Warning: spoilers for the Resurrection of Dehak Saga.
“Boss! Boss, we’ve got a problem!”
In an underground mill, a sketchy young man runs into the boss’ office.
It’s not an ex-Syndicate mill. Not every fluffy abuser was on the Syndicate’s payroll, remember.
But it’s one of the biggest independent mills still standing.
Up until now.
The boss, a rather plump mustached man in his fifties, sitting behind his desk, eyes the employee.
“What is it?”
“It’s the ChaotiX, Boss! They found us! They’re on their way as we speak!”
“Fuck. Can we keep them out?”
“…It’s the ChaotiX.”
“So what? Fuck those hugboxers! Tell the men to fight to the last! We’re not letting those freaks push us around!”
“You want to fight them?”
“Correction: I want you guys to fight them, and remember, I sign your paychecks. If you can kill one of those freaks, you’re all getting a raise. Good luck, you’ll need it.”
That promise provides sufficient motivation, and the employee runs out of the office.
Too bad it’s a dirty lie.
Not five seconds after the door closes, the boss opens a drawer of the desk, pulling out a gun.
Then he reaches under his desk, grabbing a carrying case with his other hand.
“Okay, that should buy me time to grab some cash and get outta here.”
At the front doors of the building, a dozen of the employees gather, all armed with whatever weapons they could find.
The wails of fluffies can be heard from elsewhere in the building, but so muffled that what they’re saying can’t be made out.
Which may be for the best.
WHAM
Suddenly, the doors are blown off their hinges, knocking all but one of the employees out.
The one employee left conscious sees Lou Hoskins, one half of the Super Hoskins Brothers, standing in the doorway, wearing his Power Gloves, High-Jump Boots and a grin.
“Hey! Motherfucker!”
Lou points at the employee.
“Come here and give me your liver.”
The employee runs away, tossing his knife aside.
Lou shrugs as he enters the building, and pulls a tiny warhammer out of a pocket of his overalls.
“Ah, that’s a shame. You ready, Tone?”
Tony, the other half of the Super Hoskins Brothers, walks in, holding another tiny warhammer.
“I’m ready.”
The Super Hoskins Brothers speak as one.
“Code Hammer Time!”
poof
The warhammers, made of chivalrium and adamantium, grow to full size, using size-changing tech.
Then the brothers turn around, seeing Calvin and Marley walk up to the doors, at least three dozen ChaotiX members following them.
“Come on in, guys.”
“Mind the bastardi.”
Calvin and Marley smirk audaciously.
“They’ll be waking up in handcuffs, methinks.”
“Mawwey hope dey wike bwite owange.”
Calvin cracks his knuckles.
krrrk
“Alright, folks. It’s time to do what the ChaotiX does best: kick ass and save fluffies.”
“Ow, at weast, pwod butt-ock.”
Danny, Ghost and Phantasm phase into a room, cages full of fluffies against every wall.
All of them are mares. Mills usually don’t keep a lot of stallions around, and the stallions they do have are kept separately from the mares. Stallions can be more belligerent and harder to keep under control than mares, and the mills don’t need a lot of stallions to breed mares.
Obviously, neutering them to make them more compliant isn’t an option.
It doesn’t really matter if the gene pool gets a bit shallow. This is a mill. The fluffies here aren’t being bred to be sold as pets or perform in shows. They’re bred to be sold to abusers, so they wouldn’t live long enough for inbreeding to become a problem.
Anyone who cares about fluffies knows not to buy them from mills by now.
And in strongly pro-hugbox areas, mills are the only businesses selling fluffies that abusers aren’t banned from.
Naturally, mills are banned in pro-hugbox areas too, and they crack down hard on unlicenced breeders.
But as abusers become a minority that just keeps shrinking, the abusers that are left try harder and harder to get away with it.
Some people just can’t stop doubling down.
The mares haven’t really noticed their visitors yet.
“Pwease wet fwuffy owt…”
“Huu… nu wan mowe bad speciaw huggies…”
“Pwin-sess miss mummah…”
One mare, one of the few to notice that they’ve got company, is hurriedly pushing her foals behind her.
“Babbehs, hide in mummah fwuff! If bad mistahs see babbehs, dey gun take babbehs away again!”
Another of the few mares to notice the trio is seriously contemplating stomping her foals to spare them from whatever she thinks is about to happen to them, but really doesn’t want to do that, and is paralysed by indecision.
And one particularly dense dam isn’t paying attention at all. She’s a week away from giving birth, and is happily singing a mummah song for her unborn foals.
“Mummah wub babbehs, babbehs wub mummah…”
She’s new here, this is her first litter, and she didn’t believe the other mares when they told her she wouldn’t get to keep her foals.
Had the ChaotiX not shown up, she’d be in for a rude awakening.
Danny looks around, smiling at the mares and addressing them in a gentle tone as they all finally register their visitors, peering at them curiously and uncertainly.
“Don’t worry, we’re not here to hurt you. My name’s Danny, this is Ghost, and this is Phantasm. We’re gonna get you out of here.”
Ghost nods, smiling reassuringly.
“We am fwends of da Bestest Hoomin. Yu knu Caw, wite? He am hewe tuu.”
Danny eyes the padlocks on the cages.
“Phan, get to work.”
Phantasm nods.
“Awn it, Danee.”
The avenging spirit fluffy flies into one of the padlocks, which starts shaking and rattling.
click
Then it unlocks, a grin on Phantasm’s spectral face as he exits the padlock.
“Wun down… uh… manee tu gu.”
The mare inside the cage raises an eyebrow.
“Wai am fwuffy aww see-fwu?”
“Fan-tas-um am a gost. Dat meen Fan-tas-um went foweba sweepies, but came back. Wif-owt a bodee. Deez too am stiww awive, dey jus gut powahs wike gosts.”
As Phantasm flies into another padlock, Danny carefully lifts the mare out of her cage.
“Don’t go running off yet. We’ll be bringing all of you to the Foundation, so the nice doctors there can take a look at you.”
“Dewe am nice dok-tows?”
There is a doctor on the staff here, a formerly licenced fluffy vet.
Don’t ask what he did to get his licence revoked.
He hasn’t stopped doing it.
Erwin is currently dealing with him, and Erwin is wearing his Omega Buster.
Danny grins.
“The Foundation doesn’t hire doctors who aren’t nice. They’ll take good care of you guys.”
click
Phantasm flies out of the second padlock.
“Dey nu can du jack shit fow Fan-tas-um, foh.”
WHAM
Calvin slams one employee into a wall, holding him by the throat, Marley watching his daddeh work, both Omegas’ eyes glowing red.
“Where’s your boss?”
Calvin has already seen the conditions the fluffies were being kept in, and it’s costing him a considerable amount of effort to not go absolutely berserk.
Fluffy abuse really gets under his skin.
“In your mom’s bedroom, Korkea!”
“My mom’s dead, you insensitive prick.”
“Yeah, 'cause the Boss fucked her to death!”
Using his other hand, Calvin holds up two fingers.
“Don’t you ever talk about my mother like that again, or I’ll stick my fingers up your nose.”
“I don’t see how that’s a threat–”
“And then I’ll unload ten thousand volts of fuck you directly into your brainpan. You’ll be completely brain dead. Imprisoned inside your own body for the rest of your natural life.”
Marley snickers at the employee.
“Mawwey hope yu wike Bawnee an Fwends.”
The man’s eyes dart back and forth between Calvin and Marley.
“You’re bluffing. You wouldn’t do something like that!”
ZAP
Calvin pokes the man’s cheek, giving him a static shock that makes him yelp.
“Wouldn’t I? Perhaps I should just tighten my grip a bit, and snap your neck like a wishbone. How many fluffies’ necks have you snapped? You wouldn’t be the first villain who dies at my hands. You’re not even a supervillain. You’re just an insignificant little nothing. Would anyone miss you if you died? Would anyone try to avenge your death? I don’t think so.”
“You’re not supposed to do this kind of thing, Korkea! There are rules!”
“Yes, there are rules. And you broke them first. But I’m the Harbinger of Chaos, bitch, and breaking the rules is what the Harbinger of Chaos does. You assholes didn’t show the fluffies you keep prisoner here any mercy.”
“Su wai shud daddeh shu yu mew-see?”
The employee futilely tries to break free.
“Because he calls himself a hero! Heroes don’t kill people, do they?!?”
“Honestly, dude? I’d rather not kill you if I don’t have to. But if letting you live means you’ll be back to trouble us again and again, I’m gonna nip that shit in the bud right now. So are you gonna be a good boy or a bad boy? I’ll ask again, and I’m not asking thrice…”
SHWEEEE
Calvin shifts to Luminary Form, his hair becoming white and floaty, the black of his battle suit turning white, his body wreathed in an aura of white light.
His glowing eyes go from red to bright blue, and his pupils become two burning red pinpricks.
“Where’s. Your. Boss?”
The employee immediately wets his pants.
“I think he’s in his office! Top floor!”
Calvin promptly releases the man, reverting to base form.
“If he’s not, you’re going to pay for lying to me.”
“I’m not lying, I swear! So can I go now?”
“Yeah, sure. Get lost, and never hurt any fluffies again. Or I will find you, and I will kill you. You get one chance. Don’t waste it if you want to die of old age.”
The employee runs away, and when he’s out of earshot, Marley looks up at Calvin, their eyes fading back to normal.
“Daddeh?”
“Yeah, Mar?”
“Wai did yu nu teww him dat da poh-wees am suh-wound-din da pwace?”
Calvin smirks audaciously down at Marley.
“He’s gonna find out anyway. And it’s funnier this way.”
“…Dat nu am untwoo…”
In another, smaller room, also filled with cages, Dave and Slayer liberate the stallions.
Dave’s just pulling the padlocks off with his demonic strength. Half-demons can still use their powers in mortal form, but they’re stronger in demon form.
“Alright, guys, don’t worry. We’ll get you all out of here.”
One particularly lustful stallion leers, his no-nos erect.
“Su fwuffy can hab mowe enfie mawes?”
He wouldn’t have left this mill if the people in charge offered him all the sketties in the world.
Slayer leers right back, and the stallion quickly realizes that he’s in the presence of a master, Slayer cheerfully addressing him.
“Oh, yu wike enfies, huh? Swayew wike enfies tuu. Smaww wowwd. Mebbeh yu an Swayew cud du tawkies abowt it in pwai-vut?”
Then Slayer’s tone goes from cheerful to menacing, as he sprouts his red bat-like wings, flying up to look the stallion in the eyes.
“Dat am nu way tu tweet mawes. Munstahs? Suwe, if dey am bad. But nu mawes! Stawwions wike yu make awwa us wook bad! If yu am gunna be wike dis, yu can stay in dat sowwy box, cuz dat am whewe fwuffies wike yu bee-wong!”
Dave keeps pulling padlocks off.
“Yeah, are you a victim of what’s been going on here, or an accomplice?”
The stallion folds, his no-nos going flaccid out of fear.
“Fwuffy wiww be gud. Nu huwt fwuffy…”
“Relax, we won’t hurt you. That ain’t how we roll. But you’ve got a long talk about consent and respecting mares in your future, buddy.”
Slayer lands, and nods.
“Eben Swayew knu dat Swayew am weawwy howny, but Swayew stiww gut stan-dawds, yu knu? Yuh, Swayew am howny, but Swayew nu am det-wih-men-tuh-wee howny. It am a bad ai-dee-yuh tu wet da Twouw-suw Tai-tun du da finkin aww da time.”
The stallion who just learned that he is not the horniest fluffy around raises an eyebrow.
“Yu caww it da–”
“Nu da point!”
slip!
WHUMP
In one hallway, three employees slip and fall, the floor beneath their feet having suddenly frozen solid.
Judy walks up, in her leopard print battle suit, her bag of holding, also leopard print, over it.
Well, actually her nano suit, with her boots having formed ice spikes to keep her from slipping.
And Snowball, the one who froze the floor, is following her mummah, grinning at the three morons. As a cryokinetic fluffy, Snowball can navigate slippery ice better than most fluffies.
Flufftopia’s new ice skates for fluffies aren’t their biggest seller.
Judy smiles vengefully.
“So, what do you want to be turned into? Frogs, or toads?”
“Choos kwik-wee, ow mummah wiww choos fow yu.”
In a restroom, one employee cowers on the toilet, keeping his feet off the floor.
CRASH
Then one of Dwayne’s muscular and ethnically ambiguous hands bursts through the wall to his right like it’s made of paper, grabbing the employee and pulling him through the wall.
CRASH
And leaving a very big hole in the wall.
“Ribbit?”
“Ribbit.”
“Ribbit!”
As Judy and Snowball watch the three humans-turned-frogs struggle to hop away on the icy floor, Judy conjures up a large jar, with holes in the lid.
After opening it, she waves her hand.
“Levis.”
The humans-turned-frogs float up into the jar, and Judy closes it.
She taps the jar, grinning at the humans-turned-frogs inside it.
tink tink
“I’ll let you out and change you back later. After we’ve cleaned shit up here.”
Snowball giggles.
“An if yu bee-have, dewe mite be sum joosy buggies in it fow yu.”
As one employee futilely tries to shoot Kyle and Niek, only shooting their illusions, Needles and Spike sneak up on him from behind.
Needles pulls out his switchblade, winks at Spike, and licks the blade.
Then he makes a cut on the back of the employee’s neck.
slice
“Ow! What–”
WHUMP
The employee faints, as Needles’ poisonous saliva takes hold.
It’s just a sedative. Needles and Spike can control the effects of their poisons and venoms. If Needles likes you, he could French kiss you and you’d be fine.
Spike thinks the employee is lucky that it’s just a sedative.
Needles could have easily made it a laxative too.
In another room full of mares, Seth and Andre work on getting the cages open.
Seth is guarding the door, wearing a pair of mint green Power Gloves and holding his new Guitaxe.
It’s a guitar with retractable blades, making it a literal axe.
Andre eyes a security camera, and grins.
He sticks his middle finger into one padlock, easily unlocking it with his rubber powers.
click
That’s how they got into the room.
Then he pulls his key-shaped middle finger out, and flips the camera off, still grinning.
“Look! I found the key!”
“Andre, how long have you been waiting to do that bit?”
“Since I crossed Threshold X, nigga. Aight, let’s get these poor gals outta here.”
Andre stretches his fingers and thumbs to the padlocks, unlocking them ten at a time.
In another hallway, Jack, wearing his waldo harness Tobey, casually strolls towards a dozen men, firing pistols at him.
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM
But strangely, none of the bullets are hitting Jack.
It is almost as if something is redirecting the bullets around him.
Actually, that is exactly what’s happening.
Were the men wearing temporal stabilisers, they would see Tobey’s eight spidery mechanical limbs casually pushing the bullets out of the way.
Yes, Tobey has temporal stabilisation tech built-in.
clickclickclick
When they run out of bullets, the men toss their guns aside and rush Jack.
WHUMP
But suddenly, their legs are bound by webbing, and they all trip.
Jack, using his web shooters, webs their mouths shut too.
thwipthwipthwipthwipthwipthwipthwipthwipthwipthwipthwipthwip
“That stuff is staying on until I say it comes off, boys. But don’t worry…”
He waves his hand at the men, and just like that, they’re all frozen solid, not in ice, but in time.
“For you, it’ll be no time at all.”
Then he reaches into his lab coat pocket, pulling out a Sharpie pen.
And he starts doodling on the frozen men’s faces.
“IT’S FUCKING KORKEA!!!”
“GET HIS ASS!!!”
“DIE, YOU HUGBOXING FREAK!!!”
Having turned to steel, Calvin and Marley march towards the boss’ office, deflecting a hail of gunfire from a dozen pistols.
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM
tinktinktinktinktink
Calvin just smirks at them.
“Guys, stop, let’s talk this out.”
He waves a hand, and the men float up into the air.
Then he swings his hand down.
WHUMP
And they’re slammed into the floor.
Calvin and Marley step over the men, reverting to flesh.
“Good talk.”
One of the men groans in pain.
“No it wasn’t!”
On the third floor, one employee runs into a storeroom, Victor and Scarface hot on his tail.
“YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!!!”
CRASH
He jumps out through the window.
WHUMP
And lands in a dump truck full of pillows that he’s pretty sure wasn’t there ten seconds ago.
Chaos, in the form of a woman with chalk white skin, light brown hair, and a red sweater with the sleeves rolled up, is at the wheel of the truck, and has spray painted three words on its side.
DICK FLATTENING JAIL
Chaos speaks up, sounding as cheerful and flamboyant as usual.
“Where you’re going, it’s always 4 PM!”
Then Chaos drives off, the employee unwillingly going along for the ride.
“Nooooooooo…”
WHAM
Calvin kicks the boss’ office door open, striding inside with Marley, and finding the room completely empty.
“Goddamnit. Either that guy was lying, or the boss bailed on his staff.”
“It nu am gunna make a diff-wens, am it?”
“Not really, Mar. We can see a move like this coming from galaxies away, and we prepared for it.”
“Cuz we haf seen it bee-fowe. Daddeh, sumtimes Mawwey fink dat ab-yoo-suws am wunnin owtta ai-dee-yuhs.”
“You and me both, Mar. You and me both.”
Meanwhile, beneath the building, the boss runs down a dark secret tunnel, which he never felt the need to tell his employees about.
His carrying case is a lot heavier now. It didn’t really have that much in it before he stuffed it with as much cash as possible.
WHUMP
Suddenly, he trips, losing several teeth, dropping his gun and the case.
As he gets back up, he finds himself staring into a pair of glowing blood red eyes, a grinning mouth full of sharp yellow teeth underneath the eyes.
“Ya know, guys like you have REALLY gotta start installing some LIGHTS in the escape tunnels. You think darkness is your ally? You merely ADOPTED the dark–”
“Are you seriously quoting Bane at me?!?”
“Yup. So can you guess where this is going, Fatman?”
Nivlac grabs the boss, who lets out a foal-esque squeak of terror.
“Please don’t break m’spine.”
“Mmm… okay.”
“Really?”
Then Nivlac lifts the boss up.
“No.”
And brings the fat bastard down on his knee.
CRACK
“AURGH!!!”
High above the building, Edward holds one moron upside down by the ankle, Edward and Erdrick hovering on golden dragon wings.
“I can see your house from here…”
“Lemme down! I don’t like heights!”
Erdrick giggles.
“Oh, weawwy? Dat am tuu bad.”
Edward laughs.
“We can go higher, y’know. Ever heard of the Tower of the Heavens? Great view up there. You can see all the way to T’almin.”
“The fuck are you babbling about?”
“Never mind. You see that?”
With his free hand, Edward points down, at ChaotiX members hauling employees out of the building, into the waiting arms of the police surrounding the building.
Nivlac is dragging the boss out, also by the ankle, and after Calvin and Nivlac remerge, Calvin heals the boss’ broken back.
And more ChaotiX members are blipping in, to help carry the fluffies out.
“Looks like your buddies have been dealt with.”
“Su am yu guin down da swoh way, ow da fast way?”
“Choose carefully, dude. You don’t want to piss us off. We’re half-dragons. And you are crunchy, and taste good with ketchup.”
This is a bluff on Edward’s part. Even if him and Edward had managed a complete draconic transformation by now, they’re not going to eat people.
But their captive doesn’t know that.
The moron’s jaw drops.
“Wait, your shitrat is a half-dragon too?!? How does that even work?!? A shitrat’s far too small to fuck a dragon!”
“It’s a long story, dude.”
“But da showt vew-shun am nun of yu biz-niz.”
“Yeah, this ain’t an interview. So are you gonna surrender all nice and quiet like, or are you actually stupid enough to attack the guy who is the one thing keeping you from falling to your death?”
“I surrender! I’d be waving a white flag if I had one!”
“Smart move. Looks like you won’t be lunch after all.”
The half-dragon duo descends, and Erdrick giggles again.
“Dewe nu am enuff ket-chup in da wowwd tu make yu yummy, aneeway.”
As Edward and Erdrick land, Calvin keeps healing the injuries the employees suffered as they were being apprehended, Marley pitching in.
“We did good, I think. No fatalities, human or fluffy.”
Judy opens her jar, dumping the humans-turned-frogs out.
“These idiots won’t forget this in a hurry, hun. Dysp.”
In seconds, the frogs turn back into humans.
When a fly buzzes past, one of the men has to fight the urge to try to catch it with his tongue and eat it.
Alter the body, the mind changes shape to fit.
But it’ll probably wear off in a day or two.
Jack watches Famke, Chakra and Lavender carefully levitate the time-frozen men out of the building, and retrieves a spray bottle from his lab coat.
It’s for dissolving the webbing.
Unfortunately, he has nothing on him for dissolving ink, so they’ll be spending their first few days in jail with Sharpie mustaches, beards, monocles, various synonyms for the word “IDIOT”, and whatever other comical ideas occured to Jack on their faces.
He was impressed by the size of one man’s forehead, and wrote “THIS SPACE FOR RENT” on it.
Another of them, whose appearance practically screams “Neo-Nazi”, will discover, once he’s unfrozen, that the swastika he proudly displayed on his arm is now a nice windmill, with a little inky Don Quixote and Sancho Panza charging at the windmill.
And his bald head had plenty of room for a wide assortiment of insults in Yiddish.
Jack asked Xavier, who speaks fluent Yiddish, for suggestions.
Jack strolls over to the frozen men, and starts removing the webbing on their legs and mouths.
spritz spritz
“Cal, make sure the cops are ready when I unfreeze these guys.”
Calvin laughs as he heals one man, who broke a few bones when Hank the size-changing fluffy sat on him at the size of an elephant.
“We’ll deal with them last, Jack.”
Marley nods, as he heals one employee who broke his foot when he tried to kick Cannonball.
“We gut time nao. Yu dummehs nu am gunna wun away, am yu? Cuz Mawwey can tuwn tu steew tuu.”
The employee just whimpers.
“Fow da weck-awd, Mawwey cudda soh-wohd yu mummahfukkahs. Wun vee wun Mawwey, bwoh!”
Marley sniffs.
“Did yu jus make poopies?”
The employee blushes.
“No! …Yes. Please don’t tell anyone.”
Calvin smirks audaciously.
“Don’t worry, dude. We won’t tell anyone that YOU JUST SHAT YOUR PANTS!!!”
Everyone starts snickering at the employee, including his own coworkers, and he blushes harder.
“Why, Korkea? Why did you have to do that?”
Calvin kneels down, gently slapping the employee.
“Because fuck you, that’s why. So tell me: how many times was that your answer, when these poor fluffies asked you that question?”
“…”
“Yeah. That’s what I thought. You guys are lucky, y’know. We could have killed every last one of you, but we didn’t kill you. We could have not healed your injuries, and let you heal the slow way, but we did heal you. We showed more restraint than you deserve, today.”
The boss, already handcuffed in the back of a cop car, sneers at Calvin.
“So we should be grateful that you didn’t kill us? Should we be kissing your feet and thanking you for your kindness?”
Calvin shrugs.
“You can keep your lips to yourselves, but yeah, a little gratitude wouldn’t be amiss. What happened to you today was us trying to be nice about this. And believe me, dude: you don’t want to see what happens when we stop trying to be nice.”
“We nu wan tu du it dat way, but if we weawwy gutta, we wiww.”
“Exactly, Mar. So when you get to prison, boys, tell 'em who sent you there, and why. Be happy that you aren’t in a morgue. And if you ever get out, remember this day, every time you see a fluffy. Got it?”
All of the employees who aren’t frozen in time or unconscious nod frantically.
“Glad we got that worked out. Anyone else need healing?”
Victor gestures at one employee, who has two sorry sticks stuck in his nostrils. Not so far inside that he’s at risk of brain damage, but far enough to be very uncomfortable.
“I think that guy’s the last one.”
Calvin casually phases the sorry sticks out, courtesy of Danny, and heals the man’s nose.
Then he holds up the snotty sorry sticks.
“You know that these are banned in a lotta places too, right? Or did you just not care?”
He drops the sticks and stomps them, breaking them into pieces.
crack
“How’d you even get those in there, anyway?”
Seeing Victor leer at him, the employee hurriedly replies, still sounding a bit nasally.
“I tripped. I was carrying them to the bin to throw them away, and I tripped. Yup, that’s definitely how it happened.”
Calvin smells the bullshit, but decides not to ask any more questions.
“Anyway, now that this is done, one of the biggest independent mills has just been wiped off the map. Give it a couple of years, nobody will even remember what this place was called.”
He glances at the remains of the sign over the doors, which he personally burned to cinders with his eye lasers before entering the building.
“So that’s another blow dealt to the abusers.”
“Deez gais pwob-ab-wee fowt dey wuz gunna be da nex Sin-duh-kit, daddeh.”
“Joke’s on them, Mar, and if I have anything to say about it…”
Calvin chuckles.
“There won’t be a next Syndicate.”