Wee Weasel Tales: Fiendish Friends

Hazardous Hardware - Part 2

This is the second part of the tenth chapter of the triquel; Fiendish Friends! This chapter contains the finale of the break-in at the hardware store in Hayesville! Can Hank get away from Tito and Arty, or succumb to their deadly tricks? Apologies for the bad puns here! I hope that you guys like it! 👍

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Hank Parris frowned in confusion, halting where he was.

"No, no ... thank you?" the man hesitantly replied. In response, Tito looked down thoughtfully at the paint can he held.

"Hmmmm ... You may have a point, Señor", he murmured. "Blue paint doesn't taste that good anyway. How about green then? Arty, now!"

The mechanical alligator responded by quickly swinging his hand with the green paint spray can around in the direction of Mr Parris. Before the shop owner could react, Arty sprayed the contents of his paint can full into the man's eyes!

Most of the paint splattered onto Mr Parris's glasses, but still ... The shop owner yelped in pain, rubbing frantically at his face to get the stuff out of his vision. The situation had swiftly gone from bad to worse!

Before Mr Parris could think of what to do next, he heard the turtle robot speak again ... the cheerful voice now filled with sadistic malice.

"My turn! Eat lead, xxxxx!"

Finally managing to clear the paint out of his eyes, the man turned to squint at Tito Turtle ... and saw the nail gun he was holding. A split second later, the blue reptile animatronic fired ... giving Mr Parris no time to get out of range!

The quick-thinking shop owner rapidly moved his right hand and arm in front of his face for some kind of protection ... which kind of worked. Most were blocked, but a few got past.

"Get away!" Mr Parris yelled in terror and pain; wincing from his multiple injuries as he staggered backwards towards safety. He had to get away ... get FAR away from the approaching, grinning mechanical demons!

Very unfortunately, as the shop owner backed away ... he accidentally trod on a mantrap, that had been knocked from a nearby shelf earlier. It snapped shut, causing Mr Parris to yelp in pain again!

"My leg!" he shrieked, the sensation inadvertently causing him to press the trigger on his rifle! With a noise like thunder, the man's gun went off ... the shot skewing sideways and hitting Tito's right shoulder!

There was a sound like thunder, and shattering metal ... but the animatronic turtle just looked annoyed.

"That don't look too good", Tito commented dryly, and coldly. The shop owner then heard a snarl from Arty's direction, and a big, plastic, green alligator's suddenly whacked hard into his legs.

Mr Parris groaned in increased agony as he fell partially against a nearby shelf, scarcely able to move from all of the wounds.

"Wait, fellas ..." the man whispered weakly, trying to sit up ... as a shadow slowly fell across him. "Just wait ... a minute ..."

Hank Parris's voice trailed off into silence as he looked up to see a vengeful, gleeful Arty Alligator looming over him. The green reptile robot had a pickaxe raised in his right paw ... a fact that made the shop owner's heart sink in despair.

With a victorious growl, Arty slammed the pickaxe down ... promptly ending the man's life. The animatronic alligator then let go of the tool and stood back, admiring his 'artwork' before him.

"I call this one: 'Disruption of Service'", Arty declared loudly as he turned to look at his turtle friend. The smug grin quickly disappeared as the robotic gator saw Tito leaning against a shelf to his right, grimacing and holding his arm tenderly.

"Are you all right, my friend?" Arty asked, with uncharacteristic softness and worry.

"Estúpido imbécil, estúpido idiota (Stupid imbecile, stupid jerk) ..." the turtle grumbled under his breath, not looking up at Arty.

The aforementioned alligator couldn't tell whether it was aimed at their current victim, or Tito himself. It sure wasn't Arty himself ... he knew the turtle too well for that!

"Yeah, I'm fine, Arty", the animatronic turtle then said as he finally addressed his gator colleague. "Well, mostly fine. My arm's not working great though."

Tito then looked down at his right shoulder, and scowled at all the damage!

"That now-dead geezer shot me pretty good in the shoulder here ... see!" he said, pointing to said injury. "The boss is gonna be mad when he finds out about this!"

The robotic alligator huffed at this obvious statement! Their boss usually didn't have a very high tolerance for those who got injured easily out on hunts!

"Yep, he will be!" Arty said dryly. "You should have taken the rifle away, Tito. Next time, get the gun first ... or at least, unload the bullets!" he chided gently.

The aforementioned turtle huffed, but knew that his friend was trying to be helpful in his own way. Arty Alligator wasn't really known for being sentimental, much less offering sympathy.

That was more Willimeena's thing, really.

I'll ask the boss if I could have a couple of hugs from his little kitten when we get back. Knowing her, she'll probably hug me regardless!

Tito smiled at the thought, then turned and nodded thankfully to Arty.

"Si, compadre (Yes, mate)", he replied. The artistic gator smiled too, happy that his turtle friend had hopefully learned his lesson about guns.

"It's okay, Tito, I know you did your best with this situation", he assured the blue turtle ... and then narrowed his eyes. "We'd better skedaddle before more people show up," Arty added.

Tito Turtle nodded, his expression serious.

"Agreed!" the blue reptile robot said as he stepped away from the shelf behind him. The two possessed animatronics then walked carefully back through the assorted shelves of the hardware store.

"We'll stop off at Jed's place on the way back to get your arm fixed. It might take overnight though", Arty drawled as he led the way. "Don't ya worry, pal! I'll keep an eye out for you while you're disarmed."

Tito Turtle immediately groaned and put his working left paw over the left side of his head.

"God, no, Arty! I told you before; no more bad puns!" he growled in annoyance.

"I can help you single-handedly!"

"Please ..."

"I'm perfectly able to lend you a hand, my friend!"

"Stop it!"

"Pretty 'armless now, aren't you, Tito?"

"Just kill me now."

"You can't die again, you shell-backed nincompoop! You're already dead!"

Do you guys think that Arty should be a stand-up comedian? Vote and comment if you like it! 👍