"Pay a fortune for what?"

The girl smirks, dangling the thumb drive in front of the figure who spoke. "A little bit of information." The figure reaches out to grab the thumb drive, and the girls snatches it back. She spins it around her finger. "Now, I've gotta see the money first before I hand this over to you."

The animatronic growls softly, tilting his head so that the light filtering from above catches on his one light blue eye. His round, furry ears twitch. "You're a clever one, aren't you?"

The girls shrugs, tossing her curly red hair over her shoulder. "Hey, I'm just following protocol. If you don't like that, talk to Foxy."

Her escort grunts and spins around, heading towards the small door they had entered through. She skips after him, whistling as if she didn't have a care in the world.

The animatronic opens the door, and is met with blue sky, a strong breeze, and nothing below them for about three hundred feet. The girl peers over his yellow furred shoulder. Her green eyes swivel to the animatronic cheetah.

"Woah. That wasn't here when you brought me up."

"That's because we used the conveyor belt. And the elevator."

"Aren't we going to use them again?"

The cheetah sighs, the wind buffeting his black-spotted fur. His eye roves over the ground below them, and he sets his gaze on the other skyscraper across from them. "Guess what? It's your lucky day."

"We're using the elevator…?"

A grin splits the cheetah's face. "Even better. We're jumping."

The girl frowns. Then her eyes widen and she steps back, holding up her hands. "Wait. We didn't agree on this."

The cheetah suddenly runs up and grabs her arm. The girl yelps, and she is dragged towards the door, where the drop was waiting. The animatronic wraps an arm around her waist, and prepares to jump. He turns his head to the girl, still grinning.

"Hey, if we die, what's your name? I didn't quite get it."

The girl's eyes look ready to bug out of her head. "Die?! Wha-"

The cheetah shrugs amiably, looking at the ground. The wind whips across the skyscraper, making an eerie whooshing noise. "Eh, it's all right. And by the way, the name's Charlie." Not wasting time, he leaps from the tiny room.

The duo falls, the skyscraper next to them rushing past in a dark gray blur. Charlie whoops, the wind pushing his fur away from his face. The girl was not as excited.

"Ohhhhhhhh myyyyyyyy Godddddddd!" She yells, holding onto the animatronic cheetah for dear life.

Charlie laughs. "Are you going to tell me your name yet?" He yells to be heard over the keening gale.

"It's Alexa! Alexa Marrin!" She closes her eyes, feeling the wind whipping across her face. "How much longer is this gonna take?!"

"Not as long as I would like it to!" Charlie exclaims.

As soon as he says this, a thick leather cord appears out of nowhere. It whirls towards them, and Charlie grabs it. He wraps the cord around his hand, and they begin to swing in the direction of the other skyscraper.

Alexa decides to open her eyes at that time. Not a good idea. She sees the wall of the skyscraper rushing towards her. "Holy crap!"

Just before they were about to hit the building, a rectangular section of the gray concrete disappears. Charlie flies into the skyscraper and lets go of the cord. The two slide across the floor, and the portion of the wall closes up. They lie on the floor, completely out of breath. The room they landed in was actually a hallway. It had a dirty white linoleum floor with light gray walls. Several lights were on the ceiling, and most of them flickered every once in a while. They stared at the ceiling, and Alexa was the first one to speak.

"Why was that necessary?"

Charlie thinks for a second. "I don't think it's necessary. We do it because it's fun."

"This is your idea of fun?" Alexa leans against the wall, using it for support to get up. "I thought only the Hunters did this crazy swinging-on-vines thing."

"Well," the cheetah stands and stretches. "I guess you were wrong." He motions down the hallway. "Follow me."

"The more you know," Alexa mutters under her breath. She walks after the animatronic cheetah, still holding the thumb drive. Charlie reaches the end of the hallway to find a door. He pushes it open. Alexa half expects it to have another drop.

They step out onto a platform. Above them is another floor, and in front of them is a huge conveyor belt. There are giant, floor-to-ceiling windows behind them. The glow of the sun washes through them, illuminating the conveyor belt and the rest of the place across from them.

Alexa walks forward, placing her hands on the glass and steel barricade in front of her. She looks at the conveyor belt. "Nice place you've got here." She looks down and sees more floors beneath her. "How tall is this building?"

"We actually have different skyscrapers for different things. This one right here is the Industrial Building, so it's around 200 stories tall."

Alexa nods appreciatively. "And I thought you guys lived in holes or something like that."

Charlie snickers. "We're not barbaric, no matter what the Agents say. And speaking of the Agents, I'll like to show what you've got there to some other people."

"As long as I come back with payment, that's perfectly fine."

The animatronic nods and begins to walk, whistling as he did so. Alexa scurries after him, still trying to take in the entire skyscraper. They cross the shiny linoleum floor, heading towards another small door.

Alexa uses this time to inspect the rest of the building. The place used to be some sort of mega mall. Most of the stores were still intact, but some of them had been ransacked by the people that had lived here before. Chunks of random rubble littered the floor around the stores that had been scavenged.

Alexa turns her gaze to Charlie, who had stopped in front of the small door. She opens her mouth to ask him a question when a loud smash was suddenly heard from behind the door. She starts, quickly crouching down in a defensive position, fingers grazing her right boot.

Charlie's ears twitch bemusedly. "Don't worry, it's only them training," he says. He prepares to knock on the door when Alexa pops up next to him. This time, it was the cheetah's turn to flinch.

"Training? What kind of training is that? Are you guys using some sort of deadly weapon?" She stops, thinking. "I like deadly weapons."

The animatronic's single eye shines. "Nope. We only bring those out when absolutely necessary. And we might just have to do that."

"Why?"

"Because a certain Hacker won't stop talking," he replies in a singsongy voice. Alexa fumes, ready to snap back with her own retort, when Charlie opens the door.

All that could be seen was a blur of orange and blue. A smaller shape darts around it, lithely jabbing and lunging with a pair of objects in their hands. The orange and blue blur swings a long pole at the other shape, trying to hit it.

Behind the two were another pair of windows. Alexa watches as the colorful blur misses and whacks the glass with a mighty strike. Alexa steps back, expecting the window to shatter, but the glass remains intact.

Charlie raises a paw and waves it halfheartedly. "Guys. We've got company."

Neither of the two people listen, and continue to fight. This went on for another minute or so until the smaller of the two is forced into a corner. They are disarmed, and two knives go flying across the room.

But the fight keeps going. Not giving up, the cornered person uses their fists to block all the blows coming from the other person. The orange one insists, pressing onto the other person, until at last, all movement stops.

An orange fox with blue arms stands above his opponent, panting heavily. A long metal pole rests in his paws, one end pointing to a woman lying on the floor.

The fox grins, looking down at the woman. "I finally did it. I've finally defeated F-"

He was cut short. His eye flicks down to his leg, where a small knife was positioned right behind his knee. His grin disappears, and his ears droop. The pole falls with a clatter, and the fox turns away from the woman.

"Damnit!" He yells, rushing over to a corner of the room. He snatches a blue fedora off of the floor and puts it on his head. "I keep forgetting about that stupid knife of yours!"

The woman gets up, sheathing the knife. She collects the other two from their places on the floor and turns to the fox, ponytail swishing. "I've got to hand it to you, Terrence. That's the first time someone's disarmed me in quite a while."

The fox, Terrence, looks up. His tail slowly begins to wag, and his face brightens. He flicks the eyepatch on his other eye up, his grin flashing in the sunlight. Striking a pose, Terrence fist pumps.

"Yes!" He flips the eyepatch back down and saunters over to the woman, picking the pole off the floor. He spins it around for a bit, pretending to hit an invisible enemy, when he finally notices Charlie and Alexa.

"Oh, hi, Charlie. How's it going?"

Charlie shrugs, flicking an ear towards Alexa. "Y'know, I had some important information for you, but it's okay if I need to come back later."

The woman glances at them with amber eyes. She studies Alexa and notices the thumb drive she was holding. "I'm guessing it has something to do with that?"

Alexa nods, holding up the thumb drive. "Yes, Ms...um…"

The woman smiles slightly. "Just call me Faith." She walks over to Alexa. "And what's the information Charlie was saying something about?"

"Yeah, it's about the Agents. And I wa-

The girls was about to continue when there was a faint clicking noise at the window behind them. Faith spins around, eyes narrowing. Alexa and Charlie peer at the window, and Terrence slowly approaches it. He stands in front of it, nose almost touching the glass, and he looks sharply up.

"Nothing," the fox murmurs. He taps the window with the pole. "Probably a bird or something."

Faith motions for Terrence to come back. "We shouldn't risk it. Let's move." She brushes past Charlie and Alexa, going out the door. They follow, and Terrence casts one last glance at the window before dashing away.


Holy crap, that was close.

After waiting until the voices disappeared, she risks a peek over the building's edge. There were no Fighters yelling at her and throwing sharp objects, so that was good. Her ears swivel, listening for any suspicious noises. Nothing. She pulls a small object from her back. She palms the gadget she was holding and flips it sharply down. A long, thin wire snakes out of it and attaches itself to the ledge under the window.

Launching herself from the roof with graceful stealth, she grabs the wire and rappels down until she is under the window. She looks through the glass, already knowing what she's going to see.

The room is empty.

Sighing, the cat looks at her right wrist. A small screen, attached to a band going around her arm, displays the time.

Already an hour late.

Not wasting any time, she suddenly leaps to the side. Detaching the wire, she flicks it towards the other building. The wire attaches and she begins to climb as soon as she hits the wall.

She reaches the top, sprinting. Coming to the end of the roof, she jumps off, throws the wire again, and makes it to the other roof.

The cat roof-jumps across the city. The clouds were gray, a sharp contrast to the bright sun that had appeared earlier in the day. The wind was getting stronger.

It's going to rain.

Her bright green eyes narrow, briefly flickering. Cute stunt the Hackers tried to play on us. Too bad it's not going to work.

She spots another large white building with many windows.. Picking up the speed, she back-flips onto the roof of the facility. She retracts the wire and walks briskly to the middle.

There was a large pillar emerging from the roof. She reaches across her back, drawing a sword. Holding it in front of her, she takes a deep breath. She suddenly launches into a flurry of strikes and slashes, cutting the stone pillar in front of her.

There was a loud beep. She immediately stops and sheathes her sword. The pillar was covered with different slashes of various size and depth. It begins to sink into the building at a rapid rate.

She jumps down after it. The wind rushing past her face, she makes a quiet landing on top of the pillar. Crouching, she hangs on as it continues to descend.

The pillar suddenly vanishes. There was nothing but empty air under her, and yet the cat continues to fall calmly.

A light appears, and she touches down on the floor of the research facility. Still crouching, she looks up.

She is met with a pair of black jeans. A dark gray paw comes into her vision. She grabs it and hauls herself up, thanking the person who had helped her. She straightens, adjusting the sling on her back. The wolf in front of her speaks up.

"So? Was the tip from the Hunters really worth it?"

The calico cat nods, brushing off some dusty remains off of her arms. "Yep. Turns out he sent out a messenger to give the Fighters the information they stole from the Hunters. And they're paying a pretty penny for that info as well."

The dark gray wolf frowns. His light blue eyes flick to the side, as they do when he's thinking. "And do you have any idea what kind of file they took from the Hunters?"

"I'm guessing it's some sort of map. Most likely of our place. But the thing is," she begins to walk, and the wolf catches up next to her. "I don't see why the Hackers would do something like this. Maybe as a practical joke or something. And if it is, then we're not taking the bait."

The wolf shrugs. "I see it as a joke, Cali. I mean, this has happened before. Remember the shower thing?"

Cali snickers. "Okay, I have to admit they really outdid themselves on that."

The wolf grins back. "Now, all you gotta do is tell Niall about this and we're golden."

Cali playfully shoves the wolf. "Was that a pun, Spark?"

He shrugs again, amusement dancing in his eyes. "Maybe. Maybe not."

The two make their way across the main lobby of the facility, feet padding on the gray carpeted floor. They pass a shiny black table with chairs of the same color around it. On the table was half a cup of coffee, still warm. There was a large screen planted on the wall across from the table. It was on, the feed switching from different places in the building to places in the city outside. It had begun to rain steadily.

Spark looks at the windows surrounding the facility. The storm was pounding on them relentlessly. "You're lucky you came back early, Cali. You would've gotten soaked."

"And that also would've been an equivalent to the unfortunate shower incident. Nobody was dry for a whole week." Her ears straighten. "I heard that Bonnie himself was in the whole thing, and he and Foxy apparently had a few good laughs about it."

Spark raises his eyebrows. "Where did you get this piece of gossip from?"

"Niall himself. But he says it's probably not true and that Bonnie only said it to piss everyone else off."

Spark sniggers. He and Cali walk through a pair of scanning panels. They glow with a soft green light and let out a soft beep.

The two animatronics enter another room, this one being the food court. A vending machine sits in a corner, someone standing on front of it. The tables were all empty except for one, which had a lone German Shepherd sitting at it. The dark brown and ginger dog was humming quietly, drawing on the surface of the table with a tiny paintbrush.

Spark and Cali walk over to the dog. They sit in front of him and look at the thing he was drawing on the table. Or more accurately, painting.

Cali's bright green eyes widen. "Oh, that's really nice, Corey!" she exclaims.

The dog looks up from his painting and smiles, tail wagging. He adjusts the pink beret on his head and points down at his art. "Hru really hrike it?" he asks, words muffled by the pink bandanna over his mouth.

The calico cat nods. "Yes, I do like it. In fact, I think it's very beautiful. What about you, Spark?" she queries the wolf.

"That's some of the coolest art I've seen, bud. And I've seen some cool art," Spark says. He looks up at the person still standing in front of the vending machine. "Hey Blake! Come see this awesome thing Corey drew in pink!" he yells.

The person spins around, almost falling over. "Yeah, I'm coming! I just want to make this thing work!" He turns back around and promptly delivers a kick to the red vending machine. "That's the fourth time this week the thing's taken my money. And given nothing in return."

Cali speaks up. " You haven't told Niall about this?"

Blake shakes his head vigorously. "He says he's fixed it, but it keeps acting up." He kicks the machine again. It sort of wobbles, on the verge of toppling when it straightens back again.

Blake groans, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his red hoodie. "Look at it. Look at its smug face."

Spark raises a paw. "But machines don't have faces."

"If this one did, it would have the biggest shit eating grin on the face of planet Earth."

Corey says something about watching his language.

"I'm sorry, but this thing has gotten me really fed up." Blake brings his foot back again to kick the machine when a voice interrupts him.

"Stop harming the vending machine, Blake. It's poor and defenseless and probably very sad that you're hurting it."

A silver gray rabbit strolls into the room, wearing a black leather vest over a white dress shirt. He stops next to Blake and looks at the vending machine with his dark green eyes.

"Why is this bothering you?"

The kid places a hand on the machine and rocks it back and forth. "It's stolen my money but you said you've fixed it. But guess what, it's not fixed."

Niall walks around to the back. He crouches down on the black speckled linoleum floor, stays there for a second, and stands back up.

"Seems that this machine's defective. And since I don't want you losing your money, here you go." The rabbit holds out a paw with a bunch of dollar bills in it.

Blake's hazel eyes light up. "Geez, thanks! You didn't have to do that."

"Don't worry, kid. There's plenty of it to go around. Now," Niall walks over to the table and sits down next to Corey. Blake sits across from him, shoving the bills in his pockets. "Let's see Corey's painting."

The German Shepherd moves his arm, and a painting is revealed. It was an all pink depiction of the city, rain clouds and all.

Niall looks impressed. He traces the lines of the miniature pink city with a finger. "Wow. And how long did this take you?"

"A fhrew hours."

"For this much detail? That's pretty amazing." Niall then glances up at Cali. "Speaking of the city, how did the trip to the Fighters go?"

Cali begins her retelling of her trip. "And I'm pretty sure it's all a practical joke, like Spark said," she ended, staring at her paws. She looks at Niall with a gleam in her eyes. "I'm betting it's something else having to do with the shower system."

Niall rolls his eyes. "That was fun."

Spark then leans forward, resting his chin on his hands. "About the showers. You said that Bonnie told you about them. But how did you get him to tell you?"

The silver gray rabbit leans back, closing his eyes. "I have my ways."

Cali grins, getting what Spark was trying to pull. "What kind of ways, hmmm? You've spent a lot of time with him, haven't you?"

Blake snickers. He and Spark exchange looks.

Niall finally speaks up, opening one eye. 'Fine, I used my wonderful charms on him."

Spark and Blake whistle at the same time, and Cali begins to laugh. Corey joins in, howling raucously. They continue to laugh until Niall finally calms them down.

"I'll never tell you."

They look at him slyly.

"Okay. Fine. But first, we've got to take care of these Hackers. It wasn't a very nice thing they did to us with the showers, wasn't it?"

Everyone nods.

"So I've got a thing. And that thing's called payback." The rabbit's smile gets wider, and he leans towards the others, whispering.

The first one to pull back was Spark. There was a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "Oh, that'll get them back so good."

Blake rubs his hands together in a gesture of mock villainy. "This is gonna be fun."

"And the best part about it? Both the Hackers and the Justifiers won't know what hit them. Literally."


Featuring:

Alexa Marrin, by: AlexaMarrinDaughterOfPoseidon

Charlie, by: Theoneandonlyme

Terrence, by: SirDerpTheDerp

Faith, by: Ridley Jkgsyn

Cali, by: KalypsoKari87

Spark, by: FoxyGuy87

Corey, by: WingsOfBronze

Blake, by: xdarkx

Niall, by: Ridlius

o0o

Thank you all!

And no, I'm not dead. I was just plagued by the bane of every writer's existence: writer's block.

(And school. Don't forget school.)

Anyways, I'm back! And I've already started Chapter 3, hopefully that will take me less time to finish than this chapter :P

Hope you have a great day!

PlatinumFire, out~