The anole knew resisting any more was utterly useless. She put her head down in shame and sat on the table awaiting whatever the cobra had in store for her. What else could she do? She knew the remote's power first hand. There was no point trying to fight against something she couldn't even understand.
"You poor thing." The cobra suddenly consoled, stroking the much smaller lizard's long snout. "It'ssss been quite the day, hassssn't it?" Boss sighed and stared down at the lizard empathetically, shaking her head. "For all of ussss."
At this, the anole raised her eyes up to the giant and nodded. "It... it really has." Sandra gulped. "I didn't... didn't come in to work today thinking I'd wind up a tiny lizard woman, but..." she laughed sarcastically. "Here we are, huh?"
"Yessss." The snake looked at her skeptically. "I'm not really sssssure what to make of you, Ssssandra. Are you good? Bad? Sssssomething in between? You're hard to read. Angry insssside. That I can feel."
The anole nodded and put her head down again, slumping into the tabletop and cuddling into herself. "I'm... I'm not a good person." She said meekly.
"What'ssss to ssssay you won't hurt ussss again? Or causssse more trouble? Issss there any reasssson to trussst you?"
"Look. I don't know how much you know about people." She looked up again and her eyes were pleading, honest. "I went to school to get into animal care. I'm paying back loans. I wanted to be a vet. Or... or somebody who takes care of animals. I have a degree!" She sighed and shook her head. "But... but that came with a lot of debt! Like, loans I've been paying back for years I haven't made a dent in. And... and... I just gave up, you know? I did as little as I could. I didn't... didn't think about how it affected you. You were... just... just dumb animals. You know? I'm so sorry." The lizard stared down at herself and raised her long scaled fingers. "The worst thing is... is... I like this. I like not being human. I'm so..."
"Ssssso.... what?" The snake blinked. She could sense it beneath the surface. Something much more interesting.
"So... fucking horny!" The anole gulped. "Look at me! I'm all glass scales and scutes!" She smiled slightly and gulped. "I'm... I'm really nice like this! And I have a long sexy tail." She looked away in shame and turned from the cobra.
Boss considered this development as Gustav entered the restaurant in bewildered half-shock and cleared his throat sharply. The cobra turned and stood to her full seven and a half feet patiently, hands clasped in front of her. The game warden gulped.
"Okay, look." The human exhaled slowly and put a hand on his head. "I get that somebody else made all of you with some... some really fucky science shit. I get that. But... but I can't... I don't want to actually hurt you guys. So that's that. What now?"
The snake nodded slowly and sat back down. "Ssssit with me? We can talk assss long asss you need."
"Okay." Gustav exhaled again, relaxing only slightly. "Okay, fine." He eyed the remote with wide eyes and gasped. "That's... that's the thing, right?"
"Yesss." The snake nodded, as both of them sat from across each other with Sandra sitting bummed out on the table. Gustav stared down at her.
"Hey, Sandy." He waved weakly. "You've uh, lost some weight, huh?"
The anole managed a slight chuckle and rolled her eyes.
"We're taking over the zoo." The cobra announced. She shrugged. "That's what we're doing."
"Shit." Gustav went wide eyed. "There it is. Well, I guess that means a bunch of us are out of work."
"Well, maybe and maybe not." The cobra chuckled. "Some of the other animalssss are very sssshortly going to join our rankssss. I could certainly usssse ssssome humanssss to help usss."
Gustav raised an eye brow and nodded slowly. "I see. So you want me to betray my entire species?"
"Did I ssssay I wanted to hurt anybody?" The cobra put her hand on her hip and stared the human down. He smirked.
"No." Gustav laughed. "No you didn't. So what is it? You want me to keep you guys safe? Security detail? Guard the place?"
"I would like sssssome protection while we change management." The cobra said slyly.
"Ah. Well." Gustav nodded slowly. "That's different. You're asking me to keep you safe. I've been doing that for years, now."
"Oh, good!" Boss laughed. "Then I guesss nothing changessss!"
"Oh, scales, everything has changed!" Gustav laughed out loud. This prompted the snake to join in and together they shared a hearty laugh.
"What ssssay you, human?"
"Fine." Gustav nodded. "Until things settle down, I'll get the rest of my guys together and we'll do what we can. Just... think about putting some damn clothes on." He stared her up and down and shook his head. "You're very distracting."
"Am I?" The cobra put her hand to her neck and smiled. She even blushed a little.
"That's not what I meant." He tried to fight his own blush and rose from the table. "Anyway, I think you guys will be okay overnight. I'm going home and drinking some scotch I've got and I'll be back tomorrow with all ten of my guys. Okay?"
"Sssssoundssss fine." The cobra nodded, rising to shake the human's hand as he passed.
Gustav took her fingers, shook them, and turned away shaking his head. "This is weird!" He called.
"I know." Boss nodded, and chuckled to herself as the man left.
"Come along, horny little lizard." Boss turned back to the table and stopped as she saw the anole holding the remote. The cobra froze in her tracks.
"Here." The lizard said quietly, passing it over. "I... I want your trust. I want to get big again. I can... I can help you guys. I know how to treat dieseases, keep you from getting sick, what food you need, what'll make you happy. I can do better. And we can get that Todd guy back."
The cobra took the remote gently and almost broke into tears. "I'm s-ss-ss-sssorry if I hurt you before. I was... mad."
"I get it." The anole whispered, gulping as the giant cobra now picked her up by the waist in incredibly and suprisingly gentle hands. As the snake wrapped her fingers around the much smaller female they both blushed.
"Uh-oh." Boss smiled warmly.
"W-What?" Sandra whispered.
"I like you now." The snake replied, blushing a little deeper.
"Oh." The anole gulped. "Well, um, how about we go... go do whatever you need to do?"
"Yessss, how about." The snake agreed, placing the smaller creature on her shoulder and letting her scamper around her hood for a better seat on top of her head.
"Don't drop me." Sandra smiled, patting the snake on the head. "That's all I ask."