Housepets! In Space!

[Amazee Dayzee]

If that is true when she realizes the truth I think her brain is going to explode. She might have to take a few days off to process it all and stop freaking out.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 19: Treachery

Allen followed Katy down the hall, staring at her. In the lift, she huffed and glared at him. “Stop it. You knew how I felt, did you honestly think I would use the chance to do anything else?”
He looked her over a little bit longer. “... Yes. I expected better from someone I respected.” He was quiet for a moment. “How long? When did the dragon approach you?”
“Dry dock. During the two week layover while they were putting finishing touches on the Beagle. Her temple takes up an entire deck. It’s not on the blueprints. You just tell the lift computer to take you to Dragon’s Temple and it takes you there.”
He grumbled, looking down at his paws. “So… you knew it wasn’t a dream. When I told you about P. You knew it was real the whole time.”
She shrugged. “I suspected. I knew for sure when you crossed half the cargo bay in less than a second to save me from that falling barrel.” The door opened. “I would have been fine, by the way. Not that I don’t appreciate the effort to save me.”
He followed her out into the embarkation bay, barely even pausing as he leaned over to let Admiral Rickie climb up his arm and perch on his shoulder. “But asking for THAT? I thought you were more respectable than that, Katy.”
Admiral Rickie looked at him. “What? What did she ask for? From who?”
Katy put her finger in the Admiral’s nose. “None of your business, HUMAN.”
Allen sighed. “She made a deal with a demigod for the extinction of all humans.”
There was a pause, and Admiral Rickie nodded slowly. “Uh… huh… and are the demigods in the room with us right now?” He gestured around at the empty room.
Allen sighed. “I thought you wouldn’t believe it. I’m afraid your current… condition.. Is my fault. I asked a different demigod to recreate the Great Calamity of 2023, without knowing what that really entailed.”
Rickie cuffed him on the ear. “ExCUSE me?! This is YOUR fault?”
“Ow. Kinda?” He disembarked the ship and followed Katy to the lift up to Command. “I mean, I assumed it was a dream at the time. Oops?”
Katy rolled her eyes at him and scowled at Admiral Rickie. “I’m just hoping when the Dragon follows through on her promise, she includes you and all the ones that Allen had changed. You might look like us, but inside you’re still humans. And I asked for ALL humans to be destroyed.” She poked at the chipmunk snippily.
Allen turned away to get him away from her. “Leave him alone. Hasn’t he been through enough? Haven’t they ALL been through enough?”
The lift stopped, and Katy put in her command code to open the door onto the Command deck. Allen entered and called out, “Admiral on the bridge.”
Half the humans manning the computers stood to attention, took one look, and resumed what they had been doing. Allen’s ears burned when he heard someone mumble, “It’s just the Snouts.”
Katy huffed and walked over to one of the consoles, climbing up onto it and pushing a few buttons. After a moment, she gave a horrified grunt. “They put the ENTIRE crew in the cargo bay. All of them. That’s WAY too cramped.” She pressed a few more buttons. “The doors are locked with a captain-level code. I can’t override it.”
Rickie hopped from Allen’s shoulder onto the console to have a look. “Let me have a try.”
One of the humans swiped at them. “Hey, get away from there. Captain Richard wants the imposters contained until they tell us how they got here and what they did with the crew.”
“Imposters?” Allen stomped his foot, feeling anger boil up inside. “Are you REALLY that dense?! That IS the crew! What did you think happened, a bunch of random animals found a way up here, took the ENTIRE station by force, and got rid of the WHOLE crew?! A crew of trained fleet rangers?!”
“That’s what Captain Richard said happened. So why should I question him?” The human shrugged. “Just get off the console.”
Rickie put his hands on his hips. “I outrank your Captain.”
The human stared at him. “... No you don’t. There’s no chipmunk Snouts. You’re one of the imposters.” He reached to grab Rickie. Allen panicked and grabbed his wrist, twisting it with all his strength and blinking when he suddenly flew three feet and slammed into the floor with a sickening crackling noise. The human cried out and rolled over, clutching his clearly broken arm. Allen flinched.
Katy stared down at the man on the floor, then at Allen. “What did you DO?!”
“I panicked!” He yelped, dodging as some of the other humans tried to grab for him.
“Well you might as well take the rest of them out now, they’re going after you.” She crossed her arms. “What did you get those abilities for if you’re not going to use them?”
He grumbled, then watched as everything slowed to a crawl. He ducked under a diving human, jabbing him in the ribs, then walked to the supply closet and dug out some rope. He turned and dodged around a human that had followed him, tying a slipknot in the rope and slipping it around the human’s outstretched hand. He then proceeded to drag her around, collecting the other humans by slipping a loop of the rope around them, and tied all the humans together behind their backs, slipping the rope around and around their wrists as they started to fall together in slow motion. He tied it into a pretty bow, then turned to the one whose arm he had broken as normal time reasserted itself.
He cast a healing spell, grimacing as he watched the man’s wrist turn unnaturally as the bone knitted itself. The man cried out, then scrambled backward into the pile of humans in the middle of the room.
Admiral Rickie gawped at him. “What did you- HOW did you-?!”
Katy nudged him. “Worry about that later! Override the door locks! Have your crew scatter and tell them to avoid humans until you give the word. Something’s going on up here, and I doubt any of us are safe until we figure it out.”
Allen opened his mouth to agree, then wobbled and sank to one knee, feeling exhausted. “Oof… What… I can’t…”
Katy sighed and rolled her eyes at him. “You overdid it, commander. All that high-speed zipping around probably drained your energy reserves. We’ll work on building them back up later.” She turned to Admiral Rickie, who was rapidly typing in his command code manually.
He glanced up. “If manual input was standard, I could easily have just changed my voice print identification. Fortunately, it works for something as basic as door locks.” The console beeped, and the display indicated that the doors to the cargo bay were open. He grabbed the intercom microphone and switched it to public address. “Crew, this is the Admiral speaking. I’ve just unlocked the cargo bay doors- scatter! Avoid humans until I give you the signal! There’s a coup going on!” The security screen showed the cargo bay rapidly emptying out and its residents scattering.
Allen found his feet and stood up, putting out his arm for Rickie to climb back up to his shoulder. “Right… the humans probably heard that. We should get out of here.”
Rickie nodded. “We can take cover in my quarters. I unlocked the door from here, and we can lock it again with my code when we get there. They’ll be able to break in eventually, but it should buy us some time.”
Katy rushed to the lift and waved them in. Allen scrambled in after her and watched the door close just as the pile of humans in the middle got loose, freed by the one whose arm he had broken. He cursed under his breath. “I hope we get there before they figure out how to turn off the… the… lift…” His voice trailed off, and he slumped to the floor, out cold.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 20: Admiral’s Quarters

Allen blinked up at the ceiling. His eyes refused to focus for several moments before they finally settled on the ceiling tiles. He sat up, rubbing his head. He couldn’t remember how he got here, or exactly where “here” was. He looked around. Katy was sitting on a plush-looking couch nearby, watching him; Admiral Rickie was standing not too far away, next to the coffee table.
“You have a nice nap?” Katy spoke up, waving her hands to capture his meandering gaze.
“What happened?” Allen rubbed his head. Was that a bump? He touched it and winced.
“You passed out in the lift.” Rickie spoke up. “She had to drag you here. I tried to help, but I’m… puny.”
Katy rolled her eyes. “Honestly. Didn’t your magic talking book warn you about using more magic than you have mana for?” She tossed him a handful of protein bars. “You’re lucky officer quarters come prestocked with emergency rations. They cut off the synthesizer before we could get anything out of it.”
Allen stared at the protein bars, then ripped into them, eating half of one before the taste hit him. “Ugh… When was the last time these were replenished?” He kept eating it anyway.
Rickie sighed. “It’s been a while. Nobody ever thought we’d end up needing them.”
Katy tossed a foil pouch of water to Allen. “It’s the best we’ve got. You’ll have to deal.”
He caught the pouch and popped open the bottom to make a little stand before tearing off the top and taking a swig. After he washed down the protein bar, he looked up. “How long was I out?”
“A couple hours. They know we’re in here, but so far they can’t get past Rickie’s lockout. I think they’re looking for a bypass right now.” Katy put her hands on her hips. “How about next time you’re a little more careful with how much magic you’re using so you don’t pass out?” She snorted. “That speed boost is meant for short bursts, not zipping around Command like some kind of… of.. Speed-having superhero.”
Rickie jumped up on the table and crossed his legs, putting his hands in his lap and moving forward. “We need to start thinking about how we’re going to get out of here. We can’t use the door, they’re standing RIGHT THERE.”
Allen ripped into another protein bar. “Ugh… we could send a certain tiny someone out through the air vents. Life support is an oxygen-rich atmosphere. You could survive it, but it would make you pretty drowsy after a while. You’d be able to climb out pretty much anywhere you want. But there’s no way Katy or I would fit in there with you.”
Katy huffed. “And what good would THAT do? We’d just have another human on the loose.”
“Could you put aside your racism for ONE second, Captain James?!” Allen snapped. “This has become a survival situation, and you are doing nothing but making it worse!”
Rickie sighed and leaned back on his hands, uncrossing his legs and kicking them out. “Not that I didn’t also make it worse. All that stuff I did out of pure spite… and now it’s coming back to bite me in the a-”
A voice sounded from the room’s com panel. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t my old friend Howard.”
There was silence in the room for a moment, and then the voice continued. “I know you’re there, Howard. Go on, press the button. I wanna hear your squeaky little voice.”
Admiral Rickie shoved a chair over to the comm panel and climbed up to push the button. “Roger Richard. Still sore I got promoted over you?”
There was a laugh. “I’m sorry, I can’t take you seriously with that squeaky little voice. Of COURSE I’m not still mad. If I had been promoted, you’d be up here in command, and I’d be locked up in my quarters, busy being a RODENT.”
“What do you want, Roger? Why did you lock up my people? Why did you tell YOUR people they were all imposters?”
There was another laugh. “Simple. If I can convince headquarters that this was a Snouts Corp coup, training their little animal friends to take over the roles of the REAL base crew and getting rid of the real ones, I’ll be hailed as a hero back home. I’ll probably get promoted. More than once, even. Fleet Admiral Richard does have a nice ring to it.”
“And what if even one of these people can prove who they are once they get back down to earth? Then your whole scheme falls apart.”
“Oh, my dear, SWEET Howard… what makes you think ANY of them are getting back to earth? If I recall, the penalty for mutiny is execution, wasn’t it? Besides, I seem to recall that they’re currently running around the station, fighting back; we had to shoot the little DARLINGS in order to protect ourselves! At least, that’s what Headquarters is going to hear. We’ve already recaptured around fifty or so of them, by the way. And once we’ve taken care of THAT problem, we’ll figure out how to board the Beagle and flush out THAT crew as well.”
Allen suddenly burst into the conversation. “What did you do with the ones that were already ON earth?!”
“Commander, it’s rude to interrupt when your SUPERIORS are talking. Bad dog! Besides, it’s none of your concern. They’ve been gathered up and will be taken care of shortly as well.”
The door suddenly creaked. The voice of Captain Richard sounded. “Anyway, we’ve found a bypass now. It’ll take a couple minutes to pry the door open, but then you’ll be tossed right in with the rest of your precious crewmates.”
Rickie chittered angrily, then got ahold of himself and yelled into the intercom. “You’d BETTER leave them alone! They have nothing to do with this! I’ll, I’ll… I’ll have you court-martialed!”
“Oh no, a chipmunk wants to court-martial me, I’m so scared! You and what army, half-pint? Besides, your voice prints aren’t working, are they? You’ll never get the paperwork filed.”
The door creaked louder, opened a crack, then slammed shut again. “Anyway, my guys are just about in, so I’ll be seeing you in just a second, rat.”
“No you won’t!” Rickie squeaked angrily at him. “We’re getting out of here! Somehow.”
“Good luck with that.”
Allen reached up and turned off the intercom. “Katy, you got that vent cover off?”
Katy gave a thumbs-up from where she was balanced on the back of the couch. The vent to the life support system was dangling open. Allen grabbed Rickie and stuffed him into the vent, ignoring the chipmunk’s squeals of protest. “Get GOING. At least save yourself. Katy and I will be fine.”
Katy swung the vent cover closed and started twisting the screws back in as fast as she could. Allen chugged the rest of his water and stood facing the door. Once the vent was back on reasonably, so that it wasn’t obvious at a glance what had happened, Katy joined him.
“How are you feeling?”
“Still a little woozy.” The door creaked and opened several inches, trying to shut. It threw sparks. Someone jammed a piece of metal inside to keep it from closing.
“Shame. Because we’ve got a fight.”
“Meet up at the temple of P if we get out?”
“Of course. They’ll never find us there.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

Looking forward to see how the heck they will get out of this situation and not get locked up. They might have to cause a distraction and make a run for it to get to the mysterious P.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 21: Evasion

Allen grabbed Katy’s wrist and braced himself. As soon as the doors opened, the humans moved to brace it open so it couldn’t close again. He took the chance and speed-stepped through, kicking off the wall and taking off toward the lift. His speed boost only lasted a second before he couldn’t maintain it anymore, but he kept running, pausing long enough to rip the access panel from the side of the lift to reveal the emergency access, a long ladder running parallel to the lift for the length of the station. “You go up, I’ll go down.”
She grabbed his arm. “Are you going to be okay? You’re still mana depleted, and you just used it again.”
He nodded. “I’ll be fine.” He glanced up to see some of the humans realizing what had happened and starting toward them. “GO!” He jumped into the access and started climbing down as fast as he could. He heard Katy pull the access shut behind her and start climbing in the opposite direction.
Down and down Allen climbed. Five decks. Ten decks. Twenty. Thirty. Sixty. He was getting down to the decks that nobody ever went to, storage and disused decks. Some of them had been empty for over fifty years, and rust was starting to eat away at the ladder. Finally, he kicked at an access panel. It didn’t move. He nearly lost his grip on the ladder. He felt so weak… He kicked again, with all his strength, and the panel popped open. He stumbled out through it, his arms and legs burning from climbing the ladder so long.
He panted and sprawled out on the floor, his vision blurring. The black started to creep in from the edges, and he forced it back. He couldn’t pass out, not yet. Not until he was safe.
A pair of hands scooped him under the armpits and started dragging him. “Sorry for this, sir, but you can’t lay in the hallway.” A female voice sounded. He blinked exhaustedly up at the ocelot that was dragging him. She wasn’t in a uniform. Crew aboard the station, then. She dragged him down the hall to the second to furthest room, pushing the door open- a manual door, how long had it been since this deck was updated?- and dragged him through. “Commander on Deck!” The voice called, and he heard a rustling. After a moment, she spoke. “Actually, don’t bother. I’m not even sure he’s conscious. He came from the access tube, he must have climbed all the way down here from Command.”
There was a surprised murmur. “All the way from Command? That’s gotta be sixty, seventy decks! Nobody can climb that far!”
“You’d be surprised how much further you can go when you have to.”
“No wonder he’s out cold.”
Over the next few minutes, what felt like an eternity, Allen felt his arms and legs burning painfully from his climb as he grappled, desperate to maintain consciousness. He felt exhausted, drained, and helpless. He could hear others moving around him. How many and who, he wasn’t sure. Not human, he could tell- at least, not human ANYMORE. That was comforting.
Finally, he managed to muster all his strength to sit up. Someone pushed him back down again, wasting the effort. “Rest, sir. You’re safe here. They haven’t come down here. In fact, they didn’t even come down here looking for people during their rescue sweep. Not like the Beagle crew did. They would have missed a few of us if your crew hadn’t already rescued us; we come down here to get out of doing some of our duties. Well.. we used to. Now, we’re hiding.”
At some point, someone managed to produce some water, and gently lifted his head so he could drink it. They poured in a little at a time, making sure he swallowed before giving him more. “That was quite a climb, sir. It was a good idea not to use the lift, though. They could probably trace it. And if there’s a coup going on like Admiral Rickie says…”
Allen blinked. He knew that voice. He pried his eyes open and looked up at the squirrel that was feeding him water. “... Ensign Cooper? Is that… what are you doing all the way down here?”
She gave a sheepish little grin. “You remembered me… I’m hiding here. A lot of us had the idea to come down and hide in the unofficial break room. Er… the officers don’t know about it, so don’t tell them.”
“I’ll court-martial you later.” He joked weakly, closing his eyes again. “Right now, I’m too… tired…”
He must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew, Allison was gone, and he had been moved over to the corner of the room and hidden behind a tipped-over table. There were hushed whispers. “Think they’ll come in here?”
“No, we’ll be fine. They’re just looking for the Commander, they’ll leave when they don’t find him.”
The door rattled, and Allen tensed. He felt someone’s hand fly to his mouth, and he glanced up in the dark to see the ocelot that had dragged him here. She put a finger to her muzzle, then tapped her ear. He nodded silently.
A muffled voice from outside spoke. “This one’s locked. The key’s probably long gone. Nobody’s in here.”
“Come on, man, let’s go. That cover was probably off for AGES. Nobody’s down here. Nobody’s BEEN down here in a dog’s age.”
The first voice laughed, receding. “Longer than that. I think this deck was unused when my dad was-” He faded out of earshot.
Allen realized he’d been holding his breath, and let it out. He sat up and glanced around. A dozen or so pairs of eyes turned to look at him. After a few moments, there was a series of knocks on the door. “Shave and a haircut.” Someone knocked back. “Two bits.” A moment later, the lights came back on, and Allen squinted in the sudden brightness.
The door clicked open, and Allison strolled in. “It worked like a charm. They didn’t bother looking up. Walked right past me to get onto the lift.” She skittered over and jumped onto the table where Allen was hidden. “Oh! He’s awake. How are you feeling, Commander, sir?”
Allen grunted and rubbed his head. “Like I got hit by a shuttle and then rode it up here on the outside.” He put his ears back. “How long was I out?”
“Six hours.” She put a tiny hand on his leg, concerned. “Are you okay? You still look- pardon my saying it- awful.”
He shook his head, his ears flapping about. “I’m fine, just a little woozy. It was a long climb, and then there was the chasing, and the fighting…”
She gave him a sympathetic look. “Well, now I feel like a coward. Here we all are, hiding, while you and the captain and the admiral are up there fighting for our lives.”
“You’re just obeying orders. The admiral told you to hide and avoid humans, and that’s what you’ve been doing. Nothing cowardly about that.” Allen started trying to stand up.
“Sir, no! You were out cold ten minutes ago, it’s not a good idea to try to walk!” The ocelot tried to put him back down.
He waved her off. “I have to get to the Beagle. Captain James is waiting for me. Maybe Admiral Rickie, too. We were supposed to meet on the Beagle… In the…” He wobbled a bit, then started walking, leaning heavily on the wall. “They probably think I’ve been captured, or worse…”
“I’ll go with you, then.” Allison walked up and helped him support himself, putting her arms on his waist. It was as high as she could reach, and wasn’t much help, but the thought was nice.
“No… you and everybody here find a different place to hide. A different deck. I’m going to use the lift, and Command will be able to see it coming down here. Climb a few decks up or down via the access tubes and make sure you put the access panel where you found it, on or off or… whatever.” He started shuffling along the wall weakly.
Allison put her ears back. “But… sir, you can barely move. We can all see that you can barely move.”
He reached down and ruffled her head fluff. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I’ve got this. I have to try, for all of your crewmates, and all of my crew. Once the Captain and the Admiral and I meet back up again, we can do... something.” He resumed his slow shuffle, making his way toward the lift. His legs ached, and his arms felt like jelly, but he kept going. He could hear whispering behind him as he exited the room.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 22: Captured

Allen stumbled out of the lift on the docking bay and looked around weakly. He wasn’t surprised to see the place crawling with humans. He turned and started following along the wall, leaning heavily on it as he got to the stairs back down to where the Beagle was docked. He could barely move and was almost surprised that nobody had grabbed him yet.
“This is just sad. Poor little guy looks half-dead.” His ear twitched at the voice behind him.
Another voice sounded. “Almost makes me want to let him get there instead of dragging him down to the cargo bay with the others.”
“No, he’s Beagle crew.” Allen felt a hand grab him around the waist, and he was scooped up and tossed over somebody’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He beat his fists ineffectively on his captor’s back. “Beagle crew goes back to the Admiral’s quarters. Captain wants them held separately so we don’t have any accidental mix-ups posing the corpses.”
“Oh, right, right.” The second guy paused. “Hey, you don’t suppose he’s going to take US out because we know about his little plan, do you?”
“Not if we swear loyalty and promise never to squeal. Otherwise, we’re collateral damage in the fight. He’s gotta make it believable, after all.” Allen watched the scenery change to the inside of the lift.
“Right… I better do that right away. I don’t really want to be collateral damage.” They were quiet for a few moments, and then the lift opened to the command quarters deck. They started walking to the door to the Admiral’s quarters, which was still being held open via the prising mechanism they had attached to it.
“Should we even tie him up? Guy’s probably not going anywhere.” Allen felt himself plunked down against something warm and fuzzy.
“Yeah. He was still up and walking around. You wanna be the one to explain to the Captain why we had him and he still managed to wander off again?”
“A fair point.” A length of rope drew securely around Allen’s wrists, eliciting a gentle pained yelp, and the humans took one last glance around before leaving. “Dang, Command get nice digs.” The one that had carried him said on the way out.
Everything was quiet for a few moments. Then, Katy’s voice sounded. “I was starting to think you fell down the access shaft. From the look of you, I’m still not convinced you didn’t.”
Allen turned his head to look at her. “Oh, hey. Come here often?” He forced a weak smile.
“What’s with him? He looks like something I flushed down the toilet.”
Allen turned his head and blinked at Sox, tied up on his other side. “What are you doing here?”
“Mana depletion. Idiot tried to use magic again AFTER he already passed out from depletion once.” Katy rolled her eyes. “He DID save me, briefly. But they caught me a few minutes later.” She turned to Allen. “And how did you escape capture for almost eight hours while mana depleted?”
“Climbed down to deck eighty. Nearly passed out in the hallway. Some of the station crew hid me from the search parties.”
Her eyes bugged. “You went to deck eighty?! On the emergency access tube? Allen, those are for three to four decks’ transfer, TOPS! You climbed down SEVENTY levels?! You maniac! No wonder you look like you’d rather be dead.”
“If the crew hid you from the search parties, how did they catch you?” Sox glanced at him.
“... Tried to get back aboard the Beagle. I thought Katy was waiting for me there.” He paused. “You didn’t answer my question. What are you doing here? You were ordered to wait on the Beagle.”
He shrugged. “Kitsune said you needed help and that bad stuff was going on.” He glanced around. “I’d say this qualifies.”
“Hey, good job.” Allen snarked. “Way to get captured right along with us.”
“I’d have been fine if it wasn’t for your Captain climbing right into me in the access tube.” He huffed. “Got us BOTH caught.”
“Technically, you’re still on the Beagle’s crew, so she’s YOUR captain, too.” Allen wriggled, trying to loosen his bindings. “Nuts… I forgot to tense up so I could loosen the ropes like they taught us at the academy.”
“Tried it.” Katy grunted. “They know to watch for it. They took the same class.” She put her ears back. “And it really hurt when they hit me to make me stop.”
“You two are the worst avatars I’ve ever seen. One of you is like ‘ow they hit my face’ and the other is half-dead because he used too much mana.” Sox grunted. “If we were fighting now, I would SO win.”
“And yet you’re tied up here along with us.” Katy sneered at him.
“... touche.”
Allen nodded his head drowsily. “Guys, I’m gonna take a little nap…”
“Better hold off on that, Commander.” A new voice sounded. Katy lifted her head. “No way.”
Admiral Rickie’s face appeared at the vent, and he pushed it out carefully, holding onto it so it wouldn’t fall. Once it was open, he pushed it out and let it drop onto the couch, then climbed out. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you guys. I even checked the Beagle.” He scurried over to them and started undoing the ropes holding them. “Imagine my surprise when I was passing by and heard you back in my room.”
Sox scoffed. “Who’s the rodent?”
“He’s your superior officer. Treat him with respect.” Katy snorted.
Allen looked at her in surprise. “Weren’t you calling him some very unkind things just yesterday? Or was that a couple days ago by now? I don’t know, I’ve spent a good deal of time unconscious.”
“Hush.” She blinked as Rickie produced a glowing orb. “What’s that?”
“Oh, I found it in the Commander’s room. His book said he was going to need it. Something about mana reabsorption or something.” He paused. “That book was talking to me, by the way, did you know?”
Allen rubbed his freed hands and grabbed the orb from Rickie. “This is mana. P… the griffon… gave it to me when I first visited his temple. Said it might come in handy someday.”
Katy rolled her eyes. “How is it going to help in THAT form? What are you going to do? Eat it?”
“No. He specifically said not to do that.” He blinked at it, trying to remember everything he’d read in the book. “Although… there WAS a section about canceling a casting… it said something about reabsorbing the energy by distributing it though your core… or something like that…”
Sox glared at him. “You better figure it out quick, or we’re leaving you behind. We can’t have you slowing us down with fifty space marines trying to catch us.” He hefted his sword and rested it on his shoulder. Had he had that a second ago? No, he couldn’t have.
“I’m thinking, hush.” Allen held the mana orb in his hand and closed his eyes. He could feel it. It was power. It was A LOT of power. He pictured it circulating through his body, going around and around in his veins, in his nerves, in his very SKIN. It felt good. It felt VERY good. He could feel the orb shrinking in his hand until finally it just sank into him. He opened his eyes, feeling energized. “Oh, wooowwww… that feels AMAZING.”
He jumped up and stretched. All the soreness in his arms and legs were gone. “I feel like I could run to deck one hundred and back. Let’s go to deck one hundred and back.”
Katy grumbled and slapped his arm. “FOCUS, Commander. How are we going to stop Captain Richard from taking over and having us all executed?”
He thought about it for a moment. Everything felt crystal clear to him. “Obviously, we just need to get the comm recording from the computer bank of him admitting his scheme from when they were breaking in here. That’ll be on deck 15, the main computer banks. It’s automatically logged every time somebody uses the comms. Then, we just have to go to the Beagle and use our long-range transmitter to transmit it out to all channels. Someone in charge will hear it and send help.”
“The Beagle? You mean the ship guarded by fifteen or so humans with phased energy weapons? THAT Beagle?” Katy glared at him. “And how’s that going to work out?”
“Well… we’ll just have to fight our way through. Technically, we don’t have to get the recording and THEN go, we can just link up the computers and transmit it to the Beagle.”
Sox grinned and brandished his sword. “Fighting, I can do.”
Katy huffed. “Where did you even GET that?”
“Kitsune. I’m a phantom samurai.” He grinned.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 23: Dash

Allen ripped the access panel open and grinned. “Come on, guys! It’s only ten or so levels down to the docking bay, we can make it!” He jumped onto the ladder.
Katy groaned. “In five minutes you went from almost dead to even more energetic than usual. That’s why I always gave you the running around jobs, by the way. To burn off some of your energy.” She followed him into the access tube.
“What are you talking about? You used a coin flip program to delegate jobs between us.” He grinned and climbed down a few more rungs to make room for Sox.
“It was keyed to listen to your voice and land on the opposite of whatever you picked. You didn’t think your luck was THAT bad that you lost every time, did you?”
He shrugged. “I just kind of assumed. My luck’s always been terrible.”
Sox grunted, pulling the access panel back into place. “I think you bent this thing. You two banter like a married couple.”
Allen laughed. “We’ve been working together a long time. But I’m mad at her right now. Don’t think I’ve forgotten that little detail, Katy. Your contract.”
Sox rolled his eyes. “It’s not important right now. Focus on the current mission. Get to the Beagle, establish a link with the base computer, and upload those records.” He looked down. “Ugh… move FASTER.”
Katy grumbled and climbed down faster, struggling to keep pace with Allen. “I’m going, I’m going.”
The next few moments were a near-silent scramble down. When they arrived at the docking bay, Allen paused and motioned silently to them. Katy nodded. Sox nodded as well; they were both ready. Allen nodded and set his feet on the access panel, hanging from the ladder, then swung back and kicked out during the swing in, sending the panel flying and jumping through in the same move. Katy jumped through after him, followed swiftly by Sox. “Disable only, no lethal force.” Allen shouted, moving toward the closest surprised human.
Katy gave a shout and started running toward the stairs with Sox running defense on her. Some of the humans tried to grab her, but he swung his sword and smacked them with the flat of the blade, making a large hissing noise and a flash of light with every strike. Every human struck with it backed away with a yelp of pain.
Nonetheless, there were more than five times the human officers as there were of them; It wasn’t long before they were cornered on the stairs. Allen put his ears back and held up a fist.
Katy grunted. “Now would be a good time for some of that magic, Commander.”
“I don’t have any combat spells.” He looked around frantically.
“What do you MEAN you don’t have any combat spells?!” Sox stared at him. “You’re supposed to be a warrior of immense power and you don’t have any combat spells?!”
“I’m a paladin, I’m meant to be a healer and melee fighter!” He scrambled.
“Great. So helpful.” Katy droned, smacking a human’s hand as he reached for her. “That’s wonderful, so good.”
Allen backed further into the railing, as far as he could go, and squeezed his eyes shut. This was the end… CLUNK. He opened his eyes. Something bounced off the wall behind him and smacked into a human. He looked where it came from and gasped. Standing at the top of the stairs were a few dozen animals, looking rather peeved and wielding whatever they had been able to find.
“You guys get to the ship! We’ll hold ‘em off!” Allison squeaked, flicking her squirrel tail in rage as she hopped up on the railing and started to surf it down. “CHARGE!”
A loud noise behind them drew Allen’s attention, and he turned around, gasping. The crew of the Beagle were advancing up the stairs from the bottom, wielding improvised weapons of their own. The humans were forced to turn around to face the respective swarms, and Allen looked around for a way out of the fray. He looked over the railing across from him. “I’ve got an idea.”
Katy looked at him, then looked over the railing. “Are you CRAZY?! That’s still three, maybe four stories! No way we’d survive jumping that!”
He grinned and climbed up on the railing. “Not all the way, no.” He jumped across and only just managed to catch the railing for the stairs on the opposite side where the stairs turned and headed back the other way. “Oof-! I made it.” He pulled himself up and looked at the squared spiral staircase, up at Katy. “Come on, jump. I’ll catch you.”
Katy looked scared and stepped back against the wall railing. Sox rolled his eyes. “Did you even GET a power from the dragon, or are you just riding this for the contract?” He climbed up the railing and jumped, landing on the stairs without having to climb up over the railing. He turned around and waved at Katy. “Let’s GO, Captain!”
Katy bit her lip, then carefully climbed up on the railing, catching her balance and preparing to jump. “One… Two…” She yelped in surprise as the fighting caused a human to back right into her, bumping her off the railing. She started to fall and screamed.
“KATY!” Allen howled out, climbing up the railing and reaching for her as far as he could reach. He leaned out, further and further until he lost his balance and started to fall himself. A hand grabbed him from behind and he gasped, grabbing Katy’s hands and holding on with all his might. He heard a sickening crunch, but didn’t dare loosen his grip as he held on. The hand gripped him and pulled him back, and he turned to look at the face of Craig.
He rolled his eyes at him. “You are by far the most troublesome avatar I’ve ever had. Your ancestor would be pleased.” He patted his back.
Allen pulled Katy over the railing and examined her wrist. She winced. “It’s broken. I felt it break. Leave me, the mission is more important.”
Allen shook his head. “No, I won’t. We have a second…” He squinted, summoning a ball of energy. How big did he need?
Katy shrieked. “Allen, LOOK OUT!”
He gasped and dodged aside, spinning around and pointing his open palm at the human standing behind him with a phased energy rifle. In his panic, he shouted out the first thing that came to his mind. “I CAST FIREBALL!”
His palm grew hot. Too hot. How much energy had he focused? A ball of flame shot out of his hand as he forced the energy away before it could burn him. It flew through the air and exploded in a harmless, but forceful, shock wave on impact. Everybody in a few feet radius was knocked down, and the heat wave splashed back against them. He flinched and grabbed Katy, pulling her to her feet and tugging her toward the ship.
She cried out. “Ow ow ow, STOP, Allen, you’re HURTING ME!”
“I’d rather you hurt than die!” He yelped as they crossed into the ship and down the hall. As soon as they were around the corner, he sighed in relief and lay her down in the hallway. “Now hold still, I need to cast a healing spell on you.”
She flinched as he put his hands over her and focused.
Craig waited until he had cast the spell, then shook his head. “I don’t know how you did that. You shouldn’t have enough mana to cast a fireball like that.”
Allen looked up. “I reabsorbed the mana orb you gave me.” He stood up and started walking down the hall.
“You did WHAT?! Allen, that’s celestial level mana. You’re lucky it didn’t KILL you! That’s more energy than your puny mortal body should be capable of containing!”
“Then we’re lucky that I’ve been expelling a lot of mana today.”
“Oh Captain James… Commander Whist.” A voice sounded from down the hall toward the embarkation bay, and a chill ran down his spine. He turned and saw Captain Richard onboard the Beagle, crawling as fast as he could toward them, ducking to avoid hitting his head on the low ceiling.

[Amazee Dayzee]

One thing that caught my attention was when Craig said that Allen's ancestor would be pleased at the trouble that he was causing for Craig. Exactly who is his ancestor because the only avatar Pete ever had was Bailey because he couldn't use Peanut, Grape or Fido. If he is an ancestor of King's I'm not sure he would be thrilled that his many times great-grandson is working with Pete.

Also what species is Katy? I tried to reread through everything to find out what she was but either I keep missing it or it hasn't come up. Dragon had three avatars that we know of: Satau, Sabrina and Tarot. Is Satau is Mungo's ancestor then she is either the many times great-granddaughter of Mungo/some other character or Peanut/Tarot (No way Fido/Sabrina can have a biological kid).

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Katie's species was only mentioned once, in like chapter 1. She's a raccoon.

I've pretty much implied that Allen is descended from King and Bailey. During Pete's trial, he said King counts as a follower, which Pete used to extend the generation limit on the "bloodborn paladin" class.

King would be VERY pleased that Allen is causing nothing but trouble for Pete.

I don't believe I ever gave Katie an actual classification. She's not intended to be descended from any previous avatars, but she has made a couple references to the "opener."

[Amazee Dayzee]

Now I need to go find an appropriate picture of what I think Allen looks like just so I have a reference to him since you described him as basically being a mix of everything. Also confirmation for me that Katie probably came from Tiny Tum since his mother Custom Ink was BIG on the Opener.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 24: Race to the Finish

Allen pushed Katy’s head down to save her from a phased energy blast, looking down at her arms. They were still bruised, but healing rapidly. “We gotta run.”
Sox darted down the hall and vanished, and Allen rolled his eyes. “Gee, thanks for helping us.” He mumbled sarcastically, then put his hands on Katy’s shoulders and started pushing her down the hallway.
It turned out that outrunning a human that was crawling was easier than expected, especially now that they were in an environment built for people their size. As long as they kept moving, Captain Richard couldn’t find them. He glanced at his wristband, and a timer popped up on the holodisplay. “We need to make more time.”
Katy grunted and held up her own wrist. Her wristband fizzled and sputtered out. “You broke mine when you caught me. How long do we need?”
“Another ten minutes.”
She sighed and looked around. “Where’d your demigod go?”
He glanced around and cursed under his breath. “He left us. Just like Sox did.”
After a moment, she nodded. “We can lock out access from Comms, I guess. Not sure how long it’ll keep him out with a phased energy weapon if he REALLY wants us.”
“Why is he even after us, anyway? He doesn’t even know what we’re up to.” He paused. “Unless…”
She smacked herself in the forehead. “Unless he put surveillance in the Admiral’s quarters like a COMPETENT coup leader when tying up captives and leaving no guards. What were we THINKING?!”
“We were thinking that we were alone in a previously secure space and didn’t think about how it had been compromised.” He rubbed his temples. “He’s probably got someone guarding the computer too. If he hasn’t already deleted the records.”
“We don’t have any way to warn Admiral Rickie. Just keep going and hope he manages to keep his end of the plan intact.” She resumed walking down the hall, rubbing an arm.
“How… are your arms? Do I need to cast more healing?” He jogged a few steps to catch back up with her.
“They’re fine, it’s just… it felt weird. I had been pretending that this magic business was some kind of special effects or something, that there was a trick to it and you were just pretending. But to feel my bones knitting back together like that…” She shuddered. “There’s no way to fake that. That was the real deal. And maybe… I’m having second thoughts about my contract, now that I know it’s possible it might actually be fulfilled.” She turned a corner.
He sighed. “Well, we don’t have time to think about that right now. We have to get to comms.”
“It’s not going to take ten minutes to get to comms.” She paused and looked at him. “Look… I know I gave you a hard time about what you picked for your contract, but mine was WAY worse. I panicked, okay? When I realized it was possible it would actually happen, I panicked and tried to push my guilt onto you. That was wrong. ASKING for that, was wrong.”
“Maybe the dragon will let you change your contract. Or maybe you two can work something out between you.” Allen pointed ahead. “There’s comms. We have…” He held up his wrist and watched the timer pop up on the holodisplay. “... Five minutes until the Admiral’s supposed to have the link up.”
A blast hit the wall right behind Allen’s head, and he gasped, turning. Captain Richard grinned, kneeling at the far end of the corridor. “That’s five minutes more than you have, Snouts.” He grinned cruelly, knee-stepping closer as he aimed down his rifle. “It’s going to be a pain, trying to move you outside without ruining the carpet, but oh well. I can’t have you blowing the big secret before I’ve gotten a foothold and changed some policies.”
Allen stepped back, toward the door, then jumped back to where he’d started when a blast hit the wall next to his head, showering sparks everywhere. “What did you do with the Admiral?”
“Oh, he’s still crawling around in the vents somewhere, but my guys will have him soon enough. They’re in the computer room, just waiting for him to pop his head out so they can hit it with something. Preferably something heavy.” He smirked. “Now… which one of you should I hit first? The Captain? Or the Commander?” He was only a dozen yards away by now, easily close enough to hit even a moving target.
Katy spoke up. “Don’t you touch him. It’s so hard to find a decent Commander… No, a decent PERSON… anymore.”
“How sweet. You’ll be first, then.” He aimed his rifle. Allen reached down and grabbed Katy’s hand. “Oh, and Commander? Let’s not be seeing any of that quick movement trick you’ve been pulling on all my guys. I can aim faster than that. I think you KNOW I can aim faster than that.”
Allen flinched and let go of Katy’s hand. “That’s it, two steps apart now.” Captain Richard waved his rifle threateningly, ushering them apart. “No nasty tricks, the two of you. You won’t be ruining my chance at glory with any nasty little tricks.”
Allen put his ears back. “How can you live with yourself, shooting an unarmed person?”
“Oh, save your crocodile tears, Commander. You’re not people. You’re animals in cute outfits. You’re barely even sentient.” He pressed the rifle into Allen’s chest with a sneer, leaning in close until Allen could feel his breath. “And I have no problem killing animals.”
Allen opened his mouth and stammered, then gasped when a series of things happened in the space of a second. First, there was a loud clanging noise and a flash of light. Captain Richard cried out in pain and discharged his weapon into the wall, slumping forward into a very undignified position with his rump up in the air. Katy screamed and jumped away. Sox grinned at them from behind Captain Richard’s prone body. Allen nearly fainted as the weapon discharged right under his armpit, inches from his heart.
After a few moments’ stunned silence, Allen started to laugh. Katy joined in a few moments later, followed by Sox. Allen’s laughter turned to tears, and he chortled heavily. “I thought I was dead for SURE!” He dropped to his knees and gasped for breath. “Ohhh, DOG I thought I was dead for sure!”
Katy clapped him on the back. “I did too! I thought I’d just watched you die!” The laugher died off abruptly, and Sox shimmied around the body on the floor.
“I didn’t, you know… End him. Just a good whack in the head with the flat of my blade.” Sox kicked Captain Richard in the head. “I could still finish him if you wanted me to.”
“No.” Allen stood up. “I have a better idea. Hey, P, can you hear me?”
“Always.” P appeared, still in full uniform, and saluted him playfully, glancing down at the prone body in front of him. “Oh, well THAT’S an attractive angle.” He added in sarcastically.
Allen nudged him with his foot. “Yeah, this guy’s been a lot of trouble for us. I think he needs a bit of perspective. Do you think you could include him in our deal?”
P squatted down to get his head under the ceiling and poked at the body. “Hmm… I’ll have to think about that. In the meantime, I believe you have a message you wanted to send?” He gestured to comms.
Allen gasped and checked his timer. Thirty seconds left. “Dog-dangit!” He turned and ran to Comms. He rapidly prepared his message with Katy adding her bits, then checked for the computer link. Nothing. Had they missed it? If it had gone up while they were dawdling in the hallway, it could have been shut down by the humans in Command by now.
The timer blinked at zero for what seemed like an eternity. One minute went by. Two. Finally, the link appeared. Allen immediately hit it and downloaded everything he could get before it went down again. “The Admiral did it! We got everything! Com logs for the past two days for the WHOLE base! The incident with the incoming ship, Richard’s confession, EVERYTHING!” He attached the files and sent it out on all frequencies. There was no intercepting this. The whole fleet would know what he’d done.
He sighed. It was over. He hoped the fighting outside had ended without casualties.
P strolled through the door. “I picked a good form for that guy, if you’d like to see it. He’s going to get LOTS of perspective.”
“Why, what’d you turn him into?” Allen rushed to the door and peeked, then snickered. “Oh, he’s going to HATE that.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

I really can't wait to see what form P decided to give Richard as punishment for the attempted coup. Also glad Sox didn't completely throw Allen and Katy to the humans like Allen thought.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

It was at this point during the writing that I seriously considered never showing it.

[Amazee Dayzee]

It has to be worse than a chipmunk since I have a feeling that Richard would be worse off than Rickie but I can't think of any other animal that would get taken down by a chipmunk. I guess maybe a rat because it is obvious that Richard IS a rat.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Nah, it's not about how weak he is, it's about how much he's going to HATE it.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Bonus page today so we finish it off this week.

------

Chapter 25: The Game’s conclusion

Allen closed his eyes and let the cold water splash into his face. It had been years since he’d felt real planet-generated rain. He’d been waiting six whole weeks on earth for it to start. It was wonderful. Worth every minute of waiting.
Wet footsteps approached from every direction, and Allen opened his eyes. Katy gave him a little wave, turning to look at Draig behind her; Sox stood with his arms crossed in front of Kits. Allen turned and looked at Craig behind himself. Another dog approached. She looked like a bulldog, except she was nine feet tall and had three- count them, three- heads.
Craig returned to his griffon form, Draig became a giant green dragon, and Kits grew eight extra tails and another five feet of height. P was the first to speak. “Okay, we’re all here, Kitsune. What did you want to say?”
Kits cleared his throat. “Well… given everything that’s happened, that we caused, I don’t think it would be fair to continue our game in this universe. We’ve already caused so much damage here, I think we should leave this universe to its own devices for a few thousand years, let it heal.”
The dragon crossed her arms. “We’re not moving the game to another universe. We’ve already got avatars selected and mostly trained up.” She turned to glare at the bulldog. “Cerbie, tell him. Tell him we can’t just move to another universe in the middle of a game.”
Kits raised his hands. “Calm down, Dragon, I know. I’m not proposing we move. I’m saying… I surrender. I’m throwing in the towel, conceding defeat, taking the penalty. I was wrong, you were right, I shouldn’t have done what I did.”
Sox turned and opened his mouth to protest. “Wait, what?! But what about-”
Kits patted him on the head to calm him. “Hush. You’d have been a terrible leader anyway. Wouldn’t have lasted more than a few years at best.”
The three-headed dog, Cerbie apparently, nodded. “I see. So, a loss for Kitsune. I believe, per contract, these two are now owed an additional boon?” She gestured to Allen and Katy. Allen’s head spun as he tried to keep track of which head was speaking; they kept switching it out.
Katy’s eyes widened. “W-wait, we’re still doing the contracts?! But-”
“Worry not, little one. It’s up for Dragon to figure out how to deliver on what she promised. She CAN’T just exterminate an entire species.” Cerbie looked up at Dragon with one head, with Katy at another, and at Allen with the third. The head looking at Allen seemed amused by his confusion.
The dragon cleared her throat and produced a long scroll. Katy’s contract. “I believe it was written- let me find it here- ah yes, here it is: ‘should the Dragon and Griffon win the conflict, the extinction of the human race will be guaranteed.’ I don’t see anything here about it being immediate, just that it will be guaranteed, which it always was anyway. So, as I promised, the humans will be going extinct in- what do you think, Cerbie? Four, five million years?”
Cerbie nodded one of her heads. “Yes, something like that. Give or take. It depends on a number of choices they will make along the way.” She smiled. “That was clever, Dragon. You’re still thinking like a fox, aren’t you? Maybe you didn’t just go back to the way you used to be after your time as a mortal.”
Dragon beamed. “I was particularly proud of that one. Now… cleanup. We’ve already removed our temples. Kitsune insisted on THAT being in the contracts this time, that we would remove our temples and their mana pools at the end of the game. It caused a LOT of trouble last time when we just left them here.”
Cerbie flinched with one of her heads. “It sure did. A whole lot of trouble that we all had to clean up. And, as I mentioned, the boons.” She knelt, seeming to get smaller, and put out her hands, grabbing both Allen and Katy by the hands and gently pulling them closer. “You two are owed a boon for participating in our disagreement. There’s limits to what it can be, but go ahead and say what you want. Anything at all. I’ll let you know if it’s possible.”
Katy put her ears back. “I… don’t really think I deserve anything. I said and did some hateful things. I ASKED for some hateful things. Opener KNOWS I asked for some hateful things.” She shook her head. “I acted out of rashness and anger and for all I knew I was destroying millions, BILLIONS of people.”
Cerbie put a hand under Katy’s chin and made her look up gently, then used her thumb to lift away a tear. “It’s okay. No mortal is perfect. Life is messy, and sometimes you do things you aren’t proud of. That doesn’t mean you’re not worthy of rewards when you do something good.”
Katy nodded a little, sniffling. “I… I…” She hesitated, then leaned in and whispered in Cerbie’s nearest ear.
That head gave a look of surprise, glancing over at Allen. “Are… you sure? You don’t want to use your boon on something for yourself? You only get one, you know. You’ll probably never get another chance.”
Katy nodded eagerly. “He deserves it. And, he’ll probably use his for all those people that were affected by his contract, so I want to make sure he gets something nice. He’s always been so sweet, and kind to everybody, and thoughtful… I think he deserves it.”
“All right, I’ll see that it gets done…” Cerbie nodded, then all her heads turned to Allen. “And… for you?”
Allen paused thoughtfully. “I don’t suppose I could use mine to change back all those people that got changed into animals because of my request? That’s probably way too big of an ask. Plus, it doesn’t take into account their choice. What if they don’t WANT to change back?”
Cerbie shook two of her heads. “Afraid it’s too much. A standard boon only allows so much. It’s one thing if you directly contract with a demigod, but that usually requires an offering, so…”
Allen put his ears back and thought a little bit harder. Something tickled at the back of his mind, something P had told him, ages ago… His ears perked. “P… er.. The Griffon… told me that last time, there was a way to fix it written into the laws of this universe. A way to change form at will.”
Cerbie nodded her middle head. “Yeah, that’s right. I wrote and filed the proposal myself. It’s just a basic magic, anybody can use it even if they don’t have any magic of their own.”
He straightened up and nodded. “Well, then… for my boon, I want a manual. An instruction manual, telling about that magic. Everything there is to know about it. How to use it, what to do, even how to make it work. I want it available to everyone, everywhere. In every book database in the universe.”
P grinned and tapped on his head. “See, now THAT’S using that brain of yours. That’d be the remnants of that human DNA in your system, making you smarter than the average dog.”
“Yeah!” Allen grinned. Then his smile dropped. “Wait, what?”
Cerbie grinned and poked him in the chest. A hardcover book dropped into his hands. “Here, a hard copy for you, free of charge. It is done.” She looked up at the three others. “And… I think our business here is complete. Should we vacate the premises?”
Kits grinned, nudging a still-pouting Sox. “Hey, cheer up. You can still try to grow to be in charge on your own, you know.” He looked up at Cerbie. “Ready to go.”
P nudged Allen. “I wish I could tell you that your powers are going to fade, but with you having absorbed some celestial power, probably not. You know you only survived that because you were almost entirely depleted of mana, right?”
Allen shrugged. “It worked though, didn’t it?”
He laughed. “Ha. That it did. Don’t worry about the permanent side effects. You’ll probably only live a few extra decades.”
“Wait, what?!” Allen blinked, and the four demigods were gone. He looked around, then down at his book, then up at Katy. “What did YOU ask for anyway? You didn’t say.”
She grinned and poked at him. “That would be TELLING. Oh… and by the way, congratulations on making Captain.”
He smirked. “Why, thank you, Admiral.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

I would be lying if I said that I thought you were eventually leading towards an Allan/Katy pairing here but I am glad you didn't. I still have to find a good picture of what Allan looks like to me though.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

I pictured Allen as looking more or less like Peanut shape-wise, with a bit curlier of a tail, but with a mix of colors in no particular pattern.

[Amazee Dayzee]

In that case unless you provide another picture of him or end up drawing him like you did with Evan so we could see how he looks exactly, I am going to imagine him as looking like this. I know its not as accurate as it could be but it is something.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

I did have a drawing started but using my phone for art with the software I have is annoying so I never finished it.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

This has been an exciting adventure! Thank you for reading!

-------

Chapter 26: Separate Ways

The rain had stopped by the time Allen and Katy got back to headquarters. Over the past six weeks, they’d been helping sort out the mess Allen had caused with his careless wishing: Nearly half a million people on this continent alone had been transformed; somehow, Captain Richard had been keeping the news from breaking, and so nobody had really come forward to explain until after Richard’s arrest and dishonorable discharge.
Once the news broke, there was a flood of citizens and service members who wanted their identification updated and their complaints registered. It had taken almost the entire corps just to keep up.
Allen paused and turned to Katy. “You still wanna take desk duty planetside? No more space travel?”
Katy shrugged. “Nah. It’s not really for me. Space is a young animal’s game. I’m getting too old for this. Look here.” She pointed at her muzzle. “Gray. And not my normal gray, either. Old age gray.”
Allen squinted, noticing the streaks of silver starting to sneak in around Katy’s nose and mouth. “Hmm… can’t seem to spot it.” He joked, then patted her arm. “Well… you’re always welcome for a ridealong aboard the Beagle. Once she’s done with her refit, of course. Did you hear? She’s getting proper weapons, and food synthesizers in the mess hall. Thanks to Admiral Rickie, of course.”
“That’s great!” She grinned. “No more withholding resources?”
“No more.” He reached out and offered his hand.
She shook it. “Well, Captain… until next time. I have some paperwork to fill out.”
“See ya, Admiral.” He grinned and turned to walk away.
As he entered the building, he felt something grab his leg and scurry up to his shoulder. He slowed for Admiral Rickie to take his place on his shoulder, then grinned at him. “Admiral! You’re planetside!”
“Oh, please. We’ve been through so much together. Call me Howard.” The chipmunk grinned at him, taking a seat and dangling his paws on Allen’s shoulder, holding him by the ear to maintain balance. “I just came down to pick you up, and deliver the good news.”
“Ooh, I like good news. What’s the good news?” Allen turned down a hallway.
“Oh, it’s the Beagle. She’s been reassigned.” He kicked his paws idly, grinning wryly sideways at Allen.
Allen stopped walking and looked at him. “Reassigned? Reassigned to where?”
“Oh, nowhere in particular. The Planetary Exploration and Terrestrial Scientists, new Animal division.” He smirked teasingly.
Allen squeaked, his jaw dropping. “We got in the P.E.T.S.?!”
“You got in the P.E.T.S.” He laughed. “I may have put in a word on your heroics, but the final order came from somewhere above MY pay grade. It’s the darndest thing, the order was just signed D and P. I put that into my computer, and it just said ‘classified.’”
Allen grinned. “I think I know who that is.” His face turned serious as he resumed walking. “I just have one more thing I have to do before we can head back up.”
Howard sighed. “Going to see him? Again?”
“He tried to have us all killed. I’d like to get an apology, if I can.” He spoke his clearance code to a microphone to unlock a door. “How are the remodels on the station going? Installing secondary control panels closer to floor level now, weren’t they?”
“They had to.” He laughed. “It looks bad when the admiral can’t even reach the controls. But they DO want to lower my pay now. Something about animals not needing as much to get by.”
Allen used his clearance code to open another door and entered a cell block, turning and walking down the row. A guard saluted at him, and he saluted back. “Don’t you let them do that. Force them to raise all the other animals’ pay to keep up with you.”
“I planned on it. On the plus side, my little girls think I’m ADORABLE. Though I could probably do with a little less glitter.”
Allen snickered as he stopped at a cell and looked inside. In the shadows, a figure glared at him. “Back again? I told you, I’m not going to give you what you want.”
Allen paused thoughtfully, looking at the silhouette. “No. No, Roger, I suppose you won’t. Please step into the light, MISTER Richard.”
The silhouette huffed and stepped forward. A dog, similar enough to Allen that they could be brothers, appeared, illuminated by the lights in the guard’s walk. “You just came to gawp at me. Look at the mighty former Captain, he’s just an animal now.”
Allen sighed. “The sooner you give up that attitude, the better it’ll be for you. They only gave you six months’ prison. After what you tried to do, that was VERY lenient. You’re just lucky nobody was seriously hurt, or worse… A couple of months’ sitting here in the prison block, and you’ll be free to go out into the world and be a citizen again. Unless you choose not to be. You could always rescind your citizenship, just be a common pet. I hear it’s kind of nice, not having to worry about stuff like taxes and jobs.”
He growled angrily and pressed against the bars, taking a swipe at Allen. Allen stepped back casually, avoiding it. “You listen here, Whist. When I get out of here, I’m gonna hunt you down and kill you for this. Understand?! I’LL KILL YOU!”
Allen turned and walked away, ignoring Roger Richard’s shouted threats after him. He glanced over at Howard, still on his shoulder. “Wanna grab some lunch before we catch the shuttle back up to the station?”
Howard grinned, his whiskers trembling excitedly. “I thought you’d never ask.”

END LOG

[Amazee Dayzee]

So that is what Richard's fate that he was given by P is playing out as then. I can only imagine somebody comparing him to Allen and mistaking them for brothers and Richard losing it. While Allen just goes along with it and takes delight in Richard's well-deserved punishment.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

I imagine if I do a sequel, we might just see Roger Richard again. I'd like to explore civiliar space travel in this fun little universe of mine.

[Amazee Dayzee]

I am sure that if Richard ever realizes how close he looks like to Allen he would try to use it to his advantage. Though I am not sure how far he would get if they have distinct differences because everybody there seems to pay attention to every little detail.