30 YEARS AGO…
Life in the wild wasn’t easy for an expectant fluffy mother but it was a far sight better than living with a monster daddy like the one Ashtray had escaped who used her as her namesake implied. The deep sea blue mare had even managed to find a special friend in an ash grey stallion named #42, who said he was tossed out in the trashies when the bad doctors gave him yucky nummies that made him sleep like he had forever sleepies. some place he called a “Wab-wah-towy”. But life as always can be cruel at times and #42 became nummies to a wild orange barky monster leaving her with nothing but the stash of nummies in the hidden den in an old abandoned train repair yard. And in a crueler twist when the babies came, three of the five were born with forever sleepies and the last two smelled…funny. A green filly and a blue colt, Ashtray couldn’t bear any more heart hurties and nursed the foals despite their off-putting scent. many bright and darky times passed and the foals grew into walky/talky babies but their scent stayed strange, but she loved them still, the reason soon became apparent. her babies were playing too close to the ledge of a concrete trench and the blue colt slid over the edge back end first and now clung on for dear life. before she could make it to them a long thin tentacle grew out of their backs, wrapped around each other and she pulled her brother up and she stopped dead in her tracks. She had no way of processing what she saw and said the only thing that fit in her tiny mind.
-Muh… munstah bebbehs!- trembling and backing away slowly.
This was confusing to the foals, they didn’t know they could do such a thing and spent a long time looking at each other’s tentacle and back at their trembling mother.
-bebbehs nu am munstah. why mummah fwaidy?- the green foal’s lip starting to quiver. - Bebbeh scawdies, what happen tu bebbeh?
-Mummah save bebbeh from wowmy ting in backsies!- Sobbed the blue one running to her.
This caused Ashtray to back up even faster not paying attention to where she was going and tumbled down the neighboring bay trench breaking her back just below her front legs. she wailed about the worstest hurties and not feeling her back leggies just as her foals came tumbling down after her desperate for comfort.
-Owwies! screeeeee! mummah weggies haf huwties!- Cried the blue colt.
-Peep peep peep! mummah hewp! hu hu huuuu bebbeh haf ow–???
suddenly the pain was gone, their broken leggies making popping and crinkling sounds as bones re-aligned and torn flesh mended. they stood up giving each leggie a little shake to make sure if it was real then looked to their mother who was struggling to breath from her injuries.
-Pwease…huff huff… nu num… wheeze… mummah…huff…
-Mummah needs huggies!- the green filly cried
-Huggies make aww bettah!
The two nestled up to her as she laid helplessly on her side struggling to move her front leggies to either bat them away or run. then the pain was gone and a strange tingling overtook the numbness she felt before then faded. miraculously she could feel her body again and she stood up giving her leggies a little wiggle to test them.
-bebbehs… save mummah? make mummah bettah? Buh… ou am…buh… wut?..h…huu huu huu! Mummah sowwy bebbehs!- Gathering them up close.
Outside the building further down the trench they could hear the agonized screams of the other fluffies that inhabited the old structures. Ashtray hushed her children and told them to be quiet, a bad human was outside giving hurties to other fluffies. In the lit up parts of the trench that led outside lots or boo-boo juice could be seen leaking through the grate above in big meaty chunks in rhythm to the stomping that echoed through the trench. Suddenly the grate gave way and a tall skinny young human fell through smacking the side of his head on the wall enough to stagger him squatting down to rub his tender bruise. Ashtray was terrified at the sight of him knowing full well that he was just like her old bad daddy and her foals emboldened by their new found power squared off, but still stayed in the shed’s shadow. they wanted to scare him away and thought about all the things they wished they could be that scared them to scare him, all the bad buggy monsters and barky monsters and the long green danger sketties that ate fluffies whole. they wanted to BE those things, those scary things that nearly nummed them time and time again and they could feel it. they could see and feel each others bodies grow and contort into all those things, then they watched as the young human reached into his pocket and pulled something out. the top of the thing flipped off and a tall flame sparked to life in it, fire, they knew what it was from tale told to them by their mother and the round scars all over her body proof of the truth. the green foal hated fire and in a moment of defiant rage one of her tentacles shot out and slapped the burning thing from his hand and he shot up startled and banged the back of his head. as the human cursed and stomped holding his head the fire kept burning soon lighting the leaves that line the trench floor from countless summers. smoke began to billow up and flames soon followed as a huge hand reached down and pulled the human out the trench by the shoulder and Ashtray desperately tried to climb up the sheer cliff. the foals with their newly formed wings like the stingy buggy monsters lifted up barely able to keep level, they fluttered over their mother’s head and wrapped their tentacles around her front legs and tried to lift her from the smoke and fire. too small, too young, too unpracticed in their new found power their tiny wings buzzed like bees but couldn’t lift her and as the flames started to lick Ashtrays tail the foals grip slipped. spiraling end over end out the smokey pit they could only listen helplessly as their mother coughed and screamed for help, asking why her babies stopped loving her.
“W-what? Wait… The hell is… why do I have green hooves?” Earl’s thoughts echoed in his head.
PRESENT DAY…
Earl hit the snow covered concrete hard knocking him back to reality and the belt off his stump, cradling the back of his head from the landing. He looked up to see Sara shifting into her human guise, fluff became clothes, extra limbs shrank away and the tendrils became long green hair.
“Don’t bleed out on me yet Coleson.” She sneered at him and clasped her hands over Earl’s bleeding stump. “Oh I got so much more in store for you.” When she let go it looked like it had been that way for years.
“What the hell did you put in my head?!” Earl groaned trying to get up.
-Like that? It was my foal-hood with some of my mother’s memories to boot, an early side effect of healing others before I mastered the ability.
“So you’ve been poking around in my head then as well I assume?”
-Oh yes, I could never get close enough because your damned dog kept me alerting you I was near. Had to wait till you both weren’t home, it’s a lot easier to hide my scent after the fact.
“Well then you know why I hate you.” Rolling onto his right side and propping himself up.
-IT’S NOT AN EXCUSE!- Kicking him in the ribs hard enough to lift him a solid foot off the ground. -Look around, Earl. recognize it? The old train yard, makes you feel almost nostalgic.
“(Pitoo!)… And round… and round we go.” Spitting out some blood." You must think…ow… you’re so special? Yer lab shit rat daddy…ah!.. was pumped full of god knows what and pumped out a couple a super-freaks." Leaning against a shed door. “Well I got news for you. I’ve seen fluffies that looked like yer daddy, he was a cosmetics lab shit rat.”
-STOP! CALLING! HIM! SHIT RAT!- She boomed slamming a colossal clawed fist into the wall, her face now inches from earl’s shit eating grin.
“Feed him nothing but lipstick and see what he shits out if he lives. How many squirts of hairspray can an eyeball take before blindness sets in? How much bleach can we put in hair dye before it burns sensitive skin? How loud is this?”
Sara hadn’t noticed Earl reaching into his coat pocket and pulled out a simple blue box and flipped the on switch. Sara staggered back covering her ears as he body shifted and contorted sporadically as she flopped around in the snow.
“Simple ultra sonic pet trainer, kicked up the decibels just for you!” Tossing the box near her and making a pained run for it. “All that poking around in my old memories you forgot to check my newer thoughts!”
Jake was in a near panic with a growing list of problems by the second, the first was Earl’s bedroom was on fire from the dragons breath rounds and got the kitchen extinguisher. Of course Earl couldn’t have a regular fire extinguisher, he had taken a CO2 model and slap a water tank on it and an extra wide spray nozzle that did an amazingly good job. Next was Earl’s arm, the severed end got cooked slightly but his phone and halo-controls were intact, for whatever good that did with the jammer still running. he grabbed the arm and ran to the kitchen cleared out the freezer onto the floor and stuffed it in there, strapping the remote to his own wrist he needed to call for help, he had to find that damned jammer. Thoughts racing in every direction he had to focus, it started when Sara showed up and Earl’s jammer didn’t have a remote… the car! Racing out the front door with a fistful of bandage rolls in one hand an AA-12 in the other, sure enough sitting in the passenger seat was Earl’s makeshift signal jammer. Having no idea how it worked he simply shot it through the window a few times and the holographic control beeped back to life and the remaining drone that crashed in the yard lifted back into the sky. He immediately got on his phone while wrapping up his bleeding arm.
"Cmon, c’mon, c’mon, pick up! Janice! Get everyone to Earl’s now! Another meta snatched him and flew off with him!..Yes, flew! Get everyone here now before it kills him!..No he’s not Okay! Shit the house is on fire again! Tell the paramedics his arm is in the freezer!"Hanging up and running for the house.
Running upstairs he used up the rest of the extinguisher then rushed back downstairs calling for the dogs stopping in the living room to call them again but they still seemed disoriented. then he saw it when he got closer, both were bleeding from the ears and deaf as posts, hopefully not permanently. the drone controls beeped again signaling an active cam feed from Earl’s chest cam and he watched Earl’s POV of him running though the woods, tripping and rolling over to see Sara come swooping down on him. Activating the find my cam app the gps map highlighted the location moving towards the train yards a few miles away, syncing his own phone to the controls he left it behind in the doorway. throwing open the garage doors he fired up the FluffCo. drone and was thankful to see Earl never bothered to unpack his electric hunting ATV from last season. looking around for any additional weapons he stuffed a small duffle bag full of fumigator bombs and slung a rifle style flamethrower over his shoulder then saw something on Earl’s workbench. Its build reminded him of a mini-gun but the barrels were fixed with a serrated spike sticking out of each and a heavy battery pack hanging off the back. it had a clipboard leaning against it with the angerly scribble words “failure! not strong enough!” underlined several times. he took it anyway and strapped it to the front of the ATV and took off into the night the drones following close behind.
Earl hit the ground again next to the shattered blue box with one of Sara’s tendrils wrapped around him holding him down. She loomed over him in her human form, the tendril growing from her hair, she held up a syringe full of god know what, he tried to go for his taser but she smacked it away.
-No more talking, time for some fun. You hate fluffies so much? This is the stuff that makes anthro-fluffs, sold it to the same guy your sister arrested. Let’s see what it does to a human.
Jamming the needle into the meat of Earl’s left calf, depressing the plunger all the way down with her thumb she let him go, the tendril vanishing into her hair. Pain shot through his leg as his foot popped off his boot revealing bright red fluff, ripping off his sock he watched his toes start to fuse. Frantically looking around for anything he could use he spotted a rusty old machete. Tying his belt around his leg over the knee get grabbed the machete and after a moment or two of hesitation he started chopping, screaming in agony he closed his eyes and kept going. after the fourth swing the pain suddenly vanished and he thought he had gone into shock, when he finally opened his eyes to look his leg was fine and intact, he had been chopping at it with his bare hand. Sara was laughing her ass off at his confusion.
-Oh man that felt good! I COULD really hack you to bits but with technology these days I’m afraid you’d be even more dangerous to my kind. but your brain, that precious brain of yours you treasure so much. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be dumber than a derped, runt fluffy.
“Hold up, that was you? Next you’re gonna tell me that hyper breeder was your doing.”
-Guilty. Amazing what you can learn online with stolen laptops.
“Something of a hypocrite aren’t ya? Doing all that to your own kind. Aren’t you supposed to be all about saving them all?” Trying to stall her.
-Sacrifices must be made in the name of science. I believe that’s the phrase. You see people figured out how to make hunter friends and anthros and custom fluffies but no ones figured how to make, me.
“You were trying to force mutation through assembly line science, just sheer numbers doing the work for you hardly any thinking needed. Glad I put the kibosh on that plan, little fuckers would have eaten this town to the dirt. And for what? the one in a million chance to make more freeeeeeaaaAAAAAHHHHH!”
Sara cut him off clasping her hands over his head, forcing her way into his mind. Everything was black then Earl’s vision slowly started to clear, he looked to his left then right, he was in the body of a blue earthy stallion on his back with each leg strapped to a table. A single light shone overhead, then Earl’s human form stepped into the light a smile peaking out behind his mustache and a meat cleaver in hand.
- Oh fwuff. (What’s wrong with my voice? Get away from me you bad acid trip!) P-p-pwease nu huwties nice mistah! (What the hell am I saying?! speak right damn it! god my legs hurt.) Pwease nice mistuh weggies have owwies! wet fwuffy go pwease.
“Eanie meanie miney mo.” The illusion hovered the cleaver over each leg as he spoke. “Catch a fluffy by the… No-no’s!”
With a quick swing of the cleaver both of his fluffy balls were sliced off hitting the table with a loud whack taking the tail with it as well and the illusion sang out over the screams.
“If he hollers, have another go! Eanie meanie miney mo!” Swinging again.
Fluffy-Earl shrieked with each swing and the illusion of himself kept rhyming the same rhyme with every swing taking one leg after another. when the last leg was gone fluffy-Earl panted in dry harsh raspy breaths as the illusion produced a bottle of rubbing alcohol and stated pouring it over his gaping wounds. through his hoarse screams he could hear the illusion of himself laughing then offering to help dry him off as he struck a match across its box. the mighty “FAWOOSH!” of flames and mini-mushroom cloud of smoke instantly covered fluffy-Earls body while he flopped and rolled around the table trying to put out the flames to no avail. Just as the pain became too much to bear and consciousness slowly started to fade to black it all suddenly slipped away to black again.
Fluffy-Earl’s vision cleared again and he was back at the train yard looking down the trench, the sharp sting of smoke in his nostrils made him want to sneeze and eyes tear up. there was a heaviness in his chest, an emotional pain that dug into him, at the bottom of the trench lay a charred fluffy corpse.
-(Aw hell here we go again.) Sniff…huu huu mummah pwease nu foweva sweepies. Babbeh gif huggies an make bettah.
He felt and heard a loud buzzing from his back and his body slowly and unsteadily raised up, he fluttered down the trench barely noticing the blue mutant by his side. He didn’t even care he turned green this time, the dead mare at the bottom still sizzled slightly, a stray wisp of smoke trailed off her back and the occasional pop a seared fat. She was still too hot touch but the pair hugged her anyway despite the pain but no matter how much they hugged the burns remained and she wouldn’t wake up. They held on till she went cold, till the sun went down and up again, till the hunger finally forced them to find something to eat. Fluffy-Earl’s vision flashed to memory after memory, the other ferals screaming monsters to their faces and running away, scavenging for food from wherever they could, practicing their new abilities and finding PETA. Or to be more accurate PETA found them. All these emotions, loss, pain, loneliness, the joy of making friends and their fiery deaths, Fluffy-Earl felt it all and re-watched things he had done himself and it was all… weak. the emotional range of a fluffy, even a mutated super beast was still just an emotionally stunted bio-pet, but the physical pain was starting to get to him, he needed to break this bitch’s focus. he had to think hard about the pseudoscience BS he had read about people claiming to have psychic powers and they all claimed they needed a certain level of mental focus and clarity.
-(heh heh heh… ha ha haaaa! so your pathetic ass joined up with PETA then PETETA? And yer mom-b-que was the funniest thing I ever seen!)-
-I started PETETA! I convinced them that since they let my kind into the world it was their responsibility to get them the rights they deserve like any other animal! Your dairy industry was a good start in this town.
-(Then I paraded them down town like bitches on leashes! then I burned the rest like a shitty meatloaf! And killing your brother only made me famous! You think you know mental pain?! I’ll show you real mental anguish!)-
-Shut up! shut up! SHUT UP!!-
Now came the hard part Earl had to dig deep down to a place in his heart and mind that he swore he’d never go again. thinking as hard as he could he focused on his memories to the point his brain throbbed in tune to his racing heartbeat. the darkness blew away like billowing smoke and Earl was his seventeen year old self again, dressed in his Sunday best standing alone in a room full of folding chairs before two closed caskets. Grandma’s apartment was a mere five blocks from the Skettiland theme park when it blew sky high and the bodies condition meant closed casket only but damn his curious nature. He just wanted to see his mother one last time, slowly he undid the latch on the top half and lifted the lid, a decision he’d regret for the rest of his life. despite being cleaned and interred the condition parts of her were in could only be accurately described as crushed raspberries. dropping the lid he grabbed a bouquet of flowers out of their vase and threw up what little breakfast he managed to eat that morning. The facade of a young man, stoic and strong melted away into a sobbing child howling for his mother. Edward, his father, had heard him in the hall and came in crouching down next to his son he held him, silently letting his own pain flow freely from his eyes.
Reality snapped back in an almost cinematic flash and Earl felt the melting snow soaking his jeans while Sara staggered back. She clutched her chest in one hand, bracing herself against the shed door practically hyperventilating, tears soaking her face.
-Damn you! damn you! What was that?!
“Real pain. ow, my fuckin’ head.” Standing up on wobbly legs. “For all your claims and skeems and an admittedly valiant effort to drive me insane but in the end you’re just a mutant fluffy. half finished. defective. with a limited brain. Should of just stuck to straight torture.”
-Good tip.-
A tendril shot out of her hair piercing clean through his left knee then coiled around his shin so tight the bones sounded like a bag of wet gravel. even in the dark of night his screams chased the birds from the trees as she lifted him up into the air by his skewered leg. Just as quick she retracted the tendril dropping him on his head then kicked open the shed door and retrieved a dirty old gas can then pulled a old scorched zippo from her pocket.
-Remember this? Held onto it all these years. thought it would be fitting.-
Barely getting the cap off the can Sara’s hand started to tremble and her grip faltered and she dropped to her knees. She coughed hard and her breathing became ragged she spat out a wad of bloody phlegm she struggled back to her feet taking on her monstrous form growling in pain. still coughing she looked around frantically for the source of her pain then she noticed the faint buzzing high above. the crop-duster drone hovered in a small circle dumping its payload as a fine mist then dropped all six of its fumigator bombs. Distracted from watching the smoking canisters fall she didn’t notice Jake come careening around one of the sheds and rammed the four wheeler into her pinning her to the shed. Without a seconds hesitation he un-slung the AA-12 and dumped six rounds in her chest before she backhanded him off the ATV with a huge lobster claw. Tipping the ATV over to free herself she was already taking hits from the gun-drone while she choked up blood from the gas. beating her wings hard the gas cleared, leaping up to take off after it instead she took more shotgun blasts to the side knocking her down again. Earl knew shock was setting, the cold had a wonderful numbing effect or it was the blood loss either way he needed to get to his ATV’s saddlebags. his belt was nearby and managed to get to it, tying it around his leg to stem the bleeding then he crawled to the big one on the back cargo rack. Un-zipping the bag his hands fumbled desperately inside for anything of use, he pulled out a plain plastic spice bottle and popped the shaker top.
“Hey! Over here you shit rat freak!” Flipping Sara off.
Sara turned to face him and as soon as she did he chucked the dark red powder in the bottle right into her face, she shrieked and started dragging her face through the snow.
“Carolina reaper powder bitch. Where’s that damn puffer fish venom?” Digging into the bag.
Sara’s tendrils started whipping around wildly in all directions forcing Earl to roll behind the ATV, the twisting of his shattered leg sent white hot pain though his whole left side and he nearly blacked out. Jake kept his distance, his left arm already bloody was now broken and after his last volley of high ex rounds he realized he had forgotten to pack more clips. opening the duffel he threw more gas bombs at the beast then sparked up the burner torch on the flamethrower rifle but Sara suddenly turned a bloodshot eye towards him and rushed him. The rifle was smashed out of his hand and he was pinned on his back, eye to eye with the enraged mutant only to be saved again by the gun drone. with one quick tendril whip she finally pulled in down breaking off half it’s prop arms then turned back to Jake who drew his knife and spat out some blood, ready for a rematch. Staring each other down the tense moment was interrupted by a sudden softball sized hole being blown into Sara’s side.
“Sheriff’s department! Die bitch!” Janice boomed holding the county’s only rail-gun.
amidst the chaos both men hadn’t noticed the encroaching sound of sirens and flashing lights in the distance of cop cars and ambulances. Deputies Andy and Jones were there as well shotguns blazing forcing Sara to back away from the ATV giving Andy and Jake a chance to make a break for Earl. Earl was trying to unsuccessfully unstrap the spike gun from the cargo rack with his remaining hand.
“H-help… get this…propped up. Ah ha haa haa owwwww…FUCK! get the cover off the ATV batteries!”
Jones provided cover fire while Andy cut the tow straps and popped the cover over the ATV exposing the collection of batteries. pulling a large extension cable from the ATV Earl pointed out where on the gun to plug it into then propped the heavy weapon onto the side of the ATV, zapping himself several times in the process. the spike gun whirred to life while Janice blew off whole chunks of Sara’s body including one of the lobster claws and all her tendrils with a well placed shot at the base of her spine. In pure agony Earl climbed up on his one good knee grabbed the gun’s grip and with Andy’s help aiming, fired. Two of the six spikes launched with steel cables attached, one pierced clean through Sara’s torso the other embedded itself in the brittle concrete. Earl pulled a lever on the gun and the barrels rotated and Andy fired this time, two spikes impaling Sara clean through and electricity surged over her causing uncontrollable spasms. Rearing back in an attempt to fly away the last two spikes pinned her to a brick wall and the juice was cranked up to the max until the batteries had drained and the mutant finally went limp. all but a few patches of fluffed had been either burned or blasted off with only two legs and a wing remaining and half her face missing, the body smoked, sizzled and popped. Earl slumped over the ATV, completely drained mind and body, adrenaline was the only thing keeping him awake and that was quickly wearing off with blood loss. the deputies quickly laid him on his back as Jake staggered over to the group sure he had a concussion and Janice dumped the rest of her magazine into the body before reloading. keeping a trained eye on the body she moved slowly to her brother’s side, handed the rail gun to Andy and told him to watch the body. Kneeling by his side the state of him brought her to tears, when he finally noticed her presence in a surprising burst of energy he sat up hugging her as tightly as he could and sobbed into her shoulder repeating one thing over and over.
“I want my mom.”
A sudden sound of ripping flesh and Andy firing wildly made everyone look at the body, the torso split open like a zipper and hollow inside.
“I-i-i-it just flew away” Andy shouted looking around the night sky.
