Insanity Reaches a Boiling Point: Pet Rebellion

[Henry Charmant]

Henry had done worse than fall on his face--or perhaps better, really. He'd managed to get a knock on the head severe enough to knock him out for a full minute--though it might have seemed like a month--which was enough time for things to sort of fall apart and put themselves back together again, in a way. He awoke to see Kori standing near him, caught mid-battle with some animals. He squinted up at the tall redhead, still confused from his knock on the head.

"Wha...who...Kori?" But then the animals were in retreat, and there were Suits running past his head, and everything looked like it was calming down without Henry having raised a finger. He closed his eyes and groaned.

"Aw man," he said, rubbing his forehead with the heel of one hand, "the first time I get the chance to be a hero and all I manage to do is turn into the knight in distress." He sat up, still experiencing a headache from his bump but without any bloodshed or other signs of damage. Looking around, he frowned. "So I guess someone else is going to deal with that gorilla, then?"

He saw the pink-haired girl getting hauled off by some suits. "Hey, Kori, who's that? I don't think I've ever seen her before." She'd been pretty impressive with the animals, though. She also looked very nice. Henry almost wished he'd had the chance to talk to her.

"Is everything else cleaned up then?" He looked around the mall, then pointed over at the man with the snake wrapped around his leg. "Augh! Somebody's got to help him!" He stood, shaking only slightly, and began picking his way over there, though it was slow going what with the animals, suits, and various, er, droppings on the floor, not to mention Henry's continuing headache. It would all be so much easier if he could just fly over or something.

[Stephen Schmeling]

Stephen's nails dug into his palms as he clenched his fists.  The serpentine bugger was causing the former 'con a good deal of discomfort.  His teeth gritted together as the snake nibbled on his apparently delicious-tasting flesh.

"This is the worst pain!" Stephen yowled, obviously exaggerating.

He looked up, seeing something flash across his vision.  Ceasing his rage for a moment, he watched as the suits stormed in with up-most efficiency that Steph might have admired if they did anything to help him.  Breath huffed from his flaring nostrils as he looked on for a moment, frozen for a second, even with the python's chomping gnashers.  A frown finally appeared on his confused face, as he jerked his chilling eyes down at the snake.  He was both angry and in pain, generally not two things that made him a friendly person.  Finding a stone pot which was holding a small shrub.  Yanking the targeted lower leg at the object, he aimed, and then started to kick against the pot, hopefully causing the serpent enough of an annoyance to convince it to let him go.  Who could blame the creature when apparently Stephen just happened to be very attractive to reptiles?

After a short bout of that, he placed his foot flat again.  Someone's voice had drawn his attention.  Stephen drew his pained leg along as he sidestepped a little closer to the much younger male, or as close as he could manage with the animals in his way.  Some of his hair, which has fallen out of place, was flicked to one side.  The cowardly man was rather upset that his trouble was just then being acknowledged.  A fairly vulgar Cybertronian swear was uttered under his breath, before shifting his eyes around the place.

"I would like to know, exactly, who is behind this insanity!?" Stephen snapped, figuring it was he who would need to demand answers, his shrill voice grating.

So I can kill them.

[Deleted]

Fluttershy exhaled in quiet relief, the animals around her initially seemed to settle down and turn their attention back towards her. Maybe now everything could be worked out; she could calm all of them down completely and see that every one of the little critters were back in their nice homes and happily content with what they needed. Oh, she was sure that some treats, toys and tidy homes were just the thing that would make them all happy and less destructive.

“That’s right, everything is going to be ok…” Fluttershy smiled a little as she looked around at the room of animals. Her smile faded however once she realized that only the ones next to her seem to have responded, and the rest were still running wild. She glanced up at the rat, which was now staring her. “Now Mr. Rat, if you’d be so kind as to-“ The girl was cut off and flinched back a little at the sudden squeaking that burst out from the furry creature- a very angry and not nice squeaking at all.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened in shock at the sudden turn of behavior, too quick for her to even process or reply to, before the dog was suddenly lunging towards her. She let out a frightened squeak as someone beside her grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the side. To her dismay she found herself staring face to face with the suited monsters she had encountered when arriving here. “F- f-…fine,” she half breathed, half whimpered. They still scared her a great deal, what with their intimidating appearances. Then again, there were quite a few things that frightened Fluttershy.

“N-no! What are you doing? Don’t hurt them!” Fluttershy uttered a quiet shaken cry as the dog was knocked rather forcefully aside, and many more scary suits were fighting through with nets and what appeared to her to be a spray bottle of some sort, along with something else that she didn’t recognize but was making an odd noise. She also caught a glimpse just in time to see Stephen who seemed to her to be beating a snake senselessly against a pot. The poor critters! She started to leap forward to save the poor things, but the mass of suits were blocking her way and surrounding her path so thickly that she couldn't get through the ring without being stepped on, easily shoved back or trampled. Instead she shrunk down to the floor and covered her head with her hands.

[Kori Ander]

Was it over? Because there had been this fighting and Henry screaming and apparently a gorilla that people were missing and a snake that was "omnomnoming" on somebody who really wanted everyone to know that he was being "omnomnomed," but now there seemed to be an abundance of people wearing suits and acting official. Kori couldn't help but notice that not all the animals seemed that willing to follow the newcomers' orders. It was tempting to lunge in and start kicking and punching, but Kori knew her strength and powers hadn't exactly come all back yet, and her training for stuff like this was shaky at best. Better to fight defensively, at least for now.

"Wha--Oh, Henry," Kori blinked, looking down at her friend. She nodded before raising her head to look back at Fluttershy. "I do not know who the girl of the pink hair is either. I have been here to make sure that she is not harmed, but it does not seem that I was needed..." yet. The animals weren't completely settled, but the guy standing next to the pink haired girl certainly looked like the type who was in control of things. In fact, Kori felt a decidedly Robin-esque vibe coming off him, which was really distracting.

"Wait, help who? Friend Henry! Watch out for---" Kori scampered to follow Henry. Fortunately, the super hero was fairly good at parting crowds of people. A mixture of smile, kicks, and shoves helped matters, as did the (very) slight bit of super strength that Kori had managed to regain after her months of being here. She was definitely bound to help Henry get where he was going, wherever that was. Though he did seem to be doing fair enough on his own.

[NPC]

Great, it seemed that they'd encountered one of those newly Displaced: the Disoriented, or as the suits called them, "D's." The lead suit, that same lanky man, nodded to the pink haired girl. His training was much more in the "put them down if they resist" type of control, but the man still knew what to do in cases like this. Plus, the girl seemed to be something of an expert, if the gathering of animals about her was any indication. The man gave them a sideways look, before letting his head swivel to Fluttershy. There was a slight eyebrow raise, one that clearly communicated a "this is your problem" to the girl. The man turned, the order coming from him in a clear, commanding tone: "You heard the lady; keep the damage to the animals to a minimum, people. Use force only when needed," as if to demonstrate that, the man again lashed out with his thin sword, smacking a dog that had growled on the nose.

"Sir, we've got reports of a herd of guinea pigs holded up in a store. They, well, they appear to have a boar protecting them. And we're having issues with the crocodile, and someone said something about a gorilla," a younger suit with a cracking voice delivered this report. His eyes flicked to Fluttershy, everything about his gaze saying "witch" louder than words could. It might be some solace that he looked to his boss with that kind of look.

The man frowned, turning to look. The other VRD's seemed to be gathering around the short, shouting, redhaired man with the snake. Which left him mostly with this one, and he still wasn't sure---

"Sir! Reports of the VRD's in the area--" said another suit, a stiff looking young woman who arrived with an equally stiff looking man. Soon the lanky man heard a beeping, and he pulled out his device. If Fluttershy wasn't attempting to hide behind her bangs, she might have caught a glimpse of a remarkably in-depth list:

Fluttershy Woods, 21, female, pink-haired, formerly pegasus named Fluttershy, gifted with animals
Kori Ander(s), 19, female, red-haired, formerly superhero named Starfire, Danger Level: light yellow
Henry Charmant, 19, male, brown-haired, formerly "Prince Charming," Danger Level: light green
Stephen Schmeling, 40s, male, red-haired, formerly Decepticon named "Starscream," possibly delusional, Danger Level: yellow

The man nodded, saying without looking up: "Leave the gorilla to Mr. Charmant, and Ms. Anders," he then turned to the pink-haired girl. "Miss Woods, if you could come with me to deal with the herd of angry guinea pigs," only this man could say that with a straight face, "it would be appreciated."

It actually sounded like a request.

[Henry Charmant]

Henry reached the snake-ridden man and glanced down at the animal. "Well it looks like it's not the suits controlling this," he said in response to the man's question. He waved a hand at the men and women darting around. "I mean, they don't exactly look happy to me." He didn't really consider that it was some sort of trick; they all looked pretty sincerely displeased to him. Looking up at the man, he said, "Have you tried using a stick or something to pry it off?" He was hesitant to just grab the snake, but clearly something needed to be done. He glanced around, but there wasn't much around except for some of those indoor trees. So finally he just reached up and snapped a branch off the tree, not really worried about getting in trouble for the damage. He could always blame it on one of the animals. "Try this," he said, holding the branch in both hands.

As he prepared to hand the stick across, he heard a roar behind him. He stood stock still, then turned, shaking, to see what had made the noise. As he had feared, the gorilla had emerged from the drug store where it had been hanging out, and it was sniffing around curiously. Apparently it had found a package of adult diapers and liked them, since it was now wearing one on its head. Against all reasoning, this only made Henry more afraid of the creature, who was sniffing the air in search of something.

The gorilla lowered his head and looked directly at Henry, who gulped. The gears in his head were churning furiously, even if his legs seemed incapable of doing anything other than shaking. He looked around, hoping for a sword to somehow materialize, but it didn't seem very likely. He was still holding that stick, though, and he finally remembered what it was supposed to be for. He looked over at the man.

"Do you think there's any way we can get that snake to grab onto this stick?" he asked, eyes wide. Then he glanced over at Kori. "How good is your aim? Do you think maybe you could throw the stick at the gorilla?" It was a long shot, but maybe it would work, at least as a distraction. "I don't have anything else to fight with..."

[Stephen Schmeling]

Stephen leaned up and wiped away some of his bangs that had fallen over his face.  Once his hand was brought away, he was made aware of Henry, who'd finally been able to reach him.  He didn't seem exactly relieved or grateful and continued to sneer, mostly because of still being chewed on, but partly because he was just impudent.  A cold eyed glare over his shoulder was directed at the suit who was "comforting" Fluttershy.

"Hm.  I wouldn't be so certain of that," Stephen responded once the younger man suggested that the suits probably weren't behind the chaos.

Muscles went tense once he heard the bellowing of the gorilla.  Stephen's eyes suddenly appeared nervous, as if he were caught doing something he wasn't supposed to.  A wave of relief hit him once he remembered he could still sprint fast in a human form if he needed to; it wasn't like he was going to face the great ape head-on.  Oh, he lamented the loss of his Null Rays.  In a flash, he looked at the young man.

I could trip him and climb up one of these little trees.

Luckily for Henry, Stephen had been listening when he spoke.  Since it sounded like he had a plan, Steph could bare to hold off his instinct to run...for now.  He cocked one of his brows before snagging the stick.  The splintered end began poking mercilessly into the snake's nose, hopefully being annoying enough for it to bite the stick.  Stephen answered the reptile's glare with a stink eye of his own, which was surprisingly more chilling than the look coming from the cold-blooded predator.  The coils around his leg began to loosen up, as apparently the serpent began to realize the twerp wasn't worth it's time.

"Why don't you run?" Stephen wanted to know.

It made sense.  With the snake on him, it might slow Steph down and make the ape go after him rather than Henry.  What is this concept you humans call "selflessness"?

[Deleted]

Fluttershy sat trembling among the herded critters. Though she didn’t dare to look up at the suited men, she could still hear their voices as they spoke to one another, especially that of the green suited man beside her. After she heard him order the damage to be a minimum, she breathed slightly. Did that mean they would stop? She desperately hoped they would; there shouldn’t be any ‘damage’ to the poor critters at all, no matter how misbehaving and bad they were!

The girl listened from where she lay as she heard about the guinea pigs and other creatures still out there. She wished she could just crawl away and get to them, if she could only just crawl her way through the legs of the suited men. She scooted shockingly closer to the ones nearby almost as if she were going to try to attempt it, or possibly find a gap somewhere to squeeze by. Maybe they wouldn't even notice.

The list of her name and the others made her froze. She shouldn’t be shocked that they knew hers since she had told them before, but the fact that they remembered and could identify her made her very uneasy. Fluttershy jolted as the suit addressed her and asked her to follow him. “I-I um… but I-“ She peered up at him with terrified eyes. It wasn't about helping the Guinea pigs of course; she very much did want to help him, but she was scared of coming with him to do so. "Well, if-if you won't hurt them, then… I-I will help…," She said quietly and shifted her glances up from him to the others nervously. 

[Kori Ander]

In truth, the suits were making Kori increasingly nervous. She'd encountered such people back on her own world, well, on Earth, and they hadn't exactly been welcoming. That they weren't succeeding overwhelming in quelling the animal problem wasn't helping matters. Fortunately, Kori had immediate problems to worry about, including how to keep animals away from Henry, Stephen, and Stephen's new snake friend. Kori did her best to keep a circle cleared of them, which sometimes meant hopping from section to section, thrusting out or yelling. Most of the animals were panicked enough to just sort of avoid them, and the handful who dared were easy enough to scare off with light swats or taps.

Still, Kori managed to hear the question. She turned her head slightly, looking back at Henry, Stephen, and Stephen's new snake friend. They did seem to be in quite a pickle, but Kori could really only offer one suggestion: "I believe that the snake may be the ticklish. That was always how we got my friend Beast Boy to do the letting go when he was holding us," she advised sagely, nodding in a manner far more serious than a normal Starfire nod. When she finished, Kori looked at the stick, then the gorilla.

"I can do the hitting of the gorilla if you wish, friend Henry. Did you wish for me to distract him so that you can free this strange man from his new repitilian friend?" she asked, gesturing toward Stephen. She hadn't heard his question, or else didn't feel like answering it. Either way, Kori stood still, completely calm in the chaos, but also obviously waiting for suggestion or order from "friend Henry" on what exactly she should be doing. Besides keeping animals away, but the couple of unconscious bodies Kori had accidentally created were helping.

[NPC]

"Miss Woods, I assure you, our goal is to make sure as few of these animals sustain bodily harm as possible. We're only going to accomplish that if you help us. See what your friend is doing?" the lanky agent jerked his head slightly toward where Kori, Henry, and Stephen worked. "They're going to have to keep doing that until we get this situation calmed, and we can do that with your help."

The man nodded before reaching into the pocket of his sharp green suit. He soon extracted something that looked vaguely like a sword, if someone had designed a sword for fighting robots. It seemed to have an almost switch-blade quality, and its shape more strongly resembled a trowel than a sword. Yet there was no mistaking it for anything else, especially the way the man held it. He turned to look to Fluttershy. "Stay close behind me: I'll make us a path to the hardware store," he started to move, before pausing. he didn't turn, but it was clear he addressed Fluttershy all the same: "My name is Six, by the way, Agent Six."

And with that, Agent Six started to lead Fluttershy toward the hardware store and the holed up guinea pigs.

Meanwhile, the rest of the suits were doing a halfway decent job of cleaning things up. They clearly weren't expert animal handlers, but they were at least able to get most of the people out of the bank and heading toward safety. Many of the animals were being herded away. The ones that had clung to Fluttershy were placed in safe cages and hutches and the like, all of which looked sturdy and only slightly uncomfortable. The suits seemed willing enough to give the VRD's near the gorilla and snake some space.

As for those animals, well, they're more in control of the ones they're meddling with, really, so we'll leave that to them. They certainly weren't about to make things easy though. Because where would the fun be in that?