In the
end, a few of the remaining gang members fled. Those that did not
dropped their weapons and surrendered. Tricia picked up a man from
the ground by his boot. George recognized the man as the leader who
had spoken earlier.
"Well,
well. Now Madboy Keith's Tower is ours," Tricia told him.
It
appeared that Tricia had connected her external mikes to the comm
system, for George was able to hear the man's response: "You
bitches, when I get the rest of the gang, you'll be sorry."
"If
you think you can find enough gang members, you're welcome to try,"
the Vixen said in reply. Then she added ominously, "I'll give
you a few broken bones next time to remember."
"You
bitches," the man cursed again, and continued with a litany of
other swear words.
Tricia
laughed and tossed the man away with her enhanced strength.
"Ahhh,
gloating over the defeated," Mabel sighed pleasantly over the comm, "One
of the perks of victory!"
Tricia
started poking through their vanquished enemies' belongings. "They
don't seem to have anything worth taking," the Vixen reported
over the radio.
"Oh,
but they have some yummy food," mentioned a female voice over
their communications channel. It was a voice that George did not
recognize.
"Can
that actually be eaten?" Tricia asked.
"Mm-hmm,"
was the reply, "Want some?"
"Ugh,
no, thanks."
"Sure?
They're very good. They added some good spice to it."
"Better
not take it, Trish," Mabel advised.
"No,"
Tricia declined again, "some of the stuff you call 'good spice'
tend to have hallucinogenic properties."
George
noticed that there was someone else up among the rocks with Tricia.
It was someone small, wearing a fur cloak. Well, most people would
appear small next to a warrior in power armor.
"Let's
get into the tower as soon as we can," Tricia decided.
Tricia
and the cloaked figure walked back towards the transport. When they
arrived, the armor plates protecting the windows of the transport
retracted and the door opened. However, it was Mabel and the smaller,
cloaked person who entered. Tricia remained outside. They closed the
door to keep the dust and heat out. The ventilation fan started
clearing the air.
The
newcomer was a girl, with a small, delightfully cute face and bright
emerald eyes.
"Squirt,
meet Iona of the Catalocus," Mabel introduced the cloaked girl,
"our darling member of the Scarlet Vixens."
The
girl's cloak of purple fur reached to her waist, with a limp tail at
the end. There were bone plates of dark brown color attached to the
cloak. Under the cloak, she had a breastplate of similar bone and
clothes of brown leather. She had a pair of furry purple gloves
shaped like paws. There were more bone plates on her shoulders and
the sides of her legs. On her feet, she had a pair of purple fur
boots.
She also
wore a helmet of purple fur and bone plate, shaped like a cat's head.
The helmet had a pair of cat's ears on top along with a nose and
whiskers above the girl's face. There were a pair of empty eye
sockets above the cat's nose.
Then
George realized that the fur and bone plates matched that of the
panther he had seen earlier. "You killed the panther!?" he
accused.
Iona
held her paws to her face. "What? Oh no, I killed a panther!"
"How
could you!?"
"I
killed a panther, I killed a beautiful panther!" Iona wailed on.
"What's
going on in there?" Tricia asked over the radio.
"Squirt
thinks Iona killed the panther," Mabel explained.
"What
panther?"
"The
armored purple one."
Tricia
laughed.
"What's
so funny?" George asked sharply.
"You
were so scared of that thing earlier," Mabel said.
"Yeah,
but she didn't have to kill it!"
"Don't
worry, the panther will be back," Mabel assured him.
"It's
still alive?"
"It's
still alive," Mabel told him.
"It's
still alive?" Iona asked.
"Yes,
it's still alive!" Mabel exclaimed.
"Oh,
okay then." Iona then hummed happily to herself, as if nothing
was wrong.
Through
the windshield, George could see that Tricia was examining a box next
to the entrance of the tower. Suddenly, the doors of the tower opened
sideways.
"Only
one button and it actually opens the door," Tricia commented.
Mabel
drove the transport into the tower.
***
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