Chapter 5

A hulking blue, anthropomorphic dragon towered over the trio, standing at close to 8 feet in height and peering down at them through a pair of round, dark-blue eyes. Wide, bat-like ears poked out of his rotund head, where two yellow, spiked horns protruded from the top. Shuffling forward, the dragon’s body was evidently overweight given his large, jiggling belly that stuck out in front of him, where two muscular legs supported his heft and a long, yellow-spiked tail snaked behind him.

“I’m Logan Guts, the morning foreman of this plant,” the large reptile said, one of his stubby, flabby arms reaching down his scaly back to give it a scratch with his clawed hand. “I wasn’t really expecting to do any training, but I guess I can make an exception.”

Dwight, Mister S.A, and McWanda all glanced at each other, stuck on how to approach the situation. Similar to the Coal Counters that they’d just encountered, this dragon had mistaken the three for someone else, causing them to consider continuing with the guise in order to gain access to the plant.

“We’re not the new hires, I’m afraid,” Dwight spoke up first, drawing a shocked look from his hamster companion. “But we need to deliver an urgent message to one of your employees. Would it be cool if we just step inside real quick?”

A pair of minuscule, too-small wings on Logan’s back flapped as the bulky dragon leaned down, taking a close look at the pink-shirted, massive-chested woman before him while his large, pig-like nose twitched.

“So you’re not my new hires? Huh, that’s a relief,” the foreman chuckled as his eyes drifted between the three individuals. “How would you be able to get any work done with those giant things?”

“Just walking with them is a job in its own!” Dwight replied with a light snicker. “But yeah, do you think we’d be able to talk to pop in for a moment and uh…drop a quick message off for one of your workers?”

“Huh? Oh yeah I suppose so, just make it quick. This is a place of business,” Logan answered as he adjusted the white collar and red tie that was around his pudgy neck, the only attire that the hefty dragon seemed to have. “Keep your hands to yourselves, I’m not responsible for any accidental injury or death while you’re on the premises, etcetera…”

Pushing the solid doors open, Logan led the way after beckoning the three to follow him. Dwight stumbled forward first, where Mister S.A hopped onto the heavy-breasted avatar’s left shoulder while McWanda followed them from behind. Entering the power plant, the trio was immediately greeted with the sounds of heavy machinery, excess steam sprouting out of many exposed pipes, and a long, wide, dimly-lit hallway that seemed to extend on forever. The blue dragon kept a heavy pace ahead of the rest of the group, forcing everyone to put a little hustle into their step to keep up.

“You should have just lied and said that we were new employees,” the hamster assassin whispered to the mint-haired beauty in a scolding tone. “Now we don’t know how much time we’re going to have with that- ugh I forget her name, that girl. We don’t know how long this blue gentleman is going to bid us to speak to her. If you want to get home, Dwight, you’re going to need to learn how to do what it takes to get what you want.”

“Well shit, I’m a little on the socially awkward side, okay?” Dwight replied, a little embarrassed.  “I tend to blurt out the truth when I should probably be saying something else. Remember how I told you all that crap about me being from another world and all that when we met? Just imagine where I’d be if I’d run into that cake-guy from Southopolis first.”

McWanda meanwhile just stared at the grey-tiled floor of the long hallway that they were walking down, dodging a blast of steam that screamed out of one of the pipes lining the corridor. The foreman eventually led the three into a large atrium that overlooked several large, encased turbines on a floor below, where dozens of workers could be seen walking about the plant, most of them donning protective gear such as hardheads and safety vests.

“Isn’t it beautiful? The turbine room is the heart of this place,” Logan explained proudly over the clanking and humming of the machinery below, looming over the generator floor as steam rose up and wafted around the four. “You can smell the coal in the giant furnace next door, and feel the heat that makes this place beat. Anyway, who was it that you needed to deliver the message to?”

“It’s a woman named Marge,” Dwight spoke up, aware that Mister S.A had forgotten the name of the person that they were looking for. “S-she still works here, right?”

Logan’s large ears twitched as he raised one of his thick eyebrows, his great under bite contorting into a frown.

“Marge? Sure, she’s a part-time janitor that works on the basement floor,” the blue dragon answered as he scratched his chin. “Say- you punks aren’t some of those Kyroshi losers, are you?”

“What? Heavens no, we don’t associate with those criminals,” the suit-clad rodent spoke up next. “We simply wish to pass on a message from Marge’s old guild.”

“Yeah? Well I might need to ask her first, because someone from the Kyroshi Syndicate comes looking for her every now and then. The safety of my employees come before all else,” Logan retorted, leaning against a desk with his scaly bulk as a loud, groaning noise could suddenly be heard, causing the dragon to clutch his large, wide stomach. “Crap, excuse me. I forgot my lunch today.”

While Mister S.A and Dwight racked their brains for another lie to convince the foreman to let them proceed, it was McWanda who stepped up next.

“Did you say you forgot your lunch? I’ve been there before,” the clown girl smiled as she withdrew a plate from behind her back, on which sat three large, juicy hamburgers. “Perhaps I can offer you in one of my homemade burgers, then?”

“Ooohhhh those look and smell delicious!” Logan exclaimed as he helped himself to one, before taking a greedy bite with his large, sharp-toothed mouth. “And they’re grilled to perfection! Thanks a bunch, lady.”

“WHERE DO YOU KEEP GETTING THOSE?!” Dwight and Mister S.A shouted in unison, which simply caused their clown-faced acquaintance to giggle as she twirled a finger through her red hair.

“Alright, alright, if you’re here to offer me free food, then you guys can’t all be that bad,” the husky dragon chuckled as he finished the sandwich in another bite, before crossing his stubby arms over his chest. “Old Marge is probably down in the storeroom. Those stairs will take you to the basement.”

The trio followed Logan’s gaze towards another door to the west of the open atrium, which led down a darkened staircase that was dimly lit by a red, enclosed light fixture.

“Excellent, thank you sir! We won’t be long,” Mister S.A said as he bowed towards the lizard, before leading the other two off.

“Yeah if you need anything, I’ll be back up here,” Logan replied as he bit into the second burger that he’d taken. “And if I hear any sort of commotion, I’m coming down there to kick your collective asses.”

“Hoho, the chap thinks a smidge too highly of himself if he thinks that he could kick my furry tail,” the rodent hitman chuckled as he led the group down the stairs and out of ear shot from Logan, before turning to Wanda. “That was great thinking with those hamburgers, by the way. How did you know he’d swing for them?”

“You gentlemen have been acting like lying and being sneaky is the only way to get what you want,” the red-haired clown girl replied as she descended the winding staircase, twiddling the handle of her spatula-sword. “But sometimes all it takes is a little hospitality. A good burger can be just as mighty as a sword.”

“Amen to that,” Dwight chuckled as he bit into a sandwich of his own, enjoying the juicy beef as he demolished it while descending the stairs with one hand on the guard rail, his weighty chest pulling him downward. “But anyway, isn’t it weird how that foreman guy didn’t seem too big a fan of those Kyroshi guys, yet the golems on the way here seemed to be expecting them?”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Mister S.A admitted. “Those Coal Counters were expecting the Syndicate to arrive at the power plant, yet the foreman seemed against them? Strange indeed.”

After travelling down many more stairs, where an exhausted and heavily-sweated Dwight counted them traveling down a grueling 10 stories, the three finally reached the bottom.  Emerging into another metal hallway, the avid gamer felt like he was in a horror game as he looked down the dark corridor ahead of them that was lit only by a single, dangling, flickering lightbulb. Shrugging and saying something about how he doubted that the floor was up to code, the well-dressed hamster scampered forward as the other two followed.

The power plant’s basement seemed to be comprised of assorted storage rooms, which appeared rarely used given how most of them were relatively empty or unlit. The trio took turns poking their heads into the different rooms that lined the main corridor, the distant hum of something massive causing the walls to vibrate slightly.

“Probably the turbines turning the electric generators above us,” Mister S.A suggested, whizzing out of another opened room. “You guys having any luck? There doesn’t seem to be anyone else down here, so you’d think it’d be easier to find one person.”

“Can I help you guys with anything?”

The group spun around, with the hamster hitman whipping out his pistol and McWanda unsheathing her spatula-sword as they faced their assailant. Dwight, meanwhile, stepped backwards.

“Whoa, calm down, sugarbabies, I just overheard that you were looking for someone” a bright purple, anthropomorphic coyote replied, her tall, curvaceous body bound inside a beige jump suit that bore the logo “FUMAGEDDON COAL AND POWER”.

“Ah, apologies, young lady,” S.A replied as he pocketed his weapon, with his clown acquaintance doing the same. “Are you Marge, by any chance?”

“Young lady? I’m 49, but aren’t you a sweet little guy,” the purple coyote replied with a sly smile, stepping forward as her wide hips and evidently large rear appeared to be stretching her suit to its limits while she set aside a mop that she’d been holding. “Yes, I’m Marge Vixen, but who wants to know?”

“I’ll just get to the point. This might sound crazy, but what would you say if I told you that I was from another world?” Dwight asked as he stepped forward.

“Damn! Look at you, missus stacked! My old guild would have loved to have had you in their ranks,” Marge chuckled as she looked the massive mammaries of the mint-haired person before her up and down. “But no, I wouldn’t call you crazy. I mean, there are 6 different realms that make up our society, so…”

“Some old friends of yours said the same thing,” Dwight interrupted with a laugh. “It’s because of them that we went looking for you, actually. Um, did you ever date someone who talked of being from…beyond the 6 realms?”

This question caused the purple, voluptuous canine’s eyes to widen and for her smile to fade.

“Earth,” Marge muttered. “A faraway world that extends beyond the 6 realms- is that what you’re talking about?”

“Yes! Yes, that’s where I’m from! I ended up here when-”

“Shhhhh! Come, sugarbabies, let’s talk in this room here,”

The wide-hipped coyote led the trio into a room just down the hallway, which was revealed to be another large, empty store room that was lined with shelves containing assorted machine parts and cobwebs.

“Now, you said you’re from Earth?” Marge whispered, sitting down on the tiled floor as she put a hand to her forehead.

“Yes, I was a man before this, when I started playing a video game- that looks identical to this world by the way- and next thing I knew, I ended up stuck here as the character that I created,” Dwight explained, pushing a hand into one of his large tits to emphasize his new body, before turning to his accomplices. “I met these two here, and luckily they’ve actually been really cool and are helping me find a way back.”

Mister S.A and Wanda nodded in acknowledgement, before leaning in closer to hear what the large, mature coyote had to say.

“My goodness- that sounds exactly like what happened to Reggie, my Reggie,” Marge sighed, a sort of sadness in her eyes. “Around 5 years ago, my guild- the Leatherheads- took in this anthropomorphic tiger. We found him in the streets of Southopolis, wandering around and heavily confused. He kept referring to some video game and that he had to “logout” or something like that.”

Her glassy eyes wandering between the three people standing across from her seated position, Marge continued her story,

“The tiger’s name was Reggie, and I’m not going to lie, I swooned for him hard. He knew of our world, but he was obviously from somewhere else. He talked of a massive realm that was made up of many nations, where technology beyond our wildest dreams existed. Reg said that everything that we knew was nothing but a video game built by a place populated entirely by Humans.”

“Yes!! Yes, thank God I’m not crazy!” Dwight exclaimed as he snapped his fingers. It was certainly comforting to the reclusive gamer to know that not only was what he was experiencing real, but it had happened to others before him.

“What happened to Reggie then?” Wanda asked.

“Well, we ended up dating after he got more comfortable in our world, and for 2 years, we had one hell of a happy life,” Marge sighed, a sad smile spreading across her face as she continued to reminisce. “Then, around 3 years ago, this one group began to appear. They started off as a gang of smugglers that operated in the Supremo Wastes, but they eventually became a full-fledged criminal organization that grew powerful across all 6 realms. Have you guys heard of the Kyroshi Syndicate?”

“Yes,” the trio replied in unison.

“Well, for whatever reason, word of Reggie’s outlandish stories of being from an alternate reality began to get out, and this eventually made it to the leader of the Kyroshi Syndicate,” the plus-size canine continued. “This leader-guy took a keen interest in my Reggie, and he sent an envoy to our guild who invited him to meet at the Supremo Wastes.”

Holding a hand to her mouth, Marge suddenly choked back a sob as tears welled up in her eyes.

“Reggie was convinced that the leader of this Syndicate knew something about Earth, so after giving me one final, passionate kiss farewell, he took the gate to the Supremo Wastes to meet with this guy. After that…I never saw him again.”

“He left you? The jerk!” Wanda spat as she wiped a tear from her own white-makeup face.

“No, no Reggie would never leave me,” Marge replied, standing up. “I think the Kyroshi Syndicate had something to do with him disappearing.”

“T-that cake-dude from outside the SSVC was from the Syndicate, and he was super interested when he overheard me talking about Earth,” Dwight stammered, looking fearfully to Mister S.A and Wanda. “Do you think these guys have something against people like me?”

“I don’t know, but I have a theory,” Marge began, her face turning to a frown.

Just then, the room began to rumble, catching the 4 occupants off guard as the shaking caused several items on the surrounding shelves to fall down. Before anyone could say anything else, an explosion abruptly tore from out of the ground beneath Marge, which sent her flying against one of the walls and knocking her unconscious.

“Marge!” the clown girl yelled, rushing towards the fallen furry as a large figure began to loom out of a hole that had opened up from beneath where the coyote had been standing. Dwight backed up against the far wall, while his hamster acquaintance again reaching into his pocket, ready to pull out his weapon.

“HAHAHA, another successful tunnel by The Digger!” a deep voice could be heard yelling as the smoke cleared to reveal a tall, buff, pale-skinned Human male who stood shirtless in a pair of camo pants and thick, black boots, and his eyes obscured behind darkened goggles that were wrapped around his buzz-cut head. Looking down, the strange man suddenly noticed the 3 other people that were moving before him. “Whoa, apologies for the explosive entrance, citizens, but The Digger knows not where he digs- only a rough approximation of where he’ll end up.”

It was then that Dwight noticed that the strange person had large, metal shovels instead of hands, and given the huge hole that he’d just popped out of, he was obviously quite proficient with them.

“Out of the way, Digger, I’m claustrophobic down here!” a female voice could be heard, where a woman that was clad in a suit of heavy grey-iron armor emerged from the hole next, a short bob of red-orange hair on her head and a broad-axe hilted on her back. “Whew, and remind me to avoid wearing this hot-ass armor underground.”

Dwight and Mister S.A backed up further against the wall, watching the strangers emerge while Wanda had dragged the hefty coyote to safety on the other side of the room. A final figured climbed out of the hole, where he immediately made eye contact with the gamer.

“Sorry for the mess, people, but my group and I just hate using the front door. Do you guys work here?” a man with a spiky, yellow mohawk asked. The stranger was wearing a tattered, black vest with baggy, beige cargo shorts and black sneakers, with a large lightning bolt tattoo on his left bicep. He was holding a large, 4-foot metal rod in in right hand, which had a strange sphere on the end.

“Yes, we’re employees,” Mister S.A replied on behalf of the trio, inconspicuously taking his hand out of his suit pocket. “And who might you three be?”

“I’m a proud captain in the Kyroshi Syndicate, they call me Lightning Rodrick,” the man replied with a smirk. “And these two are foot soldiers, The Digger and Gretchen Wilson.”

The shovel-handed man and the armor-clad woman smiled and waved in response, while Mister S.A could swear that he could see sparks emitting from the man’s mohawk as he and Dwight felt a shiver at hearing that he was from the organization that they’d been avoiding

“I know you!” McWanda exclaimed as she cradled Marge’s head on her lap, looking at the iron-wearing redhead. “You’re the mom from ‘Meet the Wilsons’. It was my fave sitcom growing up!”

“Always nice to meet a fan,” Gretchen smiled. “But that show never gave me purpose, honestly. The Syndicate is doing a pretty good job at making me feel like I’m part of something bigger.”

“Amen to that, Sister,” Rodrick barked with a smile, before looking back to the hamster. “Anyway, could you or your big-boobed friend over there tell me where your boss is?”

“Umm, the foreman is upstairs I guess, he’s right there overlooking the work floor,” Dwight spoke up, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead as he pointed to the hallway.

“Groovy, thanks,” the spiky-haired man nodded as he beckoned his two accomplices to follow him. “Peace out, and tell that fox-girl that we’re sorry for knocking her down.”

The three people that’d inexplicably tunneled into the basement then departed, walking down the darkened corridor and making for the stairs.

“Crap, should I have not told them where that Logan guy was?” Dwight asked as he stumbled over to the mouth of the hole, looking down into the blackness before turning towards the clown girl. “And is Marge okay?”

“She’s breathing just fine and everything, but we should see if this place has a medbay or something,” Wanda replied. “Only things is, she’s a little bit on the heavy side, so I don’t think I’ll be able to carry her.”

“Well don’t look at me,” Mister S.A half-chuckled, before turning to Dwight. “I don’t suppose you’d be able to life this solid woman, do you, Dwight old boy?”

“I can barely carry these damn tits, let alone anyone else,” the mint-haired gamer replied as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Should we go ask Logan or maybe some other worker?”

“He’s a decent guy I suppose, maybe we can eavesdrop on what the Kyroshi Syndicate is doing here as well. We should consider ourselves lucky that they’re obviously not here for us…”

Setting the voluptuous coyote against a wall and ensuring that her head we set and comfortable, the trio prepared to follow the gang members upstairs to where the foreman was in order to see if they could get assistance with Marge. It was unnerving that the group that they’d been trying to avoid that far was right there in the plant with them, where Mister S.A went on to explain his limited knowledge of the hierarchy within the Kyroshi Syndicate. “Captains” were the powerful, mid-level rank, where “Foot Soldiers” were supposedly the lower-ranks and made up of more or less normal people.

Climbing the stairs, the massive-titted avatar panted as he slowly crawled up behind his two acquaintances, though S.A and Wanda made sure to stay back to allow their third member to catch up.

“Now remember, guys, these 3 probably aren’t pushovers like the guy from Southopolis was,” the rodent assassin explained as they neared the top, before looking back at Dwight. “We need to avoid any scuffles if we can, and God forbid should It come to that, Dwight needs to stay back. Not a whole lot he can do with that enormous bosom of his in the way.”

Sighing with relief, the gamer knew that he’d be a detriment to his group if he tried to be brave and stand up with everyone else, though he had no qualms in staying back and avoiding the fighting. Seconds later, the trio made it to the top and emerged through the doorway, where they were met with the confrontation that they dreaded could be happening.

“Absolutely not!!” Logan was heard growling as he towered over the Kyroshi thugs. “I don’t know who you think you are, but if want to take this place, then you’re going to have to go through me!”

“Very well, I was actually sort of hoping for it to come to this,” Rodrick sneered, holding up the long, metal rod in his hand. “Alright, squad, let’s take this fatso dragon out!”

“Crap, what do we do, guys?” Wanda hissed to Mister S.A as the three approached from behind.

“Follow my lead,” the hamster whispered, before clearing his throat to notify the others of their presence. “Hey, hey now, what’s going on, Mister Foreman?”

“These Kyroshi creeps are saying that they’re here to take over the power plant!” Logan grumbled angrily, looking to the trio that’d just made it up the stairs. “I don’t know who they think they are, but they’re not going to get it without a fight. This plant provides Southopolis with 10% of their power grid, it’s far too important to give to them!”

“Damn, that’s bad, right?” Dwight asked, his hands shaking as he could sense the tension in the air.

“Very bad, the Kyroshi Syndicate having any sort of pull over Southopolis is a bad thing,” Mister S.A replied.

“That’s not fair, our organization is the way of the future,” Rodrick interjected. “We unite peoples together, our totally-cool leader has a vision for what the 6 realms could be. You losers are living in the past, and if stand in our way, then you’re going to be history too!”

“Everyone, evacuate to the main yard!” Logan yelled down to his workers on the floor, before turning to the goons surrounding him. “It’s going to get a little ugly in here, I don’t see a way out of this.”

The volatile atmosphere was interrupted, however, by the screaming static emitting from a radio. Reaching into his pocket, Rodrick pulled out a walkie-talkie.

“Rodrick here, I’m a little busy so- oh, really? Yes, I’ve seen them alright,” the spiky-haired man spoke to the caller as he turned to face Dwight and his group. “A hamster hitman, some clown girl, and a big-titty bombshell. You’re the three that took out one of our low-level punks in Southopolis, and now we’ve been ordered to bring you lot in after we’re done taking the plant.”

“They’re the ones who took out Kyle? Well, I guess he was sort of weak,” The Digger said as he scraped his shovels together.

“I guess whether we want to or not, we’re involved now,” Mister S.A said with a sigh, before looking to the gargantuan-boobed avatar next to him “Stay back, Dwight. Let us handle this.”

“Well crap, don’t have to tell me twice,” the gamer replied as he hurriedly backed up towards the stairs.

“Lighting Rodrick, was it?” the hamster hitman smirked as he adjusted his sunglasses and withdrew his pistol while striding towards the Kyroshi members. “Care to tango with one of Southopolis’ most famed assassins?”

“You’re going down, rat!” the yellow-haired man smirked as he spun the long pole in his hand. Meanwhile, the armor-clad woman next to him stepped forward.

“I call dibs on the clown girl,” Gretchen smiled, nodding towards Wanda as she wielded her broad axe. “Care to head to the roof for an autograph?”

“Ooohh I’d be happy to pick your brain about the show!” McWanda replied as she unsheathed her spatula-sword, before following the iron-suited lady up another nearby stair case that winded towards the ceiling.

“Well, guess you’re stuck with me,” Logan chuckled, cracking his knuckles as he stood over The Digger. “Let’s take this to the work floor, I’m going to need some space for this.”

“Doesn’t matter where we fight, The Digger will dig out your face!” the muscular man chortled as he bared his shovel-hands, before leaping from the atrium and landing on the turbine floor below, where the foreman promptly jumped down after him.

Standing back as the two groups paired off to fight one another, Dwight nervously crouched down in the darkness of the stairwell, his heart racing as he watched everyone standoff. Lacking combat, ULife was nowhere near a fighting game, thus the massive-chested female avatar trembled at the thought of seeing real danger unfold before him.

“Just gotta stay out of the way,” Dwight chuckled lightly to himself, rubbing his sore back as he slinked into the darkness. “This isn’t my fight, let these weirdos have at it…”