Chapter 7: Regrouping
September 2nd, 2316 – 7:30 PM – Nedlo, Tneicna
Canma Neuyan panted as she walked down the street, totally out of breath from trying to get away from Tails and Knuckles. Luckily for her though, she seemed to have lost them a few minutes ago. A red cloak now draped over her stealth clothes, to keep them from arousing attention from the locals.
She reached into an interior pocket to pull out a slip of paper. On it was written the place that she and Nack had arranged to meet after their mission was over. However, she realized the pocket was empty. Canma felt around in it again, this time more carefully, but the note still wasn't there. The vixen let out a soft sigh, but she wasn't worried.
It's fine. I'm pretty sure I remember the place's name.
While Canma was happy to have escaped Tails and Knuckles, at the same time she was angry at herself for not taking advantage of the opportunity to capture one or both of them. She'd been too focused on escaping for that thought to even cross her mind.
Weren't you the one who said the plan of splitting them up with that phone call would be the perfect idea to capture all of them? You said they'd be weaker if they weren't all together, but it looks like that still wasn't enough to do the job. I'm definitely not looking forward to meeting Nack at the rendezvous point. He's going to rub this all up in my face, I bet.
Like it or not though, she finally got to where she was headed: Athara's Tavern. This seedy place sat near the edge of town; the local soldiers stationed here often overlooked the area. Even as Canma walked past the graffiti-covered front wall of the tavern, she could hear a drunken brawl breaking out inside. There was a lot of shouting and cursing, which was quickly followed up by the sound of a table being smashed to pieces, probably as one of the brawlers fell on top of it.
Fortunately for Canma, her destination wasn't inside the bar, but rather in the alleyway behind it. There would be less chance of her conversation with Nack being overheard there.
However, as she walked into the alleyway, Nack was not the first person she met. Instead, she found herself looking at a pig, dressed in filthy rags. He was also wielding a long dagger, which was vaguely pointed towards her throat. The tip of the knife wavered around some, indicating he'd been drinking recently. A few drops of saliva escaped his filth-encrusted lips, causing Canma to wince in disgust.
"Hey baby..." he mumbled, trying to speak through his drunkenness. "Wanna go... get drunk...? Then maybe we can...go back to my place and...uh...uuuuuh..."
Rolling her eyes, Canma grabbed his knife arm in one swift motion, and then snapped her own arm backwards before she released her grip. As a result, the pig was sent crashing into a pile of garbage that had built up in the alleyway. A cloud of flies flew up all around him, as he tried to stand again. He wasn't successful though, and just flopped back down into the filth, burying his nose in a pile of discarded potato skins. Meanwhile, Canma rubbed the hand she'd used to grab him across her cloak. His sweat had gotten on her.
"Disgusting pig," she mumbled. "Can't believe I actually touched you."
Looking back down the dark alley, she saw Nack standing a short distance away with a flashlight in hand. He leaned against the wall near the back door, and there was a most gratifying smirk on his face.
"Having fun with the locals?" he asked.
"Oh yes, lots of fun," Canma said, as she continued to wipe her hand across her coat.
Nack got off of the wall, standing full on his own weight.
Changing the topic to the business at hand, Nack asked, "Did you capture Tails and Knuckles?"
Canma let out a sigh. She hadn't been looking forward to doing this, what with this being her plan and all.
"No," she said.
Nack's eyes widened in surprise, but then he steeled his gaze in anger. Closing her eyes, Canma started to explain.
"Maybe Tails and Knuckles aren't as stupid as I thought they were. Tails was smart enough to use his tails to blast the sleeping gas back out of the room. Then I had to run for my life across the rooftops to get away."
Nack let out a low growl. "I thought you said you were a pro at this!"
Canma let out a sigh. There wasn't anything she could say in her defense. She decided instead to ask Nack about how his part of the job went.
"Well, what about you Nack?" She asked. "Did you capture Sonic?"
Nack frowned, and looked off at the back door of the tavern to avoid her eyes. He muttered something under his breath that she couldn't make out.
"What was that?" she asked.
"I didn't capture Sonic either, Canma," he said. "He attacked me before I could knock him out, and then the guards ran in and screwed everything up. I had to run away too."
"Great!" Canma said, waving her arms around. "Just great! So all of our work has been for nothing! No twenty million demens!"
With a sigh, the weasel closed his eyes and leaned against the wall again. Canma did the same on the other side of the alley. For a few seconds, neither of them said anything. However, Nack spoke up.
"There's one strange thing I noticed," Nack said.
"What is it?" Canma asked, as she opened her eyes.
"You know when we were jumping across the rooftops to get to the hotel, so we could get around the guards? I saw a black truck parked in one of the alleys near the hotel."
"Yeah? What about it?" Canma asked.
"While I was escaping, I saw the same black truck speeding away from the hotel really fast. I just think it's kind of strange that the truck started leaving at the exact same time I was leaving."
Canma nodded. "That is a bit curious, although I don't know what it could mean. It was probably just coincidence."
"You think? I've got a funny feeling about it..."
Suddenly, Nack's eyes widened as he looked down the alleyway behind Canma. He raised a finger to point at something behind her.
"Hey! It's the truck I saw!"
Canma whirled around and looked down the passageway. Sure enough, there was a black sport utility vehicle stopped at the entrance to the alley. It looked rather old and beat up, due to the many scratches and rust spots all across the metal. A bush guard covered the front grille of the truck, complete with fog lights and a tow cable. More lights were attached to the roof, and a spare tire hung from the back.
Without a second thought, the two of them hurried towards it. As they got closer, Canma couldn't help but notice a sliver of blue quills showing in the window of one of the rear passenger doors.
"He's got Sonic!" Canma shouted.
She reached the driver's door handle and pulled it on it. Unfortunately, the door was locked. The driver looked out his door's window at her, and she saw it was a gray fox, with strange yellow eyes. He had a puzzled look on his face for a moment, but then his eyes went wide. He turned away to look back through the windshield. A plume of white smoke rose up from the rear tires of the truck, and it took off with surprising acceleration for such a large vehicle.
The sudden jolt of speed sent Canma tumbling to the ground. Her body slammed hard into the cobblestone street. Meanwhile, Nack dashed after the SUV, firing his revolver at the back of the truck as it sped away. While Canma watched as she got up, she saw it wasn't going to do any good. If it were daytime, things would be different and there would be no way for that truck to escape. The streets clogged up with carts, pedestrians, and such during those hours. But at night the streets had nary a soul wandering about, allowing the SUV to easily get up to speed and outrun someone on foot.
The vehicle was already leaving them behind, as it flew around a corner. It jumped the curb and two of its wheels went up into the air for a second, before slamming back down. Canma jumped up to give chase with Nack, but she was pretty sure it was too late to catch up anyway. As she and Nack rounded the next corner, the black SUV had become nothing but a dot in the distance.
"Dammit!" Canma screamed. "He's getting away with Sonic!"
"So what do we do now then?" Nack asked, "Ninja Girl?"
Canma looked at him, giving him an angry glare.
"Hey! It's not my fault you were stupid enough to let Sonic kick your ass just like Knuckles did!"
"Yeah? Well it was your idea for us to try to ambush them at the hotel, and look how that turned out!"
"You just didn't follow the plan right! That's all!"
"Neither did you! You ended up getting chase by the bounties you were supposed to capture!"
"Well at least I got away unscathed! I'm amazed you haven't gotten killed yet, with how much you've gotten beaten up!"
She heard footsteps coming up from behind the two of them, and whirled around. A rat was standing there, dressed in a cook's outfit. Maybe he worked at Athara's Tavern.
"What're you looking at?" Canma shouted.
The rat jumped in fright, and ran off. She looked back to Nack to continue the argument, but then she had a thought. Her eyes began to rove around the surrounding area. Canma saw that everyone in the nearby vicinity was staring at them. There were even some people hanging out of their house windows. Canma felt her face blush red. She'd been so caught up in the argument she didn't realize that they'd gotten an audience. She leaned over towards Nack's left ear.
"I don't think this is the best place to talk about this," she whispered.
"Likewise," Nack whispered back. "We better get out of here, before someone decides to call for some soldiers."
Canma glanced over Nack's shoulder, and her eyes widened in fright. "I'm afraid it's a bit late for that."
Nack turned around to see what she was looking at. Down the road, they saw a crowd of people bearing torches approaching. Canma caught glimpses of heavy armor and helmets in the light of the flames. This conversation was definitely over. Nack and Canma looked at each other, before the two of them sprinted down the street in the opposite direction.
Later, at Nack's temporary hideout...
"So...what are we gonna do then to find this fox guy and Sonic again?" Canma asked, sitting on top of a barrel in the room. "We don't have any leads on where he is."
"It's not over until we cross the finish line," Nack said, as he sat on his own barrel. "That fox may have Sonic, but he's still got a long way to go before he reaches the client. We've still got time to get back our blue friend."
"What about Tails and Knuckles? Do you think it's a good idea to just forget about them while we look for Sonic?"
"Sure it's a good idea."
"Explain that one to me."
"Our fox friend probably has Sonic on some kind of knockout drug right now. You saw how he looked to be asleep, from what we saw of him in the car. It would be too dangerous to transport Sonic while he's awake. As for ignoring Tails and Knuckles, consider this: to earn the same amount of money, we can face off against one ordinary fox and steal his bounty, or we can face off against a mutant fox and an echidna, both of which can blow holes through entire armies of robots without breaking a sweat."
Canma blinked. "...Good point."
"Second, after we get Sonic, we can use him as a hostage to lure Tails and Knuckles out, and then we can capture them too."
Canma grumbled a bit under her breath. Apparently she didn't like it that Nack had a better idea this time. The vixen gave a little shrug.
"All right, you've got me convinced," she said. "First things first though. We gotta find out a way to locate that gray fox, before he escapes. This entire plan depends on it."
"I know one place we can start: Merc Net."
"Merc Net?" Canma asked. "What's that? A net for catching mercenaries?"
Nack rolled his eyes.
"You're out of the loop, aren't you warrior princess? First it was handshakes, and now it's computers."
"Well sorry, but I'm a pure-blooded Tneicnan," she snapped, folding her arms. "And you know how much we feel about human technology and culture. Humans and their machines disgust me. I can hardly stand to ride on that hover bike of yours."
Nack shuffled in his seat a bit.
"All right...well let me try to explain this in a way you can understand it. Basically, Merc Net is a computer network-"
"A compy whaty?"
"Computer network. It's like a..." Nack let out a sigh. "Well…uh…Merc Net is kind of like a library on mercenaries all over this world, and it's stored on computers like the one I have."
He gestured towards a laptop he had sitting on another barrel nearby.
"But how would you fit all the books and paper you'd find a library on that tiny little machine? I mean, it's even skinnier than just one book!"
"It's stored digitally."
"Digi-what?"
Nack sighed, as he cracked open the computer.
"Never mind. I'll just start looking to see if I can find any data on that fox."
As the laptop booted up, Nack pulled out a thermos from a nearby bag and sipped some coffee from it. At the startup screen, he went online and started hacking into the profile server of Merc Net. He typed in a search query for one mercenary, based on what they knew about the fox they'd seen before. Nack put in his vehicle, in addition to his fur color, eye color, and species. Lines of text spread across the screen as he continued to type. When Nack was finished, he hit the Enter key.
Searching... Four matches found!
Top result:
- "Half"
Secondary results:
- "Forty-Six"
- "Bob Fetta"
Nack clicked on "Half". A screen popped up displaying the face of a young gray fox. Messy gray hair flopped down over his face, partially obscuring his yellow eyes. However, to Nack, those eyes sure didn't look normal for a fox. He didn't like looking at them. He decided instead to scan the information displayed beneath the picture.
"That's him," Canma said, suddenly appearing beside Nack.
She had appeared so suddenly that she was simply there, like a ghost. Nack nearly jumped out of her seat with how she appeared like that. She didn't seem to take any notice though, as she continued to talk.
"That's the person I saw in the truck, I'm sure of it."
Nack scanned what personal data he could find in the profile.
Codename: Half
Actual Name: Unknown
Species: Arctic Fox
Fur Color: Gray
Eye Color: Yellow
Age: Unknown (appears 20-25)
Birthplace: Gerrant, Cictra
Current Residence: Unknown
Special skills: Marksmanship, gun maintenance and modification, infiltration
Distinguishing Features: Yellow wolf eyes, tail is only half the length of a regular foxtail
"I know about this guy," Nack said, as a frown crossed his face. "He's been chosen over me for a fair few jobs, and that doesn't happen much at all with anybody else. I can't stand him. Every time someone says they've hired him, I can see his stupid foxy face smirking at me."
"Well, do you know anything special about him?"
"He likes to complete missions in the fastest and most efficient way possible, so he gets a lot of his assignments done in record time. That's one reason why he's got the nickname "Half": he finishes jobs in half the time that most other mercenaries would take. Also, his "efficient" policy applies to battles as well. He will look for the fastest way to defeat you, and tends to not bother toying around with opponents. That is, unless he thinks he can win faster that way."
"Sounds a bit...boring, don't you think?" Canma asked. "He seems to only care about the money, and not the thrill of battle. Also, how's this information gonna do us any good?"
Nack turned around to face Canma, with a small smirk.
"I think I know."
Canma rolled her eyes. "Well are you going to share your keen insights with me, or just stare at me with that stupid grin on your face?"
"I'm just a little surprised you didn't think of this first. Anyway, if he sticks to his fast approach to completing missions, he'll try to take the fastest route to the drop-off point."
"Then we better get going," Canma said, rushing towards Nack's hover bike, which was sitting on the ground next to them.
"Wait wait!" Nack said, waving his arms. "I'm not done yet! Jeez, you should marry Half. You two would be perfect for each other with how fast you wanna get things done."
"Well then get on with it and finish!" she snapped, folding her arms.
With a small sigh, Nack started talking again. "What I think is, if we figure out the fastest way to reach the drop-off point, we can predict the places that Half is going to be passing through."
Canma nodded.
"I get it," she said, with a small smile. "We can ambush him at those places. And your hover bike is probably faster than his truck, since it can fly, so we can intercept him easy even though he's got a head start on us."
"You read my mind," Nack said with a wicked grin.
"Well all right then," Canma said. "Let's get started on mapping out his course."
Nack called up a map of Tneicna on his computer.
I'm really looking forward to seeing you again Half, Nack thought to himself. All the jobs you stole from me before are chump change next to this one. I'll take that ten million demen hedgehog out from under your damn nose, and then we'll see who the richer mercenary is.