Dimensions of Change
By Zipper
Chapter Eight
Heads will ache, and bodies will bruise, but Alicia felt none of this. She
felt nothing. She stumbled into the observatory in a state of shock. Her crimson
eyes were wide and glassy, her feet sliding across the concrete, her thoughts
somewhere else, her whitening fur reflecting what little light there was back
like a ghost.
“They hate me for me.” She mumbled incessantly under her breath as
she mindlessly stumbled past the checkpoints and into the building. Through
an air duct and past multiple rodent sized doors she flowed, turning were needed
until she finally fell into her niche and fell into a fit full sleep.
Jimmy stood at attention, Jane standing similarly just behind and to his right
as the breeze wafted through their damp fur. Why didn’t they just go inside,
were it was warm? No, they had to stand here while this Enlisted want to be
chewed them a new muzzle.
Jane’s eyes were blood shot and puffy. He was wet and smelled of river
silt, and was defiantly not in the mood to be dressed down by some mouse. He
didn’t care whom she thought she was. Just because they were new to the
resistance, did not give her the right to do this to them.
“Are you sure she was enlisted?” Widget demanded.
“Yes ma’m. I could smell it on her.” Jane replied professionally.
“Smell it…?” Widget questioned.
“Yes ma’m, smell.” Jane replied, her voice wavering for a moment.
For a mouse, this one carried a presence.
Widget eyed the vixen. “Explain.”
Jane took a deep breath as she wondered if this so called commander could use
more than a few words in a sentence. “Well Ma’m, most rodents carry
a nutty smell, due to a high protein, roughage diet and pets smell like cut
grass because of the pellets, but the Enlisted don’t eat those things.
Because of their diets, they carry a smell like meat that has been in the sun
slightly to long.”
Widget stroked her chin and spoke out loud. “Probably a scout. Could mean
an attack soon, but why would it save you? A fox wound make a prized solder.”
“If I may Wi… Commander.” Jimmy stumbled. Widget locked her amber
eyes onto him and nodded permission for him to continue. Jimmy swallowed hard.
“She was quite intelligent. Said her name was Alicia. Very shy, and seemed
confused and afraid.”
“Could be a front.” Widget interjected.
“I don’t think so. She was very genuine and once Jane locked onto
her scent, she seemed to lose any steel she had and ran.”
“That’s your opinion private.” Widget snapped.
“That’s the truth mouse. I don’t even know why I’m standing
here, letting you do this. I am higher on the food chain than you are. I’m
not going to take lip from a meals on paws albino!”
Widget stood smugly. “You wan’a try something you dirty flea bag of
a lupine? Come on, try it.”
Jane stepped forward. “No Jimmy, don’t.”
“Not now Sis, I have to deal whith dinner.”
“Listen to your sister, it’ll be less painful.” Widget snarled
as she cracked her knuckles.
Jimmy grinned, exposing his teeth, teeth that were designed to rip. With lightning
speed and laser targeted precession, he pounced.
Widget saw this coming and ran forward, decreasing the distance by a factor
of two, causing Jimmy to overshoot. Widget, being the type of mouse she was,
rolled as Jimmy flew over, and kicked him on the bottom of his open chin.
Jimmy yelped and lost control as his tongue was nearly bitten off. He landed
in a heap of mud and fur. Turning over onto his paws, he pounced again but anticipated
Widget trying the same move. She did, and he landed sideways, kicking Widget
and sent her flying.
Widget found herself flying. She somersaulted, landing on Jane, and used the
startled fox as a springboard. She flew fist out and boxed Jimmy in the right
eye. Jimmy howled and stumbled backwards. Widget, never the one to hold back
in a fight, went straight for his nose, scratching, biting, kicking, and punching
it into a mess of red fluid before jumping off, twisting in mid-air, and landed
on her feet, ready for more.
Jimmy, on the other hand, had enough. He already suffered the indignity of losing
to a mouse. He held up his paws in peace. “Enough, enough.” He choked
as he spat out blood. “I’ve droned once today. I don’t need to
do it again.”
Widget nodded, then showed some mock sympathy. “Those rocks in the river
sure did a number. You might want to report to first aid.”
“Mommy, I wan’a play.” All three animals looked behind them to
find a small mouselet running forward. He jumped onto Jane and started to climb
her forepaws. He stopped half way up as he caught sight of Jimmy. “Mommy,
play nice!” he scolded.
Widget smiled. “He started it Grimmy.”
“OK mommy.” Grimcrack sang as he continued up Jane’s legs. He
climbed in onto her shoulder, then on top of her head. “I’m’a
King o’da world!” He declared to no one in particular.
Jane unconsciously flicked her left ear as Grimcrack examined it. “This
one yours? Quite friendly, isn’t he.” Jane quipped.
“Yes on both accounts.” Widget grinned with pride.”
“Its like he’s never seen a fox, aren’t you afraid I’d do
something rash?” Jane asked as Grimcrack started to crawl into her ear.
Widget leaned back and placed her weight on her back foot and started to examine
the nails on her right paw. “Yes, he’s been around a Todd before,
and no, I’m not afraid. I figure that you have come to realize that I just
rearanged your brothers face. You happen to be a young, pre-adolescent, female,
so you probably still working on your hunting form. And if you run… you
wouldn’t get much farther than that tree before you were caught. I nice
skin like yours would go nice as blankets for the wounded, and the small amount
of carnivores we have with us would get to eat meat. I think thay havn’t
had that in… oh, say, a month.” Widget explained as she examined the
nails on her other paw.
Jane’s eyes grew wide and her paws started to shake. She would have run
and never came back except for the small voice in her ear. “Mommy no hurts
my friend. You my friend. Mommy likes you.”
Jane swallowed hard. “My ear is telling me that I’m a friend, and
that you’re a good Mommy.”
“Widget glanced up from her manicure. “Really, what else does this
voice in your ear tell you?”
Jane was breathing fast. “It says that, ah… you like me.” Jane
said swallowing again.
Widget sighed. “I can’t keep anything from him.” She mumbled
as she started the short walk to the Vixen. Jane lowered her head and Widget
extracted Grimcrack from her ear. “I’m sorry, he has a thing for ears.”
Widget said as she cuddled him to her.
“That’s ok, he was making this chirping sound that was kind of conforting.”
Jane said as she shook her head, trying to clear her ear.
“He likes you.” Widget said as she rocked the small mouse in her arms.
“I guess your OK.”
Jane exhaled her tension. A sly look came to her eyes. “Say, you said he’s
been around a Todd before. Any one cute?”
Widget rolled her eyes. “I really can’t say if he was or not. Personally,
I’m a poor judge of lupine beauty, but that’s neither here not there.
His name was Crisscross. The nicest fox you could ever meet, though he was a
bit strange. He got caught in the EMP blast from the bomb that wiped out most
of the people that lived in the city.” Widget looked out at city hall.
“A bomb with enough radiation to almost instantly kill anything within
the city limits, but whos half time will degade to become harmless with in hours.
Sounded like the stuff only the military could cook up.”
Janes ears sagged, then one raised. “EMP? I thought the bomb didn’t
produce EMP, what ever that is.”
Widget let Grimcrack go. He climbed onto Jane’s back and started to use
it as a slide. Widget turned back to Jane. “Electro Magnetic Pulse. You
see, Crisscross was an… android. The pulse was strong enough to fry most
of his circuits and fuse his neural brain.”
“But I thought the explosion was meant to use radiation to kill, but leave
equipment alone.” Jane pushed, her tone sounding like all of this was just
history to her.
Widget was about to scold the young fox, but realized, she hadn’t been
born when Gadget had set the bomb off. She sighed and continued. “We had
sent Crisscross in because he was the only one that could defuse the bomb with
out being poisoned by the radiation. The problem was, if you set off a bomb
that was designed to release an EMP pulse, and your robotic friend is nothing
more than a few centimeters from it, shielding doesn’t help much. The real
bomb that Crisscross was supposed to defuse was miles away. In a matter of seconds,
he was nothing but silicon and aluminum and we couldn’t get to him until
the radiation cleared some five hours afterwards.”
A silence, broken only by Grimcrack’s squeals of joy over his new slide,
fell on the field. Widget watched as the sky darkened. It would rain soon. She
wished that all the troops she had out, a dry journey, though she doubted that
were possible.
Jane sulked, head down. Suddenly, she realized that there was one animal missing.
“Where’s Jimmy?” She wondered out loud.
Widget smirked. “You didn’t see him leave?”
Jane shook her head no. A new sound filled the foxes ears. Laughter, from…
Widget?
“You mean to tell me that you didn’t notice him limp into the tree,
or the wink I gave him to reassure him that I was fooling around with you? You
missed all of that?”
Jane’s ears reddened. “I guess so.” She whimpered.
Widget’s laughter became a roar. It took a few moments before she could
get the breath to form words. “Don’t be to embarrassed. I’ve
scared a pack of wolves before.”
“I can believe that.” Jane mumbled.
“And da Dalp’ins to Mommy” Grimcrack reminded as he was climbing
Jane’s flank for another go.
“Yes, and the Dolphins Grimmy.” Widget repeated
A radio near by, in the tree, crackled to life. The message was nothing but
background noise at this distance. Soon a young lieutenant, a simi-atractive
young brown male field mouse, came bouncing up to Widget and saluted.
“Message from Eye 3 received. Reports a build up of Enlisted troops and
probable early morning attack. Currently reroute to way point Brovo-Foxtrot.
Reports of being chased off by Brovo-Foxtrot-Charlie.”
Widget shook her head. “Thank you lieutenant. Dispatch the MigPi’s
to Brovo-Foxtrot to assist Eye 3. That is all.”
The lieutenant saluted and jogged back to his post.
“Wonderful.” Widget moaned as she rubbed her temples. “Another
attack so soon… and BFC’S to boot!
“BFC’S?” Jane asked.
“Big Friggen Crows! Eye 3 is a red tail hawk. We use hawks as daytime reconnaissance,
but because of the lack of sun, the hawks have had trouble gaining altitude.
There just are not that many thermals around for them to use.”
“But crows?” Jane pricked an ear in curiosity.
“Crows just don’t like hawks. It’s a bird thing. Fortunately,
we had foreseen this. That’s were the Magpies come in. They hate Crows
more than crows hate hawks. They’ll drive the crows off long enough for
Eye 3 to escape.” Widget watched as Grimcrack slid down the foxes back.
“Grimmy, time to go inside.”
Grimcracks ears lowered. “Mommy, just won more.?”
Widget glared. “No, no more.” Grimcrack slowly marched into the tree.
Janes eyes twinkled. “Come on Grimmy, I’ll tell you the story of the
river rescue ghost, and how she saved a fox. I’ll even let you sit on my
head.”
Grimcrack perked up. “Willy, I can?”
Jane nodded once, and then lowered her head to the ground.
“Yippy!” Exclaimed Grimcrack as he climbed awkwardly onto her head.
He settled in between her ears and grabbed two clumps of fur. “Tell da
story.”
Jane sighed. “Once upon a time, there were two foxes, a brother and sister,
by a river. It had rained hard that morning…”
“Just like today!” Grimcrack volunteered.”
“Yes lust like to day…”
Widget turned her attention, confidant that Grimcrack was in good paws, back
to the possibility of an eminent strike.
“Wake up Alicia. We’re going to be late, again!” Asserted a
foreign voice.
Alicia blinked her eyes and slowly came back to coherency.
At first, she only saw shadows, then shapes and eventually the image of her
coworker came into view. “Chaos, all destroying! What is it Jonathan?”
She hissed as she rubbed her eyes.
“If you don’t hurry, we’re going to be late for another shift.”
Alicia’s rosy eyes bolted open. “What are we waiting for, let go.”
She spat as she rolled out of bed, her feet running before they hit the ground.
Jonathan soon caught up, mostly due to the fact that she kept looking behind
them.
Finally Jonathan had had enough. “Would you stop doing that, you’re
slowing us down! If were late, I’m writing you up.” He said with venom
dripping from his voice.
“Sorry.” Alicia mumbled as she looked behind again. She couldn’t
shake the feeling that she was being followed, not by a person or thing, but
by a choice. A decision so great, it could decide her whole future.
Disclaimer: ‘Dimensions of Change’ was produced, written,
edited, and well, brought into this Dimensional reality by Zipper the Magnificent!
All Characters except for Widget, Grimcrack, Jane, Jimmy, Capt. Tacoma ‘Dodger’
Airheart, Alicia Hamsterball and Jonathan Wintermouse are the trademarks of
Disney Animation or some other Disney company (who knows, or cares). John W.
Nowak is credited for the creation of Widget and Grimcrack.
I have claimed: Jane, Jimmy, Capt. Tacoma ‘Dodger’ Airheart, Alicia
Hamsterball and Jonathan Wintermouse, in the name of Mars. Hmmm, isn’t
that lovely?
Hi, Alicia Hamsterball here. I may not be a Vampire, but I play one in this demented story. Strange coincidences and eerie feelings are usually a normal part of life, but can also be a sure sign of a greater cause, Hyperacute-Freekedoutism (frEEk-d-owt-ism). Yes Hyperacute-Freekedoutism use to be incurable condition that would leave you edgy for days, but now there is a cure, Punch-d-guydoingIt2u (punch-D-guy-doing-it-to-you). That’s right, just pull back, and let fly, and the best part, it can be taken in controlled does to meet your needs. Say your boyfriend takes you to see ‘Frankenstine Vs The Swamp Thing.’ Just give him a gentle slap. But, if your younger brother jumps out of a dark room, causing you to leave an embarrassing puddle on the floor, give him a full dosage that will leave a mark for weeks to come, and reminds him why your older than he is.
Warning: Punch-d-guydoingIt2u should not be taken with out consulting your conscious. Most people experienced symptoms like ‘sore-fist, and hearing loss caused by the coward squealing like a pig, but grater symptoms like loss of friends, loss of boy/girlfriend, being charged with assault and battery, and jail time have accrued in less than 50%. If you are a descent person, have any semblances of a conscious, or are not an evil albino mouse, should not take Punch-d-guydoingIt2u.
Punch-d-guydoingIt2u, take control of your life!
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I’m more than a bird…I’m more than a plane
More than some pretty face beside a train
It’s not easy to be me
It may sound absurd…but don’t be naive
Even Heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed…but won’t you concede
Even Heroes have the right to dream
It’s not easy to be me
I’m only a man in a silly red sheet
Digging for kryptonite on this one way street
Only a man in a funny red sheet
Looking for special things inside of me
It’s not easy to be me.
Group:Five for fighting
Song:Superman(It's not easy)
Album:American Town