Chapter 33
The door opened and light poured into the dark apartment, illuminating the little hallway beyond the door and some of the living room beyond. A tall rat with scars and a single eye stepped in, holding a bag of groceries.
Upon entering into the living room, he side stepped into the tiny kitchen and put the bag down. Flipping a light switch, the entire apartment was filled with light as he opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of milk. Turning around to walk further into the room, his eye widened in horror.
“Yo, fucker!” I said from his couch, my gun trained on him.
He took a step back, but Mallogory stepped out of the door leading to the bedroom, holding her own gun on him, “Yeah, don’t move.”
“What is this?!” he asked in a panic, holding the baby bottle of milk. Weird fucker drinking from a bottle, bleh.
“You know what it is,” I say simply, not getting up. “Where is the item that kid stole from us?”
“What are you talking about?!” he asked, feigning ignorance.
Letting out a sigh, I lowered the gun slightly, “Was really trying to avoid this.”
Pulling the trigger, I put a bullet in his thigh. He let out a wail of agony as he collapsed onto the ground, holding the wound.
“Next one is the gut,” Mallogory said, spinning her revolver, “And mine bites harder.”
“Nelson?!” a sudden feminine voice called from the doorway leading to the hallway.
“Daddy?!” came a second, much younger voice.
In ran two other rats, one closer to age to the male rat, and the other clearly a child. The female rat was holding a baby in her arms. They ran to him and fell on him, hugging him and asking him questions.
Mallogory and I looked at each other, eyes wide as we had not expected this. This apartment isn’t even set up for a family! There’s just a single bed!
Not sure what to do next, I just run with it, giving Mallogory a signal to just follow my lead.
“Nice family,” I say in as sinister a voice as I can manage. This caused all of them to look at me in horror as I stood up on my hind legs, gun still in my paw.
Mallogory stepped out, taking on a new persona as she acted the villain, “a nice family that would look so much nicer spread all over the walls and furniture!”
The voice she was using was the most cliché and ridiculous sounding voice ever for a villain, she was even acting a little crazy. Twitching and looking like an addict to add some character to herself.
“Just… please, leave them out of this,” the man asked, his tough side now gone.
“Yeah, no, they’re a part of this now,” I say, aiming my gun at the baby in the woman's arms. “Five seconds before I blow the baby away.”
“Holy shit! What is your problem?!” he yelled, but winched as I pulled the hammer back. “Okay! Just take the gun away from my son!”
“Gladly,” I say as I shift it over to his daughter.
“Fuck!” he yelped as his wife started sobbing. “Your stupid device is with Slinky Tom!”
“Where is this, ‘Slinky Tom’?” I ask calmly.
“Yeah, tell us or I’ll use my claws to skin each one of you alive, starting with the youngest!” Mallogory added unnecessarily, which had the effect she desired as they all began to panic even more.
“His address is in my black book!” he yelled, hugging his family close as his wife held down on his bullet wound.
“Where is this book?” I ask, keeping my gun on them.
“Under the bed, the board with the knot in it, lift it,” he replies, looking to be growing paler by the second.
Mallogory quickly stepped into the room. The sound of the bed being thrown against the wall was heard, followed by the sounds of the floor being ripped up with her claws as she went after all the boards, not just the one he mentioned. She eventually returned to the room holding a little book.
“Prefect,” I say as I start walking towards the door on my hindlegs. “Now I hope it goes without saying that if you’re lying, we’ll find you all, and deal with you each separately.”
“If you’re lying,” Mallogory said as she pointed to the baby, “then I’m eating the baby!”
They all whimpered and cowered away as we walked by. We kept our guns on them till we got to the door, then we took off running down the hallway. Racing to the window at the end of the hall, I shattered it with my metal leg and jumped out, hovering just outside it.
Mallogory climbed out and jumped on my back, I grunted at her extreme weight, with her metal skeleton and all, and flew us to the roofs of the buildings on the other side of the street.
Landing with a heavy thud, she rolled off my back and the two of us stared back at the building we’d just left. Far below, we saw a police car with its lights on pull up and two cops run inside.
“Looks like the neighbors called the cops,” I say, already knowing that would happen when I fired the gun.
“Good thing we got the wings of a flying horse on our side,” she teased as we stepped away from the ledge. She handed the book to me.
I looked through it, seeing lots of names and info next to them. “Well shit, this is a real black book, filled with all kinds of juicy info and names. If I was still a cop, I’d get a promotion for turning this one in.”
“Sweet, we got a lead and then some!” she laughed, pumping her fist.
We began to head for the other ledge, planning to fly across a few more buildings before returning to street level.
“Wait,” she said suddenly, turning to me as we walked. “Did we just become the bad guys of this adventure?”
“What? No,” I reply, rolling my eyes with a chuckle. Then I frown, “I mean, not really.”
“You threatened to shoot a baby,” she offered, looking conflicted.
“And you threatened to eat said baby,” I countered.
“Huh… I did, didn't I?” she said as she scratched the back of her head. “I kinda got lost in the moment.”
“Oh well, they’ll be fine,” I assure her as we reached the ledge and she started to climb onto my back.
“Will they?” She asked.
“Sure,” I say, preparing to take off. “After a few years of therapy for the kid, they’ll be back to normal.”
“Yep, we’re clearly the good guys here,” she remarks with a light hearted chuckle.
“Eh,” I jump into the air and soar to the next set of buildings.
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“So Slinky Tom works here?” Mallogory asked as we walked towards a car wash with all kinds of cars around it waiting for their turn.
“According to the book, he runs it,” I respond, eyeing all the rats around the building suspiciously. Especially the employees.
“How will we know which one he is?” she asked.
“No idea, I guess look for the most unique looking one. Or ask for the owner,” I offer.
“Think he knows we’re coming?” she questioned as we were nearing the front door.
As if to answer her, the door opened and a well dressed rat stepped out, two suitcases in each of his arms. He was yelling back into the building.
“When you see them, call the cops! I ain’t taking any risk!”
“He knows,” I deadpan as he turns and sees us. He doesn’t react right away, but then he yelps.
“They’re here!”
The entire area came to a halt as every employee looked towards us.
“Now, we’re just here to ask your boss a few questions,” I say, trying to deescalate the scene before it got worse.
They all responded by reaching into their coveralls and pulling out guns of their own.
“Ah, shit,” I say as the two of us dive to the side behind a car as the entire area lights up with gunfire.
“So much for just talking, huh?” Mallogory asked with a chuckle as she pulled her revolver out.
“Well, this means we can kill them in self defense,” I say with a chuckle of my own. “Just, don’t kill Slinky Tom.”
Opening my pocket dimension, I pulled out four grenades I’ve had for a while and handed two to Mallogory.
“Don’t these go against our rules?” she asked with a smirk.
“I’m pretty fucking sure they have fucking grenades here,” I counter in an annoyed voice as we pull the pins and start tossing them over the car.
There was some confused yelling, then four explosions. This caused the gunfire to die down a lot.
We smiled at each other as we jumped up and slid over the car, guns blazing as we gunned down any we saw in the open.
I flew forward, spinning as I went, firing with perfect accuracy at any I saw as a threat.
True to her words, Mallogory’s large revolver blew away anyone she hit with it. So I had to admit, the overpowered nature of her bullets were indeed attractive. Still, prefer my sexy 10mm.
While swapping mags, I saw our boy Slinky Tom jump into the back seat of a car as four others got in with him.
“He’s running for it!” I yelled out, dropping four more rats that ran out to join the fight.
“On it!” Mallogory yelled as she ran to a very nice looking car and pulled the occupants out. “Scamp!”
With a touch of flair, I back flipped over a car, firing as I did so, and propelled myself towards the car Mallogory had procured.
Flying through the open window, I landed in the back seat. She took the driver's seat and gunned it after the fleeing vehicle.
“Oh fuck yes, I’ve always wanted to do a high speed chase in four wheeled vehicles!” Mallogory cheered as she weaved around other cars on the road violently, clearly not knowing how to drive smoothly.
Up ahead, as we slowly caught up, the rats in the car with Slinky Tom began to lean out the window, shooting back at us. Bullets pinged off the hood, a few hitting the glass.
The window spider webbed horribly to the point we couldn’t see out the window clearly.
“Fucking badass!” Mallogory yelled as she swung her claws forward, finishing off the glass and removing it from the frame, allowing us to see once again.
I watched as three rats fired back at us, two leaning out the windows and one firing from the back seat through the back window.
“Want to know what sucks?” I asked, putting a fresh mag into my gun.
“What’s that?” she asked, not taking her eyes off the road as bullets hit all around us.
“Being really good with a gun kind of ruins all the fun of the chase,” I say as I raise my pistol and fire three times in quick succession. The two rats leaning out the window went limp and hung from the side of the car, while the third fell back into the back seat.
“You’re right,” she said with a frown. “Kinda ruins all the fun.”
“Yep,” I sigh as I fire two more times, taking out the back wheels.
The car up ahead swerved hard a few times then spun sideways, then flipped, rolling over itself multiple times before coming to a stop against a building.
“But at least that was cool!” Mallogory said with a wide grin as we pulled up next to the crashed car.
I climbed out the window and flew over, landing on top of the door looking down into the car while it rested on its side. Inside, I saw a few bodies, the driver being crushed to hell by a fire hydrant they’d apparently hit.
Luckily for us, but not him, Slinky Tom was still alive and conscious, trying to get out from under a body that had him pinned.
“Slinky Tom,” I called down to him, getting him to look up at me as I pointed my pistol at him. “You know why I’m here.”
“Aye, you fucking bitch!” he yelled up, blood coming out of his mouth. “And I’ll tell ya, but ya gotta get me outta here first!”
I fired once, hitting the body on top of him, sending blood up into his face, “Nah, I don’t think so. Info first, then I pull you out.”
“Bloody hell!” he yelped, using his one free hand to wipe the blood from his face. “Fine, fine! What do you want to know?”
Firing again, I sent more blood into his face. The bullet must have penetrated this time, because he yelped with panic. “Don’t play coy with me, Slinky Tom.”
“You’re crazy!” he yelled up at me.
Before I could respond, the top of the car right beside his head was peeled open as Mallogory used her claws to rip it open and reached in, grabbing a screaming Slinky Tom.
“No more bullshit, Stinky Tom!” Mallogory yelled, slamming him against the wall roughly.
“It’s SLINKY Tom,” he sneered, but she just slammed him against the wall again. “Okay, I’m a businessman, and you two are clearly very smart ladies. We can make a deal.”
Landing beside them, I propped myself up next to him, placing my gun against his head. “Yep, we can definitely make a deal! What ya got?”
He audibly gulped as he sweated against the barrel of my gun, “Uh…” He cleared his throat loudly as he shook slightly, “as I was saying, we can make a deal! For a little extra Ego-”
“Your life,” I interrupted.
“... Yes, for my life, I’ll tell you what you want to know,” he said through clenched teeth, clearly not pleased.
“Deal, now speak, rat,” Mallogory said as she pressed him against the wall even harder.
“Gah! You’re killing me here!” he complained.
“Yep,” was her only response.
“My device,” I say, egging him on.
He glares my way, looking past my gun, “Yeah, your fucking device. My boss has it now. Items like that are extremely rare and can go for a lot. Not everyday a dimensional communication device falls into your hands.”
“You know what it is then,” I say, getting a nod from him.
“Of course! We’re not idiots, you cunt-”
Mallogory slammed her bone plated face into his head, causing him to look extremely dazed. “Don’t disrespect her.”
We look at each other and smile.
“Eh… God, get a room…” he groaned, blood running from a fresh gash on his forehead.
I slowly break my stare with Mallogory and look back to the rat pinned to the wall, “Who is your boss?”
“Kelman Utop,” he spat out, getting blood on my face.
Wiping the blood with a wing tip, I pull out the book and flip through it. Surprisingly, the name was in the book, along with a few addresses and other random info.
“Good luck finding him though, not even I know!” he says with a laugh.
“02195 Bellmond Park Blvd, suite 74?” I ask, reading off an address.
“How the fuck…” he sees the book and slumps a bit. “He didn’t tell me you got his fucking black book.”
“Yeah, would have been good information to have, huh?” I mock as I put the book away. “Now, to sleep with you.”
Mallogory slammed her fist into his face, attempting to knock him out. But he just wails in pain and grabs his face.
“Oops,” she says as she does it again, but he still remains conscious. “Son of a bitch!”
We both began to beat on him, trying to knock him out, but he just did not go down! He just screamed and yelled for help as we gave him the beat down of a lifetime.
“Why!” I yelled as I slammed a metal hoof into his face. “WON’T!” I spun around and bucked him square in the face. “YOU!” Two more bucks. “SLEEP!”
We finally stepped back from him as he collapsed and started trying to crawl away, looking very disfigured from all the cuts, bumps, blood, and broken bones.
“Okay, this one was his fault. He really should have just went unconscious on the first hit,” Mallogory said in her defense as we watched him drag himself way with one arm doing all the work.
“We probably could have handled that one better,” I say with a sheepish smile as I rubbed the back of my head.
The sounds of distant approaching sirens got our attention.
“Time to go!” I yelled as we sprinted back to our stolen car and jumped in.
As she put the car in reverse, I leaned out the window and yelled to the downed but still moving rat, “Stinky Tom, you never saw us.”
He raised a shaky hand and flipped me off.
“You get the idea,” I say, giving him a finger gun with my mechanical paw.
As we sped away, I leaned back in my chair, looking at my blood covered hoof and paw.
“That was a bit unexpected,” she suddenly said.
I just started laughing at this, followed closely by her.
A few cop cars flew past us, but did not stop.
“Okay, we need to ditch this car, that cop made eye contact with me,” Mallogory said as she turned down a side street as I heard the sound of a car screeching to a halt on the main road.
I let out a groan, knowing what we were about to do again.
Climbing out of the car, I let her get on my back yet again, and I took to the sky. I flew us up to a roof top and sat down, letting her off. We peeked over the ledge to see the cop cars coming back around the corner and pulling up on our car.
They all got out and advanced on it slowly. Once they confirmed we were no longer in it, they spread out, looking for us.
“Sweet, got the cops on our ass now,” Mallogory says, a smirk on her face instead of a frown.
“Shouldn’t have been so good looking, then he wouldn’t have looked over,” I say, giving her a wink.
“Pretty sure it was the destroyed car,” she countered, but gave me a flirtatious look in return.
I held up my paw, “we will return to this topic at a later date, after we avoid the cops.”
“Nice distraction,” she teased as she climbed back onto me and we took off into the sky.