﻿<strong>Director Petticox<br/>NestBreaker Exterminators<br/>Central Office<br/>Uptown</strong><br/><br/>"Sheila! Quit sitting on that wide sack of flab you call an ass and answer the damn phones! Those could be paying customers with expensi- I mean, life-threatening crises on the lines!" Norman Petticox shouted through the open door of his office as multiple phonelines sang out in chorus on his secretary's desk. The click-clack of ridiculously long fake fingernails tapping against plastic mingled with nasal repititions of "NBX Pest Control, just a moment" answered back from the hall as he settled back into his office chair, several dossiers laid out on the desk in front of him.<br/><br/>Norman Petticox was Director of Operations for NestBreaker Exterminators, one of the fastest-growing metabug containment companies in Neo-Atlanta. What this meant, basically, was whenever some damned freak bug crawled out from under its rock and tried to chow down on some damn fool civilian who wandered too far outside the city perimeter, he was the man people called to yell at. As a result, Norman Petticox was a dry, humorless stick of a man with a deaf ear and a perpetual stress ulcer. He and his stomach shared a growl as he looked over the files before him, and one boney finger jammed down on the Intercom.<br/><br/>"Sheila! Get me Fireteam Alpha assembled in the briefing room, I have their new assignment!"<br/><br/>"Alpha is still in Mobile, sir. Local law enforcement is holding them on charges of destruction of public property and reckless endangerment for using napalm on a locust infestation; they can't come home until they've finished court-mandated community service."<br/><br/>"Goddammit, how long does it take to clean up a few million bug shells and plant some trees! Fine, get me Fireteam Bravo!"<br/><br/>"Team Bravo are in Med Bay, sir. Doctor Lampley says they'll be at least another week recovering from the raid on the Lightning Bug nest; two of them have almost gotten feeling back in their legs, and one has nearly stopped twitching. They sucked down a lot of electricity, sir."<br/><br/>"Fucking pansies, can't even handle a few milliamps," Petticox grumbled. "What about Team Charlie?"<br/><br/>"That reminds me, sir, Team Charlie handed in their resignations yesterday. After Agents Cooper and Lattimer recovered from having those Mite eggs surgically removed from their rectums, the rest of the team decided to find more prostate-friendly work. I think they mentioned joining a crab-fishing boat crew."<br/><br/>"Argh! Dammit all, Sheila, I don't give three fifths of a gold-plated turd if you have to drag people in off the street! I need a team of Bug Busters, and I need one now!"<br/><br/>"I'll send them in as soon as they fall from the sky, sir."