Peter Piper’s Pawn Shop is wrecked. Display cases are shattered, products are scattered, with many of them broken. Blood splatter stains the floor and wall, and the lights are off, putting everything in a shadow. The only place that isn’t damaged from the skirmish is Peter’s office, which is where Mortimer is, and in his possession is Claribel’s radio and Peter’s pistol. On the desk is a peck of pickled peppers, a TV, computers, and VHS and DVD players.
Currently, Mortimer’s eyes are focused on the security feed while he uses toilet paper to wipe blood off his hands and face, with a couple of small bundles stuffed in his nose. Some of the toilet paper has been taped to his cheek to stop the bleeding from the cuts, but they hardly did anything. The quick patches have already been drenched and are now oozing blood down his face and neck, staining his collar.
But Mortimer doesn’t care about that. He is fast forwarding the footage and taps the pause button when he sees Jayson trading Claribel’s radio for the yearbook. His eyes narrow, a growl rumbles in his throat, and his claws dig into the desk.
“That bastard,” says Mortimer.
He grabs Peter’s pistol and storms out of the office, and passes Peter, who is limp on the floor. The old rabbit is still breathing, but is a bloodied mess and probably won’t wake up anytime soon. Mortimer empties the pistol of its bullets into his hand, tosses them away so they scatter in the air, and then he throws the magazine and gun in different directions before reaching in his pocket and pulling out a wad of cash.
“Get yourself patched up and cooperate next time, you old coot,” says Mortimer.
He drops the money on Peter and hurries out of the pawn shop.
*****
Back at the safe house, Rolland, Dacre, Cyrus, and Shae are in the garage, The Safe House door flies open, and Rolland, Dacre, Cyrus and Shae stop playing Uno and look at the door. Claribel is standing in the doorway, dirty and frazzled; clothes, scales and hair gunked with old food, surrounded by flies, and her tail is rattling and her eye is twitching.
“Okay, hold on. You’re not coming in here like that. We’re going to have to spray you off before you come any further,” says Rolland.
“Touch me and I bite you,” growled Claribel.
“Nevermind. Welcome home,” says Rolland.
Claribel stomps in, relying purely on muscle memory, seeing as the only thing she can think about is killing a pair of rabbits that have conspired to steal her hat.
“What happened to you? Why do you smell like a dumpster?” says Dacre.
“Where's your hat?” asks Cyrus.
“Do you need a massage to destress?” asks Shae.
Rolland’s group sneers at Shae, but he just shrugs innocently while Claribel stomps past them. Soon enough, Claribel is in her room, and she puts on rubber gloves, opens her closet, grabs fresh clothes and a violin shaped gun case, and goes to her designated bathroom.
The bathroom is clean with expensive body and hair care products designed for snakes, and she turns the shower on at full blast and quickly strips. The steam rapidly fills the room and provides strategic covering to conceal herself from perverted eyes.
A few minutes later, Claribel exits the bathroom, sparkling clean, dressed in a fresh 1920's style suit and stomps out of the house with her hand tightly gripping the violin gun case.
The door slams shut upon her exit, and Rolland's group looks at each other in silence.
“I think she's mad,” says Shae.
“Yeah, no shit, loverboy,” says Rolland.
*****
Back at the Bliss Town main street sidewalk, Jayson is sitting on a bench with a bucket that has some money in it, and a sign on his lap. The sign says: "Need money so Bazooka Bunny will leave me alone."
Jayson stares at Lexia across the street. Lexia is wearing her armored attire and Claribel's hat (which has holes cut out for her ears). She is also sitting on a bench with a sign that says: "Hobo owes me 20b. Pay him so he can pay me. Thanks!"
While the two have their staring contest, Derrick appears out of the blue and walks up to Jayson, holding a bag of groceries and drinking a bottle of Pink Tummy Fixer.
“What are you two doing now?” asks Derrick.
“Lexia wants me to give her 20 bucks because she is financially irresponsible,” says Jayson.
“LIES AND DECEIT!” yells Lexia, her loud voice echoing across the road.
Jayson and Derrick look at Lexia. She is now holding a satellite listening device and megaphone aimed at them.
“Is that the snake's hat?” asks Derrick.
“Yeah, Lexia thinks I killed her, when all I did was knock her out,” says Jayson.
“Well, I gotta say, you did something stupid. You should have finished off the snake. She works for Mama Bear and was hired to kill you and Lexia, so by letting her live you've given her another opportunity to hurt you.”
“That's rich, coming from you. You could have shot her and Mortimer at the reservoir.”
“Yeah, I really should've shot them at the reservoir and been done with it. But you and Lexia need to take this seriously or else they'll actually kill you.”
“Noted. By the way, can I have 10 bucks?”
Derrick takes a big gulp of his pink drink. “Sorry. I spent all my cash on groceries and stomach medicine. That fox’s bad mustard has done a number on me.”
“Wow. You and Lexia have weak stomachs.”
“Nah. You're just a freak.”
Derrick flies away after that, his body and shadow swiftly moving out of sight, and Jayson looks across the street. Lexia is smiling wickedly at him. Then her smile drops and she points next to Jayson right as ten bucks drops in his bucket.
“Thanks, bud,” says Jayson. He looks up and sees who it is. His ears droop. “Oh.”
Before Jayson can fully register anything, he is thrown through the window of the convenience store, and he rolls across the tile and knocks over a display of canned soup. The clerk ducks behind the counter, and Mortimer throws the door open, shattering its glass when it hits the wall.
“Where is she!?” yells Mortimer.
Jayson jumps up and is midway of drawing his cosmic weapon when Mortimer grabs his arm and punches him in the face.
*****
Outside, Lexia jumps to her feet and starts running across the street while drawing her pistol. But when she gets halfway across the street, an engine revs and tires squeal, and in a blink, Lexia goes from running to jumping and rolling off the hood of a car. Her impact has left a large crack on the windshield, and when she lands on the ground, she coughs and wheezes, and her stomach gurgles as a disgusting taste bubbles in her mouth.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” groans Lexia.
The car swerves to a stop, directly facing Lexia, and the harlequin-hare’s brown eyes widen at the sight of Claribel in the driver's seat, aiming her Thompson submachine gun at her through a broken door window.
“Zombie,” gasps Lexia.
“You stole my hat!” yells Claribel.
The engine revs, tires squeal, rubber burns, and the vehicle lurches forward while Claribel shoots at Lexia. People scream and scatter, and Lexia scrambles to her feet and bolts with her hand holding the hat on her head.
*****
Meanwhile, inside the convenience store, Mortimer and Jayson don't notice the commotion outside. They're too busy trying to kill or survive.
Mortimer slams Jayson into a cooler, breaking its glass door and the shelves holding milk. Milk containers fall and break, and the two slip on the spilled milk.
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Jayson scrambles up and tries to draw his sword again, but Mortimer once again prevents that. The two exchange awkward punches, kicks, blocks, deflections, and roll around the floor, knocking over shelves and displays.
Jayson tries yet again to draw his sword, but Mortimer grabs his wrist and forces the sword to stay put. Mortimer goes snout to snout with Jayson. Jayson’s bruised face reflects off Mortimer’s wild, furious eyes, and the fox bares his fangs as he growls..
Jayson attempts to kick Mortimer off, but Mortimer keeps a tight hold on his wrist, and the two roll around on the floor. As this happens, the yearbook falls out of Jayson's sack, and Jayson whacks Mortimer in the face with it, knocking him off.
*****
Outside, Lexia leaps over a parked car, and Claribel rams into it, pushing the vehicle into Lexia.
Lexia falls, rolls to her feet and draws her pistol. She shoots at Claribel, but the Fixer ducks down. The bullets break the windshield, and Lexia keeps shooting until her pistol clicks. She ducks down, ejects her empty magazine, and slides a new one in. But before she can get shoot again, Claribel leaps over the wrecked car, tackles Lexia to the ground, and wraps her limbs and tail around her to put her in a chokehold.
“You stole my hat!” hisses Claribel in Lexia’s ear.
Lexia gags and tries to pry Claribel’s arm away from her throat. “I thought you were dead!”
“I wasn't dead, you moron! All you had to do was check my pulse!”
“Well, excuuuuse~ me, princess!”
Lexia elbows Claribel, and releases a strangled scream as she pushes herself up and backpedals into the wrecked car. Both females grunt upon impact, and Lexia resumes elbowing Claribel in the ribs until she releases her. Then Lexia whirls around and draws her knife. She attempts to stab Claribel, but Claribel pins the knife safely against her and rams Lexia into the brick wall. Claribel proceeds to hold Lexia's waist with her tail and beats her senseless, drawing blood with every strike on her head.
*****
Back inside the convenience store, Jayson draws his cosmic wood sword. Mortimer gets up, wiping blood off his mouth, and Jayson yells and hits him with his weapon. The store rattles and the objects inside the aura slowly fall to the ground while Mortimer sails through the air, just as slow as everything else.
When the aura fades, the objects crash to the floor, and Mortimer zips through the other window, carrying shattered glass with him as he rolls into the round. Jayson stomps out of the store, the world darkening as his eyes focus on Mortimer, who is coughing and rolling on his hands and knees.
“You prick… What did you do to her?” wheezes Mortimer, back arching and blood splattering on the road as he coughs sharply.
Jayson stops next to Mortimer, breathing heavily. His hands tighten on his cosmic wood sword, and he raises it above his head. Arms tight. Eyes burning.
“Jayson! Get over here!” calls Lexia, her voice faint.
Jayson blinks and looks across the street, the world snapping back to color. He sees Lexia rolling around with Claribel, both bloodied and shrieking as they wildly punch and tear at each other’s hair. Lexia's rocket is away from her, as is Claribel's hat, and a ring of guys are watching the two females fight and putting money in someone's hat. Some of the observers are shouting out cat calls and encouraging them to fight harder.
Mortimer also looks towards Lexia, and his eyes snap wide and his ears perk. “Claribel?”
Jayson swings his sword against Mortimer’s head like a golf club, and the fox crashes on his back, cursing up a storm and holding his bloody face.
“Freaking prick! God dang it!” screams Mortimer,
Jayson quickly runs towards his bucket of money, snatches it, and runs across the street, avoiding Mortimer’s attempt to grab him from his spot on the ground.
“Lexia!” calls Jayson.
“Over here!” replies Lexia, waving to Jayson while pushing her hand against Claribel’s throat.
Said snake was choking out Lexia and had her tail wrapped around one of her legs.
“Jayson, help! She's crazy!” says Lexia.
“She stole my hat!” cries Claribel.
Before Jayson can reach the pair, he is tackled by Mortimer. Jayson drops the bucket. Money spills all over the pavement, and Lexia's hand snatches 20 bucks rather quickly while Claribel continues choking her.
The crowd cheers as Jayson and Mortimer roll over each other, dealing swift and hard blows. And another person holds out his hat and starts calling out bets. Money drops in his hat and the observers are now cheering on Jayson and Mortimer, calling out for blood.
During the scuffle, Mortimer puts Jayson in a chokehold, and then he looks at Claribel.
“Claribel!” calls Mortimer.
“What!?” snaps Claribel, looking at him with wide, rage-pulsing eyes and a face marked with bruises and cuts.
“Where have you been?”
“I was in a dumpster for God knows how long after dealing with these two twats! Where were you?”
“I was sick from that mustard, but I think the adrenaline rush has killed my illness because so far I haven’t felt anything weird!”
Jayson punches Mortimer in the kidney, kicks him off, and then puts him in a chokehold with his cosmic wood sword pressed against his neck.
“I was sick, too!” says Claribel.
“Can you not argue when you’re trying to kill me?” grunts Lexia, her arms flexing and face twisted from exertion as she pries Claribel’s fingers off her throat.
“I was puking my guts out in the bathroom, and then spent all day looking for you while sick!” Mortimer throws Jayson over his shoulder, and glares at Claribel. “Some appreciation will be nice!”
Lexia throws Claribel off, and with swift movements, she yanks out her knife, slides behind Claribel, and puts her in hold with her knife to the snake’s throat, drawing blood. In response, Mortimer snatches Jayon's neck with his claws digging in, also drawing blood. Claribel squeezes her tail around Lexia’s leg and brings her mouth to Lexia’s arm, her fangs just barely touching her fur. As this happens, Jayson grabs a broken piece of glass and presses it against Mortimer's throat, also drawing blood.
“Let him go or I'm slicing her throat,” says Lexia.
“Let her go, or I shred your pal's neck,” says Mortimer.
“Let her go or your boyfriend is getting shanked in the neck!” says Jayson.
“Let him go or I'll bite your girlfriend!” says Claribel.
“Whoa, watch the assumptions! We are not a thing,” says Lexia.
“You are definitely a ‘thing’,” says Claribel.
“Claribel, she’s right. Don’t make assumptions about people. That’s rude,” says Mortimer.
Claribel’s tail rattles and her tail tightens around Lexia’s leg, making said rabbit wince. “Don’t take their side!”
“Yeah, don’t take Lexia’s side. Stand up for your girl,” says Jayson.
“Oh, frik you, Jayson,” sneers Lexia. Then she digs her knife against Claribel’s neck and glares at her with heavy breaths and grinding teeth. “And you seriously need to let go of my leg! It’s starting to feel weird!”
“Cut me and I bit you,” growls Claribel.
“Somebody kill someone!” shouts someone in the crowd.
The others cheer, but a loud whistle stops everyone, and bodies turn and heads tilt up with wide eyes and sagging ears as Trafford walks up, towering over everyone and eating a massive 80 gram protein bar.
“That’s enough, all of you. It's time you call it a day and go home,” says Trafford.
The crowd is silent as they stare at Trafford with various levels of shock, awe, and fear. Trafford finishes his protein bar and stuffs the wrapper in his pocket and looks around at the crowd with a hint of impatience.
“Did I stutter? Or am I going to get ugly?” says Trafford.
The crowd immediately disperses, with the people who collected the money for the bets running away and pocketing the bills, which leads to them being chased by a few angry people. Once the crowd is gone, Trafford smiles and looks at the group.
“Alright. Your turn. Break it up,” says Trafford.
“Who the hell are you? And what gives you the right to boss us around?” says Mortimer.
“I'm Trafford Augustine, and I’m a professional nerd on a paid salary.”
“Well Trafford Augustine, you can buzz off!”
Trafford sighs heavily. “Look, I'd rather not let things get more violent than they already are. Let's give peace a chance.”
“And what if we want it to get more violent?”
“Dude, really?” says Jayson.
Trafford’s brows furrow and his eyes darken as he takes a careful step forward. “If you want things to escalate then I'll just have to kill all four of you. That'll be bad for the data, but the town might appreciate it considering the commotion I've seen you cause over the past few days.”
Jayson, Lexia, Mortimer, and Claribel look at each other. The area becomes deathly quiet, and after Trafford taps on his wrist watch, Claribel nods to Mortimer while Jayson nods to Lexia. Mortimer releases Jayson. Lexia releases Claribel. Jayson drops the glass and Claribel unwraps her tail from Lexia's leg and leans her head away from the hybrid’s arm.
*****
And at the end of the street, Derrick is on the rooftop of a taller building, his groceries next to him and rifle perched on cement blocks, watching Trafford with the crosshairs aimed at his head.
“Who are you, stranger?” mutters Derrick.
*****
Back on the street, Trafford points at Claribel’s hat while looking at Lexia.
“Lexia Hartwick, if you'll please return Claribel Belle Blair's hat,” says Trafford.
Lexia eyes him warily as she slowly moves to the damaged hat. She gingerly picks it up and hands it to Claribel. The snake snatches it out of her hand and holds it tight against her as her thumbs rub the edges of the holes cut into them.
“Good. As for you, Jayson Hopper.” Trafford reaches behind his back and pulls out the yearbook. “I believe that's yours.”
Jayson takes the yearbook and wipes it off. “Thanks…”
“You’re welcome. Have a good day, everyone.”
And with that Trafford walks away, leaving the group to watch him while sirens get closer.
“What just happened?” asks Jayson.
“Hell if I know,” says Lexia.
“I don't care. I'm done for the day. Do you want to grab lunch, Clair? Crystal Plate. My treat,” says Mortimer.
Claribel silently stares at the holes cut in her hat, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“You know what? I'm getting out of here. We can do this hunter-predator thing later,” says Jayson.
Mortimer nods. “Agreed. I'm free tomorrow. We can try again then.”
Jayson raises a thumbs up. “Sounds good.”
Mortimer turns his attention to Claribel and offers her a smile. “So, Claribel, the lunch thing? Yes? No?”
Claribel is still staring at her hat, and Lexia slides next to Mortimer with hearts in her eyes, leading him to grimace.
“I'd love to go to the Crystal Plate as your Amazonian princess,” says Lexia.
“You're not Clair,” says Mortimer flatly.
“I'll meet you there. Save us a table for two. And I will use my 20 bucks to finally accomplish my mission for the day, and then I'll enjoy lunch at the Crystal Plate!”
“But I'm not inviting you…”
Lexia grabs Jayson's wrist and pulls him away from the Fixers.
“C'mon, Jayson! Let's accomplish my goal!” says Lexia.
Lexia drags Jayson down the street, leaving Mortimer to watch them with a confused sneer while Claribel remains fixated on her hat.
“Seriously, are you on drugs?” says Jayson.
“Your deflection will not work on me!” says Lexia.
Once the two rabbits are out of sight, Mortimer shakes his head slowly, keeping his eyes on the direction they took.
“They are by far the weirdest people we’ve had to kill,” says Mortimer. He sighs heavily and turns sharply.on his heels. “So, Claribel.”
His expression drops. Claribel is sulking away from him, hat held tight and head bowed. Mortimer cringes and runs after her.
“Claribel!” calls Mortimer. He reaches her side and keeps his pace next to her, trying to look her in the eyes. “Claribel, are you alright?”
“No. Enjoy your lunch,” says Claribel.
Mortimer stops walking with a tight chest and blank mind, and Claribel keeps going. Only when she rounds the corner does Mortimer release a heavy breath, and he kicks an empty paper cup away.
“Well, shit,” says Mortimer.
*****
Off in the distance, Derrick keeps his crosshairs on Mortimer’s back. His finger is on the trigger, one eye closed, the other focused. His heart steadies, and his finger tightens on the trigger.
As Derrick ains at Mortimer, a breeze goes over him. He wants to pull the trigger. He wants to kill him. He wants to wipe out everyone in the Mama Bear Syndicate.
Mortimer starts walking in a completely different direction from the others. He is across the street, and Derrick increases pressure on the trigger. He moves the crosshairs up to Mortimer’s skull and takes a deep breath.
“Don’t do that, Derrick Marlow,” says a slick voice.
Derrick snaps around with his rifle and finds himself covered by Trafford’s shadow. Said ram is holding an envelope with Derrick's name on it.
“Who are you?” says Derrick.
“Trafford Augustine. Put down the gun. I just want to talk,” says Trafford.
Derrick slowly stands up, keeping the rifle aimed at Trafford's chest.
“About what?” asks Derrick.
Trafford smiles and holds the envelope out to Derrick. “About hitting the Mama Bear Syndicate where it really hurts.”