Chapter 04:
Concerned Catgirl Noises
04: And so I just Started Stabbin
Gwen followed Adrian into the dusty old workshop/store room. It had a worktable with some machinery, while the shelves lining the room were piled high with old tech, junk, and random stuff.
“Right then, these are the tools I have, and these right here,” he pulled out two non-functional and slightly rusty twin-pronged spears, “Are the shock-spears I’m willing to give ya, if you can make them work again.”
Gwen raised an eyebrow as she inspected the tools. “Definitely could have used a coat of oil, gonna have to break out some chemicals to clear that up, and… what is this damage?” she asked, pointing to a case and wiring near the spear prongs that looked almost eaten away by something.
“Well you see, that right there is stomach acid damage,” Adrian chuckled. “Them spoiders are a right nasty bunch. One wrong move and you’ll end up as well… Lunch.”
Gwen gulped, already getting idea at what happened to the previous users. She’d prefer ranged combat to melee. Preferably orbital range, if possible.
Fucking spiders. Skittery little freaks that always got in her hair and—
Gwen cut off that train of thought. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do,” she said, shifting into engineer mode as she took the spears, pulled up a stool at the table, and got to work.
~~~~
Zenn happily munched on a bowl of spider soup, having made the most of her time waiting for Gwen by taking odd jobs around the Scrapyard.
The girls had plenty of use for someone as strong as her to life things up and bang things into place and help make sure straps were as tight as they could go— though she almost got the end of her tail caught in a scrapper bot twice. Such a thing was how they lost Adrian’s sister, which was why he kept the things locked up tight at night.
When Zenn asked about it, they laughed. It wasn’t that she died or anything, apparently. But the shaving of her tail was so embarrassing she fled the world for Greener Pastures.
No literally, the Agri-world Greener Pastures was only two systems away, so it was quite feasible.
But it was simple work. Boring work. She was making enough to easily afford new parts for their ship, the Laika, while they had the chance — and more food — but she wanted something a little spicier to do. Something that got the blood pumping.
After all, couldn’t let Gwen ruin her perfect little thighs by sitting on her butt all day, now could she? That would be tragic. She’d have to report to Gwen’s mother if she let Gwen get lazy, you know?
“So…” Zenn chuckled at her internal thoughts. “Got any more adventurous work for us, once Gwen gets those shock spears up and running? Maybe something a little spicier?”
Peter set down her spoon and bowl of soup from the communal pot. “Well, not that I have exactly that much to work with, but fuck it. I would really like my father’s picture back, as well as his hat. Had it on a shelf in my bedroom in the prefab I had on the ranch, you know, before I got the fuck out of there,” she said, ears drooping.
“Alright!” Zenn smirked. “We can get those back for you, no problem. You got any descriptions of what they look like?” she asked, pulling out a digi-pad to note the quest down.
“Dad’s hat was a fur felt lined fedora, same one he’d seen out of an ancient movie he dug up in some sparking archive. Picture is on my dresser, middle aged guy, has a mustache. Little overweight but big jovial smile on his face. Studied archaeology, you know?” Peter said, sighing.
“What happened to him?” Zenn asked, curious as well… A cat.
“Only got the story second hand from his archaeology team at a dig site on Rassa Prime. Found ruins, native, ruins, if you can believe it, from this galaxy. But they activated some sort of trap, and the walls and gate began closing on them. Everyone got out, but my dad… apparently fucked it up. He was out, tried to grab his hat he’d lost diving through the closing gate, fucked it up, and in a panic threw his hat out while he was trapped inside. Smooshed,” Peter said, depressed.
“Sweet Anubis I miss him and his dumb smile. Give you a day’s wage’s, about a 100 dog coins, if you can get that for me,” she said.
“No purrroblem!” Zenn purred soothingly. “We’ll get your keepsakes back to you safe and sound!”
“Sounds great. Oh, and while you’re there, keep an eye out for Old Bruce. He was alive last I saw him, but who knows. Don’t endanger yourself for him, though. Just curious if he’s still alive or not,” Peter added.
“Would be funny if he was,” Zenn admitted. “But if he is, I’ll try to bring him with so you can have him too.”
“Whoo,” Peter said with all the enthusiasm of a wet pile of mush. She even lazily pumped her arm.
It was at this point Gwen stepped in, her eyes instantly closing on the pot of spider soup. Her hair was out of place, and she looked like she’d been working a while having splotches all over her.
But in her hands were two twin pronged shock spears, cleaned of rust and with fresh circuitry and wiring on them.
“Alright! Looking good Gwen!” Zenn smirked, standing and offering her friend a bowl of soup.
Gwen smiled gratefully, her fangs peeking over her lips as she did so. “Thanks, starving. But morning was productive. Got them working. See?” she said, holding up a spear and pressing a button. Arcs of electricity went up and down the prongs while the generators at the tip hummed as they went online. The air felt visibly charged.
Zenn whistled. “Looks pretty dangerous. I bet if we got poked in the butt with one of those, we’d be defenseless!”
“I mean, yeah. Might stop a heart. Hmm. Wonder if I could make something that could help deal with shocks,” Gwen mused, before ravenously consuming her soup like a rabid animal.
Zenn laughed. Her friend sure was hangry.
~~~~
Gwen tried to keep her teeth from chattering at the turbulence from her seat strapped in with a worryingly thin seatbelt into Adrian’s old Bean class shuttle.
Where the fudge Adrian had found this relic from Pedigree, she had no idea. It even had wood paneling for crying out loud, but it ran so…
No, she would complain! At least in her head.
Scrubland, only loosely dotted with the occasional hardy plant or cactus equivalent, passed by as they flew. She even saw a herd of what looked like beetles the size of goats moving through the landscape, although they soon left them behind.
The startling blue sun was a bit weird to get used to, but it made the whole sky so much bluer than she was used to.
Their destination? Peter’s ranch, abandoned and infested with spiders.
Gwen gulped. She could do this. They had the technology to make even big spiders very dead.
“Alright!” Adrian smirked. “I’m just going to grab some popcorn from the nearby corner store, so don’t rush in and get yourselves killed. It would be a real shame if I lost a pair of busty catgirls to a mere spoider, after all.”
Gwen stared, feeling as if she was missing something and he clearly found amusing. Eventually, she shook her head, flicking her ears.
“I guess we’re here,” Gwen said as the Bean came to a stop, thrusters firing intermittently. She eyed the ground like it might have been concealing ten thousand spiders beneath her feet.
Maybe the world was really just spiders? All the way down?
Gwen shuddered.
‘No way,’ she thought.
“Hahaha,”Zenn stepped out of the shuttle, her spear in hand and ready to fight. “Just follow me, Gwen. I can already see where the spiders are hiding, but we should get inside first.”
Gwen’s ears twitched, eyes darting around. She could see a few places her senses screamed to not touch, but Zenn probably saw more. “Right,” the engineer said, hopping off the shuttle. Adrian took off behind them. “No time like the present, I guess.”
Gwen followed behind Zenn into the house, carefully stepping where Zenn did. The dwelling was a prefab structure, likely made cheap, but made of white plasteel and other materials. Cheap, mass producible, and utterly hideous, in her opinion, but it was very quick to make, so a lot of people went for them in disasters or colonies.
They found the house unlocked, which wasn’t a surprise given Peter’s story. Inside, it was a similar story. A basic living room, kitchen, and entry way to a bedroom and bathroom. Some things were clearly turned over, and a bottle of water was half drunk.
When Zenn entered the bedroom first, she laughed, picking up a floppy toy from the bed. “So it really is true, huh. Doggirls like chew toys.”
It was big, thick, and veiny. Rather floppy too.
“Zenn!?” Gwen hissed, flushing. “Put that back!”
“Hahaha, alright, alright,” she laughed, tossing it out into the hall. Then, she grabbed the hat and picture from the dresser beside the bed. “Well, now we just need to kill some creeps, and we’re outta here.”
Gwen nodded, but then they heard heavy steps coming from the ceiling, making Gwen’s hair stand on end. “Peter did say trapdoor spiders, right?” she asked, brandishing her spear for comfort.
“Yup,” Zenn nodded, taking a step out onto the porch and looking up.
Gwen followed, being careful not to touch the ground. There, directly above her, was…
A pig with wool. Tusks, and horns. It also had a scar over its face and an off colored eye. It snorted, then boinked at them like they were the ones in the wrong.
Wait, boink? She replayed the sound in her head and it really did sound like a sheep and a pig’s call mixed together. Weird.
“Guess we found Old Bruce, huh, “ Gwen said, still watching him.
“Yup,” Zenn nodded, her tail sticking straight up as she hefted a very large decorated rock from the railing. “Now turn around very slowly walk back into the house. We have a visitor.”
Gwen’s hair which had finally gone down went straight back up. But she did as Zenn said, eyes shooting around as she walked back, tail also straight and poofed up.
“Where?” Gwen whispered once she was back. Above, Old Bruce boinked again, and it sounded angrier than before.
“Right, there!” she threw the rock, causing the spider that burst from the ground to splatter in a spray of gore as it jumped from the ground, her enhanced strength and reflexes proving to be very effective at dealing with spiders of unusual size.
More spiders popped out of their holes, hissing and spitting foamy webs as they saw this, rushing in to get them back like the Catgirls had personally angered them.
Gwen hissed, gripping her spear tightly as she fell in line behind Zenn.
The spiders approached, each the size of a large dog. But, thanks to the railing, they couldn’t exactly bulrush them, either.
Gwen stabbed past Zenn, getting the prongs in a trapdoor spider’s eyes and following up with a shock that had the whole thing shuddering. She then ducked as webbing sprayed where she’d been standing a mere second before, the disturbance in the air having set her off.
Zenn punched another spider, casing it’s insides to become it’s outsides, as she kicked another one’s head off into the skyline.
The last spider, seeing the death of its mates or pack, started backing up and turned to run away.
“BOOOOOOOOOOINK!” Old Bruce called out, falling like a goddess damned meteor to smash into the spider with such force it exploded, showering both Zenn and Gwen in gore.
Slowly, Gwen gagged. “Oh goddess I think I got it in my mouth,” she spat, spitting repeatedly.
Then, Adrian zoomed in with a bag of popcorn in one hand, a hose in the other. “Haha, let’s get you lot cleaned up, shall we?”
With that, he blasted them with soapy water.
~~~~
AN:
HiddenMaster: After careful reflection, Gwen has concluded she does not like Elysium.
Kitsu: After reckless, adrenaline filled combat, Zenn has decided she loves Elysium.
HiddenMaster: Accurate. But there is a trade to be had, hunting the local spiders.
Granted, these ones are the type that aren’t too bad if you know they’re there. The problem is when you don’t.
Unfortunately for Peter, while they usually hunt some of the herbivorous ranging beetle creatures on the world, shigs proved quite tasty and kinda stupid. Except Old Bruce.
Old Bruce is mean. Not shown but he probably killed another spider after being dragged into its burrow.
Kitsu: And the sun, will set for you~ And the shadow of the day, will embrace the world in gray~ And then we’ll all be paid~!
Anyway, if you like what we have written here, and want to see us buy art from thic chapter, please do drop a bit of cash our way so we can afford it!
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Also, we have published work! Our group got the first arc of A Kitsune’s Ascent Published!
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Catgirl Isekai Gone Wrong Arc 1
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Catgirl Isekai Gone Wrong Arc 2!
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