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“Chris don’t!” Martin shouted a moment too late.
Chris growled and pounced at the fallen slice of pizza. The Tasmanian devil instincts completely overriding human sensibilities. As Martin hauls him back wrestling to try and get the moldy pizza out of his brother's mouth, Aviva quickly opens an access power to reset the suit.
“It’s stuck,” She calls back, “Hang on, I might be- Got it!”
Chris’s form fizzles as the suit glitches. Sending him back to normal. Spluttering he spits remnants of the pizza out. Gladly accepting the water bottle Jimmy hands him.
“It’s a temporary fix.” Aviva says, “Let’s get those TDevils into the tortuga. Then I can hook his suit up to the mainframe.”
Chris nods, and stoops to pick up T-Bone.
“You are going inside.” Koki says, grabbing his arm. Easily pulling him along and back into the Tortuga.
It doesn't take long before the others and the rest of the TDevils are inside.
“Chris, where’d you go?” Aviva calls, “let’s check that power suit out.”
Paws pad from down the hall as Chris walks back into the command room. The power suit clearly reactivated. He chuffs out a greeting as Aviva pushes him down next to her work station. Attaching a few cables into hidden ports on the power suit.
“Well,” She sighs, “That would do it.”
Martin looks up from his spot on the floor next to Chris.
“The TDevil that broke the port got a claw tip stuck inside. That's why it won’t stop activating the suit. Scrambled my mechanics.” She says pulling out a curved set of tweezers, “Chris, sit still for this.”
He freezes. Claws digging into his brother's leg. Martin winces slightly but doesn’t react.
“Got it!”
Wincing as his body shakes Chris stifles a growl.
“Not an instant fix, the amount of DNA in the claw overloaded the suit. That's how it activated.”
“Wait so we could just put fur in the disk spot. And it would work.” Martin asks slowly.
“The disks keep this from happening.” Aviva sighs. “It’ll be able to deactivate in a few days. Without the disk the suit will burn through the DNA.”
Chris grins, then yawns. “Cool, I'm going to take a nap. Nocturnal and all.” Pushing himself up onto two he pads towards his room. Pausing to chuff at T-Bone on his way out.
Once alone in the hall he drops to all fours, tired of fighting his mind on how he should walk. Gritting his teeth he tries to ignore the supply room, full of animal feeds, toys, and other items necessary for taking care of wildlife in emergencies.
As he walks past the room the door opens automatically. As the scents hit in full force Chris scrambles inside. Food and treats are secured in animal proof; and in this case CPS proof containers.
But he finds something almost as good as the food container. A puzzle box feeder, with treats. His ears twitch as he hears someone in the hall. Grabbing the box with his teeth he bolts for the door.
Nearly avoiding a collision with Jimmy he makes it to his room.
Shaking out his fur he stretches out on the floor. Inspecting the box full of treats. After a few minutes of trying he gives up, It’s complex and clearly not designed for him. Growling softly he stands and paws at the box.
“Hey bro! Can I come in?” Martin calls as he knocks on the door.
“Sure,” Chris says, not taking his eyes off the box.
The door clicks softly as Martin walks in, “Jimmy told me you got something from the store room.”
Chris silently pushes to box over.
Stuffing a laugh Martin easily opens the puzzle, “There you go.”
“I tried to get that open for like ten minutes.”
“Yeah, kinda need thumbs for that one.”
“I got that,” Chris laughs, before falling serious, “Aviva say anything else?”
“She wants to tell you,” Martin shrugs, “her invention her rules.”
“She doesn’t blame herself does she? This isn’t her fault.”
“I don’t think she is? I’ll go grab her.”
As Martin’s footsteps fade down the hall Chris sniffs at the opened puzzle box. The dried fruit inside looks a bit off but it smells amazing.
The world seems to shift. Twisting downwards as the fruits grow.
The door swings open and Chris freezes with the fruit in his mouth.
“I was afraid of that.” Aviva sighs.
“What?” Chris looks up to her and Martin, realizing how tall they were, “Wait why am I Creature size?”
“One of the broken circuits triggered a full activation.” She sighs.
Chris looks down at his paws, expecting the familiar dark green fur. Only to be met by black fur. After a quick inspection he turns back to Aviva. “I didn’t expect this.”
“Neither did I.” She giggles. Watching as what appears to be a completely normal Tasmanian devil shove a piece of old dry fruit in his mouth. The only visual thing setting him apart from the actual TDevils is a glowing green paw print on his chest.
“This won’t make the deactivation take longer will it?” Chris asks.
“Nope, you’ll be fine in a few days.”
Looking down as his creature pod pings, Martin grins, “Well we’re back to Tasmania, I guess it’s time to get the TDevils back home.”
“Living free and in the wild! just don’t leave me with them,” Chris laughs as Martin scoops him up, depositing him onto his shoulder.
“Wouldn’t dream of it bro.”