My Calling

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

MAKAI! Seperates Paragraphs

A/N: Coming home from another night at work, this idea suddenly came to me out of the blue. I took it home, fiddled around with it for a bit, consulted my friend about it (though not necessarily in that above order), and it eventually evolved into this chapter's basis.

After all of this, my friend will most certainly be ready to kill me.

Bonus Chapter 2: Never saw it coming

It had been a few days since the incident in Priere's Netherworld involving Brad and the strange dark flames that engulfed his whole body. Stranger still, he seemed to have no memory of the incident, either choosing to put it out of his mind or purposely feign ignorance about it. Either way, Brad's ship was up and on its way to the next destination.

Esara, a species RYJ Succubus, who had been admitted as a new member of the crew, was gaining popularity among the crew members. Some would speculate that it's because she was a rare species of Succubus found normally around Priere's Netherworld, or because of the fact that, like Nelius, she was a non-Felynn, which easily drew attention to them.

On that matter, though, Nelius usually preferred to stay away from the spotlight, keeping to his own devices. Esara, on the other hand, if she wasn't hanging around Radara, Nelius, or the both of them, was usually having a good time with most of the other crew.

Brad had been staying up for the past few nights, fervishly working, probably trying to take his mind off of his lack of self-control back at Priere's. It had been only through the timely persistence of Tikal, a Tiger Stripe Felynn who was also his second in command, that he finally stepped away from the command center and went to go get some sleep.

With the next destination's coordinates set, the ship was to travel through a warp (the travel is pretty smooth, so there's no jarring of the ship) and arrive at the next point, which was also a drop-off.

I'll tell you this, right now. Nobody, and I do mean nobody, could've forseen what happened next.

MAKAI!

Nelius awoke that morning (according to the clock), and got out of bed, releasing a long yawn and stretching before exiting his room. With the familiar call from his stomach, he headed over to the ship's Mess Hall. Along the way, he saw someone who resembled either Radara or Esara, but through his sleep-addled vision, he gave a simple wave to the person, made a left turn and raided the Mess Hall's pantry... or at least, he made the attempt to.

As he searched through the stores of food, he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. At first, he disregarded it, but when that person tapped him again, he raised a hand to knock the other person's away and continued searching. It had been when the person smacked him upside the head that he snapped to attention and turned.

"What do you... wa...eh?!" Raiding forgotten, he just stared in disbelief.

Standing there was something that could, at best, be described as a Succubus-Felynn mix. She had the Felynn's tail, ears, and occasional fur on her body, but also had the Succubus' wings, spiral horns, free flowing hair, and outfit. He walked over and began fingering the wings.

"Sweet costume." As he fiddled around with the wings, she gave him a disapproving look. "Who makes this kind of stuff? You have to refer me to whoever made this. They did a nice job."

"Uh, Nelius..."

"Cool! A voice synthesizer that actually matches both Radara and Esara's voice tones. Incredible!"

"Um, if you'd let me explain..." Her patience was starting to wear thin.

"Did Brad make you one of those? I have to..." She whirled around and put her face right up to his.

"You idiot! It's us!"

"Wait, you mean to say that you are both Radara and Esara?" She nodded. Then an idea hit him. Oh, I get it now." A look of hope crossed her face. "That costume must have extra space to fit the both of you!" She fell over, face first. "It must be awfully dark in there. Need a light?" She quickly rose to her feet, seething with fury. "What?"

MAKAI!

"Geez, you really knocked him a good one." A Tailring at the medical bay looked over Nelius, whose body was adorned with a black eye, one good bruise to the stomach, and a bloody nose.

"He deserved it." She was still mad about earlier.

"If you say so..." The Tailring, Juno, picked up a scanning device and pointed one end toward the strange Felynn-Succubus mix. "Hold still just a moment." A blue light scanned her from head to toe, then displayed the results on a small screen. "This... is something. Apparently, the two of you have fused together."

"Tell me something I don't know, like how long this will last."

"I really can't say, but I do know the alien feeling."

"Really?" She deadpanned.

Juno lifted up the hair on top of her head, revealing two yellow flower buds resting where her ears would normally be. "Trust me, I know. And another friend of mine once ended up with pink feathers around her waist."

"What's the bet she moonlights as an exotic dancer?" Nelius had apparently woken up.

"You shut up." Juno snapped. "Anyway, better call Brad about this." She tried connecting, but got only static. "Come on, patch through!" She slammed a fist on the console, but nothing worked. Nelius got up from the medical bed, placed his ear to the side of the console, then flicked a finger to it. Nodding, he walked around to the other side and delivered unto it a swift kick, which then produced a crystal clear picture.

"The American way always works!" He struck a pose, grinning. The other two just stared. "Well, let's see what he's doing."

Brad was fast asleep, his quarters a complete mess. Covers were thrown around everywhere, and Brad himself was sprawled out in the center of the bed, his mouth wide open, tongue hanging off one side and snoring up a storm, complete with thunderheads and rain effects.

Juno stared in disbelief, the fused one had a look of complete shock (due to Radara knowing Brad for so long, especially how much of a neat freak he could be), and Nelius was laughing.

"I knew he was a heavy sleeper, but..."

"Never thought I'd ever see..."

"HAHAHAHAAA!" Nelius was snapping picture after picture of the sight. "This is gold!" The two females looked at him.

"Why are you snapping pictures?" He turned to them, a strange look in his eyes.

"PAYBACK FOR ALL THAT SHIT HE PUT ME THROUGH!" Nelius declared.The two backed away from him. "Plus, it's funnier than hell to see him like this!" Pocketing the camera, he pulled out a video recorder and began taping, and not a moment too soon, as Brad began making strange noises in his sleep and twisted and turned about. 'Netherworld's Most Humiliating, here I come!' When the noises settled down, Nelius dashed out of the medical center.

"Where is he going with that tape?"

MAKAI!

A pair of red eyes shone from a darkened cell.

"So, it comfortable enough in there for you?" Nelius peered into the holding cell-esque room.

"Go away! Haven't you humiliated me enough?!" She sneered at him.

"Potentially, no, but that's not whay I'm here." Flipping open a side of the video recorder with a viewing screen, he hit a button for the playback feature, then turned the screen to the captive, whose eyes widened in shock. Her eyes could be seen closing, and badly contained laughter could be easily heard resounding from the cell. "If you want to see him make a bigger fool of himself, say a few quick lines into this voice recorder." He passed her a recorder, and she turned her head up to him.

"I don't understand you. You rescued him from me, and now you want me to help in humiliating him? How do I know this isn't a trick?"

"Tell me, how could I be tricking you by having you say something that can scare the living shit outta him?"

"Point made."


MAKAI!

Brad woke up, feeling quite refreshed from that much needed sleep.

"Ohh, Brad." A teasing voice resounded. He froze up.

"What the hell? He looked around, but didn't see the voice's owner. 'I know that voice. It's her, but, how'd she get out?'

"I never knew you slept in anchovie boxers. Cute!" His face (and facial fur) paled considerably. He wildly whipped his head around the room, looking for any potential hiding spots. Where was she?! How did she know?!

"Ohh, but you looked so damn adorable sleeping like that! Can I come up there sometime? I know we'll have a blast!" That did it. He shrieked like a child and ran straight through his door, leaving a perfect outline. He dashed straight down to where he'd held the Nekomata that had captured him earlier that week and peered in on her, in nothing but his white anchovie boxers.

"Hi!" She beamed at him.

"If... you're here...then, who..."

"Oh, must've been my other self. She likes to get out every now and then for some fun." She gave a sinister grin. "But, since you're here..." In a flash, she jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into the cell. "We'll have our fun now!"

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

MAKAI!

Back at the Medical bay, Nelius was laughing so damn hard, his eyes were tearing up. He'd managed to capture everything up to the point where Brad ran straight through his door in a panicked fit.

"Wasn't I supposed to be the central point of this chapter?" The fused one questioned.

"I'm not sure what you're going on about, but I've never seen that display before!" Juno, who had been watching the whole time, had finally broken down and was laughing alongside Nelius.

"Then, what was all of this about?"

"Simple." He turned serious for a moment, silencing Juno. Then, a big grin broke out across his face. "Payback's a bitch!"

MAKAI!

So ends this second bonus chapter. Anyway, as for the fused Radara/ Esara, I'm in the market for a name suggestion, especially since she'll become a major character in a further chapter.

I'm also seriously thinking of making the next chapter, or the one afterwards, something of a Q&A with the characters.

Until next chapter,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough