RavensDagger

  Chapter Seven - Walkies

  "C'mon! We're going for walkies!"

  Trinity held the bunker's door open while another of her ran ahead and opened the second door. On the ground, Broomba churned through whatever dust was by the entranceway, but he followed after the her that was holding his leash as she led him out.

  Trinity had, after a few long talks with Emily, decided that she wasn't going to marry Broomba. Sure, he was a smart, clean boy, and those were apparently pretty good traits (he even had a job) but he was too young for her, and also a floor-cleaning machine, not a person.

  Big Sister Emily was a lot more comfortable with Trinity treating Broomba as a sort of pet. One that cleaned messes rather than making them.

  But being a pet meant that Trinity had to pay special attention to Broomba. He needed a cozy little pce to snooze in, so she found a box, covered it in colourful drawings of trash and in stickers, and made it a bed for Broomba to y in. Then she found a colr for him, scratched off the name on it, and carved 'Broo' onto it (the rest didn't fit).

  She even found a beaten up old bowl that she filled with the kinds of batteries Broomba needed to function.

  Broomba was a good boy, and good boys, she discovered, went for walkies. There was a dog park not too far away. She'd seen it online! Trinity thought that it might be nice for Broomba to socialize, so today that's what they were gonna do.

  "Good boy!" Trinity said as Broomba managed to climb over the lip by the st entrance of the bunker, the one leading to the under bit of an underpass. "C'mon!"

  "Hmmmmm," Broomba said as he followed after her, leaving a trail of clean sidewalk in his wake.

  Trinity stared at it for a moment... that would get dirty before anyone thought to follow it back to their secret hideout home, right? Yeah! Probably!

  Just in case, one of herself stayed back and started to kick dirt and dust around, covering the path that Broomba had travelled, at least until they were out from under the underpass and walking along the main road.

  The dog park wasn't so close, but that was alright. Trinity tilted all three of her faces back and enjoyed the sunlight. It was... kind of cold, actually, but the sun was warm, and the morning was bright, and she was out walking her Broomba, so it was all good.

  "Hmm," Broomba hummed contentedly as he slurped up someone's discarded paper coffee cup.

  Trinity hummed along with him. She was pretty good at humming, having three throats to hum with. She wasn't very good at singing. It was hard to keep in tune with herself, but when it came to humming, she was an expert.

  It didn't take too long for the two of them to come to the dog park. It wasn't the biggest park, just a space that was maybe as rge as the space taken up by two normal city buildings, but it was an open space surrounded by a fence taller than Trinity was, with benches on the inside, and a sort of two-door entranceway.

  Doggies were already zooming around the inside, barking at each other and pying while their owners stood around and watched.

  Trinity ran ahead and opened the first then second gate for herself, then once inside, she leaned down and unclipped Broomba. "Okay boy! Go have fun!"

  "Hmmmmm!" Broomba agreed. His googly eyes swivelled around, and the big ser emitter eye on his back scanned the area. Then he stood up on all four of his little legs and scuttled ahead towards the dogs, only to stop and turn and dart towards a steaming pile of dog poop.

  "Aww!" Trinity said in triplicate. "He found a snack!"

  She took over one of the benches nearby, sitting down and watching Broomba while some of her gasped excitedly as some dogs ran over to give her a sniff and get their heads scratched.

  Some dogs ran over to sniff Broomba, then they barked at him. They wanted to py! Broomba started to chase some of the dirtier dogs down while Trinity watched and encouraged him. Unfortunately, Broomba could at most move at a casual walking pace, so catching up to any of the dogs was out of the question.

  "Hey," someone said. She was a middle aged woman, wearing a frown and blonde-dyed hair. "Is that... thing yours?"

  "Broomba?" Trinity asked. "Yeah!"

  "You can't have that here," she said.

  "Yes we can," Trinity said. Obviously she could, because she'd just brought Broomba here, and he was here now, so it wasn't impossible.

  "This is a pet park. It's not for... robots. Is that a cleaning robot?"

  "That's Broomba," Trinity said. "He's my pet."

  The woman huffed. "That's not a pet, it's a cleaning appliance."

  "Can't you be both?" Trinity asked.

  The woman blinked, then her eyes narrowed and she looked over the three of her. "Are you triplets?"

  "No," Trinity said from all three of herself at the same time.

  She was about to expin that it was very rude to assume that just because she had three bodies, she wasn't just one person, when there was a loud bang and squeal and something burst apart at the far end of the park.

  Turning, Trinity blinked all six eyes as she saw an unmarked van shove right through the chain-link fence and come to a stop half-way into the park. It went in reverse, pulled out, then moved around so that its side-door was lined up with the new exit into the doggy park.

  Then the side-door burst open, and two men in jumpsuits and wearing bacvas jumped out. "Mooks!" Trinity gasped as she immediately identified the people. It was either mooks or goons, but she felt like these had a more mookish appearance.

  The men had catch-poles, with C-shaped cmps on the end. The first dogs to run over to see what was going on were grabbed up and tossed back into the van, where a third mook grabbed the smaller dogs and tossed them into metal cages.

  "Oh my god, they're stealing the dogs!" the woman shouted. "Jerrybaldo! Come here boy!"

  Trinity gasped. Dog-napping? That was evil! And not the good, wholesome kind of evil that came from being a super vilin, like robbing banks or stealing candy from babies, but super-super evil.

  She watched, hands over her mouths, as the dognappers grabbed onto a few bigger dogs in a hurry. People weren't moving though, they were just staring, some taking out their phones to call the police or HRF.

  Then one of the mooks paused. Broomba, being a curious boy, had run after the other dogs, and was now real close.

  The man pointed to him, then looked to his partner in crime. Whatever he said was lost in the distance, but the man shrugged and started to reach for Broomba.

  "Broomba, no!" Trinity shouted.

  She started to sprint across the doggy park as fast as she could.

  The man grabbed Broomba by the sides and lifted him up. He turned and started to bring Broomba towards the van.

  "Broomba!" Trinity shouted. She was panicking now, but... there was something she could do. Or rather, that Broomba could do. "Broomba! Activate ser eyes!"

  "Laser eyes?" The mook asked.

  "Huuuuur!" Broomba shouted as his main eye started to glow a deep, vilinous, very cool, red.

  Then a hot beam of ser-y light shot out of Broomba's eye and speared into the front of the van, through the engine block, and into the road on the other side.

  The mook shouted in panic and dropped Broomba.

  There was a loud, scary crack as Broomba nded on his pstic side on the ground.

  "Broomba!" Trinity shouted. She tackled the mook from behind with her forwardmost body, then stepped on him as she ran past to grab Broomba.

  She lifted him up and hugged him close. His little legs were wiggling still, and other than a crack on his pstic side, he seemed okay.

  "Broomba, you're okay!" she said with relief. "Okay, let's get out of here!"

  "Hey! What the hell?" the nearest still-standing mook asked.

  But Trinity wasn't here for him. She hugged Broomba close, helped herself up, then ran. She shot past the now-fming front of the van where something had caught fire, and darted out onto the street.

  Going to the doggy park turned out to be a lot more dangerous than she thought it would be.

  Next time she came here, maybe she'd bring the toastergun, just in case.

  And doggy treats too. For the doggies that wanted to come close and get scratches.

  As she ran all the way home, Trinity couldn't help but feel that it had still been an overall positive experience. She was sure to leave a nice review on the park's webpage.

  ***