Parting Gift

Strong

His army watched him, their faces frozen in awe, their necks unable to turn as he paced before them through the structural unsound wreckage of a Par Kingga Rage. "Strong no want cowards. Strong want fighters! Are you fighters?!"

They didn't respond.

"Strong ask if you are fighters! Fight for what is right in world?! Find milk of human kindness then eat all humans!"

Still nothing.

Strong threw his hands up, smacking one against a broken beam. The always bubbling rage boiled over as massive bicep, tricep, and other anatomical things Strong didn't understand ripped the beam from its concrete grave. He spun about, ready to hurl the enemy out of his fort when a puny human jumped at the sight of him.

"Ah! I...oh, let me guess, you're Strong?" the puny human spoke, his fleshy mouth flapping. "After the ghoul, the drifter, and nearly getting ripped apart by a yao guai while a woman asked if I could describe my symptoms for science, I should have expected to find a Super Mutant."

"Ugh!" Strong shook his head to dislodge the human's buzzing. He launched the beam with a flick of his wrist where it landed a few feet away from the human's head. The human flinched, its droning voice dropping away. Strong meant to hit him in the head, but at least the talking stopped. "I, Strong. What you want, human?!"

"I, uh," now the human danced about on its spindly legs as if needing to piss itself. Perhaps it did. Humans did that often around Strong and always down their leg. Very disgusting. "I was asked to...that is-"

The Super Mutant sighed, rolling his head to the ceiling, "Getting hungry. Strong want to eat. Only see human around for food."

"Here!" the puny human shouted, thrusting a square at him. Strong knew about squares, they sometimes contained useful things to catch meat, could bait traps with what was inside, or catch the meat with the squares, but he preferred nets. Nets were best for holding meat. "This is for you, from a friend I'm guessing. Hoping. Please don't be an enemy."

Strong palmed the box with one hand and raised it to his eye. Below him the human whimpered slightly, as was normal. "Hm...Strong not see any thing in here."

"You have to open it," the puny human reached forward, grubby fingers attempting to take back his box. "Like this and..."

Strong yanked the box away and growled. The puny human shrunk back further inside its clothing. "Sorry, just, you know what. It's yours, do whatever you want with it. Eat it for all I care."

The puny human threw its hands up, but Strong redoubled his efforts in surveying the box. "Ah, Strong see way into box now. Pull on string. Clever."

"Yep, real brain teaser there," the puny human spoke, drawing another glare from Strong. It yelped again, worse than a mole rat. "I mean, open it. With that string. You're way smarter than me."

Strong snorted at the obvious and made quick work of the box. Rather than untie, or even break it, he ripped half of the box off, then slid the chunk around the still taut string. Peering inside the darkness, Strong's eyes lit up at what rested inside. "Ah! I know what is!" Making even quicker work of the rest of the box, Strong unearthed the greatest prize he could ever hope to achieve. "It is the hat!" he shouted, holding it aloft.

"It is?" puny human asked, unable to recognize such brilliance before him.

"Yes! I was told by my great leader that she used it for her power, it told people she was leader of all. Stopped many enemies with it."

"With that?" the puny human continued, eyeing up Strong's gift.

The Super Mutant growled again at him; then laughed so uproariously even the human joined in. "And tiny human wanted Strong to eat it. Human stupid!"

"Human very stupid, and very confused," he said. "This hat of leadership, is it...I mean-"

"It Strong's now! Strong leader. She must think Strong powerful enough for great hat..." the super mutant paused, his paws twisting his gift around. A surprising gentleness welled up in his voice as he spoke, "This mean Strong no see her again. Strong not hear again either. And Strong not eat her."

"Do you eat a lot of...no, don't answer that. I want to sleep sometime in the next ten years," puny human continued to talk.

Strong shook him off. His fingers ran across the great leader's hat, trying to fluff up the ear of the beast's head that flattened in its box. Strong was uncertain where and when she first found it, but she spoke with such confidence while wearing it he knew her words to be true. She explained it was worn by great leaders to inspire their warriors during battles. One 'school' would destroy another and eat the losers for spoil.

Dipping his head down, Strong slipped the hat over his head. It fit almost fully over, the nose and mouth of the beast covering his own, while Strong's lone eye poked out of the hole smashed into the hat across the right half. Strong glowered down at the puny human, his shoulders lifting back as the power of the hat surged through him.

"A super mutant wearing a teddy bear's head. Wasn't expecting that today," puny human continued to speak. But his words did not matter, none of it did. Strong was master now. He need not bother with those tiny things. He had his own followers to inspire to greatness.

"I am leader now!" Strong slapped a hand to his chest, the reverberations shaking the Kingga Rage's foundations. Spinning on his heels, Strong rounded upon his followers - three kickballs and one basketball with faces chalked upon them. "We are not weak. We are strong. Strong is Strong! Strong will find milk of human kindness and be strongest of all!" His followers did not clap or roar, but the strength surged around him as he accepted his place in the world as best leader.

"Well, if that's good, I'll just be heading along. Still got more to deliver and..." the puny human tried to slide away back into the night.

"Human!" Strong pointed a longer at the it, his eye glowering through the hat's eye hole.

"Yes?" it squeaked once more, the leader hat's power clearly overwhelming it.

"You get Strong's thanks," the Super Mutant attempted to give a thumb's up, but left his other finger still pointing.

"Okay, good, I'm glad you like it."

"Strong does. When next we meet, Strong promise to eat you last."