Chapter 5 continued: Research Whoas and Oh Nos (Part 2)

Roughly two hours later, the clock read 5:15 pm. This meant the park was now closed to the public and normally the others would be wrapping up whatever last minute work needed to be completed by 6:00 when the sun was supposed to set. Instead however, everyone was situated in the living room, which was covered with notebooks and binders and other important documents strewn all over the floor and in piles, each reading a different stack.

"Ugh, I haven't read this much since high school," Rigby complained tossing one of the books he had finished reading aside and leaning backwards until he was flat on his back.

"Dude, you never read this much in high school," Mordecai pointed out looking up from one of the binders he was currently reading from his spot against the wall. "It was one of the reasons why you never got your high school diploma."

"Oh don't even start that again!" Rigby snapped. Benson simply rolled his eyes and lightly shook his head at the two before going back to the booklet he was currently going over from his spot in the corner of the room closest to the windows. However as he turned the page he recoiled slightly at an ancient Native American diagram of a Rage Wolf mutilating a human. Benson's ears went back in disgust as he let out an uneasy sigh and closed the book with the bleak picture.

"You okay?" Skips asked looking over Benson who merely returned it with an unamused look. "Sorry, standard question," Skips apologized understanding his boss' plight.

"It's fine," Benson replied with a wave of his hand. "Although looking at a million and one ways to see how my current situation can go horribly wrong doesn't exactly do much for my self esteem," he replied sarcastically. Audrey glanced up from one of Vick's research articles and gave him a sympathetic look from her spot in a nearby chair.

"Perhaps a nap might do you a bit of good," Pops suggested looking up from a document of his own. "You've looked awfully tired ever since this morning." Hearing this, Maellard also glanced over to the werewolf hybrid from his seat beside his son on the couch.

"I'm alright Pops," Benson declined as he got to his feet. "I'll just go splash some water on my face." With that Benson left the room and went into the foyer passing by Skips' tool belt, which was used to fix up the front door from the previous Rage Wolf attack and now sat on the cabinet that was moved back to its proper position against the wall. From there, Benson entered the back hallway where the downstairs bathroom was located. Closing the door behind him, he turned to the sink and gasped, nearly having a small heart attack upon catching his reflection in the mirror. He noticed the change of his now golden eyes for the first time as they darted over his reflection in the mirror. The dark bags under his eyes also seemed to bring out his wolf-like eyes even more so.

"Is this really me?" Benson muttered as his magenta-colored ears twitched in surreal curiosity and he raised a hand to his face. Spotting his more pronounced canines he opened his mouth and was greeted with some much sharper looking teeth. Closing his mouth he looked down at himself before directing his attention over his shoulder and, out of detached curiosity, experimentally willed his tail to move. In the mirror he could see it swish the air. He couldn't help but crack a faint smile before realizing what he was doing and immediately stopped. Slightly embarrassed, he took one last hard look in the mirror before letting out a discouraged sigh, ears laying flat against his head. He turned on the cold-water tap, cupping his hands under the water and splashed some of the refreshing liquid onto his face a few times as he bent over the sink. Shutting off the water, he reached for the towel to dry his face off, his sharpened claws catching the threads of it and inadvertently causing some of them to become undone and frayed.

"Ugh, stupid claws!" Benson growled irritably as he managed to shake the towel loose. Glaring at the sharpened nails, Benson rummaged through the drawer beside the sink and pulled out a pair of nail clippers. Being a gumball machine, he had never had fingernails or toenails to clip before so there was a bit of difficulty at first. Eventually he managed to figure out how the contraption worked but when he tried to clip the first claw the flimsy clippers broke under the sheer thickness of his claw. Dropping the now useless pieces of scrap metal, Benson let out a frustrated grunt before remembering spotting Skips' tool belt. Leaving the bathroom, he re-entered the foyer and grabbed a pair of small but strong bolt cutters from Skips' tool belt. However as he turned to go back to the privacy of the restroom, his ears perked up from the voices of the others in the living room.

"I'm afraid this is pointless," the voice belonging to Sykes spoke up. "There's only so many of your research materials we can search and so far we haven't found a thing." Benson quietly approached the doorway as he couldn't help but eavesdrop on the conversation.

"Patience comes to those who seek it," Vick's voice replied.

"Isn't the saying: 'patience comes to those who wait'?" Thomas' voice asked.

"Not in this case," Vick simply replied.

"How do we even know for sure there is a cure?" Sykes questioned. Benson's heart sunk at that possibility.

"You doubt my research?" Vick asked and Benson could tell by his tone of voice that Vick was at least partially offended.

"No sir, I doubt your optimism," Sykes countered. "It's not likely that the answer is just going to make itself known because we believe things will work in our favor."

"Um actually," Pops started looking up from the spiral notebook. "I believe I may have found something." The others looked to the lolliman shocked before quickly gathering around. Benson was also tempted to join but resisted the urge.

"What did you find Pops?" Mordecai asked as he looked over his shoulder from behind the couch.

"Well this notebook was going into details of possible remedies that ancient natives would often partake in to rid themselves of what they thought were evil curses brought on by Rage Wolf bites but…"

"But what?" Rigby asked pressingly.

"I'm afraid the next page appears to be missing."

"What?!" Vick exclaimed as he took the notebook from Pops. Sure enough, as he turned the page the talk of possible remedies was cut off and the next available page went into a completely different topic.

"It looks like it was ripped out," Skips noted aloud after studying it closely.

"No," Audrey muttered dispiritedly.

"But who could have done that?" Muscle Man asked.

"Yeah and why?" High Five Ghost added.

"I haven't the foggiest," Vick responded. "My research materials are always kept under lock and key. Aside from myself, no one else should have access to it." Everyone's, especially the eavesdropping Benson's, hopes were immediately diminished. They were all silent for a moment until Thomas decided to speak first.

"So…what do we do now?" the intern asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" stated Maellard, who until that point had stayed silent, as he placed the portfolio he was reading aside and got up from the couch, grabbing his cane that was leaning against the coffee table before them. "We give up."

"WHAT?!" The park employees plus Audrey simultaneously shouted.

"Mr. Maellard you can't be serious." Skips exclaimed.

"I'm dead serious," Maellard replied with a frown. "I don't like it either but what choice do we have. This clearly isn't a normal problem so aside from Mr. PhD here, we can't rely on anyone else for assistance," Maellard reasoned motioning to Vick.

"But Benson—"

"Is a lost cause!" Maellard firmly interrupted. Benson inhaled sharply from the hurtful comment.

"Father how can you say that?" Pops asked shocked at Maellard's harsh remark.

"Yeah, you're acting like Benson's as good as done for," Rigby defended.

"Look, its time to face the facts and cut our losses. Even if we were able to fend off this pack and Beanpole was able to get his 'physical condition' under control, he's a danger to not just the park but also everyone else! You all saw before how he snapped at the slightest of stimulations. What if he hurts, or heaven forbid, bites someone?" The park employees were caught off guard by that last statement; they admittedly had never thought of that possibility.

"Benson would never do that," Skips affirmed after a brief silence.

"And even so, it wouldn't be an issue," Vick cut in. "Even the most aggressive Rage Wolf would never bite someone at random."

"And an aggressive Rage Wolf wouldn't maul someone either?" Maellard retorted. Vick didn't answer which was all the answer Maellard needed. "He's nothing but a liability and quite frankly I don't even feel safe enough to want to be in the same room as him." The forgotten pair of bolt cutters Benson was holding slowly slipped out of his lax grip and softly cluttered to the floor as Benson, crushed by his boss's cruel words, simply leaned against the doorframe. He felt numb from the inside out as Maellard's harsh words echoed in his head. A lump formed in his throat, which he tried to swallow as he tried to clear his head of what he had overheard. Picking up the dropped bolt cutters and placing them back in Skips' tool belt, he took a deep breath and entered the living room.

"Sorry about taking so long. Working things is a lot trickier when you have claws," Benson said with a half-baked grin trying to act casual. "So uh, what did I miss?" The others looked at him with a twinge of panic, immediately fearing if he had overheard anything.

"Uh, nothing important," Mordecai lied.

"You didn't…hear anything did you bro?" Muscle Man asked hesitantly.

"Hear what?" Benson replied offering a small but fake smile, mentally kicking himself for letting his voice crack ever so slightly. This did not go unnoticed by the others as they could tell right away by the hurt in showed in his eyes that he had overheard everything.

"Benson—" Pops started sympathetically but was interrupted by Benson.

"You know, I think I'm going to go take that nap after all," the furry gumball machine stated as he turned to head up the stairs.

"A nap? You can't be serious." Maellard exclaimed immediately irked at the suggestion as Benson started up the stairs. "Get back here Ballbucket! We're not finished talking. This is whole situation your doing and I expect you to take some responsibility for once!" Benson stopped halfway up the staircase and gripped the banister so tightly to control his emotions that it actually cracked slightly under the pressure of his grip.

"My name is Benson!" Benson finally said in a dangerously low tone that instantly conveyed his simmering resentment. "You could at least humor me by actually trying to call me that for a change. And while it might be hard for you to believe, I always tried my hardest in caring for your park when I'm sure any other sane person would have quit by the end of the week," he asserted barely managing to restrain his growing anger from reaching its boiling point. "Besides, I wouldn't want to stay where I'm not wanted. After all, I am a danger and a liability, remember," Benson said bitterly with his ears back in aggravation as he cast a dangerous look to his boss before climbing the rest of the stairs and disappearing from sight. The others were empathetically silent for a brief moment before Maellard spoke.

"The nerve of him!" he exclaimed. "Talking back to his superior like that! Maybe finding a new park manager won't be such a bad thing after all." The others were immediately appalled by Maellard's words.

"Mr. Maellard—"

SMACK

The sound of skin on skin contact seemed to loudly echo throughout the room. Maellard stumbled back raising a hand to his reddened cheek as the others stared flabbergasted at the fuming Audrey who had her hand raised.

"How dare you!" She berated. "Ever since you got here you've been treating Benson like a criminal and blaming him for something that happened that for once was beyond his or anyone else's control. And what's worse, when he's facing a crisis and is in desperate need of help and understanding, you practically abandon him and label him as a burden and when he tries to defend himself you have the gall to ask what nerve he has? You should be ashamed of yourself!" With that Audrey stormed out of the room. For what seemed like an eternity, no one moved or spoke until Muscle Man finally summed up what was on everyone's minds with a single word.

"Dang!"

Author's Notes: I'm not really sure what final notes I want to say other than "take that Maellard!" Although he seems to have mellowed out a bit recently in the series I can't deny Maellard had some sort of personal beef with Benson earlier in the show (and he still occasionally gets Benson's name wrong). Finally I may post a picture of Benson's current appearance on DeviantART if anyone is interested (my account name is the same as my name. The final part of Chapter 5 should be up in a couple more days so until then please read, review, and enjoy!