--Chapter Three:
Feeding Art
Aeris: (in Jet Force Gemini, multi-player mode)
You had to get the N64 out from the closet, didn’t you?
Leo: (shooting as he runs) Oh, come on, it’s
not such a bad system; kinda underrated, really.
Aeris: (ducks behind a building, hit) I know
what you mean, but still, there are better fighter games out there than the
2-player mode for Gemini…
(She turns a corner, only to find Leo has
a rocket launcher held to her face.)
Leo: Eh, I
spent so long mastering the N64 controller it’s not funny. Shame for all that
practice to go to waste, right?
Aeris: I
guess…
(Leo blasts her health to zero.)
Leo: Thought
you’d see things my way.
Aeris put down
the controller with a sigh. She never was good at N64, since her preference at
the time was the Dreamcast. Had they been playing a Sega game, Leo definitely
would not have fared so well against her. “Say, Leo?”
“What’s up?”
“Have you
noticed anything strange about Scotty lately?”
Leo pressed the
power button on the TV remote. Aeris silently noted that, for the second time
in a row, Leo had forgotten to turn off the game console along with the
television set.
Said he, “I
never really notice too much about Scott. He puts food in my bowl and fresh
stuff in the litter box; I don’t ask questions. Why, is something wrong?”
Aeris was
genuinely concerned, an emotion that she rarely had to deal with. “He hasn’t
been talking to me lately… he got ousted from the police two days ago, and now
he just shuts himself in his room… I’m worried. I mean, he’s got that
convention in a few days, and he’s all depressed and whatnot. Whatever happened
that night must have really shook him up.”
Leo gave a light
shrug. “I don’t know what to say… but on the bright side, you know that old
adage that says ‘suffering feeds art?’ Well, maybe this could be a blessing in
disguise.”
Aeris shook her
head lightly. “Suffering fed VanGogh, but Scotty’s a cartoonist; humor feeds
his work, not pain.”
“Wait: suffering
fed Van-who now?”
Aeris sighed,
switching off the power on the Nintendo. “Nevermind.”
At the same
time, Leo turned the TV back on. “Wait, I wasn’t done yet; don’t you want to
get some revenge on me?”
A sound came
from Scott’s bedroom. Aeris reached for the remote to turn the TV back off.
“Look,” she said in a whisper, “Scotty just woke up. He’ll be out here in a few
seconds. Keep the game console off and try to act like a normal cat, okay?”
“Meow.”
“Good kitty.”
Their owner
entered the room before Aeris could hit the power button. Scott, who was going
to watch some news anyway, sat down on the couch with a melancholy plop. He
looked genuinely ragged and tired, hair uncombed and face unshaven. It took him
a few seconds to realize that the television was already on. Then it took
another few seconds to realize his cats were both watching it intently.
How cute, he thought. Then he noticed the N64 that
should have been in the closet. Wait… I don’t remember bringing that out lately…
Aeris hopped up
on his lap, diverting his attention for a few seconds. In those seconds, Leo
quietly unhooked the console from the back of the TV, then shoved it under the
couch. When Scott looked back, all he saw was Leo, eyes glued to the screen,
which still showed the blue “Video 1” symbol on black background.
“I must be
seeing things,” said Scott aloud. He petted Aeris gently as he reached for the
remote. “All this sleep has my mind playing tricks on me.”
Aeris risked a
quick wink to Leo, who responded with an innocent and perfectly natural “Meow.”
Scott turned the
station. He was just in time to see the five-o’clock news start.
--
Anchor: Hi, I’m
Mary-Beth Marianne, and this is Toronto Action News. Our top story tonight:
utter devastation at several computer retail stores citywide. With more on this
story is Action News field correspondent, Tom Thompson. Tom?
Tom: (stands
in front of a demolished store) Yes, Mary-Beth, the past two nights have
been filled with random attacks on retailers. Storeowners learned this morning
that their shops had been burglarized, much of the merchandise either missing
or destroyed. A security camera tape revealed this video:
(A video
starts playing. Krug’s face shows up for two seconds, looking close-up directly
into the camera lens. Then his mouth opens, closes on the lens, and the screen
goes to snow.)
Tom: Police are
still trying to interpret these findings, and at this time they have no prime
suspects.
--
Aeris did not
particularly care what was on the news right now; her attention was on her neck
collar, which Scott had gripped with increasing intensity during the broadcast.
She growled loud
enough to grab her owner’s attention. He let go of the collar and pointed to
the TV.
“That… thing…”
was all he could say at first.
Leo tried to
help him out. “Mrowr?”
“That’s the
thing I saw two days ago…”
Aeris wheeled
her head back to the news as the station finished the story with one more
showing of the security camera video.
“It tried to eat
me—said its name was Krug—it was eating everything in the computer store.”
Without warning,
Scott started laughing. “The commissioner said I was crazy, but there it is
again! A big red monster eating computer hardware.”
Leo and Aeris
exchanged blank glances. His contained a smirk; hers did not.
Scott sighed.
“Ah, but the commissioner doesn’t want me back yet. He’ll try and have his own
guys take care of the situation. He has no idea what he’s messing with.”
The artist went
to put on his shoes, coat, and Maple Leafs cap. He left behind the Pants Man
costume. To somewhat of his surprise, he found two curious cats watching him as
he opened the door.
He looked down
at them and said, “I’ve got some stuff to do. If I’m not back by tomorrow, you
guys know how to get the food box off the shelf and feed yourselves.”
This was true
enough; the cats had taken the liberty of helping themselves to a treat every
now and then—darned if Scott knew how they did it, though.
When their owner
had closed the door, Leo and Aeris walked together back to the TV set, still
on, now showing the current weather conditions for downtown Toronto.
--
At the same
time, the twisted face of Dr. Daniel Doe was under the spotlight in the
skyscraper boardroom. Krug smiled and stood next to him.
Number One said,
“We hear part one of our scheme has been successful, Dr. Doe. On behalf of the
Firm, I extend to you my congratulations in creating this… creature. He is
truly a work of art—”
“Krug eat things
that go crunch!”
“…Er, abstract
art, but art nonetheless. He’s been very… useful.”
The doctor
clasped his hands behind his back, and gave the type of smile only a mad
scientist could give: completely asymmetrical, with one eye behind the lens of
his glasses, and one eye perched above the upper rim. It was not so much that
the glasses were crooked; rather, the eyes themselves were askew. Greasy,
combed-over hair was tucked behind his ears, and it was a miracle that his lab
coat showed absolutely no signs of the random chemical residue that lingered on
his face, pants, and shoes.
“Glad I could be
of service,” he said in a voice that would have made Igor proud.
“Our only
question is as to what happened in the first robbery. Apparently there was even
more damage than expected.”
The furry red
monster proclaimed, “Krug will answer this question! Krug ate what he was told
to eat, when flesh bag find Krug and point big plastic thing at Krug, and Krug
say Krug eat flesh bag, and Krug tried to eat flesh bag, but flesh bag run and
turn on bright energy sources and Krug go crazy and run and escape.”
Silence. Then,
Number One put a thoughtful hand to his chin. “Do you have any idea what he’s
talking about, Dr. Doe?”
The doctor
nodded and took a business card from his pocket. “Krug told me that some human
found him out on the first night. This person has not shown up since,
fortunately, but he did leave behind this business card. It looks quite
intriguing to me, but then, I find many things intriguing…”
Number One took
the business card from Dr. Doe and eyed it with increasing anger. It was a card
he had seen only two days ago in this very room.
“Pants Man,” he
said, under his breath. “Never before has the same agent tried to foil the
Firm’s plans twice and lived to tell about it… We cannot let this person
continue to jeopardize our success.”
“Krug’s mission
successful,” the monster insisted. “Krug ate everything in the aisle. Krug do
good job.”
Number One took
a deep breath. “Very well. But Krug, if you ever see this person again, you
absolutely must eat him on sight, understand?”
Krug’s smile
widened. “That what Krug do best.”
“Good. In that
case, now that the city’s computer stores are taken care of, it is time for us
to move on to phase two.”
--End
Chapter Three