All the world will be your enemy, Prince With a Thousand Enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you.- Watership Down
A sudden crash in the background broke my trance. I immediately went on full alert, my fur fuzzed up with my razor claws ready. "I certainly hope you aren't planning to take on Vetvix with a defense plan like that." said someone from above me. I looked to a nearby roof where a gray fox sat with a smug on his face. I flattened my ears at him and hissed "Kitaro I told you not to do that!" "Well it's good to see you too. Besides you'd better get used to surprises from above or you won't last very long out here. You have to keep on your toes, enemies everywhere you know." "Yeah, yeah, I know you don't have to give me a lecture about it. I'm not a kitten you know. What are you doing here anyway? Don't you have things to do on the planet Foressta?" Kitaro jumped down from the roof and landed in front of me, his yellow eyes shimmering in the moonlight. "Believe me I'm not here because I want to be. I'd rather be in the greenwood than this misery pit any day. I'm here on official business for Fenros. Where is Shiva?" I shrugged "She went out hunting." "Where?" "I don't know, what do I look like, an oracle? Goth's not here either, he's on a slave liberation mission on Polyester." Kitaro blinked "I thought it was called Vextopia now." "I'll tear out my own claws before I call it that or ever call Vetvix an empress, ever. She's not a real ruler but a cruel tyrant who delights in out pain and suffering." Kitaro nodded "Well who is here then? I've got a message for the Shadowrunners and I don't exactly delight in staying here." I scratched my left ear "Come on, I think Paris and Garland are still at base." "Who's Garland?" asked the fox as we started heading out. "Well, uh, Garland's-um well, a uh, human." Kitaro stopped in his tracks and stared at me with a you-must-be-out-of your-mind look. "I know Kitaro, I don't like it either but if we didn't at least give him a chance to join us, we'd be just as bad as they are. I mean we're all in this together whether we like it or not. So deal with it."
We arrived at Liberté's Abri at around midnight or so. For once it was fairly quiet, no gunshots or anything. That made it twice as dangerous. If you can't hear or see anything you get anxious and that clouds your mind so you can't think logically. Then what was ever waiting for you leaps out and kills you. Almost against my will my ears flattened against my head in fear. "What's the matter Shadow? I thought you cats liked the night." "I do, just not when there's no moons or stars, no light at all. Only darkness just waiting to swallow you into nothingness." "Well someone's been reading poetry again." I didn't even bother answering him as we entered the base's entrance. It had grown somewhat over the last nine years, most of it was literally underground and when a few humans decided to help us out (for once) they installed some computers, lights, and a training module that was "borrowed" from one of Vetvix's fortresses. Mostly everyone was as asleep except for a human sitting at on a bed a laptop typing something. He was about 20 or so with semi-long dark hair, a pale completion, and glasses. He wore a dark green shirt with a black trench coat, combat boots, and a silver Chinese dragon emblem that hung from a small chain from his neck. This was Garland, our technology expert. Kitaro looked at him as he would a beetle, like something that held interest but not very interesting.
"Hello Gar. Still trying to find more weapons?" I asked. "Nah, lookin' for an iron maiden." Kitaro's eyes widened. "Not a real one, a model. Garland's really into torture collectables." I said. Then turning to Garland I said "Have you seen Paris? Kitaro here needs to speak to him." Garland looked up and turned to the fox as if he'd just noticed we'd entered. "I think Paris is outback with Strider on the track." "Thanks Garland. C'mon Kit." "Don't call me Kit" snarled Kitaro. "Why?" "Because I don't enjoy having my name abbreviated." "Why?" "Because- hey you're playing the 'Why' game aren't you?" I grinned "Mayyyybe." The training track outside was hidden by a shield made by some of the most advanced wizards from both our universe and others that were close to us. The highly A.I. technology installed in it allowed only allies of the Shadowrunners to see it. Not even Vetvix could detect it.
We went out to the race track in back of Liberté's Abri where we found Paris watching Strider racing at top speed with his pink tongue hanging out. He sat on a magical cloud that shimmered of silver and crimson. His whiskers twitched in interest at the greyhound. "Try to run with the wind, not against it. Come on, you've got to feel the pulsing air in your lungs or you're going to run much slower." Paris paused as he noticed us on the grass in the middle of the track. "Oh hello Shadow, didn't see you down there who's that with you?" "Hi Paris! Kitaro's come from Forresta with word from Fenros." At this Paris stood and looked down at the fox and called to Strider "Take five Stride. In fact you should get some sleep too. I don't see why you insist on training at night." "It's too hot in the day" called back Strider as he went back to the Abri .
Paris lowered his cloud until it was about two feet from the ground. "Now then Kitaro what's so important that you've come all the way to out little planet?" "Well Sir Paris master Fenros has sent me to inform you of someone who may help you in overthrowing Vetvix." "Well then don't keep us waiting tell us." "As you know a while ago when we tried to enforce the help of other beings of those in other parallel universes to come and help us Vetvix set up a shield to block all magical beings from entering this universe. Well that certainly didn't stop us from searching the other worlds. We found a particularly powerful feline sorceress in the same world that the second Pet Force was from. This cat just happens to be Shadow's counterpart as an amazing coincidence. She is called Isis Nightrunner Corleone and she led a resistance herself not to long ago. I established a psychic link with her and we sent various messages, what was happening and so forth. Isis was quite distressed about the situation as she had visited this universe a few times before. Unfortunately because of the barrier she cannot enter our world, though we've tried to find a loophole or crack of some kind but we failed." "Bet Vetvix set up that barrier just for the purpose of keeping her from entering." I said. Kitaro thoughtfully licked his chops "Wouldn't surprise me. Master Fenros said that Isis had a very powerful aura and spirit energy which meant she was quite strong. Not to mention having a wily attitude and quite a fighter in both magical and physical aspects. Anyhow she did say that although neither she or any of her magic wise friends could make it through we found out that a mortal creature could make it through." Kitaro paused for a moment to think for a second. "She didn't seem to happy about it though. She said there was only one that could come through the portal with out expiring ten seconds of arriving here, he's a cat by the name of Orion and a Siamese. He's really into the paranormal, you know aliens, ghosts and so forth and a fan of Sci-Fi. That makes him at least slightly aware of how the technology here works, even if it is fictional. He's a real pain sometimes she says, but he's got a good heart backing him up. At the moment Orion's all we could dig up but we're still looking."
"Well we need all the help we can get. So far most of the creatures here are much too afraid to oppose Vetvix. I can't say I blame them." said Paris. "We're thinking of putting him on one of the rebel spaceships since he has such supposed knowledge of it. We wanted to run it by you guys an see what you thought of it." "Sounds good to me" I purred. "I wasn't talking to you." "Like I care?" Kitaro snarled and I grinned at him again. Man it was fun egging on that fox! "Cut it out guys you can fight in the morning. We'll see about transporting the Siamese first thing tomorrow. And hopefully Shiva and Goth will be back to help us out. Kitaro would you like to stay with us for the night?" "I'd love to." We all went back to the Abri to get some sleep, and to get some thinking done.
So that's chapter three! So what do you think of it so far? Love it? Hate it? Review and tell me what ya think! I neeeeed reviews, please review! I need suggestions to help make this story all it can be! Anyway, chapter 4's commin' up soon, look out for it!