Hiya everyone! Just thought I'd upload something else, while I'm at it! Please let me know what you all think of this story, aye?

Jozei / MuffinxXxSyndrome / Sanguinistic Nightmares out!


- - - Monday Dreaming ~ A Charles Snippy Story - - -

Chapter One ~ Peach Sunset

Charles Snippy let out a breath as he stared out at the expansive wastelands before him through the scope of his rifle, exasperation settling in on him as he realised it had been yet another hour of endless boredom. The particularly large and near-crumbling skyscraper he was currently perched upon stood high in the skies, casting dark shadows over the lands he was supposed to be investigating. The events of the morning had Snippy feeling a little annoyed – and not because he was stuck atop a huge skyscraper. Pilot had once again awoken him in an unpleasant manner, and Captain had ordered him out on a search mission after an hour-long speech about the necessity of repopulating the lands of Captania with much-needed Rubber Ducks.

The Search Mission wasn't even that extensive; Just perch on top of a skyscraper, and keep an eye out for any prospective oddities that could amuse Captain, in whatever manner they would. That wasn't the words that Captain had used, but it was the general gist of it. Snippy had long since learnt that it was just easier to go along with whatever Captain wanted; Lest he be met with a face full of the madman's scalding hot tea.

So far, Snippy's mission had yielded him no results. The wastelands of rubble and debris that was once a towering city of technology stood before him in ruins, and nothing of interest had popped up. Even a mutated monster would be more interest than sitting up here, Snippy mused to himself. Now, it was late afternoon, and Snippy was feeling his stomach groaning in hunger. Furthermore, the shadows cast by the many skyscrapers were making visibility difficult for Snippy. He wondered if he should just go back to where they were set up, and just come back in the morning – not that he really wanted to come back, anyway. Even being inside the belly of that Mutated Whale was more interesting than being atop this skyscraper all day.

Snippy let out a breath as he straightened up in his spot, stretching out his legs to try and regain circulation before even attempting to get to his feet – He certainly didn't fancy his legs giving out on him and falling to his death over the side of the skyscraper. He went to set his rifle aside, when the tiniest flicker of movement before him caught his eye.

Snippy remained silent for a second, before he quickly lifted his rifle, and placed the scope to the eye of his goggles.

The small flicker of movement was the reflection of the fading sunlight bouncing from what appeared to be a kind of round object soaring through the air half a mile from his current skyscraper, barely skimming the rooftop of a rickety old house. The round object appeared to be losing both velocity and altitude in a gradual curve, allowing Snippy to trace his vision back along to where he estimated the object's launch into the air had occurred.

He hadn't heard anything, even as the round object disappeared behind another skyscraper. But how would he have heard anything from half a mile away, anyway?

"Was it just my imagination?" Snippy wondered out-loud, lowering his rifle just enough so he could look ahead with his own eyes. It wouldn't be the first time he had imagined seeing something out here, when there was no one left alive other than his own comrades, of course.

Comrades, huh? Snippy wondered about that wording. Engie was the newest of Captain's announced Minions, and the quietest of them all; It was evident there was something going on with the strange man, however Snippy just didn't care enough to go prying. Then there was Pilot, who absolutely idolised Captain and the ground he walked on. To add to the problem, Pilot seemed obsessed with making Snippy's life as unpleasant as he could, just because he wanted to. The guy was most certainly a madman. And then there was Captain himself.

Snippy had no words to truly describe how insane this one was. He was the first person Snippy had met since the world had gone to hell, and he'd been stuck with the madman for a long time. Snippy assumed the guy was male, however Captain had referred to himself as both male and female on countless occasions. It was just safer to go with treating Captain as a madman – at least until conclusive proof ever came up about who he actually was.

Of course, Snippy wondered if there was anyone else out there; He had the faintest of hope that there really was. If he was one of four people left alive on this world, and two of them were total nutjobs, then how was he going to cope?

That was without the problem of procreation, to add to it.

More movement came to Snippy's notice just as he went to put his rifle down again, however this time he could pinpoint exactly what it was this time. A golden flickering began to engulf one of the skyscrapers that the round object had been launched from, beginning from about half-way up the skyscraper itself. It didn't take too long for Snippy to realise that the gold flickering was the tongues of fire lapping up the remaining wood in the building.

Fire was very rare in these wastelands, Snippy knew. Unless someone, or something started it.

Snippy lifted his rifle and began to quickly scan the building's windows. He had half the mind to leave the safety of his own skyscraper and investigate a bit closer, but his luck had been terrible just getting up here; He didn't want to run into another monster like Pilot's giant mutant worm called Photoshop. He scanned all the windows, and spotted nothing but smoke. The flames were now lapping at the windows seven levels before the top, and it had been barely a minute before the flames had come to Snippy's notice. But what had caused them?!

A small, shadowy form suddenly appeared through a door on the top of the burning skyscraper, running in a clumsy manner as if running from something. From the distance, Snippy's scope could barely distinguish their form for him, however as he saw the shadowy form tear towards the edge of the skyscraper towards him, his stomach told him that it was a human.

"A survivor?!" Snippy felt his breath hitch in his throat as the form seemed to disregard the deadly drop they were running towards, and took one mighty leap to try and reach the next building across. The form fell short of a clean landing, and instead, their arms managed to cling to the edge of the next building for dear life. The survivor struggled to clamber up over the building's edge, as if lacking the strength to do so. Why had they jumped!? What had the form so desperate they'd try and leap to the next building like that?!

"Damn it! HANG ON!" Snippy yelled as he threw himself to his feet, and began to make his way out of the skyscraper as fast as his feet would take him. Snippy's previous reluctance in leaving his safe-place was immediately disregarded; The first survivor in months! He couldn't leave them to die! Not when the only other people he'd so much as seen since the world went to hell were three other men, who's sanity were questionable to Snippy! A crash echoed faintly through the silent air as Snippy reached the last few floors of the building, however he was a little desperate to stop and peer out at what could have caused such a destructive sound; He was content to dismiss it as another Photoshop that had caused it.

Snippy's feet almost slid out from beneath him as he stepped out onto the broken up pavement, however he stabilised himself as he made his sprint down the ruined streets towards the burning skyscraper as fast as he could.

A high-pitched shriek shot through the air suddenly, causing Snippy to snap his gaze straight up to where it had come from.

A large, monstrous form matching what looked to be a giant spidery monster he'd seen once or twice had appeared atop the burning skyscraper, it's spidery arms outstretched to swipe at the form of the survivor, who had appeared to have dropped down at least twenty floors; their form was visible hanging by their hands from a window ledge. Snippy couldn't miss the red that was smeared over the grey bricks beneath the form's hands; He also couldn't miss the flash of peach tinted goggles reflecting in the setting sunlight.

However, that was the last Snippy saw of the survivor before the monster lunged forward to grab them; As he neared the front doors of the Skyscraper the survivor was dangling from, the monster's form ploughed into the building's side, and ruptured the supports enough to cause the building to shudder, and then crumble to the ground.

Snippy backed away from the crumbling skyscraper, his rifle held tightly in his hands as he realised that there was no way that survivor could have survived that. With a weary breath, Snippy finally turned on his heel and began to make the trek back to base. The sun was disappearing over the grey horizons, and Snippy didn't particularly want to be the monster's next meal.

Snippy could feel great disappointment washing over himself, and furthermore, he actually felt really quite sorry for the survivor. If Snippy could help it, he certainly would rather dying in any other way from being buried alive beneath a crumbling building, or worse yet, eaten alive.

Snippy slung his rifle over his shoulder, and after a few moments of thought about the peach-goggled form, he steeled his attention so he wouldn't be next to die out here today.

He hoped he would be able to avoid giving a report to Captain about his missions progress; After being so close to rescuing another survivor, and failing, Snippy didn't want to think about it. He could have been the only other sane person left alive on this nuclear-ravaged planet.

The hour back to base had yielded Snippy no relief other than arriving within visible distance of the base itself; His mind kept on replaying that survivor's death on him, as if punishing him for his inability to save him. He should have begun investigating closer as soon as he spotted the fire – Maybe then the survivor would have still been alive by the end of it.

"Mein Minion!" Echoed Captain's heavily accented voice through the crisp air all of a sudden, snapping Snippy out of his thoughts with as much effect as a sledgehammer would smashing a window. Snippy lifted his goggled gaze from the ground ahead of him, and to the silhouette that stood in the doorway of their current base. The hat and the huge coat was a dead giveaway as to who was standing there, if it weren't for Captain's booming voice.

Snippy chose to ignore to Captain's call for now, instead placing his gaze back upon the ground as he walked up the slope towards the door Captain was standing at. That disappointment plagued him, and left a bad taste in his mouth; He just wanted to go drop onto his bed, and just fall asleep. Maybe when he woke up, he'd go back and see what exactly was left of the survivor; Captain was probably going to want to come, too, for some other unrelated reason.

"How goes zee Mission, Snippy? Have you secured a new repopulating home for mein rubber ducks?"

Snippy let out a breath – yes, he guess that was why he was sent out there, hadn't he?

"No." Snippy answered, pushing his way past Captain to head to his bedroll.

"Of course!" Captain chortled, and Snippy also heard the sounds of Captain's heavy boots clunking on the rotting wood floors after him. "It's too early to release mein ducks to the world! We must wait!"

Snippy could only sigh at Captain's sudden change of heart.

"On another note – zee Mission of Minion Recruitment is ever ongoing! Have you found any candidates for Minions?" Captain asked, innocently enough.

Snippy came to a halt in the doorway to his sleeping quarters at that moment, his head hung as he was immediately dragged back to his corrosive disappointment. He thought about being honest, however he went with his original intentions, and disregarded the notion.

"No." Snippy spoke, before he stepped into the room, and merely flopped down onto the bedroll. He could feel Captain eye him for a few seconds, before he turned on his hell and began to walk onwards into some other part of the large building, chortling on about something to do with flying whales, from what Snippy vaguely heard.

Without even removing his face-gear, and without discarding his rifle, Snippy remained motionless, willing his mind to stop reminding him that someone had died today, because of his hesitance.

As Snippy finally felt his consciousness fade on him, the tiniest flickering of peach-coloured light glimmered in the back of his mind.