Heart of the Beast Pt. 2

‘Come, my friend. We can go to my college and find my krewe to get our wounds tended.’ When they left the Citadel after the confrontation between Grimpaw & the centurion with Dinky, the two soon made it to Rata Sum, where they explained what had happened to the asura’s college professor while being patched up and made comfortable.

On their rehab trips around asura territory, Poppler told the charr of the asura problem with inquest while Grimpaw simply took in the lush jungle and animals. The next two weeks saw Poppler mostly healed, and the charr felt as though he was coming back to life as well, albeit with several large bald patches.

By the third week Grim was tired of being lazy healing, and would disappear all day just being up and out, doing something, anything. And usually he would be back at his friend’s college by nightfall at the latest, but this time dawn had come around and there was still no Grimpaw.

Poppler and his krewe gathered a group of asura and spread out over Metrica Province looking for his friend but found no sign. Because as they were still searching jungle and swamp the next evening, the charr was getting his skull cracked by his centurion at the Hero’s Canton canteen.

The centurion in Rata Sum at night

‘WAKE UP!’ Dinky smacked Grimpaw on the left side of his snout, the only response being rattling chains the sleeping engineer was hanging from in the ceiling and floor. The legionnaire reached over and picked up a bucket of water from the floor, turned and threw it in Grimpaw’s face. A second later there was a waking snort, he shook his head and exhaled a few times, then looked around trying to focus.

Vision blurry from what he later found was the centurion’s fist knocking him out and across the canteen floor ten feet, head swollen and throbbing, he first saw his legionnaire Dinky toss the empty bucket aside then place his paws on hips. ‘Well well, our little warrior is awake, boss. When do I….’ Grimcrotch stepped forward and pushed him back, ‘Leave him alone, Dinky.’

‘You’ve already done enough by beating his friend without my authorization. If you hadn’t done that we wouldn’t be in this situation, just back off.’ Dinky turned to his friend, ‘But…’ with upturned paws. ‘No buts. I should make you go help Vesta Fuseheart on the war wagon prep deck for a month, we haven’t had an engineer there. So don’t push it,’ he said, poking his friend roughly in the chest.

The centurion turned to Grimpaw, ‘Where’s your friend, soldier?’ Grimpaw’s foggy vision and head both began to clear, the dull throbbing pain continued. Arms flayed out chained to the ceiling and staring down Grimcrotch, he remained silent.

Elexis Shredskin jogged through the Black Citadel holding cell doorway. ‘Sir, we found out where he is. In Rata Sum.’ The centurion looked over at Dinky who was already on his way out, ‘Get the battalion together.’ His 2nd spoke up from around the corner at a jog, ‘On it boss!’

——

‘Just stop, put your weapons down, I’ll go. No need to start a war for one person. I did what had to be done, and would do it again. In fact I’m rather curious as to what they have to say or do about my completely justified act of friendship.’ Poppler shoved Lefty’s charrzooka away from his professor’s direction and began to walk toward the asura gate past the tanks and war wagon.

The inner circle of charr lifted their weapons and moved toward the gate as Poppler neared it, then they circled him again and hand & ankle cuffed him, weapons pointed out. The rest of the battalion moved back in waves, covering their backs. The legionnaires relaxed but remained encircling their centurion, observing their soldiers orderly exit.

Grimcrotch grabbed Lefty gruffly by the shoulder as he walked by, holding on and pulling him closer and speaking with a threat under his breath, ‘You get out of that war wagon again in the middle of a mission and your replacement will be burying you.’ Lefty’s smile dropped and eyes grew wide. ‘Ye…yessir!’ he stammered.

The centurion shoved him away slightly, then said aloud ‘Good job, soldier,’ giving him a hard friendly slap on the back toward the gate. The big grin returned to Lefty’s face as he saluted then jumped up onto his iron beast, tossed the charrzooka back into its rack near his seat, fired up the war wagon and drove back through to Lion’s arch then the Citadel, cigar stub puffing like the exhaust.

Heart of the Beast Pt. 1

He trotted up to the door of Hero’s Canton from the city entrance, slid the gate open and strode toward the canteen with senses heightened incredibly, staring forward. Coming to the doorway his world slowed; inside, the din faded to silence in his mind.

He glided toward his legionnaire Dinky leaning against a pole on a stool, speaking with the centurion, mouthing words but not being heard by him, the engineer touching the pistol on his right side lightly with a fingertip for reassurance. His red glowing eyepiece auto focused on its target.

As he approached and Dinky turned to see him, his right leg came up in a blurr even as slow as things seemed to be happening. At the same time his left paw snapped over to grab the pistol on his right; his foot connected squarely on the legionnaire’s snout knocking him off the stool and several feet back.

Just as the engineer’s foot hit his superior solidly he started to turn and look toward the centurion, his left paw began to swing around with the pistol. For a millionth of a second he thought he heard the sound of an artillery shell in his left ear, then felt as though he was hit by one, and the slow motion world went black instantly.

The centurion arrives before the others, to look around in Rata Sum

The last of the battalion stepped through the asura gate. As they did, those who had already gone stood near the centurion in Rata Sum with the legionnaires, looking around at the structures hanging in seemingly mid air and no support. The charr group grew; a lone asura representing one of the colleges ran up.

‘HALT! Now see here, what is the reason for your bringing a fully armed charr army into our city….uh,’ he looked around at the centurion and subordinates, noticing the others standing slightly behind Grimcrotch, ‘I take it you’re the commander. What’s the meaning of this?’ he demanded, crossing his arms with a crowd gathering behind him.

‘You can bring me Poppler Swizzlestix, or I can destroy your city…’ he said with a growl and waved his arm to a soldier behind him, who stepped back through the gate. The charr soldiers moved forward onto the stone flooring near the steps as three tanks, then a war wagon drove through and parked in front of it, ‘Lefty’ Ironpaw jumping down from his drive panel and standing there, puffing his cigar stub and charrzooka slung over his shoulder, paw on his hip.

The group of asura that had gathered stood with mouths agape while several armed asura ran to them, weapons pulled. Dinky whistled and swung his arm in a circle above his head; half of the battalion moved to entirely surround the group of little asura, charr weapons turned on them.

——

The centurion leaned forward and down toward the group, facing the representative and said with a low fang baring rumble, ‘Now, bring me Poppler.’ The college rep seemed to draw himself together enough to ask, ‘And what exactly has he done to the charr to warrant your army coming to look for him?’

Dinky stepped up and said ‘Threatening the centurion, three legionnaires and a company of soldiers.’ The crowd gasped; the asura with weapons adjusted their stance, then the 12th surrounding them took aim and chose their targets in response, Lefty swinging his charrzooka off his shoulder and lining up the college rep’s head in his sight standing on his war wagon.

‘Alright, alright, enough of this. I’m here, leave everyone alone you brutes.’ Poppler said, pushing between some charr surrounding the group and standing next to his college rep, staring back at the centurion. ‘What do you want? I saved my friend Grimpaw Grindgear, YOUR soldier, so you cage and beat me for three weeks? I don’t recall seeing you at the ‘party’, centurion, have you come for your share of the fun?’

‘We all knew of the risks of this plan of yours. When I arrived at the cliff top he was being dragged with absolutely no care out of the water by soldiers like scrap metal, and none had the slightest hint of medicines. When you arrived and ordered me away from him, I had already begun what could have been done in getting him ready to move to the Citadel for better care. You can’t simply throw someone on a stretcher and hope you get there in time.’

‘You weren’t going to stop me. He is my friend before he is your soldier in my eyes.’ As he spoke another, larger asura crowd had gathered around the charr battalion surrounding the college rep, Poppler and their armed companions, including several golems that proceeded to sit then convert to gatling gun platforms, aimed at the charr.

——

‘Let’s go, Poppler, we didn’t come here to go back empty handed.’ Dinky said, waving him toward the return asura gate. Lefty began to slowly move toward the centurion between the other soldiers. ‘Whatever in Tyria makes you think I’ll do that, legionnaire?’ the asura engineer replied with a defiant raised eyebrow.

Gatling gun, rifle and pistol chambers filled, minions & pets summoned and stances were set with weapons drawn from the asura army surrounding the charr soldiers, at the same time the 12th replied in kind, tanks firing up flamethrowers. Grimcrotch drew his greatsword, his legionnaires surrounded their centurion.

Lefty appeared past Grimcrotch out of nowhere with his charrzooka aimed directly at the college rep, inches away from his face.

‘Now’, he said, puffing his stub and looking directly at the engineer standing next to his professor, ‘the way I see it, little Poppler, you threatened not only my centurion but these other legionnaires here too. And if all they wanna do is ‘talk’ to you back at Black Citadel about the centurion only, looks to me like you’re gettin’ a deal. By rights we should waste you here and be done with it.’

‘But seeing as you don’t wanna go, how ’bout I blow your professor’s head clean away, then they tell you that again to see if it influenced your decision at all, maybe you just misunderstood. ‘Cause see, we ain’t leavin’ without you.’ Lefty continued holding his charrzooka inches from the college professor’s head, his flat face puffing on the stub a few times, a glint of fang in the sun.