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"Silvold Stalleger? Of course I know who this is, Cedric! He's the emperor of bodybuilding and fitness! Books, coaching, training, gyms, he's got a hand in everything tied to this domain! Nothing in this happens without his knowledge, and not much without his consent! I know all that, Cedric. What I don't know, it's why you want me to meet him!"
"You'll see, Pop. Surprise."
Cyril Sneer couldn't help but roll his eyes. It hadn't been really long since he entered into his half-retirement, and was now co-CEO of Sneer Industries with his son Cedric.
After a bit of an adaptive period, they found a good formula: Cyril mainly focused on what was already created by him (the lumber activity, the TV service...), while Cedric mainly tried to expand in new directions.
It worked pretty well.
But here, Cedric insisted, almost forced, his father to come to Ottawa for a meeting with "the emperor of bodybuilding and fitness", refusing to explain why the older aardvark was needed except with a wry smile and a "Surprise".
And said older aardvark wasn't a big fan of surprises.
And besides, he wasn't really interested in bodybuilding and high-level fitness. He was too old for this...
So he wasn't in a good mood.

"So, you are mister Sneer," said Stalleger when the Sneers got in the hall of his main building.
Cyril's mood got worse. He could feel the little contemptuous undercurrent in the musclebound elephant's voice and eyes. Clearly he wasn't impressed with the aardvark's meager build (the cigar probably didn't help).
You could make the effort to not let it appear, jerk... Okay, it took me a while to learn to make that effort. But I'm making it.
"Your son insisted you'd be here to sign the contract, since the Sneer TV service is mainly your responsability. Let's go to my office."
And the elephant turned and walked towards an elevator, followed by the aardvarks.
"Contract? TV service?" hissed Cyril to his son in the elevator. "What does he mean?"
"That's the surprise, Pop," smiled Cedric. "Mister Stalleger wants to launch a special TV channel entirely devoted to his domain: competition, coaching, etc... And I managed to snag an exclusivity contract with him!"
At this good news, Cyril finally smiled for the first time of the day, as the three men left the elevator and approached a door.
"That's great! But why did you want to pull a surprise on me, instead of just telling me?"
"I just felt like it."
Cyril rolled his eyes again, but this time with a chuckle, as Stalleger opened the door.
"Well, please ent- What the?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY OFFICE?!"
Surprised at Stalleger's shout, father and son looked forward, and saw two things.
1: The office was decorated with many trinkets, all in alcoves protected by armored glass.
2: A man, fully covered in a motorcycle suit and wearing a full-head helmet, was smashing one of the glasses with a hammer.
And finally managing to break it, grabbed what was behind it: a coin.
"DROP THAT NOW!!" roared the elephant, charging towards the thief.
Who easily dodged, letting the magnate eat the wall.
And, not giving him the time to recover, shoved his head in the now empty alcove, trapping him.
"STOP!!" yelled Cedric, rushing too.
This time, the thief just scrammed through a service entrance, and Cedric rushed after im.
Cyril, him, stood still in shock a few seconds.
Before reacting, and leaving the office by the front door, running and hurtling down the stairs.
He remembered an evacuation map he saw at the entrance, that made clear there was no parking in this building.
He can't go lower than the first floor! If I go fast enough, I can intercept him!
Even though he was going down, the effort was murder to his muscles and lungs.
But he did manage to get to the first floor before the thief.
"STOP!!" he yelled when the thief burst from a back door.
Of course, the thief didn't stop, and violently shoved him down.
In a last ditch effort to stop him and recover, Cyril managed to grab one of the suit's pocket.
But it tore off.
All an exhausted Cyril could do now was curse and watch the thief get outside and disappear from view, Cedric get outside too, and jump back as the thief tried to run him over on a motorcycle before disappearing for good...

In the Sneers' hotel room, Cyril was still panting.
An employee of Stalleger had told them that his boss still had his head stuck in the alcove, and firemen were called to get him out.
Since the contract signing was clearly not for today, they had no reason to stay.
And exhausted and aching like he was, all Cyril wanted to do was crawl in his bed and rest it off.
So they took a cab back to the hotel and did so.
"Pop, what's that in your hand?" finally asked Cedric, who had lunged on his computer once in the room and began typing furiously on the keyboard.
"Uh?"
Only then, Cyril realized he had kept his fist clenched on the ripped pocket all this time.
"It's the thief's pocket," he muttered. "I..."
He stopped brutally. Now that he focused on it, he could feel something hard in the fabric.
He opened his hand, removed the cloth...
And gasped.
It was the coin.

"DAMMIT!!" yelled furiously the thief back in his hideout, who just realized his pocket and loot weren't where they were supposed to be.

Art by  caseyljones
Original here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/35625202/
Cyril Sneer © Kevin Gillis