The beginning of a friendly act may result in a friendship


"Ow…" Lifty rubs his head, they all had more luck than Flippy and Ian, but it resulted in severe bruises nonetheless. "Is everyone okay?" He looks around, his vision still wobbly like he´s suffering the effects of an excessive drinking session. As he touches his surroundings he feels a familiar paw.

"Shifty? Shifty are you all right?" His vision is slowly clearing, but the sight wasn´t really pleasant. "Shifty!" The fedora wearing raccoon lies unconscious on the concrete, his breath rather weak. His body is completely covered in shards and dirt, blood pouring out from the cuts.

Lifty looks around in panic, only to notice that the others weren´t affected by a better fate. Flaky's face was far from being recognizable as if her face got comminuted on the street. Russell's throat was completely slit open, probably by the window's remains which were ricocheting around.

The only people alive are himself, his brother and Disco Bear who getting up slowly, his moans proving that he didn´t get away unscathed either. Suddenly, a female groaning his reaching his ears. Under the debris which was shot out from the kitchen lies giggles, impaled through her stomach.

"Shit! What do I do now?" He looks around hectically, noticing a telephone mast. "These things need coins… I don´t have any spare money…" Slowly beginning to hate himself he reaches down into Giggles' pockets, hoping to find a coin for making a call for the ambulance.

He bites his lips in disgust, he wanted to be different, refrain from stealing and here he is, stealing once again. But this has a purpose this time, isn´t that justifying the act a little? He searches her pockets as he gets tackled to the ground on a sudden, his arm twisted on his back as the weight on top of his back is pushing him to the ground.

"Please! Let me go I need to call the ambulance! Please! Who is…" He sees the reflection of his ambusher on a greater shard. "Mime! Please you have to help us!" But Mime is only tightening his grip, causing hi to groan in pain as his hand gets twisted a little further, his joints begin to ache badly.

"I know what you may think! But I didn´t intend to raid her! Please believe on this just once! I want to call the ambulance, but the telephone mast needs coins! And I don´t have any!" Lifty pleads, hoping that Mime would finally ease down his grip on him, not only because the pain is bringing him to tears slowly, but also, he gets more and more worried for his brother.

Finally, Mime lets go off him, helping him up. The hatless rodent looks into the deer's face, only to be greeted with a genuine smile. Mime picks up a coin out of his pocket, handing it to Lifty while pointing towards the telephone mast. "Thank you!" He dashes towards it to make the call while Mime is taking care of the survivors.

It doesn´t take Lifty long to dial the number, in just a few second, he gets greeted by a familiar voice. "Hello, Lasting Hope hospital, you´re speaking with Sniffles." A sigh of relief is leaving his chest. "Sniffles! Please you have to come at Russell's restaurant! The kitchen just exploded and threw us outside it!"

"Understood, please keep yourself calm, I´m coming as fast as possible!" With that said Sniffles ended the call. He takes a few deep breaths as suddenly his vision got blurry again. He feels somehow queasy and nauseous. He leans against a wall and, shortly after, vomits against it.

A headache is kicking in, sending him to his knees. He notices Mime getting up and towards him before he loses his consciousness as well.


"So… It seems we will have some moments for ourselves, huh?" Ian stated, feeling the urge to start a conversation. He doesn´t get uneasy that easily mostly, but he can´t stand awkward silence, something Flippy seems to value more for some reason.

"Yeah…" Flippy does get uneasy very easily, regarding his reputation it may be no wonder at all that he has his problems to actually enjoy some company. The morning sun is rising slowly on the horizon, its warm rays slowly drying their water-drenched fur.

"I saw that you were wearing a cameo outfit, were you in an army?" Normally Flippy would feel himself loosing his nerves on the inside, but for some reason Ian's company is preventing his breakdowns. He is mostly reluctant to give an answer about this.

"Yes, I was. But I don´t want to talk about the past…" Flippy rises his gaze towards the grey furred raccoon who is wringing his tail. "Thank you for rescuing me, how did you manage to heal me though? You just pressed your hands against my chest and *wink* my wounds disappeared…"

"It is a long story… And some things are involved I don´t even understand myself. But I stopped caring at some point, it is a useful trait, that´s all that matters to me momentarily." Ian said, trying to get the water out of his ears. Flippy can´t tell what exactly this feeling is, but he has to smile at his sight almost moronic.

"Are you… related to the twins?" Now it was Ian to wonder. For anyone else, this remark would have been so contemptuous, but Flippy asked this nonchalantly without a biased tone in his voice. "Yes, I´m their brother." Flippy raised his right brow at this.

"Really now? How comes that I never saw you in this place?" Now Ian got uneasy, he wasn´t ready to roll this story up again. He bites his lips as his eyes are avoiding his glance. "I… didn´t get out much…" Flippy, due to his experience in war and interactions with people, recognizes his lie on an instant, but he isn´t the person to dig into someone's secrets.

In the distance, the shape of an island makes its appearance. "It seems the current brings us directly to this island, I hope it has something to offer, I fear that we will be stuck on it for some time…" Flippy couldn´t help but getting nervous. Being in foreign territory was never a good thing, especially not with another person.

"Yeah… Seems like it…" He gets startled a bit as Ian rests his left paw on his right shoulder. "Don´t look so glum! I promise we will get through this!" He smiles back at him weakly. "What makes you so enthusiastic? Who will ever try to find us? I appreciate your words of assurance, but I think we will die and resurrect in our bedrooms…"

If only he knew… "My brothers will definitely wonder about my whereabout, I´m sure they will try something to find me!" Flippy's expression darkened. "You may be right if you´re referring to Lifty… But Shifty won´t bother for you." Now Ian got really uneased. "What do you mean exactly? Why wouldn´t he care?"

"You know these two are thieves? But in every heist that went wrong Shifty was selling his brother out, dumping him, using him as cannon fodder." Ian removed his hand from his shoulder, listening inquisitively to Flippy's experiences he has made with his brothers.


"Are all infusions prepared?" Mime gives the last aditus, it is rather unpractical to transport three patients in one ambulance, but as they´re the only ones doing this job it doesn´t leave them much of a choice. They asked Disco Bear whether he wanted to come with them, but he died shortly after, not really clear how though.

He drives carefully but still as fast as he can, danger is lurking nearly everywhere. This gets proven even more as Pop is driving before them, following the road like it was a dancing snake. "What is this idiot doing?" Sniffles asked, agitated at Pop's crassness.

He drives past a hill as a sudden crumbling sound is getting his attention. He notices a large rock at the look in the rearview mirror, rolling after them. "Oh, fuck this place…" He cussed, this distressing situation driving him to profanity.


As soon as Flippy finished his story time about the twins past acts he looks back at Ian, readied to be greeted by a somber look, but, much to his surprise, Ian was smiling. "This may be their past, but they want to change. Just today we made our way to Russell's restaurant to earn money honestly!"

"Well… I hope they will stay true to their word. It would be really nice if they would achieve that though. I hope the best for them." Surprised by Flippy friendly demeanor Ian got overwhelmed by his curiosity. "Flippy… I´m just talking to you for about an hour. I can tell that you are a really nice person! How comes it that you are despised that much?"

Flippy lowers his head, covering his face in his hands and knees. "Let´s just say that I can be rather "Flippy" sometimes, heh…" he chuckled at his pun a little bit melancholic, that didn´t pass Ian unnoticed. "Do you wanna talk about it? I promise you that I´m not a judging person."

The boat loses its speed as it slowly reaches the shore of the small island. The wave-twisted water gives a blurred reflection of Flippy's face as it slowly fades with his distance. They step out of the boat, glad to have somewhat solid ground beneath their feet.

Ian notices Flippy's absence of mind and changes the topic. "How about we gather some supplies?" He looks into Flippy's black pupils. "works with me… I´ll see what I can find on the left side of the island." With that said he goes without any further word.

Ian decides to take the right side, hoping that nothing hostile would dwell on this island, making the idea of splitting up rather risky. "What an odd place…" Ian wonders as he makes his first step. The shore is rather small as it seems to be on the side they reached the shore.

The rest of the islands space was filled with plants, many different ones. He enters the consolidation of plants, the small jungle on this small island. The plants bloomed rather narrowly, making this place to a single thicket. Ian was looking for food first as he saw one of his favorite medicinal herb. "Sage… But how can I use it on this island? I have no boiler…" He thinks loudly to himself but decides to pick up the plant anyways. As soon as he picked up the herb a field full of various herbs is revealed to him, making him suspicious.

"It is rather unlikely that all these plants are growing at the same spot… Somethings odd here…" He drops the sage and decides to investigate this island further, just to make sure that they don´t experience any "surprise" while they´re on here.

"I wonder how Flippy is getting along on his side, I can barely estimate him…" Ian slows down as he sees a weird tree before him. Its trunk is standing straight with only one branch pointing towards him high above his head. On the branch was only one leaf, looking very sharp as if something bad was just bound to happen if someone would remain near this tree.

"Strange… I never saw a tree like this…" "Ian? Are you there?" Flippy says coming out of a bush right next to the grey furred raccoon. Unluckily he sees Ian too late and bumps right into him. Flippy falls back, landing hard against the odd tree, the impact causes the single leaf to come down like a guillotine.

It misses Flippy head barely, cutting his cheek. He shrieks and falls to his knees. "Flippy? Are you okay" But the green bear only shivers, covering his face. "Please! You have to run! Please go!" He yells at him desperately, but Ian's confusion is forcing him to stay.

"Are you dense?" Flippy says, slowly rising his gaze, piercing Ian with his now emerald eyes "What the?" His face gives a twisted smile as he slowly gets up. "you should have run…" He coos through his somehow sharpened teeth.


Sniffles is getting more and more desperate as the rock behind them is gaining speed and before them a driving Pop, slowing them down with his special style of driving. He sighs as he makes a radical decision. "My apologize Pop, but I refuse to let my patients die because of your ineptitude."

With that said he accelerates the ambulance, pushing Pop's car aside. "Mime! Please try to get Cub out of that car!" Mime climbs out of the window at the passenger seat as fast as he can, his training in acrobatics coming in action once again.

He jumps into Pop's car by smashing the window of the driver's seat, causing its shards to cut Pop at several spots. He grabs Cub, preparing for Pop to protest but as he looks at him he notices that his head was already smashed in way before he came in here.

Cub giggles as the deer is joking before his face, trying to hide the gruesome sight of his father. He climbs out of the window and gets on the car's roof as suddenly the car hits a great rock, sending them to fly towards Sniffles' ambulance.

But he can´t grab the backdoor of the ambulance and prepares himself to get grinded on the asphalt and crushed by the giant rock still pursuing them. Suddenly the backdoor swings open with a determined looking Sniffles standing on the threshold. On his back is a gadget containing a large and long grappler.

"Please function just this once!" He reaches out to Mime with his gadget, getting one of his antlers only to lose its grab shortly after. "COME ON!" He tries once again, this time with Mime reaching a hand out towards the machinery. "Success!".

He slowly pulls his assistant back who is holding Cub on his right arm while holding the grappler with his left. He puts him down and shuts the door rapidly to get back to the driver's seat. Just in time as it seems, just before them is a sharp curve. "Please work this time!"

He has to swing the wheel sharply to the right in hope that it´ll work, slowing down is not an option as the rock isn´t even two meters away from them. All they can do now is hope that he will get it, or he will fail, and they will fall down the cliff to their futile demise.


"Flippy… What the hell?!" The green bear leaps at him, rising his fists and readying himself to punch Ian in the face. But he is not that easy to ambush, Ian dodges the attack by jumping backwards, rising his arms for defense. But Flippy keeps relentlessly attacking him, his quickness making it hard for Ian to keep track of his fists.

Ian keeps blocking Flippy's attacks, going backwards but it doesn´t take long until he stands with his back at a tree. Now it was Ian to attack back as he raised his right knee up to Flippy's chest as Flippy was bending forward to finally hit him, clearly underestimating the twin's brother.

Ian uses Flippy's perplexity to his advantage, he lifts his left knee and stretches his leg rapidly towards him, giving Flippy a forceful kick with his heel. The bear falls back in the dirt, chuckling menacingly. "I´m… surprised… I never thought that anyone would be able to fight back! I´m going to enjoy this…"

With that said he rips a chunk of bark from a nearly palm, nagging on it with his somehow yet sharp teeth. "His teeth became… acuate?" He was done nagging it quickly, giving it a pointy shape. "What happened to you?" Ian tries to start a reasonable conversation, but he gets attacked by him once again.

With a maniacal scream he dashes towards the still perplex raccoon and starts stabbing after him quickly and relentlessly. Ian has nor a harder time to block if he intents to avoid being cut by Flippy's self-made dagger. Suddenly Flippy raised his right leg, feinting a kick.

Unluckily for Ian, his trap worked as the coon attempted to block the maneuver, giving Flippy the chance to punch his jaw with his left hand. The strike hits him with full force, using his short dizziness to tackle him to the ground. Ian falls hard on his side, holding his sour jaw.

But as he turns around he finds Flippy on top of him, trying to stab him with his wooden dagger. He quickly grabs his hand, pushing the weapon away from him, but Flippy lays himself with all his weight on it to push the dagger inside the raccoon's head. Ian struggles, with Flippy slowly overpowering him, bringing the dagger closer and closer to his left eye. "You have wonderful blue eyes… Ian…" Flippy grunts smugly.


"Damn it! Mime! I doubt I´m going to make it! Quick, take my gadget I used to pull you on this van, chock it onto the passenger's door and grab something with it! Hopefully it will be enough to pull us around the curve!" Mime doesn´t wait long to do as he is told, grabbing the thing he got rescued with.

He wedges it with the swung-open passenger's door and tries to use it, but he doesn´t know which switch is to trigger. He turns to Sniffles desperately. "There is a rather small joystick! With it you can move the arm! You just have to move it towards an object and it will grab automatically!"

Mime scrutinizes the device quickly, only to see a joystick smaller than his own thumb in the center of the gadget. Seriously, Sniffles is a brilliant mind, but this was not thought through thoroughly… Without wasting any more seconds at this thought, Mime moves the grapplers towards a lantern. The moment the lantern is grabbed he comes to think that this may not have been the best decision, but it was too late now, it must work!

"Prepare for nothing! Here comes the curve!" Sniffles turns the wheel at its absolute maximum and the ambulance turns instantly to the right. But because of his very high speed the ambulance keeps driving forward. The grapplers are abruptly stretched to their maximum and the passenger's door's tangs are revolting.

Suddenly the door is ripped away, sending the device out. "Shit, shit, SHIT!" But before they hit the guard railing, the ambulance began to drive the direction he was hoping for. Only seconds after that the giant rock pursuing them luckily keeps his path and rolls down the cliff.

"That was too close… Wait, where is Cub?" But a joyful sound emitting from the passenger seat is relieving his distress as he sees the infant safely strapped on the seat. "Mime, remind me to grant you a salary increase as soon as we arrived at the hospital…" Mime smiles widely, nodding his head while hoping that the rest of this drive will go smoothly.


"Flippy… Please stop!" Ian begs, fearing to lose this fight. But the maniac isn´t giving in, only pushing further. He leans further on his dagger, getting his legs off Ian's, a grave mistake. Ian pulls his legs up, wrapping them around Flippy's throat. He pushes him down and away from him with all of his strength.

When he finally got him off of him he gets up fast, panting heavily as his arms burn from the struggle. But he has no time to rest, Flippy got up equally fast and runs at him for another attack. Ian just stands there, waiting for the right moment to strike.

The moment Flippy is almost at him, he spins around, raising his right foot once again and sends a forceful kick straight into Flippy's face. But to his surprise the bear predicted that, dodging the kick. He grabs Ian by his lifted leg and kicks the other he´s standing on.

Before Ian could raise his hands in defense he throws himself on him, sending the dagger right through his jaw, impaling his head. Ian emits a gargling sound before his limbs are falling on the ground weakly. "Heh, nice try fella! But you´re no match to me."

He turns around as, to his total perplexity, Ian gets up slowly. Ian puts his head back, slowly pulling out the wooden knife out of his jaw. Flippy witnesses in shock but also admiration the closing wounds on Ian's head. Without any further words, Ian throws the weapon precisely at Flippy's shoulder, sending him down in surprise.

He picks up a near branch, dashes towards the injured maniac. He lifts the branch wide over his head, sending it down at Flippy's skull with all his force, sending him into unconsciousness. Ian remains silently looming over his opponent, panting through his burning lungs. "You… Really need help… I just hope that I will be able to give it to you… But we have to get of this island first… Lifty, Shifty… I hope you two are alright…"

He throws the branch away, getting over to Flippy. "We better get back to the shore…" He pulls him up with much effort, he groaningly makes their way through the bushes. They didn´t get that deep in luckily so he does not have to walk that far.


"Take the nearest room for them!" Sniffles said as he already begins to take care of Shifty's and Lifty's injuries. "Please take care of Giggles. I´ll provide these two men. Their tails are broken… Well this is not the deadly part for them! First things first!"

Sniffles talks the last parts to himself, a habit he developed by the try of getting his own thoughts sorted. Mime quickly got the bandages and moved towards Giggles, but the moment he grabbed her paw, ready to patch her up he felt something odd.

Her limbs are rigid and she isn´t breathing anymore. Much to his shock he has to realize that Giggles is in a rigor mortis state, her lifeless eyes are piercing him. He lowers his head, feeling guilty that he didn´t trust Lifty sooner, so the help would have been on time, maybe.