Chapter 24

The Catalyst Pt 2

(Xenass Space Colony)

Somewhere in orbit cycle near Papetoon

The the colony hadn't changed much in the expanse of years he'd been since that last time Maryk had seen it; it was still all business and bustle until you bothered to consider what was going on beneath your feet most of the time. He still recalled a time when the huge, glass dome of the city used to bring him the happiness that no other place could, mainly because it was one of the only places he could hide from all the judging eyes of the more common places of Lylat; why, even looking at his current surroundings would have surprised most people he knew before became a Viper. It was a "hole in the wall" restaurant on the lower east side of the city; a respectable place who's owner often comped him for his meals some years back, it had been sad to hear that the old owner had died some years ago but, the young cheetah running the kitchen seemed to be doing alright for himself all things considered. The young wolf had not been surprised to find that Tanya had been a regular at the place since long ago as well; not many knew about the young cougar's past life before getting into, whatever it was she did for a living now but Maryk was one of the very few whom would have known considering she'd been his PR rep for a good number of years back in the day. He found it odd that she'd always had her eyes on him, but, back then it was difficult for him to notice much of anything with all the business that had gone down in his past life, however, she'd always been the one person that had been there for him, she was even the very person that managed to save his life when he'd reached his breaking point, and had it not been for her quick thinking he'd have died in his locker room ages ago. Even looking across the table now he wasn't sure why she'd managed to stay single, she was no supermodel by any sense of the word but, with her looks she could have easily picked any male from the heard and he'd have never been happier. Her dress was modest enough the sort of thing that could easily be worn out casually without seeming presumptuous or overly flashy, but, then again that had always been her style, even as his PR rep she'd never gone a day without wearing a skirt of some kind. The dress was a stark contrast to her crimson red locks and bright yellow eyes, a pale blue with an embossed white rose between her right breast and shoulder. Currently hanging from the backrest of her seat was a vest that seemed to go with the gown quite nicely; her hair was a bit ragged but, in the current humidity that was being used by the environmental system to simulate summer, there was no helping it. He'd stolen some glances at her over the course of sitting there, he'd forgotten how long it had been but something about her simply reminded him of the past and he found himself mostly at a loss for words. Though it did not seem to be so difficult for his female escort; the young cougar complained about the bits of her jobs mentioned some things from the past and even eluded to some insight as to the current condition of things in the System one in particular that caught Maryk's immediate attention...

"Civil war?" The words were a common conversational topic, after all with so many varied races and species within such close diction to one another there was only a matter of time before tempers heated.

Tanya sighed heavily shaking her head, "Yeah, something about a senator on Macbeth being there during the attack on Katina; his family is reaching out trying to blame just about anyone in power. Unfortunately, you know how it goes when a senator yells loud enough."

Maryk chuckled, "Yeah, people will always yell with them."

"Sorry this is depressing..." Tanya chuckled pushing a bit of food around her plate, "all my big talk about having you all to myself and all I can talk about is stupid fighting. Speaking of which, what was all this talk a few years back about you being found in an illegal cage fights?"

Maryk laughed loud enough to get a bit of surrounding attention before coughing into his fist, "Yeah, so about that," He replied pointing his fork at her, "so apparently there was a guy that found out something about me that, at the time at least, I sort of kept to myself..." As he said this he held up the utensil pinched between his thumb and forefinger a rush of arcs jumping across its surface as the heat of the electrical charges caused the fork to slowly bend and twist into a melted heap, "...he saw I was capable of generating a very..." He chuckled, "... let's say, ridiculous amount of electricity from my body. His claim was that he felt me shock him, when in truth had I actually done so...he'd at least have lost consciousness, if not stopped breathing."

Tanya looked in amazement as he dropped the fork, "How long have you been able to..."

"My whole life I guess," Maryk replied shrugging his huge shoulders, "I used to play tricks with it when I was really young. Dad sort of used to beat me when he'd find me using it for just about any reason; guess he didn't like the idea of dealing with a freak. I was a teen when I learned he was only trying to protect me from prejudice. He died in an accident not that long after he'd come to bare everything out in the open to me...it was nobody's fault, just one of those tragic things that happen," He pointed out taking a small drink from the large mug in front of him, "mom was the real tragedy though. She just didn't wanna live without dad around, and I guess at some point she decided that the alcohol just wasn't doing the job fast enough. Turned a shotgun on herself; not even sure where she got it."

"I remember that" Tanya almost gasped, "I wasn't even a PR yet when I read about that. Never occurred to me that it might have been your family."

"I was already spiraling when they appointed you my PR," Maryk pointed out, "just got worse from there, but, having you around for a while made things better, at least you managed to make me laugh once in a while. Then all that business happened with my engagement and...well like I said years ago, a lot happened in a really short amount of time."

Shaking her head, Tanya huffed angrily, "Every time I think about what those bastards did to you...makes me wanna hunt those bastards down."

Maryk chuckled a bit, drinking from a rather tall, clear glass of orange liquid, "No point in worrying about it anymore. Erickson is in the poor house, Daniels committed suicide for some reason or other, Michelle went back to being a broker, and last I heard of Alissa..."

"She went back to that titty bar on Papetoon," Tanya nodded with a smile, "that life does seem to suit her better, she always did like dancing...and swinging her tits around. Hell she did enough of that just to get her way around the office if I remembered correctly."

Maryk laughed, "Yeah but, at least she kept most of her clothes on."

Tanya laughed along, "Yeah …... most of the time."

There was a fairly long pause of silence before Maryk pushed an empty plate toward the center of the table, "So, this is all on your time, have anything in mind for the rest of the day?"

The cougar chuckled as she tipped her drink a bit rolling it's edge back and forth in front of her, "That depends. How long will you be around?"

"A few days at best," Maryk assured her while shrugging his shoulders, "I will eventually need to speak with my superiors about Marcus's sudden disappearance. I have to buy him some time to make up his mind in the meanwhile; I'm not sure how much time I have otherwise, a lot of weird shit has gone down in the last few weeks. And after what I experienced on Sargasso, I don't like where it all feels like it's headed."

"In that case why not stay at my place?" Tanya asked with a sheepish smile, "I can supply just about anything you need, and on top of that, we can get in contact with your guys from there too. Not to mention we can have a lot more privacy there."

Maryk laughed as he shook his head, "I suppose I owe you that much."

"You make it sound like I'm paying for this." Tanya cooed, her tail flicking about playfully.

"Wouldn't you?"

The black wolf's spry grin caused her to laugh, "Yeah...yeah I probably would."

Maryk chuckled shaking his head, "Hah! Shameless."

"Of course I am," Tanya replied as he felt a bare feline foot run the length of his pant leg, "no shame in a girl knowing what she wants."

With a lighthearted chuckle Maryk waved for a host, "Touche. Well let's get the check and we'll head out of here."

Maryk hated admitting that she was right, when they'd first gotten to the diner it hadn't been very full at all but what started as a dull silence was now a much louder mixture of a thousand different voices all speaking at once. It wasn't exactly a loud, or even annoying sound but, it was distracting nearly as much as his companion was for the most part. Though he admitted to himself long ago that females were not his cup of tea, over the years he had learned a deep appreciation for them, especially when they were like Tanya. Heading out of the diner made him wonder about a lot of things, none more than what would become of Marcus, but, just as much whether or not being on Xenass was a particularly good idea at the time. Something wasn't sitting right on his mind and he simply couldn't pin it down...

Location: Unknown

Time: Unknown

The room was nothing more than a single dreary light overhead leaving the rest of the room in complete darkness; she attempted to move her arms but something kept them tightly bound behind her, she realized almost immediately that she was seated in a hard metal chair, on top of everything else as her sight came back to her she found herself staring down becoming fully aware of the fleshy pink nubs peaking out over the cream-colored fur of her bare breasts, the sight of which made her ever more presently aware of the horrid chill in the room. Her legs were bare as well, in fact she was certain that her panties were the only thing still left in place; her left eye was swollen shut, she felt the lingering effects of a concussion, and as her tongue experimentally explored her own mouth she found a small number of missing teeth. It was however as she sat by struggling vainly against her bonds that a single individual entered beneath the lights. It was a chameleon, a rather short one, all hunched over and gangly looking. It was clearly female, though only just barely; if others Skye had met were insecure about their chest compared to her this chick was the queen of it all, in fact, she was nearly mistakable for a male. She wore the long white coat of a scientist from one of Beltino's facilities, but she also wore the synthetic polymer gloves of a surgeon and that along was enough cause for worry. The strange creature moved about checking her bindings before shoving the business end of a stethoscope sharply into her cleavage causing an even more broad chill to run down her back, as the space between her breasts was the only thing being kept warm until the violent intrusion took place. Several times she attempted to speak but, it was clear that her jaw had been broken or at the very least dislocated. It was only a few moments before the reptile produced a small recorder before walking about observing her...

"Specimen is...lupine, possibly crossbred with some other form of canine," Her voice seemed to hiss eerily with her S sounds, "incredibly dexterous muscle tone for a female. Blood type is AB positive. Seems to be incredibly well trained as well, in pain, multiple broken bones, dislocated jaw, with temperatures kept as a fair, though for me freezing, fifty-four degrees...yet she somehow manages to keep a fairly average heart rate. Blood pressure is average, though at these temperatures we will see how long that lasts," He said approaching again this time cupping one of the she-wolf's breasts from beneath bouncing it in the palm of her freezing hand for a moment, "fairly adequate proportions as well. I believe twenty-eight D, by twenty-five, by thirty-one if my measurements were correct. I would bother with I.Q testing but, I fair to believe that with chests so big there is no space for actual intelligence..." She growled twisting Skye's frozen nipple with jealous force causing the she-wolf to clench her teeth so tightly that she could feel the instant her jaw nearly relocated, "...I practically had to pull Caruso off of this one, though I cannot say I blame him entirely. Normally I would get right down to stripping the body bare but, this one I think is special. The last living O'Donnell is something to savor, especially after what her father did to my predecessor. I shall continue to log my progress here for "The Hand" to view over and listen to as I work..." She said drawing herself to eye level, "...Doctor Leona Powalsi, subject number twenty-four thirty-six...O'Donnell."

Something about the name stood out to her though through the pain she was having trouble recalling where she'd heard it before. Her eyes followed the thin reptile's form as she moved about the slightly lit area moving metal trays as she used a penlight to inspect Skye's eyes, "You have no idea who I am do you?" She said matter-of-factually as she clicked the light off before placing it in her breast pocket, "apparently our father's were a bit of a companionship item some time ago," She paused and chuckled, "well if you can call that old lizard a father at all. You see, Leon Powalski was incapable of any kind of conception, he'd been sort of robbed of his..." She chuckled again twitching a single finger, "digit? In some sort of fight some time back; god only knows how. Cloning being as uncertain as it is, what was produced from him was...me. Though he didn't seem to have any problems with it, he certainly did give me all the training he otherwise would have if I had turned out male as he'd wanted. Of course when he failed to be useful in any way he had to retire..." She sighed as she produced what looked like a hook-shaped knife, "...now you may come onto the idea that I am here for someone other than myself...let me reassure you that I am not. You see, I've found a rather interesting correlational between the strange abilities that have been showing in Lylatian civilians and the appearance of the Cerinian race over the course of that last twenty or so years. As to this end, I require both specimens that are and are not fully effected in some way," She said dragging her hooked blade across Skye's arm the young wolf growling out loud in pain as the razor-sharp blade bit deep along it's path drawing up a hot trail of blood, "hmmm...pity. I was hoping you'd heal like the last one I'd gotten ahold of. I've been studying Cerinians for several years now, and even though I'm not certain how the process to extracting C-cell from their DNA works, I'm still incredibly interested in the paperwork that my predecessor managed to steal from Corneria Military Headquarters back when Black Star first got started."

With an exasperated sigh, Leona reached out a deceptively powerful hand and jerked on Skye's jaw causing a loud crunch, and suddenly through a shot of pain, Skye found the joints had been relocated. After a moment the reptile turned to a table just out of sight and produced a small syringe, its glass body, "What the hell is that?" She growled.

Leona studied the syringe for a moment, "When the first sample was stolen I found it strange that it glowed blue like this but, I later discovered that there is a high level of very strange radiation in the Cerinian cellular code," She chuckled while jamming the needle violently into Skye's shoulder, "now, I don't have access to the proper facilities like the Professor and his cronies who worked on the original project but, I would like to happily tell you that I've only lost two subjects from the first stages of the injection," She said very forcefully squeezing her captive's right breast, "after all...wouldn't it be a pity to let that body go to waste? Now so that you'll be prepared let me go over this with you," She said as she injected the seemingly searing fluid into Skye's body, "in the first stage there will be a rather large increase in body temperature, I once again do not have the equipment for this properly so I have to go with what I have so it's quite cool in here. In stage two you may witness some rather vivid hallucinations, I am intensely intrigued by this stage as I believe this is mainly caused by the radical increase of firing synapses running through your mind. Finally, in stage three, you should revert into a sort of dormant state for a time; this is the stage that I am most interested in, as I believe it is your mind entering a sort of short-term hibernation while the forced evolution takes place. Of course, there is a fair chance that no change will take place at all, and there is also a chance that you will simply die..." She chuckled tossing the empty needle and clapping her gloved hands together, "...aren't guessing games fun?"

Skye spit a bit of dry blood onto the chameleon's boot before growling angrily, "What...the actual, fuck is wrong with you?"

Leona leaned in taking Skye forcibly by the chin, once again displaying her rather unusual physical strength as she lowered her mouth to Skye's ear, "I'm a Sato-narcissistic sociopath," She replied running a thin finger along the cut on Skye's arm before dragging the bloody finger across her tongue, "I wish I could say why, or what reasoning I have for it but there isn't really a notion to that really is there? I'm fucked in the head, I know it, you know it now...and I'm okay with that. Someone will bring you food in a bit, after all, I can't just have you dying on me can I? Not before I've decided you're no longer useful to me," She added walking away and waving back to Skye, "I will return to check on you when the effects of the injection run their course for stage one? After all even in this cold if your temperature should rise to high, too quickly I might have to resort to drastic measures to keep you from death's doorstep."

As she left the room alone again, Skye could only remain there and shiver; it was colder than she could stand, almost, just almost her fur did some work to keep the cold from growing too bad. The fact that she was mostly nude made her mind writhe with the thoughts that Caruso might have actually done anything to her body whatsoever, even the thought of the reptile's hands on her body did not bother her so much as even the thought that he might have. The thought of the strange creature she was now being held captive by caused Skye to look to her shackled arm, the injection site was already turning red, she hadn't been very gentle about it. She'd heard tell of what the project involving Cerinian blood had done, in some cases it had done just what Leona had said, causing individuals to develop strange abilities, though those situations were all incredibly controlled. The Black Star project was at first a deep-seeded secret of the military but, was now considered somewhat of an Urban legend that implied the idea that the military would lie to the populace, thanks to spinning tales the Council was capable of clearly convincing the masses that they'd never do anything so underhanded. Krystal had said as much was true, it was just a processed portion of her DNA that happened to make Cerinians so capable, but did that mean that if she lived through the process that she would become more powerful? Hearing other's thoughts, moving things with her mind, causing raging infernos with little to no effort other than thought, even the strange bear that had been with Caruso was capable of manipulating gravity; did she even want that kind of power? What good was all of her years of training at the academy if it was dwarfed and overshadowed by the simple process of another person's genetic information being forced into her body? Now that she thought about it, wasn't genetic alteration still violently illegal to even consider? Much the less perform outside of a controlled environment nonetheless? Whatever the case was, her thoughts were eventually cut off by an unknown individual wearing a mask stepped in, unchained her hands before relocating the chains into the armrests of the chair. It really was little more than bread and water but, both were welcome; unfortunately sitting there, with or without food brought her to the same monumental conclusion, if she didn't find a way out of this situation, she was certain she'd die in this room...

It was the midpoint of the second day when it hit her, midday her breathing began to become erratic, on top of everything else, it was no longer cold, in fact despite the clear frost in the room she felt suddenly as though she were burning alive. In little over an hour, she found it was nearly unbearable, there was no wonder she had mentioned that the room was being kept so cold, if the room had been normal temperature by now she'd have died of a heat stroke. She found it hard to keep her mind straight, she'd passed out several times only to wake and find Leona working to get her back to consciousness again. The process had taken only a day or so to begin but, she found that suffering through it was much worse than that. Days passed, so many in fact that soon enough she'd completely lost track of them, whatever the serum in her system was doing to her, it clearly was not normal as she constantly had the notions of being slowly torn apart from the inside out, and yet the days and the torture continued on. Days passed at an agonizingly slow pace, every so often her reptilian tormentor would reappear only to check with her vitals before insulting her again and doing whatever she seemed to wish for the time she was there before vanishing again. Everything was about her numbers and status updates, yet everything else didn't seem to miss her observations either...she simply seemed to ignore them. By the fourth day, she felt as though she was going to die it was, however, on the ninth day that something told her that she'd already been dead. It started one morning, at least she thought it might be morning when she woke to find that she was no longer dying of heat and cold at the same time, rather the room was fairly pleasant just warm enough to keep any arrant chill off, while just cool enough to stop any level of sweating heat might have caused. Something acute as usual, like the sound of air or distant footsteps she was bizarrely aware of, it echoed inside of her skull like an empty cavern, yet it did not cause her head to hurt at all. She felt strangely dazed but, otherwise, there were no real issues, even the cut on her arm was gone without so much as a scar to show for her troubles. Without warning it looked to her like a light had entered the room, it was in round shafts that stretched from the ceiling to the floor, but, it looked like there was no real place the light was coming from. It only took a short time of her watching on in silent awe before the lights began to circle her without rhyme or reason before their cylindrical forms began to morph and shrink in size until they were only each about the size of her forearm. Soon they spun in place before each shifted taking on its own shape and soon she was no longer looking at shafts of light but, the very clear and present form of a row of smiling white fangs...

Skye looked on in stunned amazement, "What...the...fuck?" She uttered shakily.

"Look at you," A strange voice echoed as the disembodied maw mouthed the words, "pathetic, just gonna sit there and let it happen huh?"

If her mind had been blown before, now she was certain this wasn't real, "The fuck do you know? You're a yap'n smile..."

As she watched on the very detailed form of a floating head took shape; it was many times the size of a normal head, completely devoid of a body but, it was that of a male wolf with dark gray fur a large spread of white trailed up from below its jaw arching up over the top of its head in a familiar-looking streak of hair, it's left eye was replaced with a patch of blackened steel hiding a clear injury left by the scare that trailed over that side of its face, "That's right, nothing but a fucking delusion right? Convincing yourself that you're helpless right now while Powalski works her way back in her to reach up yer ass and turn you into her own personal marionette," It smiled evilly, "so what're ya wait'n fer? Hmm...?"

Skye gritted her teeth as she felt a tear of unknown frustration roll through her fur, "What the fuck do you want from me?!" She shouted, "you want me to chew through the fucking cuffs?! If you've got the balls to show up now, where were you when I needed you?! Where was anybody when I needed them?!"

"You think yer the only one's been abandoned kid?" It replied, "I know...I know better than most. It hurts to think you're all alone, hurts more to think nobody out there wanted you or ever will; but, if that's what you think...with all these people backing you...maybe you're not as smart as I'd hoped you would be. Do you honestly think that you need help? Or is it that you secretly want someone to come save you?" Skye's eyes went wide in utter realization, "a lil' girl wishing for a white knight to come in and save her life. I guess every female goes through that at some point."

It was amazing and horrifying; such a short amount of time had passed before she'd discovered how she felt about Dax and yet, in that time she found she'd come to rely on him, not just his being there but completely. Had she somehow become utterly dependent; not of him but, of the crew itself? "No..." She growled back, "...we're a crew, we all depend on one another. Isn't that what being a crew is all about?" She asked weakly.

Looking up again there was no disembodied head, just a sneering reptile with a small computer panel in her hand on which she tapped out a few things, "Stage two reached...and confirmed. Let's see how long this lasts."

Location: Venom

Time: 0718am

It had already been several days since Mick had last seen Skye, he wasn't certain why her trail led him where he was or how Caruso had come to be in such a place as this. Since the last war the atmosphere had become much more livable, in fact, the rains were pleasant enough the environment actually had begun to remind him a bit of Bogwater back home if someone had come in and taken the smell of the swamp away. The small city he was in reminded him a lot of Corneria as well, in fact, if it weren't for the noxious looking green color the atmosphere gave off due to the rays of Solar in the distance. He'd found that the city was rather large but, nothing compared to others, and regardless of all that he all his clues regarding Caruso and his bear friend had only led him to this place. It was a fairly disgusting little dive in the further end of the city; nothing like any other bar he'd really been into in fact at his current moment the brawl that had started over some female or other caused him to lift his drink off his table as an errant body slid across its surface, dashing a nearby stool to pieces. He couldn't really identify the drink by smell or taste but, it wasn't a terrible experience for the tongue. Whatever the case, three days of searching after coming to the place had brought him to a dry trail and talk of a black panther often enough visiting a dive at the far end of the city. It was a fairly rowdy place, plenty of people attempting to establish some weak form of dominance, either through acts of blatant intimidation or some half-assed drinking game which only went to prove that none of them would last in any bar on Argo. He found it lucky enough that his father had passed on a rather powerful level of patience to him because it was some time after his sixth hour sitting and drinking what he could only call watered-down booze, and eating whatever he felt like trying from the tavern's menu that a familiar-looking figure stepped through the door. The panther was just as smug as he seemed to ever be, though he was bleating on about something to do with an unruly reptile of some sort while demanding a drink and some sort of food that caught Mick's attention. He had no idea how long it would take but, as he sat by something untold did seem to catch him off guard. She was no Argon by any stretch of the imagination; somewhat shorter than he was if only by a few inches, his six-foot frame considered small by Argon principle, she had dark blue eyes with narrow slits for pupils, and a thick, rather long tail. Her cream-colored scaly skin glistened in the lights overhead, clearly showing she'd only just recently shed making the darker born horizontal stripes that etched the length of her body stick out all the more. She was wearing something familiar to everything you'd expect from a young female with her body type. Thick with muscle but not tone, somewhat heavy in the chest but not threatening to topple over anytime soon. She had long raven black hair that curled at it's ends, and wore a fairly showy, though modest enough pair of knee-length black pants with an off white, short sleeve shirt aside from her long black apron. She'd passed several times by now, taking drinks and such to this table and that but, this time she did not simply pass by, she instead simply stood by the familiar looks of a bashful female on her face...

Even if he'd never have approached her himself, she was fairly easy on the eyes, even though he could not exactly place what species she was. It was however clear she wanted to say something, it was...cute, "Well?" Mick chuckled, "ya wanna 'ave a seat?"

A bit startled by the forwardness she quickly took a seat, "I...umm..."

Her stammering was not something he was used to, as Argon women were always forward and straight with their wants, it was a welcome change really, "Yer not used ta see'n mah kind 'round 'ere, issat right?"

"No no no..." She quickly shook her head, "it's nothing like that. Just, well you remind me of someone that came through here, about a year ago. He was very kind. He was a bit larger than you and lighter in color too."

Mick scoffed out loud, more a single chocked laugh than any other sound, "Sound like me ol' man. Been travel'n since ah left the Academy," He shook his head with a smile while tipping his hat toward her, "where' mah mannahs? Name's Mick, short for Mickey."

She seemed a bit dumbfounded for a moment before realizing what she was being told, "Wow...I can't believe it," She half smiled, "the Sydney Vexx was in here and didn't even manage to notice that it was him," She asked herself and Mick at the same time, "my name is Sewry, I'm from Nox...I know not a lot of people go there, but, your family is really well known on Nox."

Mick chuckled tipping his hat back allowing it to fall back over his head, the strap keeping it tight to his neck, "No surprises there," He replied, "ma' an' da' they got 'round. From what 'ah here they did a lot o' good in a lot o' different places," As he spoke she placed a pair of short, round black-framed glasses on her face before pushing them up the bridge of her snout which only served to make her already large eyes seem all the more bright. He cleared his throat a bit before pumping his thumb toward Caruso, "this bloke come 'ere often?"

At the sight of Caruso, Sewry removed her glasses with one hand before rubbing at her closed eyelids, "God I'd hoped he wouldn't be here today. A week without seeing his face is NOT enough time."

"He a problem?"

Sewry smiled while shaking her head, "Not too often..." She sighed placing her glasses back in place while waving her hand to a nearby barmaid before ordering something or other, "...he comes in here every so often. Shoots his mouth off, harasses Lyraa all the time. Once he found that to be a dry valley, he recently started in on me. Not sure why, Lyraa says he'll hit on anything with tits...sort of looks like she's right most days."

Mick chuckled again, "Wouldn't be too surprised were I you..." He said giving her a slight wink, "...he could do a lot worse."

Sewry lowered her gaze in an attempt to hide the scarlet color that washed over her face, "Oh...th-ank you," She paused noticing as he looked back toward the form of Caruso, "but you seem a little distracted."

Finally, the large croc leaned forward against the table, a wave of his fingers signing for her to come closer, "Look sheila," He half-whispered, "dat bloke o'er yonder. Sort o' a patsy, the deal is, that patsy jess took someone mighty important 'bout a week ago."

"Oh," Sewry looked from Caruso, cutting her eyes back to Mick, "a girl?" Mick only gently nodded, "...friend?"

Mick laughed a bit louder than he intended before going back to talking normal, "Nah, I'm not into the fluff; jess say dis sheila's important and leave it at that. Ma cap'n; hard as it is ta believe ah'm say'n dat."

"So she really is important," Sewry nodded a bit to herself, "well, if that's the case why not meet me here," She said passing Mick a small bit of paper with an address on it, "I'll see what information I can come up with before then."

Mick waved his hand while shaking his head, "Oi oi oi; there's no call in dat," He pointed out, "you got no reason ta..."

Mick suddenly found her surprisingly soft fingers against his lips, "Oh hush," She chuckled, "you think I'd pass on a chance to do something like this? This is the most interesting thing that's ever happened to me. Like being a spy or something."

Mick blinked in silent amazement, "Yer a lil' worked up 'bout this eh?"

"I used to wonder what it was like," She replied sitting back in her seat, "I guess a lot of people like to imagine what it would be like to make those kind of differences don't you think?"

Mick smiled as he shook his head, sitting back in his own seat, "Nevah really thought 'bout it that way. Always saw mahself settle'n down early. Ya know, at least one generation 'ave a calm life in mah family. Always fancied mahself a cook. Too much violence in this system sheila, it's not right," He pointed out tapping a thick index finger onto the table, "people like mah friend that freak has. She should only be think'n 'bout 'er future. Poor kid's got 'nuff on 'er mind without all dis shite on top o' it all."

"Fair enough," Sewry replied, "Just give me a little time..." She said looking around, "...I'd say about an hour then meet me at that address. My shift is over but I've got a lot to do before I can go back."

In a flustered rush, the young female lizard rushed out of the bar several of her things tucked under one arm while she held a communicator to one side of her face. Mick could only chuckle to himself and shake his head as she headed out of the building; he'd finish his food and drink before heading out himself, after all, he had a bit more tracking to do for himself before relying on her for the information, at least not just yet. He used every minute he could manage to wait there with his eyes constantly on Caruso, who stayed to do exactly as he would have thought. If Lyraa was indeed the young tawny furred filly that the panther was currently talking to, it was understandable why he was bothering her; her kind was rare in Lylat having migrated from a hostile system outside the reaches some time ago, nearly as chest heavy as a Hadian, though she smiled as his every word it was clear who exactly was playing who in the situation, the little lady was nobody's fool, though not as much could be said about her courtly suitor...the boy was clearly an idiot. Two sheets to the wind and working on the third, it was some time after the noon before he was staggeringly led out the door by Lyraa. It was a long, slow pace they kept; the two would stop here and there sometimes at a shop of one sort or another, the whole time his lady at hand would continue to bleed him dry...it was a game that was going to get her hurt someday...until that day however, shed provide a perfect distraction.

Just as late as he'd been planning, Mick made his own way, though no longer as a means to follow Caruso, instead, he found his way along the city streets in order to follow his new friend's address. Apartments, not those one would normally find in slums or the lesser sides of town but, rather the kind set aside for dormitories. A slight smile tugged at the corner of his long snout, a schoolgirl, of course she was. He'd heard all about it back in the day when he was at the academy; as soon as Dash Oinkoney had taken over his Grandfather's position as the planet's leader, his first act had been to erect one of the famous Institutes of Higher Learning. It was good to see someone her age concentrating more on learning rather than concentrating on all the other troubles of life. Standing at the doorway, it was clear that he was not allowed to enter due to the building's security, however, a short conversation about Sewry and a call to her room resulted in a familiar voice simply telling the guard to "send him up", he was a simple guard, large, stout, very appropriate for the job, moreover, he seemed to legitimately care about the younger people living there. It was odd to see such a place as Venom in such spirits especially after all that he'd learned about the place from before the wars. The apartment was several stories up, not very close to the roof ut also nowhere near the floor level; as he'd come to expect, several individuals who'd tried to stop the elevator on its way up simply turned and looked the other way when noticing him onboard. Upstairs it was a short walk to the correct dorm; 308 B., whose door opened before he could even arrive, in fact, there seemed to be some sort of argument going on. The first voice was obviously Sewry, he, however, did not recognize the other two; just as well they didn't seem to notice him either as the door was only gently pushed out of the way to reveal a gray vixen, and a badger standing just inside the room, judging by her reaction Sewry hadn't really invited any of them inside...

"Sorry Mick," The young lizard huffed while folding her arms over her chest, "these two were just leaving. Right?" She half growled.

The two in front of him very quickly turned to face him, clearly expecting someone their own size to yell at before immediately falling back on their tails, "Dunno sheila, maybe their business is more important, eh?" He stepped to the side only to watch the two young ladies scramble out the door on their hands and knees only breaking into a full run as they fought their way to their feet, "...beauty; don't think ah've evah seen a badger run dat fast."

Sewry brushed a wrinkle or two out of the suit she was wearing, tight spandex in black with a thick blue stripe down the center of the shorter top and shorts, "Sorry you had to see that," She sighed drying her face off with a towel she had laid across her shoulders, "there's some bad blood there from several years back. Sheril," She paused rustling her fingers over her hair, "the fox with the silly hair, if you noticed. We used to run track together back in the Institute...unfortunately she took the idea that I was after her boy toy at the time, and she's had it out for me ever since."

"She always decide ta do 'er fight'n wit 'er lil' crony on hand?"

Sewry nodded with a sigh as she tossed her sweat towel onto a nearby chair, "Pretty much," She chuckled as she headed to another room, "make yourself at home while I get out of these clothes," She said as she exited the room to what he would only assume was where she slept, "I was expecting you a while back but, you were following Lyrra and that guy, so I took the opportunity to use the gym while there was still pretty much nobody downstairs."

As he stepped about Mick tilted back a picture frame seated on her desk next to her computer. It showed a very wide smiling Sewry standing shoulder to shoulder with two older looking lizards, clearly her parents. Mick could only smile a bit as he noted that her arms over each of their shoulders were weighting them down, "Ya knew 'bout that eh?"

Sewry's head and shoulder peeked back in from the room, "You're not as hard to read as you might think." She pointed out before popping back out of the room, "my parents and I took that picture on Papetoon about four years ago, "dad...well it was one of his last wishes. We buried him three years ago.. That was a hell of a week, if you'd believe him while he was still alive, he said it left him with nothing else to do in life. Mom lives with my sister now, they basically sent me to school so I could become a doctor or something, and I end up doing at least something similar. Just a nurse really but, that much doesn't bother me."

Mick nodded more to himself than to her, "Ya go ta the gym often?"

"Well there's a thing about that," She replied as she reappeared now dressed in a rather large shirt who's sleeves were rather wide and hung slightly longer than her arms, it's neck hanging just lower than the shirt she'd worn before, while she wore a much longer pair of similar shorts to her exercise outfit, "see I used to have quite a terrible eating problem, still do really. I love food," She giggled a bit as she patted her rather lean stomach beneath her shirt, "unfortunately it does not love me back. So truth is I have a tenancy to overeat, and because of that I tend to work out fairly often."

"So," Mick said after a long pause, "how ya plan on 'elp'n me find mah, friend?"

Sewry smiled, "Well Lyrra owed me," She chuckled, "so she's been feeding me information about her and Romeo's little outing," She said holding up a communicator to show a screen where she'd been in constant contact with Lyrra, "he seems to think she's planning to get her friend...me...involved. She says they're headed to a facility somewhere outside of the city to pick up a friend, then he says they're headed to his place. Not too far from there."

Mick rubbed his chin for a moment, "Ah didn't notice 'is lil' teddy bear wit 'im. Know'n da kinda' man he is, won't let that slide fer long," He sighed, "where they 'eaded?"

Sewry paused for a moment, "Looooooks liiiiike..." She said looking over her communications with Lyrra, "...an old abandoned research facility outside of the city to the east. According to her you couldn't miss it if you tried," She pointed out picking up a backpack, "we should go while we still can."

"Whoa, hold the phone sheila," He called out clapping a massive hand over her shoulder to stop her advancement toward the door, "where 'ya think yer go'n?"

She looked at him in confusion, "With you?"

Mick chuckled as he gently pushed her back into the room, "'An 'xactly watta ya think ya'll do?" He asked with his hand held out wide, "these're bad folks. No offense but, ah'm not 'xactly 'eaded down there ta share a basked o' sammiches. Nasty folks do'n nasty stuff. Ya ever even been in a fight?"

"Don't be absurd of course I have," She replied, "you think you can survive on Nox, or venom for that matter without defending yourself?"

Mick sighed heavily, "Listen, Sewry," he did his best to make his point clear, "in all likelihood...people're gonna die tonight, 'an it ain't gonna be pretty, it nevah is. Ah'd like to explain but, jess take mah word for it. There's a lotta weird shit go'n on out there right now; an' ah ain't get'n no one else involved. Jess know, ah appreciate what you've done...wouldn't 'ave found it nearly as fast without ya. It's been fun..."

As he turned to leave her standing there in wide mouthed surprise, Sewry jerked his arm back with surprising force, "Wait a second," She half shouted, "that's how you're leaving this? It's too dangerous for a little girl, see you again never...have a nice life?"

Mick laughed a bit, it really did seem rude after all her help. So with a heavy sigh he reached to a pen on her desk and jotted something down on a nearby piece of paper, an envelope of some kind, "Look..." He sighed, "...not someth'n ah generally tend to do but...call me sometime," He sighed once more as he handed her the envelope, "on another note. Ya may wanna get outta town; if they see mah face an' track that back ta you..."

Sewry nodded, "No I understand. I'll go stay with my mom and sister for a bit," She said reaching down into the neck of her shirt and producing a small pad of notes, which she used to write something down before handing it to Mick, who stared at her chest with a bit of a puzzled look causing her to laugh, "Oh right...so a few months ago I found this bra that has pockets. A lot harder to mug you if they don't know where to look right?"

Mick took the note from her before stuffing it into his pocket with a smile, "Ya know what?" He said patting her head before turning back toward the door, "hard ta argue wit that logic..." As he stepped out of the door he held up the note, "...ah'll be in touch. Always good ta know 'ow many friends ye can count on."

With that said, and a fairly chipper attitude considering the situation at hand Mick found his way out of the city, and as he was promised, to the east he found it. A rather large structure that seemed more like an old archive building than a research facility. He could smell blood on the air but, something told him it was the right place...

-Meanwhile-

Corneria City

The news had come on so suddenly that Krystal hadn't had time to really even process what was going on; she'd of course left Fox to his business on the Gate Station in order to help out with Angle and Sierra but, she'd never expected the calls she'd received in rapid succession. First, a call from the Colletta, claiming that Skye was abducted, then the worst news of her life...Fox McCloud, was dead. Even long after she'd reached Corneria, where they'd moved his body. Sierra and Angle both could not believe their eyes when they saw his body, Krystal all but lost her composure completely. It had taken nearly a week to prepare everything, a ceremony giving the fabled hero of the system a burial with full honors in such that not even most generals would see such a turn out for the event. Traffic in the once-bustling city had come to a standstill overnight, entire offices shut down, schools and the academies refused to open. The city had shut down completely; worst of all Krystal had so far refused to eat, drink, or say anything as if she was still in a permanent state of shock. Even during the ceremony she still refused to speak yet, after the final stages of the funeral had passed, a panicked little frog in a lab coat rushed in where Krystal had found herself, a large room that Peppy had readied for her in an upscale hotel in the city, it was one she'd stayed in many times before working with the team. Out of breath and still breathing heavily after being allowed into the room. It was as Sierra offered him a glass of water that he finally managed to calm himself...

"K-krystal..." He paused to take a deep breath, "...he's not dead. That was a fake body, F'ox's wishes. I need you all to come with me right now."

Without question, upon hearing his words Krystal immediately rushed out alongside him, Sierra and her parents as well quickly followed in tow. Krystal had no idea what it was Slippy was talking about but if there was a chance that this wasn't a farce, then at least it was some hope.

AN: Okay first of all, I'd like to apologize that this took so long to post, but as you can see i've been writing on it for quite a while. At this point, there are several different plot lines that I'm trying to tie together, also while juggling work, family, and a global pandemic. Shit sucks LOL. Anyhow I apologize if this chapter was a little longer coming out than others. I have the next few planned ahead of time so hopefully, this doesn't take so long on the next one. Thanks again for all the suppor and ^^ hope everyone is staying safe and germ free...

Always remember that R&Rs are always helpful, suggestions, ideals, I strive to entertain all brains LOL

The Footsteps in the Darkness

~SkullFox