Arc II: Darker Matters

Part 3: Black as Onyx

Chapter 6

For thirty minutes, all Fox felt were the cuffs around his hands, the black cloth over his head, and traces of the electric shock from earlier. The van's suspension vibrated beneath him, occasionally jolting his ribs as he lay on the floor behind the front seat. He focused his ears on the driver, but heard nothing from him or the person in the passenger seat, if there was such a person. For all he knew, the husky could have been the only individual in the van apart from him.

Then, the van slowed and turned off the road. The vehicle came to a complete stop a moment later; and as the driver shifted the van into park, Fox heard the sound of a garage door closing behind him. The side door slid open, and he felt a pair of furry hands reaching for the cloth that covered his head. Removing the blindfold, his captor pulled him out of the van and allowed him a few seconds to catch his balance. Fox wanted nothing more than to punish the husky for kidnapping him, but the cuffs around his wrist prevented him from acting on his desires. Still, he did consider fighting him with both of his hands literally tied behind his back.

Instead, he focused his eyes on his surroundings, which amounted to a dark, run-down complex that looked like it had been part of an automobile manufacturing facility at one point. Tens of lifeless, dust-covered machines lined rusted rails that had not moved in two decades. Flickering fluorescent bars cast a dismal amount of light into the otherwise black space that smelled of filthy water and oil. Every few seconds, water would drip from the ceiling, falling into a bucket on the floor below with a faint splash.

"What is this place?" Fox growled, locking eyes with the husky.

"Our hideout for now," the canine replied. "We never keep the same address for more than a week."

Having assumed that one of Anthracite's agents had abducted him, Fox took a step back in surprise and asked, "Who are you with?"

"If you were expecting me to be part of a massive operation, you'd be wrong. It's just me and my friend. We call ourselves Onyx – not to be confused with Anthracite, since both of them are synonyms for 'black'. This place seems to fit our title."

Fox glanced at one of the machines on the assembly line. "Why did you bring me here? Why shoot me with a Taser and throw me into a van if you're not with Anthracite?"

The husky held up two fingers less than two millimeters away from each other. "It's because Anthracite was this close to nabbing you, and we weren't about to let that happen. You see, your success is our priority for right now."

Fox raised his eyebrows. "Say what?"

"We've been keeping tabs on you since the Northpoint incident. Your interest in Anthracite's dealings with the East Fortunan rebels managed to attract the attention of the Mac-Central intelligence agency, and in the process, it allowed us to gather some information on an East Fortunan spy who's working alongside them."

"Just one of them? Is he that important?"

"Actually, it's a 'she'," the husky corrected. "She goes by the code name 'Cassandra', and she's believed to have unusual abilities that would make her an enormous asset to any group that she was a part of. You managed to get her attention by rescuing your amphibious friend from Aquas, and we think that she may be after you even now."

Fox narrowed his eyes. "I thought you said Anthracite was after me. Why is this spy from East Fortuna trying to hunt me down too?"

"Simple. Anthracite and the East Fortunan resistance—via Macbeth—are cooperating on East Fortuna's weapons trafficking operation. Any information Cassandra gathers on Anthracite's interests gets shared to all three parties by default. We believe that's how Anthracite managed to locate you in the first place."

"But how could they track me that perfectly after I'd only been in Golstave for thirty minutes?"

The canine opened his hand and turned it towards Fox. "Well, let me ask you this – did you give out any sensitive personal information over the phone or the internet to someone you didn't know? Have you visited any suspicious websites recently?"

Krystal's suggestive photographs crept back into his mind, even though he found nothing inherently suspicious about her website. "Maybe?" he replied, scratching his head. "I met a model in Aquas who suggested I look up her website, and I did that later. Other than that, I can't think of anything that could have possibly compromised my information. I keep that on a tight leash."

"Perhaps not tightly enough," the husky implied. "Anthracite broke into your room like they were absolutely certain that you were inside. It sounds to me like someone managed to access your computer's GPS location, which makes me almost positive that the website you visited was bugged by someone with ties to either Macbeth, East Fortuna, or Anthracite – possibly all three. If you don't mind me asking, what did this model you met in Aquas look like?"

Crossing his arms, Fox described Krystal's appearance. "She had blue and white fur. That was the first thing I noticed about her. Very unusual. She was about my height, wore a purple dress, and had a really thick tail. Oh, and she also spoke with an accent – kind of like a Zoness accent, but not quite as thick."

The husky nodded. "I'll make a note of all that. Interestingly, we're already on the trail of someone who looks like what you described. It's only a matter of time before we catch up with her."

In response, Fox blurted out, "Please, don't hurt her," then felt shocked that he had responded that way.

His captor's eyes widened. "You know, there's a high percentage chance that she is Cassandra. I wouldn't put it past her to have been responsible for killing your team at Northpoint, at least in part. Don't let a person's looks deceive you. They can be sweet on the outside and even make you feel loved, and then turn and ram a knife into your back when you're not looking."

"You've got a point," Fox admitted. "What do you plan to do if you catch this 'Cassandra' person?"

"Use her to get more information on her superiors. Chances are that Cassandra is a low-level spy, but I guarantee she knows some of the higher-ups in the Macbeth network. If we can get closer to them, we'll be that much closer to our ultimate goal."

"Which is?" Fox asked.

"A former Cornerian scientist named Andross Bowman. The guy is inscrutable. Nothing about him ever gets out. We know he's doing something for Macbeth, but no one seems to know exactly what."

Fox locked eyes with the husky and told him, "He's developing weapons for them."

The Onyx soldier gave Fox a surprised stare. "You know about that?"

"My teammate told me," Fox replied.

"That's great, but there's got to be more to it than just the weapons. At heart, Andross is a biologist. He's got experience in engineering and chemistry, but life sciences were always his thing. And that's why I'm almost wondering if his work in developing weapons for the Macbeth military is just a cover for what he's really up to. But no one seems to know about it."

Fox recalled General Pepper telling him something about Andross attempting to create 'living weapons', but he felt that the hound dog would have preferred him to keep that knowledge to himself, especially since he had few reasons to trust the man from a unit that he had been completely unaware of until a minute ago. Somewhat disingenuously, he replied, "Well, if I find anything else about him, I'll let you know."

"Hmm. I'm sure you will," the canine smirked, knowing that Fox had no intention of doing that.

The silence inside the abandoned factory came to an end as a garage door opened. Turning his head towards the area where the husky had parked the black van, Fox watched as an identical vehicle pulled into the space next to it. After the engine came to a halt, a single black-furred jackal climbed out of the two front seats and opened the sliding back door. Fox raised a curious eyebrow at his appearance. In addition to his jet black base coat, thick black outlines stood out on his otherwise blue face, creating a form of mask that ran around his eyes and down the bridge of his nose.¹ He wore a black hoodie that covered his ears and his shoulder-length black hair. Below the waist, he wore a pair of black cargo shorts that revealed hints of blue fur above his knees. Shoes seemed to be something he had little interest in, judging from his calloused, bare feet.

The canine reached into the rear storage area; and Fox held his breath while waiting to see whom the other member of Onyx had abducted. As much as he liked Slippy, he admitted to himself that he hoped Scarlet would emerge from the van.

To his disappointment, it was Slippy.

The husky standing next to Fox stepped behind him and unlocked his handcuffs, then walked towards the second van and motioned for Fox to follow him. While the black and blue jackal set Slippy down and pulled the cloth from over his head, Fox asked the husky, "Did you get anyone else, like a red vixen? She was in my room before I left."

The husky stopped and shook his head. "Sorry, pal. If she was in there, Anthracite probably got to her first."

Fox bared his teeth. "What do you think they did with her?"

"It all depends. There are a few things that they might have done. They were after you, so if they broke into your room and didn't find you in it, they might have decided to take her instead."

"What does that mean for her?" Fox demanded.

"Well, I'd either expect them to put a ransom on her or just kill her outright. Or, if she's really good looking…well…"

Burning with anger and disgust, Fox snarled, "Oh, they'd better not… Then again, she might actually enjoy that."

The husky raised his eyebrows. "That sounds like someone I used to know. Was her name Scarlet, by any chance?"

Fox's face lit up. "How do you know her?"

In response, the canine gave him a nervous grin. "I'll tell you about it later, but for right now, head over to that table and meet my friend. We've got some things to discuss with you and your teammate."

Fox followed his captor to a rusting metal lunch table in the corner of the garage area. The sole other member of Onyx seated himself next to Slippy with his back to the cinder block wall, leaving the other bench for Fox and the husky.

"I apologize for how you got here. I would have preferred just asking you to come with us, but I had the feeling you'd ask too many questions or put up resistance," said the husky. "I'm Hartmann, the leader of this team." He pointed to the jackal next to Slippy and explained, "He's Lucas²—the best spy and digital expert I know. Together, we exist to keep a watchful eye on mercenary activities throughout the planet Lylat."

Fox turned his head and asked Hartmann, "Are you part of an NGO, or are you with an intelligence group?"

"There's not a clear answer for that. The best way I can explain it is this – we sell secrets, specifically ones related to the many PMCs that operate in the planet's more 'turbulent' areas. Keeping tabs on mercenary operations allows us to subliminally influence world affairs, since most PMCs are contracted by governments. Sometimes our work leads us into the employment of smaller Third World dictatorships like Ichtos,³ and other times we sell our information to the superpowers. Everything we do is based on our own concept of justice – we rarely sell out to the highest bidder. We like to think it's for the better.

"Unfortunately," he continued, "Our history of being willing to work for pretty much anybody we want to has put us into a dangerous spot. When a government intelligence agency that we just worked with finds out that we sold one of their contacts' information to their enemies, things can get deadly. That's why we never keep the same base of operations for more than a week. We're nomads, but we wouldn't have it any other way."

Fox nodded in the most insincere way possible and commented, "I feel so safe right now."

Hartmann frowned. "You should. We've been doing this for seven years, and we haven't been caught yet."

From across the table, the jackal muttered, "Boss, can you get on with the real reason we're here?"

"Sorry, Lucas. He asked me, so I had to explain," Hartmann answered, waving his comrade off. "Anyway, part of the reason we abducted both of you was not only to save you from Anthracite, but also because your goals line up perfectly with ours. We believe the collusion between East Fortuna, Macbeth, and Anthracite is far more sinister than anyone originally thought, and it's reaching a boiling point. Here – take a look at this. Lucas, hand me your computer."

The jackal sitting across from him reached into a black bag on the ground and produced a white laptop, which he handed to Hartmann. Opening the screen, the husky turned the computer in Fox's direction and pointed at one corner of the grainy, black and white image on the display.

Fox's eyes widened. "A stash of chemical weapons?"

Nodding, Hartmann replied, "That photograph was taken from inside Anthracite Security's storehouse with one of the base's security cameras. Thanks to Lucas, we now have an idea of what they're shipping to East Fortuna. But the real question here is 'why'?"

He continued after a brief silence. "That's not the most important thing right now - the most important thing is that the East Fortunan forces may already have some of these weapons in their possession. But even if they do, they can't be allowed to get any more of them. The only problem is that we don't have enough evidence to prove the existence of the weapons to West Fortuna or Corneria. All we have is this grainy picture, and it's still kind of ambiguous as to what the weapons even are. It's likely that they are in fact chemical, but no one can know for sure until we have more leads. But we don't have the time for that."

"So, what are you suggesting?" Fox asked.

"We have to do one of two things. One – either we find a way to keep Anthracite's cargo planes from taking off and delivering the cargo, or two – we place a tracker on one of the planes to see where it goes. From all accounts, no one knows where they're delivering the weapons. The Cornerian Navy is patrolling the Eastern Ocean in hopes that they'll spot the cargo planes, but as far as I know, nothing's shown up yet. I have a strong suspicion that they're not delivering the weapons to Fortuna. The only three major landmasses that can be accessed from the western continent are Fortuna, Corneria, and Fichina. I'm banking on Fichina as the delivery location. There's nothing on the eastern part of the landmass. It's a huge island north of Fortuna, and because of the ice sheets, the Navy's warships can't get close to it."

Fox nodded to Slippy as a way of congratulating him for coming to a similar conclusion beforehand, then asked Hartmann, "How are we supposed to stop the planes or put trackers on them? Infiltrate the base?"

"I don't see another way to do it, especially if you want any chance at getting your friend back."

Lucas frowned and crossed his arms. "Boss, that's going to put us all in a lot of danger. Is it really worth it? Also, since when have you cared so much about rescuing a hostage?"

Hartmann narrowed his eyes and pointed at his teammate. "The difference here is that I owe this hostage a favor."

Lucas sighed. "This has to do with that one time last year when you met that girl at the casino, disappeared into the Lotus Eater motel for the whole night, and refused to answer any of my calls, doesn't it?"

Hartmann blushed furiously. "Yes. It does."

"I'm going to have to hear about this," said Fox.

"Later," Hartmann replied once again. "Can we just put that aside for a moment and focus on what needs to be done with the weapons?"

"Sure—whatever," Lucas replied.

"Okay then," said Hartmann. "We need to go over every schematic of the Anthracite base so we can plan our infiltration."

For the first time, Slippy spoke up. "Ooh! An infiltration! I've always wanted to be part of one of those."

Lucas stared at him, a flat, displeased expression radiating from his face. "I think not. You look like you're a lot more cut out to infiltrate the refrigerator in the back room."

Slippy bared his gums, because as a frog, he had no teeth – at least, not unless one looked closely enough. "Seriously, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

"I'm sure. Are you going to get even fatter and then Toad Smash me?" Lucas groaned.

At that moment, Slippy's face took on a malevolent property that Fox never thought he would see from him. Considering that Lucas was in the seat next to him, Slippy grabbed his hood and yanked him off the bench. Stunned, Lucas hit the concrete floor behind him and tried sitting up, but not quickly enough to prevent Slippy from leaping off the bench and onto his stomach.

"How you like me now?" he shouted, punching the canid in the muzzle with both fists so rapidly that his arms almost resembled blurs. His continued attacks prevented Lucas from responding, but it didn't seem to prevent Slippy from demanding that Lucas answer his question. Suddenly, Slippy felt like he could fly. With no effort whatsoever, he ascended into the air. But then, he realized what had actually happened as he turned around against his own will and found himself staring into Hartmann's ice-blue eyes while being held up by his jacket's collar.

He thrashed his limbs, but Hartmann held him far enough away from his body to prevent him from injuring anything but himself. From Fox's perspective, Slippy looked like a child compared to the burly husky, and his attempts to escape the canine's grasp were equally pathetic. Despite his best efforts, Fox burst out laughing. Seconds later, Hartmann lost his will to keep a straight face and dropped Slippy, only to clutch his chest in laughter and slap the edge of the table with his other hand.

While Slippy rounded the table and shuffled over to Fox, Lucas brushed himself off and reclaimed his seat. "Damn! He hits hard!"

"I warned you," Slippy replied, crossing his arms.

"I guess I should have believed you. But still, I'd prefer not to be assigned with you for this job."

Still trying and failing to suppress his residual laughter, Hartmann glanced at Lucas and stated, "Actually, I was planning on that. Thanks to your work, we know that the base has been experiencing some issues with its security system. Before I kidnapped Fox, I managed to find the contractor who's scheduled to work on the system. He's supposed to arrive at the base tomorrow at 1000 hours. We'll find a way to detain him while you and Slippy pose as IT experts and gain access to the facility in his place. From reading Slippy's intel file, I know he's responsible for putting together quite a few of the base's security features. If we can get him inside, it'll make the mission that much easier."

Lucas's expression fell. Attempting to come up with anything that could conceivably prevent him from having to work with Slippy, he suggested, "But they'll recognize him. He's worked with them before."

"He'll have to use a disguise, of course," Hartmann replied. "I had planned on that from the beginning. I'll let him decide what he wants to do about it."

Slippy looked in his direction. "I've got a few ideas. You got any scrap metal around here?"

Hartmann locked eyes with Lucas, whose face bore a crestfallen, disappointed countenance. Then, he glanced to his right and answered Slippy. "This used to be a car factory, so there should be some lying around."

"Great! I'll get right to work," said Slippy, walking away from the table and into the cavernous expanse that defined the main factory floor.

With Slippy out of earshot, Hartmann lowered his head and whispered, "This may have been a bad idea."

"You're telling me," Lucas muttered with his raspy voice. He stood up and claimed his laptop, which sat in front of Hartmann. Then, he stuffed it into his shoulder bag and walked in the direction of the van in which he had arrived.

Looking at Fox out the corner of his eye, Hartmann explained, "He'll get over it eventually. He doesn't like to work with other people – that's all."

"Then why don't you let him work by himself here?" Fox asked.

"Simple – because your friend has the skills and knowledge we need to make this work. The whole mission is dependent on him."

Fox cringed and covered one of his eyes with his hand. "I'm not sure I like that."

"Neither do it," Hartmann replied. "But it has to be done. Our first course of action tomorrow is to intercept the contractor who's supposed to fix Anthracite's security system. We can do it a number of ways, but the quieter it is, the better. Then, after Slippy and Lucas enter the base, we'll get in touch with them and figure out a way to get in. With the security system undergoing maintenance, we won't have any trouble accessing the rooms inside the complex. That might even include the weapons storehouse."

"Don't get your hopes up," Fox warned. "I know the leader of Anthracite. He's smart enough not to have his most important room protected by only one system."

"I was just trying to be optimistic. I agree with you, though. Once we get in, I think placing trackers on the planes should be our goal. That way, the West Fortunan and Cornerian armies will finally know where to go to put a stop to the weapons trafficking."

"Sounds like a plan," Fox replied, sliding out of the table's bench.

From next to the second van's front door, Lucas called out, "Hey, boss—I'm going to run out to pick up some lunch. Do you want me to bring back anything?"

Hartmann paused for thought, then answered, "I've you're going to that vegan place again, count me out. I think I'd rather crack open some rations than eat that shit again."

Lucas's ears drooped, but because they were underneath his hood, all that could be seen was the fabric lowering slightly. "Fine. I'll go to the Burger Joint. Happy?"

"You'd better believe it," Hartmann grinned. "You might as well pick up something for Fox and Slippy, too. Don't worry, I'll pay you back."

"Fine," Lucas muttered again before he climbed into one of the vans and started the engine. The garage door behind him creaked open, allowing him to back out. Seconds later, the overhead door closed again and left Fox and Hartmann to themselves. Somewhere in the bowels of the factory, Fox thought he heard the sound of sparks flying.

"Can Slippy even eat a cheeseburger?" asked Hartmann.

Fox snickered. "I think with him, if there's a will, there's a way when it comes to food."

"I hear you. Still, I want to see him do that."

A smile crept onto Fox's face as the thought of Slippy attempting to eat a cheeseburger entered his mind. But then, he recalled Hartmann's unexplained history with his vixenly friend. Sliding closer to the husky, he lowered his voice and asked, "So, how do you know Scarlet? And do you really think she's in Anthracite's base?"

"If she's alive, she's probably in there. If anything, they may be trying to use her as bait. If you check your email anytime soon, you might find a ransom notice or something like that. Unfortunately, that might be hard to do because we destroyed your computer when we raided your room. You're welcome."

Rage filled Fox's eyes. "What the hell? Why would you do that? Oh wait…the tracking bug."

"Correct. However, we did save your hard drive, so your data isn't gone. We also took your bags with us when we went through your room. You definitely don't want to be going back to the hotel anytime soon.

"You got that right," Fox huffed. "I'm still ticked off that Scarlet took the fall for all of this."

Hartmann opened his hands. "It is what it is, Fox. Don't worry – if she's in that base, I'll do everything I can to make sure she gets out alive."

"Thanks. I get the feeling you're doing it for yourself, though."

Hartmann sighed and shook his head. "You're right. You see, Scarlet and I met at a casino last year and hooked up for one night at the same hotel that you were staying at. We had a good time, but we both knew that it would never work for the two of us to stay together. Still, since then, I've felt like I owe her something. I was going through a depression after losing my fiancée on a mission, and Scarlet helped take my mind off of it."

His face solemn, Fox glanced at the husky. "You lost your wife, too?"

"We're not that different, are we, Fox?" Hartmann asked in response. "I'm not going to make that same mistake again – the mistake of putting the person I love the most in harm's way on a daily basis. If I find another mate, it'll be after I'm finished with Onyx."

Fox nodded in agreement, then thought about Scarlet. "If a little romance with her helped this guy through a tough time, maybe it would work for me too? But then again, the two of them could never make a real relationship work. I don't think Scarlet would be happy with anything less than that with me. Am I stupid for actually considering that?"

While Fox sifted through his thoughts, Hartmann nudged him and said, "Hey, I'm going to look over the base schematics while I wait for Lucas to bring back lunch. Give me a holler if you need anything."

Startled, Fox jumped back into reality. "Oh…sure."

While the husky left the table and walked towards a workbench fifty feet away, Fox leaned forward and boarded his train of thought again. Then, his ears perked up at the sound of Hartmann's phone ringing. Glancing at the canine out of the corner of his eye, he listened as he answered the call.

"Hello? What is it? What? She's here? Lucas, don't let her out of your sight. Capture her and bring her to me, no questions asked. Got it? Good."

While Hartmann ended the call and slid his phone back into his pocket, Fox asked, "Was that who I think you were talking about?"

"Yes," Hartmann replied, turning around and facing Fox. "With all luck, we'll have ourselves a new source of intel within the hour. If Lucas can capture her and bring her here, I'll make sure you get the chance to thank her for your computer virus."

A faint, grim smile appeared on Fox's face. "Thanks. I'll make sure to do that."

FOOTNOTES:

1 He's a Lucario, if that wasn't obvious enough.

2 Originally, Lucas was introduced much later, and Hartmann had two other teammates named Xavier and Vincent. Neither of them had much personality, and in the interest of cutting back on unwanted, uninteresting OC's, I replaced them with Lucas.

3 Headcanon info: Ichtos is a third world nation on the easternmost edge of the Western Pangea, east of Macbeth and north of Papetoon. Ichtos was formerly run by an autocratic Supreme Commander. A proxy war between Corneria and Macbeth broke out two years prior to Sierra Foxtrot regarding Ichtos's fledgling nuclear weapons program. In the end, Corneria launched strikes against Ichtos, and Macbeth backed off and later coerced the people of Ichtos to force their leader out when it became apparent that Corneria would declare war and invade the nation if the nukes were not disposed of.