Episode 13-5: My Own Pup

My heart pounded heavily, and I could feel the fear build up inside of me as the raccoon's words repeated themselves in my head. 'Showing you the results', what's that supposed to mean? Ah, who am I kidding? That could only mean one thing, and I wasn't ready to see it. At last, the lift has reached its destination, and my fears became more than just my imagination.

There, in the center of the room, stood a massive pile of flesh and fur. There was no face, no features on this blob that could've had even the most remotely looking feature that resembled a human or anthro. Clyde was right, just looking at this abomination let me know just how much it's suffering. One big pile of suffering...

It looked around with (I could only guess) its head. Clyde and I had already backed away from it, watching with dreadful eyes as it started moving around the floor, making some unnatural incoherent noises. It left a slime trail wherever it went. Right then and there, I lost my lunch. Don't know how Clyde kept his down.

"This beautiful being cannot hate, and does not know war," explained the raccoon. "A Utopia will be made with the New Children, forever a place without conflict!"

I wiped my mouth and continued to stare. The blob circled around the room, letting Clyde and I view it from all angles. The sense of sickness I had in me was immediately replaced with a feeling of dread as I saw something sticking out from its presumed back.

It was a foxtail, and it had a pink ribbon on it.

"Oh god..." The thing gurgled in a morbid string of noises again, and I felt the bile rise up to my throat once more.

"What say you, Ispio?" the raccoon started, "Can you comprehend the grace of the New World!?"

"You're fuckin' sick!" I shouted at her. I could feel the hot tears welling up in the corner of my eyes. My gun trembled in my hand, and I tried so hard to find a reason as to why she should leave this place alive.

Clyde rests a hand on top of my gun, "Don't do it, Troy. We're not assassins." He must be able to read minds, or maybe my body language was just too obvious.

I choked up, "I... I can't. Clyde, didja see the tail? Lula..." The tears finally streaked down my cheeks, dampening my fur. "She killed her. She used her like some lab rat for some stupid New World bullshit!"

Clyde's hand gripped my gun harder, "Keep your head on. She gets out easy if she dies. We need to convict her, not cremate her."

"My sister is dead, screw protocol!" I tried lifting my gun again, but Clyde's strength wouldn't let me budge it. "Let go!"

He continues to stare into my tear-filled eyes, "It isn't just your sister that's been harmed in all this. Think about how killing this person is going to avenge all the other women. How is your personal vendetta suppose to bring closure to the other girl's families?"

"I... but I-"

"C'mon Troy, we're on the same side, and we do the same work. I'm sorry about Lula, but her loss should be all the more reason to convict this insane loon to a life of imprisonment."

I nod my head, a little grateful that Clyde managed to keep his cool through all this. Must have been hard too, being stuck inside a child's mind and all. With a clear head, I holstered my gun and switched to a non-lethal tranquilizer gun.

"Okay," I said, "by the order of Ispio, you're-" the raccoon was gone! "Oh, how rude."

"Dammit, she slipped out!" Clyde yelled, running towards the only opened door in the room. I guess not everyone waits for the good guys to finish their speech.

I followed after, easily passing Clyde up on account of his short legs. The raccoon was back in the room with the stasis tubes, only this time there were more of those abominations inside. I didn't realize that these tubes were modified with a transport cylinder in the bottom, letting specimens travel upwards into the stasis tubes. The raccoon punched buttons on the terminals, and a needle injected both abominations with a syringe, making them twitch in a nasty spasm.

"You do not understand what you are throwing away!" the raccoon shouted at us. The abominations started moving more frantically, and they began to pound on the glass. The one on the left started a spiderweb crack first, then the one on the right too.

"What did you do?" Clyde asked, raising his gun again.

"You've forced me to taint their beautiful souls with a feeling for violence!"

"Clyde, it's aggro-juice!" I exclaimed.

The tubes shattered, spraying us with stasis serum and tiny slivers of broken glass. The abominations poured out like boneless blobs and began to rearrange their conjoined bone structure to form working arms and legs. The raccoon stood back against the walls, and Clyde and I stepped away from the hostile pounds of mushy pudding. The two blobs finished making their cracking noises as their bones were set in place, and they began their morbid march towards us.

Clyde's gun went off, blasting three bullets into both of the abominations, but to no avail. Their disgustingly gross skin just seemed to be absorbing the bullets. He stepped back again, and the smell of pee enveloped him as he wet himself. His gun dropped, and the poor pup could only cover his eyes with his little hands and shiver uncontrollably.

"T-Troy!" he screamed.

I picked him up and ran into the other room with the friendly abomination. It was still just circling around the place, leaving the entire floor covered in slime. I almost slipped on it while I was running. We made it to the furthest wall, and I placed the crying Clyde back down on the floor. He immediately hugged my leg tightly, wiping his tears on my pants.

"We're gonna die!" he whimpered. Dammit, what a time for the child's mind to take over!

I crouched down and hugged him, "No we won't. We're going to be just fine, Clyde." I was obviously lying, but I really needed the No-Nonsense-Clyde to show up right now. The hostile abominations slowly made it into the room, struggling to move their legs properly to get a good pace going. They gave a threatening growl as they stomped closer to us. Clyde just wasn't coming back, and my stomach sank at the realization that we might actually not make it.

I tilted my head down, touching Clyde's forehead with mine, "We'll be okay. We're going to be just fine." I kept repeating these sentences, gradually saying them softer and softer until it became a whisper. The groans, the cracking bones, Clyde's continuous sobbing, it was like descending into madness.

Wait, the cracking!?

The abomination with Lula's tail began to reconstruct its own bones, making arms and legs just like the other two. It finished up its transformation and started moving towards the hostile blobs. It collided with one in a lazy tackle, causing it to tip over on its side. The hostile blob that was still standing directed its attention at the new threat, and started spitting something at our new ally. The sizzling sound it let off when it made contact had me think it was probably acid. More gurgling noises could be heard coming from Lula's Aftermath; obviously, these things could still feel pain, it just had to be from a weapon that actually deals damage to them.

I let go of Clyde and stood up, "Oh my God."

Clyde finally stopped crying, "What's happening!?"

"Lula," I said while pointing at the ongoing fight, "she's protecting us!" The raccoon flashed into my mind, "We have to get that raccoon!" I pulled out the tranquilizer and sprinted across the room with Clyde following. Once we got back to where we last saw her, we found her stepping into some pod.

She heard our loud footsteps and turned around, "Years of planning, months of research, and weeks of work, all gone because you couldn't let this Old World die!"

I shot the darts, nailing her right in her stomach. She let out a yelp and yanked the syringe out from her flesh, throwing it on the ground. The empty vial showed that the barbiturates had already entered her system, she'll be out in a few seconds.

"My creations!" she shouted, then flipped a switch that closed a metal door in front of her. The pod she was in shot upwards to the surface, leaving us trapped down here. More disturbing groans came from the other room, and I couldn't help but run back in for Lula. Clyde stayed behind, looking at the computers again.

The acid had made a giant hole in her, and the hostile abomination continued to spray her with it. The one she had taken down stayed on the floor, making choking noises and splashing around.

"Lula!" I ran towards the fight, not entirely sure what I would do. The blob turned around and let a sea of acid wash over me. I stuck my arms out in front of me as I got soaked in the sickly green liquid, but my fur and skin did not sizzle like Lula's. I look at my arms, watching the acid drip slightly and otherwise not hurt me at all. My clothes were eaten away quickly, leaving me wearing rags as only threads of fabric hung off me. It was then that I had an idea, but I wouldn't like it one bit.

I got closer to the thing and pressed my acid-soaked body against it in a grotesque - but damaging - hug. It squealed in pain as its own juices became its demise. Its legs collapsed under it, making it into a limbless blob once more as it inched its way across the room. I held onto it, almost barfing again at the touch of its skin against my face. The movements became slower, and the squealing became louder. The acid tore away at its body, and I began to sink into the being. It was the worst experience of my life. After I felt that I was no longer moving, the abomination was confirmed to be dead. The other hostile one stopped moving as well, and I had to guess that it must've choked on its own biological flaws when it fell. I crawled out of the rotting flesh and fur and made my way to Lula.

She was barely moving, and half of her blob-body was missing entirely, eaten away by the strong acid. I avoided touching her since I still was covered in the stuff.

"Oh, Lula..." She moved slightly, making a small wheezing sound. Her tail was moving from side to side. "I'm so sorry." I wiped my hands clean of the acid and untied her pink ribbon from her tail, careful not to hurt her any further. "I wish we had a little more time together." The tears came back, I shouldn't cry on the job.

*** *** ***

McAllen, Texas: Ispio Head Quarters (3 Days Later)

...Clyde had discovered that there was more than one escape pod, and he was able to access it easily through the terminals. After a scan of the underground area, we discovered that there was no other personnel besides the corpses of the abominations. No hostages were recovered. The Morrow Children only consisted of the female raccoon, who we found unconscious near her escape pod that landed in the open fields of North Alamo. She was restrained and tagged with the evidence we collected, and is currently awaiting trial in a correctional facility. Mission Complete.

I sat in a chair, Lula's ribbon in hand. Marston had given us major praise, going on and on about how well we live up to our reputation, and how he's so lucky to have us in his district. It felt good for a while, and it's only my fault that I torment myself by looking at this damn ribbon.

Clyde, who was back to his normal size, sat in the chair next to me. He kept rereading another case that Marston had assigned us.

I finally spoke up after minutes of silence, "Clyde?"

He looks up from the file, "Hmm?"

"Remember when my dad broke down, and you gave him some miracle speech that made him all better?"

He smirked, "Of course I remember that."

"I could really use those words right about now."