[LEON]

I awoke to Coro shaking me. He appeared to be yelling, but wasn’t making noise. I rubbed my eyes and blinked several times before realizing my hearing was still toggled off. A screen popped up and Coro slammed the button before I could even lift my arm.

“Leon!! Answer the fucking call!”

He spoke so loudly and quickly it made me wince. I stood up and made my way into the kitchen to attempt to make coffee… or something similar.

“Too loud Coro… to loud… and too fast… Calm down and tell me what’s going on…”

I approached what looked like a tiny garbage can sitting on the counter and opened the lid. There was a small furry creature curled up inside. It yawned and stretched as it stood up on it’s hind legs. It reached into a small flap on it’s belly and pulled out a small capsule, handing it to me.

I took the capsule from it and it vanished with a soft proof sound and a pink cloud. Coro had walked up beside me and gotten quiet to watch the small creature. I searched for a glass while Coro explained the situation.

“Tau has been trying to call you for over an hour now”

I found a glass and stumbled over to the sink to fill it with water.

“Over an hour? Why didn’t she just talk to you?”

I guzzled down the glass and proceeded to fill it again. I glanced back to Coro and noticed that he was still naked. My eyes traced down his body, but stopped just before meeting his one eyed monster.

I turned away and set the glass down, dropping the capsule in it. The water started to boil and shift to brown. I creased my brows and stared at the glass. It settled after a few seconds with steam rolling off the surface.

“I guess I will call her back then… obviously you were too busy to pick up…”

Coro walked over to investigate the glass. He leaned over and picked it up. His skin hissed from the scalding surface. He lifted the glass to his mouth and chugged the entire thing.

He placed the glass back down on the counter slowly and turned to face me.

“That is very hot. What is it?“

“I think it’s… coffee? I was going to analyze it but you drank it too fast.”

I walked back over to the small trash can and opened the lid. The same furry creature appeared again, but this time it just stood there with an eyebrow raised. It lifted a hand palm up.

“What? Am I supposed to pay you?”

“Ya tink dese tings grow on fuckin trees? Yaa ur supposed to pay me.”

The creature had a deep Scottish accent. I tilted my head back in surprise. It just stood there, arm outstretched. I looked away and pulled up a screen.

“How much do they cost?”

“Five loonies a pill. Twenty loons a bottle.”

I tapped to the conversion screen. There was an input and output box. Looking around from something to shift, I noticed Ash’s bikini on the floor. It had never been used, so I picked it up and shoved it in to the screen. A small green bar started to fill on the bottom of the screen.

A small button appeared in between the boxes and I tapped it. A solid gold cube fell from the screen onto the counter with an audible thunk. It was roughly the size of a base ball.

Damn… guess things I make with soul energy are more valuable than I thought… I bearly used anything into making that bikini…

The furry creature leaped from the can and scurried over to it.

“H…How’d ya do this?! This real gold?!”

He nibbled at the cube, causing several small dents to form around the edge.

“By tha gods….”

He sat down heavily and stared at the glistening object.

“Who ar ya mister?”

He looked up to me. His eyes glazed over in awe. I scratched the back of my head and sighed.

“No one special… My name’s Leon. And you are?”

He stood back up, dusting off his hand with his fur, and raised it to me.

“Me names Scruffy De Waggles, friends just call me Scruff.”

I reached out to take his hand. He wrapped his tiny fingers around my thumb and shook it furiously. His whole body shook with enthusiasm.

“Have you already got a rat sir? If not, mind taking me along?”

“Rat…? That seems insensitive…”

“Aye tiss, but dat’s what we’re called. We do things such as cleaning and making food for de masters. We also make buildings when we has to. I’ll do it, ifin you’ll pay to get me family out of slavery.”

“Sure… How much are we talking…”

Scruff shifted away and looked to his feet. He replied in a hushed voice.

“Be bout forty billion loons sir… Me family is a large one…”

I scratched my chin and pulled up a screen to identify Scruff. He was simply listed as ‘Hamster (Enhanced)’ Strength attributes were roughly on average with a human. Intelligence was vastly lower than a humans. I scrolled through to find the drives linked to Scruff.

“Forty million… There are forty million of you enslaved… to do house chores…?”

Scruff kept his head low.

“Aye… we has to work all our lives to pay for our freedom…”

I blinked several times and looked back to his stat sheet.

“It says here that you are three hundred years old… How long have you worked for?”

“All me life sir… Far back as I remember…”

I pulled up the conversion screen again.

“What is the gold to Loon value conversion?”

“I uhh… Don know sir…”

I looked back to Scruff and shook my head. I pulled my hand to my head like I was on the phone.

“Sorry, I am trying to talk to someone else. You don’t have to call me sir by the way.”

Tau wasn’t picking up.

I should have called her back after Coro told me she was trying to get ahold of me…

“Ummmm… Hello?”

The buzzing was back… I face palmed and took a deep breath.

“Tau… Sorry I didn’t call earlier… But I need you to look something up for me.”

The buzzing grew louder and was suddenly cut off by an intense sloshing sound. Her screams of pleasure were muffled and sounded far away. A second screen popped up displaying the conversion I asked for ‘Gold to Loons’. I quickly ended the call.

God damn… Did she just do what i think she did…

I shook my head and looked at the screen she had sent.

Stop thinking about it, Stop thinking about it…Stop thinking about it!…

“It looks like one ounce is about two thousand loons…”

I looked over to the conversion screen and dumped an eighth of my own energy into the deposit. The output was only about three hundred pounds.

That’s only about three million loons…

“Hey Scruff… Would you mind if I borrow you and your families… energy to set you free?”

“Certainly, take whatever you need.”

He knelt down low and closed his eyes. I reached a finger under his chin and made him look into my eyes.

“You don’t need to bow to me… I’m going to go ahead and apologize for any discomfort you may feel from this…”

I reached out and tightly grasped his Soul Drive. Threads burst from him in every direction. They grew taught as I started to siphon his energy. I released half of their mass energy into the converter.

The conversion came up to three million ounces of gold. That being nearly three times the amount needed, I pushed their energy back into them until the balance was exactly at forty billion loons.

That done, I pushed the amount into a digital account and created a card to link to the account. I handed the card to Scruff.

“Here, That should be the amount you need.”

He took the card and looked up to me. Tears started to stream down his fuzzy cheeks.

“Thank ya… Thank ya so much… I can not give this to de masters though… They will just take it and say we still need more…”

“Then come with us and we will pay in person. We are going on a few errands today. Might as well get that done while we are out.”

Scruff shoved the card into his pouch and came back up with one of the capsules. He scurried over to the cabinet and pulled down several mugs.

“How many of ya are there sir?”

I sighed.

“You don’t have to call me sir… And there will be four of us.”

He nodded and went about setting up four cups of coffee. Ash came out of the master room and yawned. She stretched out her arms and smiled at us.

“We about ready to go?”

She looked between Coro and myself. Noticing Coro was naked, she huffed and walked back into the room. She came back out quickly with a bundle of clothes, tossing them at Coro.

“Get dressed… I don’t want to be fighting other women all day if I can help it.”

Coro walked over to the door leading to the pool and started to put his cloths back on. I looked to Ash and smiled.

“Looks like you are coming back to yourself Ash. Glad you finally got over the nervousness from Coro.”

She blushed and looked away, catching a glimpse of Scruff.

“What is that? Or who?”

She scurried over to him with her tail swishing excitedly. She reached out a hand to pet him, only to have her hand slapped away.

“Please miss don’t touch me fur. It agitates the skin.”

Ash pouted and folded her ears against her head. Scruff grabbed one of the mugs of coffee and slid it over to her.

“Me names Scruff. I’ll be joining ya today. Nice to meetcha.”

Ash accepted the mug with a smirk. She took a draw from it and looked back down to Scruff arm outstretched.

“You can ride on my shoulder if you like. Don’t want you to accidentally get stepped on or anything while we are out.”

Scruff looked from her hand to her face several times.

“Ye would allow me to ride on ya shoulder miss?”

Ash smiled back at him and took another sip.

“Sure. Probably better than Leon or Coro, They are too tall.”

She glared at me as Coro broke into the room. She spewed coffee out her mouth and nose as soon as she saw Coro. He had ripped both of his sleeves off his jacket and spiked his hair out enough that it was touching the ceiling.

I turned to look at him, only to get stabbed in the eye by the massive spikes erupting from his head.

“Fuck me! Coro shorten your hair!”

He cocked his head to the side and stared at me. The spikes scraped against the ceiling, laving deep grooves in their wake.

“Why would I shorten it?

I pointed to the marks in the ceiling. Blood trickled down my face and between my fingers through the green light already healing the wound.

“That. That’s why. Whatever you did to make the spikes, hardened it.”

Coro made a screen and pulled a slider down. His hair shrank as the slider went down, stopping at four inches from his head.

“I won’t go lower than this.”

He stared at me. Determination flaring over his face.

“Fine… Fine… I’m going to take my coffee outside and call Red. You guys let Scruff know whats going on.”

I grabbed one of the mugs and stormed out the door. Coro shrugged at Ash on my way out the door.

Jesus… That Coro is a child…

I pulled up a screen with my recent interactions and hovered over Red. I sighed and tapped on Tau first. The line only rang twice before she picked up.

“Ohh so soon? You’ll have to give me a minute… I was working on a document to send to you about Red.”

“Red? what about her?”

She was silent for nearly thirty second. The only reason I knew she was still there was from the clacking of keys in the background.

“Sorry, this won’t take me much longer.”

I made my way back to the chair overlooking the pool and waited. I was half way through my coffee before she finally responded.

“Okay, sending now.”

A second screen popped up displaying Red’s status sheet. I still couldn’t edit anything, same as before, but I could scroll through the information. Most of her stats were nonsense glyphs instead of the normal numbers. Tau chimed in, as if reading my mind.

“So… from what I can understand from them… Red has undergone something similar to what you did when you took the ‘Orb of Creation’. I’ve never seen some of these runes before… I have been researching it all night.”

I closed my eyes and leaned back in my chair.

“Why didn’t you tell me something this important earlier?”

She giggled in response.

“Sorry… It’s really fun to tease you babe… I will try to restrain myself in the future… “

I sat back up and stared at Red’s sheet again.

“Does she know about all of this yet? That she is in a simulation I mean?”

Key clacking came through again with her silence.

“From what I can tell… Her brain activity is normal so she isn’t stressed about it. I can’t actually see her thoughts though… It’s almost like someone… or something is blocking me from entering.”

“So I shouldn’t bring it up to her yet… I’ll wait for her to ask before telling her… Thank’s Tau.”

“No problem Leon. You should probably call her. It looks like she is about to attempt to log in.”

She hung up leaving me by myself on the deck. I finished the coffee and tapped on Red to attempt to call her.

“Hello, Leon? I was about to call you.”

It connected immediately.

“Would you mind if I tried to bring someone with me? I have been messing with this… screen ever since I woke up.”

Well… Guess I won’t have to tell her about the simulation thing…

“Uhh… Sure, What are you going to try?”

She started to materialize in front of me, but she wasn’t alone. A seven foot tall robot with blue eyes and a bow tie formed beside her. As soon as they were fully assembled the robot bowed and introduced itself.

“Hello master Leon. My name is Simon. I am here to learn and assist Red.”

Red smirked at me with her arms folded over her chest.

“Wha… What??”

Red let out a burst of laughter. Simon turned to look at her and leaned back in laughter mimicking her.

I smiled and walked up to her. She looked up to me, still smiling. I wrapped her in a hug.

“I’m glad you are okay.”

She returned the embrace… along with Simon. I glanced up to him confused.

“I too am glad you are okay too milady.”

Coro swung the door open, causing it to slam back and embed itself halfway into the wall.

“WHOOOOO! LETS GO!!!!

Red stared at him… She looked him up and down a couple times before replying.

“What the fuck happened to yo…”

“WHOOOOO!!!! WHOOOOO!!!!”

Coro interrupted her and turned back into the room.

“He is… a little different… And I think he just chugged a couple cups of coffee…”

Red broke away from me and looked up to Simon.

“I want you to analyze every creature today. Don’t want anyone else to get trapped by those… things again…”

She shuttered and walked into the suite. Simon and I followed her. He had to crawl through the door to fit.

“Milady, wouldn’t it be easier if I simply flew down to the ground floor. It will be very cramped in the elevator.”

Ash gasped and ran over to Simon. She grabbed his hand and started to inspect it thoroughly.

“What are you doing Ash?”

She jumped back and stared into Simon’s glowing blue eyes.

“H… How do you know me?”

“I know all of you. Lady Red implanted her memories of you into my shell before bringing us here.”

Red was scoffing from the elevator. Coro was standing next to her holding the ‘door open button’, He was vibrating and his pupils were dilated to the edges of his irises.

I walked over to the elevator to join them and looked back to Simon.

“I can make the elevator larger. One sec.”

Pulling up a screen for the hotel, I shifted the material away from the rooms near the elevator shaft and expanded the ceilings and walls to a size large enough to accompany the massive robot.

Simon’s eyes went dim and bright as he stared at me. He stood up and looked to the ceiling. He raised his hand to touch it, as if he couldn’t believe what his sensors were telling him.

“What exactly are you master Leon? You just broke the laws of physics as if it were nothing more than folding a sheet of paper… My CPU can’t compile fast enough for me to understand.”

I laughed and gestured from him to enter the elevator.

“Don’t think about it too much, I bet Red could do it too if she tried.”

I patted her head and she looked up to me, brows creasing together. I quickly removed my hand and pulled up the screen to play music on the way down.

Simon made his way into the elevator and sat down in one of the corners. He looked around the elevator curiously, but didn’t make a sound… other than the mechanical noises from turned his head.

Scruff poked his head out from behind Ash’s neck. He had been hiding in her long hair ever since Simon crawled into the room earlier.

“Aye why isn’t we movin si… Leon?”

Scruff stopped himself from saying sir. That makes me happy… I’ll accept it from the butler robot… But I don’t want an army of hamsters calling me sir…

Coro snapped his head around and glared at him.

“Leon needs to play the music first…”

His voice was almost inaudible, but the red flash in his eyes brought the point across.

Ash raised her hand over Scruff and gave Coro a disgusted face.

“How dare you talk to him like that… He doesn’t even know how you are yet…”

Coro just turned to face outside the elevator. Red inspected Scruff and exploded with happiness. She reached up to pet him, only to get the same treatment as Ash earlier.

“I’m sorry milady, but please don’t touch the fur. Aggravates me skin.”

Red stared at him and pulled up a screen. She scrolled through several menus and dragging several things into a separate screen.

I selected Coro’s favorite song and quickly pulled up a separate screen to adjust his hearing. I cranked it up to triple his normal sensitivity. He released the button and fell to his knees ripping away at the imaginary guitar in his hands.

“Sorry everybody, He really likes heavy metal. I just made his hearing really sensitive so we don’t have to suffer for him to enjoy it.”

The elevator finally started to move. Red seemed done with whatever she was making. She pulled a small vial filled with yellow liquid from the air and half it over to Scruff.

“Here try this.”

He accepted the vial and stared at her.

“What tis this exactly…?”

Red pulled another vial out of the air and popped the top. She poured it over her head and rubbed it into her scalp.

“It’s a deep moisturizer for dry skin. It should drastically help with your sensitive skin. Should make your fur really soft as well!”

That seemed like enough for Scruff. He popped the lid and doused himself. He started rubbing the thick liquid into his fur. He had trouble getting it to cover his back, so he tapped on Ash’s cheek and whispered in her ear.

She blushed with excitement and reached up to let him crawl into her palm. She lowered him in front of her and gently rubbed the liquid into his fur. He had his face pinched in pain at first but quickly relaxed and lied down on his belly.

“Awe…”

Red and Ash chimed out in unison. They both assaulted Scruff with attention until the elevator hit the ground floor.

I stepped out first, followed by Simon. I pulled up a screen and turned Coro back to normal and stopped the music. He stared looking around and furiously panted for breath. He stood up and joined us with the girls following behind him. Scruff lay atop Ash’s head resting between her ears. He was fast asleep.

I looked around the room and noticed that everyone in the lobby was giving us a wide birth.

Seems like they remember us… or Coro at least…

Coro led the way out the door. The bunny Eclecs from yesterday saw him and dashed in the opposite direction. Coro leaped out to block their path. They both fell to the ground and scurried over to a nearby wall. He leaned down in front of them and whispered loudly.

“Pssst…The beds were not cold. You should try to talk to the manager and get your money back.”

That done, he rose and walked through the rotating doors. The smell seemed to hit him immediately. He dashed across the street and got into the already massive line for Flora’s burgers.

“I honestly completely forgot about the burgers… I was pretty focused on Coro yesterday though…”

Red tilted her head and scratched her cheek.

We took out time getting across the street. Simon walked out first to stop traffic to let Red cross safely. He apologized to everyone who stopped and shook their hands. Coro could be seen in the distance jumping in place.

“He is like a child…”

Red squinted and stared at him as we approached. I looked over to her and laughed.

“Yeah, I think he shifted again after you… left yesterday. He isn’t that… Well yeah he is that bad, but at least he is easy to read like this.”

Red shrugged.

“I guess you have a point. Are we going to go see Jeff today? I remember you saying he was having a kid or something?”

“Yeah, that reminds me I need to call him. Can you change his scent for all of us or do you need me to do it?”

Red shook her head and smirked.

“Already done. Limax will smell like vanilla to us now… Well all of us except Simon and and Scruff… I can change that quickly though… Should I let Simon smell? Is that weird?”

I stared at her in, deep in thought.

“Not weird… might mess up his record of the species though…”

Simon leaned in between us.

“I have already recorded his smell from Red’s memory. My records will not be corrupted. However milady, I would like to smell. I want to experience that.”

He pointed at the salivating Coro leaping into the air. He was next in line. He seemed to notice that he didn’t have any money, and quickly pulled up the messenger and slammed his hands into the keys.

*Ding*

A message popped up on my screen.

‘LLOOOONS!!!!!!! WOBSDJKBGV’

I burst out in laughter and shared the screen with Red and Ash. Ash stared laughing with me, and Red just shook her head with a smile. I pulled up a second screen and transferred some of my energy into gold, then into Loons.

I transferred it into Coro’s pocket and sent a message to order as many as he wanted. He slammed the message popup on his screen and instantly reached into his pocket. He came back up with two fistfuls of Loons. He lifted his hands above his head and yelled. Loons hailed down to the table in front of him, causing poor Flora to crouch behind the grille and cover her ears.

Ash huffed and ran over to comfort her and apologize. Red and Simon walked over to a bench and sat down while I called Jeff.

*Ring* *Ring*

“This Jeff! Who this?”

His voice was rough, but he was speaking english…I blinked a couple times and turned to stare at Red, confused. She just smirked and continued to talk to Simon.

“Uhh Jeff? This is Leon.”

“Oh hi friend! You come to to visit now? We clean house!”

I waited a few seconds before replying.

Can red alter things… when she is back in her world? Or did she do this after she got here?

“Friend Leon?! You there?! Hello!?”

“Yeah I’m here, sorry Jeff, was just surprised, hearing your voice.”

“Hmmm… What voice? Jeff no change?!”

Jeff’s voice faded as if he pulled the receiver away from his face.

“Mary! Is Jeff Voice change?!”

“Quiet Jeff! You wake Poof!”

“Ohh… me sorry…”

The rustling sound of someone jostling their phone filled my ears as Jeff got it back in position.

“Jeff voice same… You come now?”

“Yeah we should be there in about fifteen minutes. Can you send the address?”

“Jeff do. See soon Friend Leon!”

*Click*

*Ding*

A massage popped up on my screen. I opened it up and copied the address into a navigator screen. Coro was walking over to the bench. He had four burgers shoved in his mouth and was holding a mountain of them in his arms.

He dropped the mass of meat and bread into the unoccupied bench and started handing them out. Simon accepted one and looked between it and Red several times before a screen flashed in front of her.

A thin line appeared across the lower section of his head and flat teeth formed inside. He took the whole burger in one bite. His eyes flashed as bright as the sun and went back to normal almost immediately after.

“Can I have one too Coro?”

I was standing behind him as he was shoveling them down, one after another.

He held out a hand to me with three burgers wrapped tightly in brown paper.

I accepted one and he savagely took the other two back.

Ash was standing far away watching the unsightly scene in front of her.

“You are going to get fat Coro…”

Scruff was nibbling away at one of the burgers atop her head.

Red stood up and walked up to me.

“Did you like what I did to Jeff?”

“I was going to ask…”

She pulled up a screen and flipped it over to me.

Instant translator… why didn’t I think of that?

I looked back to her and smiled.

“You cheeky bastard.”

She blushed and shoved me.

“Stop… You would have thought of it sooner of later… Anyway did you get his address?”

“Yeah he is about a block over. We can head there after we finish eating.”

She nodded her head and walked over to grab her second burger before Coro consumed the entire mountain.

I finally unwrapped mine and took a bite. It was okay. Similar to that of a fast food joint with two golden arches.

Red lightly set a hand on Coro’s shoulder to get his attention.

“You need to slow down a little or you will be sick… You can put these into your inventory if you want to save them for later.”

He stared at her curiously. The burger hanging from his mouth slid out and fell to hit the ground. He grabbed both of her shoulders and shook her.

“Show me!”

Red started to laugh as she pulled up a screen and showed him the extra space he hadn’t known he had.

Coro instantly pulled up a screen and started shoveling the burgers into the endless void in his screen. That done he plopped down on the bench and held a hand over his bloated stomach.

I walked over to him and rested my hand on his shoulder.

“You gonna be okay?”

“It hurts so much… But it tastes so good…”

He reached a hand up and rested it on my own. He hiccuped and winced from the pain in his gut.

“Soda… I need Soda…”

I laughed and created a massive bucket of lime soda and placed it beside him. He ripped the lid off and honked his head in to the cool liquid.

“How do you put up with that…”

Red accused Ash. Ash smiled and blushed in response. Her tail was standing tall behind her and flicking back and forth.

“He isn’t that bad… Kinda cute in his own way…”

Red rolled her eyes and turned to Leon.

“You ready to go?”

“Let’s wait a little bit for him to collect himself… or throw up…”

She nodded in agreement, and turned back to her screen. It looked like she was messaging someone, but I didn’t want to poke my nose into her business.

Poof huh… wonder what a baby Limax will look like…