Why I'm a Giant Foxtaur- Virmir
(With sincerest apologies to all the henceforth mentioned...
)
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PART 1Kenku wanted to close up shop early that day.
The weather was beautiful, and while that generally meant more customers, he wanted to take advantage of one of the final nice bouts of warmth before Fall truly set in. Business had been good anyway, so it wasn't like he was wanting for money. One of the benefits of being your own boss, he mused to himself.
He eyed the last customer in the shop with suspicion, though. Perhaps it was the overly-obvious trench coat and fedora. Perhaps it was the toon muzzle sticking out under the hat's ridge. Perhaps it was because the fellow was so short and therefore was almost entirely coat and hat.
"Can I help you?" he asked professionally as he wiped the counter again. It was important to make sure no stray drops remained on the surface, as he wanted to avoid the incident of a customer's elbow-fur randomly sprouting feathers again.
The toon-muzzle poked out of the hat a bit more, whiskers twitching nervously.
Kenku's suspicions won out, and he reached over the countertop and tipped the hat upward. Out
spronged two and a half gray strands of antennae-hair, masking two toony eyes, wide in surprise. "It's YOU again..."
The toon pulled a white-furred hand up, and waved four fingers. "Uh... hi..."
"Listen," Kenku leaned over and gave the gray fox a hard stare, "we don't carry that stuff any more, ya hear? No you best be taking your business elsewhere. Understand?"
----
'Strange and exotic drinks, served with a smile', my fuzzy tail! I sneered at the sign on the way out. So what! I turn into a
giant foxtaur and destroy the blasted city
one blasted time, and now I'm banned for life! ARGHH!!!
I threw the blasted hat and coat into the trash bin by the sidewalk. Thanks a lot, Ninja Turtles.
A fair distance away from the shop, and after walking off a bit of my irritation, I found a nice curb to sit down and glower. A car drove by and I twitched. I just wasn't fair! The blasted cars everywhere...
someone had to do something!
"Chief, I'm worried about you..." Tvorsk sat down next to me. "This
giant taur thing... it's just... it's just not
natural..."
Tvorsk was a fellow fox, and also did not wear pants. So I trusted him more than most. "But the cars, Tvorsk..." I turned and looked him in the eye, and he shrunk back. "The
cars..."
"Your hands are shaking..."
I stood and he leaned away more. We were eye-level since he still sat, so I grabbed his coat by the collar with both hands and pulled him eye-to eye. "Have you ever felt your problems *squish* between your
four giant taur-paws? Have you ever cackled as they ineffectually fled from your invincibly superior giant-taur-frame? Have you?!"
"Erm... no...?"
"I've tasted the
power, Tvorsk!
I've tasted it!!"
"Listen... I erm, Googled this rehab center... perhaps you should check it out..." He slipped a card into my paws.
"Right..." I twitched a bit, then hopped off his chest (I had inadvertently pinned him flat against the ground during my ramblings.)
"As for the cars... well, can't you just blow them up with fireballs? And what about the
giant cartoon hammer? I mean, you can handle this sort of thing on your own..."
I ran my hand through my antennae-hair and sighed, my shoulders drooping. "You're right... I'm okay. I don't need that junk."
I hugged him tightly, then sprinted into the middle of the busy intersection. "Everything is okay!" I triumphantly screamed as two globes of burning light formed in my palms. "I'm
totally in control!"
Cars honked and people yelled. I let loose fiery death into an oncoming SUV, and the thing exploded with a satisfying plume of heat. The burning driver flipped out a window, stopped, dropped, and rolled, but it was too late as after the flames went out as he was already charred completely black. I gave him a poke and he crumbled to a pile of soot, except for his blinking toon-eyes. "
Totally in control!"
I blew up a good dozen more cars, but my elation slowly faded. It just wasn't the same... Sure, they were terrified and fleeing for their lives, but
most of them where getting away. I switched to the
giant cartoon hammer and proceeded to completely flatten a few vehicles who were left abandoned by their drivers when police sirens assaulted my ears, and dozens of cops decked out in full riot gear surrounded me.
"Stop that
right now!" A dog with a megaphone barked. He was wearing a blue helmet with a star on it, and also had those cool reflective shades.
"No, no,
no!" I turned and pointed at him scoldingly, dragging the hammer with the other hand. "
I'm writing this blasted story, and not a
single logical thing is going to happen in it! Do you understand me?"
"Oh..." There were some mumbles in the blue-clad crowd. "Sorry then! Carry on! Really sorry about that..."
I nodded as the police dispersed, and a few of those who had made it closer to me during the initial surrounding nodded back and gave their best "have a nice day!" wave. I didn't destroy their cars because they were just doing their jobs, and that would be rude anyway. I was just a simple misunderstanding.
When they were about dispersed, I caught a very familiar scent... my ears perked and my whiskers twitched as I placed it. Returning the hammer to cape-space, I switched to feral form and bounded off as quickly as possible right past Tvorsk, who still sat at the curb with his eyes frozen as wide dishes and his jaw dropped to the floor.
----
Kenku ran his fingers over the flask as he walked home. He had here the very last vial of
Giant Taur Potion in existence. He had destroyed the formula, lest it fall into the wrong hands. Sure, he could recreate it from memory, but short of getting abducted by aliens with mind-reading powers, it was
completely safe locked in his brain.
That of course left him the problem of disposing of this last bit of the vile stuff. He sighed inwardly as he watched the bubbling purple potion glitter in the sunlight. This was part of his recent experiments in "branching out". He had the species-switchers market under his paw, but some people had more... unusual tastes, and he was trying to cater to them as well. This new development had gone horribly, horribly wrong...
He couldn't just dump it in the river, as giant-fish-taurs would be a bad thing... Couldn't burry it, as he did not want to risk a giant-mole-taur infestation... Flushing it down the toilet was out of the picture. He did NOT want to consider the potential side effects of that...
He watched the bubbles glitter some more, and began to wonder what it would feel like to be 10 stories tall, four giant paws upon the ground...
Giant gray foxtaurs were trendy, fashionable even, and he certainly was an ideal candidate. He wasn't really into taurs much, but he did like to experiment with different species from time to time. And it wasn't like this was...
NO! He shouted to himself. He knew the formula! If he got addicted, he would just make more, and that would defeat the purpose! The
Giant Taur Potion would take over the world! He must destroy it!
He must!!Movement from the shadows. He shifted his eyes and held the potion against his chest, perhaps regretting the choice of wearing his absurdly easy-to-spot green hat with the giant feather on his walk home from work. A blur exploded from one tree that lined the sidewalk and disappeared into the foliage of another. He tried to follow the movement, but it was too quick. A toonish sweatdrop formed upon his brow...
"Give it to meeee~!"
A gray form burst from the tree behind him and slammed him in the back. Both figures went sprawling, and the flask flew from his hands, tink-tinking on the sidewalk. Both clenched their teeth and watched it roll with wide eyes. It did not break, but landed at the feet of a white cat wearing kool-kitty shades.
"Awesome!" Geary snatched up the prize and uncorked it, sniffing at the bubbling liquid. "I love potions!"
"Nooooo~!" both gray foxes yelled in unison.
"Geary! Give that back!" Alias yelled as he tipped his hat, then promptly eye-lasered the white kitty.
"Yeeeowch!!!" Geary wailed as he threw the potion straight up into the air, where it was randomly caught by Jonas.
Jonas was quite dexterous with his paws, despite being feral-formed (it was all the typing), and promptly put the cork back on the flask as he read the label. "Huh... I don't think the giant taur thing is for me..."
"Give it to MEEE~!"
"Mmmmph!!!"
He was promptly face-glomped by Virmir, still in feral form, and the two rolled around in a cloud of dust as the potion precariously leapt from paw-to-flailing-paw.
"Haaaaurr!!! That's so CUTE!!!" Both found themselves ripped out of the dust-cloud and squeeze-hugged by a blue toon dragon. They squished together against his chest and eye-bulged toonishly as the potion flew through the air once more.
Dragyn caught it and pondered. "Hmmmm...." However, his secret-elite combat training kicked in when a gray blur descended upon him from above, and he expertly tonfa-ed Virmir right through a department store window. "Oh... ooops..." He looked around nervously. "Well
I don't want it." He tossed to Traxer, who happened to be standing nearby.
Traxer rolled the bubbling flask in his paws. "Ah, the
Giant Taur Potion... What likkle adventures shall spring forth from drinking the shiny, shiny liquid? What grand stories and artwork doth it inspire, from whence our muses--"
"You know, he just took it from you," Ronts pointed out helpfully.
"Oh..." Geo wiggled his paw-fingers a bit, noting the open air between them. He looked up to see Virmir standing in the middle of a circle of advancing CF-members, chugging the drink as quickly as possible. "Oh,
fuzz-dusters."
To be continued...