//------------------------------// // 181. Serene Sobaka. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Earth, a few days later, Sobaka, Carmelita- “Clockwerk was creating an army of killer robot falcons and biological weapons covered in lava, if you wanted an idea as to why we couldn’t take him alive. Thank you again for the anti-monster jetpack Inspector Tezuka, it worked really well until it fell into the lava.” Why was I not telling her about Cooper? Oh right, because I had a headache and decided not to. I currently couldn’t arrest him no matter how much I felt like it, because Darkwing and Maui were both SHUSH contacts. Of course SHUSH gave Cooper a free pass, but they wanted him to owe them a favor. “I can guess why you are currently in Cape Suzette and I’m sure it would be accurate.” Also SHUSH was connected to the Duck and McDuck families, which Pom was also a friend of and that tied back into Shanty spending time with known criminals that fed her, took care of her and got her back to her primary caretaker. With no ransom whatsoever asked! Also Cooper lost more money keeping Shanty fed than he would have made from his last twenty heists, he did something so completely noble and to his detriment that I almost wish he would act more evil for someone on the wrong side of the law so I could actually shoot him. Now I was going to hesitate every time he caused trouble. I might actually have something of a crush on Sly… and I hated the fact I recognized that I did! “As long as it did its job, I’m bound to get more funding.” Tezuka was a fairly pleasant person, but give her a target and she would chase it down with a shock pistol like me. I was decent friends with the bird who had a problem with technology being too smart. After meeting Dormarch and having seen Dodo in action, well… not all technology was bad, but Tezuka did have a point that giving technology intelligence and control of weapons without any oversight was not a great idea. “Tokyolk has been having problems with dangerous advancements in technology and I need to be at the top of my game Inspector Fox, so I decided to finally take a break and relax a little. Also I’ve managed to sue over the fact that I haven’t had a decent vacation in years.” Whose fault was that again Inspector Tezuka? I didn’t believe for a second that you just happened to take a vacation there after hearing about robots running amuck. I’m glad didn’t have to deal with a robot uprising, though I did miss Cooper being there to aid in the situation. Tezuka and were alike in many respects, that’s why we were good long distance friends and comrades. No, if anything, it wasn’t actually a vacation and Tezuka is more paranoid than I am, enough so to check out Cape Suzette and snoop around a bit to see if any other mechanical problems would rear their ugly heads. She doesn’t trust thinking machines very much, but if they were benign she would only maintain a safer less crazy level of suspicion. She let that robot boy named Boyd go and arrested one of his creators, Dr. Akita, because he was the one that programmed Boyd to act like a weapon. Boyd thankfully overcame that programming and just wanted to live a relatively normal life like a living being, something I took for granted until I saw a mechanical ostrich take a lava bath for a vehicle full of injured people. Our world was quite vast and strange, as were its visitors. At least Cooper wasn’t doing anything illegal in my presence, that I know of, he was being fairly relaxed around me. Maybe there wasn’t anyone around here criminal enough for him to rob, because that was his go to for thieving targets. “Come now Tezuka, don’t insult my intelligence, we both know why you are really in Cape Suzette.” I closed my eyes and ran a hand over my face, trying to get Coopers happy smile out of my mind. If there was one thing I wasn’t going to let the worst headache to criminal masterminds take so easily, it would be my heart! “Are you currently looking into Kahn Industries P.E.T. devices? Also things are quiet here in Sobaka, nothing going on and I’m just waiting with Officers Hopps and Wilde for our ride out of here to show up.” Not bringing up Wilde’s history of being a scam artist nor am I bringing up Judy’s falsified records of being a full biped. The second is forgivable and could be seen as a relatively small clerical mistake, the first… well at least he turned his life around and I’d trust my back to him. Much like I’d trust my back to Cooper’s gang in general, no matter how much I might despise the idea of actually doing that someday. “Yes…” Tezuka admitted quite readily. “You’ll need to talk with Kahn if you’re being this cagey, despite him being a primary target in the robot invasion that his people helped stall out. He has also gone to great lengths to actively prevent another invasion from happening entirely with his technology.” It was me saying this so Inspector Tezuka wouldn’t write off what I was saying despite how weird it might sound that Kahn managed to stop an invasion without the world knowing about it. It’s like people being in denial about the Moonlanders beings aliens from our moon and not just weird octopus bipeds. “When you get an appointment with Kahn, mention ‘Dormarch’ and me having met one another. If you’re worried about him being trouble from whatever he tells you, ask about what happened at the hospital in reference to the incident that took his wife’s life.” “Huh... I’ll see to it.” Tezuka said. “What do you expect to happen?” “I expect him to set up an offer for P.E.T. devices to aid in examining crime scenes, nothing too drastic or big.” It’s why I was mentioning it. “You’re in the area, all I want you to do is throw the idea by him. He’s not under suspicion of any wrong doing and he’s been clean for most of his life, if a bit cutthroat in his business practices, I believe that we can do business as long as we’re upfront with him. I hear he doesn’t like fools very much, unless they are of the heroic sort.” -Hotel Room, Pom- I looked at the stitches on my forehead in the mirror. Letting go of my puff of wool so it fell over the stitches, I sighed and moved away from looking at the scarred tissue. The Rescue Aid Society had members here and they were willing to help to the best of their abilities. That was mostly thanks to Dolly, name dropping a few of the members that helped us back in New York, asking for help from the local Bark Brigade using the World Wide Woof. The Bark Brigade was quite strong in numbers here, because Sobaka was a town full of canids. It was little wonder that I was constantly worrying about anyone from here approaching me far more affectionately than I was currently comfortable with after a number of harrowing experiences I experienced on Krakarov. Thinking back to when Carmelita first saw the Rescue Aid Society members for the first time, she muttered under her breathe about rodents and hoping they had clean medical practices, but she stayed mostly silent on seeing them lend us aid. I’ve already warned Carmelita about my magnetism, but she didn’t seem to mind it one bit that she herself felt generally calmer around me somewhat. She still told me she would blast me if I did anything worthy of it, but I felt nice enough to be around, it’s Cooper legally escaping her again that has her ire. According to Ocellus, there was a mutual attraction between the Sly and Carmelita. Carmelita was angry about it, but not in denial that such attraction existed. Didn’t know what she was going to decide to do about us, but it seems she was reluctant to do anything in regards to us being illegal aliens. Even with all the help we currently have, none of it could help Smolder or Dodo. At least the Rescue Aid Society came through for me. Shanty just needed food, water and rest after exhaustion of dealing with changes in air pressure, heat and a few easy to take care of injuries with first aid. Heatstroke had caused a number of issues among the lot of us, but it wasn’t anything damaging aside from Officer Hopps ears being a mild problem. Also… while I’m currently thinking of my favorite little goat. I moved to the nearby window. Opening the blinds a little, I looked down at Shanty quietly sitting on top of the Cooper van next to the melted pile of slag that was Dodo. She said she could barely feel him and that he was basically asleep. That was for the best, because Dodo probably wouldn’t want to be awake right now given the melted corpse look that was basically his body. I could see Shanty as having wiped the snow off of his very disturbingly still form from this morning. If one were to ask what she cared more about, eating or Dodo. No contest, Dodo or her friends were always first, then rum, followed by food with rum and then food itself. She’s at least taking care of herself, eating, sleeping and drinking plenty of water, but she’s not leaving Dodo’s side for very long. I’d be doing the same thing she was if it was Dolly that was mutilated, I could understand her sorrow and feel it because Dodo was important to us as well. Sighing I moved away from the window and then sat down in a chair where Dolly was resting on the left arm rest as a mouse changed the channel to some news. This mouse in particular was keeping me under observation and was making sure I could psychologically relax. He has gotten onto my case several times already when Dormarch called me out on stressing out to the mouse. “…story today, Krakarov erupted and then collapsed into the ground. As you can see the volcano is now barely a quarter of its size in what is the largest sinkhole in the region. We are warning all people to not go near the area until all volcanic activity ceases entirely. The damage to the nearby surroundings have been, thankfully enough, fairly minimal.” The ferret biped on screen looked cute, I’m sure that’s exactly why she was on the screen. “There were some signs of strange activity, but we assure you it was likely a series large volcanic vents collapsing causing a tornado to shoot into the sky through a change in air pressure differentials and it was visible from miles away because it was carrying lava. This is also the suggested reason why the volcano broke apart and collapsed as it did. In other news there is a rise in feelings of contentment in the nearby southern city of Sobaka, psychologists agree that it’s just they are happy to be alive and nobody got hurt by the volcanoes collapse. Back to you…” There it was, an explanation for all the weird stuff anyone could have possibly witnessed. Even I’m not sure how we did that flaming tornado thing all the way into the sky, but a bright flaming tornado to the sky getting a scientific explanation for something magical happening boggles the mind. The tornado we made obviously wasn’t conical and was a perfectly cylindrical, they were ignoring that fact heavily. I now believed that this world actively avoided the subject of supernatural happenings, as long as there was a plausible enough explanation people would believe to explain it away in any other possible manner than just the word magic. We were currently ignoring the number of robotic falcons that we must have left strewn about that didn’t end up sinking into that mess that used to be a proud and mighty volcano. Maui Mallard said he’d call SHUSH to take care of it, he resembled Donald to an extreme degree that it was uncanny that they were just distant cousins. I wasn’t getting much of an answer on what SHUSH was, just that it was above Carmelita’s international police and that she couldn’t talk about it because there was a literal meaning to the organizations acronym of shushing. “And nobody will ever care to seek the truth of things…” I stated quietly, Dolly lifted her right ear and glanced at me. I just lifted my left hoof and started petting her. The Dalmatian smiled quietly while leaning into my gentle caressing. She knows I was giving her some of my strength to help her with the migraine and healing, but I didn’t hear her complaining. Though Dormarch probably would if he knew I was trading some of my recovery speed in for Dolly getting better faster. Ocellus told Dolly the drawbacks of pushing her magic way too far and that was what she was currently feeling. At least Dolly didn’t have to worry about a horn considering she put her full body into the magic she used, she’d have a far quicker recovery than Ocellus even after exhausting and overloading herself to a dangerous degree that it was taking nutrients from her body as fuel. She just needed to eat more, stay hydrated and not push beyond her capabilities again too soon until she had the capacity for channeling larger amounts of magic. I looked over to Smolder still sleeping, her spine kept quite straight and braced. We’d have to move her around carefully. She’d come to once or twice, but didn’t say anything coherent due to the amount of pain she was in due to having the lower half of her spine partially crushed. “So what are we doing now?” Ocellus asked as she came in through the door. “Healing…” I muttered sourly. According to Dormarch, I shouldn’t even be awake with the blow Clockwerk dealt to my skull. ‘Lucky me’, since I currently was in time to experiences the joys of having crack bones in my forehead. I took a direct hit from several hundred pounds of metal, I 'SHOULD' be dead. I silently took the arrhythmia pill a mouse was offering me as my breathing became ragged and the glass of water being carried by a pair of hamsters helped it go down faster. “Thank you. If you meant what we are doing next Ocellus, well we’ll be making our way to San Fransokyo to talk with Abigail Callaghan about dimensional portals in depth. Possibly end up protecting her from whatever shows up there when we do too, it says a lot that I’m exactly expecting life to run like a comic book now. Except we’re not always going to succeed at everything we do and death is much more permanent.” Apparently Dancing Flame was happening while I was sitting still and breathing normally now. Dormarch said I had to actively learn to control my body adapting to be constantly in a Dancing Flame state now or else it could lead to fatal consequences if I couldn’t turn it off and on at will and it was always going. In fact I currently had all the time I needed to train and concentrate on getting my body back under control, as such meditation was going to be something I would do for the next few hours. Ugh, being calm was not easy without a meadow of flowers for me to frolic in! “Do I even need to state that you need to stop feeling stressed?” Quite well aware of that Ocellus, it’s the awareness that is causing an obvious feedback loop. Ocellus started sadly glancing Smolder’s way. “Maybe a change of topic, considering what feelings you just blasted me with there. I’m going to start looking into training myself in biofeedback.” “That sounds like a dangerous talent for a changeling to have.” Because she could literally transform just about any part of her body into anything, the cost would increase with complexity of the transformation and changelings weren’t exactly about complexity, more full on mimicry of existing beings. Ocellus was apparently going to continue pushing the boundaries of her species abilities even further. “Just be more careful than I am about it, you do not want to replicate the effects of a Shock Ram by thinking about it too hard.” That is why changelings were so easily caught out sometimes when infiltrating places before they turned themselves around, as they didn’t sweat the small or highly complex relationship details that will always come back to bite them. “Yeah, I can imagine how dangerous having one hundred percent control of my every bodily function might be daunting, especially when I know how to mix and match various parts from different things I’ve seen like this.” To demonstrate Ocellus turned her right arm into a scrunched up snake in a flash of flame, she lashed it out across the room and I noticed that the mice froze. “Huh? Oh, heh… sorry about that guys…” She just freaked out the local Rescue Aid Society members, she transformed her arm back into a normal ‘horned lizard’ arm. Since she could have an arm ending in a working snake head, possibly with poison and could extend it across a room that fast… If Ocellus wasn’t so sweet, friendly and mostly innocent, I’d be scared of what she could really do when pushed. Actually, I already had an idea of that given what happened to that Axel Gear guy after he knocked Smolder unconscious. Kind of puts their relationship into better perspective for me that Ocellus can do angry, it’ll mostly be a cold calculating fury compared to Smolder’s burning hot fury if someone were to hurt Ocellus. They really complimented each other so well in their temperaments. “Is it okay if I went up to the roof to get some fresh air?” I didn’t want to walk round on the streets around this place, I really didn’t want to involve anymore dogs unnecessarily into my life if I could help it. The mouse that was my current minder shook his paw in a friendly manner at me and nodded. “Going with you.” Dolly said lazily from under my left hoof rubbing her belly, at some point she had rolled over and reveled in the personal attention. That’s mostly all Dolly ever wants, was some personal and loving attention… I’d like to see someone keep ninety eight dogs attention spans on one thing for long. “We’re going to be here until Maui can help Launchpad get the plane back in order. So we might as well make the most of the peace we’ve earned for the time being.” Heading towards the door with Dolly at my side I gave the hamsters and the mouse minder pats on the head. “I’m going to try and meditate a little while I’m up there, watch Dormarch for me.” “I’m the one that needs to watch you Pom!” Dormarch called after us. “I look away for an hour and you’ll almost be dead or dying again, you’re a very stressful individual to love!” I wondered how much trouble Shanty was going to have when it came to saying goodbye to Sly and the Cooper Gang. Would we be saying goodbye to Dodo too if whatever was currently keeping him alive ran out? Dodo couldn’t eat or drink anything, he was a living being and it was only a matter of time before he finally bled out. -Rooftop- I sat on the edge of the roof, closed my eyes and breathed normally. Trying to slow the feeling of my mind accelerating and my body doing so in kind. Focus… my body was a flickering candle flame, not too bright as to burn out and not too dim as to be blown out by the wind. I could grow in roaring strength and weaken to a faint whisper. “So… bored…” I opened an eye and looked at Dolly. “I know, I know, I should be practicing the stuff you taught me! You’re going to need me to stop our butts from getting kicked that hard so easily.” I closed my eyes and went back to breathing calmly and slowly, I heard Dolly shuffling about practicing rolling, lunging from a roll, dodge rolling to the left or right and going onto her hind legs to wield her front paws for something else and practice maintaining balance. Like I needed to maintain balance or my body will eventually destroy itself trying to meet all the demands I kept putting on it. I could feel my heart beat in my chest slow… or did it speed up so much that it felt like it was slow? Hard to tell the difference at this point really. I just needed to concentrate. I didn’t know how long I sat there listening to Dolly practice, the sounds of the city, the movement of the cars on the road or the other sounds of the world around me, it was all so peaceful. Right up until a door slammed open behind me. “Don’t jump, you have so much to live for!” Sighing at hearing the voice behind me, I opened my eyes and looked at the dog biped that likely just came up to the roof because of seeing me sitting here. I apparently had no sense of acrophobia anymore, mostly because I wanted to one day fly on my own strength and falling was not as lethal as it used to seem. “Look I know that life can sometimes be cruel and painful, but…” What I saw was something I didn’t expect in a place full of dogs. Also this guy didn’t know the half of the cruelty of the things I’ve seen or been through personally, I raised my hoof to them. “Do you even know who I am?” Also what was, I want to say a bobcat, doing here? Judging by the blue police uniform and hat with a badge on it, he might be Carmelita’s ride out of here having shown up early. “No, but I know the world would be poorer without you in it.” He said while motioning to me with a gloved hand. “I’m Bonkers D. Bobcat and we can talk things out!” “Is this guy for real Pom?” Dolly said from off to the side while tilting her head in the bipedal bobcat’s direction. “Yes, Dolly, he did jump to conclusions, good girl.” I received a stink eye from Dolly for talking in a condescending tone, but she still smiled. “Uh… so you’re not going to jump off the roof and were steeling your nerves to do just that?” The red nosed biped bobcat seemed concerned I was suicidal, funny. “No.” Might eventually get to that point if I had Sobaka townspeople to escape, hopefully that's not happening today. “Oh…” He still seemed suspicious of me sitting like this. “What’s your name then?” “Pom Lambchop and that is my companion Dolly D. Dalmatian.” I motioned over to Dolly. “If I was going to jump off the roof, you can be assured she would be the first to follow me off it.” “Not if I can’t glide I won’t.” Dolly yipped at me flatly. “The guy is a police officer, of course you shouldn’t attack him just because he looks weird… and is a cat.” Misinterpreting Dolly was fun, she glared at me again and then glanced at Bonkers. “He is pretty weird.” Dolly admitted after a second. “I mean, I know bipeds are technically pants optional, but with the cold weather around here… eh…”