Fluffy Killer Business (1): The F.N.G. Part 2 [By BFM101]

[BFM101]

Bryan led Jonathan and Scarlett through to the garage, the room seemed to be fitted for much larger vehicles, and at least two or three more of them, but all this business had was one decently sized van that was currently reversing into the building. Like the rest of things, the van had clearly seen better days with chips in its dark purple paint job and spots of rust, however it was in better shape than the building, Jonathan reasoned that the van being their primary way of reaching their customers, it got preferential treatment.

Two doors slammed shut and two people walked over to where Bryan and Jonathan were standing, the first was a man, slightly older than Jonathan, a little pudgy in the waistline although nowhere near as large as Bryan, and a little round in the chin, but he had a serious air about him and a pair of respectable glasses framing two steel-grey eyes, they weren’t just for show, Jonathan could tell this man looked intelligent because he WAS intelligent.

The other person was a woman, where the man was a hair older than Jonathan, she looked a hair younger, her body was lean and athletic, she clearly took care of herself, although Jonathan could spot some tiredness in her eyes, whether that was from the job or some personal matters he couldn’t say yet.

None of this though was what he first noticed about her, the most obvious trait about this woman was that she was black, not an uncommon sight in this part of the country but rarer than the racially diverse city he just came from. For a brief moment he thought of Martha but quickly shook that thought from his head.

The woman came over to Bryan while the man went straight for the bathroom, even from here Jonathan could smell the Fluffy shit wafting off of him.

“Sorry about the wait Bry, had to drop off a package at the shelter.”

The woman’s eyes darted over to Jonathan, she wasn’t upset to see him, but she didn’t look too happy either. “This must be the Mongola, and he has a pet.”

“Whu da fuk yu cawwing a pet wady?”

The woman recoiled slightly, caught off-guard by Scarlett’s foul-mouth. But after a moment she smirked at the novelty.

“Well now, she’s certainly unique.”

Jonathan returned the smirk. “You have no idea. And you were right by the way, Jonathan Mongola, nice to meet you.”

Jonathan shifted Scarlett to one arm and held out his hand for the woman to shake, she paused for a moment, working out her options in her head, then she cautiously took his hand and returned the shake.

“Artemis Jackson, my friends call me Art.”

“Artemis? Like the…”

“Yes, like the goddess, trust me I’ve heard it all before.”

“Goddess of the hunt, and you hunt Fluffies, your parents must’ve done something right.”

“Well they called my sister Aphrodite and she’s the pretty one so perhaps you’re right.”

At that point the bathroom door opened and the second man arrived, shaking his hands dry.

“Heads up Bryan, we need to order more towels for the bathroom.”

Bryan nodded. “I’ll get right on that, in the mean time this here is Jonathan and Scarlett, guys this is Taylor Harrison, he’s the resident tinkerer so anything electrical you need, he’s the guy to see.”

Taylor stood next to Artemis and sized Jonathan and Scarlett up. “Ah, you must be the F.N.G., what brings you to our little slice of heaven?”

“I was in need of work, Bryan’s cousin is a friend of the family, told me there was a spot here.”

“And you’re good with rounding up and potentially killing Fluffies?”

“If you’re good at something, never do it for free.”

Taylor nodded his head, impressed with Jonathan’s answer. “Fair enough, I had to ask, we’ve had some hugboxer types join The Crew, trying to save the Fluffies we collect. All it takes is one Smarty to start spraying shit in their eyes for them to realise not all Fluffies believe in the hugs and love bullshit.”

Taylor’s eyes dropped down towards Scarlett. “Speaking of which, Bryan never told us you were bringing a friend, you got a name little one?”

“Fwuffy’s namesie am yuw mummah’s fatty kunt.”

“Scarlett come on.” Jonathan tried to chastise her but couldn’t keep from laughing. “These are our new friends, play nice.”

“Scawwett onwy taking da piss.”

“I know you are, but you gotta make a good first impression.”

“Am dat nu wha Scawwett duin nyo?”

Jonathan shook his head and turned to Artemis and Taylor, sorry about that, Scarlett here is… well she’s got a long and chequered family history, I’ll try and explain it all to you someday. All that’s important now is that she’ll be working with me, she’s a cannibal Fluffy so she can help track down rouge Fluffies, providing she can get a decent meal out of them.”

Artemis eyed Scarlett curiously. “A cannibal? Didn’t we hire some cannibal Fluffies from that doctor, Cathy something?”

Bryan shook his head. “They were hunting Fluffies, different breed but somewhat similar. Anyway, now that the introductions are out of the way, we can start to get everything settled.”

“Is there just the three of you?” Jonathan asked, curious as to why The Crew was so small.”

“We really don’t need a lot of people for this job.” Bryan explained. “We don’t house the Fluffies we collect and we can spread things out so that we’re busy throughout the week, it’s simple work but there’s a lot of it, once you’re out in the field, Art and Taylor can explain it more in detail but from what I’ve been told about you, you’ll pick it up just fine. Taylor, can you show Jonathan to the backrooms and help him with his bags, Art can I see you in the office for a moment.”

Artemis looked concerned for a moment, wondering why Bryan wanted to see her privately, but she kept her nerves and followed him upstairs while Jonathan and Scarlett led Taylor to their car to help shift Jonathan’s belongings inside.

Up in Bryan’s office, Artemis followed her boss insdie and shut the door to give them some privacy. “What’s up?”

Bryan hefted himself into his chair. “Just wanted to get your opinion on the new guy, make sure there’s not gonna be any issues out in the field.”

“My opinion?” Artemis sat down in the chair opposite Bryan. “Seems ok, so far, charming enough. Not sure about that mare he’s got, seems a little abrasive but maybe she’s just not good with new people.”

Bryan chuckled for a brief moment. “I thought I told you to stop lying to me. There’s something else on your mind, and I think I can guess what it is.”

“Whatever do you mean Bry? Could it have something to do with you hiring the son of a white supremacist to work with me, a poor little black girl?”

“You’ve done your research I see”

“Didn’t need to, the Mongola name is infamous enough, I’ve heard plenty about Fitzgerald Mongola and of Josef and what he did to Fluffies, shit was fucked up even for me.”

“But nothing on Jonathan I take it.”

Artemis shrugged. “He’s cut from the same cloth, isn’t he?”

Bryan shook his head. “Not as much as you might think. Now I’m no expert on the family, my cousin tutored Jonathan and his brother when they were kids, kept in contact with Jonathan over the years so everything I tell you is third hand information, just the facts as I know them. You’re right, Jonathan’s father was a racist piece of shit, and he did try to bring his kids under that same mindset, it worked on Jonathan for a few years, that is until he met Martha.”

“Who’s Martha?”

“His wife, and the mother of his son.”

Artemis sat back in her chair and scoffed. “So what? Jon feels a little rebellious, marries a black girl to piss off his father, then abandons them once the novelty wears off?”

The serious look on Bryan’s face told Artemis that she was wrong, so horribly, terribly wrong.

“Martha and her son are dead, they were in Cleveland when the Skettiland disaster took place, they drowned when Lake Erie flooded the city. The boy was four, Martha wasn’t even 25.”

Artemis wiped a tear away from her eye. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I knew you’d judge Jonathan based on his father’s history, I don’t blame you for it, son of a Klan member would raise some eyebrows. But I wanted you to know so that you can at least understand that he’s not like Fitzgerald, he may have been at one point, but he’s lost too much to think like that anymore. And before you say anything, I’m not overstepping my boundaries, Jonathan is very open with his past and his loss, I wanted you to hear it from me first so you would believe it, if he told you, you might have been unconvinced.”

“You have to admit, it does sound like a sob story, dead wife and kid to help bring sympathy to the devil. But, um… thank you for telling me, I sometimes forget not to judge others too harshly, side effect of my mother…”

“You’re not your mother Art, you don’t need to keep thinking about her.”

“In this line of work Bry…”

Artemis stood up and opened the door.

“…All I can do is think about her.”

Artemis found Jonathan and Taylor in the break-room, sharing some coffee to warm them up on such a dull day, laying down next to Jonathan’s foot was Scarlett, distracted by the solid object she was gnawing on.

As she got closer, Artemis saw that is was a severed Fluffy leg.

“Where the hell did she get that?”

Taylor laughed. “You should’ve seen her Art, some fat mare with fatter kids thundered up to us, demanding to be let inside, Scarlett here ripped off one of her legs and tore the head off one of her fat kids just to make sure she understood.”

“Scawwett hate fat-ee mummahs.” Scarlett spoke up between mouthfuls.

Taylor turned back to Artemis. “I think she’s gonna be a good addition to The Crew.”

“Here’s hoping… You mind giving us the room Taylor, I need to talk to our new recruit here, alone.”

“Um… sure yeah, I’ll check with Bryan, see if we had any messages while we were out.”

Confused, Taylor stood up, dropped his half-empty cup into the communal sink, and took off. Jonathan stayed silent as Artemis took Taylor’s chair and sat down, her eyes never leaving Jonathan’s.

A few moments of silence passed between them before Artemis finally spoke up.

“Bryan told me a little about you, about your family, about Cleveland.”

Jonathan chuckled softly. “I had a feeling he might, I gathered from our first meeting that you’ve heard of The Mongola name before.”

“Some, I know your father was basically a Klan member, and that your brother was some kind of scientist who specialised in abuse techniques. It’s a name with connotations, so forgive me if I was feeling cautious.”

“Not a problem, I understand, I’d feel cautious in your position as well. All I can promise you is that I’m not my father, I was, but that part of me is long dead.”

“Because of your wife?”

“Because of my father, he had to break me down to get me to see his twisted world-view, Martha helped me rebuild myself. After she was gone, my father tried his dirty tricks on me again, but I knew better now, and I saw him for the abusive piece of shit he’d always been.”

“Aren’t you worried he’d try again?”

“Not really, he’s dead.”

“Oh. I’d say I was sorry to hear that but given the circumstances…”

“Don’t be, I’m the one who killed him.”

Something tensed in Artemis, she wasn’t sure what it was, but for a brief moment she felt like running, and yet something stronger told her to stay there, to find out more about the strangeness that was Jonathan Mongola.

“That’s quite a confession.”

“Not really, it’s all on public record, I shot him and my mother… God it must be 9, 10 years ago now. I was sentenced to second-degree murder, 15-20 years.”

Artemis sat back in her chair, a small smirk growing on her face, she couldn’t help but feel refreshed by Jonathan’s openness.

“Why do I get the feeling you weren’t let out for good behaviour?”

Jonathan laughed softly. “I guess if we’re gonna be working together you have the right to know. I broke out of prison after my brother died, killed by his girlfriend. My plan was to kill her but… well she was pregnant with his kid, I couldn’t exactly hurt her without hurting the last piece of Josef left in this world. It’s been months since then, the kid’s probably been born by now, I stopped keeping tabs on Katherine ages ago, got harder to do so while I was on the move so I stopped putting myself at risk just for the sake of revenge.”

A few more moments of silence passed between the two as Artemis processed what Jonathan was telling her, she was beginning to understand a few things, like why Bryan was letting her sleep in the office, but one question remained on her mind.

“Why are you telling me all of this, surely if you’re on the run then telling me all of this just puts you at risk?”

Jonathan shifted in his chair before leaning forward, his face deadly serious for the first time Artemis had seen from him.

“When I lost Josef, I lost the last person in this world who gave a damn about me. The only family I have left is an Uncle who probably wants nothing to do with me anymore, and two cousins I haven’t seen since I buried my family. The only person I’d be willing to call a friend, a man called Ted, he hates my guts because I let my rage get in between us, I have nothing and no-one left. I’m telling you all of this because I have nothing left to hide, and because before we ended our friendship, Ted convinced me to stop internalising my hatred, to stop using the infamous Mongola Rage as a crutch and start trying to heal for the first time in 15 years.”

Jonathan sat back, leaning over to scratch Scarlett on the head. “That’s why Scarlett’s with me.”

“Yu am da fukin wowst.” Scarlett growled, now just chewing on the bone, but she made no effort to stop him.

“I was gonna ask about her.” Artemis said, her eyes watching Scarlett intensely. “I’ve never seen a Fluffy like her.”

“Her family history is as fucked up as mine. Did you ever hear of a Fluffy called Crimson?”

Artemis shook her head. “Not ringing a bell, sorry.”

“Crimson was Scarlett’s father, and Josef’s pet, except Josef used him more as a tool for hurting Fluffies than anything else. Crimson was psychotic, a rapist, a serial killer and a cannibal, all rolled into one foul-mouthed Fluffy.”

“Sounds charming.”

“He had his appeal, but he was truly one of a kind. Used to be a regular Fluffy called Rex until Josef’s psychological torment caused him to break down and form the Crimson personality. Straight up Fluffy D.I.D.”

“I’ve never heard of a Fluffy having split personalities before.”

“Neither had I, and it’s less split personality and more personality assimulation. Once Crimson arrived there was nothing left of Rex to speak of, I read Josef’s notes and any blank spots in Crimson’s memories were filled in by his own subconscious. What’s more interesting is that Josef attempted to recreate the conditions that created Crimson on other Fluffies, never had any success, it was just the right Fluffy in the right conditions delivered in the right way. Of course this doesn’t explain why Scarlett is the way she is, she didn’t have the same emotional turmoil her father went through, but I suspect there was something in his genes, as far as I’m aware Scarlett is the closest copy of her father in any of his children to date, she’s the same Pegasus type, the same red and orange colours, she likely also has the same cannibal gene that unlocked once she tasted blood for the first time. Something triggered the same psychological breakdown in both father and daughter, the only difference being that Rex was already an established personality in an adult Fluffy that Crimson had to assert control over, Scarlett was an infant when she changed, she had no personality yet so even the psychotic side of her had to learn some form of morality, whether she wanted to or not.”

“Is that why she’s with you, for research purposes.”

Jonathan shook his head. “No, she’s… for lack of a better term she’s a form of therapy. That anger I told you about earlier, when Martha and Ralph died I let that anger take control of me, and I spent years of my life blaming Fluffies for what happened because I didn’t want to blame myself and I blamed myself because I couldn’t accept that their deaths were just accidents. In all those years I butchered as many Fluffies as my brother, perhaps even more, never giving myself the chance to heal because Fluffies were such an easy target for my hatred and too numerous for me to ever truly stop hating them. I still hate them, I still feel that anger bubbling inside me whenever I see one, except for when I’m with Scarlett, aside from the familiar connection her outlier attitude is different enough for me to subconsciously not associate her with Fluffies whilst on the other hand, since she IS in fact a Fluffy, the more I’m exposed to her the more I’m learning to reduce my anger towards Fluffies. I’m not saying I’ll ever grow to love them, but I’d prefer apathy to anger.”

“Sounds like you’ve given this a lot of thought.”

“I’ve just been given a second chance Ms Jackson, I’d rather not waste it.”

Artemis let out a breathy chuckle. “Call me Artemis, I’ve heard too many ‘Ms Jackson’ jokes in high school to answer to that anymore.”

“Sure thing, Artemis.”

Another silence passed between the two of them, this one surprisingly comfortable, but it was soon broken by Taylor rushing into the room.

“Hey, got us a live one, that building site for the new hospital, invaded by a Smarty Herd, they want full on extermination.”

Jonathan looked at his watch. “Exterminate a whole herd? It’s lunch-time already, do you really have time for that?”

Artemis shrugged. “We work long hour Jon, shift lasts anywhere between 12 and 16 hours, but the pay’s fantastic so it balances out.”

“Fair enough.” Jonathan looked down at Scarlett. “You ready to hunt down some Smarties?”

“Oh fuk yeh.”

With Jonathan and Scarlett laughing together, the two of them ran off to join Taylor in the van, Artemis stayed behind, pausing just for a moment to let the worry flush out of her system.

She briefly wondered how to tell Jonathan about her mother’s role in the Fall of Cleveland, if she even should at all. Then she pulled herself together, and set off towards her next job.

This opening chapter turned out to be a little more dialogue heavy than I planned, but I wanted to get the character introductions out of the way as quickly as possible, as well as setting up Jonathan and Artemis for what’s to follow.

As previously mentioned, most of Fluffy Killer Business will be standalone jobs for The Crew so any suggestions for what they could face are welcome and could be added to the plan for what’s to come.

(2): Deconstructed

[FallenAngel007]

Well looks like Artemis have some pass as well maybe will revealed later stories but at least both have mutual understanding.

Can’t wait for the first “mission” in hand