New Orleans Stands Part 2 ( AMDk7)

AMDk7 · September 29, 2022, 1:19pm

Preamble:
This is my entry for @Motowhed 's collab offer Open collab offer
I decided to run with it with my steam punk fluffy setting, which is the only setting I have that was robust enough anyway.
But it is set in an alternate time line, you will see why as the story goes along
Heads up though, there is fluffy on human violence.
Humans die because of fluffies, if you object to that, now is the time to turn away.

Stil with me ?
Good
This is also a Steam fluffy story and you know what that means
Cameo’s !

New Orleans Stands Part 2

Frosty crashes in to it, scrabbling with her back hooves for purchases. while she wraps her front legs over the ladder supports.
With a supreme effort she manages to stabilize herself enough by hooking her wings on the ladder supports and planting her back legs firmly against the lamp post.
She looks down nervously.
This is not the first time she has done this today, it is in fact the third time, but it doesn’t ever stop being terrifying.
She now has her front legs free for the delicate task at hand.

Robin observes Frosty nervously via the binoculars.
“Come on, come on come on,” he whispers mostly to himself.
Monster looks up.
“Mista wan Munstah to relay dat ?”
“No no, it’s fine.” says Robin absent mindedly.

Frosty in the mean time manages to push the glass cap off the lamp post and now comes the hardest part.
The removing of light bulb.
Frosty takes a deep breath.
Her front hooves are wrapped in what amounts to rough leather gloves, but they help very little.
She places both hooves against the light bulb and yelps.
She swears she can hear them sizzle.
“Biggest hurties !”
Frosty clenches her teeth, now is not the time to cry. She starts to slowly turn the light bulb.
Way too slow as far as she is concerned.
After what seems like an eternity, Frosty finally manages to dislodge the bulb.
She drops it as fast as she can, her hooves feel like they are made from liquid fire.
The bulb shatters on several of the horde, killing several of them.
This finally gets their attention.
More eyes then Frosty would like, swivel up in her direction and they start to climb up in her direction.
Frosty fumbles with the bag to get the interpolator out of it.
It slips out of the bag with sickening ease, and starts its descends downwards.
“NU !”
Frosty lurches forwards and manages to clamp it between her front hooves.
She can feel the delicate piece of equipment crumple under the force.
But after a quick inspection, it seems to look alright, not that a fluffy could tell what’s wrong with it.
Frosty nervously looks down.
Robin follows it all equally nervous, via the binoculars
“Come on come on,” he repeats to himself.
The mindless fluffies are building a ramp out of themselves, like a living wave of fluff.
Each of them adds to the height, until they can almost touch her.

Frosty hurriedly shoves the interpolator in the socket and twists it in place.
She can feel the hooves scrape the lamp post, and brush her tail.
She looks down in terrifying blank faces.
Frosty give the interpolator an extra twist to secure it and then kicks away
from the lamp post
A mindless fluffy swipes at her and several of them tumble down.
She ignites her rocket pack.
At the exact same moment, Robin drops his binoculars.
“Now go go, go !”
Both Robin and Monster wave with semaphore flags,which is picked up by Mr Greenshaw, whom has been surveilling the Mr Owl for any sign, standing on the ramparts of the power station.
He drops the binoculars and runs inside.
“Angus we are go !”
Angus Deerborne looks up, he doesn’t waste any time with words, he has been ready two hours ago.
It was waiting for the flying fluffies, to perform their appointed tasks.
He has to admit they have come as good as they said they would. Even if he had his doubts about it.
He throws the switch, a big wrought iron thrown switch with a “tchak” and the entire power station comes alive, in a ghostly blue glow.

The glow jumps from the power station, to each lamppost and with it, a see through wall of mesh like glowing blue energy.
The bodged together Tesla wall actually works.
It slices through the titanic herd like a knife through hot butter.
Cutting sections off in an enclave, ready to be taken out by the defenders whom happily unload on the now cut off mindless fluffies.
The bodies soon start to pile up and are not being replenished, as the herd is being held at bay by the Tesla wall.

For once they seem to have an emotion.
They appear to be annoyed or sullen, at being stymied in their unstoppable march forward.
But then several things happen at once.

A thunderous roars splits the heavens.
The clouds that have been gathering open the sluices.
A torrential downpour comes down something fierce.
Angus Deereborne is standing on the ramparts of the power station, surveying the Tesla wall.
It crackles in the rain.
The water seems to fizzle away before it even hits the fence, but it seems to be holding up fine.
Deerborne was worried about the effect of the water on the fence and the interpolars. ,
But decided to keep that to himself the situation is dire enough as it is, when he notices something on the edge of his vision.
“What in tarnation is that !?”
Deerborne turns around to face it, just as the air is rend asunder, by a lighting flash.
For a brief moment he sees, they all see, two titanic figures, etched in sharp relief against the sky, doing battle with one another.
Their heads crowned with starlight. Their shoulders draped with ice and clouds, wielding lighting swords and thunder shields as their weapons.
The rain comes down in sheets.
The temperature drops to the point that people’s breath are visible.

Something happens with the Tesla walld maybe it short circuits.
Maybe one of the figures touches it, maybe an attack misses it’s mark
But one of the interpolars fails in a spectacular way, in a shower of sparks.
The Tesla wall sputters and then fizzles out again, the mindless heard spills back in again while the defenders beat a hasty retreat.
Several people get crushed under the scrabbling bodies.

Frosty wobbles in the sky. Her fluff is soaked.
She is cold and miserable, her hoofsies hurt. The only good thing about the downpour is that it soothes the burning pain.
She looks down at the surging mindless herd, the Tesla fence is gone again.
She doesn’t know why, but she knows this is not good.
As she touches down gingerly, on the deck of the Mr Owl and skids forward a few feet anyway.
Because the deck is nothing but slippery wet wood.
Robin is in furious conversation with several other engineers while they all look at the busted interpolator.
Which is off course the last one, because that’s how these things work.

Frosty shakes the water out of her fluff, for all the good that does her and sits down next to Monster.
Both fluffies look at the rapidly talking humans and can’t really follow what they are saying or doing.
“Wat am doin ?” Frosty asks.
Monster shrugs.
“Mustah nu know.”
They continue to look at the humans, Frosty with wide big eyes.
Monster tilts his head, a bit bored.
The rain drips off his fake horn and wings, which are not fake really.

Robin and the other engineers, Dr Dime, Mr Turbine, Sir Ghost and Dr Cyclops are frantically trying to find out what exactly happened and what they can do about it.
Which isn’t made any easier by the sheets and sheets of freezing rain.
Eventually its Dr Cyclops who manages to get usable visual confirmation, by using an experimental steam powered, pair of binoculars.
Which are a heavy brass pair of binoculars, that need to be lifted by two people.
While its powered by a noisy churning engine, that looks like a blender, it is hooked up to by cables and tubes.
But it does work, it cuts through the darkness and sheets of rain and produces a grainy green, but legible image.

“The interpolar blew its top !” says dr Cyclops. “It’s hanging by a thread !”
Robin sighs audiably.
Dr Dime curses, Mr Turbine goes “Ah man” while Sir Ghost rubs the bridge of his nose.

Frosty is heading the emergency formation with Ace, Apollo and Memphis behind her, as her wing fluffies.
They are the only ones still capable of flight.
The other flying fluffies are either exhausted, or their packs are damaged.
But it all depends on Frosty anyway, the others are just there to run interference on her behalf.
In the bag around her neck, she carries a new interposer, which is the top piece of an interpolar.
Hastily assembled by Dr Turbine and Cyclops, from the available parts they have lying around.
No time to properly test them
The defenses are already crumbling under the weight of a never ending hoard of dead eyed fluffies.

Robin and Dr Dime have quickly and carefully explained to Frosty what to do. She is the only one of the flying fluffies, to actually install 3 interpolars in a row.
And the only still flying fluffy, capable of doing it.
Concord had an accident and crashed straight in to the herd.
Ploughing a groove and mangling his own legs before he was crushed by the piling up bodies.
Ripcord and Firefly are too waterlogged and exhausted to do anything, other than installing interposers, they also ran bombing runs.
They are lying half unconscious in a wet heap on the deck of the Lothmar.

Frosty looks down at the roiling mass of multi colored fluffies.
A never ending herd that’s being spewed forth at the last enclave of New Orleans.
She feels cold and tired, with the weight of the world on her shoulders.
“hey ou dummeh !” Ace’s voice is sharp and cuts through the air like a knife.
“ou know what ou am doin ?!”
“Fwosty knu, Fwosty knu !”
Frosty shakes her head in an effort to try and shake some of this leaden feeling off her.

Cover art by @swiftbitches