The Problem with Pigs
4. Helping Hogs
The afternoon after Bryan's birthday party, the team was cleaning up the wreckage in the garage. Fred, Bryan and Mitch's brother, had already left to board his return flight to New York. First to finish her assignment, Regan Wyngarde returned to her room for some downtime. When she entered, however, she'd found that someone had trashed a section of her shelving in search of something or another. Being the calm, collected person she was, she stormed out vowing to torture her teammates until someone gave her a satisfactory answer.
Brownie, who'd watched the scene from the closet (she'd hidden from the noise and Virus), plodded out and looked at the disorganized mess of a shelf. She wasn't sure how the yellow-haired two-leg wanted it arranged, but she did know that books and trinkets lying scattered wasn't it. With a small series of grunts, she began to use her snout to re-position the books and other collectables into an orderly state, then trotted back to her "mother's" room.
Regan returned to find her shelves once again organized, not knowing the role the household's newest member had in the arrangement.
A few days later, Burn-Out and Thrasher were working in the garage, where Burn-Out had broken something by accident and began swearing vehemently in two languages. It was late evening, and most of the kids were out on a mission or finishing up homework. Which meant that no-one was around to aid them in their attempt at repairing the broken-down HISS tank that the Commander wanted fixed in two more days.
"What did you screw up now?" Thrasher asked. The black man halfway under the vehicle swore yet again.
"Stupid wiring." He grumbled. "I swear, it's like they want the piece of shit to break down!"
"Who knows anymore." The other Dreadnok shook his head.
"All I know is that I'm too big to fit any farther up under the damn thing without breaking even more stuff. "
"But if you don't fit, who's small enough to crawl under there?"
"Oink!" Both men turned to see Brownie the pig looking up at them.
"What the hell are you doing in here?" Thrasher grumbled. "Scram!"
"Hey, not so fast." Burn-Out grabbed his arm. "Look at it and tell me what you see."
"I see a swine." Thrasher growled. "I don't know what else you can see!"
"No, I mean look at it in relation to our little hole." The other man explained. Thrasher's eyes widened with understanding.
"Oh. But do you think she can play fetch with the tools?"
"She's bound to do a better job of it than you did a few minutes ago." Burn-Out snorted. "Here, piggy, piggy. I got a job for you."
Ten minutes later, the tank revved to life. Both Dreadnoks stood back and smiled.
"I'll be." Thrasher stated. "The little porker's worth something after all."
"Yes she is." Burn-Out smiled, picking up the piglet. "Yes, you're a good little piggy. You're going to be eating people food tonight." The little brown pig squealed in approval.
Meanwhile, Virus watched from one of the security cameras. He seethed with loathing and jealousy. "That is it! That little plonker is going to die!"
