Click
The shutter of a camera clicks, as a man in his thirties takes a picture with a small digital camera.
Its lens is wide, almost bigger than the device itself, giving it a goofy look.
Click
“Just like that, can you look at the camera and give me a big smile?” He asks the subject of his shot.
His muse, as big as a bear, bares its sharp blue teeth at the photographer.
“Ah there you go, good job.”
Click
“Thank you, that should do it.”
He thanks the dark gray creature, its head resembling that of a fox in its shape.
It is held inside a large rectangular cage, a white tinted force field forming the walls and covering the roof.
As the cameraman turns to leave, the fox-like creature growls.
Its two, long but thin, ears press against its head’s thick and long fur, on the incredibly thick mane that starts from its head and covers its entire back.
He hears the growl and turns back around to face the creature:
“Whoa, what did I do to you? No hard feelings okay, you’ll be going to a good home, I’m sure.”
The foxbear stares at the man for a moment with its faded gray eyes before blowing steaming air through its large snout and settling down laying on the steel floor, snuggling on top of its six legs.
The man takes out a small device from his pocket and turns it on.
Its screen lights up and he opens a program, within it a file titled: ‘Pictures for auction #459’.
He swipes a finger over the name on the screen, ‘Ashen Sextuple Foxbear’, and draws a line over it.
So what’s next...
He swipes downwards and checks his next assignment on his work list.
A... Thyrchid?
A what?
I’ve never even heard of such an animal.
Though I am a fan of the name already, heaps better than the nonsense they usually assign to new species.
Gah, it just makes me cringe thinking of the infamous ‘Triple rainbow Mosquitollibri of sucking.’
They say the name was the dying man’s wish who managed to capture a whole swarm of them before he died of blood loss, at least according to the circulating legends of the cafeteria and breakrooms.
Who’s gonna believe that? They just wanted to mess with us with that name for sure...
The man shakes his head and returns his wandering thoughts back on track.
Anyway, this is gonna be exciting, I’ll get to witness an entirely new species!
Been a while since the last time, this one being a lot more mysteriously named than the Sabertiger.
Let's see where this Thyrchid’s cage is at…
He presses the species' name on the screen, and a large map of the area appears, zoomed high up above the facility buildings. Swiftly it soars down, onto the largest warehouse, revealing the innumerable cages littered inside, zooming ever closer until it pinpoints its location down to a single cage.
The map shows the Thyrchid’s location to be much closer than he thought, the second cage on his right.
What? Next to the Solarophone? But that cage is empty?
He lifts his gaze from the screen, surveys the supposed cage of this new species, and spots a purple mass lying on the floor.
Oh, I must have missed it. Why's it just lying there motionless…?
Is it okay?
He approaches the cage and looks at the Thyrchid from up close, his blonde locks almost getting fried by the force field.
This quite large, vaguely humanoid, insect-animal thing just lays there, a heap of arthropod limbs, bone-like appendages, and blades.
He squints at the creature trying to make heads or tails of it.
What even is that?
I hope it’s not dead...
A metal frame surrounds the cage’s force field, generating it and making the cage easily movable by machinery, its top and bottom covered by a steel slab.
At the cage’s frame, at an easily accessible height, is an electrical box-like hunk of metal with two large buttons adorning it.
The red one with a power on/off icon and the white with just a lightning icon.
Sorry about this, but maybe this will spark some life in you.
He plants a palm on the large white button, it presses down gently and rises back up.
A white electrical charge shoots out from the force field with a crackle, it arcs down from the ceiling and zaps the violet pile.
The Thyrchid inside twitches from the electrical strike, its body slowly increasing in movement.
Amethyst is roused from her unconsciousness.
Where am I? She opens her eyes to unknown surroundings.
She teeters up, taking support from her blades against the steel floor.
Ouch...
She inspects her body for damage but her armor seems to be intact, apart from her previously injured left shoulder, despite the soreness all over.
She almost falls back down as a wave of weakness washes over her.
I’m so hungry...
Click!
A camera’s flash lights up Amethyst’s body, her crystals, and blades reflect the light back harshly.
Oops, well that’s a ruined picture, didn’t realize they’d be so reflective.
The photographer thinks and turns the flash off from the touch display of his camera.
Amethyst has brought a bladed hand to protect her eyes from this sudden flash of bright light, from behind it she looks through the world with purple-tinted colors.
She is in a cage, that’s inside of a dimly lit building, the ceiling is high up with large lamps hanging from it.
She looks to her left and right.
What’s going on? So many different creatures... trapped?
Her antennae spin around in a circle: she hears the cries of scared animals, the sad wail and anguish.
The roars of defiance and grunts of dissatisfaction echo all around her.
But right there in front of her is a man, silent, and holding a strange device.
Click!
She expects another flash, but as the attack does not arrive, she lowers her hand from covering her face.
Wasting no time, she strikes back, attacking the force field with her blades.
The white wall sparks but her blades do not penetrate this thin, seemingly solid wall.
“Whoa whoa, easy now, that won’t do you any good, you’ll only hurt yourself.”
To the man’s surprise, the Tyrchid stops its assault on the impenetrable wall, like it had understood him.
Amethyst eyes up this human with a cold stare of her hybrid eyes, taking in his long hair, his posture, and this peculiar device on his neck.
His clothes, a black suit accompanied by a flat hat of the same color on his head, don't exactly feel welcoming.
A strangely well-dressed man in a shady place like this, her head echoes.
She shakes that foreign thought away and makes her own conclusion.
A thoroughly insignificant and unarmed man.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“What a majestic pose and that thousand-yard stare, if looks could kill…”
The man’s face sinks behind his camera.
Click!
Amethyst’s crystals light up, soon followed by her blades engulfing in flame.
“Wow!” The man goes wide-eyed.
What a display! Is it trying to intimidate me?
Click Click Click, the man lets the shutter sing, with each click the arc of the Tyrchid’s flaming swing proceeds forward.
ZWAP!
Searing elbow blades strike against the force field, Amethyst strains and pushes against it with both arms, and the wall starts to bend.
The cameraman is startled by the noise and looks up from his camera, retreating a step backward.
“H-hey cut that out, I keep telling you it won’t work!”
The force field wall bends more.
Does it not get electrocuted through its blades?
How can it keep this up?
Amethyst looks straight at the man with all of her eyes as she presses against the wall harder.
Her mandibles appear from the inside of her mouth.
“Let me out,” she buzzes with an echoed voice.
I-it spoke??
Amethyst slashes at the wall again and again with her blades but does not achieve more than its temporary slight bending.
Her blades go out as she gives up.
“I- I can’t just let you out even if you are… sapient,” He speaks carefully, his astonishment not yet passed.
“Why?” Her mandibles grasp around restlessly on the outskirts of her mouth.
“Because you are now the property of ‘Intergalactic Resources and Wildlife Ventures’, I can’t just free you and not face punishment myself, you know?”
“No, I don’t know, just let me out.”
“I… I’ll try to figure something out, I’ll talk to management. I mean they probably don’t want charges on slave trading, since you can talk and everything...
It’s very much against the Galactic Law after all.”
Not like most of this is by the book anyway, but charges are much higher for that than for illegal animal trading. Plus, ISSA could get on our case big time...
“Just wait here and I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
“No.” Defiantly, Amethyst locks eyes with the man's copper-brown orbs before he gets to turn around to leave.
“No?” The man repeats in surprise and stops in his tracks mid-step, meeting the Tyrchid's gaze.
Amethyst heats up her blades once more and backpedals to a corner of the cage.
The floor is made up of material she is intimately familiar with at this point.
Steel.
With her curved hand blades ablaze, she stabs the floor, still looking straight at the man, it easily sinks in.
She then breaks their stare and starts walking around the cage cutting the metal as she goes.
“Wait wait wait, stop!”
Amethyst ignores the man’s panicked plea.
She reaches the first corner and turns, looking to cut a square shape out of the floor, about half of the total volume of it, big enough for her to fit in.
What do I do? Do I report this? Sound the alarm?
The photographer’s eyes fall on the white lightning button.
Amethyst turns the second corner, a trail of bubbling steel left in her wake.
I’ll just zap her so I won’t get docked pay, yes just… press the button.
Wait...
Her?
When did I… start thinking of it as a person?
Aghh what do I do? What do I do!? He holds and shakes his indecisive head.
Amethyst reaches the third corner, just one more line to cut.
I… that’s literal torture then, right?
I just can’t… treat it as an animal… anymore.
Though, I did electrocute her once already…
The reality of his situation dawns on him.
Is she going to kill me for that?
With shaky eyes, he looks up from his hands and sees Amethyst just finishing the final line, the cutting complete.
“How do you feel about grudges? You won't... harm me when you get out... right?”
Amethyst shoots him a cold gaze. Her lips curl upwards into a slight smirk for a moment before she returns her attention to the steaming steel square.
SHE’S TOTALLY GONNA KILL ME!
Amethyst turns off her blades and nudges them through the gap and under the steel plate, with one hand she flips it up against the force field, starting to produce a loud, constant, sizzling sound.
There is now a square hole in the floor of the cage, revealing the floor of the compound, she cut into as well, leaving behind gashes and cuts of various depths on the cement.
The photographer staggers backward almost tripping on his own feet, hastily scrambling for balance, he starts running away.
Amethyst steps inside the square, onto the factory floor, and feels woozy.
Ahh, my head, I really need some food…
She slips her both, extinguished blades, under the cage’s floor from the left side and pulls upwards hard.
Meanwhile, the photographer couldn't just completely run away and miss the antics of this new mysterious sapient creature, so he took to hiding behind a cage, 50 meters or so away, intently perusing the movements of the Tyrchid.
The cage starts rising up as Amethyst lifts, higher and higher, she ducks and flips the cage over her head.
It crashes into the cage to the left of hers, the much smaller enclosure, housing a small yellow cat inside.
Not a totally ordinary cat, from the base of its neck, rises a circular collar attached to its body in a cone shape, like an old-school gramophone’s tube.
Though it seems to be made of some sort of fabric or skin, instead of metal.
The falling cage crashes on top of the smaller steel structure, bending it harshly, and shutting the force field down.
The cat shrieks a terribly loud cry and shoots out of the cage just before it collapses completely.
Its two peacock-like tails, fluffy and furry instead of feathery, flutter as it runs.
The cat in its panic desires to get higher, it jumps on the electrical box of the next cage, pressing the release button with its back leg as it pulls itself up, shutting its force field down.
The cat jumps again, onto the cage’s steel roof, then to the next one, continuing its jumping until it disappears from view into the depths of the large hall.
The ashen sextuple Foxbear walks proudly and gracefully out of the cage. Its eyes scan its surroundings.
Oh, this is bad, Foxbears love to hunt... Best for me to stay hidden and still to avoid getting trampled.
Although...
The photographer takes a page out of the Solarophone cat’s book and starts climbing up on top of the cage he was hiding behind using the electrical box as a foothold.
The cage is home to the Giant Viridian Centizard, a native species to this planet.
He reaches up and steps onto the electrical box, it shifts slightly under his weight, the forcefield buzzing dangerously close.
The photographer pushes himself up, the box comes loose under his shoe just as he gets up.
Oops.
The force field shuts down and the centipede-like lizard slithers out of the cage, its innumerable legs tapping against the cement as it skitters along the ground.
Hopefully, all of them will ignore me now, I’m high enough that I won’t be easy to get to...
He looks at the ongoing chaos, the cat is gone, and the Foxbear is prowling around growling and glaring at other animals inside the cages nearby.
The Centizard just disappeared altogether, a surprisingly fast species that one.
Meanwhile, the Tyrchid has spread out its wings.
It can fly? Damn, I wish I could fly away from this situation right now…
A purple goop starts to ooze from its wing bones to fill the gaps in its bony wings.
What a novel way to fly.
Are its wings not symmetrical?
Oh no, that one bone must be broken.
The Tyrchid’s right wing’s second last bone is snapped from the tip and pushes out a thick purple liquid.
That looks bad.
The Tyrchid’s purple substance seems to harden on the intact parts of the wings as they start to gleam in the hall's dim light.
The gap of the last two bones is missing the film completely, the damaged bone still just pushing the substance out from its damaged end, regardless.
It flaps its wings hard, the Tyrchid takes off, but leans heavily on the right and almost crashes right back down.
The strong flap of its wings throws some of the thick liquid on the ground.
It ignites as it strikes the ground, though the fire does not spread due to it striking the concrete floor.
The photographer glances around to see where the Foxbear is, he witnesses it spit a green blob from its mouth at an animal in a cage.
It sploshes against the forcefield but also splashes a heavy layer on the electrical box that starts smoking and smoldering.
An overall, much smaller creature, but much taller, Giraffeduck trembles inside the especially high cage.
The acid burns through the steel box and the force field goes out.
The Giraffeduck bolts into a quick run on its four small flippers.
It squawks and honks as it waddles away in a panic, its long neck being a hindrance to its speed, the foxbear dashes right after it excited for the hunt.
The Giraffeduck is much more agile however, it turns tight corners, its long neck bending at each curve balancing it, the Foxbear instead crashes into boxes and other cages spread around the facility as it enjoys the thrill of the hunt.
Some more animals are let loose as a result of their game of tag.
It’s complete chaos here.
He takes out his communication device and taps through some interfaces.
Yes, I would like to make a safety report.
“What kind of emergency is befalling the Viridian Macula's facility?” a text on the screen asks.
Options listed below are:
1. Galactic police
2. Spreading fire
3. Loose Animal(s)
4. A general safety and health hazard
5. Other serious harm to life or property
He quickly taps 3, 4, and 5 and scrolls down.
Please give detailed information below, your GPS location will be saved upon submission.
The screen states, with an empty text box below.
A sound like fire approaches from the sky and a fiery glob of purple falls down landing into a stack of boxes, igniting them immediately.
He calmly scrolls up on the form and presses 2 for fire as well, before returning to the bottom and hitting submit.
The screen reads:
Thank you for submitting your report.
Stand by.
Immediately red lights light up and a wail of sirens starts.
The photographer takes a deep sigh and just lays on top of the cage’s steel roof on his stomach, his camera on his side.
I think I get the naming convention now, I must apologize for ridiculing it before.
Therefore I would like to propose a name change, from now on that purple insect of mayhem should be known as ‘Tyrchid, the violet blades of chaos and inferno.”
Why? Boss, just look around and tell me that isn’t an appropriate name.
Thank you for your understanding, I will cherish this promotion.
He finishes the imaginary conversation in his head.
...
Now somebody please come help me!
