Loonatics: United

The Wrath of Tenebrous

Episode 122: Alfons

The planet was urban, with neon lights and signs everywhere, tall skyscrapers, industrial infrastructure, tons of small apartment buildings and hundreds of flying vehicles traveling between them. In a small warehouse, an old mole, with big goggles, a red vest and a pair of gray cargo pants was sitting at his work table, next to his customer, Alfons, cutting some bone and flesh with his sharp tool, on his damaged wrist, his hand was barely attached to it by a thin string of flesh. Alfons let out a groan of pain. He had taken off his helmet.

The mole looked at him. "I told you if you need anesthesia I co…"

"No." Alfons said with a serious tone. "Go on, mole."

The mole sighed while shaking his head. "Okay." He kept cutting carefully. "Uhm…so…where are you from, gentleman?"

Alfons hesitated to answer. "Kindrak."

The mole stopped working for a moment, then continued. "Hm…I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter." Alfons replied coldly. "I'm glad it's gone."

"Oh, that's…unexpected. 'The final war of Kindrak', I heard it was…devastating." The mole said.

"Indeed." Alfons groaned when the mole placed a metallic piece on his exposed flesh. "Very…destructive…deadly." He looked down with reflective eyes. "It made me who I am."

"Oh well, we all have events that mark our lives, for example, when my little son, Fadran was born." The old mole chuckled. "He made me the happiest man of Latnil! Well, for the second time." He sighed with nostalgia. "The first time was when I took the hand of my wife, Jera. She was beautiful and intelligent, I don't know why she accepted to marry me, to be honest."

Alfons stood silent for a long moment, then he spoke. "Why for, then?" He gasped when the mole soldered two metallic pieces over his wrist.

The mole raised an eyebrow. "Uhm, sorry, I don't get your question, sir."

"Why did you marry her? She is dead now." Alfons said coldly. "Your son, I bet he is out of the planet now, far away from you." He looked at the mole with a straight stare.

The mole was glaring down, having interrupted his work for a moment. "Well…you're right." He let out a long sigh and took a small piece of cable then began to twist it over the metallic pieces he had just soldered. "I'm all alone now. But…the moments I had with them, those stood with me." He glared at Alfons and smirked. "And they are going nowhere." The mole continued working. Alfons glanced away, then the mole kept speaking. "If you have a special girl somewhere, I advice you to go after her, sometimes all a man needs is some good love…" The mole chuckled. "…I tell you by experience."

Alfons stood silent, then looked at the mole with a straight face. "I am all I need. And I have all I want."

The mole looked at him in silence then shrugged and kept working on his wrist, he placed some more metal pieces on it and interconnected them with others he had placed there. "This is gonna hurt a bit, sir." The mole started to solder various cables, Alfons gasped and groaned several times, then he let out a sudden yell by the pain. "Easy..." The mole finished soldering after a while. "Okay, done." He walked away from Alfons, who was inhaling and exhaling with relief, looking at his still open wrist. "I'll put some silicone there, get that patched you know? You'll be good as new, mister." Alfons looked at the mole over his shoulder, who carried a small transparent box and a spray can. The mole approached him again, putting the box and the can over the table. He sat down by him and opened the box, then took a syringe. "This one is pretty…expensive, but you must understand that I like to work with the best materials, I mean I don't judge my colleagues but I've always believed that the customer deserves the best." The mole extracted some silicone with the syringe.

Alfons remained silent for a moment, looking at the mole. "Money is not a problem. Not anymore."

"Hm, that's good to hear." The mole started to fill the gap in Alfons' wrist with the silicone, making him gasp a bit. "Hold on…" The mole kept pressing the syringe until the gap was completely filled. "And…" He took the spray can and shook it. "The last touch." He sprayed a gray substance on Alfons' wrist, it dried fast, it resembled gray fur, just as Alfons'. "Voila!" The mole chuckled. "Tell me that doesn't look natural!"

Alfons raised his arm and moved his hand several times. "Not bad."

"A happy customer is a happy Vernil! Who happens to be me!" The mole chuckled again.

Alfons studied the looks of his wrist for a moment, then he stood up from the chair and started to leave.

"Uhm, sir?" The mole said. "That would be two thousand." He pretended to cough. "Red latnilis, please."

Alfons looked at him over his shoulder, then he turned his gaze to the front. "Thanks." He clenched his fist, killing the mole, making him turn into that gooey, black and red substance. Alfons kept walking, exiting the place. He began to walk down the long, unending staircase that surrounded the building, which was the location of several commercial places, all presented with neon lights. He stopped walking when he saw a bar, Alfons thought for a moment, then shrugged and got in the bar. "I deserve some good drinks. Besides…it's always open bar."

The bar had lots of holograms flying around as entertainment and decoration, mythological creatures fighting or simply hovering between the people, synth music sounding in the background. Some of the youth pointed at Alfons' cape and suit, making fun of him. Alfons approached the large drinks bar and sat down on one of the stools, a young couple was sitting next to him, kissing and hugging each other, dressed as almost all of the people in that bar, with the common fashion of the planet, the girl wearing a short gray skirt and a red sleeveless shirt, while the boy wore light gray pants and a dark gray leather jacket. Both of them were meerkats, they both had red hair, the girl´s was long while the boy´s was short. Alfons rolled up his eyes and raised his hand to get the bartender's attention.

The bartender was a middle aged sand cat, he wore a black overall, a gray shirt and dark gray pants, as well as a pair of glasses. "What may I serve you, sir?"

"Whisky." Alfons said coldly. "Bring the whole bottle."

"Right away." The bartender approached the metallic cellar and took out a bottle of whisky. He walked towards the bar again and put the bottle there, then opened it. "There you go."

Alfons grabbed the bottle and took a long sip from it, then exhaled with delight. He listened to the synth music, with cybernetic chords, a fast beat and a reverberating piano. The kissing couple was bothering him, constantly pushing him. He grunted and shook his head then took another sip. He turned his glare away, focusing on the other clients, seeing their unworried faces and the half empty bottles on their tables, their laughs and the involuntary moves that the music made them do. He had left the sword in the ship. "You're all useless, anyway." Alfons thought. "I just need to do a single movement to kill each one of you, losers." He chuckled and took another long sip from the bottle. The couple pushed him again. Alfons looked at them with a frown, they were lost in their mutual love. He grabbed the bottle again and took another sip, then looked around, focusing on the neon lights and the dancing holograms of mythological creatures. "They call this…entertaining?" He thought, having his sight focused on the red light above him, which was getting distorted. "Yeah…it's hitting already." Alfons chuckled and took another long sip, exhaling with a laugh. "Just what I needed." He closed his eyes and began to get lost in the track that was playing. "That one's good, yeah." Alfons mumbled. "A bit…slow, boring but…not awful." He burped. "Whoops."

The couple bothered him again, the elbow of the boy hit his rib. Alfons grunted. "Hey." He spoke loudly then took a last, long sip to the bottle, still holding it. The couple didn't pay attention to him. "Hey!" Alfons pushed the male meerkat.

The meerkat turned and looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "I'm in the middle of something, don't you see?"

"Oh, I see, little brat." Alfons smashed the bottle against the boy's head, breaking it.

"Gah!" Both meerkats fell from their stools, the female began to scream with fear. The male was groaning while rubbing his bleeding head. "You…are gonna pay for that!" He stood up with effort and before he could even try to throw a punch at Alfons, the latter punctured his face with the broken bottle, killing him instantly.

"Really?" Alfons let go off the bottle, the corpse of the meerkat fell to the ground, starting to leave a big pond of blood. The screams of fear didn't delay to appear, the crowd rushed with terror and anguish.

The bartender took a laser rifle from under the bar and pointed at Alfons. "Get down, scumbag!"

Alfons turned and then grabbed the tip of the rifle, moving it right when the bartender shot, deflecting the charge towards a young female fox, who got hit on the stomach, dying instantly after letting out a loud scream of pain. Alfons snatched the rifle from his hands and dropped it then chuckled and jumped over the bar, getting next to the bartender. "You should be more…" He burped and placed a hand on his shoulder, looking into his frightened eyes. "…gentle, with your clients." Alfons grasped his neck and lifted him then smashed his head violently against the bar, killing him, splattering the bar with blood.

Three drunken boys jumped over the bar and tried to fight him. Alfons yelled with ecstasy and took a stirrer from an empty beverage on the bar then pierced it in the eye of one of them, a young wolf, who fell dead to the ground, the other two canine males screamed with fear and tried to escape, jumping over the bar again. "Where you think you're going?!" Alfons went after them, exiting the place.

It was raining strongly outside, the two young adults had slippered, they were trying to stand up but they were dizzy and everything they saw was blurry, thanks to their state and the rain. "Dude!" One of them, a brown furred wolf started to cry. "I…I should've listened mom!"

"Shh, shut up!" The other one, a gray wolf, struggled to even move as well as his friend. "You…you w…wanna end up lik…" He felt how someone grasped his ear strongly, making him scream.

"Gah!" The other guy yelled while Alfons dragged him and his friend by the ears.

"Thank you so much…kids." Alfons dropped them on the ground. "I needed some…" Alfons thundered his fingers, standing on his feet with effort. "…action, you know? This ain't…" He stepped on the face of the gray furred one, who had started to cry as well. "...personal…I promise." Alfons screamed with rage and began to jump on his face repeatedly, killing him, staining the water with blood and pieces of flesh and bone.

"Why?!" The brown wolf looked at the destroyed head of his friend, crying loudly.

Alfons kicked his snout, the wolf groaned by the pain. "Why?" He crouched before him, grasping his face, forcing him to look at him. "And why not?" Alfons started to punch his face with rage, making him bleed, scream and groan constantly. "Aren't we…animals?! Isn't that our nature?!" He kept punching him, the pond of water that the rain was making turned completely red, Alfons' fists ached, stained with blood and flesh. He stopped punching for a moment, the boy was agonizing, breathing weakly. "I'm on the top now." Alfons coughed a couple of times then vomited on him. "Gah…" He let out a sudden laugh. "Sorry about that…the…whisky, yeah, my bad." He looked into the boy's eyes for a moment then let out a scream and punched his face one last time, finally killing him.

Alfons dropped himself over the red pond, between the two corpses. "Woah!" He yelled with excitement and started to laugh. "That's what I'm talking about!" Alfons laughed uncontrollably, looking at the falling rain.