Chapter 12:

Getting Caught

Stuffed


By the time they’ve finished off all of the receipts, they’ve probably been sitting their hours. If they were humans admitting to devouring McDonald’s for hours would be revolting, but in this case, it actually works in their favor. Just like the bat, they all get system upgrades in some shape or form.

Bliss gains a lower cooldown on her transportation skill and becomes able to use it more accurately. Panic Button gains the ability to silence noise even without touching something. And as much to their surprise, Viper gets access to hacking software capabilities instead of upgrades to his water cannon. The more Lucky thinks about that stupid canon that saved their lives, the more she suspects it was nothing more than a joke addition to Viper’s skill set. Based on how proficient he was with the tech when they were trying to put Bliss back together, Lucky’s glad he gets extra skills to make use of his talents.

As for Lucky, it seems that her lasers might also be some sort of gimmick. 

When she gets the update in her systems, the new ability she receives is named Call of the Wild. Besides the name, she doesn’t really get any more information on it. All her systems tell her is that it’s been unlocked.

“We’ll, you do have a different manufacturer than we do. You didn’t really know about the losers either, right? Maybe you don’t really understand your skills until you use them,” Viper theorizes.

“If that’s the case, that’s some glaring design error on the creator’s part,” Panic Button says shamelessly, not sparing Lucky’s pride in the slightest. 

“I might be able to figure out the reason with my new software, but I don’t know if it’s advanced enough to really tell us anything. If I reset you by accident, you may not remember us.”

Lucky winces at Viper’s offer. She definitely doesn’t want to take any risks with her memory.

“You’ll figure it out eventually,” Bliss says encouragingly. “Just give it some time.”

Oh, if only they had any.

With little more warning than the uncomfortable squeak of leather, two police officers in pink flamingo uniforms burst through the door, two canine Pets at their sides. 

The Pets look realistic in design just like her friends, and it’s a curious but sinking revelation to see more Pets like them in a place like this.

“We received a report that there were three unleashed Pets on the premises,” one of the handlers says, her bright orange hair clashing terribly with her uniform.

One of the patrons points over to their table, and Lucky shoots them a dirty look. How dare they report them!

Normally, when the coppers find you, you get a little warning spiel for the sake of trying to keep the situation from escalating. “Surrender, so we don’t have to blow a cap in your stuffing!”  That sort of thing. Yet it seems the police she’s used to are nothing like these flamingo patrol officers, because they sick the Pet dogs on them with a flick of their wrists.

Panic Button yelps as he just barely dodges one of the dogs. It snarls loudly as it misses its target and ends up biting the table instead. Not phased at all, the dog peels the entire side of the table off like cheese on a burger.

“Did that just happen?” Panic Button asks, his breaths heavy and his eyes wide after dodging what would likely have been certain capture.

Lucky winces as the thought of trying to escape from those jaws. They can’t afford getting caught. The jaws of life wouldn’t even be able to pry them out from that maw. “It must have an ability to increase its jaw strength,” Lucky distractedly as she tries to track the movements of the dogs. 

Lucky’s head snaps to the side as she sees the other dog round on Bliss. Viper and Bliss smack the dog with their might paws, but it only stuns the dog for a moment before it comes back at their throats.

“Increased jaw strength? Yeah, that checks out,” Viper says as he tries to scratch the dog’s nose. 

“I agree…!” Bliss says with effort, her giant bear paw raised again to get another swat at the dog. This time, for the split second the dog gets stunned by the strike, Lucky shoots her lasers at it. The lasers leave two small holes in its side, and the dog grits its teeth together in pain.

The dog looks over it’s shoulder and barks, “Marnie, Cleveland, call for backup!” 

“Roger, Biscuit!” the orange haired woman says, quickly pulling out her phone. Lucky doesn’t give her the luxury of dialing and blows that up with her lasers too.

“You…!”

While the one dog is much easier to handle in its wounded state, the other keeps lunging at Panic Button and Lucky desperately. The entire restaurant becomes a battlefield, with neither side willing to give an inch. Lucky takes extra care to step on the food of the patron who called these goons. This is what you get for worrying about someone disturbing the peace!

“We got to get out of here!” Lucky says, as Panic Button pulls her out of the dog’s bite range this time. She shoots off another set of lasers, but this one is smart, and quickly dodges the lasers she shoots at it. It doesn’t really matter if she hits the Pet or not though; she’s just buying time.

“We’ve subdued the other one!” Viper says, running up to them alongside Bliss. “Let’s go!”

“Aye aye, captain!” Panic Button cries as he picks Lucky up and tosses her on Viper’s back. He climbs on Bliss right after, and soon the two of them are off.

Bliss still isn’t entirely good at running, so Viper does his best to match her pace as they skedaddle. “Isn’t your teleportation skill ready yet, Bliss?” Panic Button asks anxiously as he vigilantly watches their backs, the Golden Arches growing  increasingly distant.

“Even though I got an upgrade, it will still take a bit more time.”

“In that case, we need to find a place to hide,” Viper says, “I don’t think I can run long in this heat.”

Lucky doesn’t think they can either, especially with the both of them slowing Viper and Bliss down. She doesn’t know enough about this place to know where to go, so she has to hope and trust in her companions to pull them out of this situation, even if they end up in shambles.

While Panic Button continues to serve as surveillance for threats coming from behind, Lucky watches for threats form the front. She figures it’s best to face forward. At the very least, she can’t look away like she would during a scary part during a horror film. 

Int he end, her courage amounts to little more than running head first to their doom. 

They round the corner of the street filled with royal poincianas and come to a screeching halt. Right in the middle of the road with a menacing glare in his eye, is Lester. Standing next to him, with a growl on its face, is a Pet that makes something in Lucky’s heart race. It’s a stuffed dog, just like her. It growls at her, and somehow, without having to lift a single paw, he brings all four of them to a full stop. They can’t move. They can’t speak. They can only watch in fear as Lester approaches them. When Lucky hears the sound of the Pet dogs scampering closer from behind, she knows they’re as good as dead. 

Lester looks down at Lucky. He has that same terrible grin on his face that he did when she first woke up. He grabs her by the scruff of the neck, and her tail curls between her lungs subconsciously. “Did you have fun, getting that little taste of freedom? I hope you savored it. I really do. After the president takes you in, you’ll never get to have it again.”

Lucky twists in his hold, wondering if she’s really going to let this happen again. If she’s going to let not just Lester, but other Pets steal her freedom from her as if it’s a given. She looks down at the other stuffed dog, still unsure of what to make of it. It doesn’t seem to recognize her, so she she decides to file that familiarity she feels around the other Pet for later. Right now, she’s got to figure out how to escape this situation.

There’s nothing else she can do but try to use Call of the Wild. She has no idea what it does, but she focuses all of her energy on getting it to work. While her system tells her its activated, it still does nothing. With her last hope fizzling out and dying, all she can think is how much she wishes that Bliss could teleport them now.

“Command operating. Pet Bliss now receiving commands. Please standby.”

Before Lucky even has a chance to decipher the meaning behind her internal system’s words, she feels the familiar sensation of Bliss’s teleportation, and the next thing she knows, she’s in an entirely different location, the grip on her neck gone and her body suspended in the air.

Katsuhito
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Bubbles
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Steward McOy
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muishiki
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Makech
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