Helluva Child

17: possum?

"Heeeey... You...!"

Loona awkwardly greeted the large man, with a playful nudge of her fist.

"Oh hey." Vortex greeted with a polite tone. "You're the hound who's working for my boss's freaky ex."

"Yeah..." Loona chuckles awkwardly. "Sorry if that's wierd."

"It's cool. Her beef ain't mine." Vortex responds coolly. "I'm not paid enough to care."

"Yeah!" Loona smiles in relief, though she's still a bit skittish. "Yeah... I'm Loona!"

"Okay, I'm Vortex!" Vortex gives a playfully mimicked her nervous tone, chuckling lightheartedly afterwards. 

"That's hot.." Loona swoons briefly, before catching herself. "I mean, like, literally! Y'know, 'cause vortexes... y'know, they give off a lot of heat. Probably. Right?"

"Uh, yeah." Vortex chuckles at the girl's nervous ramblings. "I guess, but my friends call me Tex."

"Oh yeah? I wish I had friends." Loona chuckles nervously. "I mean, no, I mean, I... I don't have friends."

"Am I... interrupting something??" Blitz suddenly steps between Loona and Tex defensively.

"Nah, man." Tex replied nonchalantly. "Just having a conversation."

"Conversation leads to HPV!" Blitz retorts, poking the cavalier man's chest.

Just a few paces behind them, you sat innocently in the sand suckling your hand as you watched the scene unfold in confusion. You didn't understand what was happening or why everyone was standing around so much, but all's you did knew was that you wanted to get back to playing the game.

You had to wonder how long this time-out was gonna take now.

"(Name)!"

You suddenly heard a voice call to you, and looked over your shoulder to find your mother and father hiding behind a few metal barrels reading 'beer', with Millie beckoning you towards her with open arms. "Come here, shug!"

"Ma! Da!" You smiled, turning over and crawling over to Millie, with your tail wagging as Moxxie continued to spy the situation from afar with an annoyed expression.

"And... we've lost him." Moxxie sighs, as you made it to Millie, sharing an affectionate hug with her as Moxxie sulked, slumping against the barrel. "It's looking like it's up to us to handle this list."

"Hell yeah!" Millie cheers, holding you in one arm while pulling Moxxie close to her with the other. "Team M&M plus little (initial), gettin' s**t done and makin' the moneys!"

"Ya!" You cheered as you all proceeded to run off, leaping onto the rooftops to carry on with the assassination spree.

You were just happy to continue playing.
~~~~~~~~~~

You started out by leaping across rooftops, slaughtering any humans that were present inside or around, before moving back to the beach, where the large beach party was still going on strong.

At some point, you all hid behind a bunch of steel barrels full of beer, which were propped up on a plastic table.

As Millie loaded a crossbow, Moxxie had to keep you from reaching for any of the bottles of alcohol that were strewn around the table.

When you saw the crossbow, you tried to reach for it, but Millie held it out of your reach.

"Ah ah! Not yet, shug." Millie whispered to you, smiling in amusement as you made grabbie motions with your hands, your eyes pleading at her. She responded by simply patting your head. "Your arms are too short!"

You pouted, as she hands it to Moxxie, giving him a brief kiss as he takes aim at the many humans that were idling the beach. You tried to lean forward to peek at the beach as well, but you couldn't quite keep your balance and you flopped onto your face.

However, as Moxxie tried to line up a shot, or even make even make out a target, a particularly drunk individual  dressed in bright, tacky clothing suddenly throws his drink down, yelling out in drunken amusement which distracted Moxxie.

"WOO! Yeah! Party!! LET'S DO THIS!!"

In his excited stupor, he suddenly flips the table you were all hiding on, sending you all flying through the air, with Moxxie landing square in the middle of the beach party and you tumbling just a few paces away from him, out of the crowd's view.

"EEeeeuuuw! Oh my God, it's a f**king possum!" A woman cries out in disgust, pointing at Moxxie.

"Oh crumbs!" Moxxie tries to flee, but one of the partygoers; the same man that flipped the table, grabs him by the tail. "I got it!"

With reckless abandon, the man proceeds to shove Moxxie into a nearby barrel of beer, to which the party goers promptly pick up, and start volleying the barrel around, without a doubt, jostling the imp inside of it, all the while chanting 'beer possum!' and yelling other forms of abuse that you didn't quite get.

"Get ready to get f**ked up!"

"Ready to get f****cked!"

You watched with alarm as you watched your father get carted off to who knows where.

"Dada!" You tried to crawl after them, but a female party goer unfortunately caught you, and held you up beneath your arm pits, looking at you with what seemed to be adoration. "Oh my God, the possum had a little baby!"

You squinted at her, confused. "Possum?"

Before you could even assess what she had just called you, an arrow was suddenly fired through her chest, splattering blood into your face and causing her to crumble, dropping you from her grip as you landed safely into your mother's arms. She glared down at the deceased woman as she tossed aside the crossbow. "They ain't no possum, ya harlot!"

Millie then held you up, looking you up and down in concern. "Are you alright, shug? Nothin' broken?"

You took a moment to lick the blood off your face, before cheerfully blurting "Possum!" Giggling happily afterwards as you cheerfully had your hands up, prompting Millie to chuckle and pepper your face in kisses.

"That's what I thought. Now come on, let's go find daddy!" She places you in the sling on her chest, and darts off in search of her husband.