"The new normal" (Kaiju Paradise story)

Chapter Eight: New Troubles...

Shocker seemed to consider Owens offer for a little bit, nodding at him a few minutes later with a small smile.
"That would...t-that would be nice..."
Owen smiled a bit too and was about to say something else, but Ocean quickly interrupted.
"New friend!"
Ocean says enthusiastically, leaping onto the back of Shockers head and laughing joyously as they cling onto him. Shocker panics for a moment, unsure of what to do in the situation which gets a few silent chuckles from Owen as he watches the scene unfold.
"I think he likes you, buddy."
Owen says with a chuckle as Shocker still struggles with the joyful pup now sprawled out atop his head, seemingly sleeping now.
"U-um...help?"
Shocker asks awkwardly, looking at Owen with a nervous smile.
A few silly and fun filled minutes later, Owen had gotten Ocean off of Shockers head and now had Ocean sleeping on his back.
"Um....thanks"
Shocker says with embarrassment, looking at the sleeping pup for a moment.
"No problem bud. Also, the names Owen."
Owen simply says, turning to leave after waving goodbye to Shocker, who climbed up onto another of the metal shelves and yawned drowsily.
With nothing else to really do now, Owen decides that he would just take Ocean back to the garden or something.
A small, uneventful trip later, he arrives at the garden and sets Ocean down on a small bush and, after looking around for a moment for anyone who may be around, pets his head softly before leaving the garden.
A few minutes later, Owen finds himself walking back into the cafe for a reason he couldn't really think up at the moment.
An enthusiastic Sprinkle eagerly waves over at him after putting a bit of ice cream in one of the freezers behind the counter.
"Oh! Hiya...uh, oh yeah, I never got your name did I?"
Sprinkle says awkwardly with a few awkward glances around the general area.
"Oh, uh...names Owen,"
Owen reaches out his paw for a handshake, which Sprinkle immediately takes.
"Owen huh? You must be one of the lucky ones that remember their name after...uh, transfurring?
That's what some of the humans called it I believe..."
Sprinkle says in thought before turning her attention back to him.
"Anyways! What brings ya here this time, hm?"
Sprinkle inquires curiously, eyeing Owen with interest.
"Meh, don't really have anything to do right now, and this seems like a place that's relatively peaceful."
Owen says casually, receiving a small hum of content from Sprinkle.
"Hmm, yeah, I suppose this is one of the more... peaceful areas of the facility, then again... nobody would really wanna have food if there was a fight every 5 minutes here!"
Sprinkle sighs softly and puts her head on her paws as she leans against the counter slightly.
"Of course, when there are fights here...most people panic and run off every which way...and it's always the same people who start it."
She says, annoyance clear in her tone as she takes a suspicious side eye glance at a human passing by
"Humans."
She says, almost holding the 's' with a hiss.
"Or...oh forget it, I'm rambling about my troubles now, and nobody hasn't really seen one in quite some time now, so...don't bother thinking about it"
She says dismissively, waving a paw at him
Owen tilts his head and raises an eyebrow at her for a moment before just shrugging nonchalantly and walking into the cafe.
There were a couple of humans eating and a few gootraxians...trying to eat as well, but most of the time the food was slipping out from their paws before they could even pick it up.
In fact, the only gootraxians that seemed like they were having any success with eating were the pups ironically.
Owen chuckles quietly to himself and quickly notices a ladder atop of a shelf leading to the 'roof' of the small kitchen area.
He takes a moment to find a way to the ladder before jumping up onto the shelf and climbing up the small ladder.
The first thing he noticed were a few boxes and metal crates that littered the area, kind of making a makeshift wall for the area.
The second thing he noticed was Shocker sitting on a couch that was on the other side of the area.
Shocker looked like he was about to bolt, but calmed down slightly and relaxed upon realizing it was Owen.
"Oh...um, h-hey there...what uh, brings you here?"
Shocker asks after a moment, getting off the couch and walking a bit closer to Owen.
"Meh, just kinda... exploring a bit more, even if there isn't much to explore anymore."
Owen replies with a hint of boredom.
"Anyways, what are you doin up here?"
Owen asks after a moment of observing the area a bit more.
"Um...nothing really, i-its just...peaceful up here, and nobody really tends t-to come up here..."
"Fair enough."
Owen looks down into the cafe again and sees a familiar human once again.
"Where the hell have I seen this guy before?"
Owen thought to himself as he stared the human down, trying to figure out what was so familiar about this human.
He had seen this one human a few times already, and every time he felt the same sense of familiarity, he just couldn't figure out why...
Shocker noticed the intense glare at the human and looks at Owen strangely for a moment.
"Uh...do you...know them o-or something?"
Shocker eventually asks, tapping Owens arm slightly, thinking he might be in some kind of trance from how intensely he was holding his gaze at the human.
"Uh... something...I guess? It feels like I know that guy, but nothing comes to mind..."
Owen says, tapping his paw against his chin for a few moments.
Shocker stays silent for a minute before starting to speak up again.
"Maybe...you knew them before you were a Hazzy?"
Shocker suggests, looking at the human curiously as they started to attack the soda vending machine sitting in the corner of the cafe.
"Well, probably, but this stupid amnesia thing is getting real annoying now."
"At least...you...well, kind of remember? Y-you at least have a feeling anyway...most others can't remember...uhm, anything about their past as humans..."
Owen thought on Shockers words for a minute before sighing, watching as the human broke into the soda machine and took a few of the sodas before leaving after getting yelled at by Sprinkle for breaking said machine.
"Well, I think I'll be leaving now, see you around Shocker,"
Owen hops off onto the ground and walks out of the cafe.
The moment Owen steps foot into the room next to the cafe, he hears the sounds of fighting in the cave.
Owen immediately runs over to the cave and finds Buzzer there, fighting off a few humans.
Owen ignites his batsaber and throws it into the nearest human.
Owen runs up and takes the batsaber back from the burning hole he put into the human now on the floor and stepping up next to Buzzer.
"Ah, Owen, nice of you to show up. If I didn't know better I'd say you were following me now, heh."
Buzzer says non chalantly, like this was the most normal thing to happen today, which, based on what Owens dealt with today, probably was.
For some reason one of the humans seemed stunned for a moment at the mention of Owens name and tapped the other human on the shoulder.
The two humans whispered to eachother for a moment before making a threatening gesture at Owen and Buzzer and running over to their little safe zone.
Buzzer rolls his eyes and scoffs.
"Humans, quick to start fights, even quicker to flee when things even up."
Owen chuckles at Buzzers annoyance, receiving a quick glance from Buzzer.
"Yeah, laugh it up, maybe this knife'll be going in your head next."
Buzzer says with a chuckle of his own.
Owen rolls his eyes
"Yeah, you're welcome by the way."
"Huh, what? No that was all me."
"Excuse you?"
"Ah, thanks, I was quite tired of this."
Owen raises a brow and is about to say something else.
"HEY!"
The two hazzies stop in their tracks for a moment and look back behind them.
The human that was oh so mysteriously familiar to Owen was standing there with a small group of other humans, maybe 5 or even 6.
"Hand over the batsaber, hazzy"
The human commands.
"Uh, should we...-"
Owen trails off with a glance at buzzer
"Oh, definitely."
Buzzer confirms quickly before they both take off in the opposite direction, making the humans yell out and start chasing them.
Buzzer and Owen chuckle to themselves as they lead the group of chasing humans through some of the more dangerous areas of the facility, the group even lost one when they went through the gas room.
"So, you have an actual plan, or are we just running to have a nice workout."
Owen says as he continued to follow Buzzer with the humans chasing right behind.
"Well...this has been rather, uh, fun, but I suppose it's time for our friends here to go away."
Buzzer says a moment later.
The two share a quick nod and split off at one of the few forks in the facility, with Owen going to the cove, and Buzzer heading off into the balcony. The humans split off to continue chasing them.
Owen takes a quick glance behind him to the two humans who were going after him, one had a machete, it looked like, and the other one just seemed to have a few knives.
"

Man, this'll be even easier now, they split up."
The human with the machete says, throwing around the machete in their hands.
"Out of everyone in the group, of course I'd end up with you..."
The one with the knives groans out with annoyance and rolling their eyes with disdain.
"Oh shut up. Let's just take out that Hazzy and go back to the others, if you're gonna be like that."
"Bout the best idea I've ever heard from your mouth."
"Hey!"
The one with the knives chuckles a little before staring Owen down and throwing a knife right towards his face. Owen, although taken by surprise at the sudden attack, manages to barely move out of the knifes way, taking a small cut on the cheek. Owen winces as he feels the shallow cut, but quickly retaliates and rushes forward to close the distance with the knife thrower. Before Owen could manage to throw a hit, the human with the machete swings at him, making Owen step back and swap his focus. The one with the knives prepares another throw, but can't get a good aim at Owen, as he was now in close combat with the other human at the moment. Owen and the other human traded blows with their weapons, constantly trying to find an opening to finally achieve an actual hit on the other.
"Get em to hold still dummy!"
The one with the knives shouts at the other.
"What do you think I'm trying to do here?!"
The other shouts back before swinging back at Owen again.
The one with the knives continued to stay in the background, trying to find a good opportunity for a crippling, or even fatal blow. Well, that was until they heard something behind them and turned around too late to find a Kaiju approaching from behind. The human made a quick, abrupt shout before the Kaiju grabbed them and shoved them against one of the many crystals that jutted out of the ground, walls, and even the ceiling of the cove. The human fighting Owen is momentarily distracted by the shout and looks over at the first human with panic, allowing Owen to finally get a good hit on the human, slicing them across the chest with his batsaber. The human is flung back and hits the floor with a thud, Owen wastes no time and heads to the balcony to assist Buzzer. As Owen turns the corner to the balcony, he immediately sees a human burning in toxic acid, before said human slips on a banana peel and promptly falls into the dark abyss the balcony hangs over. Comical. As Owen fully enters the balcony area, he sees that Buzzer has seemed to have handled himself quite easily, two of the humans seemed to have fled, one had dropped into the abyss, and he was currently finishing off the last one that was still there. Buzzer quickly takes notice of Owen and claps for a moment
"Ah, good, you're still alive, congrats."
Owen looks at him unamused and rolls his eyes.
"Yeah, don't be so surprised."
"Don't make it sound like I expected ya to die or something, sheesh."
"Anyways, wheres my thanks?"
"Hm?"
"I freaking saved you from a horrible death by humans, I think I kinda deserve a thanks for that."
"Meh, I could've handled it, you showing up just made it easier."
"Wha-you freaking-"
"Relax. It's a joke. Know what a joke is? Anyways, thanks for that I suppose."
Owen paused for a second and eventually just sighed and shrugged it off.
"Right...uh, anyways...I guess I'll be going now."
"Alright, cya."
Owen turns to leave, only slamming straight into someone who quickly rounds the corner. Owen and the person that slammed into him fall on the ground with a thud.
"Ow. What the heck?-"
Owen pauses as he glances at the one who slammed into him, noticing it was the Catte from earlier. The Catte quickly scrambles up to their feet and runs down the balcony for a moment before going through the other door off to the side of the area.
"Well. That was rude."
Buzzer quips out, going over to help Owen up.