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More Wasteland shennanigans brought to you by jordilianvector, this time focusing on the Fuzz, prominent gang of unorthodox methods, and the urban way of life.
Starring Fawkes, Fiona and The Hounds.
_____________________________________________
Fuzzy Business
Fawkes wasn’t particularly pleased with his current situation, walking down the streets and ‘patrolling’ just because Fiona told him to. Getting bossed around for no good reason was exactly why he had left The Founding Fraternity. Apparently though, they Fuzz were short on manpower, what with the rest of the gang dealing with a raider camp a couple miles away from the city. And seeing as it was Fiona bothering him about it of all people, it had to be serious.
Normally Fawkes would spend most of his time doing maintenance work or tinkering with their gang’s equipment – his engineering prowess was part of the reason The Fuzz welcomed him with open arms in the first place. And as much as he wasn’t keen on following orders, so long as they didn’t overdo it, Fawkes was happy enough to play along every once in a while. Besides, this was the perfect chance to test out his new prototype!
Smirking under his mask, he reached a hand down to his belt and pulled up the device in question. For a moment, he weighed it in his hands, looking it over for critical design flaws and getting used to the grip. It was a gun of sorts, a big round bowl attached to the head of it. But despite looking more like a long-range communicator or a satellite dish than a gun, this little thing was far more insidious. Sure it wouldn’t kill you – The Fuzz had certain standards to uphold most of the time – but blasting someone with radiation that would shrink their body down wasn’t exactly something to sneeze at.
Fawkes did test run it a couple of times back at the lab, making sure it worked alright on small animals and such – vermin mostly – but he had yet to try it on one of its intended targets. This was supposed to eventually become a crowd control device – funnily enough, large gatherings of people were a lot easier to keep in check when you could stomp them into submission at your leasure.
Looking the prototype around in his hands one last time, Fawkes finally tucked it back onto his belt and directed his attention back to the run-down streets he was supposed to be patrolling. He noticed a few respectful nods from the people going about their business, raised his hand in greeting a couple of times and quietly relished the sight of some of the smaller folk rushing to get out of his way – it just felt good, he wouldn’t get this sort of respect back at the Fraternity that’s for sure.
The city he was patrolling – known only as ‘The City’ – despite having the reputation of being one of the few truly orderly places left in the world, wasn’t that different from anywhere else in the wasteland. The only thing that set it apart was the fact that the organizations controlling it were just a little more civilized than the gangs running about in the wild. People respected that, the feeling of relative security lead to slightly safer streets, which in turn allowed all sorts of organized activity to flourish: housing, infrastructure, commerce, even show business – The City had it all, especially if you could afford it.
The Fuzz – the gang Fawkes now worked for – was one of the three organizations running the place; specifically, they were in charge of public security. While far from perfect and about as prone to corruption and abuse of power as any crime syndicate, their focus on non-lethal tactics made them a bit of an anomaly in the wasteland. As popular as they were notorious, The Fuzz’s influence reached far beyond The City itself. Nobody liked them per se, but they kept the peace most of the time.
The sound of distant screams and wanton destruction snapped the masked engineer’s out of his musings though. Immediately speeding up to a jog, he rounded the corner and saw a crowd of people running away from a massive, growling werewolf tearing through the street. It seemed to have just burst into the city, leaving behind a path cracked walls and injured citizens.
“Ugh… Again?” Fawkes groaned and rolled his eyes before rushing ahead. He reached his hand for his walkie-talkie – one of the ones he managed to scrounge up from the rubble and repair - to alert Fiona, but stopped himself just short of initiating transmission. His gaze once again fell over his prototype. “Eh…” He shrugged. “Can’t hurt to try.” Sticking his tongue out a bit and taking aim with the dish-like operational end of the device, Fawkes pulled the trigger, shooting out a steady wave of invisible energy that would either reduce the scale of the problem – like he’d hoped – or cook it alive with a lethal dose of radiation. Either way – problem solved.
With the panicked citizens still doing their best to get away, it wasn’t long until Fawkes and the rabid werewolf were the only ones in the vicinity. And soon enough the device did its job. Fawkes watched as the beast’s form rapidly decreased in size, shrinking down until it could fit neatly in the palm of his hand.
Making his way over, he leaned down and took a closer look, spotting a tiny, screaming lion stuck in the werewolf’s mouth. Immediately grabbing hold of the miniaturized Beast, Fawkes pried its jaws apart and yanked the little citizen out.
Confused and disoriented – but seemingly unharmed – the little thing looked up, staring at the looming figure that just saved him. “Whoa… Wh-what’s going on?”
Cocking a brow under his mask, Fawkes seemed to ignore the micro’s words for the time being, holding the struggling beast in one hand and using the other to inspect the unexpected little bit of collateral. “Well neither of you seem to have melted under the radiation stream so I guess I saved ya.” He smugly informed the lion.
“I… Thanks? I think? What did you do exactly?” He asked, nervously looking around the massive palm he was held in. “Am I… stuck like this? Can you bring me back to normal?”
“Maybe.” Fawkes shrugged. “I’ll have to look into it. But hey, you ain’t dead at least.”
“That’s… Yeah, I guess.”
“Anyway, sit tight for now, ‘kay? Gotta take this thing in.” He nodded towards the mutant werewolf which had just begun to tire itself out with its ceaseless thrashing.
“Sure, I guess. It’s not like I have a choi-“ The micro’s words were cut short as Fawkes shoved him into his pocket, sinking him deep into the dark denim and cementing his position with a gentle clap.
“Nope~” He readily confirmed and directed his attention back towards the rabid, miniaturized monster struggling in his grip, frothing at the mouth. “Now what do I do with y-“
“’Sup, nerd!” The familiar voice sounded from behind him as he felt a heft slap across his back.
Immediately turning around to face the offender, Fawkes sighed at the sight of The Hounds and her trademark smug grin beaming in his face. “Hounds? What are you doing here?”
"Heard there’s trouble in the area, saw people running, and now there’s just you.” She nudged his side. “Did one of your thingamajigs blow up in your face again or something?”
“No…” Fawkes sighed and shook his head. “My ‘thingamajig’ saved everyone. Cut this rampaging fella down to size, see?” Smirking behind his mask again, he held the struggling beastie up.
“Uh-huh…” The Hounds slid her aviator shades down a bit, looking utterly unimpressed. “Sure ya did.”
“Nah, see? This li’l fella got caught in the blast too!” Without any hesitation Fawkes reached inside his pocket and pulled the small, panicking lion back out into the open.
The expression of doubt on The Hounds’ face promptly faded right back into a cocky grin. “Now you’re talkin’!” Without hesitation she reached out and grabbed hold of the puny citizen, squeezing him tight in her fist. “I’ll be damned, Fawkes. One of your crazy prototypes actually worked!”
The lion, clearly not used to being treated this roughly, needed a moment to get his bearings. Shaking his head and slowly adjusting to the bright light around him again he spotted a familiar face glaring at him from above. Suddenly terrified for his life – The Hounds was a known and feared troublemaker – he yelped and closed his eyes, bracing himself. “Please! I didn’t do anything! I pay my protection fees on time every month! Please don’t hurt me!”
“That so, little kitty?” The Hounds frowned and pressed her thumb over the lion’s chest, forcing his breath out of him. “I mean sure, you may be paying The Fuzz’s protection fee on time, but who’s gonna look after you at this size, eh? I figure you gotta spring for a bodyguard too!” The thumb lifted off and pressed down over the lion’s snout instead, rubbing it in.
“Oh give it a break, Hounds.” Fawkes rolled his eyes, snatching the little fellow from her hand and stuffing him back inside his pocket. “Remember what Fiona told us? If people start thinking we’ll harass them whether they pay up or not, we’ll be out of business.”
“Ugh… Fine, whatever.” She huffed and turned her attention to the werewolf instead. The little thing was finally starting to tire itself out – trying to bite at Fawkes’ fingers really didn’t seem to be working out for it all that well. “So what are you gonna do with this thing anyway?”
“I dunno.” He shrugged. “Could always use another test subject back at the lab, I guess.”
“Let’s play football with it! Kick the crap out of it, make it think twice about tresspassin’ on our turf!”
“Nah, think I should run this by Fiona first.”
“Boooring~” The Hounds waved him off and sighed, turning her attention to the slowly growing crowd of onlookers, citizens returning to see where the rampaging monster had disappeared to. “Hey you lot! Don’t forget to pay up by the end of the month or I’m gonna come kick the crap out of you instead, ya hear?”
A few of the more easily intimidated civvies immediately ran off, suddenly remembering or making up some urgent business they had to attend to – The Hounds had that effect on people.
“Anyway, I’d better take this thing and the little guy back to HQ, see what Fiona wants to do with ‘em.” Fawkes excused himself, turning the other way.
“Eh, just sell the kitty off to the Fraternity.” She shrugged. ”But I guess Fiona would know better. She’s good with that logistics stuff. Guess I’ll take over your patrolling shift then, but you owe me for this, Fawkes.”
“No, I don’t. You just owe me one favor less now.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Waving him off, The Hounds continued on her way, stomping down the street as the crowd that gathered around quickly parted to make way for her. A few of the smaller citizens – a lizard and a gecko – were a bit too slow though. The two of them ended up right in her path, looking up with dread as her foot planted itself firmly over them and plastered them firmly against the pavement. Without skipping a beat she casually continued onwards, not paying any mind to the dazed citizens she left in her wake.
---
When he made it back to the office, Fawkes had to take a deep breath before heading inside. He pushed the door opened and saw Fiona there, sitting with her legs propped up on the table, reading over a shipping manifest of some kind. She was uniquely qualified for this sort of thing, being one of the few people in the wasteland who could actually read.
“Aren’t you supposed to be out patrolling?” She cocked a brow at Fawkes before focusing on the list again.
“I was.” Fawkes nodded. “Ran into a werewolf tearing through the streets.”
“Yeah?” She flipped the page. “Did you resolve the situation?”
“Yep, here it is.” Fawkes said proudly presenting the passed out little werewolf.
Fiona gave him a slightly annoyed glance. “And why exactly was this tiny thing a problem?”
“Oh it wasn’t tiny! Not when I found it anyway.” He pulled his prototype from his belt showing it off, pointing it towards the thing and making a faux shooting motion. “Zap! My new prototype passed the field test.”
“Oh. Neat.” Fiona flipped the page again. “Still don’t see why you had to abandon your patrol.”
“I didn’t ‘abandon’ anything! Hounds took over for me. Besides, there were… complications.”
With a sigh, Fiona put the manifest aside. “Aren’t there always?”
“Here.” Without delay Fawkes reached inside his pocket and pulled the shrunk lion out into the open, rolling him out onto the desk right next to Fiona’s legs. “This guy got caught in the blast, figured I should ask you what to do with him.”
“Ah.” She sighed in recognition. “Lionel.” She gave the dazed little guy a nod. “You alright?”
“Y-yes! I think!” The miniature lion spoke up, taking a few steps away from the towering, socked monoliths and trying to catch his breath – being this small was… exhausting.
Fiona looked up at Fawkes again. “You should fix him up. No problems on record, polite with our guys, always pays up on time…. He’s the model citizen, really.”
“I uhh… Can’t do that right now.” Fawkes admitted.
A truly, deeply exhausted sigh followed before Fiona spoke up again. “Let me guess, you made a shrink ray without making sure you have a way to grow stuff back?”
“Pretty much.” Fawkes shrugged.
“You know you’re not supposed to use this kind of thing on the people we’re protecting, right?” Fiona gave him another slightly annoyed look. “I told you, we’ll get in trouble if people think we’re not worth paying off.”
“It’s not like I meant to! He was stuck right inside the werewolf’s mouth! Besides, I can probably fix him up… eventually…”
With another sigh Fiona sat up straight, leaning in towards the little lion. “Look, Lionel, you’re gonna be stuck like this for a bit. I’ll see if I can get a nice place set up for you.”
“I… Yeah… That’s alright, I guess. Beats being chewed to pieces by that thing.” He nodded towards the monster in Fawkes’ hand.
“That’s the spirit.” Fiona nodded and pulled the manifest up again. “I’m a bit busy, so take care of him for now, ‘kay Fawkes?”
“Uhh… Sure.” He shrugged, scooping Lionel off the table. “And this thing?” He held the unconscious werewolf up.
“Whatever.” She shrugged. “Not my problem.”
“Suits me. I’ll be in the lab.”
“Uh-huh!” Fiona grunted without looking up from her list. “I’ll come by for Lionel later. Take it easy on him.”
With a grumble, Fawkes made it back to his place, carelessly tossing the werewolf into one of the many empty cages he had scattered around. With a sigh he collapsed into an old rickety office chair in front of his desk and looked down at his new lion buddy. “So uhh… This might take a while, think you could make yourself useful while you’re waiting?”
“I guess?” Lionel shrugged. “What do you want me do?”
“Nothin’ much.” Fawkes tossed the micro down towards the floor, pushing the tip of one boot over the heel of the other and tugging it off. “Could use a footrub, ya know?” He repeated the same process to other boot as well, sliding both of his feet out into the open and setting them on either side of the little lion. “You can do that, right?”
Lionel looked around himself, wincing at the smell. He didn’t really feel like going along with this, but this was The Fuzz he was dealing with, and Fawkes wasn’t known to be the most reasonable of them. Without Fiona around, it really didn’t feel like a good idea to protest. With a sigh he made his way over, squeezed his eyes shut and placed both hands over the looming fuzzy foot of his supposed ‘protector’.
“There’s a good citizen.” Fawkes smirked and bapped Lionel on the head with one toe, shifting it back and forth and ruffling his mane. “Something tells me that you and I are going to get along juuuust fine, little cat.”
“S-sure!” Lionel exclaimed, a little on edge but trying not to show it. It could have been worse, he supposed. At the very least Fawkes soles weren’t littered with dirt, what with him keeping those precious boots of his on at all times. The distinct stench of stale sweat certainly didn’t help matters, but it was easy enough to ignore, most of the wasteland smelled like a dump anyway.
Just as he was coming to terms with what would likely be his new line of work for the next couple of weeks though, things got worse. As Fawkes focused on tinkering up above, the little micro down by his feet completely slipped his mind. Instead of worrying about hurting a tiny living being, Fawkes found himself idly playing around with a small lump of fur. Basically assuming Lionel was his stress toy now, Fawkes rolled him around underfoot, pinning and squeezing him against the floor. Toes would curl around his neck, scrunch and curl over his limbs and the looming engineer didn’t seem in the slightest bit concerned by any of it.
It wasn’t until half an hour later that a subtle motion, reminded Fawkes that he had a living being at his mercy. “Oh yeah!” He exclaimed, looking under his desk. “You feel pretty good down there, little guy. Sure you don’t wanna just stay with me for good?”
“Uhh…” Lionel hesitated, poking his head up from between the massive toes. “I’ll check in with Fiona first, I think.”
“Eh, sure thing.” Fawkes nodded. “But keep at it for now, haven’t felt you rubbing for a while.”
With groan, Lionel stretched his hands out again, kneading at the ball of Fawkes’ foot. Was this what smaller folk always felt like around The Fuzz? This was going to be a long couple of weeks…
Starring Fawkes, Fiona and The Hounds.
_____________________________________________
Fuzzy Business
Fawkes wasn’t particularly pleased with his current situation, walking down the streets and ‘patrolling’ just because Fiona told him to. Getting bossed around for no good reason was exactly why he had left The Founding Fraternity. Apparently though, they Fuzz were short on manpower, what with the rest of the gang dealing with a raider camp a couple miles away from the city. And seeing as it was Fiona bothering him about it of all people, it had to be serious.
Normally Fawkes would spend most of his time doing maintenance work or tinkering with their gang’s equipment – his engineering prowess was part of the reason The Fuzz welcomed him with open arms in the first place. And as much as he wasn’t keen on following orders, so long as they didn’t overdo it, Fawkes was happy enough to play along every once in a while. Besides, this was the perfect chance to test out his new prototype!
Smirking under his mask, he reached a hand down to his belt and pulled up the device in question. For a moment, he weighed it in his hands, looking it over for critical design flaws and getting used to the grip. It was a gun of sorts, a big round bowl attached to the head of it. But despite looking more like a long-range communicator or a satellite dish than a gun, this little thing was far more insidious. Sure it wouldn’t kill you – The Fuzz had certain standards to uphold most of the time – but blasting someone with radiation that would shrink their body down wasn’t exactly something to sneeze at.
Fawkes did test run it a couple of times back at the lab, making sure it worked alright on small animals and such – vermin mostly – but he had yet to try it on one of its intended targets. This was supposed to eventually become a crowd control device – funnily enough, large gatherings of people were a lot easier to keep in check when you could stomp them into submission at your leasure.
Looking the prototype around in his hands one last time, Fawkes finally tucked it back onto his belt and directed his attention back to the run-down streets he was supposed to be patrolling. He noticed a few respectful nods from the people going about their business, raised his hand in greeting a couple of times and quietly relished the sight of some of the smaller folk rushing to get out of his way – it just felt good, he wouldn’t get this sort of respect back at the Fraternity that’s for sure.
The city he was patrolling – known only as ‘The City’ – despite having the reputation of being one of the few truly orderly places left in the world, wasn’t that different from anywhere else in the wasteland. The only thing that set it apart was the fact that the organizations controlling it were just a little more civilized than the gangs running about in the wild. People respected that, the feeling of relative security lead to slightly safer streets, which in turn allowed all sorts of organized activity to flourish: housing, infrastructure, commerce, even show business – The City had it all, especially if you could afford it.
The Fuzz – the gang Fawkes now worked for – was one of the three organizations running the place; specifically, they were in charge of public security. While far from perfect and about as prone to corruption and abuse of power as any crime syndicate, their focus on non-lethal tactics made them a bit of an anomaly in the wasteland. As popular as they were notorious, The Fuzz’s influence reached far beyond The City itself. Nobody liked them per se, but they kept the peace most of the time.
The sound of distant screams and wanton destruction snapped the masked engineer’s out of his musings though. Immediately speeding up to a jog, he rounded the corner and saw a crowd of people running away from a massive, growling werewolf tearing through the street. It seemed to have just burst into the city, leaving behind a path cracked walls and injured citizens.
“Ugh… Again?” Fawkes groaned and rolled his eyes before rushing ahead. He reached his hand for his walkie-talkie – one of the ones he managed to scrounge up from the rubble and repair - to alert Fiona, but stopped himself just short of initiating transmission. His gaze once again fell over his prototype. “Eh…” He shrugged. “Can’t hurt to try.” Sticking his tongue out a bit and taking aim with the dish-like operational end of the device, Fawkes pulled the trigger, shooting out a steady wave of invisible energy that would either reduce the scale of the problem – like he’d hoped – or cook it alive with a lethal dose of radiation. Either way – problem solved.
With the panicked citizens still doing their best to get away, it wasn’t long until Fawkes and the rabid werewolf were the only ones in the vicinity. And soon enough the device did its job. Fawkes watched as the beast’s form rapidly decreased in size, shrinking down until it could fit neatly in the palm of his hand.
Making his way over, he leaned down and took a closer look, spotting a tiny, screaming lion stuck in the werewolf’s mouth. Immediately grabbing hold of the miniaturized Beast, Fawkes pried its jaws apart and yanked the little citizen out.
Confused and disoriented – but seemingly unharmed – the little thing looked up, staring at the looming figure that just saved him. “Whoa… Wh-what’s going on?”
Cocking a brow under his mask, Fawkes seemed to ignore the micro’s words for the time being, holding the struggling beast in one hand and using the other to inspect the unexpected little bit of collateral. “Well neither of you seem to have melted under the radiation stream so I guess I saved ya.” He smugly informed the lion.
“I… Thanks? I think? What did you do exactly?” He asked, nervously looking around the massive palm he was held in. “Am I… stuck like this? Can you bring me back to normal?”
“Maybe.” Fawkes shrugged. “I’ll have to look into it. But hey, you ain’t dead at least.”
“That’s… Yeah, I guess.”
“Anyway, sit tight for now, ‘kay? Gotta take this thing in.” He nodded towards the mutant werewolf which had just begun to tire itself out with its ceaseless thrashing.
“Sure, I guess. It’s not like I have a choi-“ The micro’s words were cut short as Fawkes shoved him into his pocket, sinking him deep into the dark denim and cementing his position with a gentle clap.
“Nope~” He readily confirmed and directed his attention back towards the rabid, miniaturized monster struggling in his grip, frothing at the mouth. “Now what do I do with y-“
“’Sup, nerd!” The familiar voice sounded from behind him as he felt a heft slap across his back.
Immediately turning around to face the offender, Fawkes sighed at the sight of The Hounds and her trademark smug grin beaming in his face. “Hounds? What are you doing here?”
"Heard there’s trouble in the area, saw people running, and now there’s just you.” She nudged his side. “Did one of your thingamajigs blow up in your face again or something?”
“No…” Fawkes sighed and shook his head. “My ‘thingamajig’ saved everyone. Cut this rampaging fella down to size, see?” Smirking behind his mask again, he held the struggling beastie up.
“Uh-huh…” The Hounds slid her aviator shades down a bit, looking utterly unimpressed. “Sure ya did.”
“Nah, see? This li’l fella got caught in the blast too!” Without any hesitation Fawkes reached inside his pocket and pulled the small, panicking lion back out into the open.
The expression of doubt on The Hounds’ face promptly faded right back into a cocky grin. “Now you’re talkin’!” Without hesitation she reached out and grabbed hold of the puny citizen, squeezing him tight in her fist. “I’ll be damned, Fawkes. One of your crazy prototypes actually worked!”
The lion, clearly not used to being treated this roughly, needed a moment to get his bearings. Shaking his head and slowly adjusting to the bright light around him again he spotted a familiar face glaring at him from above. Suddenly terrified for his life – The Hounds was a known and feared troublemaker – he yelped and closed his eyes, bracing himself. “Please! I didn’t do anything! I pay my protection fees on time every month! Please don’t hurt me!”
“That so, little kitty?” The Hounds frowned and pressed her thumb over the lion’s chest, forcing his breath out of him. “I mean sure, you may be paying The Fuzz’s protection fee on time, but who’s gonna look after you at this size, eh? I figure you gotta spring for a bodyguard too!” The thumb lifted off and pressed down over the lion’s snout instead, rubbing it in.
“Oh give it a break, Hounds.” Fawkes rolled his eyes, snatching the little fellow from her hand and stuffing him back inside his pocket. “Remember what Fiona told us? If people start thinking we’ll harass them whether they pay up or not, we’ll be out of business.”
“Ugh… Fine, whatever.” She huffed and turned her attention to the werewolf instead. The little thing was finally starting to tire itself out – trying to bite at Fawkes’ fingers really didn’t seem to be working out for it all that well. “So what are you gonna do with this thing anyway?”
“I dunno.” He shrugged. “Could always use another test subject back at the lab, I guess.”
“Let’s play football with it! Kick the crap out of it, make it think twice about tresspassin’ on our turf!”
“Nah, think I should run this by Fiona first.”
“Boooring~” The Hounds waved him off and sighed, turning her attention to the slowly growing crowd of onlookers, citizens returning to see where the rampaging monster had disappeared to. “Hey you lot! Don’t forget to pay up by the end of the month or I’m gonna come kick the crap out of you instead, ya hear?”
A few of the more easily intimidated civvies immediately ran off, suddenly remembering or making up some urgent business they had to attend to – The Hounds had that effect on people.
“Anyway, I’d better take this thing and the little guy back to HQ, see what Fiona wants to do with ‘em.” Fawkes excused himself, turning the other way.
“Eh, just sell the kitty off to the Fraternity.” She shrugged. ”But I guess Fiona would know better. She’s good with that logistics stuff. Guess I’ll take over your patrolling shift then, but you owe me for this, Fawkes.”
“No, I don’t. You just owe me one favor less now.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Waving him off, The Hounds continued on her way, stomping down the street as the crowd that gathered around quickly parted to make way for her. A few of the smaller citizens – a lizard and a gecko – were a bit too slow though. The two of them ended up right in her path, looking up with dread as her foot planted itself firmly over them and plastered them firmly against the pavement. Without skipping a beat she casually continued onwards, not paying any mind to the dazed citizens she left in her wake.
---
When he made it back to the office, Fawkes had to take a deep breath before heading inside. He pushed the door opened and saw Fiona there, sitting with her legs propped up on the table, reading over a shipping manifest of some kind. She was uniquely qualified for this sort of thing, being one of the few people in the wasteland who could actually read.
“Aren’t you supposed to be out patrolling?” She cocked a brow at Fawkes before focusing on the list again.
“I was.” Fawkes nodded. “Ran into a werewolf tearing through the streets.”
“Yeah?” She flipped the page. “Did you resolve the situation?”
“Yep, here it is.” Fawkes said proudly presenting the passed out little werewolf.
Fiona gave him a slightly annoyed glance. “And why exactly was this tiny thing a problem?”
“Oh it wasn’t tiny! Not when I found it anyway.” He pulled his prototype from his belt showing it off, pointing it towards the thing and making a faux shooting motion. “Zap! My new prototype passed the field test.”
“Oh. Neat.” Fiona flipped the page again. “Still don’t see why you had to abandon your patrol.”
“I didn’t ‘abandon’ anything! Hounds took over for me. Besides, there were… complications.”
With a sigh, Fiona put the manifest aside. “Aren’t there always?”
“Here.” Without delay Fawkes reached inside his pocket and pulled the shrunk lion out into the open, rolling him out onto the desk right next to Fiona’s legs. “This guy got caught in the blast, figured I should ask you what to do with him.”
“Ah.” She sighed in recognition. “Lionel.” She gave the dazed little guy a nod. “You alright?”
“Y-yes! I think!” The miniature lion spoke up, taking a few steps away from the towering, socked monoliths and trying to catch his breath – being this small was… exhausting.
Fiona looked up at Fawkes again. “You should fix him up. No problems on record, polite with our guys, always pays up on time…. He’s the model citizen, really.”
“I uhh… Can’t do that right now.” Fawkes admitted.
A truly, deeply exhausted sigh followed before Fiona spoke up again. “Let me guess, you made a shrink ray without making sure you have a way to grow stuff back?”
“Pretty much.” Fawkes shrugged.
“You know you’re not supposed to use this kind of thing on the people we’re protecting, right?” Fiona gave him another slightly annoyed look. “I told you, we’ll get in trouble if people think we’re not worth paying off.”
“It’s not like I meant to! He was stuck right inside the werewolf’s mouth! Besides, I can probably fix him up… eventually…”
With another sigh Fiona sat up straight, leaning in towards the little lion. “Look, Lionel, you’re gonna be stuck like this for a bit. I’ll see if I can get a nice place set up for you.”
“I… Yeah… That’s alright, I guess. Beats being chewed to pieces by that thing.” He nodded towards the monster in Fawkes’ hand.
“That’s the spirit.” Fiona nodded and pulled the manifest up again. “I’m a bit busy, so take care of him for now, ‘kay Fawkes?”
“Uhh… Sure.” He shrugged, scooping Lionel off the table. “And this thing?” He held the unconscious werewolf up.
“Whatever.” She shrugged. “Not my problem.”
“Suits me. I’ll be in the lab.”
“Uh-huh!” Fiona grunted without looking up from her list. “I’ll come by for Lionel later. Take it easy on him.”
With a grumble, Fawkes made it back to his place, carelessly tossing the werewolf into one of the many empty cages he had scattered around. With a sigh he collapsed into an old rickety office chair in front of his desk and looked down at his new lion buddy. “So uhh… This might take a while, think you could make yourself useful while you’re waiting?”
“I guess?” Lionel shrugged. “What do you want me do?”
“Nothin’ much.” Fawkes tossed the micro down towards the floor, pushing the tip of one boot over the heel of the other and tugging it off. “Could use a footrub, ya know?” He repeated the same process to other boot as well, sliding both of his feet out into the open and setting them on either side of the little lion. “You can do that, right?”
Lionel looked around himself, wincing at the smell. He didn’t really feel like going along with this, but this was The Fuzz he was dealing with, and Fawkes wasn’t known to be the most reasonable of them. Without Fiona around, it really didn’t feel like a good idea to protest. With a sigh he made his way over, squeezed his eyes shut and placed both hands over the looming fuzzy foot of his supposed ‘protector’.
“There’s a good citizen.” Fawkes smirked and bapped Lionel on the head with one toe, shifting it back and forth and ruffling his mane. “Something tells me that you and I are going to get along juuuust fine, little cat.”
“S-sure!” Lionel exclaimed, a little on edge but trying not to show it. It could have been worse, he supposed. At the very least Fawkes soles weren’t littered with dirt, what with him keeping those precious boots of his on at all times. The distinct stench of stale sweat certainly didn’t help matters, but it was easy enough to ignore, most of the wasteland smelled like a dump anyway.
Just as he was coming to terms with what would likely be his new line of work for the next couple of weeks though, things got worse. As Fawkes focused on tinkering up above, the little micro down by his feet completely slipped his mind. Instead of worrying about hurting a tiny living being, Fawkes found himself idly playing around with a small lump of fur. Basically assuming Lionel was his stress toy now, Fawkes rolled him around underfoot, pinning and squeezing him against the floor. Toes would curl around his neck, scrunch and curl over his limbs and the looming engineer didn’t seem in the slightest bit concerned by any of it.
It wasn’t until half an hour later that a subtle motion, reminded Fawkes that he had a living being at his mercy. “Oh yeah!” He exclaimed, looking under his desk. “You feel pretty good down there, little guy. Sure you don’t wanna just stay with me for good?”
“Uhh…” Lionel hesitated, poking his head up from between the massive toes. “I’ll check in with Fiona first, I think.”
“Eh, sure thing.” Fawkes nodded. “But keep at it for now, haven’t felt you rubbing for a while.”
With groan, Lionel stretched his hands out again, kneading at the ball of Fawkes’ foot. Was this what smaller folk always felt like around The Fuzz? This was going to be a long couple of weeks…
Category Story / Macro / Micro
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Multiple characters
Size 120 x 120px
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