Maxis: Congrats reaperjf, GUNSLINGER99, stubob72556, glfran, and Frostsilverhand. It was the beginning of the outpost scene from Starship Troopers.
Leon: Now all we need are your animals, personalities, and preferred style of combat. These 5 responded first and got it right.
Maxis: I still regret nothing
Chapter 10
Nick heard Shellon whistling a funeral theme beside him as the arctic fox began to limp around the table to Alex. Nick knew Skye when they were younger. She was not the hardened veteran before him now. She was Silva's cousin and would often hang out with Nick, Silva, and Alyssa. Skye was the most mischievous, underhanded trickster that Nick knew. At least she used to be. Her one good eye was cold and unforgiving. Her constant smile was now a deep scowl. She wasn't the Skye he knew anymore. She slapped the back of Alex's head and continued around the table in silence until she sat at the head of the table.
"Anymore comments?" She hissed. Shellon stopped his whistling and sat in a position ready to curl into a ball. "Good. Now it has come to my attention that someone was killed in a very peculiar manner. An over enthusiastic lobotomy, if I'm not mistaken."
"It wasn't an enjoyable sight," Honey muttered from across the table.
"Of course it wasn't," Skye replied flatly. "It was done by a serial killer that I have been hunting for. He usually takes the victim's brain, no explanation why."
"Maybe he's decorating for Halloween?" Alex suggested lightly. Skye glared at him from across the table and growled softly. Nick, due to his sharpened senses and dealing with his mother's pranks for years, noticed a slight twitch of her nose.
"It seems you learned your lesson from last time, Alex," she growled. "You put more space between us this time. Don't think it will save you." Nick noticed Shellon scooting in a direction farther from the arctic vixen. Woods snorted again and crossed his arms. Alex just leaned back in his chair with his arms behind his head. Sheila and Darren were just nuzzling each other on the side. Judy was sitting with a blank expression on her face with her eye twitching periodically. Honey looked up from her computer and rolled her eyes.
"Can we at least get through the meeting before you two start romping each other silly?" The badger sighed as she pulled up her computer screen on the projector. Skye glared at the silver fox for a few seconds, who surprisingly actually broke eye contact. She finally gave a discontented growl and leaned back in her chair.
"Fine," the arctic fox gestured to Honey. "Tell us what you found."
"Good. Now that the distractions have been temporarily avoided, we can discuss the name we found. Freya Alexandria Morren. I did a thorough search of your population database and found no one registered under that name." Nick felt a slight nagging at the back of his head. The name Morren sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember where he heard it from. He pushed it to the side and decided to deal with it later.
"Did you try looking for anyone close to it?" Woods asked. Honey nodded and pulled up a list of mammals.
"Of course I did, Frank," she said as she hovered over each name. These mammals didn't have the history to be included in such activities. Many of them are small rodents with simple backgrounds. The others I have done extensive background checks with no connection."
"How extensive?" Skye inquired with a raised brow.
"Illegally extensive. There are some affairs that I uncovered and have sent the evidence to their respective spouses."
"Excellent," she purred. "Anything else?
"Not that I can think of," Honey growled. Nick could see her frustration by the lack of intel. Her frown was tighter than usual and her claws tacked rapidly on the table. "Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing. No prints. No DNA. No Data. This was professional."
"Unfortunate. My mother has a team working on gathering more about our victim's past. It's going slow."
"Then we need to keep looking," Woods concluded.
"Yes," Skye confirmed. "I also have a ZIA support team that will back you up. You are well acquainted with them Woods."
"Then I guess meeting adjourned?" Alex asked.
"Not for you, Savage. We still need to talk. In my office."
"Okay, this has been a strange meeting, per usual," Shellon said with a cheerful voice. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll going back to normal people." He hopped off of his chair, opened the door, and rolled out of the meeting room.
"I'm not going to deal with Alex's body bag," Woods sighed and stood up. "I'm going to see if they have anything good in the cafeteria today."
"I'm coming," Judy said and looked at Nick expectantly. Nick was surprised. Was she expecting him to join her? It took a second to realize that Nick was the mammal she was most familiar with and would be more comfortable around him than any other member of the team.
"I'll come, too," Nick said. Woods nodded. As Honey stood up from her chair.
"I need more research," she mumbled to herself as she left the room. The three other mammals looked at their commanding officer with a mix of emotions. One was questioning, the other was pitiful, and the last one was neutral.
"I have some things to attend to, so wait in my office for a little bit, Savage," Skye said as she looked over a tablet. Alex looked a little concerned, but left the room without a word. Woods, Nick, Judy watched as he turned and the last they saw of him was his trailing tail. The three of them turned the other direction in the direction of the cafeteria.
"So, Frank. How was your search?" Nick said once they were a good distance away from the meeting room.
"Oh God please, no," Woods muttered. Judy chuckled and joined in the "Frank" game all the way to the cafeteria, at Woods' expense of course.
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Alex sat in Ms. Summers office playing with the pendulum on her desk. He didn't touch anything else to not incur the wrath of the angry vixen. Or maybe he will. She had a rather large office. It was able to accommodate a coffee table and a full size couch, while his office could barely fit his desk. Figures. It was in modern design, which he found to be boring. Modern art was pretty lazy. The desk was familiar. It was his desk from his adopted father that he gave her after her promotion. It was the only thing that wasn't black and red, but the mahogany still fit the dark motif. His observations were interrupted by the vixen herself entering the room. She was a sharp contrast to the dark room, but her expression was not as bright as her fur.
"Director Summers," he said as he stood up. She said nothing as she limped up to her desk and approached him. Without a sound, she pinned him to the and began to choke him.
"Why do have you make things so hard, Savage?" She hissed into his ear. Her grip tightened and Alex saw darkness creeping in the edges of his sight as he tried desperately to breathe. She pulled him down to her level and smashed her muzzle against his. Her grip loosened and the silver fox fell to floor.
"Cause I know how you are," Alex responded between breaths. She leaned over him and licked the top of his head.
"And I know how you are," she purred back. Alex nuzzled the side of his mate's muzzle affectionately as he purred back.
"We can test my breach and insertion tactics on the couch?" he suggested.
"After two months? I hope you're ready for a challenge," she whispered as she pulled him up.
Maxis: Yeah… Nope. :::::::::
Nick studied his food curiously. The fish was fine, the mashed potatoes were good, and the fruit cup was a bit lacking in blueberry count. So what was up with this poor excuse for an apple tart?
"Alexandria Morren?"
"Tried that three times." Nick glanced briefly at Woods and Judy as they continued searching up a name. Nick stopped after getting his second tray of food and was currently studying the piece of crust that passed for dessert. Two hours of work spent on finding a name. Nick wondered what the nagging feeling on his mind was and was slightly frustrated by the dead end.
"What in the hell do they expect us to find with a name and project Genesis?!" Judy growled. Nick's head shot up at the mention of project Genesis. Why wasn't he given this piece of information? Morren and Genesis were very obvious connections in the biological stage.
"Freya isn't American," Nick said as he slammed his hands on the table. A rush of memories flowed through his head. He singled out an image of a small red vixen and a silver fox smiling together for a Noble Peace Prize. There was the Union Jack on the sleeves of their lab coats. "She's British. Search up Maya and Mason Morren." Woods complied and his eyes widened as he saw at who he was looking at.
"Are you saying that the sterile Maya Morren could have had a daughter?" Judy asked incredulously.
"There is a chance," Woods mused. "Genesis was meant to alter DNA in a revolutionary way. Even though government backing was cut, private donors were still welcome to keep the project alive in secret. She could've genetically engineered her eggs to be fertile."
"We need to tell the Director about this," Judy said as she stood from her chair.
"I have an idea where her office is," Nick said as he stood as well.
"I'll stay here," Woods said firmly. "I've enough of Alex and Summers for a day." The two smaller mammals jogged through the hallways with Nick leading the way. They eventually made it to a black and red door, which they opened without hesitation.
"Director Summers- OH SWEET MOTHER OF KARMA!" Nick was cut off as he witnessed the Director with Alex in a compromising position. The silver fox looked thoroughly embarrassed while the Director looked slightly amused.
"It seems I forgot to lock the door," she commented flatly.
"The scary thing is," Judy said with no surprise in her voice. "I was half expecting this."
Leon: Maxis, you almost changed the rating of this story. You know that, right?
Maxis: PEREGRINE PICKLE GOT IN A PICKLE BECAUSE HE TRIED TO STICK HIS PICKLE IN SOMEONE'S SISTER!
Leon: Oh yeah, AP Literature test.
Maxis: The numbers, finches! Tell Darwin what the numbers mean!
Leon: And biology. Okay. Two characters in this story have their names connected. It is an Easter egg of a video game that will help you discover Alex's middle name.
Maxis: Chi-squaaaaaaaaaaared!