6.1: Cyclops Cat pt 1

"Ack!" Lusac shouted as he violently shook his leg, attempting to rid himself of the two-foot beast attached to his calf. "Get off! It was an accident. You're the one who walked in front of me!"

The cat-turned-cyclops did release his leg at this, but only to attempt to sink its teeth into Lus's other calf.

"No you don't," Lusac said, spinning away before another bite could set in. Luckily his uniform was fairly thick and only allowed a tiny piercing of his skin. They continued a little dance of Lus avoiding its teeth, until finally Lusac got sick of it and threw his foot out, kicking the beast back. "Knock it off, will you?"

The cyclops collapsed in on itself, curling around its body as it made that same screechy meow as before, though with a deeper intonation.

Lus rolled his eyes. "Come on. Stop being such a baby. I barely hit you at all."

Apparently that was not what the cat-thing wanted to hear. Before his eyes, the flesh started to bubble and expand. He started to back away, but his focus remained on the black gloop that was growing to be a lot bigger than the original cat. Next thing he knew, he was facing a ten foot version of the cyclops, covered in rippling muscles and rigid black fur.

"That's not good," Lus said to himself. He held his hands up and smiled. "Hey. We're friends, remember? I gave you a lot of pets just a few minutes ago. No need for this," he called out to the creature. 

A roar from the monster cut off the rest of Lusac's sort-of-apology. One large arm came swinging towards him, forcing him to roll to the side.

"This isn't a good way to make friends!"

Another hand raced towards him, and he dodged backwards this time, barely avoiding the sharp claws at the end of the fingers. The cyclops bellowed once again and charged Lus's position with shocking speed. He started running out of the path, but the monster was agile enough to adjust and keep up the chase.

"Suns," Lusac cursed, sprinting harder to avoid the outstretched claws swiping at his back. This was not at all how things were supposed to go.

He came to a row of storage containers that were only a foot or so taller than himself. He pushed off his feet to jump up and latch onto the edge. He just managed to pull himself over the top and into the safety of the wall to watch as the cyclops pressed its hands into the top of the boxes as it prepared to vault in next to him.

With a racing heart and the inability to fully gather his breath, Lus backed up while scanning for some way out of the maze of containers he'd just landed himself in. He'd already lost too much ground climbing in here, so if he tried to climb back out, he'd end up as a snack between those razors in the monster's mouth.

Some god somewhere was watching out for Lus because as he turned back to face his fate with the pissed off cat, he watched the cyclops's vault fail as the containers beneath it crumpled. A deafening thud sounded throughout the bay as the creature collapsed to the floor in a mess of shattered metal and the squished remnants of the contents of the boxes.

Lusac used the time to run to one of the other walls of boxes where he could make his escape back into the rest of the bay. He got his hands on the top of the container and had pulled himself up to where he was sitting on the box when he risked a look back to see how close the beast was. It remained in the heap of broken boxes, not moving.

"Is it… dead?" he wondered aloud. Taking a breath, he yelled at it again. "Hey there. You alright? It seems a little early in the game to be giving up already, don't you think?"

No response.

Lus decided it was worth the risk to be sure that the threat was eliminated and pushed himself off the box. He walked towards the disaster zone, tensing as he waited for it to jump back up and resume the chase.

He came right to the edge of debris to stare at the mound of black fur. It was breathing at least, but slowly. The one large eye opened to look at Lus, a lot less angry than before.

"Well you injured me." Lus held up his leg that was still bleeding from the first bite. "And I injured you." He gestured to the mess. "So I'd say we can call this one even. Sound fair?"

The beast growled, even barring a few teeth.

Lusac wagged his finger. "Now, now. Haven't you learned your lesson?"

Once again, it seemed Lus had chosen the exact wrong thing to say. Before he could even try to escape, he was in the monster's grasp as it launched to its feet.

"Ah! But-ugh-" The breath was cut from him as the fingers tightened around his chest. The cyclops lifted him so they could stare at each other eye level. That one yellow eye stared into Lus's two hazel ones, a new cold rage in them.

"Come-on," he said between the tiny gasps of air allowed to him. "Can't we. Work this. Out?"

The cyclops roared again, bellowing spit all over Lus's face and body.

"I'll take. That. As a no," he said. The need for oxygen was starting to become a little more unbearable.

The cyclops held Lus closer to the rows of pointy teeth that were begging for another taste of him. Only this time, it seemed they were getting a full meal out of it.

Lusac struggled against the fist enclosing him but to no avail. The cyclops had him, and there was no escape.

A wide variety of curses and prayers came to Lus in that moment as the teeth separated, preparing to crush his body between them. But what came out of his lips instead was the simplest thing he could manage.

"I'm sorry," he breathed. He closed his eyes and looked away as the hot, stinky breath poured over him, but to his surprise, it never engulfed him. In fact, it seemed the grip loosened a bit since breath suddenly filled his body again.

He peeked one eye open to see that the mouth was closed again and he'd been raised up to stare into the singular yellow eye. The rage was less, instead replaced by a firmer anger and smugness.

"You just wanted an apology?" Lus questioned, failing to keep the frustration from his voice. As relieved as he was at not being cyclops chow, he was a lot more upset that he'd been put through this kind of ordeal in the first place.

A small growl echoed from the creature in warning.

"Sorry. Sorry," Lus quickly said. "I'm sorry for saying mean things."

The eye bore its way into his soul, asking for more.

"And I'm sorry I kicked you after you bit me."

Still the cyclops waited.

"What more-" Lus sighed. "And I'm sorry I kicked you originally, when you were in your cat form, even if it was your fault."

A gentle hiss escaped.

"Right, right. Sorry I kicked you. I should have been watching more carefully. There, happy now?"

Apparently it was as it set Lusac back on the ground and then hunched down. The flesh started to bubble again, but this time the monster was shrinking instead of growing.

He blew a long exhale out, wondering how the Captain ever allowed a pet like this on board. It seemed far too dangerous to have a cat that could mutate into a giant, destructive monster on a spaceship, but then he worried that it might be the Captain's personal exotic pet in which case he should be begging its forgiveness further.

When he looked down into the mess of collapsed boxes and indiscernible contents, he found the one-eyed, two-tailed cat walking towards him with both tails flicking out. It rubbed up against Lus's legs and softly purred.

"Oh, so we're friends again, huh?" He kept his voice light when he spoke, recognizing that he really didn't want to repeat that incident. Bending down, Lus stroked from its head down its back to its tails, repeating the motion over and over again, but the cat never got bored or annoyed. It was eager for the attention.