Adoption

Ah, the Netherworld. It was many things, pleasant certainly not being one of them. It was putrid. Foul. Smelly. Overwhelmingly hot. DANGEROUS. Sure all of it could be considered unsafe, but there were some things in particular that proved to be especially unsavory, be it certain locations or awful creatures. As a matter of fact, one of those places happened to be where a pair of spirits were headed, one rather reluctantly.

“Remind me WHY you’re dragging me along”, Betrayus whined as the buttheaded doctor just groaned. “Once again, it is for science.”
“And what does that have to do with me?!”
“So you, Lord Betrayus, can be a vitness to my achievement!”
“But why HERE?!”
“You’ll see.”

The specters just kept floating along, Betrayus looking all about hurriedly. Every ghost knew about this place- Nether Hound Valley. A place crawling with some of the most feared beasts in the entire Netherworld- second to only the dragons and Betrayus himself. Betrayus honestly had no idea why he let the mad doctor drag him into this, save for the promise of “vengeance upon the living once they were free”.

Poor Betrayus was trying not to let his fear show, but it manifested anyway in the form of trembling and his eyes darting about every which way. Whatever they were here for, it had to be done fast lest he become Nether Hound chow.

“Now, ve just need to find vun.”
“C-come again?”
“A Nether Hound.”
“WHAT?!”
“You heard me.”
“Grr, I knew I should have stayed behind! I’m out.”

No sooner had Betrayus said that, than a horrible feeling did begin to overtake him. He froze and stared at the doctor, and Buttocks just stared back at Betrayus- no, at something behind him.
Betrayus just floated there for a moment or two, and he felt something drip onto his ghostly form from above- something wet and gross. Saliva. He looked up, and was met with the angry jaws of the middle head of a Nether Hound.

“My Lord don’t-”
“AHHHHHH-”
“...move…”

Too late. Betrayus took off, the irate beast letting out a snarl and giving chase.
“Dummkopf”, Buttocks muttered as he brandished the device he had brought along. “HOLD STILL BETRAYUS”, he shouted as he tried to take aim.
“ARE YOU NUTS?!”
“Vell, ja, but trust me!”
“NO! I’M NOT GETTING EATEN!”
“DO YOU VANT REVENGE ON ALL PAC PEOPLE?! ZEN HOLD STILL!”
“FINE!”

Betrayus stopped in midair, and immediately was enveloped within the maw of one the creature’s heads. Muffled screams could be heard from inside, and as amusing as that was, it was time to act.

Buttocks aimed the ray at the beast, and fired. The laser beam hit it, and the effects were instantaneous. The beast stopped what it was doing, all six of its eyes rolled back… and it collapsed. Not dead, just in a deep sleep. Its middle mouth opened and Betrayus came tumbling out, slathered in saliva.

“Vat?” Was all Buttocks could say.
“What?”
“Zat… vasn’t supposed to happen.”
“What was then?!”
“It vas supposed to be under my control. I must have miscalibrated something…”
“Oh gosh. Wow. Another fantastic invention of yours failed this badly. Color me surprised.”

Buttocks narrowed his eyes, but knew better not to fire back another insult lest he get scorched by his boss’s fire. Betrayus was feeling quite irritable anyway as a matter of fact, so he decided to hurl some fireballs out of anger regardless.

He spent the next ten or so minutes chasing the scientist around, torching him with glee. The sound and smell of singed ectoplasm filled the stagnant air, and Betrayus wasn’t satisfied until he torched poor Buttocks to the point of his ghostly form melting, leaving his eyes and glasses behind. “Go back to the regeneration chamber. And once you’ve reformed, have your dimwitted brother make me some slugs. Got it?”
“Yes Lord Betrayus”, Buttocks’ eyes somehow said rather sullenly.
“Now take me back to the castle.”

They began to float away, until- Betrayus heard something. It sounded like… whimpering? Normally he wouldn’t care, but for some reason his interest was piqued. He looked to where it was coming from, and saw an opening in the stony valley’s walls- a cave. He floated over there, much to the confusion of the doctor.

He took a little peek inside the cave and… pups!

Nether Hound pups, at least four. It quickly became clear why that one Nether Hound had attacked- she was trying to protect her babies. Betrayus’ facial expression went from confused to “squee”, then right back to irritation as he decided to move on and go back home. That was, until…

*whimper*

It was a fifth whimper, coming from the other side of the cave. Betrayus just gave a glance, then paused for a few moments too long. Sure enough there was yet another pup, but this one wasn’t like the others. It was small, and looked like it wasn’t doing so well. A runt.
It was curled up into a ball, but even then it was obvious it was painfully thin, if not outright sickly.
“Lord Betrayus vat are you- oh. Leave zem. Ze mother vill vake up! Ve must go!”
“...”

He continued to stare at the runt, filled with… something. Oh. Pity. Of course. Feelings like this were almost a foreign sensation to the fire ghost, so he really didn’t like it. But he couldn’t help but be reminded of himself in his own youth, how he too was neglected and left behind by his own mother (in his eyes), and how he had been bullied relentlessly. The more he stared at the pup, the more he wanted to… take it. He knew that if they left it, it would surely perish.

Now Betrayus of course was no stranger to being heartless, but this was different. He NEEDED that pup. So he did something really brave, stupid, or both- he flew into the cave at top speed, scooped up the sick little thing and flew out back to the cave’s entrance. “My Lord-”
“I’m keeping this thing”, Betrayus said, his voice straining due to the weight of the pup.
“VAT?!”
“I AM THE LORD OF THE NETHERWORLD AND MY WORD IS FINAL! NOW MOVE ALONG!”
“If you say so.”
“Dang straight.”

Betrayus took one last look at the sleeping Nether Hound mother to make sure she was as such, then began to float away back towards the castle alongside Buttock’s eyeballs.

The pup really gave no resistance at all to being carried, probably due to lacking the strength to do so. Betrayus just kept on going, occasionally looking down at the poor thing which looked back up at him with its six innocent eyes. It was quite heavy, but since this was a runt who knew how much a normal Nether Hound pup would weigh. His grip tightened as he thought about his careless decision to adopt it, the pup giving a small whimper in protest. Oops. At that moment he had forgotten about his claws. He loosened his grip, and kept on going. Was this decision good? Bad? Only time would tell.

But hey, he already had decided on a name-

Fluffy.