Chapter 2: The Red Fox

Rabbit walked out of the small wooden house and onto the brick road that winded its way through the city. The air was cold and he could see his breath as he exhaled. The sun had finally set, and few remaining traces of its existence still lingered. He picked up an already lit lantern that Naomi had always left outside when it had become dark; he held it high and covered his eyes from its light and looked for clues as to where he had to go. That way, the sun always sets in the west. He was about to leave when his stomach started churning, he doubled over in as the pain intensified. Oh no, not again! He fell down onto the road, the pain only deepened into him every second he lay there. He couldn't do anything to stop the agony; it felt as if somebody had poured gasoline over him, made him drink it and lit him on fire. He put a piece of wood into his mouth to keep from screaming; he bit down and waited for it to end. Every second that passed felt like something was leaving him, something important. Then the world went dark. He woke up to the sound of his own breathing and heartbeat; well at least I don't have to worry about it for the next couple days. He stood up, and brushed the mud off of him that his sweat had created. He took a deep breath, trying to focus on what he was going to do before. Oh yeah, I was going to go to the stupid highway…. Great, now I'm in a bad mood. He stretched his arms and legs out, making sure that he was good to go. Yup, everything's still working. He started to make his way through the city and to the highway, and let his thoughts drift about his "Curse". I wonder why I am just a bit weaker after every attack, and will this continue like it always has? I sure hope not, because eventually I will just wither into dust, and that won't be much fun. He scoffed at his cruel fate, hoping that it wouldn't be the case. He headed west through the empty and silent city; listening for guards and avoiding ones that were lost in the desolate town.

Although he did stumble upon other rebels that were joining with their own teams, positioning themselves around the city and getting ready to assault Nigh's fortress. But when they saw him they kept their distance, his "Curse" got people killed when he prolonged with others. It was first noticeable when he and his first team raided a guard station for weapons; everything went wrong and everyone died, except him. Others died around him and word spread about his curse, "keep away from the cursed one" they would say. After that he was stuck planning missions by himself, which ironically did not go wrong and worked extremely well. But he was lonely doing his job, nobody wanted to be around him less they should die. But eventually he was allowed to go on jobs with the red fox. He continued through alleys and backstreets that were littered with trash, he poked his head around the corner of the alley and into an immense highway. There were no guards to be seen, so he left his hiding spot and walked onto the great road. He stood there, remembering how this highway was the trade epicenter for miles around. He could see the children running across the street, the stalls filled with haggling owners, people and carts littering its ways. Now it was empty.

It had been empty since the day Nigh had his small army enforced a Marshall law, everybody had been going about their business that day. Everything was normal except for the unusual number of crocodiles in the streets, they appeared harmless; they carried no weapons, they were nice, and paid for the things they bought. Nigh wanted everybody to know that this was his town and that he was in control, so he ordered his troops to attack everyone that was on the main highway when the church's bell tolled twelve times. When the bells tolled twelve times, all hell broke loose and the streets ran red with the blood of innocent villagers and their bodies littered the streets. Not even the young were spared, and within minutes everybody was hiding inside their houses. The next day Nigh forced everyone that were lucky enough to not be on the highway the day earlier to clean up the blood and bodies. That was the day that the streets were not only filled with sweat and pain, but sadness and tears. It was so sad that tears were of said to rain down from the sky, soaking the streets in its salt.

He bent down, put his torch close to the ground and examined the great highways floor; it was streaked with spots red and white. The road of blood and tears he thought to himself, and that's what everyone called it after that. Sadness soaked his eyes, but rage filled his heart. He continued kneeling down and paid homage to those who had died. He stood up and took a deep shaky breath and continued his way toward Nigh's palace of True Evil, on the way he saw a letter on the ground. It was folded and fresh; frowning at this oddity he picked it up and opened it. At the top it was held closed by the waxy symbol of a red fox; Scarlet. Scarlet was a red fox and she was the prettiest thing he ever saw, and everybody wanted to be around her. She was so beautiful that she sometimes used this to lure guards into a dark corner and then kill them, it was pretty clever. Fortunately for him, she liked him, and was the only person he knew of that his curse didn't affect. They didn't know why, but she never had any bad luck being with him. Thus, they became Team X. Sometimes she did weird things, like leaving a note on the middle of a street for him to read; he was slightly annoyed at this and read what it had to say:

Rabbit,

I am right behind you in this fight.

No, seriously, I am right behind you!

If you still don't understand then you might want to turn around.

With great stealth, your friend,

Scarlet

Rabbit lazily cocked his head to one side and looked behind him, he didn't see anything. God dang it Scarlet! I swear if I…. he looked forward, and there she was. Scarlet's face inches away from his own, staring at him like an odd bug she had found on her shoulder. He jumped in fear at her arrival, and tried to regain his posture as if he were an important figure that shouldn't not have been scared so easily. She took a short step back and giggled at him; covering her mouth and pointing at him with her finger.
"This isn't funny! This is serious!" he whispered yelled at her, it wasn't nice to be playing jokes at a time like this. Just being outside in the dark was dangerous; if one of the guards were to hear them they would be dead.
"Sorry! I couldn't help it!" She told him, creating her excuse to give him a heart attack. "I needed a way to have some fun and calm myself down before we begin our little anarchy" She joked as if this day wasn't important at all.
"Yeah, but how am I going to relax now that I have had my wits scared out of me?" He stared at her, and she stared back at him. Then scarlet did something that always made him feel better, and he knew it was coming; he just wanted to know how well she was going to do it. Then she did it, she leaned forward, scrunched up her nose, stuck her tongue out and made a sour face. Combining her beautiful facial features and her comical expression, it made for one hell of a laugh. He turned away and tried not to laugh, he held his nose, he held his breath, he did everything he could to stop laughing. But to no avail, there he was, laughing his guts out before he was going to kill a bandit lord. He rolled on the ground for a couple minutes, trying to stop and get some air before he passed out. She just stood there and kept watch while waiting for him to stop laughing. He eventually stopped laughing, but the damage was done; he was in a good mood. He stood up and refrained from looking at Scarlet for the next couple minutes, else he should laugh again.
"Okay Scarlet, let's go"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm ready"

They both stealthily made their way to a 4 storied house near the fortresses main gates that contained armor and weapons for them both, they donned their gear; Scarlet chose two short swords while he picked up more throwing knives and a short short sword. And waited.