Beauregard and the Dark Egg Legion belong to Archie Comics. Mr. Hyunh belongs to Craig Bartlett and Nickelodeon.
Hyunh and Beauregard: Simple Things
All the stares...all the guns...and those creepy robot limbs...
'Oh, how did I get into dis mess...?' persisted as the only thought in the frightened foreigner's mind as he reluctantly marched past the barracks, flanked on each side by an armed anthropomorphic being in purplish-black robes. A harsh, golden sun scorched the land as the sand simmered like griddle.
Only yesterday, he had been a simple man living a simple life in a simple boardinghouse. Now, here he was, trapped in a base that might as well have been on another world and taken prisoner by strange half-robot, half-animal creatures. His only hope at this point would be survival.
After a few minutes of walking through hallways that seemed to stretch on forever, the trio stopped in front of a wooden door. One of the guards, some species of canine, reached past Hyunh and jostled the brass knob. He opened the door far enough to poke his head past the jamb.
"Baron, your guest is here."
"Send 'im in," a deep, Southern voice replied. Its owner sounded friendly enough; maybe things wouldn't turn out as badly as Hyunh thought.
A rough shove sent the Vietnamese man tumbling past the threshold. After managing to right himself, Hyunh took a moment to observe his surroundings. There wasn't much in the room as far as décor was concerned. In fact, now that Mr. Hyunh more closely inspected the place, he noticed that the habitation possessed a rather Spartan quality.
An audible cough brought the man's attention to a wooden office desk. In front of it was a simple, brown chair. An identical chair stood behind the desk, except it was occupied. The seated individual, a well-dressed cowboy rabbit that seemed to be around Hyunh's age, gestured a hand to grant his guest permission to move forward.
The lapine stood up as Mr. Hyunh nervously stepped forward. "You must be that Hyunh fella my Legionnaires found."
"Y-yes..."
The rabbit, in an act of benevolence, waved his hand once again. "Now, now, there ain't no need for concern, Mr. Hyunh," he assured with a warm smile, which the addressed tentatively returned.
"Beauregard Lee Rabbot, leader of the Great Desert Chapter of the Dark Egg Legion...," the Grandmaster explained as he stuck out his cybernetic right hand as a means of greeting. Hyunh warily scanned the hand for a few seconds before gripping in one of his own, the metal cold against his skin. "And you're..."
"My name...? It is...Yiang Mahana-Hyunh. I took my wife's last name when we marry."
Beauregard raised an eyebrow, surprised at this detail. "Really now...? There ain't too often these days married couples who go decide ta keep both last names like that."
Yiang deeply blushed with a shy smile at this observation. He looked off to the side out of embarrassment. "My wife...she was very, um, adamant about keeping last name..." 'And very persuasive about it as well...'
The lapine's strong voice, in spite of its gentleness, cut through Hyunh's thoughts like a razor. "You may refer to me as Grandmaster or sir. Don't matter which you decide on, Yiang. I ain't picky on what my subordinates choose to call me for the most part."
Subordinates?!
Yiang froze up at the implications of that word. His eyes shot back to Beau in sheer horror! "B-but I do not wish to be part of this Legion! I-I am sorry Mr. Rabbot, but I have family back home. I have wife and children waiting fo' me!"
This was all a huge misunderstanding! All Hyunh wanted was to return home. He had no idea what these animal-people did for a living, but if the metal limbs and weapons meant what he feared they meant...
"Funny thing is...so are uh good chunk of the people working unda' me." Even in the thralls of panic and fear, Yiang at least managed to gaze up at Beauregard, whose words and face both displayed no trace of malice or mockery at all. On the contrary, the wizened Grandmaster, his face set in firm sympathy, stepped out from behind the desk and walked around the side of it until he and Yiang stood face to face, their eyes on level with each other.
"I'm sorry, Yiang," Beau regretfully admitted as he shook his head, placing his organic hand on the shoulder of the human male. "You've already seen so much of this base. To let you go would put thousands of lives at risk—and I don' just mean the ones back home. No going back..."
That was it then. There lay no other reasonable option for Yiang. He could just run for all the good that would do him. The soldiers would shoot him before he'd even manage to leave the building. And Beau would most likely hold him down before he could even as so much turn towards the door. Yiang would rather not take any chances with the lapine's strength.
'I will never see my family again then...I am lost again...I am lost...' Defeated and forlorn, Yiang dragged his feet as he sulkily shuffled to the chair and planted himself into it with a despondent sigh. He could already feel the tears stinging his eyes...
"What are your special skills, if you don't mind me askin'?"
That voice dug Yiang out of his depression enough to remind the man of Beau's presence. The Grandmaster, during the Vietnamese man's moment, took his own chair and, the second Yiang dropped into his own, deposited it next to him. Now the rabbit was sitting right next to him, his metallic hand gently rubbing circles into the poor soul's broad back. All the while, the tender sympathy never left his steely blue eyes.
Yiang opened his mouth to speak, but stumbled at first. His voice quivered with pure anxiety, his denial still strong in his glazed eyes.
"I am...good chef," he quietly answered.
Beau's thick, orange eyebrows flew up in pleasant surprise. "Oh, we could use anotha' hand in the kitchen. Head chef's been complaining about there bein' too much workload lately."
His happy expression did little to cheer Yiang up. Beau scolded himself for his unintended insensitively. 'That prob'ly wasn' the best thing ta say...'
Yiang cut him off before he could offer an apology. "Yes...okay...I understand...s-sir."
The feeling of metal around his shoulders made Hyunh turn his sights back onto Beauregard, who smiled at him as easily as if the two men were long-time friends. "'Course, whenever no else's around, you can just call me Beau. I got no problem with that either...And you've been in a war before. I can tell. Your eyes say everything."
"Y-Y...Yes...I have." Yiang had no other words to say at this moment, but he could tell there was something Beauregard wished to say, so he merely gestured the rabbit to continue.
"Sometimes in war, we lose track of the simple things," Beau stated with a wistful tone. He held his fleshy hand out into the open air. "Day in, day out...waking at first in the illusion that everything's fine...that everything you saw yesterday was just uh bad dream...'til you walk out your door and see it's as real as can be."
Once his arm felt the shuddering of Yiang's back, the rabbit at first mistook it as a sign of an upcoming fit of tears, which would've been appropriate considering Yiang's situation. He didn't, however, expect the sound of constrained laughter, of all things, to ring into his tied-up ears. Beauregard needed to take a double-take the second he discovered Yiang to be not crying...but actually laughing!
Beau nearly lost balance from his chair a second later because Yiang suddenly slipped an arm around the rabbit's waist and started slapping his own knee like a madman. The wider man went so far as to even lean against Beau's side for support—somewhat of a difficult job for Beau, especially at his age. The Rabbot barely managed to keep both him and Yiang from tipping over and falling onto the floor.
"Whoa, take it easy, damn it!" Beau yelped in a tone somewhere in between fear and irritation. He was completely taken back by this man's offhand sense of affection! "If you wanna roll around on the floor laughin', be mah guest, but don' take me for the ride!"
"I-I...I am...sorry, sir! I-I mean...Beau!" Hyunh gasped in between laughs. As his unexplained mirth began to die down, he relaxed his body, his arm detaching itself from Beau's waist. Beau likewise removed his own arm from Yiang's shoulders, feeling the man had to be feeling alright enough to suddenly leap into hysterics in the way he just did.
"It is just," Yiang paused a moment to wipe a tear from his eyes, "When you said 'simple things,' I thought back to dis song I once wrote to play on my guitar."
Wait...this guy knew how to play the guitar? Beau jerked his head back in shock, the beads of his dreadlocks jangling from the sudden movement. "You write an' play music?"
Yiang nodded. "Yes, I love to play! Ever since I come to America, I have always loved country music. I have always found it relaxing."
"No kidding...?" Beau returned in genuine curiosity. "Tell me then. Which country singers are ya partial to?"
Yiang leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest, to ponder over this question. "Well...there is this one woman named—"
From that point on, Mr. Hyunh chose to bear with being a cook for the Great Desert Legion. Though no pay was to be expected for the job, he didn't care. At least the task of helping prepare the food for the troops helped take his mind off of his worries, even if only for a short while.
And Beauregard, whenever they were alone, proved a reliable source of companionship and comfort, spending the quiet evenings with simple, heart-to-heart conversations with Yiang.
But never, not even for a second, did Yiang Hyunh ever stop thinking about his family. He never stopped thinking about how worried sick they were for him. Though he considered himself in good hands, he knew the Legion was not where he belonged. One day...one day, he would find the means to escape. The opportunity would come in time.
Just like back in Vietnam...
He only had to wait.
When you think about them, Beau and Hyunh are more alike than you think. 1) They were both separated from their families because of a war and wished to reunite with them one day. 2) They most likely lost their wives. 3) They share a like, or at least tolerance, for cowboy attire. And 4) they're both dedicated family men. Oh yeah, and 5) they both have very bad tempers. XD
It almost scares me how many similarities exist between characters from two completely different worlds, much less different media.