Baa-Ram-Ewe!

by Darkonshadows

161. Appointment Acquired.

-High Rise Hotel, Mopsy-

So my dimensional doppelganger kind of stuck me with the job of watching her kids while she set up an appointment to meet the richest tiger in the world. Given that she has already met the richest duck and went on an escapade on his home turf, one can only guess what’s going to happen to her next before she heads back to San Fransokyo to follow up on a way to get home.

“So… how long will you guys be staying in town?” Shanty asked, she still wanted to spend more time with us, which was sweet. Hopefully she wasn’t an overly clingy… yeah no, her magic has her covered on being clingy.

“I’ll continue sticking around for as long as you need sweetie, unless I’m direly needed back in Mesa City.” I really didn’t have much aside from strutting my stuff around the night club and my small info broker side business. I haven’t really done too many illegal things considering I’ve been spending time with a gang that’s done more good for this world than I would think possible. “I really didn’t have much to do aside from visit the orphanage occasionally or spend time at the Prance Dance, I wasn’t going anywhere important and living a simple life. Unfortunately for me, I don’t think I can go back to it so easily after all I’ve been through.”

“We’ll be sticking around until we can find the parts for the gun we need to start our assault on Clockwerk’s lair.” Did Bentley indicate a different inflection on Clockwork? Why? “We’ll be here long as you need us Shanty, but we really do need to deal with the last of the Fiendish Five… the guy’s smart enough to already know we’re coming and it’s going to be difficult to deal with him with just the three of us. We’ll be walking into a trap with a genius that has had time to prepare.”

“Four, what makes you think I’m quitting this gang of lovely gentlemen?” Wait, why was I still wanting to be on this ride again? This was my perfect opportunity to get off of it and disavow any knowledge of having spent time among Sly Cooper’s gang. Muggshot, Ruby and even Panda King didn’t know I was connected to the gang and I was mostly a support role that could easily be ignored. Nobody would have anything on me aside from maybe aiding and abetting known criminals without solid evidence… but there’s the prestige to think about, plus they help people. “I think you still need someone that can walk around in public and do some light scouting, maybe I can learn some first-aid.”

Pom couldn’t choose to get off of her ride even if she wanted to, I had a choice and I was staying on for a dangerous life of excitement. I was never going to be a fighter, I was never going to be able to create crazy plans that worked, I was never going to be a high end skilled thief with family history. I would just like to be the support structure that kept an already cohesive team even more cohesive, maybe learn to act as a medic or learn some other helpful hobbies to support them from the sidelines.

Besides, I’m not the kind of lady to abandon her friends when they might need a little extra help on the side.

“To be honest, we weren’t assuming or expecting you would ever want to stick around after you got Shanty back with her friends after all those complaints you had about the way some things were done.” Bentley stated calmly. “Though admittedly we could use a little common sense to keep the crazy ideas I have a bit more grounded.”

“Hey, you’re always welcome to stick with us!” Murray stated with a bright smile and he flexed his muscles.

“Ms. Muttoncoddle, you’re always a friend of ours.” Sly tipped his hat to me with his cane and held out a card which I took with a smile. “However, if you ever eventually want an out, then we’ll find a way to give you one. How does kidnapping someone for weeks on end and them getting Stockholm syndrome sound to you?”

“Sounds like a decent escape plan to me.” I grinned, as did Shanty who turned to see Ocellus laying across Smolder’s legs as they continued to watch that odd Ottoman Empire show about the foot stools.

“So warm…” Ocellus muttered sleeping as she snuggled against Smolder’s belly while halfway asleep.

“Always the space heater of the group.” Stated Smolder bluntly while rolling her eyes and we shared a laugh at that. “If you want our help, we’re up for it. I don’t think Pom would say no.”

“Pom kind of needs to with the way her health is failing her…” Sly would always be a good person in my views. “She’s taking on more pressure than she really should and it’s really getting to her.”

-Outside Kahn Industries Headquarters, Pom-

I was walking towards bridge leading over a small city waterway, holding Dormarch in my right hoof was better than walking on it and on the other side was an entrance to the building leading into a large tower.

Padding alongside me was Dolly who was being wary, likely remembering our first meeting with this Shere Kahn putting her on edge. I still had to talk her out of bringing her board and her helmet, we weren’t going to pick a fight or at least we wouldn’t try to and she was still dangerous even looking harmless with the way she was still somewhat bandaged up.

I’m still quite terrified of getting in another painful scrap and it’s been more than a week of me feeling tense with having problems unwinding my tightly wound spring.

In the middle of the city was one of the tallest buildings where Shere Kahn ran his operations, this city was basically built up by his company. No tyrannical iron paw on that guy though he was apparently very firm in how he built his company.

I had seen a few shady things traveling through the city, but that was all I saw in this gleaming bright place where the people were seemingly always busy… like every other city I’ve been in where things were overly active. Not many cars were around here, mostly because this place was more about walking from point to point. What few cars there were was city transport and special cases, they really didn’t want to clog this city with cars and the people around here got plenty of exercise at least.

Ignoring the hippos, flamingos, lions, snakes and various other animalistic and biped people we passed as I walked up onto the bridge, I looked back to make sure Dolly was not wandering off to get some random smell or something.

That’s when someone slammed into me and we tumbled, Dolly was immediately barking at the person that hit me.

“Hey, watch where you’re going you…!” Dolly started barking, incensed that someone had knocked me down when I was still aching. She was healing much better than I was, but some of her milder injuries were still present.

“Oh I’m sorry, here let me help you up. I was the one running when I wasn’t looking so the fault lies entirely on me!” Looking up at the odd Wolf Tiger hybrid offering me his paw, I lifted my left hoof and was helped up onto my hind legs before he let go of my hoof while making sure I was steady. “I’m a bit… sorry, I don’t know how to feel about things these days. Things have been tense.”

“Well can you go now, Pom is kind of busy dude!” Dolly was getting snappy because I got a little bruised.

“It’s okay Dolly calm down.” I run my left hoof over her ears as I slowly dragged her into a hug, but she kept glaring at the tiger striped wolf that bowled me over. “Yeah, there is that atmosphere of things being tense. Even I can feel that, but it doesn’t seem to be much.”

“Again, I’m so sorry miss, my name is Mowgli… Seeonee.” He seemed quite certain of his last name after that slight pause.

“I’m Pom Lambchop, this Dolly and this shy guy I’m holding here is called Dormarch.” I think Dormarch was being a bit too quiet, he poke his head out of his hidey hole on the screen and then ducked back in it like a groundhog that’s seen its own shadow. “Never mind that last one then... Anyway if you will excuse me, I must get going.”

I continued across the bridge towards the doors to the lobby of the building, pointedly ignoring the blush the wolf tiger was sending me as I walked by him. Hopefully we don’t interact much further, because I can vaguely see the mild interest and worry enter his eyes from the corner of my right eye as I turned and entered the building with Dolly following along.

“Well Dormarch, are you going to be quiet the entire time we’re here?” I asked softly as I entered the lobby and passed by a few panther guards. There was also a fox, a few lions and a number of bears along with a few other assorted species in various other job positions.

“I’m scared…” To be fair to Dormarch, I was a bit scared of what we’d find out too. This was just to set up an appointment though, I wonder how soon Mr. Kahn would be able to see me.

“We’re not going to let anything happen to you without a fight Dormarch, even if my left eye is still in an eyepatch for another day or two and my right hoof still stings constantly.” Applying fresh aloe to my almost healed burn wounds before I came here made walking so much more tolerable after a slightly lukewarm shower, not that my shifting wool that grew over said wounds wasn’t a bit painful in its own right.

Okay, the reception desk is right there. Now I just needed to talk to the person attending it and set things up.

“Excuse me, ma’am.” I drew the attention of the orange feathered chicken sitting behind the desk, her grey eyes looking me over with contempt when she looked up at me from her book.

“Yes?” She looked down here beak at me as she clacked it, like I was less important than whatever book she was reading while on the job.

“I would like to schedule an appointment with Mr. Kahn, because I’m quite sure he’ll want to see me sometime within the next few days.” The guy better after all the stuff I’ve been through, I’m surprised I’m not deaf on top of the Arrhythmia and my left eye needed an eyepatch for a while. “That and he likely knows I’m here given the guys that tailed me to this building.”

“Well aren’t you a paranoid one, I’m sorry but Mr. Kahn is too busy for a country bumpkin piece of riff raff with an accent like yours.” The chicken said in a tone that stated she didn’t like me. “I can’t see what reason he could have to possibly see someone an animalistic in an eyepatch that smells somewhat like a wet dog.”

“Hey lady, not all wet dogs smell bad, also she’s not riffraff!” Kneeling down next to a growling Dolly, I nuzzled the back of her and whispered.

“Don’t make a scene Dolly, calm down please.” She did as I asked, but she was still showing her anger quite clearly on her face.

“Keep your mutt under control please or I will have you and that dumb animal escorted out.” Calmly looking the chicken in the eye and leaning forward.

“You’re a sad and lonely person aren’t you?” I said quietly trying not to draw too much attention to my discussion with the secretary. “You could at least set up my appointment and ask Mr. Kahn if he has time in his busy schedule.”

“Oh what would you know about me?” The chicken stated haughtily, put my right hoof on top of Dolly’s nose gently to keep her quiet and sent her an image through our bond that made her back down. “If you were some important business of his, you would at least look the park instead of coming here with that run down satchel and a shoddy appearance that looked like you got into a fight with a weed whacker and lost an eye to it.”

After a small bit of profiling, I knew exactly what to say to her to make her listen to me.

“You are a person who’s not only lonely, but takes it out on everyone due to a perceived lack of self-esteem and bad attempts at trying to be social. You perceive yourself as important at a desk job that you hardly care for, but it’s one of the best jobs you could get with how poorly you likely did in school and the on the job training must have taken a while.” I said loudly and my supposition drew some attention, also the chicken quieted and stared at me with wide eyes. “I can tell because one, your aging to a point you will never find someone that cares about you for you and are either not married or went through a rather sour divorce. The book you are reading has a plot synopsis that makes me think you want for an escape from the daily life of doldrums, because you can no longer handle the stress of this job whether it be the boredom or the type of people you have to deal with on a regular basis aside from said boredom. I can surmise that you absolutely need this job to continue living or else you wouldn’t be able to live around here given the rates on apartments from what I looked up when booking a hotel as soon as I arrived in Cape Suzette. Judging from the pictures on your desk, you have a thing against animalistic people and are a biped supremacist. Even if I were to wear a suit coming in, you would still find a reason to despise me because someone you loved likely fell for another and they were an animalistic like me. Your hatred could also stem from a childhood trauma where an animalistic scared or pranked you. As such you were given this job because you would turn away the ‘wrong kind of people’ by someone higher up who is also a biped supremacist, but it was not Shere Kahn who hired you but someone he let do the job unless it otherwise needed his attention. You and said person are currently sullying his trust in you to do your job, am I in the ballpark?”

I wasn’t an animalistic, but it was better than running around declaring myself an alien. The chicken clacked her beak and did so several times trying to find words to say to me.

“Ballpark would definitely trigger my entire family wholesale.” Dolly yipped as she groaned glumly and I could see images of her family playfully running around their favorite hotspot in Camden for dog socializing.

“Quite right Ms. Lambchop.” Mr. Kahn’s deep voice sounded from the desk and everyone in the room froze, most likely because Shere Kahn was a big deal around here and he demanded respect while likely paying the people working for him based on the merit of their abilities. The guards were notably well muscled panthers that stayed in shape and likely had families. I shrunk down a bit as everyone was now paying attention to me because he spoke up. “Ms. Bacherie should be happy that she still has a job despite me knowing of this and I wish you to know that I do not condone such a thing. As long as someone can be an asset or useful no matter their outward appearance, orientation or livelihood, I will accept an appointment with them if they are willing to talk business. I will at least humor them for five minutes at most, otherwise I expect some modicum of professionalism from all my employees regardless of their beliefs or how they wish to treat others in their off time.”

“I believe I’ve been useful to you Mr. Kahn.” I said flatly to where his voice was coming from. I really wanted to know how useful I have been to him. I turned to the secretary with a look in my right at her two.

“That you have Ms. Lambchop, I assume you are here for answers?” The tiger stated in a calm calculating tone. “The ones you so painstakingly worked for in getting here?”

“To set up an appointment to discuss some business, yes.” I stated blandly. “Also I’ve had worse, you should see the other guys.”

“Ms. Bacherie, give her an appointment for tomorrow early in the morning.” Stated the cold sounding tiger in a no nonsense tone. “You better not hold her up and you will leave your prejudices at home.”

“Of course sir, I wouldn’t want to disappoint you.” The biped chicken looked fairly frightened and was typing away at her computer. “I am setting up an appointment with… Ms. Lambchop was it? I’m doing it right away!”

“See that you do, she is quite important in many ways that you cannot even begin to fathom.” With that Shere Kahn turned off whatever was allowing him to send his voice through to the desk.

Everyone around was rather unnerved by the intimidating presence of his voice alone and I felt… oddly okay about Shere Kahn telling his employee off in a roundabout manner.

“Okay, sign here… and please don’t get me fired…” The chicken was sweating as I took up the pen and signed my name for the appointment making sure I got the time down right.

“The cover of a book can only tell you so much, which is why you need to read the book to find out whether your assumptions about it are correct or not.” I stated as I turned and walked away with Dolly trailing behind me. “Appearances and all that.”

“So meeting with the intimidating tiger guy tomorrow?” Dolly asked me as we made our way for the door, as we exited I noted that the tiger wolf was watching from the corner of the building with curiosity and he ducked away when I looked in his direction.

“Yes.” I stated quietly wondering what was up with the wolf. This better not be a canine magnetism thing!

-Mowgli-

Was that the person my father was talking about?

A mercenary of some sort?

She didn’t look like the type, she was too soft and her dog was too innocent and perky to be a dangerous person.

Smelled too nice and she was trying to stay off her right leg, what connection did she have with my father? Also did she know my mother Raksha?

-Pom-

“Dormarch, anything you would like to say right now?” We were going to stop by to pick up launch on the way back to the hotel, I saw a nice sandwich shop on the way to the tower where Kahn Industries stood.

“Take some medication, try not to use the dancing flame technique and try to heal enough before you have to act in a manner most dangerous to you.” Dormarch would meet my eyes. “At least we shouldn’t have to worry about mercenaries for a while.”

“Not unless they are Kahn Industry mercenaries that have been tailing me and watching me.” I sniffed the air, twitched my ears and looked back with my right eye and narrowed it at someone in a flowery shirt and some pants. No aggressive intent, but the biped elephant seemed to be watching me and didn’t seemed a bit spooked that I noticed him. Not the most subtle person to use for spying… because it would make me hardly notice the cat nearby and he was far more surprised that I noticed him stealthily watching me, but he wasn’t running and seemed to nod at me in respect for catching him. Loud and quiet, Kahn has Cape Suzette well protected with his people at least. “At least Kahn’s preparing for something to happen, so we can expect some help when a crisis occurred.”

“Any help is better than no help right?” Dolly tried as she noted the cat too without my prompting, she tilted her head to my left and sent me an image of an eagle biped also watching us from my left in my blind spot.

I didn’t acknowledge that she was there as that would probably spook them too much, all of them were likely working for Kahn and were told to watch me.

“Cooper Gang, Wing Team and our group has a lot of talent that could handle things that normal people wouldn’t be able to Dolly. Even if I’m not at my best they sure are and at least Shanty looks like she’s been eating healthy… which is about all she does.” Where was the horseshoe going to do drop exactly? More importantly when would it drop?

-Mowgli-

The elephant was suspicious, mostly because I knew that guy. The eagle I noticed as well, but when I saw the cat slowly tailing her I had a feeling my father had a protection detail on her for a very good reason. The same reason that someone like her would be able to get my father’s attention almost immediately just by talking to the receptionist.

Something big was going down, now if only I knew what that was.

-Pom-

“Hey Pom, how are you doing?” Kit Cloudkicker asked as I was still walking my way back to the hotel with Dolly on my back holding a bag of sandwiches for everyone, also some treats for her of course.

“I’m doing okay Mr. Cloudkicker, I just got an appointment with Shere Kahn tomorrow morning and hopefully the news we receive won’t be too bad concerning my companion Dormarch.” I was a little upset that Dormarch was being so quiet and shutting me and Dolly out. “He’s a bit worried about our meeting.”

“Dormarch should be, Kahn may not be a bad guy, but he’s not a too much of a good one either.” Kit wasn’t as subtle as he think he was approaching me in a friendly manner to walk the same way I was. “Your mileage may vary, I’m only saying what I am because I got a lot of mileage from him when I was a teenager… you do know you’re being watched right?”

“Yes, apparently he thought I need a protection detail… I probably do knowing my luck.” Let them watch me, I really didn’t have much to hide, though I need to tell Ocellus to stick to her wingless dragon form. “So what drew your attention to me?”

“Well since you helped me…” He rubbed the back of his looking sheepish. “I was kind of hoping you would want a few tickets to the flying circus we’re doing?”

“I have quite a few friends here with me and that would set you back a lot to give some away to me like that.” I received a waved paw.

“How many do you need?” He said confidently with his fists on his hips and standing tall with pride. “I want to return the favor and you did more than enough to pay for them, you can even say you helped fund our first show for some front row seats!”

“Okay… when are you doing this?” I’m sure Shanty would at least like to see it given airplanes were interesting to watch fly.

It was after lunch tomorrow.