The Despicable

[Splat]

Yup, you can totally tell how thoroughly I proof-read that chapter.

[Gretin]

Haha well, that's what we're for

[Splat]

It's Friday and I'm logged on to 'Internet Explorer' (shudder) because it's easier to format in IE than in Chrome.

Which means it's that time again!
And I did just read through this one! And made some edits! I shouldn't let myself get away with this.

Righty-ho, last chapter had everyone settle in. Now it's time to introduce another important RPG character, amongst other exciting things...

Chapter 33

Javi was in the stockyards around the paramite cages; he’d fed all of the animals, and helped Bunny (that was Rycha; Bunny wasn’t a nickname anyone but Reg used to his face, and Reg was the only one he would let. Apparently he’d once attacked Bela when he’d called him Bunny, and Bela was huge) move the day’s supply of paramites round to the side of the building. Now he was helping Nick do his work on the machinery in the area.

“Javi, pass me the thing with the long handle and the big knobbly bit on the end.”

Nick had quickly given up using the name of the tools. Javi knew about as much about mechanics as he knew about theoretical physics. He handed over the tool. “How long is this going to take?” He wasn’t all that patient at the best of times, and right now he was just standing around a lot, doing a little bit of fetching and carrying when Nick needed it. He did have some things to do.

“Won’t be long now; just gotta get this… YOWCH!” There was a loud crackle and Nick leapt back, sucking his fingers.

Trying not to laugh, Javi hurried over to him. Several of the nearby paramites had looked up at the yell and were watching them closely. “You ok?”

“Stupid thing gave me an electric shock. I thought that wire was dead! The guy who wired this was the biggest idiot in the world!”

Javi stayed silent.

“What?” Nick demanded.

“I didn’t say anything. You can here me saying nothing.”

Nick glared at him, “Yeah, I think that might be the problem.” With a nasty look at the mudokon, he turned back to the machine, “If this isn’t the wire it’s supposed to be, then what is it?” He muttered to himself.

“Maybe it’s one they put in to route out people who don’t know what they’re doing?” Javi suggested.

“Oh, shut up. Hang on…”

Javi waited.

“Wait a second… GTRZ!”

“What is it?” Nick didn’t swear often.

“Shh!” Nick looked up and glanced at the paramite cages.

Javi followed his gaze, “Oh, you utter moron!”

Nick spoke in a very hollow voice, “There was supposed to be a security system where you can open all of the animal cages in a particular sector, in case of riots or break-ins in the stockyard or something, only the system never worked.”

“You stupid, stupid idiot.”

“Um, help?”

Javi realised that as the stockyard manager, he was suddenly in charge of things, “Alright, well if you go over and start locking the cages they’ll pretty quickly figure it out, so just turn and walk away slowly.”

“No way am I turning my back on a bunch of paramites.”

“You want to let them know something’s up? As soon as one realises the cages are open it’ll call the rest.” Javi was already walking away, “Then we run.”

Nick suddenly appeared at his side. He had his radio in his hand. “Um, Seven?”

There was a crackle from the radio.

“Yeah, this is Nick. Um, if you and some of the others could be ready and armed at the front entrance, Javi and I would be fairly grateful. We have a slight... paramite-related problem.”

Another crackle.

“Um, he wants to know how many we expect to have following us.”

“About 18?” Javi suggested, “Those are egg-hatching pens, I don’t know how often they’re used and I haven’t had a chance to take inventory over here yet, so I can’t be too exact.”

“Crackle, crackle.”

“Yes, 18.” There was suddenly a loud, hoarse shriek from behind them. “Soon as you can, then.” And then they started running.

Half a minute later they burst into the courtyard around the front of the factory and charged towards the doors; Seven, Expert and Bela were lined up there, waiting. Kix and Anni were hovering behind them, curious and nervous. A moment later the paramites followed, shrieking and leaping after them. They burst through the line of sligs into the building and they started firing.

“Anni, what are you doing here?” Javi yelled breathlessly over the noise of the shooting.

Anni looked up at him; her face was frightened, but Kix answered over her; “It was my fault. I was with Expert when Seven came and said you were in trouble, and I told her and we came to find out what was going on.

Javi looked angry, “Look, both of you go to the cafeteria and stay there.”

Anni shook her head, “We should go back to work.”

“Just get out of here! It isn’t safe!”

Kix nodded shame-facedly and led Anni towards the lifts. Javi turned back to the sligs, where Nick had joined them. The courtyard outside was littered with dead paramites. Nothing was moving.

“I count nine.” Seven said.

“Ten; there’s one in that corner,” Expert corrected.

Nick turned to Javi; “You’d better come with us; we’ll have to track down the rest.”

Javi nodded and joined the huddle of sligs as they moved out into the stockyards.

A few minutes later, Anni reappeared in the entrance hall having given Kix the slip, and trotted down the steps to the courtyard. She looked sadly around the dead paramites, went over to one, but it was covered in blood and the sight was horrible; she quickly backed off and moved to the gate out into the stockyards.

She paused at the gate and looked around, both for the sligs and any living paramites, but seeing nothing she headed out. She could follow the track of scuffed earth that the paramites had left and wandered back in their tracks. A few minutes later she reached the pens that they had escaped from and looked around. There were two more dead paramites here; evidently the sligs had come this way. She sat down in the dirt, feeling miserable. Why did they have to be killed? They were only trying to stay alive. She found tears in her eyes.

Her ears picked up a tiny noise and she ignored it. It persisted however, and she turned. It was a tiny scuffling, accompanied by a squeaking. She cautiously moved towards the sound; it was coming from one of the open pens.

The floor inside was thick with mud, some of it bloody, perhaps from their food. There was a trough of water against the edge of the pen and the sound was coming from underneath it.

Crawling through the mud, she headed towards the sound, pausing at the entrance to the cage, imagining someone locking it behind her, but she swallowed the fear and crawled on. The squeak suddenly became a rasp, repeated over and over and she finally spotted the source of the sound; a baby paramite was squashing itself beneath the water trough, trembling with fear.

“Hey, it’s ok”, Anni said gently, and then tapped her fingers on the ground, which was slightly firmer over here, in the way she had seen paramites speak to one another. The paramite kept rasping so she did it a second time, then a third. Finally it fell silent and very slowly, gently, she reached out a hand to the paramite. Its head was the size of her hand.

“It’s alright,” She said softly and again tapped her fingers on the floor. T-t-tap! The paramite took a tentative step towards her and a huge smile spread across her face.

She laid in the mud for ten minutes repeating that tap and talking quietly and oh so slowly the tiny paramite came closer to her, touched her hand with its claws, let her put an arm around it. “It’s ok, it’s ok…” Very gently she scooped it up in her arms, brought it to her chest. “Come on,” She gently raised herself to her feet, cradling it against her, bending her back in the low-roofed pen. Taking gentle steps, she walked out into the open and then began to hurry, carrying the baby creature against her. She could feel it moving in her arms, stirring as they passed the dead paramites outside the cage; she could feel its frightened heartbeat on her skin.

It took her a minute to reach the courtyard where the paramite stirred again, smelling the others and even tried to wriggle out of her arms, but she held it firmly and carried it into the building, down the corridor towards the back of the factory. Beyond the grinders there was a corridor that led into the old part of Rupture Farms; she had noticed it days ago, and gone down a short way. The main corridor was blocked off but it forked, and a tiny passage led into the abandoned part of the factory; she had been down that passage only a few metres, but she was sure it would provide a good hiding place for the paramite. She hurried towards it.

She passed the grinders without meeting anyone, remembering that there were only two sligs in the building now, and there wouldn’t be any mudokons in the corridor at this time of day; they were all working. Then she hurried down the forgotten passage and squeezed down the narrow side-route, hugging the paramite tight against her chest to fit them both. After a few metres the corridor widened out and she hurried down, passing through large, empty, dusty rooms and narrow catwalks over empty factory floors, down a flight of stairs, past abandoned slog-huts, broken grinders, long-forgotten chant suppressors, taking a few turns until she found herself at the end of a passage, nothing ahead but a closed, rusty door. She put the paramite down on the ground and knelt down before it to whisper, “Now don’t worry; I’ll be back soon. I’m just going to get you some food.” She backed away from it and it squeaked and took a few steps towards her but she shushed it and said again, “I’ll be right back.” Then she turned and ran.

After a trip to the meat fridge (nearly her least-favourite room in the entire factory, losing only to the slaughter room next to it) she ran back to the paramite’s hiding place, carrying a cut from a meep; it wasn’t at all a pleasant thing to carry but she thought of why she needed it and soldiered on.

Reaching the hiding place, she sat on the floor, gently stroking its back and talking quietly to it as it ate the meat, “I think I’ll call you Somi,” She said, deciding it was a girl, unaware that paramites had queens, not females. Mudokons were the same after all, and yet Anni was an exception. But she didn’t give it a thought; she simply decided that the creature was a girl. “I’m sorry I can’t stay here longer; I have to work, and if the sligs find out where you are… well, I don’t know what they’ll do. But I’ll come tomorrow, and I’ll bring you food!”

But in the end it was several hours later, after the workday had finished, that Anni left the hiding place and returned regretfully to the living half of the factory. Having missed dinner, she hurried immediately to the cafeteria which at this time she expected to find empty, but Dean and Kix were there and stood up quickly when she came in.

“Anni, we’ve been looking everywhere for you! Javi searched the stockyards about eight times for you before he had to go and see the boss!”

Anni looked envious, “Javi got to see the glukkon?”

Kix looked at her with strained patience. “Where did you go? You just ran off!”

Anni paused, “Can I have something to eat?”

“Anni!” Dean growled. “Tell us where you’ve been hiding yourself. Then I’ll get you some food.”

Anni nodded reluctantly and came over and sat down at the table with them.

Very quietly she told them about Somi, about rescuing her and hiding her and spending the afternoon talking and playing and bonding with her. Dean looked grave as she finished and Kix looked shocked, “Anni, that’s not a pet! It’s a wild animal!” Kix said.

“I know that!” Anni replied bad-temperedly, and had to stop herself from adding ‘so am I’.

Dean was silent, thinking. Anni looked at him pleadingly. After a few minutes he sighed, “Odd, I guess we’re stuck with it now, aren’t we?”

Anni grinned.

“Dean, you can’t be serious!” Kix cried.

“Well we can’t just kill it now. Ok, I’ll help you keep the secret, and Javi will to. But listen, Anni! You’ve gotta help us, too, so a few rules. Firstly, no disappearing in work-time, cus if the sligs catch you at that, they’ll want to know what you’re up to. Second, you don’t spend hours down there, cus again the sligs will get suspicious, and if you do go down there you tell me or Javi-” He glanced at Kix, who had her arms folded but nodded reluctantly, “One of us or Kix first.”

Anni nodded eagerly.

“And one more thing, Anni. If you want us to keep this secret then you listen to us. You do everything Javi and I tell you to or you’re on your own, understand?”

Anni grinned broadly, “I always do what you tell me!”

Dean pursed his lips, “Yeah, but usually only after you’ve tricked me into agreeing with you – alright, I’ll get you some dinner.”

* * *

Dean was waiting nervously outside of the mudokon bunks that evening when Javi stormed over, looking grouchy. “Hey, how did it go?”

Javi glared at thin air, “Did you find Anni?”

“Yeah; we’ve kind of got another-”

“Good.” Javi said and walked past.

“Um,” Dean said to the empty corridor, “Maybe this isn’t the best time then?”

He hurried into the bunks, “Javi,” He hissed.

Javi ignored him.

“Javi, what happened?”

“Nothing,” He grunted.

“Yuh huh, you come back from the boss’s office speaking in grunts at staring at your bed post for having the audacity to exist and tell me nothing happened. Come on, Javi. We’re best buds! What did he say?”

“Forget it.” Javi threw himself onto his bed and turned his back on Dean.
Dean sighed; Javi so rarely lost his temper but when he really got upset over something he could clam up; Javi had a lot of secrets about times like this.

“Well when you’re ready to talk…” Dean suggested hopefully and sunk onto his own bed.

Javi lay in bed, blood pumping in his ears, fury flashing in his eyes. The insult was all the worse because the slig had so brazenly said it there in front of him, as if he didn’t have ears to hear, as if his own voice didn’t matter, and Javi was all the more angered because that was right; it didn’t. Of course the glukkons wouldn’t listen to him over the slig. He gritted his teeth and pounded his pillow with a fist, but Nick’s words still rung in his head. Standing there in the boss’s office, with Arnie and his junior executive or whatever the other one was standing right in front of them and Nick saying, “Ya see I’d asked Javi to help, but he got really impatient. I moved away to check out a cable and Javi moved in, started messing about with the machine. Before I knew it, he’d set off some old security system, and released all of those paramites.”

* * *

It took three weeks before Anni broke her promises to Dean. They’d stopped work for dinner break and Anni had gulped down her food as fast as she could. She hadn’t been able to go and see Somi the previous evening, and hadn’t been able to stop worrying about her all day! Now, with twenty minutes until she had to go back to work, she was sure she could slip in a quick visit. She didn’t tell anyone because she was sure they wouldn’t let her. But she wouldn’t be gone long, and it was free time after all.

She made her way to the fridge, grabbed a steak of some meat that she was sure wasn’t paramite and crept to the corridor that led to the hiding place. In the end she had barely more than five minutes with Somi before she had to go back; she was just emerging from the tight passage when the alarm rang to announce that work was recommencing and she smiled to herself and walked out into the factory.

“And where have you been?”

She spun around, gasping. “Reg, you scared me to death!” She cried.

He smirked, “Only in my dreams. Go somewhere nice?”

She shook her head, “Just went exploring.”

“With a slab of raw meat?”

‘Oh Odd’, “Um, well, I thought if I ran into any animals back there it might be handy, you know, to distract them.”

He sneered at her, “Yeah, sure. Where’re you working today, mud?”

“On the top floor,” She replied defensively.

“Uh huh, well I might be paying you a little visit later today, make sure you’re doing your job properly, you know.” He leered and raised his gun, “And I’m not afraid to make sure you’re working, if you know what I mean.”

She rolled her eyes, “Whatever. I’ll see you later, then,” And she ran off towards the lifts.

To her very great annoyance, Reg began to follow her around like a shadow after that, always appearing where she was working, and even hanging around her after work hours, leering, smirking and always watching. She found it so hard to slip away from him long enough to visit Somi, and a few days later Javi had to go and take the baby paramite food, because Anni couldn’t get away from Reg to do it herself. And when he wasn’t following her he was hanging around that passage that led to the old part of the factory, blocking her way.

When Kix found out that Reg was paying Anni so much attention, she looked horrified. She was nervous and edgy and also started staying close to Anni, much to Anni’s continued annoyance. She soon lost her temper with the older female and began running away from her too, when she could.

Two weeks passed and Dean, feeling increasingly sorry for Anni who was getting more and more frustrated about being followed so much, decided to try and give Anni the chance to get away for a couple of hours.

He had finished work for the day and knew Anni was working in the grinders with another mudokon. All he had to do was get Reg away from her for a couple of hours, and after a quick conversation, Javi agreed to provide a suitable diversion for the slig. The workday was drawing to a close and Dean was intending to go and tell Reg that he was wanted in the stockyards, but as he approached the grinders he saw Kix, hiding in a doorway and peeking through. He walked up behind her, “Shouldn’t you be working?”

Kix leapt into the air and let out a muffled yelp, spinning on her heals. “Dean!” She hissed furiously.

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Kix lowered her gaze and made to walk past him. He grabbed her by the arm, “What are you doing here?”

Kix mumbled, “Just making sure Anni is alright.”

Dean nodded. He could hear Reg talking through the open door. “Kix, what is your problem with that slig?” he said to her back, still holding her arm. “I mean, I know he’s a bully but come on; he still obeys the rules and-”

She turned to face him and he stopped, because tears were glistening in her eyes. “He doesn’t care about the rules,” She said, shaking her head, “He hates Anni, because she’s my friend, and he hates everything about me.”

Dean looked uneasy, “I know he… he bullies you worse than he does anyone else, but I don’t think he-”

“He would,” She cut in sniffing. “I know he would, because…” Tears spilt from her eyes and ran down her face, “He let my best friend die.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Somi is the creative property of T-nex. (Hi Nexy!!!) Unlike in the RPG, she won't learn to talk. (Sorry.)
Arnie's 'junior executive' (aka. Otto) is the creative property of Dripik. We might even hear his name, soon.

I love how much more of the personalities of the characters I got to show in this chapter. Nick is mostly a nice guy and quite responsible but deep down inside he's a bit of a coward, hense his blaming the trouble on Javi. That didn't happen in the RPG but it seemed logical to me that it should have and it's something Nick might come to regret

Dean tries to be responsible but when it comes to Anni she always manages to talk him into agreeing with her. Kix is also trying to get on with them but is getting frustrated with Anni. She wants to be part of the gang but it's gonna take some time yet. The next chapter will tell us some more about who she is...

(Reply!)

[scipionyx]

dawww Somi is cuuuute!!! x3

grrreat chapter I wonder what had happened to Kix's best friend ...can't wait for the next chapter ^^ ... this story makes me wanna join w@rf xD

[Splat]

Ar, it's sad but W@RF isn't as good as it used to be; it's been pretty slow for a long time and nothing really has happened in parts 7, 8 and 9. Things move so slowly that there's been no time for proper character and plot development like there was in the good old days before members move on. Part 7 is the longest of the RPG but as memory serves, only one significant thing happens in the whole course of the thread (though when I reread it, my opinion may change I guess). That's why I'm thinking that the second part in W@RF (which starts about halfway through W@RF 5) is likely to be the shortest.
My other worry is that the RPG needs to move on a fair bit before I can finish this story; I'm building towards the significant events in the RPG, but progress is very slow right now.

I'm gonna guess that at a chapter a week, I'm moving about ten pages of the RPG every week, which will probably speed up as time goes on. Meanwhile, the RPG itself is moving much slower and I'm worried that I'll have to put this story on hiatus while I wait for the RPG, which would surely upset me as much as it would upset you guys.
But never mind; we'll burn that bridge when we come to it, I guess.

The next chapter is definitely one of my favourites for a long time, and I look forward to showing everyone on Friday!

[scipionyx]

well it's only slow because either there are not enough people or they don't have enough time anymore...

cool I'm looking forward to the next chapter then ^^

[Gretin]

Ah, Somi is introduced XD I was wondering how you were going to explain how she talks, so the explanation of "she won't talk" solved that pretty quickly I also liked the way you gave an explanation for Somi being referred to as "she."

Looking forward to the next chapter - and looking ahead to when my characters as well as yours make their debut appearance at WARF XD I'm curious to see how you're going to write off the disappearance of a lot of the characters who just vanished during the course of the RPG, including my own three. I guess it doesn't matter so much when they had very little impact on the storyline of your main characters, but some of them HAVE had a lot of interacting with your main characters and then disappeared.

[T-nex]

Hey!! >: ( I was young and I was ignorant of alot of oddwordly things when I RPed in warf... But honestly it's not fun to rp as a Paramite that cannot talk!...
Buh.. But maybe it could be explained away with Anni just being really good with animals... meaning she sort of understand them?? O_o


Anyway I like this chapter ^^ The way you handled Somi was quite cool. Lol Kix sounds like a real bitch.

[Splat]

I was young and I was ignorant of alot of oddwordly things when I RPed in warf...

S'alright, so's Anni. I'm playing the 'childish innocence' card pretty heavily right now! And will continue to do so up until she fi-um, until she... she... Hey, look at that! *runs*

But honestly it's not fun to rp as a Paramite that cannot talk!...

True story. And it works in the RPG.

Buh.. But maybe it could be explained away with Anni just being really good with animals... meaning she sort of understand them?? O_o

Bingo! Trust me, Anni will speak more paramite than Somi will speak Mudosian. (In fact, she already has, tapping her fingers to say 'hello' - heehee, now I wanna see how much paramite gamespeak I can cram into this story ) She's a clever girl when it comes to seeing and mimicking how animals communicate. Might save her life, one day.

Anyway I like this chapter ^^ The way you handled Somi was quite cool. Lol Kix sounds like a real bitch.

Kix has trouble knowing how to interact with people.

Gretin, I'm not sure I interacted with Sefon or Frod all that much, but Groll is too cool to not appear; in fact a lot of the sligs in the parts I've read so far have worked pretty well, a new one coming as an old leaves, and you know, in RPG time Reg stayed about half a day but I pulled that off. Rupture Farms must have the worst employee record of any factory anywhere!

To explain a little about RPG time for those non-RPGers, ingame, everything that's happened in Rupture Farms in the story so far, and for all but the last chapter of this 'part' (which I haven't written yet, but I do have planned out) takes place in a single day. I believe after Anni arrives in W@RF 2, no one sleeps (apart from the occasional nap) until a short way into W@RF 5. Anni's first night in Rupture Farms in game, she doesn't even sleep in a bed. Days and nights don't really get written in the game (though enough happens in this big single day to easily fill a few). So all of the months and weeks that pass in the story are entirely my own creation.

[Splat]

First midnight update of Part 6! 'Cus I'm going away for the weekend and I don't know if I'll have time to do all the formatting and stuff tomorrow.
EDIT: I was two minutes early. Sorry.
Time to delve into Rupture Farms' past; what happened to Kix's best friend? And will Somi get found out? This is one of my favourite chapters for a long time. And it's also stolen the record for the longest yet, just reaching its seventh page on MS Word! You've been warned

Chapter 34

“Hey Dean, what happened to the plan?” Javi asked, walking casually into the cafeteria. From over the counter, Dean shot him a lethal glare and then with a gesture of his eyes directed his gaze to Kix, who was huddled up at the table closest to the kitchen “Oh…”

Dean came out of the kitchen with an enormous cup of tea in each hand and gave one to Kix, who took it gratefully, before sitting down at the table with her. Javi walked over and sat down. “So what’s going on?” Dean shushed him and looked expectantly at Kix.

She gave a sort of nervous, unhappy laugh. She was still crying and tears were dripping onto the table from her chin, “It was about a month before you all got here,” She said stuffily, “No, a little less than that I think. Anyway, you must have noticed I don’t have a lot of friends. I just… have a hard time speaking to people. I wouldn’t have gotten to know you guys if Anni hadn’t made friends with me first.” She trailed off.

“Yeah, Anni could make friends with anything, provided they’re not a vykker,” Dean said.

“Or most sligs,” Javi said, grinning, but got another glare from Dean. He rolled his eyes.

Kix ignored the interruption and went on, “So Bud was my only real friend here. He didn’t speak much, but you know, that was ok with me.” She smiled weakly over her tea, “And every so often he’d get these big ideas, huge, and he could talk for hours, just trying to explain what was in his head, these huge pictures he imagined, and he’d go on and on and I always felt that even with all he said I was only getting a fraction of what he could see. And, you know, he was my only friend, and no one else really listened to him.

“And Reg was just a horrible, horrible slig. Even back then he’d pick on me all day, every chance he got, cus he picked me out as an easy victim, you know? But when Bud was around he’d leave me alone. I think Bud scared him a little bit.”

Javi and Dean were silent. After a few moments she went on.

“It was always great when Bud and me got to work together. I mean most of the time we were assigned separate jobs at opposite ends of the place and then every so often the rota would fall so we’d be working together somewhere, and we could just enjoy each others’ company.” She smiled again, but it sank quickly. “Then this time we were working out in the stockyards, rota’d in you know, cus this was before you came along, Javi. We were getting on with it, and Reg had come by, but he’d seen Bud and hurried off again…

“It was just one of those horrible accidents. Some how a scrab had gotten loose, or maybe it was one of the ones that hide in the abandoned part of the factory and it had come looking for easy food. It howled at us and we ran, but of course you can’t outrun a scrab. Reg was still nearby and he saw it. Then Bud fell behind; he stumbled, and it got him…” She fell silent. Dean rested a hand on her back. She took a big gulp of her scalding drink before continuing, “It, you know, it didn’t kill him right off, but it knocked him down and tore open his chest and I was running back, cus I had to do something, you know? And Reg came past me and shot it. He ran past me. The scrab was dead in like two seconds, and it fell on top of Bud, and I ran over and pushed it off of him, and his blood was everywhere. I tried to carry him, but he was too heavy for me, so I turned to Reg.” She gulped for breath, “At first he looked like he was moving to help, but then he stopped. He… grinned at me like he always does, as if he’s the funniest thing on Oddworld,” She clenched her fists, furious through her tears, “And he walked away. Left Bud to die. He could have helped, he could have sounded the alarm or something, but he left me to try and get him up to the factory alone, and by then he was…” She trailed off again and hid her face in her hands.

Javi looked over her to Dean and his expression was grim, “I think we’d better keep an eye on Anni for a while,” He suggested.

* * *

Anni’s patience with Reg had long since worn out, and so had her patience with her work. She was becoming increasingly bored with all of the jobs that she was supposed to do, and that meant she began to slack off more and more. Reg was still tailing her and was spending more and more time yelling at her to work harder. Anyone could see that Reg’s frustration with the girl was building, and his frustration with Arnie’s ‘no beating’ rule.

“If this keeps up, we might have trouble soon,” Javi pointed out to Dean one evening.

“I’ve spoken to Anni,” He replied wearily, “And so has Kix; she’s just bored. I don’t know what we can do with her.”

“Keep an eye on her,” Javi suggested, “Make sure he keeps off of her?”

“Not likely. He’s just waiting for an excuse to hit her, and if he starts I’m not sure he’d make himself stop. You remember Dill?”

“Yes, I remember,” Javi replied grimly. Dill had worked in the lab, and he’d always been a bit slow, and was an easy target for the more bullying sligs, sligs like Reg. One day, a couple of years back, long before Anni had come into their lives, a pair of them had decided to push him around and things had escalated and he’d been killed. It hadn’t been pretty to see a mudokon who’d been beaten to death, and with his body sprawled out in the cafeteria one morning it was hard to not see him. Emlech had been furious at the sligs, but it hadn’t brought him back.

Reg seemed to be holding his temper well however, and when a couple more weeks passed without anyone getting hurt Dean began to relax a little, though Kix was still uncomfortable. Reg still looked close to boiling over but the guys began to think that he was able to control himself. Sure he might not save a dying mudokon, but on the other hand a lot of sligs wouldn’t if they weren’t pushed. That didn’t mean he’d go around killing them.

But despite Reg’s endurance, Kix’s suspicions wouldn’t go away, and she did all she could to make sure Anni was safe.

So she was watching on the day Reg was pushed too far.

It had been a big night for some of the sligs (namely Reg, Bela and Bunny) who had kept the rest of the workers in the factory up until the not-so-early hours, moving drunkenly around the factory until Seven had gone and yelled at them for a good long time. Pounding headaches accompanied Reg and Bunny as they stumbled around the factory the next morning, unaware that Kix was following them from a safe distance. She was supposed to be cleaning but seeing Reg in such an irritable mood made her think him worth watching. Anni on the other hand was alone in the warehouse when the sligs went in. She was sat on a crate, gazing into space. This proved to be unfortunate.

“What do you think you’re doing, mud? You aren’t paid to sit around.” Reg grumbled as he stalked through the door.

She rolled her eyes at him, unintentionally patronising, “The train’s not coming for like another half an hour, so there’s no point sending the boxes over to the station now, is there?”

Reg glared. Kix slipped through the door and ducked into a shadow to watch, and then, unexpectedly, Bunny came and leant against the wall beside her, unaware of her and looking grouchy.

“Don’t you talk to me like that, mud!”

Anni’s patience was also running thin after all of these weeks so she asked grumpily, “How would you like me to talk to you?”

“I said SHUT UP!”

“Ouch, watch it, Reg!” Bunny snapped, delicately nursing his hangover.

“Watch it yourself,” He snapped back.

“Yeah, Reg, watch what you’re doing or you’ll get in trouble,” Anni said cheekily. It was the last straw.

“I said get to work!”

“Ugh,” Anni said with an impatient toss of the head, “Silly boy.”

With a roar, Reg spun round and smacked her in the side of the head with his gun. The force lifted her off of the crate she was sitting on and threw her to the ground. From her hiding place, Kix screamed in rage and fear and leapt up, faster than Bunny could even think to react and crashed into Reg. He yelled as he was thrown to the floor and a moment later Kix was sitting on his legs, punching every part of him within reach. Too dazed to react properly, he feebly tried to ward her off until she suddenly froze.

Bunny had his gun pressed against the back of her neck, “Stand up slowly,” He hissed viciously.

Reg however took advantage of her moment of distraction and threw a punch up and struck her on the side of the head. She cried out as she was thrown aside and a moment later he was on top of her, hitting her in the face with the butt of his gun, over and over. Bunny tried to grab him, “Reg, you’re gonna get yourself shot!” But the other slig ignored him, until there was an enormous bang over by the door.

Kix’s behaviour had not bee exactly normal over the last few weeks, and it hadn’t escaped the attention of those who bothered to look. Expert had noticed her sneaking away from her work every so often, which was strange for the mudokon girl, who was usually a very diligent worker. So when he noticed that she had left her post that day he had decided to see what it was all about and try and find her. He had passed by the warehouse a few moments ago, seeing only Reg, Bunny and Anni in there, but when he heard Kix’s scream he had come running back.

Reg looked up at the irate big-bro framed in the doorway, the next step in the Rupture Farms food chain, and a rabbit-in-headlights expression appeared on his face. Expert’s chest was heaving; he was shaking with rage, his gun gripped so tightly in his hands Reg was half convinced that he would leave dents in the metal. Expert pointed out of the doorway and heaved three words, “You… Out… Now.”

Reg ran for it. Bunny followed.

Expert ignored Anni completely, though he had noticed her lying there, and ran to Kix’s side. She looked at him, trembling, blood trickling from the side of her mouth, “Kix, can you hear me?”

She pushed herself up shakily and looked up at him, “I think I might be in trouble,” She whispered.

* * *

Expert had promised to stop Reg from hurting her, “If he comes near you again, I’ll beat his brains against a wall,” And stormed off to tell him so. Kix sat on a crate, slowly recovering herself as a huge bruise flourished under her right eye. When her pulse had stopped racing, she pushed herself to her feet and looked around, vaguely surprised to see that the warehouse was no different to how it had been a few moments ago. She felt like the world was collapsing; she’d attacked a slig! She could hardly believe she was still alive! She expected Seven to burst in at any moment and escort her away, and of all the sligs, Reg, the one most likely to do all he could to see her killed! She had to catch her breath again. Anni was already working, pushing and pulling crates into the chute that would carry them to the train station. “Anni?”

Anni ignored her.

She paused, steeled herself and pushed herself straight up. She walked to the door but glanced back at the other girl, “I’m going now.”

Anni shrugged a shoulder, as if to brush her off.

“Are you ok? Did he hurt you?”

“No.”

Her shortness made Kix uneasy; what could be wrong? “I’m sorry I didn’t make sure you were ok sooner; I should have done.”

Again that shrug, as if to push her away. This time Anni spoke though, “You shouldn’t have hit him.”

A pained expression crossed Kix’s face, “I know. But Expert thinks it’ll be ok, because he hit you first, and-”

“Ugh, is that all you care about?” Anni yelled, “Just what happens to you? You shouldn’t have hit him! Just because he hit me first does that mean it’s ok to hurt people?!”

Kix stared in amazement, “You think I should have sat there and let him beat you up?” She asked incredulously, “Anni, that’s crazy!”

“Oh, you think I’m crazy!” Anni cried scornfully.

“No! I-”

“What were you doing in here anyway, spying on me?”

“Anni, I wanted to make sure you were-”

“Ugh, I’m sick of you Kix!” Anni shrieked and ran away into the warehouse, leaving Kix standing in the doorway speechlessly frozen in place.

* * *

Kix tried to talk to Anni again later, but the girl yelled at her and ran away. She couldn’t understand why Anni was acting like this! She tried speaking to Javi and Dean about it but they wouldn’t talk about Anni with her, looking as if they wanted to explain but couldn’t let themselves. Though they tried to stay friendly with Kix, she still felt pushed away by them, and was soon as lonely as she had been before they had come, after Bud had died.

It was made worse by Anni; Reg had stopped following her everywhere, which meant she was able to go and see her pet almost every evening and she way almost buoyant with happiness now, back to her old self, except every time Kix tried to approach her, when she would be treated to a glare so hateful that it was almost frightening on the young girl’s face. Kix was crying herself to sleep again.

And it was made so much worse by Reg, because she hardly ever saw him. This ought to have been an improvement, an effect of Expert’s protection, but it was more frightening. It was like he disappeared for most of the time, and she caught herself wondering what he was plotting. Paranoia was driving her crazy! But she knew he was the sort of person to hold a grudge, and Odd, he had a huge reason to hold one against her now!

Expert, also, seemed to be avoiding her now. Perhaps she was just expecting to see more of him, but it seemed to her that he came and stood by her while she worked hardly ever now. Maybe he was trying to protect his reputation with the other sligs, or perhaps he felt that now he’d promised to help her he didn’t owe her anything anymore. And every time she passed Bunny in a corridor or in the cafeteria he shot her an evil glare.

After a few weeks she decided she had to try and talk to Dean, to make him help her with Anni, and they had sat in the cafeteria one evening after work and talked, but he still wouldn’t help her with Anni. He was still guarded and closed and eventually he left (perhaps just to go to bed, but she couldn’t stop herself from thinking that he just wanted to get away from her) and went upstairs, leaving her sitting there feeling miserable. Half an hour passed before she got up and walked though the dark corridors towards the main lift shaft. She was approaching it when she heard a buzz of mechanical legs, caught sight of red lights flashing towards her out of the darkness and then something hit her on the side of the head, hard and heavy, and she was thrown back against a wall. Before she could react she was hit in the side of the head again and was knocked to the floor, screaming.

“Shut that up!” Yelled Reg’s voice from above her and he swung at her head again. She pulled herself aside and his gun struck the floor an inch in front of her face. She tried to crawl away but another blow fell and struck her on the shoulder and she fell with a yell; another blow hit the same shoulder and there was a loud pop and then she really screamed as her left arm fell limp. Something hard and cold, perhaps the gun or perhaps his metal foot, struck her in the side, rolled her onto her back and another blow hit her in the stomach, forcing the breath out of her and shooting coils of numb pain throughout her body. She was struck in the chest and ribs cracked, then again, and again, her face, her chest, and the number of blows ran together as they rained down on her.

And suddenly it stopped, though she could hear laboured breathing, scuffling, grunting, whirring mechanics and she rolled onto her side, tried to curl up but lances of pain went through her chest. She was sticky all over with blood. She heard a voice above her, angry and unfamiliar, “Go and wait outside the Boss’s office RIGHT NOW! Or I’ll tell Expert about this and he can deal with you!” A whir of slig pants, a crackle of a radio, “Bela, Nick, I need you both to come to the bottom of the main lift shaft. I know it’s late, just come now! Tell me you’re not drinking!”

Then the slig bent over her – she could see the eyes of his mask glowing over her in the darkness, and he spoke, and she realised it was Seven; she’d never heard him lose his temper before, “Kix, can you hear me? Kix!”
She wanted to answer, but the shadows were closing in around her.

* * *

Dean and Anni were waiting outside the mudokon bunks when Javi approached, “Will she be ok?” Dean asked instantly.

Javi nodded, “I think so. Nine broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder – I helped Nick pop that back in – and the rest’s not serious. That slig’s good at first aid, whatever else he is. Lucky it’s not worse, or they’d be calling in a vykker to sort her out.” Anni’s jaw clenched.

Nearly an hour ago, Nick had burst into the mudokon bunks and told Javi he needed him. Javi had been reluctant to go, but Nick had been insistent. It turned out he’d wanted his medical skills (from treating animals, but fortunately he’d been able to apply what he knew about setting bones to Kix) and Javi had done all he could to help. It had taken another half an hour for the news to leak to the mudokons that Kix had been beaten up by a slig and Dean and Anni had immediately come out to wait for news.

“Was it Reg?” Dean asked.

Javi shrugged, but nodded, “I don’t know for certain, but it looks like it. I know Reg is in the boss’s office right now,” He grinned savagely.

Dean leant back against the wall, “We’ll see how loyal to his non-violence rule Arnie is then, won’t we?”

“Can we go and see Kix?” Anni asked.

Javi shook his head, “Nick sent me away, and I don’t think he’s going to let anyone else in.” He glanced at Dean, “I think we should go to bed; it’s pretty late.”

It was another hour before Reg emerged from the boss’s office and was met by Bunny, “What happened?”

Reg walked a few feet down the corridor and then punched a wall with his fist. His voice was oddly muffled and ever so slightly hysterical when he answered, “Brzstrk glukkon fired me! For hitting a mudokon! What the Hell is wrong with this place?! He even called a grhzzing train to pick me up! He’s not even letting me stay the night!”

Seven emerged from the office then and spotted them, “Reg, we’re gonna go and get your stuff from the bunks. Come on.”

Reg smirked at thin air and followed, leaving Bunny standing there, looking bitter.

It was three hours later that Anni lay silent in her bed, letting Javi and Dean think she was asleep. Then with a skill that only comes with a lifetime of practice she slipped nearly silently out of her bed and out of the room.

Around that time, Reg left the slig bunks with a haversack slung over one shoulder. He stalked alone towards the station where a tiny train had just pulled in to collect him and was passing by the main grinders when an enormous figure strode out of the shadows, blocking his path, “So!” Expert said.

“Expert, leave me alone! I didn’t do anything wrong; any sane glukkon would see that.”

Expert stayed silent.

“What are you Expert, a mud-lover?”

Expert gave a dry laugh, “Not me. But you know what they say; what comes around…”

“Don’t even think it you psycho!”

A huge fist, backed by steroids and a lot of natural muscle struck Reg in the side of the head and he was thrown to the ground. The left side of his mask shut down, leaving him half blind as Expert loomed over him, readying himself for another swing, and then another figure was standing over him, protecting him from Expert. He stared in amazement; it was Anni!

“Leave him alone.”

Expert stared and then yelled, “Are all the muds in this place completely insane!? Kid, this guy beat your friend senseless!”

“I don’t care; that doesn’t mean he deserves to have the same done to him!” Anni yelled, and her voice, though high, was steady and authoritative. Expert could practically feel power glowing from her and he suddenly thought that if the natives got their hands on this girl, the industrials would have a huge problem on their hands.

“Hell Reg, you seem to be a real magnet for the girls don’t you.” Reg would have sworn at him, but didn’t have the courage. Expert sloped off into the darkness of the factory.

Anni glanced over her shoulder at him, light catching her eyes and making them appear redder, and she said coldly, “If Kix doesn’t get better I’ll never forgive you.”

The shadows around her suddenly seemed much deeper and somehow all this chilled Reg more than Expert’s attack; he watched edgily as the little girl walked away, almost prowled away, back towards her bunks. His heart was hammering in his chest. It took him several minutes to remember to move, and then he scuttled to his feet, pressing a hand to his blind eye, and ran to the train station.

A few minutes later he was being carried away in a grubby little train. He watched the factory vanish into the darkness as the train sped down the tracks towards Feeco Depot, where he would spend the next two weeks rifling through copies of the Daily Deception, looking for a job. He would never return to the factory, though in a few years when he heard what had happened there, he would laugh and sneer and brag to his friends that he had seen it coming, and that Arnie and all the rest of them had got what they deserved.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Bud belonged to T-Nex (and was her Historic First Character), but I only reread the end of his appearance in the RPG (went from memory, mostly), and I'm not sure how well I depicted him. I wanted to use his section to increase the feel of the dark and gritty Rupture Farms which is really present when Anni and her friends arrive, particularly in Reg.

Three of the paragraphs in this chapter are the most foreshadowy things I've ever written (yes, one of them was the last one; I'm not saying which the others are )! This is what you get when you let me read Steven King!

I reread this chapter last week (getting into this proof- reading thing!) and made a fair few edits, and was very pleased with the results!This is also the longest chapter of this story, the first to make it into seven pages in Microsoft Word!

I thought when I wrote it that the scene where Anni and Kix first fall out wouldn't really work, that Anni's anger wouldn't seem logical, but rereading it I was shocked by how successful I found it; it actually came out shockingly dark! Poor Kix!

Oh, I so love the way things close in here, getting tighter and tighter as it progresses. The cast has sort of been stripped away; Nick, Bela and Somi all sort of vanish, tightening the view on the others but these too begin to slip away, Bunny, then Anni, Expert, Javi, Dean until we're left with this really tight view of Kix and the lurking Reg in this dark, shadowy night-time factory where the rest of the action plays out over a couple of hours with this suddenly tiny cast of characters. Things begin to broaden out but then draw tight again. The image of the pecking order of the factory, Kix attacked by Reg, then Reg attacked by Expert, then Expert stopped by...
Definately my favourite chapter of Part 6 so far!

I mostly rewrote two of the last paragraphs of this one last week, and I am so pleased with the result, increasing that sense of fear, that uncanny power and authority that suddenly blooms in Anni.

W@RF readers keep spoilers to yourself! And everyone, reply! Tell me if you found this chapter as intense as I thought it was!

Remember how I said that this Part could be devided into three bits? Well this ends the first one, which was sort of based around Reg and Kix. It's also the end of W@RF 2; next chapter will be based on material from W@RF 3!

So reply! Tell me what you thought! Were you on the edge of your seat or yawning away? What did you think of the bit about Bud (T-nex, you are obliged to answer this question)? What did you think of my characterisation of Reg? Did you think Anni's mood in this chapter seemed convincing?
No new chapter 'til T-nex tells me what she thought of my portrayal of Bud!

[scipionyx]

This chapter was very interresting makes me wonder whether anni has some sort of split personality ...?

I especially liked the ending of the chapter and the mood it creates when you read it.

[Gretin]

I was on the edge of my seat AND yawning away! Just kidding, pretty cool chapter Anni really doesn't know when to quit.

And I'm so tempted to answer your comment, scipionyx, but I better not due to spoilers

[Splat]

Well, tragically, as T-Nex failed to reply to the last chapter, there will be no new chapter this week!


Nah, just kidding.

Interesting guess, Sci.

And no, Anni doesn't know when to quit. Speaking of which we've now left W@RF 2 behind us and are into the world of W@RF 3...

Chapter 35

A little more than a month after Reg had left, Bunny left as well; he was angry at how Reg had been treated and sick of Arnie’s way of running Rupture Farms. Arnie and his assistant, Otto, had been searching long and hard for a fairly competent but cheap slig to replace Reg though when Bunny left they were forced to make a quick decision. They picked a slig who would arrive in a couple of weeks, and began searching for another to replace Bunny.

Already two sligs down, Arnie was then forced to accept Nick’s request for six days’ leave as he was already well overdue some holiday time (he was just too useful around the place). So with only Seven, Expert and Bela left to guard his eleven mudokons, Arnie had decided to cease production for a week and order a factory-wide super-clean. Every room of Rupture Farms was to be scrubbed from top to bottom (except the restricted areas, obviously), three rooms at a time, working through the whole place, from the stockyards to the cafeteria, from the production lines to the roof.

After Kix had been attacked, Anni had ceased hostilities and the two of them were now close friends and were very happy to be able to work together for a week. Kix informed Javi that they had ‘vital girl-talk’ to share. Javi had no idea what this meant. He asked Dean what he thought; Dean didn’t know what it meant either.

Dean now found he had two mudokons assisting him in the cafeteria every day for the week and he was making use of the time this freed up. “Try this,” He said to Javi one afternoon, handing him something that looked suspiciously like a paramite pie.

“What is it?” Javi asked cautiously.

“It’s a paramite pie you moron!”

“Why are you giving me a paramite pie?”

“Just try it!”

Javi shrugged and took a bite, “It tastes like a paramite pie,” He said pointedly.

“Right,” Said Dean, “Now try this one.” He produced another pie.

“Um, is it any different from the other one?”

Dean rolled his eyes, “No Javi, it’s exactly the same,” He replied sarcastically.

Javi decided not to retort and tried it, then looked surprised, “Wow. It tastes like a paramite pie I guess, but it doesn’t taste like it was made by vykkers!”

Dean grinned, “Same preparation time as the normal pie, same preparation method, very nearly the same shelf-life (though no glukkon cares about that anyway); just different ingredients, and slightly cheaper!”

“You made this?” Javi asked, raising his bitten pie.

Dean nodded, grinning from ear to ear, “My own special recipe. I wanna see what everyone else thinks, especially the sligs, but I recon if I can convince Seven it’s worth while they might put it into the production instead of the old one!”

Javi rolled his eyes with a grin, “You know no one will ever know that you invented it?”

“So what? My paramite pie recipe will be in vending machines across Mudos! That’s good enough for me!”

As it turned out, all of the mudokons agreed that Dean’s pie was vastly superior to the normal one, and so did Seven, though Bela and Expert said they couldn’t taste the difference (Bela pointed out that he couldn’t taste anything, so this didn’t concern Dean too much). Seven promised to tell Arnie about it and since Seven was normally a trustworthy slig, Dean took his word.

Anni was still spending free time with Somi, who was getting bigger, now about half the size of an adult paramite. Anni was still feeding her but she wasn’t eating so much of the food offered as she used to, there were times when Anni went down to look for her and she wasn’t around. Javi suggested that she may have joined a pack of wild paramites, who were helping her find food; this was good, because it would teach her to survive without their help. Anni was at first a little sad to think of her friend moving on without her, but was in the end glad that Somi was living like a paramite should. She was also more and more bored with work, and though she kept her word about not visiting Somi in work hours (she had learnt this lesson at least for the time being) she was starting to spend more time hanging around in the cafeteria or stockyards, working little and talking to her friends, no matter how often they told her to get back to her job.

Towards the end of the cleaning week, she had convinced Kix to take a break and they were sat in the cafeteria at the counter, talking to Dean who was busy in the kitchen. “This room is so boring!” Anni said, suddenly.

“Huh?” Kix, who had been engrossed in conversation with Dean, looked at her in confusion.

“I mean this is a place where everyone is supposed to hang out and relax, but it just looks like every other room! It should be brighter and more fun!”
Kix rolled her eyes, “And how do you suggest we do that?”

“I don’t know. We could paint the walls or something; you know, decorate the place!”

“What place are you decorating?”

Kix and Anni spun on their seats. Dean called out, “Hey, welcome back, Nick!”

The slig grinned as an unfamiliar hunched-up mudokon walked into the cafeteria behind him.

“How was your holiday?” Kix asked.

Nick scratched the back of his head, “Wouldn’t really call it a holiday myself. You seen Seven around here? I told him when I’d be back but he wasn’t at the station.”

“No idea,” Kix said, “But I know he has a whole list of jobs for you to do that we found this week.”

“Oh, joy of joys,” Nick muttered.

“Who’s this?” Anni suddenly asked of the mudokon following Nick.

Nick slapped his forehead, “Sorry, this is Math. He’s working here now, I guess.” He scratched his neck again thoughtfully then explained, “Ya see I was off this week visiting the lab I worked in before this; I got a call from one of the vykkers there who said he wanted to see me. It turns out that they’re closing down part of his lab – loads of places have had to close down since Vykkers Labs was destroyed – and it turns out his company was firing him.” Nick grinned, “So to take revenge he’s been secretly giving away all the stuff he’s in charge of, machinery, stock and about ten mudokons, just to spite his boss, you know? And since I helped him out of some trouble a couple of years ago, he said I could have Math. I don’t really get all of the legal stuff but basically he’s mine, which if nothing else should make it easier for me to get a job if I ever leave here.”

Math gave a nod of greeting but kept his mouth shut. He looked slightly uncomfortable since Anni had been grinning at him since he came in.

“Anyway, I don’t want to drag him all over the place with me while I look for Seven, so do you mind coming with me, Kix, and showing him around in a bit?”

She nodded and jumped off of her chair, giving Math a friendly smile.

The three of them left the cafeteria and it was in fact only a few minutes when they met Seven on the second floor. “Hey, sorry I missed the train, Nick! I was talking with the boss and just noticed the time. Is this the mudokon you mentioned?”

“Yeah, this is Math,” Nick said, giving him a casual slap on the back of the head. Math looked at him indignantly and Kix grinned. “Kix said you had a whole heap of work for me to do?” He said, fairly cheerfully.

Seven nodded, “I’m glad you’re back to be honest; it’s not been easy with only Bela and Expert. But that new slig’s coming next week and the boss has picked someone to replace Bunny, too; he’s some guy with mechanical skills like you, so he might lessen your work-load a little.”

Nick looked fairly surprised, “I’m not being replaced, am I?”

Seven grinned, “Don’t worry, he’s not as qualified a mechanic as you, and he says he’s more than happy to do just guard work, so I don’t think you’re job’s in danger. Just another cheap slig. Anyway, if you want to come to the security office I’ll talk you through the latest list of disasters we’re facing.”

“Right. Kix, are you ok to show Math around?”

“Sure, he can come and work with me later, too. I think Anni’s happy helping Dean for a while.”

“Right,” Seven said, “I’ll get this guy rota’d in and later, Nick, you can get Dean to show you his new-and-improved paramite pie recipe. If we can find a supplier to sell us the ingredients in bulk, the boss says he’ll take them to production.”

Kix grinned at Math as the sligs walked away, “Hey.”

Math looked a little shy but half-returned the smile, “Hi.”

Kix urged him to follow her and started leading him to the grinders, “So, what was this lab you worked at like?”

By the time the two of them had made their way back to the cafeteria they were chatting amiably and Dean, after calling the start of dinner, soon joined them. After coming out of his shell, Math got on quite well with the other mudokons and Kix and Dean told him about the ins and outs of Rupture Farms, its grounds, its sligs and the way it ran.

“Expert is the other big-bro; he’s not a bad guy once he gets used to you.”
Kix grinned, “He used to be really tough but he’s softened up a little recently.”

At about that moment, Anni ran over to them, “Hey Dean, I was thinking about what we were talking about earlier-”

“Oh dear,” Said Dean, remembering her idea of decorating the cafeteria.

“-And I thought it would be really great to paint some flowers on the walls and make it look really nice. I just checked out a storeroom and there were lots of different colours, red, yellow, green, blue. I couldn’t find any pink though-”

Dean put his hands over his ears and said loudly, “I am not having this conversation,” Which made Kix and Math laugh loudly.

Three days later a new slig was met by Seven at the station, “You must be Razor!” He said cheerfully, while quietly marvelling at how low Arnie was having to dig to get sligs these days. Razor looked generally unkempt and ill-tempered and Seven wondered how far they were from having as much trouble from him as they had had from Reg. The faded tattoo on his shoulder of a mudokon-skull with an axe implanted in it didn’t bode well.

It took a long walk around the factory to get Razor to understand that he wasn’t allowed to beat mudokons in Rupture Farms and he simply couldn’t understand why this was. “I mean, what do I do if they’re messing about when they should be working?!” He demanded, by which he actually meant, “What do I do if I’m bored when I should be working?”

Seven growled, “Just… ask them to get back to work, and if they still refuse point out that you can tell me and then if they still refuse-”

“Did you just tell me to go and complain to you if I have any trouble with the muds?!”

Seven looked at him pointedly, and after a few moment said delicately, “I’m going to get Bela to show you around the rest of the factory.”

* * *

It was two days later; production had started again the day before (scrab cakes) and Anni was assigned to help Dean in the kitchen. Since he didn’t need her for a couple of hours while he worked on menu plans and updating the kitchen rota, he set her cleaning the cafeteria, though after half an hour he looked up to find she’d disappeared. Rolling his eyes, he got back to work.

A few minutes later however, she stumbled back through the cafeteria door carrying a strong bag of something and grinning happily.

“What have you got in there?” He asks cautiously.

Anni pulled a paint pot out of the bag, “I’ve got yellow, red and blue. I thought if I could mix the red with white I might get pink but there wasn’t any white left, so it’ll be red and blue flowers with yellow middles!”

“Oh, good grief.”

But taking the opinion that she couldn’t do too much damage in just the hour before he’d need her to help with the cooking he let her get on with it and, singing to herself, she got on with her flower-painting.

Some time had passed and six or seven garish flowers had appeared on the cafeteria wall before Dean’s judgement proved bad, “Hey, what are you doing, mud!?” Came a yell from the doorway.

Dean Looked over to see the new slig, Razor, storm into the cafeteria. ‘Oh dear,’ He thought.

Anni, her face, chest and arms flecked with paint, grinned at him, “I’m making the cafeteria look nicer,” She said.

‘Oh dear,’ Dean thought again, having an unpleasant idea of where this might be going. Razor didn’t look like a slig with a sense of humour (or at least one not involving violence).

“What do you mean, ‘making the place look nicer’? You’re supposed to be working, not wasting time!”

Anni looked indignant, “I am not wasting time! It’s really boring in here, and-”

“CLEAN THAT MESS UP NOW!” Razor roared, storming towards her.

“There’s no need to yell!” Anni yelled, then said more calmly, “I’m not yelling!”

“I said CLEAN IT UP!” He shouted and gave her a vicious push, knocking her backwards into the wall and coating her back in blue paint.

“Now look what you did!” She yelled, waving furiously at the smeared paint on the wall, “You ruined my flower, stupid slig!”

Foreseeing disaster, Dean crossed his fingers and yelled, “Hey, uh, hey slig, you know you’re not supposed to push mudokons around here?”

“Don’t tell me what to do, mud!” Razor yelled, “This is a factory, not a playground! I ought to rip-”

And then he stopped very suddenly because Anni, stretching up as high as she could, had just emptied a tin of red paint over his back.

There was a long silence. Then Razor spun round, “YOU STUPID IDIOTIC GTRZ! I’M GONNA-” He lunged at her but his tiny metal feet slipped in the puddle of paint and he flopped over onto his face, getting his front covered in red paint as well. Laughing, Anni ran out of the cafeteria. “Get back here, MUD!” Razor roared furiously; Dean by now had dived behind the counter and was struggling to keep his laughter silent.

* * *

A trail of smeary red prints soon led from the cafeteria to the security office (after a short detour to follow another set of prints until they disappeared) where Razor burst violently through the door and glared murderously at Nick and Seven who were both in there doing paper work.

“What happened to you?” Nick asked sardonically. Razor’s pants, mask, face, arms, chest and back were covered in red paint.

“THAT GRHZZING MUD!” Roared Razor.

“Ah,” Said Nick.

“Oh dear,” Said Seven.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

What a brat!

I don't know what vital girl-talk is, either.

And naturally we all know the song Anni was singing when she was painting.

Razor is property of T-nex (Spelt Razer in the RPG). The paint thing actually did happen in the RPG And the event included the following utterly awesome quote that tragically didn't make it into the story.

Kix went over to the cafeteria and saw Anni with some red paint on her.

Kix: "What happened to you?"

Anni: "Nah, it just this new slig who thought that he could ruin my flower. Well, it was a flower untill he came and ruined... Which means that he DID ruin my flower. HEY! The stupid slig ruined my flower!"

(In the RPG, all the flowers were red)

I love the banter between Javi and Dean. This chapter was rather lighter-hearted than the last few.
Heh, like that'll last...

Next week will be my last Friday update; then I'm moving to Tuesday updates instead.

Reply!

[T-nex]

Im sorry for not replying before... But because of uber-secret secrets and stuff I .. couldnt D=!!!!!!!


Oh I almost forgot about Math That should be fun. And seriously.. That pie-event.. Was VERY important. I'm glad it made it to the story!

[Splat]

Still didn't tell me what you thought of Bud...

[T-nex]

Well it was Ok >_< What do you want me to say? Didnt find anything wrong with it, and it added to the story.

[Gretin]

Ah, it's starting to get into the era that I'm more familiar with now

I notice you made the sensible choice of making Math just be a normal mudokon to fit into the story From memory even Havoc said when he brought the character in that he knew it didn't entirely match up with Oddworld but meh

[scipionyx]

what happened to Razor made me laugh this chapter was great!

[Splat]

Today is a very special day, in two ways.
The first is of course that it is the twenty first anniversary of the birth of T-nex, who as i've mentioned like 90 times, created Anni and her chums, and got me into RPGing, leading to the creation of Stivik, Dionysia, Krik and this whole story.
So Happy Nexyday everybody, and Happy Birthday, Nexy!

And the second reason that this post is so special is that during the course of this chapter, The Despicable is going to reach a very special milestone. It is a milestone reached by very few fanfics, and not even reached by all of Sl'askia's 'Spider' fanfics on the forums put together!
What is it?
Well, I'll tell you when we get there

So moving swiftly on...

Chapter 36

Anni was grumbling to herself as she mopped the floor outside of the security office, “Stupid slig, can’t take a joke, has to tread the paint everywhere and then go and tell everyone like it was my fault when he was the one who ruined my flowers…” It had been a good day up until Nick had tracked her down and told her to start cleaning. She hadn’t even been allowed to shower yet and the paint cracking on her back was making her itch.

She looked up at a whir of pants and glowered at Nick as he approached, “Come on Anni,” He said with almost indecent happiness, “You haven’t even done three metres yet, and you’ve got all the way to the cafeteria to do before the end of the week! You’re gonna be having some late nights if you don’t work faster!”

“I can’t do it all by myself!” She cried.

He grinned, “You made the mess!”

“I didn’t make it; that slig, Razor, did! Make him clean it up!”

“He only made the mess ‘cus you threw paint over him!”

“I only threw paint over him because he ruined my flowers!”

Nick chuckled, “Well this is what you get for wasting your time painting walls when you should’ve been working!”

“I was working, stupid slig! This place is so boring, and the cafeteria is supposed to be somewhere nice to relax and-”

“And I suggest you stop yelling and get on with your cleaning,” Nick said happily, “I want you done to that corner tonight, and me and Bela are on night shift and we’ll be making sure you get it done.”

Anni said something very uncomplimentary then, but fortunately for her Nick laughed it off and walked away.

She had a quick shower late that night. Then she spent the next morning cleaning paint off of Razor’s pants, finding out that throwing industrial paint over a slig may not have been as brilliant an idea as it had seemed at the time (she herself had had to throw away the clothes she was wearing that day).

Around midday, Nick came in to check on her progress with the pants, “Yeah, Anni; I said clean the paint off, not polish the bits that didn’t have any on to begin with.”

“I’ve got loads off!” She said, anger rising in her voice.

“Uhuh, but it’s still covered, here, and here, look! Open you’re eyes!”

“I can’t get it out of those cracks! I can’t even get my fingers in there!”

“Well I suggest you find a way, ‘cus if Razor isn’t happy you’ll have to do ‘em again, and you’ve still got that floor to do!”

“Ugh, you egotistical idiot!” She yelled, recalling a word heard long before.

Nick sneered, “Just for that, you can go without dinner if you don’t get this done; you show respect to sligs, Anni.”

She glowered at him as he walked away.

She finished cleaning the pants with aching, swollen wrists just as lunch break ended. Nick ordered her to start cleaning on the middle floor right away, refusing to let her even enter the cafeteria, to her rising fury. But later on when she was mopping the middle floor, Dean brought her up some food. She ate sullenly, refusing to talk.

“Look,” Dean said to her just as he was leaving, “I’ll talk to Nick; he is being pretty harsh on you.”

Anni smiled at him reluctantly but was quietly

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Magog on the March!
News you can’t Excuse!

We interrupt your usually Friday programming to bring you this special news bulletin; rumours are coming in that the Oddworld fan-fic, ‘The Despicable’, has now reached a milestone 100,000 WORDS IN LENGTH! That’s a whole lotta words! That’s even more words in all of Sl’Askia’s ‘Spider’ stories on Oddworld Forums! Our reporters are on the scene.


“This is Iron the slig reporting live from the Oddworld Forums Fan Corner. I’m here today with Splat, the writer of this milestone-reaching-fan-fiction. Splat, what inspired you to write such a long story?”

“Well basically I want to move my writing to a professional level, and The Despicable has been a great practice for that. It was really exciting to realise I’d reached this completely ridiculous milestone; it’s been several years work and there’s still a fair bit to come.”

“And what has made you keep going all this way?”

“Well there are three things really; the first is the characters themselves; I love these people I’ve created (you know, in the non-mental-institution sense) and I love telling their stories. I can’t wait to show everyone where they end up and what impact they each leave in their world. Secondly, it’s the people reading the story; it’s great to get their feedback and to know that they’re enjoying reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. And finally, it’s the Fan Corner community as a whole. A lot of people (including myself) complain sorrowfully about great Oddworld writers like Sl’askia and Teal leaving their epics unfinished, but really OWF’s fanfiction story is still growing and evolving; the people who write today are as much a part of the story as the greats of the years gone by. No matter how much our stories may contradict and confuse, no matter how good or bad they may be, they all form a part of the great story of Oddworld that we create.”

“That’s great Splat, and finally, can you tell us any more about the future of your story?”

“I don’t want to give too much away, but watch shadows. Also, there is a line from the RPG, originally written by T-Nex, which will occur nearly sort of word-for-word in the last-but-one chapter of Part 6. For me, and for the formation of this story, it’s possibly the most important line of the entire RPG! And certainly one to look out for when it comes.”

“Thank you Splat. Now, it’s back to you in the studio.”


Thanks, Iron. Now, to celebrate the milestone 100,000 words, let’s look back at a few of our favourite moments from the story’s history.

* * *

Slowly months went by and the group settled in together. Tilic became more relaxed and eventually made peace with Stivik, though Stivik’s bitterness for his leader never fully went away. A day came when Nen revealed that they had managed to save enough moolah to buy a fairly decent second-hand generator and they were thankful enough to initiate him ‘officially’ into the pack (which basically involved getting him outstandingly drunk). Stivik was surprised one day when Tilic came to him and told him, “With Stack gone we really need a sort of ‘third in command’, you know, to help me and Dekas decide what jobs we’ll be doing, and if either of us are put out of action for a while we’d need someone to help command things. Anyway, I’ve talked it over with Dekas and we decided you would be best at it; you’re more responsible than Braz, and Burn never really trained, so,” Tilic gave him one of his increasingly rare smiles, “The job’s yours!”

Stivik was taken by surprise; Stack’s role in the team had never been something he’d given much thought to after his death, and he certainly hadn’t expected to find himself filling the place. He smiled and clasped arms with Tilic. Braz’s first response to learning of this promotion was, “Hey, Tilic always said you were destined for higher things!” When he heard that, Tilic gave an odd smile and disappeared off on his own for a few hours while the others ‘initiated’ Stivik as well.

* * *

Eventually the work paid off and Krik arrived at a formula that he felt confident would increase Skillya’s fertility without harming her to any significant level. The following night he crept out of his room and through the storerooms and kitchens into her chamber. He halted in the doorway, looking across the dark cavern to her bulk. She was lying still and breathing deeply, definitely asleep. Once more, Krik crept carefully to her side and drew out the syringe loaded with the drug. He pressed it gently into her side.

Her body tensed suddenly. Krik’s head shot up and he found himself looking straight into her eyes. She was staring at him, apparently too shocked to react, and then suddenly she began screaming with rage, roaring in sliggish. Krik stumbled back and fell over onto a pile of treasure. She hauled her body round and made to lunge at him but he scrambled to his feet and ran for all he was worth, down the passage into her kitchen. The kitchen door burst open, the sligs outside having heard their mother’s screaming, and quickly aimed their weapons at Krik. He tried to run past them.

Krik found himself sprawled on the floor, unsure of when or why he’d fallen over. Before he could get up six or seven sligs were standing around him, their guns all pointed at his head.

* * *

For a few minutes the room was quiet before Anni said sadly, “He hates me.”

Nova looked up at her. “Who?”

“Ben.”

“Oh, you’re not still worrying about that stupid slig?”

Anni sobbed, “I thought he liked me.”

“Come on, don’t worry about him. He’s just an idiot, like every other slig.” Anni looked away from her. Nova, realising this method of cheering Anni wasn’t working, slid off of her bed and crossed the room. Her own sorrows were forgotten in light of her best friend’s. “Don’t worry about it,” She said softly, sitting down beside her and putting her arm around Anni’s shoulders. “There are other sligs out there, nicer sligs. They’re not all nasty like him.”
Anni continued to look miserable, so Nova resorted to the final measure.

“Sweet, sweet brew,
I drink to you!”

She sang. Anni tried to wriggle away from her, but Nova wouldn’t let her. It was a song they had heard the sligs singing a few times and it always had the same affect on Anni.

“I drink it from a glass!”

Anni looked away, but the corners of her mouth began to twitch.

“And if I drink
Too much of it,
It comes out of my-”

“Nose!” Yelled Anni and they both burst out laughing, uncontrollably, helplessly, and the next thing they knew they were rolling around on the floor, tickling each other, laughing, playing, having the times of their lives.

Nova knew then that as long as they had each other they would never need anyone else, be it a slig, a vykker or a mudokon.

Anni just knew she was the happiest she would ever be in her life.

* * *

Slowly, almost ceremonially, Dionysia slid a long, narrow box coated in black leather out of the paper. It had a small fiddly latch and opened on hinges. She screwed up the brown paper and dropped it almost unconsciously before tackling the latch. It was obvious that this was something special, something more valuable than any of the gifts she had received previously, and she took her time. Dachau was watching her greedily as if it was him opening the present.

At last the latch came undone with a click. She opened the box and gasped. “You like them?” Dachau asked smoothly, “I had them made especially for you. Like you, they’re unique.” He had eyes only for Dionysia, who was staring open-mouthed into the box. They both seemed to have forgotten that Krik was in the room. From where he was sitting he could not see what the gift was.

Dachau continued, clearly enjoying her reaction, “You know some native mudokons put wooden rings in their feathers, for decoration. I thought, since we’re a higher culture, let’s not do better. I ordered them from one of the companies that makes jewellery for Skillya.”

Her hands shaking ever-so-slightly, Dionysia reached in and lifted a beautifully carved silver ring, very delicate-looking and obviously sized to fit over her feather, about half an inch long, out of the box. She was staring at it, transfixed.

“Each one patterned differently,” Dachau went on. Krik was by now watching alertly, his head raised, and Dachau shot him a victorious glance, “Each one unique. They’re very special, for a special child.” Dionysia seemed hardly aware that he was there. “I’ll help you put them on, if you like.”

Her eyes shot up, she stuttered, “No, I want to…” and her gaze sank back into the box. She returned the one she had taken out to its position.
Dachau smiled ingratiatingly, “Whenever you’re ready then. I’ll be in my office.” And he swept out, evidently to leave Krik to stew.

* * *

“This is what you are?” She stated, and he was impressed by how level she kept her voice.

He looked down at the box again, and then up at her. “I could still smash it. They would never know. I could say it was an accident and the message would never reach them.”

“No you couldn’t, could you? You’re their prisoner. You’re no freer of them than I am of this place, of the drugs they use to keep me alive,” She said with an odd, pleading note in her voice which seemed to say, ‘Let me be wrong’.

He shook his head. “You’re right. This is what they made me. I told you they wouldn’t let me go back. I have to do what’s right, for the Cartel.”

“But since when did the Magog Cartel dictate what’s right?”

“They always have, for people like us.”

“So it’s right that I have to die, just because of what I am?”

Her question sent daggers of pain through his heart. With great difficulty, he answered, “If they say so. What’s right isn’t the same as what’s good.”

She stared at him. In the dark, at this distance, he had to imagine the tears on her cheeks.

“I hate you,” She said so quietly that he barely heard.

He knew it was a lie, but he let himself believe it was true, because it would hurt so much more if he didn’t, and he already hurt so much he couldn’t understand how he was still alive.

He stood up and walked away from her, flicking open the back of the recorder as he went, and pressing a tiny button labelled ‘send’.

* * *

“CLEAN THAT MESS UP NOW!” Razor roared, storming towards her.

“There’s no need to yell!” Anni yelled, then said more calmly, “I’m not yelling!”

“I said CLEAN IT UP!” He shouted and gave her a vicious push, knocking her backwards into the wall and coating her back in blue paint.

“Now look what you did!” She yelled, waving furiously at the smeared paint on the wall, “You ruined my flower, stupid slig!”

Foreseeing disaster, Dean crossed his fingers and yelled, “Hey, uh, hey slig, you know you’re not supposed to push mudokons around here!”

“Don’t tell me what to do, mud!” Razor yelled, “This is a factory, not a playground! I ought to rip-”

And then he stopped very suddenly because Anni, stretching up as high as she could, had just emptied a tin of red paint over his back.

There was a long silence. Then Razor spun round, “YOU STUPID IDIOTIC GTRZ! I’M GONNA-” He lunged at her but his tiny metal feet slipped in the puddle of paint and he flopped over onto his face, getting his front covered in red paint as well. Laughing, Anni ran out of the cafeteria. “Get back here, MUD!” Razor roared furiously; Dean by now had dived behind the counter and was struggling to keep his laughter silent.


Those are just 1,604 of the 100,000 words from The Despicable’s past, and we all here wish it many more. Splat’s Productions would like to ask your forgiveness for this little bit of self indulgence, and now we return to our regular, scheduled program.

This message brought to you by FeeCo Food Extractors: Eat twice! Feels nice! (One price!)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

She finished cleaning the pants with aching, swollen wrists just as lunch break ended. Nick ordered her to start cleaning on the middle floor right away, refusing to let her even enter the cafeteria, to her rising fury. But later on when she was mopping the middle floor, Dean brought her up some food. She ate sullenly, refusing to talk.

“Look,” Dean said to her just as he was leaving, “I’ll talk to Nick; he is being pretty harsh on you.”

Anni smiled at him reluctantly but was quietly (whee, 100,000 words!) pleased as he left; she was used to Dean sorting things out for her. Unfortunately, Nick was not willing to relent.

“Come on, Nick; she’s just a kid!”

Nick rolled his eyes, “I’m not letting her off; she’s earned this so she’s going to see it through.”

“What, a week’s solid cleaning with no free time?”

Nick scoffed, “Any other mudokon could be more than half done in the time she’s had! Dean, this isn’t just for throwing paint over Razor; she’s been really lazy since I got back, and she wasn’t exactly employee of the month before I went away! The girl needs to learn to work hard and if this is what it takes, she’ll have to deal with it. Are you gonna go around making excuses for her all her life?”

“Of course not, but-”

“Dean, if she doesn’t learn to work then she’s gonna get killed. Not many bosses are as laid back as Seven and Arnie.”

Dean looked sour, but shook his head and walked off.

Anni worked for the rest of the week, and Javi had take on the duty of visiting Somi again, but when pushed revealed that he’d been taking food down there but hadn’t actually seen the paramite at all; she was never around when he went to look. This only caused Anni more worry and more frustration, but now Nick was promising to starve her for a week if she didn’t finish the job on time. Dean tried to make Javi talk to Nick, but Javi refused.

“Look, Dean; I know Nick is being harsh but if Anni learns something from it, it’ll be worth it. I’ve been worried about her for a while; one day someone will expect her to work, and she has to learn. Kix agrees with me,” He added.

By the end of the work day at the end of the week, Anni had mopped, scrubbed and swept all the way to the cafeteria door, where she was sure the large puddle on the floor would take her hours.

“Right, Anni,” Nick said grudgingly, “I was gonna make you do the wall, too, but even I’m not that mean. Just get the floor done tonight; I know you can do that, and then you’ll be done, at least for now. But get finished tonight.”

Anni glared at him. Nick shook his head, “I’ll be checking in the morning,” He said and walked out.

Too tired to grumble, Anni got on her knees and started scrubbing. Then, after nightfall and the end of the day, she heard the door open and looked up. Kix walked in with some cleaning things. “I’ll just get some water from the kitchen and then we’ll get on with it.” Anni smiled at her, passionately grateful.

The two mudokons went to bed in the not-so-early hours of the next morning.

* * *

Anni was not in a happy mood when she woke the next morning for work. Her body ached and she wished she could have had another five hours sleep, but she obediently went down to breakfast with the other mudokons, glad to think that she would be able to visit Somi that evening.

Sat in the cafeteria with Kix, she stared moodily at the wall she had painted, “I can’t believe that stupid slig ruined my flowers,” She muttered, glaring at the smear left when she had been pushed into the wall.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kix said, suppressing a yawn, “The rest looks nice.”
Anni smiled, then glared at Nick as he walked into the cafeteria. He noticed her, rolled his eyes and turned his back on her.

Some effect seemed to have been had, however, and when work started Anni sullenly went with Kix to the production lines and they got on with monitoring the machinery. It wasn’t a particularly exciting job however, and Anni’s reformation wasn’t destined to last long.

In the afternoon, Anni saw Razor come running through the production lines to the train station. Curiosity piqued, she followed him sneakily. Another slig was waiting at the station looking around as Razor approached.

“Hey, you’re the new guy, right?” Razor said, “Sorry I’m late; I just got told to come and meet you by the guy who was supposed to meet you.”

The slig nodded, “Ah, I thought it might’ve been FeeCo telling you the wrong time for my arrival or something, lazy slurgs. I’m Groll.”

“Razor,” He replied, lighting a cigarette.

“So the boss’s here are as slack as where I’ve just come from?” He asked, drily.

Razor shrugged and gave an unpleasant grin, “So you’re the mechanic, then?” He asked, making ‘mechanic’ rhyme with ‘idiot’.

Groll rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to offer some explanation but at that point, Nick ran onto the station, crashing into Anni in the doorway, “What are you doing in here, brat? Get back to work!” He hurried towards the other sligs, “Hey, I’m Nick. Sorry I was late to meet you; there was a minor crisis in the stockyards.”

“Oh, what did you do this time? Decide to kill all the scrabs?” Anni called angrily from the doorway, picking herself up and glaring at Nick’s back.

Nick didn’t turn around but paused for a moment, seemingly to gather his patience. “Anni, I told you to get back to work.”

Groll looked puzzled by this show of tolerance. Razor took his cigarette out of his mouth, chuckling, “You’re gonna love it here, pal; the boss is the biggest mud-lover I’ve ever met.”

“Get back to your work yourself!”

Nick spun round and yelled, “Anni, get out of here right now or I’ll get Bela to throw you into a paramite pen!”

Anni scowled, “Fine then; I just wanted to say hi, but if you’re too stupid to get that!” She glared at Razor, “And smoking is disgusting,” She said and stormed out of the station with an arrogant little flick of her feather.

Razor chuckled again and put his cigarette back in his mouth.

* * *

Anni was not a happy mudokon for the next few days. Though she mostly got on with her work and largely kept out of Nick’s way, she was rather miserable and spent a lot of her time alone looking for Somi, who was getting harder and harder to keep track of.

Kix was working with Math in the afternoon several days later, discussing it, “I mean, the more time she spends with that paramite, the more trouble she’s risking bringing down on herself,” Kix was saying; Math had been told about Somi and dutifully sworn to secrecy a few days ago. “You’ve been able to smell it on her, the paramite, these last couple of days and it’s going to make the sligs suspicious if one of them notices.”

Math shrugged, “I guess you could ask what we’ve done about it? She’s pretty upset so she doesn’t want to spend time with people. We ought to do something to cheer her up!”

Kix looked unhappy, “I wish we could, but we only get a couple of hours’ free time a day. There’s only so much we could do.”

“Well…” Said Math thoughtfully, “Maybe we could…”

“What?”

He grinned, “Those flowers she painted, she never got to finish them and Nick would skin her if she tried. I bet she’d love it if you and I cleared up the mess Razor made of them, and I dunno, did a few more, made a work of art of it. We could do it one evening after she’d disappeared and then she’d get a nice surprise in the morning!”

Kix smiled without looking up, “It’d made her happy,” She conceded.

“And it’d be a laugh! Come on, Kix; it’ll be good!”

And so after work ended that afternoon, Kix and Math stole some more paint from a store room, smuggled it into the cafeteria and after everyone had left, got to work.

The next morning, Nick had made a valiant attempt to catch up with his work and had gotten up early and gone straight to the security office to sort through all of his horrible paper work. He had been there nearly an hour and was just thinking about heading down to the cafeteria when Razor came bursting through the office door, “Just wait till you see what that brat’s been up to, now!” He crowed ecstatically.

One whole wall of the cafeteria was now covered in painted flowers of red, blue and yellow. Razor had gotten up late and so had missed seeing Anni’s excitement at her friends’ labours. The mudokons were already at work when he stumbled sleepily down stairs and he had entered the cafeteria, seen the artistry and run off to spread the word to those that didn’t know it.

Nick now stood before the mural, glaring furiously at the bright decorations. Then very deliberately he left the cafeteria and stalked through the factory, his brain set to ‘terminator’ mode.

* * *

Anni was mopping the main grinders alone and singing happily to herself; Math’s scheme to cheer her up had had its intended affect and she was working hard and happily. This was the scene that greeted Nick’s eyes as he entered the grinders but, blinded somewhat by anger, he didn’t manage to note the fact that she was actually doing what she was supposed to be doing, “So.” He said menacingly.

Anni stopped singing and turned. His tone of voice immediately put her in defensive mode, but she was also feeling playful so she didn’t resist and let, “So what?” Burst out of her mouth.

Nick glared, “Let’s get this clear, Anni. If I catch you wasting time, stealing supplies or making a mess of this factory one more time I will personally feed you to the paramites in the stockyards!”

“Excuse me, what am I supposed to have done now?”

“One more time!” He barked and turned to walk away.

But Anni had just about had enough. Suddenly remembering with a grin the game she and Nova used to play back in the lab, she ran up behind Nick and leapt onto his back.

“Yah! GET OFF!” He roared and swung around, throwing her off of him. “THAT’S IT ANNI; I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU! GET UP!”

“It was just a joke!”

“I said get up, NOW!”

Anni jerked to her feet and he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the grinders. “Where are you taking me?” She asked angrily, the faintest hint of nervousness edging into her voice.

Nearly intelligible with rage, Nick managed to mutter, “Warned you time and again… Had enough… Too far this time.”

“Um,” Anni said as she was pulled out into the courtyard. There was more than a little fear in her voice as she suddenly remembered his promise to feed her to the animals, “Uh, you know Arnie will be really angry with you for killing a worker, right?”

“Hah! Worker, my arse.”

“Nick, this isn’t funny!”

“Who’s laughing?”

He pulled her round a corner in the stockyards and a voice yelled, “Hey, what’s going on?”

Javi was watching them, a meat sack over his shoulder.

Anni let out an enormous sob, wrenched her arm free from Nick’s grip and ran over to Javi, latching her arms around him. Through her tears she choked, “H-he s-s-said he was g-going to feed me to the scrabs!” She buried her head in his chest and he dropped his sack and hugged her back.

If looks could kill, Javi would be facing the charge of killing a slig.

“Hey,” Nick said defensively, “I was just kidding! I just wanted to teach her a lesson!”

“Are you crazy?! Can’t you see how frightened she is?”

“Hey, this is what she gets for messing about all the time! She’s supposed to work!”

“And you’re not supposed to spend all your time terrorising one mudokon, Nick!” Javi yelled back. Anni was still sobbing in his arms but without him noticing, she turned her head and stuck her tongue out at Nick.

“LOOK! She’s not even serious! She’s faking it!”

“FAKING IT!” Javi roared! “She’s half scared out of her skin! What’s wrong with you, you brainless slurg!”

“Hey, you watch how you talk to your superiors, mud!”

Anni let out another howl, “And h-he said he was g-going to sh-shoot me!” She wept.

“What?” Nick asked incredulously, “When was this, before or after I feed you to the animals?”

Anni howled again and Nick realised this probably wasn’t the right thing to say. She pulled herself free of Javi and ran up towards the factory.

He turned back to Javi to see him advancing menacingly, “Listen, Nick; if you go near that girl again I’m personally make sure you get what would have happened to you that day if I hadn’t saved you!”

“You listen! If that girl comes near me again, Arnie’s rules or not, I’ll give to her what she deserves!”

And with a last hateful glower he turned and marched back up towards the factory.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Anni is such a brat!!!

And Razor is such a... a... a penis head!!!!!


Groll was created by Gretin! I like Groll; he was a pretty funky slig, as sligs go.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEXY!!!!!
MAN, THIS STORY IS STUPIDLY LONG!!!!!

EXCLAMATION MARKS ARE FUN!!!!!!!

(Also, I'm gonna try and move my updates to Tuesday, so the next chapter will be posted then! So you better reply before then!)

[Gretin]

That chapter was awesome XD Even with the unexpected interruption, which was actually very useful in recalling some of the scenes that I read so long ago

I actually remembered that fight between Javi and Nick though, with Anni pretending to be all scared and upset.

I guess that was the thing Math and Kix didn't think of, he said Nick would skin her if she tried to finish it, but of course he would automatically assume she did it anyway.
I think it's pretty cool, the way you've realisticified the events of the RPG though XD I especially look forward to seeing what you do with Groll, I'm sure you'll do him justice.

AND THE STORY IS NOT STUPIDLY LONG, IT'S AWESOMELY LONG!!!!!

[Splat]

Well, there was a fair bit of creative license in this chapter In the RPG, the whole thing with Nick disciplining Anni didn't happen (those flowers are probably still there, too...), Anni went back and finished her flowers herself, and it was Kix in the stockyards, not Javi.
The conflict between Nick and Anni grew up from a lot of stuff that wouldn't work well in the RPG, like Anni dragging an unconscious slig around and Somi following Nick around. So I added the frist bit to give Anni and excuse to be angry at him, and upped the rest to make him angrier at her.

But I'm glad you enjoyed it

[T-nex]

Omigawd! Nick is so evil!!

Anyway I found this part quite hilarious:

"Anni was still sobbing in his arms but without him noticing, she turned her head and stuck her tongue out at Nick."

Haha!


Yea... Anni is a brat

Edit:
Yea... the flowers still are in the cafeteria No one has cleaned them since.

[Gretin]

I realised you've used creative licence for pretty much the whole RPG section, and yeah, I didn't remember Anni having to clean anything up, but I didn't realise it wasn't the other mudokons who finished the flowers or that it was Kix not Javi. But apart from replacing Javi with Kix, my previous comment still stands

[Splat]

Yes it does. Anni was a total brat in that scene in the RPG, too. (I still use this emote way too much)

And of course you liked the sticking tongue out thing, Nexy! You wrote it!

[T-nex]

Yes it does. Anni was a total brat in that scene in the RPG, too. (I still use this emote way too much)

And of course you liked the sticking tongue out thing, Nexy! You wrote it!

It's still funny

[STM]

wow i honestly can't believe i've never seen this, im starting form the beggining

[scipionyx]

yay congrats for so many words forming an awesome story!

I liked the flashbacks ^-^ and LoL anni is cool xD

[Splat]

First Tuesday update, which should be the norm from now on. Friday is sooooo old news!

Good luck, Scrabtrapman! Though take some string; I think AlexFili and Dryadri are lost in there somewhere...
Right, on with the show. Anni's not in a happy mood after Nick threatening to kill her and all...

Chapter 37

Anni was sat deep in the heart of the derelict Rupture Farms. Somi was in her lap and Anni was hugging the paramite to her chest, but wasn’t speaking or moving.

‘Stupid slig’ Her thoughts said to her, ‘Thinks he can treat me like a little kid. Javi and Dean and Kix, too, they all think they can treat me like a little baby’.

Deep in the shadows of the fallen factory, she muttered aloud in a deep voice quite unlike her own, “I’ll show them. I’m not a baby. I’ll show them what I can do, and then they’ll see…”

Somi made an odd sound, wriggled free of her arms and ran away. Anni raised her legs and wrapped her arms around her knees, sitting silently in the brooding dark.

* * *

The pile of paperwork on Nick’s desk was now no higher than the width of a bullet and he was sat back in his chair, sorting through a handful of sheets and singing along with the intern channel on the radio.

Having Groll in the factory was making keeping up with his work a lot easier and they had spent the previous couple of days working through a list of little jobs that had been hanging around for ages but that he hadn’t been able to get on with because of the other list of bigger jobs. Now things were getting back on track, however; his inbox was almost cleared of two years of backlog and they might even be able to do the factory’s routine inspections this year – the last two years he simply hadn’t had the time. Groll was off sorting the electrics of a couple of the meat grinders that he had been meaning to repair for months, and in ten minutes some machine parts he had ordered would be arriving and he would be able to start work on restoring electricity to some of the derelict security towers around the stockards (which was something Arnie had been yelling at him to do ever since he arrived).

And to top it off, Anni hadn’t bothered him for nearly four days. Despite the stockyards mud, Javi, promising to do him in, and Razor being a snide brzstrk, things weren’t too bad for Nick right now.

Deciding he ought to get on with things, he turned off the radio and headed to the station to pick up his parts when they arrived.

* * *

Anni was looking maliciously up at the meat being mashed in the main grinders, “And so he’s all like, ‘I’m gonna feed you to the scrabs!’ And he grabs me and drags me out of the factory! Like he’s really gonna kill me!” Behind her, Expert grunted.

“What?” She asked, turning around.

“Nothing,” He muttered in reply, “Go on.”

She looked up at him unhappily, and then shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.” After a pause, she asked, “Is Bela really thinking about leaving?”

“Where did you hear that?” He grunted.

She shrugged again, “I think I heard Groll telling Razor about it. Is it true?”

Expert answered slightly defensively, “He’s been thinking about it. His and my contracts expire in a couple of months, and he was saying it might be time to move on.”

There was something in his tone that made her suspicious, “What about you?” She asked. He didn’t reply and she turned. He was looking up at the grinder. “What’s wrong?”

He didn’t answer immediately, but finally said, “Ghrzzing grinder’s gotten jammed or something. Turn the power down over there, will you? Don’t want it going crazy on us or anything.”

“Are you going to get Nick?” She asked shrewdly.

Before he could answer there was a scream of unhappy metal that made Anni clamp her hands over her ears, then the grinder blade jerked down its shaft three metres and a razor-sharp metal disk longer than her arm embedded itself in the wall beside her.

“Chkuhr, turn it off!” Expert yelled as the metal started screaming again. Anni ran to the control panel.

“It’s not working,” She yelled, jabbing at the controls.

Expert shoved her aside and started yanking cables out of the bottom of the control panel, “Listen Anni,” He barked, “I need you go and get Nick, RIGHT NOW! If he’s not in the office then there should be a key with a big, red handle hanging on the wall. Get that instead.”

Anni nodded and ran for it.

The security office was unlocked, but empty. Swearing to herself she looked around the walls for the key she was after but there was no sign of it. Then she spotted a big bundle of keys lying on a table, a big red one among them, and she grabbed the bundle and charged back to the grinders.

Expert had thrown himself for cover under the control panel as the grinder blade continued to squeal on its runner, throwing bolts and screws and shreds of meat around the room. “Expert!” She yelled to get his attention and chucked him the keys. He caught them, picked out the red one and jammed it into the console. There was a loud hiss and slowly the blade stopped rotating, the angry-metal sounds fading.

“Damn it,” Expert said, picking himself up. “Listen Anni, I better go and tell Arnie about this. Just… stay here.” He looked a little uncertain but hurried off. Anni sank against the side of the console, panting for breath from her run across the factory, wondering what would happen to the factory with the main grinders not working.

* * *

Blissfully unaware of the disaster that his least favourite mudokon in the world had just barely averted, Nick had just finished putting the last of his freshly-arrived crates of machine parts in a store room and was now heading back to the security office. By the time he had arrived there he decided he would go around the old security towers and make a report of what work he would have to do on each to get them operational. They were kept locked, so he popped into the security office to get his keys.

His face fell when he saw the little place on his desk that definitely hadn’t been empty when he left. A moment later he was on the ground, looking under the desk, under his chair, and when he stood up his eyes were flashing with anger. He ran to a computer and entered his password to access the security protocols. A moment later he turned on the factory’s announcement system. How could he have been so stupid as to leave the office unlocked?!

“I want everyone’s attention!” He yelled into the microphone, and his furious words echoed around every room of the factory where the speaker system was working, “This is a message to whatever idiot has pinched my keys from the security office! You have ten minutes to bring them here or I’ll take this as an act of ghrzzing terrorism and shoot you myself!”

* * *

Working in the slaughterhouse was largely considered the worst job in the whole factory, and Kix was standing outside the door, looking rather ill and gulping for fresh air. Math appeared in the doorway, “Are you ok?” He asked with concern. Both mudokons were wearing bloody aprons and trying not to think about it.

She gave him a shaky smile, “Don’t worry; I’ll be fine in a minute,” She gulped.

At that moment, Nick’s message echoed through the ceiling over their heads. In the ringing silence that followed, Math said, “What fool would steal a slig’s keys?”

There was a long silence, and then the two mudokons exchanged significant glances.

“I think…” Said Kix slowly, “We should get over there right now.”

“Just in case,” Agreed Math, and the two mudokons ran for the office.

* * *

Anni was still sat against the console in the main grinders when she heard the announcement, and giggled to herself. “I bet he’s just lost them; who would bother stealing his keys?”

Several seconds passed before her eyes travelled up to the heavy ring of keys still hanging from the console. “Oh-h,” She said.

* * *

Nick was pacing around the office when the door opened. He spun round quickly, “Math?”

“Um,” Said the mudokon, “I was just wondering if your keys have turned up yet?”

Nick glowered at him, “You’re supposed to be working, not wasting time asking sligs stupid questions.”

“Well I was just wondering, you know, if you didn’t just leave them somewhere or something?”

“Do you think I’d be stupid enough to make that announcement to the whole factory if I thought I might have ‘just left them somewhere’?” Snarled Nick, who was getting slightly worried that he may have been stupid enough to make an announcement to the whole factory when he might have just left them somewhere. Hiding his fears, he strode through the door, making Math stumble back to avoid being ploughed down. Kix was standing just outside the door, and Anni was walking up behind her. “What, you all on break or something?” And then he noticed what was hanging from Anni’s hand. “You!”

Anni gave a nervous grin, “I can explain!”

“YOU GHRZZING BRAT!” Nick roared and charged past Math, raising his gun.

“Nick!” Kix screamed, and then he smacked Anni hard on the side of the head. She was thrown to the floor with a shriek and the keys went skittering away.

Totally wild with anger, he stood over her, smacking her again and again with the butt of his gun while she cried out; Kix screamed again, “Nick, STOP IT!” Math stood frozen.

And then Math was thrown aside by the hulking form of Expert who pushed past and grabbed Nick’s gun as he brought it up for another swing, twisted it from his hand and smacked him over the head with it, “WHAT IN ODD’S NAME DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING, SLURG?”

“SHE HAS IT COMING! SHE WASTES TIME, SHE STOLE MY KEYS-”

“BECAUSE I TOLD HER TO!!” Expert roared, cutting him off. There was a long silence.

“Huh?” Said Nick.

“I told her to get your keys because the grinders were about to explode!” Expert roared, “Then I come up here and find you’re beating her up for saving all our lives!”

Anni was still on the floor, shaking. Kix was crouched over her, sheltering her with her arms and glaring up at Nick.

“Huh?” Said Nick again, who was beginning to get a very bad feeling about all this.

There was a whir of pants and Seven appeared on the scene, took in Anni on the floor, sheltered by Kix, Math picking up the ring of keys and Expert hulking over Nick. “What’s going on?” He asked dangerously.

Expert growled, “Get in the office,” He ordered Nick.

“But-”

“Now!” Nick obediently hurried in. Expert gestured to Seven, who followed, and Expert turned to the mudokons, “All of you, get out of here. Get back to work.”

Math nodded nervously as Expert entered the office. Kix stood up, helping Anni to her feet. Bruises were flourishing over her scarred skin and one or two wounds were bleeding lightly. “Math, take Anni to the cafeteria for me. And tell Dean what happened, but not Javi, ‘cus he’d probably go crazy.”
Math nodded and led the girl away.

Kix waited outside the office, hearing fragments of the conversation only when Seven raised his voice, “What on Oddworld possessed you to… …A high-ranking member of staff; you’re supposed to know better… …as Hell better hope Arnie’s in a better mood than I am!”

Eventually the door opened and Seven came out, “You’re supposed to be working, Kix,” He said tersely.

Before Kix could reply, Expert emerged and answered for her, “I’ll take her back to her post, sir.”

Seven nodded and walked away towards Arnie’s office. Expert quickly steered her the other way before she could try and get a look at Nick.

When they were a good distance from Seven, Kix summoned her courage and asked, “What’s going to happen?”

“'S up to Arnie,” Expert said, “Seven’s not getting involved in it.”

Kix was silent for a while as they walked towards the main lifts, “I always thought Nick was better than that,” She eventually said, doubtfully.

Expert sighed and shook his huge head heavily, “He’s a slig, Kix, and it’s the way we are to be aggressive when we’re pushed too far,” He paused, and then went on, “Muds and sligs don’t get on well; it’s just the way things are; always has been and always will.”

“We get on alright,” Kix countered.

Expert shrugged without looking at her, “Any other place I’d smack a mud soon as look at one,” He muttered, “Arnie thinks his rules can help us overcome our natures, but… Trust me, Kix; it never works when different species try to mix. That’s why I keep mostly to myself.”

“But you’re not like that here! You don’t have to be like that anywhere else!” Kix protested.

Expert shook his head, “Sligs are… scared, Kix. Hell, everyone’s scared all the time. Muds are scared of sligs, sligs are scared of the rules, and what’d happen if they broke them, and they’re scared of muds, of their physical strength and the powers they have, and what they can do. I’d rather die than be possessed, even for a second… And people who are scared of each other can’t get on. I can trust one mud. I can’t trust a species of muds.”

Kix fell silent as Expert winched them downstairs on a lift, but as they reached the ground floor, she asked, “Didn’t sligs used to be free, once?”

“Hell…” He muttered and spat on the floor, “Maybe… long ago… but not now. We hatch behind walls, live in ‘em, die in ‘em. I’ve never even been outside of a facility. It’s the way things are, Kix, and trust me; bad as they are, we’re too late to ever change them… Sligs might have lived under the sun once, but we never will again. If the muds ever won their war, and I’m not saying I think they will, but… if somehow they did, sligs would go down with the glukkons.”

Kix didn’t answer. She wandered away from him to the open front door of the factory, looking out over the stockyards to the smog-masked horizon in the far distance. Expert came after her and stood behind her, eyes low.

“This place is making me soft,” He grunted.

She turned and looked up at him with mingled pity and sorrow, “Why is that a bad thing?”

He shook his head, “Maybe it’s not, but it makes life so much harder. My contract with Arnie expires in a couple of weeks, Bela’s too, and we’re both going to leave. Sligs can’t live this way for long. It changes them.”

Kix turned back to look out at that distant, hazy sky, tears on her cheeks. “Things shouldn’t be this way,” She muttered.

Expert didn’t answer, but left her there and walked away, back into Rupture Farms.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

When I was reading through W@RF 3 I reached the conversation that that last bit was based on and I was just like... whoa... I loved it, had to put it in. Original is at the top of this page, by T-Nex and Cyber-Slig (Expert's name had changed to CS for no reason by this stage). You guys rocked!

And to clarify for those who used to know, the grinders didn't actually break at this time in the RPG; Anni pinched Nick's keys for a similar yet entirely unrelated reason.
The actual grinder breakdown occurs later, but occurred in the RPG as a result of a much earlier breakdown that happened long before this story, which was a bit silly after the amount of time passed. Which is why I put the first breakdown here (plus the reason for Anni taking the keys didn't work outside of RPG Logic).
The events of this chapter lead to what is probably the most... well-remembered event in W@RF's history. Gotta say things aren't so fun for Anni from now on.

This part is so long! I've already written like 10 chapters of it and I'm only about halfway through. I suppose that's good in a way though, as it gives more time for the RPG to advance. I hope these chapters don't seem too padded.

Next chapter will be next Tuesday! In the mean time, reply!!!

[Dryadri]

Good luck, Scrabtrapman! Though take some string; I think AlexFili and Dryadri are lost in there somewhere...

Rofl You can say that again xD I'm enjoying it though, you're style writing is fantastic!

[Splat]

Yay! It's really great to know you're still going! Glad you're enjoying it, too. Writing so much puts off so many readers!