I have a double update for yall now! was able to get my laptop out to where i was and complete and wrote these to chapters for you, and i am finally getting to the meat of the story. things will be a good bit more exciting from here on!
Officer Damien Bradley fought to keep his eyes open as he sat in his squad's briefing room, a cup of coffee steaming away just inches from his muzzle. It's glorious aroma barely even scratched at his senses.
"Come on Bradley, it's not even your shift yet and you already look asleep!" he just waved off his colleague, trying to get his brain to wake up. But it was all to no avail. The canine had been pulling extra shifts, his squad having three officers down this month alone. One dead, two in the hospital, all shot by gangs in their district. Several of the other squads had casualties too, with record numbers of police deaths this month alone.
"Hey Brad, got word that we are getting some new hands today, fresh from the academy. Maybe you can stop pulling double shifts, eh?" he groggily cracked his eye open as a female avian spoke from beside him, the bright yellow woman grinning at him.
"Yeah, and maybe I can finally get some sleep too." He let his eyes close again, taking a deep sniff of the coffee again.
"Aaaaannnnd one of them is that human they had in the news the other day. First human to ever pass the Academy. Ten liat says L-T is going to give him to you!"
"Casey, I hate you…" the bird laughed at him as she settled into the seat beside him, lounging back in the chair.
"Hey, hey! Look it's the damned human new guy!" one of his squad mates shouting that managed to perk him up enough to sit up, sipping on his coffee for a moment before looking out the windows around the room.
The human was immediately evident, given the entire floor of the precinct was eyeballing him. Some were bold enough to call out friendly greetings. Most though, were glaring daggers at him. Bradley though, was more curious about their different uniforms.
The normal uniform of the CPD was a formal shirt, sleeve length dependent on the weather, tie, slacks, and equipment belt, all in shades of a deep navy blue. These new uniforms were all one shade of navy, and were comprised of baggy cargo pants, bloused into boots. The top was some sort of t-shirt like material, with sleeves and sides looking more like military apparel. Though the equipment belt was retained, they each were wearing slate grey chest plates and back plates, tightly fastened to their upper bodies. The plates all looked like repainted military armor, a sort of reflective plate designed to disperse plasma bolts away from the wearer. Three of the new recruits, human included, slipped into his squad's briefing room.
"Attention!" One of his other colleagues shouted that out, Bradley nearly dropping his coffee as he snapped to his feet, facing the front of the room.
"At ease boys!" the canine in charge of the squad had slipped in from his office, leaning on his podium. Their lieutenant was smaller than average, both shorter and slimmer than most of his squad. He always made up for that with shear speed and agility though, so not one of the squad had ever thought to make fun of him for it, even though the man needed a step stool to see properly over his own tall podium. That said, most of the people in the room would have been hard pressed to see over the podium without a step themselves, simply not needing one. He had speckled grey, white, and black fur, the fur darkening around his eyes and along the back of his neck to make it look like he was permanently wearing glasses. One of his ears was always kinked about halfway down it's length, the other standing straight up to leave him looking lopsided at all times.
"As you all may have surmised, we have new recruits today. Bradley, take Hawkins, Sergeant Caldwell, take Mallis, Jacobs, you get Huerta."
Something about the name, 'Hawkins' was oddly familiar to Bradley, looking at the three recruits to try and guess which was going to be with him. With them all in the room, he could easily see each of their names stenciled onto the chest plates. Hawkins, as it turned out, was in fact the human. To which he glared at the smug grin on the bird beside him for.
"Shut up Casey."
"Nope, called it!" the bird winked at him, making the canine roll his eyes at the bird.
"Secondly, you may have noticed by now that the rookies are all wearing different gear than you all. That will be the new patrol standard. The police chief feels there have been too many shoot outs in district one for our officers to continue to go unarmored. If you already have tactical plates, start wearing them. If you don't, go down to the armory and sign them out. That is not optional for any of you, regardless of your assignment. Anyone who is carbine certified, you will be carrying a carbine at all times as well. I don't expect you to have the new tactical uniforms today, but try and get them in the next two weeks. I've sent your schedules to your wrist coms, Bradley, I need to speak with you. Everyone else, dismissed, and keep your eyes open out there. I don't want anyone else getting hurt." He shouted most of his short little speech before stepping off his podium and moving back into his office.
"Great, what did I do this time. Rook! Stay here!" he called back at the human as he scooped his coffee up and slumped his way into the lieutenant's office. Upon arrival, he immediately sunk into one of the chairs, taking a long gulp of the bitter brown fluid. "You wanted to see me sir?"
"Yeah, Shark Biscuit over there I've been told is a bit of a loose cannon. Aggressive on the draw, tends to shoot to kill right out of the gate. Not the usual we want but times are rough so I'll take what we can get. Keep an eye on him, and once you think he's ready to work on his own, give him your extra shifts. Been asking a lot of ya lately mate, so try to take it easy once you can, alright?" Lieutenant Leo Bergland sunk into his own chair behind his desk as he spoke.
"I'm fine sir. Anything I should know about him?"
"Other than he had a recommendation list as long as me, is a former soldier, and knows how to fly starfighters, not much else of interest I could pick out of his file. Obviously scored extremely well on the tactical exercises, only got docked for shooting most of the perps."
"Alright. I'll make sure to get him good to go, and get some rest sir." The lieutenant nodded to him and waved him out, Bradley immediately complying, with another drink of his coffee. The rookie, Hawkins, was still standing by the back of the briefing room, silently watching him.
Now that it was just the two of them, it was evident that he had several differences from even his fellow recruits, as far as equipment. He had several extra pouches on his left side, holding what looked a lot like power packs for a pistol. His pistol was also larger and bulkier than the standard slim firearm the department issued, though it was not uncommon for officers to use non-issued sidearms. Bradley himself was using a military model sidearm with a light and laser assembly built into the frame. Another difference was that his side arm was not up on his waist, like most officers, but in a holster strapped to his thigh.
"Well, I'm Officer Bradley, we'll be working as partners for a while, at least until you get more than your feet wet." Bradley held his hand out to the human, something about the human's features still being utterly familiar, yet hard to place at the same time.
"Pleased to meet you Bradley. What do we have for today?" he spoke very calmly and curtly, his steel grey eyes fixed to Bradley's in a way that was almost unsettling.
"Well, past month or two I've been doing a lot of street patrols. We have a couple of plazas in our squad's patrol area that have some refugee camps cropping up in them, plus we have a huge open air market. Mostly sells produce and such from the mainland, so it tends to be pretty populated. Was thinking we would focus on the refugee camps today." He gestured to Hawkins to follow him as he stepped out of the room, ignoring the many desks around the room as he headed toward the elevator.
District one of Corneria City was so heavily populated that it's police station was in a fifteen story building. The top three stories were for the police chief and his subsidiary staff, as well as the city wide task forces. After that, the next three floors were for the precinct captain and his four squads of detectives. Included in those floors were most of the techs and evidence handling offices, intentionally built in close proximity to the detectives. The next six stories looked almost identical to one another, set up with four separate briefing rooms at each corner of the building for four different squads on each floor, complete with break rooms and plenty of shared office stations for the officers to file reports from. The first three stories of the building included a massive three story tall atrium, as well as the majority of the community outreach programs and other public legal services.
The building also had several basement levels, the first being a huge array of locker rooms and showers for the entire building, complete with a full gym. The second basement floor was dedicated to the police armory, had a direct freight elevator to the police motor pool next door, and was where any of the more sensitive pieces of evidence was stored. The bottom and final basement level was a temporary holding facility, with several dozen holding pins. Lately those pins had been almost over flowing at all times.
Once on the elevators located in the back of the building, Bradley hit the button for the elevator to take him down to the locker rooms, aiming to get his plates before heading to the armory to draw out his small carbine. He was one of the few officers who was currently carbine qualified, most of the other officers not bothering to refresh the course over the years.
"Do you know who to speak to get computer access? I want to get into one of the carbine courses as soon as possible." Hawkins' voice startled the still half asleep Bradley, nearly causing him to spill coffee on himself again.
"Yeah, IT is on the third floor, back half of the building. They'll get you set up. Let me know if you need help getting into the course. It doesn't take long, you just got to remember to keep qualifying bi-annually to keep the certification. And you're just shooting a twenty-five meter silhouette so should be cake for a former soldier. I'd honestly recommend it to all of the recruits." He spoke almost with out thinking, simply info-dumping off the top of his head as he took another drink of his coffee.
"Tracking."
"Tracking?"
"Sorry, old military slang. I already know where to find the forms to enter the course and what it requires. I just needed the computer access."
"Ah." Nothing but the calm and gentle orchestral piece that was the elevators music followed their short conversation, Bradley glancing at the human to find he was staring at the wall the whole time, his expression completely blank. "So, got a girlfriend, wife, 'special alone time helper'?"
"No." his answer was extremely curt and sharp, his eyes never leaving the wall.
"Family?"
"No."
"Friends?" Bradley winced slightly as he asked that one, legitimately nervous that his new underling was going to respond with yet another negative.
"A few." His response was still as curt as his previous ones, his eyes still solidly locked to the wall.
"Well… at least it wasn't another no."
"All due respect, I would rather focus on our job."
"Alright, fine, I'll meet you at the motor pool in ten minutes" Bradley mumbled that out as the elevator opened to the locker room level, marching off toward his locker.
Krystal groaned as she sank onto a bus stop bench, irritated by her day so far. She had gone for several different interviews at various jobs, even a local physiatrist in hopes to use her telepathy to help people. But the moment the topic of schooling came up, she was almost immediately dismissed. As far as Cornerian businesses were concerned, tutor she had been forced to study under as a child was not acceptable as an education. It was a problem she had faced before, after first arriving in the Lylat system with a broken down ship and next to nothing to her name, and had persisted her entire life until she joined Star Fox. Star Fox had been a blessing for her from the moment Fox ran across her on Sauria.
Now that She and Fox were both no longer members of the team, finding work was a huge problem for her once again. Granted, this time around, she had a loving and supportive husband, and though paying for a house completely out of pocket, plus furnishing it, had put a massive dent in their combined finances, they still had money left over from the payouts at the end of the Division war. So finding a job was less a necessity and more her simply not wanting to be bored. Even so, the struggle to find work was still a total head ache.
She had a good hour or so before her next interview, so she was content to simply sit and watch people go by for a bit, more to be off her feet than anything else. At some point, she knew she would have to move to get lunch, but she was content for the moment.
Krystal let out a small yelp as she realized someone was with in her mind, recognizing the thought energy of another Cerinian. It was odd to feel after so long with out it, that she almost completely missed the meaning to the message. Though she understood what it meant, it actually had no form of words to it, simply a contextual meaning to the pattern's derived from what the thoughts were of. It was something she had tried to explain to Fox at some point, with the clearest understanding he could ever manage being it was like talking with sensations and images rather than words. But, after so long in non-Cerinian society, her own mind had trouble processing it. To her best guess, it was someone who thought they knew her, and was happy to find her again after such a long time.
"Who are you!?" she harshly forced that thought back at the other person, knowing it likely did not have the elegance she was once capable of, and being a thought of spoken words, it was likely the other person would not understand it.
"My apologies Krystal, I never thought I would ever sense you again, after you ran away. I am… uncertain of this… talk with tongue you seem so familiar with. The people here call me 'Granny', though I feel it is at least mildly insulting. Of course, not as insulting as a student not recognizing her master." Krystal could feel the person's amusement, memories of the person starting to flood her mind. She, unlike most Cerinians, had a written name, Elder Huntress. As simple as it sounded, it was the way the few cerinian's were named, mostly because names were for written records and stories. As such, only really important figures had them. Krystal herself didn't even give herself a name until she met Fox.
"Teacher!? You're alive!? Where are you?!" Krystal leapt off the bench with that thought, feeling more of her former teacher's amusement through her mind.
"Not far. I will guide you." With her thought words, came a flood of images, taken straight from the minds of the pedestrians around them, giving her a mental map to a park bench just a couple of blocks away.
In an instant, Krystal was almost sprinting her way through the crowd, trusting the map fed into her mind as she ducked through the people. Thankfully, it wasn't a very busy day, even so, she got several stares and shouts of annoyance as she startled people. She didn't care though, a sort of excitement she could barely even understand coursing through her veins.
Moments later, she rounded the corner to see the small park, turned into one of the many refugee camps around the city. At the edge of it, on a bench and easily visible from where she stood was a single lone Cerinian, small in stature, even compared to the mostly emaciated survivors. Her fur was a pale blue, almost white, with dozens of permanently bleached 'tattoo's' as Will always called them in her fur, far more intricate and complex than Krystal's they were, after all, a story of the woman's accomplishments, from her beginnings as a hunter to becoming one of their kingdom's leaders. The woman, with her pale almost sightless eyes, was smiling directly at Krystal.
Krystal whole heartedly returned the smile as she slowed to a walk, calmly making her way toward the bench and immediately sitting down. "It's amazing to see you teacher! I… thought I had lost everyone ten years ago!" she didn't really think as she spoke, so caught up in the moment that she didn't care that most Cerinian's did not speak to one another.
"Cha-ild. Talk… no." the woman's voice was about as usable as her eyes, coupled with her lack of knowledge of the Cornerian language, caused a sigh to cross Krystal's muzzle. The older woman was still smiling at her though, her body shaking slightly, as though she was cold.
"I'm sorry. I've gotten so used to talking to people, telepathy is a little… strange to use once more." Krystal thought that back to the elderly woman, as she continued to inspect her, unable to not feel a little sad. Ten years ago, though the woman was showing her age, and was already mostly blind, she was still fit, and had long silvery hair that was utterly gorgeous alongside her dulling fur. Now, that hair was gone, only a thin tuft of grey hair growing from her head. Her body, once toned and shapely, seemed to have decayed to that of a corpse. Seeing someone like her going from a proud and strong woman, to the decrypt state she was now in in just ten years, was beyond saddening.
"worry not child, nor over my condition or your own. You have lived a very different life than any of us could have ever imagined. I apologize, but I already looked through part of your mind to make sure it really was you after I sensed you…" her mental voice was almost timid, or ashamed, the Elder's eyes looking away from Krystal.
"It's fine teacher. I can't blame you for doing so." Krystal smiled to the woman as warmly as she could.
"Well, that ease's my mind at least some. You found yourself quite the handsome lad away from our home." Several images were forced into Krystal's mind, all of Fox, and mostly of the times they had been alone together, clothing being…. Forgotten.
Upon seeing the images that the Elder was popping into her mind, taken from her own memories, her cheeks immediately warmed, likely to the point that her facial fur was completely upright, the interiors of her ears going pink. "Okay, maybe I'm not okay with you having explored those particular memories!"
The Elder merely laughed, her weak and grainy voice barely audible. "Does not make me any less happy for you my child. Both your mother and father would have approved of him!"
"So… they… didn't make it?"
"Sadly, I do not believe so. After Cerinia burned, that man, Andross, as the people here think of him, took both of them from us. I… I do not know what became of them. I'm sorry…" she could feel the sorrow in the older woman, several images from her mind bleeding through their connection, showing Cerinians being taken from the camps over the last decade, her mother and father included. By the images, she seemed to remember every single face and every single person taken.
"I understand." She had a brief flare of hope that her parents had survived Cerinia's destruction, but the images and memories flooding her mind from the elder dashed that small hope.
"I didn't want to bring it up, because I know how much is troubling you of late, between finding a… what was it, job? And the problems your friends are having. If you ever need any guidance, I'm still here for you." The elder was smiling toward her once more, gently placing a hand on Krystal's shoulder. Even so, several tears slipped from the older woman's eyes, dampening the fur at the corners of her eyes.
"That would be nice actually. Would you like to come to my home? I'm sure Fox wouldn't mind, and I would love to spend some time with you again, teacher."
"That's a shocking thing to hear from my student that tried to skip our lessons the most." The elder coyly responded to her, smirking at Krystal despite the tears in her eyes. "But yes, that would be wonderful. By your memories, your mate is quite the cook, and I would love to test that myself. I doubt he will match my standards though."
Krystal chuckled and rolled her eyes at the older woman. "He doesn't have access to your ingredients, don't judge him too harshly! I'm going to give him a call real quick, hopefully he can pick us up!" Krystal made sure to share her understanding of cell phones and phone calls over their link as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. As soon as she had the device out, she punched Fox's contact to call him.
"Hey Krys! You called me at the perfect time, I just got out for the day!" Fox's voice spilled from the device almost immediately, the device having not even rung once.
"That's great! I, um… could use a ride home. And I have a guest I want you to meet, nor do I think you will believe it till you meet her…"
My eyes wandered the area as I walked beside the Beagle I had for a partner, taking in the plaza turned tent city we were currently patrolling. There were hundreds of small tents and make shift structures throughout the area, filled with Lylattians of all ages and species. I'd even spotted a few Cerinians clustered in small groups. They were the most emaciated looking, but none looked like the images shown in the news of where they had been kept. Most of the blue vulpines had their fur back now, only a handful having patches. Unlike the other refugees, they seemed to almost always be smiling, and would give me broad smiles and waves hello. More than once, I had felt them entering my mind, much like the times Krystal would. Most only seemed to use it to say hello or another greeting before moving on, only a few being able to speak Cornerian yet. Those who did, always said hello verbally, no matter how off it sounded. None the less, I couldn't help but feel nervous around them, something about seeing them putting a sort of unease into my mind that I couldn't place my tongue on.
Even with that strange unease, the way the other Lylattians treated seeing me was far more unsettling. Where my partner would get the occasional cheery hello, even a few of the peoples seeming to know him by name, every single one glared or hid as soon as they saw me. That said, I couldn't blame them at all. These people were all displaced because of the destruction caused by humanity, so seeing them shun myself for being human was entirely expected on my part.
While I walked, my mind kept returning to what I had seen the day before, unable to get Mira out of my head. With that memory seemingly playing on repeat in my head, as well as our interactions before I left for the academy, I felt hollow inside. The only thing I hoped, was that it wasn't readily apparent to those around me.
"Ya know, I don't think this was such a good idea for us to start with…" Officer Bradly spoke as he scratched the back of his head, drawing my attention to him. Both of us had on the same blue baseball cap, with a Cornerian PD logo on it, though it didn't quite look right with Bradley's more formal uniform.
"Why not? Cop's are just about the only protection these folk have. They can despise me for being human all they want. I'll still protect them." I let my eyes slip away from Bradley and back toward scanning the area, looking for any sign of anything really. Of course, street patrols like this one were more to put law-abiding citizens at ease that to actually prevent crime. They were a show of force tactic, not really meant to be effective in directly stopping crime.
"Well, gee, I don't know, the fact that all of these people hate you?"
I almost ignored his statement, not out of spite or anything of that nature, but because my eyes had stopped on something. That something was a small vulpine kit, no older than three or four years old, standing by herself, muzzle pointed toward the ground toward the ground. She was hidden behind several makeshift structures, in an 'alleyway' if you would, and completely alone. Above all that, she was a shade of deep dark blue, most of her fur exposed as she had little to no clothing.
"Bradley, two o'clock, behind the tents." I spoke without gesturing toward the kit, starting to make my way that way. Bradley quietly followed me, quickly working our way around to where the girl was. The slim 'alley' had several layers of trash, the girl's eyes snapping up as soon as we entered the alleyway. Both of her teal eyes were as wide as saucers upon seeing us, the fur around her eyes damp with tears.
She moved to run, freezing when Bradley spoke, rushed, but gently. "Whoa there, we don't want to hurt you!"
"Bradley, Cerinian's don't talk like us. She probably has no idea what you just said."
How do I even know that?! That random bit of knowledge had seemingly appeared into my head. It felt like I had known it for a while, but I couldn't place where from.
"Alright, then how the hell do we calm her down?!"
"Just stay calm yourself. Think friendly thoughts, things like that, I guess. Hopefully, she'll read our minds, sense our emotions and trust us." I calmly responded, crouching down to gesture toward the girl. While I did so, I tried my best to imagine her running to us and hugging her, then us taking her somewhere safe, out of the sun, where there was food, clothes, even toys that she was playing with.
This is freaking stupid… I wanted to smack myself for that thought until I felt her entering my mind, almost like someone was pouring water into my skull, almost imperceptible. As un noticeable as it was, it was almost like a flare going off compared to Krystal doing the same thing. The sensation brought a smile to my face as I continued to try and imagine happy things happening for her, if she came for with us.
She seemed to start to relax, taking a step toward me when I began to imagine finding her parents. They were almost faceless in my imagination, simply appearing obviously Cerinian. The moment that thought crossed my mind, she recoiled away, letting out a shuddering cry. In the same instant, the fluid like feeling she had left in my head sucked out, like someone had sucked it through a straw.
Damn it, I didn't mean that!
"Dude, now she's crying, the hell are you doing to the poor thing!" Bradley tried to take a step forward, but the girl scampered further away from them, still balling her eyes out.
"Calm down. I'm not positive, but… I think something happened to her parents." I remained on a knee, gently shoving Bradley back as I shoved images of Krystal into my mind, mostly memories, in hopes that she would see that I knew a very kind and caring Cerinian. While I did so, I tapped the side of my head, hoping she understood the small gesture. Slowly, the fluid like feeling slipped back into my mind, but with it, came images, memories, emotions, none of which were mine, and I was able to easily separate it from my own. Over the course of them, it showed her life, since her birth into one of the camps the Cerinians had been in, her parents fear, her own, as again and again, Cerinians had been taken away from them. And if they resisted, the armored soldiers doing the taking would open firing into the crowd. During one of those instances, I saw her father gunned down. Not long after, her mother had passed away in her sleep, the gaunt and almost hairless form of the vixen making it clear to me that she had starved. Once the almost movie of memories had finished, he couldn't help but want to join the girl in crying.
"What's going on, you're both quiet and this is really weird…"
"Shh. I'll tell you in a second…" I shooed him off as I tried my best to keep my focus with her.
I'm really sorry for what you have been through, but I promise you, you will be save, and loved, and cared for with us. With that thought, I tried to re-imagine what I had earlier, putting as much positive thought into it as I could. It was extremely hard to do, given the very negative feelings and emotions running through my mind because of her memories, but I still focused on it the best I could, particularly showing her joining us. Physically, I held my arms out to her once more, startled when she launched from where she was to wrap her arms around me, still crying loudly. I gently patted her back, trying to be as soothing as possible.
Thank god that worked. I don't know what we could have done if she ran off.
"Bradly, put a call out to central. She's an orphan, no parents. I don't know how she slipped through the cracks when the Cerinians were brought here."
"Allllright. I still have no idea what just happened but I'm going to trust you." He grabbed the hand mic on his shoulder so he could key it up." Central, this is Officer Bradley."
"Go ahead." Will heard the male radio operator for their squad respond through his radio. Meanwhile, he started to pay attention to his surroundings again as he picked the crying girl up. Several people seemed to have noticed what they were doing, and had been watching the encounter.
"We have a lost child, partner think's she has no family. Cerinian, maybe four years old. Could use a car to get her a lift back to the station."
"Ten-Four, Casey's car isn't far from you, should be there shortly." I gave Bradley a thumbs up to let him know I heard the radio call, Bradley nodding as we began to make our way back to the street. The girl's crying to be finally subsiding a little, a small bit of the hollow feeling I had from the day before feeling some how less hollow.