Hey everyone! How about we play a little game of black humor with this chapter! I call this game 'Spot the song title' somewhere in this chapter will be a famous song title here's the hint it's divided in two character's dialogue
As four creatures hoping to become a family, two humans, two cats sat around a table eating gazpacho and sipping tea, after a while Uncle Gus felt the need to ask his niece a question he wanted to ask her in relative privacy, he wasn't sure if she wanted to talk about this in front of everyone.
"Since you went to Alderbaren instead of to Viola Strierra..." Gus said "...Was there...Any difference on the ride over? Did they treat you worse? For us who went to Viola Strierra it certainly wasn't pleasant but there was...A cold professionalism, to it, nobody was a sadist whipping Humanimals for no reason...But we heard tales about what happened on Alderbaren..."
Marzipan sighed and closed her eyes as she thought back "On the ride over..." She said "...It was a lot less well orginaized than the Viola Strierra ships from what you've told me...There was just a giant room for all of us to stand in, like no seating, if our legs gave out on us we would just sit on the floor..."
Marzipan thought back to that dreadful night, when she side by side with Rook, were mached in a chain gang with all the other Humanimals who had been selected to be taken to Alderbaren instead of to Viola Strierra.
FLASHBACK
The Ragdoll Kitten and Fox Cub stood side by side, two older cubs among mostly adult Humanimals in a giant stainless steel room, while most of the Humanimals here were adults, they did here the sounds of baby Humanimals crying, presumably they were in their mothers' arms
A Wrangler with an enormous whip, snapped his whip against the cold metal floor "All right you Beasts!" He snapped "This is your new life now! You are to be slaves to the Wrangler Empire! And in particular to our great and glorious Duke Vortex!"
"How about we bite your face off instead?!" Came a male voice from the crowd, out from the crowd leapt a young Wolverine-Man
"Billy! Don't!" Came a female voice from the crowd, very likely a girlfriend or wife
The Wrangler didn't miss a beat, he grabbed his pistol and blew a hole in the wolveine's chest he hit the floor limp.
"All right!" The Wrangler said fiercly eyeing the crowd of Humanimals "Anyone else want to be a hero?"
The rest of the Humanimals clearly seeing they were no match against the Wranglers' superior weaponly took a few steps back.
END FLASHBACK
"...And that was all they needed to do to ensure complience for the rest of the trip." Marzipan sighed
Jonathan and Gus looked at each other, they may have been different species, but both realized they had more in common than they did with the Wranglers, the Wranglers had developed a culture that was 'Anti-Basic Human Decentcy' like the cultural growth Humanity had been making particurally throughout the 20th century, the Wranglers seemed to discard all of that in favor of not just 'Might Makes Right' but a culture of all tender emotions are weaknesses, the future belongs to absolute sadists, that the Ubermensch not only cares only for himself but despises everyone else.
Meanwhile, Don sat on the edge of the giant bed he and Belladonna shared as Belladonna gently blew her frost breath on his burning sole, as a Japanese Ryu, water was her domain in all its forms and as she seemed to be a particurally furry subspecies from Hokkaido, her frost breath was particurally strong.
"Does that feel better?" Belladonna asked
"A little..." Don said as he rubbed the branded sole of his foot. "As you were blowing...A thought came into my head...This brand I've gotten, it is the mark of the slave."
Belladonna nodded
"I've been branded, my brothers haven't..."
He remembered after Belladonna and himself were rescued from that misadventure, Don remembered the conversation he had with Marzipan and Kong about their branded feet, year sure the technology exists to erase it but trying to erase that part of their lives felt life lying to themselves, that persueded Don to keep the brand on the sole of his foot, now he was beginning to feel a benefit in keeping his brand.
"Belladonna..." He said quietly "...I can go undercover. I can disguise myself as a Humanimal Slave being sold and once I'm on the inside I can use my Ninja skills and Tech skills to disrupt the Wranglers' system from the inside!"
So here begins Donatello's Arc and like the last chapter this short chapter seemed mostly to be written to house a gag that I had been planning for this story