Recap-
Everyone knows of the ruins Cleveland left behind after the Skettie Land super theme park blew sky high leveling several blocks and damaging the structure of the rest of the city. Now the fluffies roam the wreckage with the stray animals and wildlife, grass and trees breaking through the concrete and asphalt streets retaking the land. The only humans here were the homeless and the scrappers who slowly stripped the damaged building for anything they could sell for cash. This being illegal meant the additional danger of shoot-outs and turf wars between rival groups over a resource rich building.
Just on the outskirts of Cleveland it was maintenance day for the grinder traps, gears needed grease, propane tanks replaced and the shit piles accumulating under the trap’s conveyor belts needed to be hosed away. Jake had everyone out there today, with seventeen traps circling the city it was going to be a long day but it was their biggest contract with FluffCo. Earl was pissed off when he found one of his traps had been hit by the scrappers and had left for the city to make life miserable for them in return.
Part 3
Goblin and the boys sat in the back of Earl’s van ready to to get to work in their blade and dart lined vests. Earl had them sniff around and in the trap earlier, they almost could separate the scents of the humans from the hundreds of different fluffy scents and all the blood and poopies but they managed to find them. Earl was quietly grumbling to himself as he drove stopping only to make the boys get out and sniff around the streets of Cleveland and they found it pretty quickly, four humans, men, smelling overdue for a bath. They followed the scent while Earl slowly followed in the van for a few blocks they came to a red pickup truck with a large trailer hitched up full of scarp metal. Earl stepped out of his van, shotgun in hand he gestured the command for the boys to stay quiet and followed the sounds of destruction into the the abandoned corner store. Inside was a fairly fat man in a red jacket and blue stocking cap was ripping copper wire out of the walls spooling it into a pile of copper pipes. The sound of Earl cocking cocking his shotgun made him freeze in place.
“Hey man, if this is your turf I wont fight ya for it. Just lemme get a head start an you’ll never-” Slowly putting his hands up.
“Shut up! I wanna know where my parts are. My boys say there’s three more of you here somewhere.”
“…(gulp) Shit. C-Coleson?” Slowly peaking behind him. “I-I told them not to do it. Honest. I know your rep an they did it anyway so I told them screw you guys I’m going home. That was yesterday and I haven’t seen 'em since.”
“Where can I find them?”
“Uhh… we strip a lot of electronics for gold and silicon boards so try the office building nearby.”
“I’m comin back if your lying.”
“Heh, I’ll be long gone by then.”
“No. you wont.”
the sting of three tranq darts in the man’s back and leg was instantly overwhelmed by the rush of dizziness swimming through his head. He dropped and Earl ordered the boys back in the van. It was a quick ride through the empty streets and before you knew it they were stopping near two tall buildings with the sides facing each other collapsed, Earl had spotted a line of smoke rising between them.
The boys were let out and made to scout ahead, they were nervous, never having faced humans in open combat but Goblin put on his brave face and lead his brothers to the source of the smoke. There were a couple of trucks with trailers full of scrap metal and thirty year old electronics, another with a camper circled around a large campfire with a large dutch over by it. The smell of warm berries was almost irresistible but their training told them to stay away from things too good to be true but through it they could smell the rest of the men they were looking for.
“Get outta here you little shits! Fore’ I stomp yer little fuckin heads in!” Shouted a man in a bright orange parka carrying a stack of old PC’s. “Hold up… Why you wearing clothes?”
The sound of Earl’s shotgun echoed through the silent ruins of the city followed by the man’s screams as his right kneecap blew apart.
“HELLLLP! Guys help me! SOMEONE’S HERE!” Rolling on the ground clutching his bloody knee.
Two men came running out, one in a dull orange coat and green hat the other in a brown coat and blue hat, both carrying hunting rifles. They skidded to a halt at the edge of the buildings, not daring to be in open space they crouched down behind the half crumbled walls.
“Kenneth! Stay down! We’ll get you, just stay low!” Shouted the man in brown.
The sound of a shotgun cocking above them was all the signal they needed to know that they had no cover to speak of. They ran deeper inside the buildings heading for the stairs as deer slugs flew by their heads.
“Oh shit he found us!” Shouted the man in the green flappy hat.
“Where’s my solar panels you grubby little pricks?!” Earl shouted.
The boys were already springing into action chasing them up the stairs while Kenneth slowly dragged himself to cover dodging flying daggers that stuck into the wall, pulled themselves free and kept chasing them as the boys ran by.
“I waned you idiots last time! Fork over my computers and I’ll only shoot you once! Imp! Go left!”
Chasing the men out the stairwell Imp darted left with Hob right behind him, they darted around office desks coming up side by side with the men trying to take cover behind a desk. Goblin, Odin and Gremlin had gone right and with a combined effort slid the desk out of the way leaving them exposed and staring down the barrel of Earl’s shotgun. With Earl on one side of the gaping ravine in one building and the scrappers on the other, exposed and surrounded they had no choice but to surrender. By this time Kenneth had dragged himself into the building drew his pistol and started shooting at Earl forcing him to back away from the edge giving his friends a chance to escape. One took a swipe at Odin thinking he was the biggest threat only to get stuck with a bunch of tranq darts as Odin punced.The other one kicked a chair that flew at Goblin knocking him over the edge he glided down to the ground with a rough landing in front of a small group of terrified fluffies.
-We gotta go Smawty. Dis munstah too big to fight.- A big red and white maned stallion said to a orange and green maned stallion.
-Did you say… Smawty?- Goblin asked with a sinister grin.
“Goblin! Get your ass back in the fight!” Earl shouted from above.
-But… But… A smawty.-
“Leave it! That’s not the job! Get back up here and fight!”
Goblin pouted for a second then looked at a chunk of concrete the size of his head and his horn lit up, the rock lifted into the air and sailed off into the distance landing on target with a wet crack.
“Oh god, he killed Kenneth!” Shouted one of the scrappers
“Coleson, you bastard!” Cried the other.
-This is you wucky bwight time, Smawty. Wun away now… WUN!- Igniting his horn again.
As the fluffies ran or waddled for their lives Goblin ran for the stairwell using the light from his horn to see by the time he got back upstairs the two men were full of tranq darts drooling on the floor. Earl took his time walking back downstairs crossing the street and walking back up the stairs while digging a jet injector from his backpack. Loading a cartridge of tranquilizer counter agent into it he gave a dose to each of them and collected their rifles while they slowly came to then threw them over the edge.
“Alright dumb-asses there’s only one way your getting out of this alive.” Cocking his shotgun as they slowly sat up.
Thirty minutes later Earl had finished hitching up the scrappers trailer full of his stolen grinder trap parts while the thieves watched surrounded by floating throwing daggers. Blowing out the tires of their trucks with his shotgun for good measure he loaded up the boys and drove off back to the stripped trap. Goblin was happy riding shotgun at a job well done but Earl still seamed really angry for some reason to him, grumbling and cursing under his breath then stopped the van suddenly. Goblin slid off the seat to the floor and Odin took the chance to take back his rightful place upfront but Goblin climbed back up cramming himself in next to the much bigger dog.
“You boys still feeling wound up too? Who wants to go blow off some steam on some ferals?”
The boys were confused not knowing what he meant until Goblin looked out the passenger side window and saw a large herd of ferals in a huge grove of fruit and vegetable plants. The van’s sliding door opened and the boys hopped out as Earl opened the back door and rummaged through his arsenal.
“(Sigh)… Shotgun, no… Spear? Nah… Modded weed-whacker… Where the hell this riding crop come from? oh right. (shudder)… Ooh! perfect! Adjustable voltage cattle prods. Alright, grab a toy boys! It’s play time!” Slamming the door shut.
Hob opted for a simple buzz-saw disk while Imp chose a comically oversized cleaver, Gremlin picked out spiked metal hoofie booties but Goblin just took all the tranq darts off his vest and took more daggers. The herd had stopped their work of gathering and prepping their lush produce for the coming winter, watching them gear up and collectively flinched when the sliding door slammed shut. The herd had never seen “munstah fwuffies” that big before and were not sure what to do. From what Earl could see it was mostly mares, beta males and foals of all ages, strangely no tuffies or one even claiming to be a smarty. With a simple whistle the boys spread out circling the area much to the herd’s confusion and wit another whistle they attacked. The flying saw blade struck first sailing through the air, cutting a mare clean in half bounced and buried itself in the face of a young colt. One fluffy running from the bloody mess, ran face first into Imp’s cleaver, chopping the top half of her head off half-way up her eyes. Two were trying to flee but were slowly dragged back as Gremlin menacingly stomped his boots on the ground and when they got in reach he stomped his way up their bodies. Earl was casually jogging the parameter, cattle prods in hand zapping any fluffy that got too far. He’d kick them over and jam the prod into their junk, holding it there till it left a charred patch of flesh then kick them back to the center of the slaughter. Goblin was on a warpath, wanting to scratch that itch he never got when Earl made him ignore that smarty earlier, he’d pull in any fluffy he could see, pin them under hoof and start stabbing at their legs. He was already onto his seventh fluffy after throwing one onto his growing pile of bodies and had stuck several blades into one leg.
-Whewe is the smawty? Awe you the smawty?!- He screamed into the face of a sky blue rainbow maned pegasus.
-Smawty nu hewe! Nummy theifs take nummies an Smawty go an get nummies back! Pwease nu mowe weggie owwies! hu hu huuuu! Nu wike meanie smawty.-
This was the wrongest of answers and Goblin bit down on the stallion’s wing at the base and ripped it clean off in one pull.
“Hey, Goblin! Hold up a second. Let me see that one.” Marching up, tucking a prod under his arm to free his hand.
Grabbing the wounded stallion by the mane he gave him a quick once over, relatively healthy given the superficial wounds, but the colors on the other hand. The rainbow dash color scheme was still fairly popular, he could get good money from a breeder looking to stud him out.
“It’s your lucky day shit head, you might be worth something.” Carrying him to the van.
Goblin had run off as soon as Earl grabbed the fluffy and was throwing a huge tantrum grabbing any fluffy he could and used it to beat another to death.
-Gobwin! want! Kiww! Smawty!- He yelled with every slam.
When one became too much mush for any use Goblin would throw it onto the pile and grab a fresh one. Imp had chopped off the leggies of a yellow colt and was shoving the severed limbs up the victim’s poopie place one at a time. Gremlin was stomping through the blood puddles kicking gore and entrails everywhere, giggling in a way that made it even more disturbing. Hob was grinning ear to ear as he dragged a screaming fluffy slowly towards his spinning saw blade ass end first then let the fluffy go and launched the blade as it ran. Odin simply grabbed up the nearest fluffy in his teeth, shaking and tearing into them til the screaming stopped.
“(TWEET!) Alright boys, pile 'em up!” He shouted returning from the van with a bottle of lighter fluid.
Few fluffies were left standing save the odd straggler who managed to escape the kill zone and ran for their lives. The boys dropped their weapons and got to work piling up the bodies around the fruit bushes save for Goblin who was still smashing bodies together.
“Goblin! Knock it the fuck off and start stacking!” Squirting lighter fluid over the bushes and bodies.
Goblin crouched like a scolded dog and threw his latest victim onto the nearest pile as Earl started touching the cattle prod to the plants and piles starting fires that quickly grew. Digging out his phone he called up Jake.
“…Hey man, I got the parts back. Send someone to the nearest town to get some food we’re gonna be all day fixing this trap… See smoke? Oh, just blowing off some steam… Do you really want me to answer that last one?.. Didn’t think so. Be there in ten.” Hanging up. “Alright boys back in the van!”
seems his name or his company shouldn’t mess with by scrappers and now they know why.