[Fan-Fic] Housepets! : THE CENTIPEDE'S QUEST!

[The-J-Man]

(After posting an Arc suggestion for a pet insect, I noticed that people think insects are no different in the HP universe as in the real world. I’m going to set the record straight and show you all that Insects have the potential to be quite exciting. This story takes place after “The future of Tomorrow today” Arc.)

THE CENTIPEDE’S QUEST:

Chapter 1 part 1 : a new kind of Pet

Peanut awakens to the sound of a revving engine next door, a very loud engine at that. Peanut rubs his eyes and takes a peek through the closed blinds on the window to see something that you definitely don’t see every day:

A moving van was being closed up and then drove off the driveway of the neighboring home to reveal a man wearing blue jeans and a tan collared shirt. Lots of boxes lie at his feet but he pays them no immediate interest. Instead, he takes a minute observe his surroundings and breath in the clean air of a new neighborhood. After a few seconds he seems to engage in a conversation with himself, maybe he was wearing a headset on the ear Peanut couldn’t see?

Peanut sneaks over and shouts into Grapes ear: “GRRAAAAAAAAPPEEEE!” Causing her to fall out of her bed.

“What is it Peanut?!” Grape yells after she picks herself up.

“Come take a look at the new neighbor. I don’t think he has a pet with him.”

Grape walks over to the window to see that the man was walking over to their front door, holding something that looks like a pie in a covered tin. Peanut leaves the room to tell everyone about the visitor, while grape keeps watching what the man does. She then sees him talking to himself again, though she wishes she could hear what he was saying through the glass.

“Who is he talking to…?”

The whole sandwich family gathers by the door and opens it after the man rang the doorbell. The smell of an odd type of pie hits Peanut’s nose, making his mouth water a little bit; he had never smelled something like this before, but it was good nonetheless. The door swings open to show the man standing there.

The man is fairly short, no more than 5’9”, and he has a very friendly smile on his face. Everyone then notices the pie tin in his right hand, but grape is more interested in his other hand, which he holds behind his back. He speaks in a very slight Southern accent that suggests he was from either Tennessee or Texas.

“Hello there. You’re the…Sandwiches…right?”

Mr. Sandwich answers the question, him being the one most awake at the moment. “That’s right…don’t let the name fool you, were very serious people.”

“I’d expect no less.” The man then hold out the pie in his hand “I made this for you guys.”

Mrs. Sandwich takes the pie and takes off the tinfoil that covered it. Upon removal of the foil, the smell of the delicious-looking pie hits everyone’s nose, reminding them that none of them had had breakfast yet. The pie was filled with a brown paste and topped with a type of nuts that neither Peanut nor Grape had ever seen before.

“I hope you all like Pecans.”

Mr. and Mrs. Sandwich smile at the man, but Peanut and Grape just keep looking at the pie curiously.

“Excuse me sir, but what are ‘Pecans’?" Peanut asks as gently as he could.

The man looks down and kneels on one knee so that he is at Eye-level with Peanut and Grape. “You two have never had Pecan Pie before?”

Peanut and Grape both shrug their shoulders in response.

The man gets up and has an urgent look on his face directed at Mr. and Mrs. Sandwich “Alright, this is an emergency, these two need some of that pie right now!

====================================================

Later, in the dining room:

Peanut and Grape take their first bite of the pie at the same time and it feels like their minds had literally imploded from the amazing taste. While Peanut and Grape gorge themselves, Mr. and Mrs. Sandwich talk with their new neighbor, who is still partially hiding his right hand behind his back. Mr. Sandwich speaks first while his wife eats her pie.

“So…Mr.…?”

“You can call me ‘Mr. J’.”

“Mr. J…Peanut and grape saw you arrive earlier and noticed that you didn’t have a pet with you. Do you mind me asking why
you moved to Babylon Gardens?”

“actually, I do have a pet with me…In fact I have him with me right now.” Mr. J says as he looks down at his right arm to check something, but no-one can see what it is. “Tell you what, if you can guess what it is, I’ll make you another pie. Each person gets one guess.”

None of the sandwiches want to pass up an opportunity to eat another one of those Pecan pies, so they each take a turn to guess what kind of pet the man could be hiding behind his back.

Mrs. Sandwich takes her guess first: “You have your pet in your hand right now? Is it a mouse?”

“Nope, think higher in the food-chain.”

Mr. Sandwich goes next after thinking for a few seconds. “Is it a hedgehog?”

“Nope, even higher in the Food-chain”

Everyone then looks at Grape, who was next in order of seating. “umm. Is it a mongoose?”

“No…actually I don’t think those count as pets…”

All eyes are now on Peanut, who was already deep in thought. He stares at the smiling man for a few seconds before pointing a finger and blurting out his answer. “It’s a snake!”

The man’s smile grows larger and he stands up from the chair, his right arm still behind his back. “Nope. I win!”

The man steps forward and outstretches his arm to show a TWELVE INCH-LONG CENTIPEDE on his arm. This centipede looked a little different than usual with its odd color pattern and clawed legs. Its long body was colored red with black stripes and its legs were colored orange.

Mr. and Mrs. Sandwiches jaws drop and both Peanut and Grape spit out pie they held in their mouths. The centipede’s mandibles flex and it adjusts some of its legs for a better grip on Mr. J’s arm. Its head moves from one person sitting at the table to the other, observing everyone’s shocked and terrified expressions. “Say hello to Venn.”

The only person to work up the courage to say anything is Peanut. “Your pet is…is an…Insect?”

The centipede’s mandibles move and a semi-deep voice comes from its mouth, his voice easily contradicts his size. “Does that bother you?”

All of the sandwiches eyes shrink to the size of dots and they all shout at the same time:

“IT TALKS!”
“IT TALKS!”
“IT TALKS!”
“IT TALKS!”

Mr. J recedes and positions his arm so that Venn could crawl onto his shoulder. He gives them all a confused look and Venn does the same. “You seemed surprised by this. Where I lived, people were very familiar with pet insects”

Grape scratches her head and remembers what she had commented about insects before in the Gallifrax Dimension. “wait…do all insects talk?!”

Venn answers the question before Mr. J could take a breath to reply. “No, most insects are just mindless drones like bees, flies, and ants. There are only a select few species of insects that have intelligence and working mouths to talk with.”

“Oh…okay I guess that explains that.” Mrs. Sandwich replies “So…how does it work?”

“Oh its pretty much the same as Peanut and Grape here. I give him food and a roof over his head and he gives me unconditional love in return; Although, Venn does still have a nasty bite for defending himself.”

Mr. Sandwich raises an eyebrow again, looking at Venn’s mandibles. “What do you mean?”

“Well Mr. Sandwich, the initial reason I came over to your house today is because I wanted Venn to get along with the local pets so that they don’t accidentally…you know…try and step on him thinking he’s a feral insect.”

Everyone in the room pauses for a few seconds before Mr. Sandwich asks the obvious question:

“So why do you have a pet centipede in the first place?”

Mr. J Smiles and sits back in his chair. “There’s quite a story behind that…”

[Saturn381]

Great job, J-Man! Can't wait for more!

[SuperStar]

Well you see the thing is not that we don't think Insect could be interesting, just that Rick said they aren't.

Nice fic, btw.

[Mickey]

Mr. J! That's clever of you.

*excited mouse noises*

[The-J-Man]

Well you see the thing is not that we don't think Insect could be interesting, just that Rick said they aren't.

Nice fic, btw.

Oh I knew that aleady. and I'm really hoping Rick will reconsider. this story is just my way of proving that insects are pets too

[Amazee Dayzee]

Really nice job on this ficcy! I am looking forward to the rest!

[The-J-Man]

Chapter 1 Part 2 : Rockstars

Mr. J leans back in his chair and he begins to tell his story.

“See, a couple of months ago I went on a trip to visit my family on their visit to Dubai for some kind of show. They were close friends with a man who had just opened a new hotel, so we all stayed there. At the time, I didn’t own a pet at all because of all the traveling I did for my job...-”

================================================

In Dubai, a few months ago:

Mr. J walks back to his room, suffering from severe jet-lag. He swipes his key-card against the door lock and it clicks open. He does not even bother to unpack before plopping himself face-down on the comfy bed.

“Ah, this was defiantly worth seven hours of sitting in coach, it’s like a warm marshmallow.”

Mr. J almost falls asleep, but he is quickly interrupted by his brother bursting through the door with his dog next to him. The younger brother was a few inches shorter than Mr. J, and his face was a bit darker from tanning in the sun. He wears a pair of faded and ripped jeans with a black t-shirt that has the name of a band printed on it; he also had several tribal tattoos on his left fore-arm.

“Ah, Greg!”

Mr. J then looks down to the familiar dog standing at his brother’s side

His dog is a black Terrier that had squared ears, a white spot over his left eye, and a red collar that had a tag shaped like an electric guitar. He smiles brightly and wags his tail at high speed.

“Greg…Sammy, What are you two doing here? I though you and your band were on tour?”

“We did, we all decided to go on an international tour and booked a stage here in Dubai. You should’ve seen all the White-collar folks down in the lobby who were reading my shirt.”

Sammy then speaks up in a higher pitched voice, one like a rock star would have. “Yeah, were gonna be rich!”

“Well I’m glad your career is taking off, but I’ve been going through a serious case of writers block for the last few weeks. I can’t seem to get inspired by anything…”

Greg smiles again and puts his hands to his hips. “Bro you gotta get out and socialize more, get some friends to buddy-up with for ideas; that’s how me and Sammy always come up with our song lyrics.” Greg and Sammy both High-five each other after he had finished talking. “Maybe you should think about getting a pet…I’m thinking you would do for a ‘Lonely-Guy Cat’.”

Mr. J raises an eyebrow and stares at his sibling for a few seconds with his dark green eyes, something he does often apparently.

“Your death stare has no effect on us this time, right Sammy?”

“Yep, I’m not a pup anymore. Nothing intimidates me!”

Mr. J motions for them both to leave once he had placed a pillow over his head to block their naturally loud voices out. They both shrug and leave the room, closing the door behind them and it locks automatically with a click. Mr. J thinks to himself for a few moments before he considers what his brother had said about getting a pet.

==========================================

The next day:

Mr. J looks at his phone screen and sees that the location he is looking for on his GPS map is right in front of him. It was a fairly new-looking store that had a sign out front written in a foreign language, but under the writing was the English translation:

“Pet market.”

Mr. J enters the double doors and sees endless rows of fish tanks and display cases inside. In the aquariums were many bright and colorful fish of varying size and the glass display cases held snakes and other reptiles that were equally as beautiful as the fish. A dark-skinned man then walks up to Mr. J with a friendly smile and greets him in an Indian accent.

“Hello sir, may I help you find anything today?”

“Actually, yes. I’m here looking for a pet.”

“Ah, very good sir. What kind of pet are we looking for that suits your stature?”

Mr. J smiles at the man before answering. “I’m looking for something…intimidating…”

“Ah, a rare but good request, come this way and I will show you our selection.”

The Indian man leads Mr. J down several isles of display cases and stops at one in particular, he grabs a ring of keys and uses one of them to open the glass box and pulls out a large snake that he drapes over his neck and lets it slither along his body, but he is surprised to see his customer maintaining his composure. “Nothing is more intimidating than a snake. It is considered an honor to wear one around one’s neck. I named him ‘Regal’ because of his yellow skin resembling a gold color.”

“Hmmmm…No offense Regal, but I was looking for something easier to carry.”

“None taken, hope you find what you’re looking for…” Regal replies before slithering his way back into his display case.

The Indian man shuts the glass door of the case and leads his customer down several more isles. He shows Mr. J an assortment of exotic pets including; Large and small lizards, colorful fish, and even suggesting going across the street to where a man was giving out free puppies in a box.

None of the pets had any interest for Mr. J and he was about to leave…but he was stopped by a strange feeling after crossing a certain display case that was a little bigger than the rest. Mr. J turns and takes a closer look at the false habitat that was filled with desert sand and a plastic tree root that could be used as a hiding place. Under the shadows of the root were a set of four menacing eyes that stared directly at him. They did not blink or flinch in the slightest as Mr. J ventured closer and drew the attention of the store clerk, who looked a little curious.

Mr. J looks right into the four red eyes of the creature hidden in the shadows until it finally reveals itself to him. The head of a Giant red centipede emerges from the shadows and crawls up the side of the fake tree root, the rest of his body following suit like a train on rails. Mr. J counts all 50 of the centipede’s legs and stares directly at the flexing fangs, he could hear the insect speaking, but its voice was drowned out by the glass case. The Indian man comes up from behind and Mr. J sees his reflection in the glass.

“Oh…that one…that is ‘Venn’…he is-*”

“He’s perfect!”

The Indian store clerk and several nearby snakes all shout in response:

“You want HIM?!”

The Indian man still looks a little concerned about Mr. J’s choice of a pet. “Sir, with all due respect, that is a Centipede. They are not the safest thing to have in your pocket.”

“Well I didn’t come here to play it safe, if that’s what you’re asking. Let me talk to him.”

“If you insist…”

The Indian man opens the case and picks Venn up by the middle segment of his body, holding him like a dirty diaper. Venn moves his jaws again and speaks to Mr. J:

“Of all the pets in here, you want me…? Why?”

“Because you’re inspiring…and different. The kind of thing I need in my life. Now how much for him?”

“Anything to get out of this prison…this place is starting to drive me nuts.”

===================================================

Back in the present time:

“-And that’s how I got Venn…”

All four of the sandwiches look at Venn and Mr. J curiously when they see that they have gotten along very well in the short time they were together.

Venn crawls across Mr. J’s shoulders and they all wonder how he is not frightened of Venn. He was the definition of a creature to be feared…with his venomous bite, sharp limbs, and un-blinking, red eyes that constantly give a soul-killing glare.

“stop looking at me like that…”

Everyone in the table then finds something else to look at almost immediately, all except Grape, who persists in the conversation.

“What’s with the ‘High-and-Mighty’ attitude?”

“You Mammals wouldn’t understand…”

Mr. J then interrupts them both: “Oh nevermind Venn’s attitude, he’s always like that to others at first...He’ll warm up to you guys eventually…now then, about my reward for winning the game...”

Mr. J stands up from his seat and looks at Mr. Sandwich.

"I understand that you are the go-to person for car trouble. Would you mind coming over to my house and taking a look? i need to have it ready ..."

[The-J-Man]

Chapter 1 Part 3 : I Want To Try!

Mr. Sandwich is unsure of how to react to the strange request Mr. J asked of him. “You’re having some car trouble? I don’t really do house call so you should take it down to my shop. Its by-*”

“-Actually Mr. Sandwich, I’m trying to avoid having the car seen in Public, besides, all it really needs is a new fan-belt. And of course I welcome your family to come see my home, I had it remodeled before I moved in, so it’s different from how you remember…”

Mrs. Sandwich speaks up before her husband can protest. “Of course He’ll do it.”

Mr. Sandwich then pulls his wife aside for a moment and whispers into her ear. “Hon, what are you doing?”

“Oh come on, aren’t you the least bit curious to see what this guy’s house looks like?”

Mr. Sandwich groans and rolls his eyes at his wife, but he give into his curiosity. He and his wife return to their places at the table and talk at normal volume with Mr. J.

“Ok, me and the rest of the bunch will be over at your place in 30 minutes so that I can gather my tools.”

=================================

Later at Mr. J’s house:

Mr. and Mrs. Sandwich stand in front of Peanut and Grape, who were anxious to see the inside of the mystery house and could barely contain their excitement when they watched their dad knock on the door. Mr J opens the door after a few seconds with Venn still draped over his left shoulder.

“Welcome to my dwelling...you all can make yourselves at home inside with Venn while I show Mr. Sandwich the car in my garage.”

Mr. J puts Venn down on the ground and steps outside with Mr. Sandwich following him to the garage door. Venn looks up at the group while turning around, preparing for a tour of the house.

“This way please, and do not touch anything that looks fragile.”

Venn then starts crawling his way to the other side of the living room, he was quite fast for something so small, maybe it had something to do with all of those legs he had. Peanut and Grape follow their Mom into the doorway, hearing the sound of the garage door opening at the same tie, but they are all interrupted when they hear Mr. Sandwich cry out in surprise:

“SWEET MERCIFUL JELLY-BEANS!”

Peanut, Grape immediately rush over to Mr. Sandwich to see him standing in front of the open garage, his jaw was dropped low and his eyes widened at the sight of a very special car that Mr. J had just revealed from underneath its blue tarp.

Peanut observes the aerodynamic shape of the car and walks around to get a look at the rest of it.

Grape stares at his stunned mother and father. “Guys what’s the big deal? It’s just a fancy looking car”

Mr. Sandwich obviously know what he is talking about when he replies to Grape’s question.

“Because grape…That car is worth over $2,500,000”

Both Peanut and Grape Raise their eyebrows and snap their eyes over to Mr. J, who stood by the car door. He opened the door outwards on an extending rod and pushes it up and out of the way so that it rest in a vertical position, revealing the reclined driver’s seat and an oddly-shaped steering wheel. He pressed a button on the dashboard and the back section of the car lifts, revealing the powerful engine hidden underneath.

Peanut is astonished by the position of the engine. “Wait…the engine’s in the back?”

“Well it wouldn’t fit in the front…”

Peanut then sees another set of embossed letters that spell out the brand of the car, but the word was long and in a foreign
language.

“What’s so special about it…?”

Peanut squints and Grape walks over to see the word he was trying to pronounce, but she is immediately stumped as well. Peanut does his best to pronounce the word, but fails at it.

Mr J chuckles and corrects peanut. “That’s alright Peanut, i cant pronounce it either, i just call it a 'Super-Car'. These cars are very special because they are built to go very fast…over 200 Miles per hour.”

Mr. Sandwich walks over to the open engine compartment and catches sight of the frayed Fan-belt that was loose and no longer working properly. He then turns back to Mr. J with a curious look.

Mr. J, shrugs and returns the curious look “What? I told you I was a published Author…”

“Yeah, but you never said you were RICH!”

“well, I don’t like to brag, especially when it comes to money.”

“But if you have all this money, why aren’t you living in a mansion?”

“I told you…I like to travel.”

===========================================

A few minutes later in Mr. J’s house:

Venn again leads Peanut, Grape, and Mrs. Sandwich on a tour of the house. Showing them the bedroom, the bathrooms, the living-room, the kitchen, and finally the tour comes to an end when he shows them the Game room in the basement. Venn then leads them back to the living room and takes a rest on the coffee table in front of a tan couch. Peanut, Grape and their mom take a seat as they hear the sound of a power-drill still coming from the garage.

Peanut then catches sight of a very old vase that had the image of a Gryphon engraved into it. He walks over and raises his hand up to touch the engraving, but he is stopped by the feeling of something crawling up his spine, up towards his face. He then sees Venn’s face descend in front of him, he had crawled up Peanut’s back and was now standing on top of his head with his inverted head in front of his eyes.

Peanut widens his eyes and almost freaks out when he realizes that there was a 12-inch insect on top of his head, it felt very weird, like hairbrush bristles moving across his body in a straight line. Peanut can see Venn’s mandibles move as he speaks.

“What did I say about touching fragile things?”

Peanut only shakes his head furiously in response, knocking Venn off and sending him flying into the lap of Mrs. Sandwich, but he does not even notice it at first.

“Hey, careful, you could’ve broken something!”

Venn then looks up at Mrs. Sandwich. “Excuse me Ma’am, but could you put me back on the table?”

Mrs. Sandwich raises her hands up in protest. “you mean…pick you up?”

“*Sigh*…yes, just grab me by the middle of my body or let me crawl on your arm.”

Mrs sandwich hesitates for a few seconds but she eventually offers her right hand for Venn to crawl up on. Venn moves and takes ahold of her hand with the first few pairs of legs on his body, he then moves the rest of his body up her arm, moving his legs in a synchronized pattern that offered the most grip on her arm. To Mrs. Sandwich, it felt as if at least 50 tooth-brush bristles were crawling across her arm.

“you know…I thought this would feel really weird, but it’s not that bad. It just feels like a toothbrush running across my arm.” She says as she moves her arm around to watch Venn crawl around on it. She then offers Venn to Peanut and Grape. “Here, try…”

“It’s got to happen sooner or later…let’s just get it over with.” Venn adds

Grape waves her hands, but Peanut seems curious to try letting Venn crawl on him again. Peanut walks over and lets Venn crawl onto his arm, seeing that it wasn’t as bad as his imagination made it to be a few seconds ago. Peanut smiles as he feels Venn crawl from his right shoulder to his left.

Grape eventually becomes jealous of Peanut’s bravery and gives into it. “Ok fine, give him here, I want to try…”

Venn crawls down Peanut’s leg quickly and zips over to where grape is sitting. He then crawls up her left leg and draws a shocked expression from her.

“EEP! Oh…your right, it’s not that bad…

Mr. Sandwich then walks in with Mr. J by his side, he stops when he sees Venn crawling back onto Mrs. Sandwich’s arm. She then stands up and walks over to her husband, offering Venn up to him.

“Here honey, try it”

“eh-What-I-" He then sees that everyone else had tried it and were waiting to see his reaction "…Alright…”

Mr. Sandwich holds out his hand too and lets Venn crawl freely across his body, it really wasn’t as bad as he initially believed it would be. Of course it looked weird, but it felt fine...

[The-J-Man]

Chapter 1 part 4 : Evolve Much…

The next day:

Peanut hears a knock at the front door and is surprised to see a letter on the floor, it had been slipped underneath the door by someone. On the cover of the envelope was Peanut’s name and a crudely drawn picture of his face. Peanut opens the letter and finds that it is from Bino at the Good Ol’ Dogs Club:

“Dear Peanut,
This letter was mailed as a notice to come immediately to the clubhouse. No questions asked.
Bino”

Peanut thinks for a minute about what this urgent meeting could be about, but he then gets sidetracked by an excellent idea that pops into his head. Peanut folds up the letter, stuffs it into his collar, and bolts over to Mr. J’s house next door. Peanut knocks on the door and after a few seconds, Mr. J opens the white door with Venn standing on his shoulder; they both have curious looks on their faces.

“Oh, good morning Peanut, what brings you here?” Mr. J asks Peanut

“Hi sir, I was wondering if Venn would like to come over and see the Good Ol’ Dogs Club?”

“What’s the Good Ol’ Dogs Club?”

“It’s a club where most of the neighborhood dogs go for activities and meetings, its really fun.”

Venn finally awakens fully and speaks for himself. “Wait, you want to take me to a place where all the dogs in the neighborhood gather?”

“That’s right.”

“Why…?”

Peanut laces his fingers together in front of him and twiddles his thumbs in nervousness. “Because, I wanted you to meet everyone.”

Mr. J thinks for a moment about all the possible situations that this could result in and finally brings himself to answer. “Ok Peanut, you can take Venn over there, just be careful that none of the dogs try and hurt him, I don’t need a lawsuit on my hands…”

Venn descends from his owner and crawls up onto Peanut’s leg, making him shiver a little from the strange feeling. “Eughhh…I’ll never get used to that.”

Peanut turns and waves goodbye to Mr. J before he starts walking down the street towards the clubhouse. He feels Venn crawling across his shoulder and neck until he finally comes to rest on top of his head. “So Venn, how many of the other Pets have you met so far?”

“Ive met a lot, but there was one that I never got to. I have seen him around the neighborhood a lot, but he seems to be avoiding me, not that I’m surprised.”

A Peanut finally reaches the clubhouse and knocks on the door, he continues the conversation while he awaits a reply. “Do you know his name? Maybe I could introduce you.”

“I think his name is…-” The door to the club is opened by Bino, who catches sight of Venn atop Peanuts Head. “-…Bino.”

Peanut gives no mind to Bino’s distressed look while he talks to him. “Hey Bino, I came as soon as I got the letter, I hope you don’t mind if I brought along a guest-*”

“-PEANUT…Don’t…Move.”

Both Peanut and Venn take a few steps back when they see Bino grab a magazine and roll it up like he is about to swat a fly. “Bino what are you doing?”

Before Bino can answer, he takes a swing with the rolled up magazine, intending to knock Venn off, but hits Peanut’s head by mistake.

“OUCH! What was that for?!”

Bino keeps swinging at Venn and hitting Peanut by mistake. “I’m trying to-AH!-save you from that-AH!-giant bug on your-AH!-Head!”

“Bino, that’s not-OW!-just a bug-OW!-that’s my-OW!-friend!”

Bino immediately calls off the assault and drops the crumpled magazine to the floor. “What do you mean by ‘friend’?”

Venn then speaks to Bino with a very agitated tone. “He means that I am a pet too!”

Bino reacts to the statement with his own hostile expression and angry tone of voice. “So you’re that bug I’m always seeing on that new guy’s shoulder…Great!”

Both peanut and Venn are very confused by Bino’s reaction, but their questions are soon answered when Bino talks directly to Peanut.

“Peanut, you moron! This whole meeting was supposed to be about this…Creepy Crawly. We can’t hold the meeting while he’s here, we were gonna make fun of him behind his back!”

Venn’s expression changes again from confused to angry again.

“You’re not very smart are you?”

“Oh please, my brain is probably…fifty times bigger than yours!”

“My species is centuries older than you mammals, I’m both smarter AND older than you!”

“Oh yeah, keep talking like that and I might mistake you for a chew toy!”

“Why I got half a mind to-*”

“-To what!?”

“GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!”
“HISSSSSSSSSSSSS!”

Bino growls and Venn hisses as they both threaten physical violence, but Peanut soon comes to realize that Bino is unaware of the Venomous bite that Venn was packing in his mandibles. Peanut can almost see the hostile looks from Venn and Bino colliding with each other, but neither was giving any headway…both Bino and Venn were evenly matched, so Peanut decides to step in before Bino unleashes another Magazine onslaught on him or Venn decides to bite.

“Guys, come on! Bino, there is nothing in the rules about Insects not joining…I checked.”

“I don’t care,” Bino leans in so that his snout is no more than two inches from Venn’s face. “I’m staying right here in front of this door, and there is nothing either of you can do to make me move!”

Venn blows a puff of air into Bino’s nostrils, causing his sense of smell and to go completely haywire. Bino reacts by swiping at his nose, teetering on his heels, and finally falling flat on his back.

“PFFT. PFFFT! DAah! aaaaaAAAAH! OW!”

“Evolve Much, Soft-Skin?!!”

Peanut is completely dumbfounded by what Venn just did, all it took was just one puff of air and he had knocked Bino onto his back.

“Come on Peanut, let’s go inside...”

================================================

A half an hour later:

Peanut and Venn both walk Back to their houses after a very boring meeting given by Bino while he was still disoriented. They both crack jokes and tell funny stories about past events, and they both laugh until Peanut has tears in his eyes. Venn seems to have finally warmed up to Peanut and actually considered him a friend.

“Hey Peanut, you want to come over and play some video games? We just got our copy of the latest Smash Bros. in the mail.”

“Are you kidding? It would be wrong to not accept a challenge like that!”

Peanut and Venn soon arrive at the house and are Let in by Mr. J, who kindly invites Peanut into the game room, but he offers Peanut a warning as he watches him go into the basement

“I’m warning you Peanut, Venn is undefeated…!”

======================================================

A few One-sided rounds later:

Peanut plays as Mario, and Venn plays as Luigi.

Luigi is winning by a landslide and the round ends when he unleashes his finishing move and knocks Mario out of the ring. Peanut is getting very frustrated and looks at the second controller on the table that Venn was operating with his legs.

“How do you do that, Venn!? That’s the fifth time you’ve won!”

“Dexterity and Button mashing!”

Peanut starts another round and plays intensely while Venn is having no problem keeping up with him.

“Come on, fifty legs is cheating!”

“You’re just sore cause’ you’re losing!”

Peanut remembers the time he had said the same thing before and realizes that he and Venn, a Dog and an Insect......weren't all that different...

[Amazee Dayzee]

Ooooh. Is Peanut on the verge of figuring out that Venn is also a centipede in addition to a dog? Nice job!

[Obbl]

But Venn is only a centipede in this version...

[The-J-Man]

But Venn is only a centipede in this version...

That is...mostly...correct

[Amazee Dayzee]

Oh wait. I must have read the last line wrong. I thought Peanut meant that Venn the dog and Venn the centipede weren't all that different. Not that Peanut as a dog and Venn as a centipede weren't all that different.

[Saturn381]

Nice update, J-Man.

[The-J-Man]

(short informative post in the story)

Chapter 1 part 5 : The baddest of the bad

Peanut wakes up from a long sleep awake and refreshed. Just yesterday, he seemed to have gotten along with Venn, but he still had a lot of questions that he was afraid to ask. He then gets a great idea of how to get his question answered. He had to go to Tarot’s house.
Peanut gets up and jogs over to his girlfriend’s house. He almost knocks on the door, but it opens before his hand even touches it. On the other side of the door is Tarot, and she seemed to be alone today.

“Hey Tarot, where’s Sabrina?”

“She’s out on business. What brings you here?”

“I need to talk about the new pet who’s owner moved into the house next door to me and Grape.”

Tarot raises an eyebrow as if she has no idea what Peanut is talking about. “What new pet?”

“You haven’t heard? The guy who moved in calls himself Mr. J. He has a pet Centipede named Venn with him.”

Tarot looks very confused now. “Wait…what? When did this happen?”

“You mean you didn’t now?”

“I mean…I’ll figure it out later. What did you need?”

“Oh I needed some info on centipedes.”

“Oh, that I can tell you, come on.” Tarot grabs Peanut by the arm and leads him to a table with two chairs on either side of it. They both sit on the chairs and look into the CrystalTab Tarot had placed in the center of the table. Tarot scans through many pages of data on the different breeds of centipedes and finally talks to peanut once she had seen enough.

“um peanut…I think I should just show you what I found on centipedes…”

Tarot turns the tablet around and plays a video of what she had found on pet centipedes:

https://youtu.be/fMUN-1W8pDQ (warning, not for those of weak constitution)

Peanut is dumbfounded. "But, Venn...isn't ANYTHING like that...i see him on his owners shoulder all the time."

Tarot nods her head and thinks for a few moments "i agree...something weird is going on...i should have been able to sense his presence, but i got nothing...maybe Sabrina would know more since she lived in the African desert."

[The-J-Man]

Chapter 1 Part 6 : The Two Eyes United

A few hours later:

Venn awakens in the middle of the night to a strange noise coming from the backyard. His antennae twitch and his eyes scan as he climbs his way out of glass habitat and searches for signs of an intruder. He hears the backdoor opening and immediately takes a defensive pose, raising his body up on his hind legs like a king cobra threatening to strike, but he is caught off guard by a sudden flash and then all falls silent. Venn looks all around the house but finds nothing out of the ordinary

“I can’t be going crazy…I know I saw a flash…”

Venn inspects the entire house once more to be sure that there was nothing strange going on.

==============================================

Meanwhile:

Peanut enters Tarot’s house with a picture in his hand that was still developing. He rushes over to the table Tarot was sitting at and hands her the picture.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks Peanut, now let’s see what this bug is hiding…”

Tarot waves the picture in the air to get the picture to develop faster and reveal the underside of Venn’s body.

“There, I can see something under his body, behind his head”

Peanut walks around the table to get a look at the picture he had taken. “What is it?”

Tarot waits for the picture to fully develop before she can determine what it was that she was looking at. She rubs her eyes in disbelief of what was on the picture. Peanut takes the picture and sees a symbol of an eye etched into the underside of Venn’s exoskeleton. It was the image of a left eye, similar to the eye of Ra, but somewhat different:



“Hey Tarot, isn't that the same symbol you used to have on your collar?”

Tarot snaps out of her trance and snatches the photo back from peanut. “No Peanut; I had the Right eye of ‘Ra’, but this…this is a LEFT eye. Do you know what that means!?”

“Is that a trick question? because I wouldn’t know the answer if it was a regular question.”

Tarot grabs Peanut by his elbows and shakes him back and forth vigorously. “FOCUS PEANUT, THIS IS VERY BAD!”

“Why, what does that symbol mean!?”

Tarot grabs her tablet and pulls up an image of a spiritual animal that was essentially a giant skeletal centipede. “That symbol is the 'left eye of Horus’, the Egyptian demi-god's symbol of Protection, War, and Hunting. The common belief is that Horus appeared as a man with the head of a bird, but there are several texts from one pharaoh where he appears in the mortal plane as a giant, white centipede that defended him from several spirits after he had accidentally angered them. Its the symbol of divine protection from other spirits, that's what was probably throwing off my psychic abilities for the last two days.”

Peanut immediately sits cross-legged on the floor. “Tell me the story of the eye, PLEEEEEASE!”

“Sorry peanut, maybe later. Right now I want to plan a meet with this bug...after a long nap”

Peanut bounces up and down excitedly “OOH wait! Since Venn follows a spirit like you do, does that mean Venn is a psychic too?”

“I doubt it…but the fact that Venn is here in Babylon gardens bearing that symbol does not bode well…”

===============================================

The next day:

Tarot is stirred from her sleep by an echoing voice and the feeling of being poked, she was worn out from her stake-out last night, and it was taking its toll. Eventually she comes to and finds herself faced with Sabrina.

“Sabrina…*yawn*…what’s the big idea, I was sleeping.”

“Tarot, it’s terrible. PEANUT’S GONE MISSING!”

Tarot’s eyes fly open at the mention of those words; it was like someone had blown an air-horn next to her ear. She sits up from her bed and snaps a distressed look over to Sabrina

“Eternal cat said WHAT!?”

“I went to see Peanut after he had called me over to tell some kind of story, and by the time I got there, he was gone.” Sabrina pulls out a paper depicting Peanut and the reward for his return with all his information on it.

Tarot grabs the paper, tosses it aside, storms out of the house, and heads straight towards Mr. J’s house. “I swear, if Venn hurt him. I worked too hard to get Peanut and I’m not about to lose him to a 12 inch insect.”

Sabrina catches up with her mentor and immediately tries to calm her down. “Now Tarot, I’m sure Venn would never hurt him. They’re both friends after all.”

Tarot does not listen to her apprentice, instead, she grabs Sabrina by the wrist and drags her towards Mr. J’s front door. “I don’t care. Ever since that bug showed up, my future sight has been going haywire and my readings are getting vaguer.” Tarot opens the door, but neither she nor
Sabrina looks inside.

“I don’t know why Venn is here, but I’m going to find ouAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

Tarot opens the front door of the house and steps inside, but both she and Sabrina failed to notice that the doorway had been turned into a portal that led to an area high above a desert. They both find themselves in free-fall, quickly falling towards the dunes below.

Tarot yells as loud as she can towards the sky with Sabrina still trying to orient herself in the air.

“I HATE NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE THINGS COMING!!”

*THUMP*

Tarot and Sabrina land safely in a dune crest that cushions their fall, but it thoroughly coats them in sand. They both dig themselves out and brush out as much of the sand in their fur as possible as they try to come up with a new plan.

“Ok that explains how Peanut disappeared so quickly” Sabrina says as she spits sand out of her mouth and then look over to Tarot, who was
staring off into the distance “I hope your happy Tarot, were both stuck in this desert with no way to reach the portal again…!”

Tarot just keeps staring in one direction with widened eyes and a dropped Jaw.

“Hey *Snap-snap-snap* Tarot…I’m yelling at you…pay attention…What are you looking at?!”

Tarot brushes Sabrina’s cheek and turns her head towards the direction she was looking in.

“What is souuUH-OH…”

In the desert sands were thousands of desert Centipedes that surrounded them both and were quickly converging on them. Sabrina could hear the centipedes voices and whispers as they got closer:

“intuders?”
“We must take them in for questioning.”
“They must not interfere.”

Sabrina and tarot are far outnumbered so all they can do is talk their way out of the situation. The centipedes surround them in a flawless circle as they try to determine how they will capture them both.

Sabrina hesitates but she works up the courage to try and make nice:

“um…hi!”

Tarot smacks her forehead.

===================================================

Fifteen seconds later:

Both Tarot and Sabrina had been bitten by a centipede and temporarily paralyzed from the neck down, the centipedes transport them on their backs to the rock formation while a single centipede leads them all in front. Tarot glares angrily at Sabrina because she knows that if Sabrina would have kept quiet and acted like she didnt know they could talk, they would have let them both go free.

"You HAD to say something to them..."

Tarot and Sabrina look at the mature Centipede that was visibly larger than the others and decide to kill time by asking it some important questions.

Tarot goes first. “So who are all of you, why are you here?”

All of the Centipedes move their mandibles as they start to sing of their tale in response to the question and more likely to kill time:

https://youtu.be/emIYxzP_Bj4

Both of the Psychics soon regain control of their upper bodies and take the opportunity to sit up and look to where the insects were taking them. they were being led down a dark cave that was located at the base of the rock formations.

Inside that cave were many decorative carvings on the walls, some carvings were jagged and misshapen like lightning, others were smooth and symmetrical, and a few were still being carved by the mandibles of Centipedes. the designs looked like different forms of energy flowing through the walls of the cave and converge at the back wall of the cavern, where an enormous picture of Horus's left eye was carved.

Tarot then feels something tap her shoulder after she gained the ability to move her legs once more and stood up from the platform of centipedes that was carrying her. She turns around to see Peanut, completely unharmed, but a little sandy.

"PEANUT!" Tarot and Sabrina wrap their arms around him and nearly knock him over. "What are you doing here?" Tarot asks.

Tarot and Sabrina then hear a semi-deep voice come from the top of Peanut's head, where they both see Venn standing. "A better question would be; 'What are YOU doing here?'"

"AAH!"
"AAH!"

Both Tarot and Sabrina stumble backwards at the sight of Venn, he was much bigger than they had anticipated, in fact he seemed to be an inch longer than in the Photo Tarot had seen.

Sabrina is the first to comment on Venn's unusual appearance. "Whoa...BIG Hoss"

Venn twitches his antennae. "Your one to talk, Soft-skin."

[Amazee Dayzee]

Really like what you did with this chapter! Wonderfully done!

[The-J-Man]

Chapter 1 part 7 : An Eye for an Eye

Tarot looks down a few inches to meet Peanut’s enthusiastic eyes, obviously not sharing in his excitement as she gives him an unimpressed glare.

“Peanut what are you doing here? I was worried sick!”

Peanut opens his mouth to answer, but Venn beats him to the punch. “Wait a minute…I know you! You’re the Spirit Dragon’s follower. Peanut is this the psychic girlfriend you were telling me about?”

Tarot answers for herself “Yes, now if you would be so kind as to tell us how to get home, it would be much appreciated.”

Venn crawls down from Peanut's head and continues talking from the floor of the cave “Look; I know that you must be very angry with me, but you can’t leave right now…at least not Peanut. Not until he has been properly initiated.”

Sabrina backs off with Peanut as Tarot and Venn continue arguing. “What do you mean, ‘initiated’?”

“I made an offer for him to join the clan and he accepted, we are here for the initiation trials. It’s not every day that a mammal accepts the invitation, so the entire clan has gathered to see Peanut. We’ve already gotten through all the formalities, so all that’s left for him to do is pass the test.”

“What test?”

“It’s very simple, all he has to do is ‘Capture and eat another animal the same size as him’.”

Peanut excited look is replaced by one of shock and disgust. “EW! I don’t want to eat another pet!”

“You don’t have to, it can be bigger.”

“That’s even worse; you never told me anything about hunting!”

Tarot cuts into with her own comments on the cruel test. “Venn that’s horrible, what kind of test is that?!”

Venn’s body suddenly changes with a poof of magical energy. The top of his exoskeleton had changed from black to a very light grey, except for two stripes of white that draped over his black eyes to make them stand out; the underside of his body had changed to a blood red, his legs were now a dark grey, his eight insect eyes had been joined together to form a set of Four ‘True eyes’ (insect eyes that can observe infrared, color, and ultraviolet light waves) with red snake-like pupils, and on the center of his head was the symbol of Horus’s left eye. Even a few sections of Venn’s exoskeleton had been modified to look more threatening or to be used as weapons, like a set of four spikes near his mouth that were shaped to act giant teeth or fangs.

The red pupils in Venn's eyes never moved because they weren't real, they were just a camouflage pattern meant to make him look more threatening, but it was certainly working. Tarot, Sabrina, and Peanut are all taken by surprise with Venn’s change in appearance.

"I’m the leader of a Warrior clan that is mostly made up of Carnivorous Predators. What did you expect?”

“I expected a tub of ice water to be dumped over my head…” Peanut looks at Tarot and protests all the insects that lined the wall of the cave. “I don’t want to do this anymore!”

Tarot nods at Sabrina and looks at Venn. “He’s right. You seem like a nice guy Venn, and I respect the spirit you chose to follow, but there is no way that any of us are going to do this test. We’re leaving with or without your help.”

Venn groans and watches as the three pets walk towards the light at the end of tunnel…literally.

They all make their way towards the mouth of the cave, but are quickly halted by the centipedes that were guarding the entrance. They hiss and drive them back into the cave, where Tarot is confronted by Venn again. He crawls on the ceiling of the cave and dangles his upper body down from a stalactite in front of her face, now he was in a bad mood too.

“Tarot, im sorry but none of you can leave, not anymore.”

“Why?”

“Because you challenged my word…the rules of the clan clearly state that a challenge must not go unanswered, no matter the species.”

Tarot raises an eyebrow. “Wait, what?”

“Tarot, by interrupting this ceremony, you have challenged me to a Duel.”

“Excuse me?!”

All of the insects that line the walls of the cave start chanting one single word over and over again:

“Duel, duel, duel,-…”

Tarot decides that she has had enough and engages Venn in a heated argument.

“I can’t stand you all! I know that followers of Horus were warriors, but you would threaten someone just to prove a point. If that’s how Horus really behaves, then he’s no better than Bino!

“Touché, the followers of the spirit dragon are known widely for prying into the minds of others. That’s why my family chose to follow Horus, to be safe from anyone who follows that cry-baby of a Demi-god”

“Yes I know what the symbol’s effects are, I just didn’t expect those who wore it to be so…Barbaric!”

Venn is immediately offended. “WE’RE Barbaric?! You walking skin-sacks are giant brutes compared to us! Since I was born, I watched how you all would squash one of us without a second thought, just because we were scary.”

“It’s not our fault that your species evolved to look like monsters.”

“YES IT IS! With you all stepping on our ancestors all the time without even noticing us, we had to evolve to look threatening so that you would leave us alone, let alone pay attention.”

Both Tarot and Venn are locked in a bitter quarrel that has no end in sight, its like both of their psyches were colliding with each other, but neither was stronger than the other.

20150506_131311.jpg (146.03 KiB) Viewed 16930 times

===================================================

Meanwhile, on the other end of the cave:

Peanut and Sabrina both watch in disbelief as Tarot and Venn trade insults in their scalding-hot argument. Neither one of them seems to be winning against the other as the trade-off continues.

Peanut then taps Sabrina on the shoulder. “Sabrina, what’s got them so cheesed off with each other? Tarot knows that Venn didn’t mean me any harm.”

“Listen Peanut, Tarot met one of Horus’s followers before and…he wasn’t the nicest person. Words were said, punches were thrown, and Tarot’s held a grudge ever since.”

“That’s terrible…you know, before you guys got here, Venn said that he would throw the fight if he was challenged to a duel for my freedom. Im sure that if Tarot and Venn just took the time to talk, they would understand each other.”

Sabrina pats Peanut on the head. “I tried to tell her the same thing” She looks a Tarot and Venn, who were both ready to explode. “…but I think it might be too late for ‘sorry’.”

Peanut and Sabrina’s focus is then drawn to Venn’s loud yelling:

“-BECAUSE, you mammals like to take the GOOD food, leaving us with the small-game!”

============================================================

Back on the other side of the cave:

“What do you mean? You all had plenty of chances to talk to us; to make yourselves known!”

“And what were we supposed to say? ‘Hi there, I know I look like a monster, but I just want something to eat.’?”

“No, but I’m sure that there were plenty of other options for food.”

Venn moves his head up and down as he looks over Tarot’s body. “…Like eating the fleas from you’re fur!?”

Tarot takes a step back and widens her eyes. She was ready to blow a gasket. “Wha-Well at least we don’t Date our Cousins!”

“*GASP*, You take that Back! You take that back RIGHT NOW!”

“Make me!”

Venn’s eyes then start to glow red and his body starts increasing in size until he was nearly 1.5 Meters long, and 1.5 Feet wide(counting his legs). He drops down from the ceiling while Tarot steps backwards in fear of the now Prehistoric-sized insect. Tarot then notices that a red spike has grown at the end of Venn’s body, it looked sharper than a Japanese katana.

Venn continues to approach Tarot while she retreats backwards, but she eventually trips on a rock and falls flat on her back, causing a few of the centipedes nearby to retreat in fear of being crushed. Venn positions his head right above Tarot’s while he continues talking in a very deep and threatening voice.

“I was going to throw the fight when you first challenged me so that peanut could go free if he changed his mind…but now; since it’s obvious that you want a real fight...I will show no mercy.”

Tarot cannot believe what she was hearing. She had needlessly provoked Venn and now he was beyond mad.

“We fight at dawn tomorrow, so that we can both be ready. I implore you to seek help of a spirit that would be willing to back the power you kept from ‘The game’ once more.”

“How did you know about ‘The game’?”

“Peanut told me yesterday, that’s how I learned about you Tarot. I will return you to your home so that you may prepare and sleep, but come dawn tomorrow, you will be summoned for the duel.”

Venn crawls away and curls up his body underneath the giant carving of Horus’s eye at the back of the cave. Peanut and Sabrina then rush over to Tarot and help her up.

“Tarot are you alright?” Peanut asks her

“No Peanut, I was wrong about Venn, and now it’s too late to take it back”

Peanut, Tarot, and Sabrina are then enveloped in a cloud of smoke that clears to show that they had all been teleported back to Tarot’s house.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Really liking how this is coming along! Please keep writing!

[The-J-Man]

thanks. the picture of Tarot and Venn took me a few tries to get it right, but as you can see, it was all worth it

[Saturn381]

Nice update and drawing J-Man.

[Amazee Dayzee]

I really like the drawing! It came out very nice!

[The-J-Man]

Chapter 1 Part 8 : THE CENTURION’S SWORD.

About an hour of leaving messages on a CrystalTab later:

After Peanut returned home and Sabrina left the house to do research on Horus, Tarot was left alone to try and find a spirit that would back her power again and help her win

Tarot paced back and forth through her house, like she was waiting for something. She mumbles incoherently to herself while trying to determine the best course of action. She then hears a tone come her tablet and presses the screen, answering the call. On the screen was none other than Cerberus.

“Hello Tarot, I heard you needed my help for something?”

“Yes, I accidentally challenged a follower of Horus to a duel.”

Cerberus’s three heads all sport looks of disbelief of what they had just heard. She snaps her fingers and appears in Tarot’s living room with a puff of smoke. She wore a plaid collared shirt and a pair of pants in this form.

“Im sorry…what?”

“It’s a long story, but I need to know if you can help me.”

“Well sure Tarot, but how did you get involved with a follower of Horus?”

“I told you, it’s a long story.”

“I hope you realize that an avatar of Horus is always proficient in combat.”

“YES I KNOW THAT, now please get this done as fast as possible, I’m going to be summoned at the crack of dawn tomorrow."

Cerberus snaps her fingers again and Tarot feels the spark of power within her awaken once more, but Cerberus was all too familiar with the followers of Horus to think that Tarot could handle this duel alone. Just then, Sabrina burst through the front door with a book in her hands

“Hey Tarot, Hey Cerb, I got something you may want to look at.”

Tarot smiles. “Did you find out what kind of Avatar Venn is?”

“No, but I did get the rules of the Duel from one of the Centipedes. I found something inside that could help you win.”

Sabrina drops the small book on the table and flips to a bookmarked page. On the page was a highlighted rule that read:

“In a duel of avatars, either side is entitled to one ‘Relief’ fighter of a different class.”

Sabrina, Tarot, and Cerb all trade looks after they realize what they must do.

=================================================

A few minutes later:

King hears a knock on the door and goes to answer it, but he gets beaten by Bailey…again. She opens the door and looks down to see Tarot standing there with a worried look in her eyes.

“Tarot…what are you…doing here?”

“I need your help…I need you to become the dark avenger again.”

King hears this and runs over to protest, but he is halted by Bailey who answers Tarot’s question with another. “Tarot, what is this all about?”

One brief explanation later:

Bailey and Tarot sit on either side of a coffee table while King left to spend time at the Wolf’s house while things played out.

Tarot had already told Bailey the story and explained the rules of the duel to her, but she was sill reluctant about fighting again
Bailey can hardly believe what she was hearing. “So your telling me that If you lose against this…Centipede…then Peanut will most likely be eaten?”

“That’s right…will you help me? I made a huge mistake and I can’t win against him without your help.”

Bailey stand up and ties her blue handkerchief around her neck. “I would always fight to save my friends tarot…even though you tried to kick my but before…lets do it.”

=======================================================

The crack of DAWN:

Venn stands in the middle of the desert and finally brings two of his claws together to make a snapping sound, summoning Tarot and her relief to the battlefield. They appear in front of Venn with a puff of smoke and reveal the powers that were hidden within to Venn

Tarot, whose body was covered in glowing green marks; stands beside Bailey, who was clad in the armored suit of the Dark avenger. Behind both of them stood Cerberus; the spirit that was backing their powers.

Bailey catches sight of the meter-long centipede and sticks her tongue out in disgust. “Ew, that’s a big bug." even though she was easily a hundred times his size and could easily squash him beneath her foot. Venn moves his mandibles to start the duel:
“Psychic warrior and Dark avenger, are you ready for the duel?”

Tarot looks around and sees that Venn does not have a relief fighter. “Wait…don’t you have a second with you?”

“I need no relief fighter…I assume that you are ready, so the duel will begin…N-*”

Bailey wasted no time in jumping into the air and kicks downward towards Venn, intending to crush him.
“You’re gonna regret not having anyone to help you, creepy crawly.”

Bailey then sees Venn rear the front of his long body up into the air like a snake, and he uses his front legs to grab ahold of her foot before it even touched the ground.

Venn spins her around many times before throwing her back beside Tarot, flat on her back. Tarot kneels down next to Bailey to check and see if she was alright. Bailey opens her helmet and shows a smile, but she was clearly dizzy from being spun around so many times.

“That bug…is stronger than I thought.”

Tarot stands in front of Bailey with her back to Venn. “Alright, we need a strategy to take Venn down, he may be strong, but he’s still just a bug…”

Tarot than notices that both Bailey and Cerb were both looking past her towards Venn with shocked expressions on their faces. Tarot feels a soft breeze on her back, but she ignore it because she was more concerned with getting her partners attention back “…What are you two looking at? He’s just a bug!”

Bailey points towards where Venn was standing, prompting Tarot to turn around and look. Upon looking, she sees a huge desert vortex surrounding Venn so that only a shadowy silhouette of his body was visible. They can all see Venn’s body changing and
the more the transformation progresses, the stronger the winds of the vortex become.

Tarot and Bailey have to shield their eyes from the flying sand so that it wouldn’t blind them, they squint and see the faint image of a dog standing up inside the vortex. They then hear a voice coming from the vortex, a deep and chilling voice:

“From the handbook of avatars, chapter 10, verse 6: I bestow upon thee…the Power and Form…OF THE CENTURION WARRIOR.”

The sand tornado vanishes once the winds stopped and revealed Venn’s avatar form:

Venn’s body had been changed from an insect to a grey dog whose chest, forearms, shins, and shoulders were clad in pieces of white armor. The last piece of armor was a facial mask that resembled a skull with razor-sharp teeth, the helmet wrapped around the dogs head and over his eyes like a visor, but it blocked out his eyes completely. More notably, he had a sword in its scabbard strapped to his waist, the sword was only a meter long and two and half inches wide, so he had to hold its handle to keep it from touching the sand below

Venn, in his new dog form slowly stepped towards Tarot and Bailey as they did the same, but they were taken by surprise when Venn’s armored visor uncovered its eyes. The eyes were both perfectly round and glowing with a blood-red color. They had no pupils in them and they never blinked, making them look all the more menacing. Tarot’s body changed into a giant and she flexed her claws, while Bailey stood up and readied her infinity sword. The three avatars met up in the middle of their paths and sized up one another:

……Venn was practically the size of Peanut in his avatar form, making him the size of a mouse to Tarot and Bailey……

Tarot and bailey looked at each other and started laughing at Venn’s size.

Bailey sputters insults at Venn through her laughter, thinking that his small size meant that he was not that powerful at all.
“Ha ha, look he’s so tiny!”

Venn does not move or react, he just stands there with his red eyes staring at them both, eventually causing Tarot and Bailey to stop laughing because it felt weird.

Bailey raises her infinity sword and slashes downward as hard as she could, intending to smash Venn, but her sword is stopped with a loud CLANG. Bailey hears the metallic clang and she looks down to see that the blade of her sword stopped as soon as it had collided with Venn’s head. a red number flashes above Venn's head, displaying the amount of damage done:

"-0 HP, IMMUNE"

Tarot, Bailey and Cerb are all stunned. Venn was immune to the attacks from Bailey's infinity sword.

“Bailey, what kind of attack was that?!”

“A-a finishing blow! That should have taken him down instantly!”

Bailey and Tarot retreat back a few steps, trying to find out why they did no damage. Venn then grabs the handle of his sword and pulls it out of its scabbard.

It was a meter-long broad sword that had a blade made of a blood-red metal that matched Venn’s armor. The sword had no hilt to guard Venn’s hand, an ergonomic grip, and the most unusual feature was a row of ones and zeros that were expertly engraved into the side of the sword’s red blade.

Venn quickly jumps into the air and raises his sword over his right shoulder, ready for a horizontal slash. He swings his sword at Bailey and the red blade cuts clean through her armor, making a huge crack in her chest plate, and knocking her onto her back. Tarot kneels down to pick Bailey up but she is stopped by the sight of Venn’s shadow jumping into the air.

Venn jumps towards the two avatars with his sword raised over his head for a downward strike; He reaches his target and brings his sword down upon them both with the sound of the sword slicing through the air.

Tarot’s card-shaped ID tag and a piece of Bailey’s blue handkerchief fly right past the binary code on the side of Venn’s sword.

20150508_140520.jpg (129.89 KiB) Viewed 16861 times

TO BE CONTINUED…

[Amazee Dayzee]

Moral of the story here kids: don't **** off a centipede.

[The-J-Man]

yes and now you my audience and readers must prepare yourselves for a battle of the most EPIC proportions, were talking destruction on a planetary scale:
https://youtu.be/b11-37Me_a4

[SuperStar]

Wow, so I'm still processing everything. Correct me if I'm reading it wrong, but is Venn the bad guy?

[The-J-Man]

not really, he's more like a an Anti hero with a short fuse, he can protect or destroy whatever he wants....

[Amazee Dayzee]

Just so you know, if he made King a widower, you'll be chased with a lot of Kingley fans with torches and pitchforks.

[The-J-Man]

Chapter 1 Part 9 (chapter finale) : The Wizard’s Weakness.

In the middle of the Syrian Desert:

Tarot and Bailey watch as the red blade of Venn’s sword slices in between them, cutting Tarot’s ID tag and a piece of Bailey’s handkerchief clean off. The whole scene seems to unfold in slow motion for them.

Bailey’s armor had taken heavy damage from Venn’s sword already, yet she nodded at Tarot, showing that she was still ready to fight. They both stand up and slide backwards, away from Venn so that they could come up with a plan.

“Tarot, that sword packs a punch.”

“I know, Cerb is already shuffling through the U&U player’s handbook for more info on the Centurion Warrior, but until then, we just have to hold out.”

“Easier said than done,” Bailey points to the deep gash in her armor and measures the depth of the cut with one of her fingers. “Jeez, another inch and I would have been a fillet!”

Both Tarot and Bailey turn their attention back towards Venn, who was just standing there with his sword held up next to his head. They looked into his round, unblinking eyes and couldn’t help but shutter a bit from a strange feeling.

=================================================

Meanwhile, back at Tarot’s house:

Cerb frantically looks a Player’s handbook for U&U, looking for information on the Centurion warrior Avatar. Eventually she finds it and reads the text under the label. What she reads astonishes her to the point of fear. The snaps her fingers and teleports herself back to the desert, where Bailey and Venn have their swords locked.

Venn was easily pushing Bailey’s infinity sword back, so Tarot had to help her bring the blade down on him and keep him at bay.

“Guys I found it!”

Tarot strains as she helps Bailey push the blade of Venn’s sword back far enough to keep him from moving. “Just, read it…already!”

“Okay um…here goes:”

“The Centurion Warrior;

A Juggernaut-Class Avatar that is equipped with heavy armor, full-spectrum goggles, and an array of Devastating weapons. These weapons can include: Short-swords, a Sentinel-class shield, mounted blades, projectile weapons, and the legendary ‘Binary Sword’. Access to these weapons depends on the power level the Avatar had reached in combat.”

Bailey and Tarot are thrown onto their back and Venn pounces up into the air for a finishing blow, but Tarot knocks him out of the air and sends him flying a ways away from them, buying them time.

“Venn has other weapons? I only saw him carrying that sword with the numbers on it…” Bailey thinks for a second. “Maybe he’s got the other weapons concealed?”

Cerb corrects Bailey. “Actually that red sword Venn has…IS the weapons.”

Tarot gets really confused; she had never seen anything like this before. “Wait…what?”

“You guys saw those numbers on the side of the blade right?”

Tarot answers while she helps Bailey up onto her feet and uses a healing spell. “Yeah, why is that significant?”

“See, Venn can…Rearrange…those numbers to change the form of the sword into the other weapons I listed.”

“Cerb, the Binary Sword. Is there any more info on it, a weakness of any kind?”

“Nope, that’s it.”

Bailey and Tarot catch sight of a huge dust cloud that was approaching them, but they know that it was not a natural occurrence.

Bailey slams the blade of her sword into the sand out of frustration. “Come on, He’s gotta have a weakness…”

Tarot thinks for moment and lets the word “weakness” bounce around in her thoughts for a while to see if it fit in with anything else; luckily, it did. She remembers how Venn would always take a breath before any of his attack. She smiles and yells aloud:

“THAT’S IT! I KNOW HOW TO BEAT HIM…!

Tarot then turns back towards her relief. “Bailey, have you ever heard the saying: ‘If it breathes, we stand a chance’?”

“…I don’t get it.”

Tarot leans over to Bailey and whispers her plan into her ear; Bailey nodded her head in reply and prepared her weapon for
another bout. Cerb can see that Tarot looked much more determined now than she was before.

The dust storm soon reaches Bailey and Tarot and then suddenly stops; the faint glow of two red eyes was visible through the cloud of sand. The figure stops at the edge of the cloud and speaks in a deep voice:

“*Pant-Pant* You two cannot defeat me!”

Tarot mocks Venn. “Oh yeah, Bring it on!”

=================================================

Fifteen seconds later:

Venn Slams the Blade of his Binary sword into Bailey’s armor again, causing her to fall backwards onto Tarot. She accidentally knocks the giant-sized Tarot onto her back and Venn jumps up onto her chest with a fist drawn back.

“Ground and pound!” Venn extends his arm and his fist collides with Tarot’s face over and over again at high speed, like a hydraulic piston smashing down at a very high rate. Venn is obviously getting tired of this fight and he was bringing out his Heavy-hitting moves. He continues his flurry of punches as he watches Tarot’s head get knocked back and forth by his fist:

“--Go to sleep-Go to sleep-Go to sleep-Go to sleep-Go to sleep-Go to sleep-Go to sleep-Go to sleep--*”

Bailey kicks Venn off of Tarot’s chest and sends him sliding in the sand on his back. He brings his arms up behind his head and grabs at the sand, gaining traction and flipping back onto his feet, but he kneels down for a minute and pants heavily. Bailey helps Tarot back onto her feet, seeing that Venn was no longer doing a considerable amount of damage.

“Tarot, are you Okay?”

Tarot shakes off her dizziness. “I’m fine; but im gonna need an ice-pack after this…Look Bailey!” Tarot points to Venn, who was still catching his breath and was covered in beads of sweat.

“It’s working, we just need to keep running him ragged!”

Seeing her opportunity, Bailey grabs her sword and charges at Venn while he was down. Venn inhales deeply and kicks at the ground, sending him tumbling to the right and out of Bailey’s way. He was getting exhausted from this fight dragging out for so long, but he wouldn’t give up…not to Tarot.

“*Pant-Pant* is that--*Pant-Pant*--all you got? *Wheeze-Pant*”

Venn stands up and holds his sword out with the tip of the blade pointing at Tarot, but he was visibly shaking from exhaustion.
Tarot walks over to him and shrinks her body down to her normal stature. She and Bailey both had plenty of fight left in them, but Venn was ready to collapse.

“Venn it’s over, you’ve got no power left, no spells, and no relief. You’ve ruined yourself.”

Venn stands there with the tip of his sword held shakily in front of Tarot’s face, but he drops it and falls to his knees. “I……lose…”

Bailey is immediately teleported back home and the power of the Dark avenger revoked again. Tarot also feels the spiritual energy leave her body, but she remained in the desert with the exhausted Venn.

Venn falls onto his back and pants heavily to catch his breath, but he can feel his body stating to shrink back down to the size of an insect, it was over. Venn crawls on the sands in his centipede form and stops Next to Tarot’s foot, still a little out of breath.

“You win…fair and square…you get to choose…the conditions of victory.”

Tarot put a hand to her chin and looks off into the distant desert sky, deep in thought. She eventually gets an idea and scoops Venn into her hand.

“I know…I want you--…”

Venn prepares himself for anything Tarot might say.

“…--to come and study with me in Babylon gardens as my new apprentice.”

Venn honestly could not believe the words that had just come out of Tarot’s mouth. “You-uh…I’m sorry…What?”

Both Tarot and Venn are teleported back to Babylon Gardens in a puff of smoke, leaving Venn’s Binary Sword stuck upright in the sand like something out of Excalibur…only without the enchanted stone.

Most of the centipedes who were watching the fight have left, but a group of three stays behind until everyone leaves. They approach the sword with curious looks. One was a female, the next was an elder, and the last was just bigger than both of them.

The female centipede speaks first. “Why do you think he left it?”

“Maybe…he left it for one of us?”

“I think it's mine, I’m the Elder male”

“No its mine, I’m the Alpha-male!”

“We don’t have Alpha-males.”

“Would you two boys stop fighting and help me drag this sword into the cave?”

The female centipede approaches the sword and touches the blade with one of her legs. The sword instantly sends a severe shock of electricity through her body and sends her flying past the two males.

.......................

“…It’s for YOOOU, I mean you ARE the ALPHA-MALE…”


END OF CHAPTER 1…

[Amazee Dayzee]

Nice Fairly Oddparents reference you put in there! 2 thumbs up!

[The-J-Man]

Chapter 2 Part 1 : Everything I know is a LIE!

An hour later at Tarot's house:

Tarot and Sabrina both sit on the floor across from Venn with confused looks on their faces. Venn seems to have just told them some shocking news, but he does not understand why they are so surprised. He just sits there using his mouth to clean his antennae off, not perturbed in the slightest

“You both can stop looking at me like that anytime now…”

It takes her a few seconds, but Sabrina eventually pieces her thoughts together enough for her to reply. “So Venn, you’re telling us that your owner isn’t real?”

“That’s right. ‘Mr. J’ was just an illusion to save face and to work as an excuse to travel.”

Tarot asks the obvious question. “Why?”

“It’s very simple; as the leader of the order of Horus’s eye, it is my duty to travel the world to restore balance and provide protection to places of imbalance. I was sent here because the Spirit Dragon and the Gryphon were sentenced to mortality.”

Sabrina turns towards Tarot. “Okay, can we just get this started?”

Both Tarot and Venn stare blankly into each other’s eyes, both of them knowing what must happen next. “Alright my student, are you ready for your first day of being impartial?”

“*Sigh* I know neither of you can tell, but I’m rolling my eyes right now.”

“Oh cheer up; this may be fun for you. Now come on, the first step is finding a way to settle your mind and maintain a peaceful

mental state.”

“Okay, how?”

“Well the easiest way is through meditation. First, get into a comfortable position and block out everything around you; then
embrace the peace of mind that comes with the silence. You must rearrange your thoughts so that the negative and positive are balanced with each other.”

Venn does as he is told and curls up his lower body with his head raised up like a cobra preparing to strike. He shuts his compound eyes and begins breathing deeply and steadily. Tarot and Sabrina soon take notice of how Venn’s antennae twitch and his head jerks with any kind of noise. Any bit of background noise seemed to disturb him until he couldn’t take it any longer.

“Ngh! Tarot this isn’t working. You have to understand that I am an insect, I can feel everything around me!”

Tarot and Sabrina trade confused looks with each other and then direct them at Venn. “We don’t follow…”

“HELLOO-OO, Antennae…?”

Tarot still gives Venn the same confused look.

“Let me explain; my antennae pick up the slightest of vibrations in the air and it translates as noise, but much louder than you mammals hear it. They can smell the coffee beans from the mall Café on other side of town, I can feel the touch of dust particles settling on them, and I can feel the irregular heatwaves coming off of the candles. It’s all so distracting.”

Tarot and Sabrina look and nod at each other, having planned for something like this to happen. Tarot stands up and walks over to Venn to speak with him.

“Okay Venn, obviously this was not a good way for you to relax, luckily me and Sabrina have a contingency plan.”

“Which is…?

==================================================

A few minutes later:

Tarot sits on one side of a chessboard with black pieces laid evenly out on the checkered grid. She then sees Sabrina pass by her.

“Bye Tarot, I’m going out for dinner and a movie with Fido, so don’t wait up for me.”

“Alright, wish me luck with Venn…I’m gonna need it”

Venn crawls up the side of the table and takes his place behind the white playing pieces. “Chess…?”

“You know how to play, right?”

Yes, but how is Chess supposed to help me relax?”

“It will help train your senses to focus on one thing at a time, if you focus all your thoughts into one action, it will greatly improve your ability to block out things in the background.”

“Alright, I’ll play along…”

Venn offers the first move to Tarot and she moves her left-center pawn forward one space. “This feels very weird, I’m used to playing Precognition Chess.”

“Precognition chess, what’s that?” Venn moves his right-most pawn forward

“Its something I do with Sabrina to train her with her future sight.” Tarot moves her left bishop in place of her moved pawn.

“Future sight…? Sounds painful…” Venn maintains his strategy and moves his left-most pawn.

“It’s not painful…it’s just something we psychics can do. It lets us see…the future.” Tarot moves her right-most pawn.

“Well you can’t use that around me now can you?” Venn moves his left pawn

“Nope…” Tarot moves her right pawn out of the way of her queen.

===========================================

A couple hours later:

Sabrina opens the door to Tarot’s house and finds Venn curled up in the center of the Hex drawn on the floor, he was finally meditating, and more notably; he had a red glowing aura around his body. She then notices Tarot over by her Chess board with her head laid over her folded arms.

“Hey Tarot, I’m back, and from the looks of it, you finally Trained Venn to focus. How did the Chess game go?”

“He beat me fifteen times…i beat him ONCE.”

“I’d expect no less from an actual warrior…I wonder what he’s thinking about.”

“I don’t know, but he’ll be staying with us until the training is over.”

Sabrina looks excited at first, but she eventually realizes the downside to that arrangement. “But wait…if Venn’s going to stay here…then that means…-*”

“-Yep, as long as Venn stays here, or at least until we can train him to control his latent abilities; we won’t be able to use our psychic powers.”

“Great…so that means we won’t be able to continue OUR lessons.”

“Well I wouldn’t say that. I actually have a job for you to do while I continue to teach Venn.”

“Okay…?”

“I want you to go study up, ask around, and research deeply for a way that we can counter Venn’s latent ability. I don’t care if it won’t let us read his mind, so long as we can read others and get our future sight back. I would start with the artifacts we already have here.”

“Okay, ill see what I can find out…*Sniff-sniff*” Sabrina sniffs the air. “Do you smell something…burning…?”

Tarot lifts her head up and sniffs the air, noticing the smell of hot coals. “Yeah…” Tarot sniffs a little more and notices that the smell is coming From Venn.

Sabrina and Tarot then notice that the red aura around Venn was increasing in intensity as he continued to meditate. The aura grows and grows as the image of Horus’s left eye begins to form over Venn’s left pair of compound eyes. The image of the Egyptian left eye glows red and sizzles with heat, producing a smell of hot coals.

Sabrina and Tarot shrug at each other and then walk over to Venn and tap him on the back, breaking his concentration
Venn opens his eyes and slowly turns around to the left to show the image of Horus’s eye dissipating with a bit of steam and the sound of sizzling.

Venn speaks in a soft tone and with a bewildered look on his face, like he had just witnessed something amazing:

“...Whoa...”

Tarot kneels down and watches Venn uncurl his body. “Venn…are you okay?”

“Yes…yes I’m fine…,” Venn starts crawling up the stairs to get to another room. “…I’m going to bed…goodnight…”

Neither Sabrina nor Tarot knew what to make of what they had just seen. Venn’s meditation seemed to have…Unlocked something within his mind.

Sabrina smiles and jabs her elbow into Tarot’s shoulder to get her attention. “Hey Tarot…I wonder what would happen if Venn taught YOU some things.”

“Actually…that might not be a bad idea…in fact, you should teach him some stuff too.”

“Wait…why me too?”

Think about it Sabrina…my Eye of Ra, your Ankh, and Venn’s Eye of Horus. This can’t be a coincidence…”

To be continued...

[Douglas Collier]

*Gasp!* You're FAKE!??

[The-J-Man]

*Gasp!* You're FAKE!??

its a clever choice of words i used. "Mr. J" is not my real name...therefore...i do not exist
i can really get subliminal with my stories.

[Amazee Dayzee]

I think that an aneurysm just burst in my brain.

This is so completely confusing! *dies*

[The-J-Man]

it will get less confusing when Tarot and Sabrina start training with VENN:

[Amazee Dayzee]

Remind me to fix my brain for that installment.

[The-J-Man]

Chapter 2 Part 2 : Weapon of Mass Destruction

The next day:

Sabrina wakes up and yawns as she descends the staircase to the first floor of Tarot’s house. She catches sight of a clock on the wall and notices that she slept in about an hour more than she wanted to, mostly because of her late-night date with Fido. Sabrina reaches the bottom of the stairs and catches a whiff of coffee, but it was very faint. She walks into the kitchen to find Venn next to an open bag of raw coffee beans. Venn was just poking at one of the beans on the counter with his front pair of legs, seeing if it would spring to life and scurry away.

“Venn, what are you doing?”

Venn continues to poke at the bean while he answers Sabrina’s question. “Good morning, Sabrina. Tarot told me that you were going to be teaching me some things today. I got up a few minutes ago and I got something to eat, but I came across these…things…and I have no idea what they are.”

“Those are ‘Coffee Beans’ Venn, humans use them to make a special drink that helps wake them up in the morning. You should just ask the next time you want something to eat.”

Sabrina walks over and puts the bag of Coffee beans back in its original place.

“I could care less about Human food, and even less about their taste for vegetation. I’m still trying to understand why you Cats and Dogs eat offal and tripe.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment. Did Tarot leave?”

“Yeah, she said training one-on-one is better. She mentioned staying with Peanut for the day while you taught me some stuff.”

“Well, alright…” Sabrina then looks back at Venn to see that he was staring at her. “What, do I have bed-head?”

“Tarot also asked me to train you and her in the ways of the warrior. You start training with ME tomorrow.”

“Yes I know…and for the record; I’m not looking forward to it. Anyway, we should start.” Sabrina points to a reclined Couch down the hall. “Go take a seat on the couch and get comfortable.”

Venn does as he is told and crawls on top of the couch; he curls up his body like a snake and rests his head down on top of his coiled body. Sabrina then comes over with a laptop in her hands. She opens the computer and pulls up a page on the screen with a list of questions on it

“What is this…a therapy session?”

“Sort of; in order for me to work with you, I need to understand your current state of mind. This is going to be a series of questions that you have to answer to the best of your ability. I’ll rate your answers and that will tell me what kind of energy you are currently giving off.”

“Why is the type of energy I give off important?”

“It’s important because, I’m going to be teaching you how to work with Spirits. If you’re giving off negative or violent energy, a malevolent spirit could feed off of it and do some damage.”

“…I’m going to pretend that makes sense. So I just answer these questions and the computer will tell you what kind of person I am?”

“That’s right, now let’s get started.”

Sabrina selects the text-box underneath the first question on the computer screen and starts asking Venn the array of questions listed:

“First question: ‘What kind of person do you think your Parents raised you to be?’”

Venn turns his head towards Sabrina slowly with an offended expression. “My mother ate my brother and she managed to get one of my legs. I think she wanted me to be someone who took their lives into their own hands”

Sabrina wants to respond, but she knew that it would just offend Venn further. “Okaaaayyyy…next question: ‘What kind of person do you think you are now?’”

“A strong leader.”

“Next: ‘What do you like the most in life?’”

“Meat.”

“A few more to go after this one: ‘What do you hate the most in life?’”

“Mammals.”

“‘What do you expect from others?’”

“Honest respect.”

“Last one: ‘How would you describe your personality?’”

“…Intense…”

Sabrina enters Venn’s last answer and presses the ‘Submit’ button to see what kind of person the Computer think’s Venn is. The result appears on the screen after a few seconds, but Sabrina has to refresh the page a few times and checks to make sure that she spelled all of Venn’s answers correctly. She got the same result every time

“Well don’t keep me in suspense…what’s the result?”

Sabrina hesitates for a moment, but she reluctantly turns the screen of her laptop around so that Venn could see what was on the screen. “I checked it several times, that’s the result.”

Venn inhales deeply and crawls his way over to the backyard. Venn stand in the middle of the yard with a blank expression until he ensures that no one is nearby. Venn then lets out a powerful yell that vibrates a few nearby windows.

=================================================

A few hours later:

Venn sits back on the reclined couch with Sabrina sitting nearby on a stool with a big book in her lap. It was a classic therapy session setup.

“Alright Venn, let’s start at the beginning. Explain to me why you don’t like mammals.”

“It's just what every large insect teaches it's young. For years, you mammals have been trampling on us without a second thought. If you would step on one of us without a word, why should we humor you with an explanation?”

“Did you think differently about this?”

“Oh no, I had some close calls with humans and I picked it up easily from my mother…before she ate one of my legs.”

“Do you think you’re mother’s betrayal is what triggered your personality to start turning sour?”

“What kind of question is that? It happens all the time among us insects. My mother told me and my brothers to go out on our own and fend for ourselves. I knew that if I went near my mother again, she would eat me. The only reason I went back is to save my idiot brother who wanted to say goodbye to her.”

“Riiight…so when do you think your personality started changing?”

“I think it was around the time that a human tried to step on me after I tried to talk to him. I wanted to see if he would share
his food and he just raised his foot in fear. I never wanted to see another mammal again after that.”

“And yet here you are…”

“You know Sabrina…I think this ‘Talking’ thing might actually be working, I can feel my tension releasing.”

“Really?”

“No!”

Just then, Tarot walks in through the front door to find Venn and Sabrina in a therapy session. She just stands in the threshold, stunned and without words.

“Umm hey guys…you know that it's already time for bed right?”

Sabrina looks at a nearby clock and sees that it is already ten o’clock. She closes her book and looks at Venn. “Let’s continue this next time Venn.”

“Whatever…just be ready for training with me tomorrow Sabrina.” Venn crawls up the stairs and enters his room.

Sabrina then lets her head fall onto her book. “Oh thank Dog that’s over. I thought he would never stop brooding.”

“Did you test him on the computer?”

“Yeah… I checked the result several times.” Sabrina points over to the laptop she had placed on a nearby table. “See for yourself.”

“Tarot grabs the laptop and opens it up to the page with Venn’s result. She rubs her eyes and reads the few words that described Venn’s personality:

“W.M.D-grade RAGE-BALL”

[Amazee Dayzee]

In short, just stay away from him or he will murder you in a horrible way.

[The-J-Man]

In short, just stay away from him or he will murder you in a horrible way.

naah...his fuse isn't THAT short. you'd have to rub him the wrong way FIRST. Imagine what kind of training he would give to Tarot and Sabrina tomorrow...

[Amazee Dayzee]

And they are two of my favorites...