Sara sat at the the bar in her anthro form leering at the terrified bartender with her sleep deprived bloodshot eyes. Knocking back the shot in her hand Earl looked to his left at her from his own bar-stool, elbows on the bar fiddling with his beer mug.
“So, are we gonna talk or are just gonna drink and stare daggers at poor Wilson over there?”
Sara’s tendrils flourished under her floor length hair in agitation for a second then she sighed hanging her head slightly.
-Where did you learn your skill set from?-
Several weeks ago…
Deputy Andy stood in Earl’s workshop doorway with a large black gun case tucked under his arm as Earl swung the door open. Earl gestured him in and he hesitantly stepped in looking over his shoulder.
“Are you sure we should be doin’ this? If Sheriff Brody finds out I took her railgun I might end up a crossing guard if I’m lucky.”
“I’ll worry about my sister just put it on the scanner. Oh I’ve wanted to use this baby on something forever.”
Andy opened the case and set the railgun on a long flat panel on one of the workbenches that took up most of it. A bright bar of light lit up on it and moved from one end to the there and as the light passed over the rifle a 3D rendering of every part formulated on the panel in a blueprint.
“See? Nothing touched, opened or unscrewed, my sister will never know it’s gone. Hmm… Never seen a battery like this before… must be military. Don’t think I can copy it that small… yet.” Loosing focus in the conversation.
“Hey. Hey! We good?” Snapping a finger to get Earl’s attention.
“Hm? Yeah, the poker debts good. Oh and uh, work on your poker face, you’re too easy to read.”
“Thanks.” His tone sarcastic as he locked the case shut and took off.
Shriek was happy to be out of the sorry box even if Gobby still wasn’t talking to her but she had been getting plenty of attention from Imp. Banshee seemed to have paired off with Hob as well who was entertaining her with a dancing stuffy friend. Earl was hoping for that to happen but he also kept the birth control in the kibble he wanted to get some field action from them before they were bred. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary until a human shaped shadow stretched across the corral.
“So the rumors are true, Coleson’s started dabbling in genetics. Wonders never cease, does it,Edward?” Said the tall and beautiful red haired woman to a strange creature riding her shoulder.
“Oh yes indeed, Mistress. I would seem he has.” Answered the soccer-ball sized eyeball with several red tentacles sprouting from the bottom of it.
Goblin was first to meet the woman’s gaze, an angry look plastered on his face as his horn lit up in a threat display.
-Stwange wady not supposed to be hewe. What wady want.- He sneered unsettled by “Edward’s” appearance. -Why bwing munstah?-
“Hmmm, looks like we found the smarteeeeee!” Yelped Edward as he flew from the woman’s shoulder and was now pressed hard into the chicken wire enclosure his tentacles stretched through the holes.
-Neva! Caww! Gobwin! SMAWTY!- He shouted at the thing.
“Mistress! HELP! He strong! He’s really str-OW!”
“Hey let him go!” Reaching a hand into her purse.
“Goblin! Let it go.” Earl shouted, walking from his workshop door. “Ms. Cassandra here is expected.”
Edward’s tentacles went slack and he went scurrying back onto Cassandra’s shoulder and glared at Goblin grinning back smugly.
“I thought I told you not to bring that thing with you.”
"Never mind that. What have you been up to? Last I heard in the mad science circles you said you hated my line of work and now whats this? Telekinesis? Do they all do that? What could have possessed you do do that?
“You’re askin a lot of questions for something that’s none of your business. Speaking of, you got what I’m paying you for?” Holding out his hand.
Cass reached into her purse again fumbling around for a second, extracting a large vial of strange green fluid she outstretched her hand then pulled it back.
“First I wanna hear you say it. You came to me, the person you shit on the most, called my work abominations of nature, because…?”
“(sigh.)… You really gonna make me say this?”
“Hell, yes!”
“(Huff)… Because you’re the best when it comes to gene splicing second to none. Look I get it, I was being an ass. Do you want the money you’re overcharging me for that or what?”
“You admitted to that rather quickly for you.” Handing over the vial. “That’s not like you.”
“Yeah, well my therapist says I’m too stubborn.”
“Therapist? Ha, I knew you’d crack eventually.”
“Court. Ordered.” Handing back a fat envelope of cash with a cold curt tone.
“Now THAT sounds like you. Be careful with that, what ever samples those were you gave me were surprising and unstable. Whatever it is you want to kill it’s prone to mutation.”
“Yeah burn those samples when you get home, that thing had regenerative abilities and I don’t need a sample growing into Sara 2.0 and coming back for round 2.”
“Sara?”
“I didn’t name the thing and I’d rather not loose another body part to it.” Holding up his left arm.
“Wait… It’s not that meta I heard about on the news was it? Oh, those samples are gold! Gotta go, work to do!” She practically sang as she ran for her car.
“What? NO! Don’t do it, Cass!.. Cassandra! Oh, what did I just do?” Watching her drive off.
-Who that stwange wady, boss?- Goblin asked.
“A mad scientist. Although that thing she had couldn’t have been made by science. Damn thing is just an eye and tentacles. Wonder if the rumors are true?”
-Wumoh?-
“Hm? Oh, that she’s really a witch with all kinds of crazy powers.” Looking down at the vial not really paying attention. “Thing didn’t even look organic, like glass and metal.”
Earl wandered back to his shop leaving the fluffies in the corral, Goblin felt a sense of pride having gotten the best of whatever Edgar was. He turned to his herd and they all cheered for him and he puffed up his chest and smiled.
Sara had completely changed her appearance, replacing the long green haired petite woman with a tall robust woman with short blonde hair. She wandered the streets with nothing but the clothes on her back after fleeing out Phil’s apartment window three days ago. And oh boy what the deputies found made the news and now a whole mess of three letter agencies were here investigating what could rip a man apart inside his own kitchen. She needed to get out of town, but with her memory flashes she couldn’t trust herself to drive or fly under her own power and the flashes drew too much attention for others to driver her. Now she was having blackouts, she had another one after she killed Phil and woke up in an alley surrounded by a massacred herd of fluffies, at least it wasn’t another human. That strange feeling started to come over her and she had no idea if it was going to be another memory flash or black out. Staggering through the street looking for a place to hide she ducked into an alley going for the back door of some random business and broke the door open. No alarms, so that was some good news as the invasive memory took over.
“Alright lady, wake up, time to go.” Ordered deputy Barry
Sara felt a tug at her arms as she was lifted from the floor where she lay face down on the floor. Then she was quickly dropped and her face smacked the concrete floor.
-OW!-
“Jesus Christ, Barry it’s an anthro!” Shouted the other deputy.
Sara groaned rubbing the end of her snoot her eyes shot open when she realized she wasn’t rubbing a human nose but a fluffy nose with a green fluff covered hand.
“Hurry up and get the cuffs of it, Winslow. We gotta call this in for evidence and disposal.”
“Hey, Barry? Think it’s another one of Earl’s?” Winslow asked with a devilish grin as he got out his cuffs.
“Fuck you that’s not funny. The holding cells stank like shit for a month after that and Brody had me scrub them daily.”
As soon as Sara felt the click of the first cuff around her wrist she reacted on instinct, her tendrils flew out of her hair wrapping around the deputy’s wrist. With a twist there was a loud snap and Winslow screamed as he flew across the room. In seconds she shifted again into her monstrous beast form, looming over Barry mind blank with rage she grabbed him in her claw. She sent him sailing across the room, bouncing off the sheet metal garage doors she turned her attention back to Winslow who had landed through a doorway into an office. He was trying to break a window to escape to the street when Sara came in he tried to draw his weapon with his other hand only to find himself pinned to the wall. Her tendrils coiled around his limbs her snarling face leaning in close until she saw the picture on the wall. Jake and Earl Coleson, standing in front of their old auto garage holding a sign saying “Grand opening” and she paused just as another flash hit.
Earl stood over a whimpering red mare who shuddered while trying to shield her foals from the horror unfolding before them. Jake sat on a log next to the bonfire drinking a beer, his fourth one in as many minutes he handed Earl one who had shove a stick up a fluffy’s ass and was roasting him alive over the bonfire.
“It’s ffffuckin bullshit man, twelve years an we’re put under by those aaaassholessss at the name brand shop.” Finishing his beer and throwing it at the mare. “Ffffuckin fluffies. Annn nnnow what are we gonna do fer work?”
“Hey, watch it!” Lifting a leg to dodge the bottle. “Great, I dropped the the smarty in the fire. I wasn’t done with that one. Not like we’re running anytime soon. Town’s lousy with the damn things, you know it’s so bad in the cities they actually have city funded extermination squads just to wipe out the damn things. Could use something like that 'round here.”
“Earl, you fucking genius!” Shooting to his feet and nearly falling over.
Sara snapped back to reality, still holding deputy Winslow she smashed the picture and cast the deputy aside and just walked out of the building trying to retake her human disguise.
-Why the fuck can’t I turn human?!- She shouted when she got stuck in her anthro form.
She looked at herself in a mirror on the wall, that green fuzzy face and long floor length hair she brushed a finger over her reflection’s cheek them smashed it.
-WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME!?-
She just broke down at this point, unable to hold back the tears anymore she just gave up. Staggering out the door she wandered into the street to the shocked stares of the citizens but she just didn’t care anymore. Then she saw it, the lucky horseshoe bar, she paused, her eye twitched and she went inside.
Earl sat on a milk crate with Odin next to a house’s crawlspace with a plastic playpen full of fluffies and every so often another would pop out the crawlspace shrieking in terror. Grabbing the latest one out in his teeth Odin dropped it in the pen and got a head rub as a reward. Imp came out next with Hob, levitating a large clutch of crying, panicked chirpy foals. Gremlin carried one as well when he exited and inside a squeaky pained voice begged for mercy then shrieked in pain as a loud wooden thump could be heard from the house itself. Goblin was out last dragging a beaten and battered blue stallion and threw him on the ground and stepped on his neck to pin him down.
-Gobwin got a smawty- He grinned with a sing song-y tone.
“Make it clean, Goblin. Customer don’t want his yard a mess, understand?”
-Yes, Boss.-
The stallion’s tail suddenly shoved itself up his own ass then his legs snapped one at a time as each one rolled up breaking in multiple places. Rolling him onto his back Goblin stomped on his chest crushing almost all his ribs in one strike but that didn’t stop him from stomping him a few more times. This next part he wanted to do himself without any powers, he reached under the smarty’s head he lifted him up and folded him in half forcing his mouth over his own junk. With his other arm he slammed his hoof over his muzzle then held his mouth shut.
-Swawwow it!- Goblin ordered.
The smarty was too busy trying to scream with a mouthful of his own dick that easily slid down his throat and was now choking on it. Seconds later the smarty was convulsing as the last seconds of air was used up and he grew still. Just to add insult to injury Goblin lifted up his leg, mimicking Odin, and pissed on the smarty’s face as the lights faded from his eyes.
Earl was starting to wonder if he had created a monster or the greatest torture buddy ever. He almost laughed at the the thought of having any other feeling than disdain for a fluffy, maybe the shrink was working. His phone rang while he was sorting through the chirpies for anything that stood out, it was from Wilson down at The Lucky Horseshoe bar.
“Hey hey, Wilson. Ready for me to take more of your money at the next poker game?.. Wilson, what’s wrong you sound upset… Man, you’re not making any sense, a what walked into the bar?.. oh… Call the sheriff. Now… She wants to talk to me? Hey what’s going on? Wilson? WILSON!.. Sara. Been awhile. So what do you want?.. Yeah, I’ll be there.” Hanging up as he stood up. “Get in the van boys. Leave everything for now.”
-What about the bad fwuffies?- Imp asked looking at the pen of terrified fluffs.
“We’ll come back for them later… If we live.” getting back on his phone. “… Hey Jimmie, I need a favor. Can I barrow Matilda?.. Yes, you can cancel your poker debt to me.”
The streets were chaotic with police activity, the deputies had little trouble tracking Sara and the bar was surrounded by squad cars. Stepping out of his van Earl clutched his left knee then fished a simple looking cane out from behind the driver’s seat then hobbled over to sheriff Brody.
“Go away, Earl. This is police business.” She said cold and curtly fiddling with a drone remote.
Earl held up his phone showing Sara face-timing him.
-Let him in or the bartender dies.-
“Goddamn it, Earl.” Brody groaned
“I don’t wanna go in there anymore than you want me to!” Hanging up his phone. “But I got a plan. Just… Keep your railgun handy, just in case. Oh and uh, that controller wont work, never did.” Sliding a panel open on his left arm and pressed a button.
The three weaponized drones in the back of a nearby police van sprang to life and took to the air while Brody stared daggers at her brother. He just turned to Gremlin and the boys still by the van he opened the back door and took out four cigarette case style boxes.
“Ditch the blades and darts, boys. I got something special for this job. You watch your shots with these, they will kill anything they hit.”
The boys each took a case and opened them showing six tranq darts filled with a strange green liquid and black puffballs on the ends. They loaded their vests carefully as they could as Earl told them about the hidden key behind a loose brick to the bar’s backdoor and they were off. Goblin taking lead he galloped to the alley as Earl hobbled his way to the front door, it took a minute but Imp managed to figure out which brick would come out the wall. Opening the door slowly they kept inside they could hear Earl and Sara talking.
“I’m not leaving my arm by the door.”
-I know about the weapons in there.-
“They’re also removable.” Detaching the raised forearm panel and setting it on a table then slid a long black battery from his elbow. “There, happy?”
-Have a seat. We need to talk. Hey bartender, get him a drink… And another shot for me.- Knocking back the shot in her hand as Earl sat down and a beer was slid in front of him.
Earl looked to his left at her from his bar-stool, elbows on the bar fiddling with his beer mug resting the hook of his cane on the edge of the bar.
“So, are we gonna talk or are just gonna drink and stare daggers at poor Wilson over there?”
Sara’s tendrils flourished under her floor length hair in agitation for a second then she sighed hanging her head slightly.
-Where did you learn your skill set from?-
Goblin paused for a moment engrossed in the conversation his owner seemed to be having with the strange woman who looked like a bad mash-up of a fluffy and a human. Ducking around a corner they kept on the far side of the island style bar in the center of the room but could hear everything clearly.
“That’s easy I learned from… From my, uh… ummm…huh… I should know this.”
-Alright, how bout this? What can you tell me about your mother?-
The sound of glass shattering made The boys jump slightly and Earl cursed after crushing the beer stein in his left hand he banged his fist on the counter and stood up pointing a shaking finger in Sara’s face. But… He couldn’t say anything.
-Can you tell me what she looked like? Personality? Major milestone moments shared? Anything?-
After a long and awkward moment of silence, Earl’s expressions shifted as his mind raced before plopping back down on the stool hanging his head.
“…no…”
-Blonde, five foot eleven, green eyes, barely weighed a buck twenty soaking wet. One sixty three IQ, loved nineties pop rock because her grandma used to listen to it all the time.-
“How the hell do you know that?” His voice barely a whisper.
-Something happened last time I was in your head, something got… left behind. Something I need to get rid of.-
Slapping her palm over Earl’s face he spasm-d his arms flailing about for a brief moment then slumping forward.
“Get. The FUCK! Out of my HEAD!” Backhanding her hand from his head.
Before he could do anything else the tidal wave of memories and emotions hit him he grasped the sides of his head, clenching his teeth as tears swelled in his eyes. Goblin wanted to rush in and attack but his training made him wait for the signal and so far they didn’t seem to be fighting. He couldn’t understand why Earl would be sitting and just talking with this monster and just when his patience was starting to wear out Earl downed his beer in one go. Wiping the foam from his mustache he cleared his nose and sat back on his stool. Sara’s whole disposition lifted dramatically as she stretched and contorted her body in impossible ways as her green fluff vanished and her human disguise returned.
-Oh god it feels god to hear just my own thoughts for a change.-
“So what now? This is usually the part when folk in this situation try and kill each other.” Still hunched over the bar holding his head.
-I’m done with this whole situation really. I don’t even want to fight anymore, you’re just not worth the trouble. I’ve spent enough time with your thoughts to know what really goes on with you and I’m just tired. I’m gonna just go away now. I just need time to figure out what I’m gonna do about this.- Patting her stomach.
It took Earl a moment to figure out what she meant as he was trying to resort and slot away tons of lost memories. But when he did his eyes went wide for a second before he composed himself at last, straightening up his posture looking ahead at Wilson and reached for his cane on his right.
“Well… It will be good to know I wont have to be looking over my shoulder all the time. So this is what? A cease fire? I guess this is… Goodbye.” Reaching up and setting his left hand on her shoulder.
Sara suddenly screamed in pain and backhanded Earl off his stool through the air and through a small table shattering it. Sara reach over her shoulder and pulled a long broken needle from it, Earl coughed through a laugh holding up his arm showing the rest of the needle sticking out from under his metal wrist. Before she could react Goblin hopped up on the bar and launched a dart into Sara’s back, she swung at him with a sluggish motion her right arm going almost dead. In an instant her left arm became a colossal lobster claw and she put it through the bar table narrowly missing Goblin as he dashed off then there was the pain in the back of her leg. Wilson had hopped the far end of the bar and was out the backdoor in an instant. She turned just in time to see Imp scurry away to the far end of the bar island and her form exploded in growth to her monstrous mutated form. Blindly going after Imp she felt two more stings in her back and her tendrils lashed out slicing tables and chairs to kindling over Hob and Gremlin’s heads. Her blood burned like lava as her head and stomach started spinning then foam started to froth up across her jagged teeth. Shaking like a dog the empty darts in her back went sailing, the sound of Earl’s pained groans as he sat op locked her wrath back on target. She struggled to keep her legs stable, even growing more just for balance. Slapping the scraps of table away she raised her one working claw just as Earl aimed the end of is cane at her and pressed a hidden button. The end of the cane popped open letting loose a long red stream that splattered over Sara’s long neck and torso. Before she could wipe this strange stuff of the red matter moved and shifted, a piece stretched out forming a simple smiling face.
“Get her, Matilda!”
There was a long awkward pause as the two monsters looked at each other in a strange stare down neither moving. The standoff was broken when four more darts stuck Sara in the back, her pained gurgling roar setting off Matilda. The jellenheimer’s simple smile stretched into gaping maw filled with row after row of teeth that went straight for her extra long neck. She thrashed around as the last of the darts flew, one wild swing sent a table through the front window and a hail of gunfire came pouring in. Flesh, blood, tendrils, wood and glass sprayed everywhere and the only thing Earl had to shield himself was a broken table top. In on last attempt to get at him Sara slapped the table away and clamped her claw around his metal arm crushing it as she tried to lift him up. The last of her strength was sapped in that last attack and slumped down on her belly while Matilda grew more spikes and teeth to dig into her body.
-Wh… whah… did yooo(gurgle) oo… to meh?- She choked as her head sank to the floor.
Earl stood up as the gunfire stopped, reeling from the assault on mind and body and now he could hear deputies approaching in mass.
“(Cough!) Strychnine, arsenic, tetrodotoxin and a custom blend of fluffycide poison tailored to your DNA.” Spitting out a wad of blood as he reached behind his back.
-(Gurgle) Wh-why…?-
“Did you really think I’d let you live while pregnant? Birth out another god only knows how many monster? (Cough!)… ow.”
Drawing a revolver he cocked the hammer and put two through her skull and emptied the rest into her belly. It was strange, the aching throb in his leg stopped and after giving it a test shake he walked to the bar and grabbed a half broken liquor bottle and poured it over the body. Fumbling with his remaining hand to fold open a matchbook by the time he got one ready to strike sheriff Brody’s hand took it from him. Taking her railgun without a second though she unloaded the entire sixty round mag into the bodies head and torso.
“We got this now, you’ve… done good. We’ll drag it outside and burn it.” She said in a surprisingly, reassuringly calm tone. “Looks like she got you good again.”
“I think she broke one of my ribs.” He groaned holding his side just as his broken prosthetic snapped in half. “Fuck… Boys! ow. Front and center!”
The boys came out of hiding, none the worse for wear save for Hob who didn’t duck far enough fast enough and got the last few centimeters of his horn and left ear sliced off. His pride seemed more wounded than anything, the blunted tips had already started to scab over from the tiny trickle of blood.
-We do good, Boss?- Goblin asked looking at the dead body being chewed on by Matilda.
“Yeah, boys. Ya did good. ow.”
“What about the jellenheimer?”
“There’s a grilled cheese sandwich in the van, if Odin hasn’t eaten it you can use it to lure Matilda in to the cane.” Handing it off to his sister. “Was that an ambulance outside? I’m gonna go check it out.” Patting her shoulder as he slowly walked outside. “Could you take the boys home, please? Thanks. ow.”
And just like that sheriff Janice Brody was left with a wrecked bar, a dead monster with another one trying to eat it and a crew super fluffies that killed it.
“(Sigh…) Where’s that fuckin’ sandwich?” Sheriff Brody grumbled opening the van’s driver side door.
Sitting in the passenger seat in an intact thermal bag was the sandwich, when she looked into the back she saw Odin shaking and whimpering. The poor dog was been so shaken hearing Sara’s roars he had made a mess in the back of the van.
“That’s Earl’s problem not mine.” Grabbing the sandwich. “Get in the van, uh, boys? I’ll take you home after I get the jellen back in… the cane. God this is weird. At least it’s over at last.”
Several weeks ago…
Cassandra drove home in record time, she rushed through her front door greeting a small brown fluffy colt with a small human shaped twig like creature that moved. She headed straight for her lab, a room to cutting edge machines, beakers, and sleek straight lines. Placing her hand on the far wall her palm lit up and a hidden door slid open revealing a second lab, welcoming wood benches, cauldrons, leather backed books and corked vials sprawled out everywhere. Opening a locked wooden chest she took out two vials, one of blood the other chunk of flesh and green fluff.
“I wonder what I could do with you…”
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Shout out to @FallenAngel007 and his characters who guest starred in this episode.
love how Earl sees his container isnt glass but organic thingy. And the rumor of her being a witch 