´t really understand himself. At the ceiling there is a word written in blood, a word which causes Mime to get a chill down his spine.

PERISH!

His heart beats faster and his pulse begins to rush as he realizes that he is stuck in the hospital with some creature, and it appears that he became the prey. All of the hospitals' employees are nowhere to be found. He is all alone. He hears a screeching sound, like claws scratching on the wall. To his surprise the noise is growing in distance. Suddenly he emits a silent scream, Lifty, Shifty and Flaky! They are all in the direction the noise is going to!

Mime wastes no time. As the noise disappeared, he rushes towards the noise into the room the three patients are brought to. To his relieve Lifty and Shifty are fine but Flaky was curled under her sheets. But where did that noise come from? And more importantly, where did it go? He turns around to check the outside one more time but for the first time in his life he gave a soundful shriek as Flippy stood before him with a gaze, ready to tear him apart during a grim torture. Mime tried to step back but it was too late as Flippy lunched towards him, tackling him down and pinning him on the bottom. Mime got overpowered easily as well as Sniffles may have gotten. But he can´t give up, he has to do something or he and more importantly, the patients he vowed to take care for are going to die.

And there is no foretelling what will happen to the twins if they die in their current state.


"I can´t figure out your paradigm Lifty! I thought you would despise me through and through, but it was only one section who was seeking for vengeance! I wasn´t able to know the solution at the second one on an instant and yet I have to fathom what will await me next! I wish you would just stand before me…I want to hug you and tell you how sorry I am… I just hope that I will save you and that you´ll come back to me." Shifty sheds a single tear, ever since he got into this place he felt something change about himself. Back then he can recall on multiple times in which peril appeared and he instantly thought of a plan to get himself out. It was as if something was crawling in his mind, literally forcing him to sacrifice his brother to save himself. Mostly after that he died shortly after. But as he survived a few times it was as if he was taking distance from himself, as if a different personality appeared in him every time they got in danger. He always feared that the bond between him and his brother would bet broken one day. Thanks to Lifty, this was never bound to happen. This time will be different, this time he will show Lifty that he cares at least equally for him. His determination rising inside his chest, he goes directly towards the third corridor.

But suddenly the corridor disappears and a wall with a single door appeared. He checked the space above it for another cryptic hint, but it seems that his brother's twisted thoughts will spare him this time. He opens the door without any hesitation, he finds himself in a large room with four doors, each at one cardinal point. At the center of the room was an arrow stuck to the ground, it moved slightly, implying that it is possible to spin it. Shifty gets closer to it, at first rather reluctant but what could possibly go wrong? At this point he already experienced so much pain that he would just do otherwise if he makes a wrong move. He spins the arrow and for some reason the arrow increases its velocity. It is spinning faster and faster, suddenly a shadowy figure appears. It is a raccoon, with some similarities to Shifty, but in opposition to him the shadowy coon has a big scar marking his face and, instead of a fedora, a bowler hat. The figure looks up to Shifty with dark, red eyes and a smirk in his devilish face. Shifty knows what is going to happen next and the figure suddenly attacks him. The room doesn´t offer much except for some medieval weapons decorating the walls. Luckily, the figure has a great distance, Shifty got enough time to think his next move. He dashes for the axes but underestimated their weight. Instead of taking both he sticks with just one.

The shadow didn´t bother with any of these, he suddenly forms a dagger which seems to be growing out of his flesh. Shifty, at first puzzled by this happening, shrieks as the dagger is send directly at him with an accurate throw. He barely dodges it and with no hesitation a second one is thrown, cutting his cheek as he could only manage to twitch out of its way. There is now no doubt that this figure is far better trained in weapons like he is. The shadow stands directly before him with a third dagger formed. It prepares to leap at Shifty and he only manages to raise his axe in pure fear, cowering underneath it. But the moment he closed his eyes, awaiting the deathblow, nothing, literally nothing happened. As he mustered the courage to look up he realized that he sliced the face of the creature in two halves, making it disappear.

Suddenly the arrow at the room's center stopped to spin around and pointed towards a door, a word was written on it.

Greed

Taking the hint for granted he opens the pointed door. The moment he goes through that door he is surrounded with metal, he recognizes on an instant where he is in. He is in a submarine.

"Quickly! Put that chest there and we can open it! I hope it will budge easily." He sees his brother carrying a chest and is about to hug him as he sees a second raccoon at the other end of the chest, it is himself. He stands there dumbfounded but as the two rascals are passing right through him he realizes that they can neither see nor feel him. The hatless raccoon opens the chest, revealing tons of gold. "Jackpot, yeah! This will be enough to last for a lifetime!" With that said the two raccoons hugged each other in overexcited joy and feasted on the loot avariciously.

Shocked as he knows what is going to happen he tries to yell, but he is completely mute, he realizes that he has to watch what is about to happen, how he died, but also how his brother died. This time Shifty was the one who died first in this event. The disaster has not been long in coming as the submarine reached the spot over the volcano, heating the submarine up rapidly. Suddenly some of the support beams are crushing down, burying Lifty underneath it. Shifty rushes to his brother's aid, but suddenly a raspy voice appears in his head.

"Don´t care for him, he´ll be back tomorrow anyway but the gold will be lost forever if you don´t take it! Don´t be a fool!"

And Suddenly Shifty's face turned to a smirk as he first pretended to reach for his brother's hands. But instead of helping him out he steals the gold and jewelry on his arm. The floor became extremely heated by the time now, melting Shifty's feet to the ground. Under great pain he walks a few steps towards the door, but the big pockets filled with parts of the treasure leave him stuck. Suddenly the gold coins begin to melt, and he realizes in shock that the gold coins in his pocket and, even worse, in his hat begin to melt to, enveloping him completely in molten gold. His screams are suddenly stopped as the burning liquid began to run through his nostrils, burning him equally from the inside as from the outside. Suddenly the submarine explodes but even the debris is passing through Shifty effortlessly who had to watch his gruesome deed once again. He closed his eyes shortly in frustration as he believed his brother dead by the explosion, but he guessed wrong. His brother was swimming towards the sinking gold statue, who is actually Shifty just enveloped in gold. Lifty grabs the hand of the statue, Shifty can tell the sadness in his brother's eyes. Lifty locks himself in the golden hand of his brother and closes his eyes, ready to drown.

Shifty witnessed his brother's demise and couldn´t believe what he just saw. He sold his brother out and still Lifty would cling to him in compassion. Suddenly the vision blurs and as he is returned to the door he just opened before the vision started, he hears a voice in his head, appearing to be Lifty's voice.

"I will never let you die alone…"

"I took you for granted and gave the loot on a higher rank for you. We could have gotten out of it together, but my selfish actions led to our demise and left us with empty pockets… I was such a fool…I´m sorry Lifty…"

Suddenly the door emitted a blue gleam and vanished into nothing, leaving an open gate to a room like the room before. Once again, an arrow stood in the midst of it. Instantly knowing what to do he heads for the arrow and spins it. Shifty grew a presentiment of danger and armed himself with an axe once again. As he could see the shadowy figure about to make an appearance again he hid quickly behind it before it opens its eyes. Being a trained thief, he mustered as much caution as possible to make as little noise as possible. As the figure has manifested, he quickly ambushes it by ramming the sharp point of the axe directly through the shadow's neck, making it disappear on an instant. Shifty knows all too well that he can´t win in a fair fight and he sincerely doubts that the figure would fight fair either.

The arrow stopped spinning as expected and pointed to another door. He directly marches towards it, the door either has a word written on it.

Unscrupulousness

Shifty hesitates as he reads the word, fearful of what gruesome deed of his own he must witness now. "I…I have to go on. There is no turning back now and no point in doing so anyway…" He closed his eyes as he went through the door, the moment he reopened them he saw that he was up in the air, he was on a hot air balloon, perceiving an argument between two well-known voices. "Oh no…"


Mime struggled as he desperately tried to keep the blood-soaked knife of Flippy away from his throat. Sooner or later Flippy will win him over and slaughter him on spot. The syringe! Mime quickly took his free hand and grabbed the syringe he intended to use for self-defense. He rams it right into Flippy's throat while pressing the head of the syringe, injecting a large sum of air into his carotid artery. Startled by Mime's sudden movement, Flippy got off him and held his throat, looking at Mime in an irate way. Flippy leaped for his victim, raising his knife to cut him down but Mime is a well-trained acrobat, without wasting any time, Mime jumps behind the table, throwing the clipboard directly at Flippy. But Flippy has very good reflexes and punches it out of his sight. But much to his surprise Mime wasn´t standing at the spot he stood before anymore. He looked around in confusion, unaware of Mime, dangling at the ceiling light. He waited for Flippy to be directly underneath him. It took him just a few seconds, in his berserk state, Flippy changes his targets when someone manages to get away in rare cases. He slowly approaches the shivering sheets. In her panic-state, Flaky is of real no use and makes some really dumb decisions. But this was exactly what Mime needed right now… Come on! Just a few more steps! The moment Flippy was on the right spot, Mime jumped hard on the porcelain lamp shade, causing it to fall down. Mime, adding his own weight and strength to it, crashes the lamp shade on Flippy's head, which dealt way more damage than he expected. Flippy's head literally exploded, sending brain matter through the entire room. Luckily the patients, well at least two of them, are spared from the organs. But Flaky got all of Flippy's brain parts directly at her face, only the sheets separating them from her face.

Mime let out a relieved sigh. Sure, the sight was gruesome, but he managed the unbelievable, he saved his patients from an overpowered monstrosity. But he let out a mimic moan as he thought of the effort to clean that mess. Suddenly Flippy's torso started to spurt out tons of blood like a fountain, directly into Mime's face.

At this moment you don´t have to be a sign reader to know that Mime can´t believe this situation to be serious right now.


"We already tossed out anything heavy, what else can we do now?" Shifty asked in a rather desperate tone. Lifty, pondering the situation a bit. "We can milk the cow! I can tell from her pudgy appearance that she is indeed carrying a lot of milk!" Lifty stated in an enthusiastic way "Good idea! Go on milk it then!"

"Wait what? No! That is disgusting! I don´t want to touch the cow at this…spot." Lifty said slightly aggravated that he is once again supposed to do the dirty work. "Well, if you want us to get fried instead, fine…" Shifty stated with a smug on his face, he mostly forces his brother to do the heavy work by just doing nothing, even if that means that they both would die. He always knew that Lifty would give in sooner or later. As he did this time. "FINE! I´ll do it! I would be glad if you could stop being a prick for at least one time! We´re stuck in this predicament together, you know?"

"Hey! I AM helping you! You milk the cow and I toss away the milk! This is indeed a rather important job you know?" Lifty just rolled his eyes at this but refused to argue any further. Soon the cow was almost completely dried up, but the balloon was still heading towards the electric wires. "I don´t have any idea what to do now…" Lifty stated utterly frustrated. Suddenly the raspy voice appears against in Shifty's head

"You can't let this happen! You made such effort to get that cow! Just toss him out! He will reappear anyway! This way he is at least of a little bit of use!"

"Shifty? Why are you looking at me lik…" But Lifty was cut short as he got tossed out from the balloon by his own brother. This time Shifty witnesses in shock as he hears his brother's scream once again and watching himself jumping up and down in joy doesn´t make the situation any better. A few moments later the vision blurred again as he witnessed his own demise once again. This time he was in the room again but this time it was empty, no arrow in the center of it and no sort of weapon at its walls.

"In moments you hoped for both of us to survive I didn´t have the same thought… I used the next possible opportunity to save my own ass, leaving you behind to perish…I am unable to recognize your paradigm but mine is very clear… and miserable…" He begins to cry silently "I´m sorry Lifty…" Suddenly he breaks down and falls to his knees.

"I´M SORRY LIFTY!"

Suddenly the room is filled with the familiar blue light. An ethereal figure with the shape of his brother is appearing in front of him, sprawled out on his back with his eyes closed.

Suddenly he sits up. Able to move and look after such long time of idleness. "Shifty! Shifty I´m right here! Shifty!" He witnessed his brother's every move.

"Shifty!" Lifty shrieks as he hears a feminine voice all of a sudden. "He can´t hear you." Lifty is more than surprised and confused. "Who are you? And how do you know?" But he can´t see anything, the voice is appearing out of nowhere. "I will explain after you two are done, but for the next reminiscence, Shifty will need your help to succeed." Lifty can´t help but remaining inquisitive "What do you mean exactl…" But he was once again cut short, his location is filled with the blue light and his body manifests in the location his ethereal self has done either. The moment he got up, he heard a familiar voice whimpering silently.

"I´m sorry, I´m so sorry, I´m sorry…"

Lifty wastes no time, he rushes towards his brother, surprising him by hugging him tightly.

"It is alright brother, I´m here now…"