"Now, you may be asking yourselves," Showstopper paused to stare at his audience. "Why would I need one of these cages?"

The answer is: Because you need one!" Showstopper chortled, gesturing to the bird in the cage to his right. Its eyes were wide as it stared at its talons. They seemed to slowly be forming into hooves.

"This, my lovely ladies and gents, was one of my worst-performing underlings!" He lifted his staff up and gestured to the porcifying bird with a wide grin. "Never did much good for what I was paying him!"

The pig looked up at Showstopper in bewilderment. It looked as if it were... hurt by that statement, but also a bit surprised at Showstopper's cold humor. The bewilderment changed to betrayal as the underling began to snort and grunt like a pig would. It clapped a hoof to its mouth in surprise.

"I have no need for such... useless employees! That is why I created these cages -- to make underperformers more useful!" Showstopper bellowed to his audience. They were awestruck by the spectacle before them.

"They're more useful as farm animals... as pets... than they are as bipedal creatures with the fancy-schmancy words and whatnot!" He tapped the top of the cage. "This way, you can give them the body, and mind, that matches their usefulness!"

Showstopped scratched the back of his head. and gave off his best stage grin. At the current moment, that "mind" portion of his statement was false... but with enough investors, he could find a way to change these creature's minds....

Showstopper looked over to his left at a small aquarium harboring a rather large, grey fish. It worked on one of them, at least, but not the rest. Why was that stupid fish the ONLY thing that lost its mind.

"Of course..." Showstopper continued. "I make sure these pets are well cared for! If you wish to buy one of these former, folly-filled fallacies, you get their entire enclosure..." he leans forward with a hand to his mouth, giving his best stage whisper to the audience, "which I cannot fit all of them on a single stage", he returned to his normal position, "just for buying off these adorable creatures!"

"And, of course, the reason you all came here!" Showstoppeer gestured back to the cage. "Investors into these cages get two sets of prototypes for themselves upon completion! They come with ten different animal settings and have an option for mods to input in the future!"

The audience clapped as Showstopper gave a bow. He was relieved, to say the least. Now that he had easily captured his nemesis and turned them into a mindless fish, the three months went by in a breeze!

He stood back up straight. "We do have a bargain bin of a few... older or less-appealing prototypes! They also include the enclosures required to keep them sustainable, but I want those things gone by the end of the night!" He gestured to his left again where the fish was. He grinned with narrowed eyes. "I know there are a lot of evil lairs that could use such a savory cichlid!"

The fish stared back at him... blankly. It had been stuck with him for three months, and while he was thankful it was as dumb as a rock, he couldn't help but feel worry that this fish may cause him trouble if he didn't get rid of it.

Did he want to kill it, though? No. Showstopper wasn't a man who loved being cruel to animals....

Staring back to the cage on center stage, Showstopper gawked at the adorable pig that sat in front of him, snorting frantically as it sniffed the bars of its cage. Humans and hominids, though? They were fair game.

~~~~~

OOOH boy, what a biggy! 11 characters in a single drawing! So, from top left to bottom right, here they all are:

Lumberingwolf, Syd, Chalur, Showstopper, Big_Daddy_Dober, BernardSoftpaw, Yaudizz, Kael, Silver Wolf, Furryfan1234, Kane Fenris

~~~~~

All characters (C) their respective owners

Art (C)  pikminpedia Me