"Whoa! Easy, Mei! You never were a good drinker." Jackie said, pulling the glass away.
Mei just huffed. "I need it. You don't know how much I wanted to just nail him in the forehead."
"You did good." Jackie confirmed. "It's over. The kids and the girl are safe. You did good."
"So? Now what?"
"Well... Bryan is planning some sort of attack on Aramov. I don't think we're going with or normal tactics."
"What?"
"Well... I've only heard the story but... remember Salt Lake City?"
Mei shuddered. "Yah, they turned the entire city into a week long war zone." She said, suddenly cringing. "I remember after that, Bryan made us swear that we would take the threat out way before it ever got like that again... but... you don't think he'll really do it... will he?"
"You have to admit, it would be extremely easy for him to do it."
"And that's what worries me."
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"You really are considering this?" Silver asked, an almost wide look in his eyes after seeing the drawing board.
"I don't see why not. If this doesn't take out Aramov, it will at least take out a number of her troops." Bryan answered.
"I still don't like it."
"Well then don't help."
"I didn't say that."
"Look, it's a lot simpler than it seems. Now that Aramov knows we can get close to her, she's going to want to move a few things. That's means a convoy. If we hit it just right, we can wipe out some troops, or maybe even take down Aramov."
"And what about friendly losses? You'll suffer a few if you take them head on."
"If we plan this right, we won't lose anyone. But... in any case... this is a war."
"You wouldn't be saying that is Brea got killed in this little plan of yours."
Bryan glared at the wolf. "Leave her out of this."
"Look, all I'm saying is that if you go about things like this, you're going to lose." Silver finished, patting Bryan on the shoulder before walking out of the room.
Bryan looked over his plan again, then, he clicked the clear button, starting anew.
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Brea pulled the until to a stop outside the police barricade. She hopped out, stretching slightly before walking under the police tape.
"Good to see you found the place, inspector." A cop greeted her, holding his paw out.
"It really wasn't that hard. Truth be told, we've been eyeing this place for a month."
"Well, looks like your suspicions were correct. We entered the place to look for survivors, no one left, but we did find some interesting propaganda. Thought you might wan to take a look."
"Did your men touch anything?" Brea asked, seeing the second unit pull up to the left of hers.
"Not a thing. We all know that DCTU is taking care of things." He excused himself just as Jackie walked up, Fox in tow. Brea took notice of Mei in the passenger seat.
"She gonna get out any time soon?" Brea asked, nodding towards the girl in the car.
"Lets just say... Mei has vowed never to drink again." Jackie affirmed, a grin tugging at the sides of her mouth. Brea just smiled in return, turning to welcome Fox before walking towards the house.
The cop at the door lifted up the tape for them, allowing the three access.
"Not a big house... three rooms. Don't tell me these four shared a bed room." Jackie said, looking around. She also caught the look on Fox's face.
"Man, I would hate to have your sense of smell right now. I can already smell the blood full force." She said, pulling a flashlight from her belt. She clicked it on and pointed it at the nearest wall.
"Man, either that's blood red paint or..." She trailed off, leaving the sentence in the air.
"You guys might want a look at this." Brea called from the kitchen.
Jackie and Fox walked in there. It was a rather spacious compared to the rest of the house. The back window has been broken and four bodies littered the floor. They had obviously been killed there, but injured throughout the house.
On the counter sprawled in blood was an insignia of some kind. It was written in the blood and symbolized a fox-tail with an arrow tip.
"Think Dracous can place that image?" Jackie asked, turning to Brea.
"No need," Fox answered. "It's Calita McCloud."
"What?" Brea asked.
"Who?" Jackie quickly echoed.
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"Calita J. McCloud. Joined the military two years out of Corneria Tech, specialized in stealth operations... her crew had been whipped out fifteen years ago. Though her body wasn't among the dead. The military had assumed that she had been taken hostage. But with no demands ever issued to them, they assumed she had been killed." Dracous was reading things off via video phone.
"Why didn't they think she had compromised her own team?" Jackie asked, wincing as the words left her mouth.
"Simple, anyone who knew her knew that she was beyond fiercely loyal to Corneria. Always the first in battle." Dracous answered, just as Fox came back into the room.
"So, then why resurface now? Why not during the original Darkness incident?" Bryan asked, his armed folded and he was leaning in his trademark fashion.
"That I can't tell you. Which I could give you guys more, but with her KIA status, the military just stopped keeping records on her."
"Alright, what about the symbol?" Dean asked, holding the picture up close.
"I can answer that." Fox said. "It's a play of our own Star Fox symbol. While ours was based off a god, Calita's was based off a demon. Sirius, the demon of silence and darkness. Her entire team used it, but it was her idea. See the tail turned spears? Those are supposed to represent the stealth kill part, while the fox itself represents the cunning and wit required to run the operation." Fox sighed. "I just wish I know what she was up to... I mean... all these years."
Brea sat down next to him, patting him on the back.
"She's your sister, isn't she?"
Fox simply nodded.
"Alright, for now, we keep all of this info from the press. It's bad enough they have Aramov to deal with, the last thing we want to do is tell everyone that a specialized stealth killer is on the loose and we don't know what she wants." Bryan stated, putting a few papers into a folder. "Dean and Mei should take a trip back to the house, see if anything else is there." There was a pause in his sentence. "Where is Mei?"
"She's recovering, chief." Jackie gave Bryan a sheepish grin. He seemed confused for a second before groaning.
"How many?"
"Just two, but it really got to her."
"Alright, take her place, okay, Jackie?"
"Sure thing. Just let me grab my keys."
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"I don't understand... She's back?" If Aramov had been confident before, but now she was learning that she just might have mistaken it for cockiness.
"That's how it appears. Our sources within the police department matched the symbol. Calita is back, Aramov." The gray colored fur said, sitting in the seat with a leg propped up on his knee.
"Man... everything is going to shit real fast. DCTU is closing in, Carmen's been taken alive, and what's worse is that now Calita is on our asses. We need to fix this Naoki!"
"I'm not sure we can, Aramov. DCTU was bad enough, but now Calita? And what if she employs a few of her old contacts? Never mind if they run a joint force with DCTU. We can only survive so many attacks."
"So... what can we do?"
"For now? Keep our guard up. We can't let them know they have us flustered."
"We have to mount some sort of offensive attack! We can't just sit her with our tail between our legs!"
"Hmmm... well... I suppose if you were desperate enough you could pull a last stand. Gather the girth of your forces and take over some sort of complex."
"I see what you mean... instead of taking over Corneria, we'll leave our imprint in the history books. I like it..."
"You're okay with the fact that they'll probably take you out?"
"If I can take a few hundred lives with me, I'll be fine." Aramov said, grabbing for the base's intercom microphone.
"Attention, men and women alike. Get ready, our day has come!"
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Mei held the ice pack up to her head, wincing slightly.
"Oh man... never drinking anything tie-dye green again." She said, Katt set a tall glass of liquid in front of her. Mei eyed the color before looking up at the feline. "And tie-dye red is just so different."
Katt laughed. "Drink it. I used to have to make it all the time for Falco when he was on his drinking habit. It can cure a handover that would have even a god down."
Mei eyed the glass again before giving Katt a suspicious look. "Well... if you say so..." She guessed, putting the glass to her lips before taking a breath and drinking it down in a few swallows.
She gagged a little as the suddenly sour taste filled her mouth.
"You're alright." Katt assured her. "Now, take a nap for an hour, you'll be fine when you wake up."
Mei sighed, rolling onto her side, throwing the ice pack onto the table next to her. "Think Bryan is mad at me for this?"
"Not at all... right now he's at Military HQ talking to General Pepper. Told me to keep an eye on you."
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"The fact is that as of right now, we're in the dark. We don't know where they'll hit and when, all we know is that they will."
General Pepper leaned into his hands, closing his eyes for a minute in deep thought.
"Any chance of a first strike?"
"Not a one. Without proof we can't hit their base, and we would like to be able to take Aramov alive, however it will be extremely difficult."
Bryan turned around after hearing his name called and a shushing sound right after it.
James stood in the doorway of classmates and a teacher who grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry, General. I tried to keep him quiet."
"Don't worry about it." Pepper said, then to Bryan. "We'll continue this later." Bryan nodded, before moving to leave the room. Rubbing and messing up James' hair in the process.
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"Wait!"
Bryan stopped in his tracks, turning around to see James running after him.
"Hey, pal. Shouldn't you stay with the group?"
"The teacher said I could come out and talk if I wanted to."
Bryan nodded. "So, what's on your mind little man?"
"Well it's just... Dad seems really tense lately. We never talk like we used to and he's never around. I kind of miss him. I even had to get Brea to sign my permission slip to let me come on this field trip!"
Bryan kneeled down slightly so that he was eye level with James.
"I know what it's like kid. All it is, is the stress of the job he's tackling. Don't worry, it won't be happening too much longer. Soon we'll be done and gets lots of vacation time."
"I hope so..." James turned on his heel, heading back for the double doors. "Bye!"
Bryan turned half way back to his car before shaking his head, he sighed, and got in.
He felt extremely good about himself at that point. He felt safe that Aramov wouldn't attack for a little while longer.
He didn't know just how wrong he was.