It was around three o'clock the day after Jason and Claire arrived. Mangle and I had just gotten off work because the bar was relatively empty, and they were hosting a private party for one crew and all Victoria had to do was leave out some drinks that had already been paid for and relax behind the bar. As we walked into the house, I saw that Jason was once again in the doorway of the entertainment room and facing into it, talking with Claire most likely. I walked down the steps, carrying the case of water while the vixen went to the bedroom, most likely to get a bath and change into something more comfortable. Sadly, I had to leave after I dropped off the water and would have to go across town to Andy's to start training with the rifle.

"Hey, Jason, would you mind scooting a bit?"

The vulpine stepped out of the way, allowing me to walk in to see that Claire and Ava were both playing around with Kimber in front of the couch. "Hey, wanna play a round of pool," Jason asked while I set the case of water on top of the mini-fridge. "Sorry, can't. I was supposed to head to my boss's house after work, but I wanted to make sure that no one messed with Mangle on her way home," I replied, seeing him lean on the pool table for a second. "You mind if I tag along? I don't have much to do here," He said while I turned towards him and sighed. "Yeah, I guess it wouldn't hurt anything. You two will probably have something in common anyway," I told him, motioning him to follow me as I walked out the entertainment room and up the stairs. "Wait here for a second, I need to go tell her I'm leaving real quick."

He nodded as I walked down the hall towards the bedroom, soon opening the door and entering to see the vixen laying across the bed on her stomach without her shirt, not even bothering to pick her head up to look at me as I walked across the room towards her. "You alright," I asked her, slowly crawling up beside her and resting my hand on her back, gently rubbing it. "I'm tired… And I wouldn't mind cuddling with you for a little bit," She replied, lightly giggling at the last part as I gave her a chuckle. "I still need to go to Andy's. Jason's waiting out there for me… But, I could spare a few minutes," I told her, seeing her pick her head up to face me as I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her up towards my chest.

"That job is exhausting… I don't know if I'll keep it when all's said and done."

"It'll be easier when Andy is back," I replied, feeling her nuzzle up against my chest. "I suppose you're right. I'm just worried about the days when you'll be off work, you know? Victoria isn't seen as meek by most of the patrons because they've seen her put a man to the ground. But me? You're the person who protects me," She sighed, pressing herself further against my chest as I pulled my hands up from her back and brought it to the back of her head, gently running my fingers through her fur as she breathed into my chest. "Listen, I don't know… What do you want me to do," I asked her, pulling her head back as I looked down at her, cupping her cheek in my hand. "Maybe… Maybe you could just let me handle it once in a while, if it gets too bad then you can step in," She replied, causing me to inwardly grimace at the thought of letting someone harm her. "I don't know if…" I said, unable to finish my sentence as my gaze drifted downward in shame, at least until she grabbed the side of my face and forced me to look at her.

"Please? If anything happens you and Victoria are right there."

I bit my tongue, holding back anything I wanted to say against her idea as I knew she had a point. We'd be there. We'd be able to stop anything bad from anything. Reluctantly, I swallowed my pride and tightened my grip around her. "Okay…" I trailed near the end, causing her to let go of my face and wrap her arms around me, nearly choking the life out of me as she squeezed me tight. "Listen, I need to go, now. I really wish I could stay longer…" I sighed, causing her to loosen her grip from around me as she nodded, though, still pressing herself against me. "I love you."

"I love you too. Just make sure you get home so we can at least talk some more tonight."

I shot her a smile as she backed up a little bit, but I grabbed her face and leaned forward, planting a kiss on her lips before I pulled back and finally slid off the bed, soon walking out the room and into the hallway to see Jason playing with some metal device that had a long, thin, stick protruding from the bottom. One end was a somewhat short cylinder that had a hole in the end, before it traveled up and was mounted onto a hexagonal-like metallic part where the stick was protruding from, leading up to the other end of the device. It was another cylinder, but it was thicker than the other one, and looked like it could- Wait…

"Jason, what is that?"

"Oh, well, this is something I got after a fight a while back," He said, his hand switching to where usually his blade was mounted, but instead it was empty. He twisted the part around and inserted the thicker end into his wrist, soon taking out the box from the part before showing it off a little. "I… Remember how I said that I was practically hunted down by someone the last time I was here? Well, he used to make some crazy shit to hunt me down after he figured out I was still alive. In the end, he became one of them and tried to kill me with it, making himself into one of the prototypes that the company had owned. He created this," He said, motioning to the part in his wrist. "Okay, but what is it," I asked him, folding up my arms as he let out a small sigh.

"Well, before I killed him, he pulled out this and pointed it at me. Claire had grabbed Mike's gun and shot at him, which barely did anything to him, and he pointed it towards her. I realized what it was then, it was a gun," He finished, grabbing onto a small knob on the top of it and yanking it back, the bolt locking in place. "Let's just say, he didn't survive," He chuckled, the bolt suddenly shot forward with a metallic sound as he let his arm drop to his side. "That bolt release makes my job so much easier," He said, switching to his hand before he looked back over towards me.

"Okay, but, I simply asked about what it was. Not how the hell you got it…"

"Eh, doesn't matter. Let's just get out of here already," He replied, opening up the door and walking out with me following behind him, soon shutting the door. The two of us walked for a good fifteen minutes, neither of us bothering to say anything, at least, until Jason spoke up.

"I'm glad I can finally talk to you alone. I… wanted to say something about this earlier, but I didn't want to cause anyone to panic."

"Yeah, what's up," I asked him, seeing him rub the back of his neck for a few seconds as we kept walking. "Well, I was told they had figured out about an old prototype from the basement at the pizzeria. It wasn't the same as the one I fought and got the gun from, but I was the one that killed it. Anyway, from what I've heard, they've been collecting data from all of the old endoskeletons down there. Some type of reclamation project, but the thing is that I've heard they were gathering the info for some new types of robots that would be designed for more… 'combative' purposes I guess. I don't know what to think about it, and I don't really understand why they would be making them," He sighed, while I gave him a somewhat confused look.

"Okay, but why did you want to ask me about this?"

"I don't know, I talked about it with Goldy and Marionette, but they just shrugged it off. I just want to know what someone else thinks," He exclaimed. "Well, I guess I'd just not worry about it at the moment. I mean, why are you worrying about it," I asked him as he stared down the hill for a few seconds. "My endoskeleton was originally designed with the intent of being used in combat, hence why I'm able to do some much as I do. But I guess I'm worrying they're going to try and take me as well," He said, turning his head towards me with a distraught look. "Eh, if it comes down to that, I bet Marionette would bring you here. I'd doubt they'd ever even care after a few months," I chuckled, playfully punching his shoulder as we reached the bottom of the hill.

"So, now where to?"

I looked over at the vulpine who had a curious look on his face, scanning the street ahead of us as we walked. "We're going to walk to the park and take a shortcut through it, that way we don't spend forty-five minutes looking like a pair of dumbasses," I replied with a smirk as we continued walking, eventually reaching the park. "Jesus, how in the fuck did they manage to build this shit," Jason asked, looking around at the large area that was lined with trees. "It's better to not try and think about it," I told him, seeing him shake his head as we continued walking.

"Hey, you fuckers!"

'Oh, goddamnit…'

The two of us turned around to see a crew of wolves carrying various street weapons. Bats, knives – hell; one guy even had a machete. "What the fuck do you want," I asked, seeing them look around somewhat shocked. "Jeez, you both are simply walking along and get called by an armed group and respond rudely. You're pretty dumb," A dirt-covered, blue-furred wolf responded, throwing a bat over his shoulder as I simply rolled my eyes. "Yeah, you look like a group mutts that got lost from the litter," I replied with an unimpressed expression sporting an even more disappointed tone. "Mutts? Do you even know what we're a part of," Another wolf asked from the back. "The league of cunts," I asked, causing a red wolf on the right to try and rush at us before being held back by two of his buddies. "No, we're-" The blue wolf went to say as I cut him off.

"It was a rhetorical question; I don't really give a shit what you're part of. You can take your group of shove it up your asses while you're at it."

"Listen here, you damn fox-" The blue wolf shouted before Jason cut him off. "Damn, kid. Did you get thrown into a sewer or some shit? Or are all you runts just piss-poor and uncaring enough to clean yourselves," Jason asked, somehow more unimpressed than me. "You know," A yellow dog said from the back of the group, soon stepping forward to show a retriever. It was definitely a woman, something that I never expected to see with how those guys acted. "If you guys weren't such assholes I wouldn't mind trying something with yous."

"Jesus Christ, aren't you a flirt," Jason chuckled, folding up his arms as she shot him a look. "You're somewhat flirtatious yourself, aren't ya-" She went to say as Jason cut her off. "Woman, if you thought I was flirting with your ass, ya got something loose in the head. But, considering you're a blonde that isn't too far off, I'd assume," Jason told her, giving her a disapproving smile as I saw her visibly fume at the vulpine. "Listen here, you little shit-" She went to shout before he cut her off.

"Listen here, you literal bitch! How about you take your boy-toys and go fuck yourselves, or each other, I don't give a shit."

"Don't talk about my girl like that, fucker," The wolf with the machete shouted, rushing towards Jason and swinging at him, his face full of confidence which was then filled with horror as Jason simply grabbed the blade, mid-swing, with his bare hands. "What the fuck-" Jason sent his elbow into the wolf's jaw, earning an audible crack before he pulled the machete out of his hands by the blade and gripped onto the handle with his other hand, soon snapping it at the hilt and dropping it onto the ground.

"Get the fuck back here, I'm cleaning my hand off on you, you damn bastard!"

As he stepped forward and grabbed the wolf by the back of his collar, the others simply stared at the vulpine astounded while he seemingly towered feet above the lupine, wiping the oily liquid from his hand on the wolf's shirt before tossing him away to be caught by some of the men in the group. "What the fuck is wrong with you? You broke his jaw," One of them shouted at Jason. "'What the fuck is wrong with me?' What the fuck is wrong with him? He charged me with a weapon, and I didn't even throw a hard punch at him," He replied nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders. "Bullshit, you broke his fucking jaw," Another one yelled.

"And I'll break yours too if you don't shut your fucking trap, dick weed!"

I decided to add on a bit, the two of us soon going back and forth.

"Yeah, you fucking dicklicker."

"Dickhead."

"Dicktard."

"Hold on, do you even have a dick?"

"Yeah, I think he's dickless."

"Yep, it's a femboy."

"I wonder if he used to work at a hooters?"

The group continued to book it, but we marched right after them.

"You all look like bimbo fuckers, especially you," I shouted, pointing at the retriever. "Nah, that bitch is just a minx," Jason replied nonchalantly. "What the fuck is wrong with you two," The blue wolf asked in a somewhat shocked tone as I spoke up again. "Aw, I think we offended the mucky pup," I added.

"Fucking pillocks."

"Pinheads."

"Pencil dicks."

"Okay, take your cum dumpster and take a hike, you insufferable cunts," I shouted at them, flipping every single one of them off as they simply stared at us in both shock and anger, soon turning around while mumbling various insults. "Chode-sucking chumps," Jason shouted at them, the two of us finally turning around and continuing through the park towards the other side of town.

It felt oddly satisfying to let all that out.

After a good twenty minutes, we finally arrived at the house and were knocking on the door, soon seeing Andy open it up and look at us both partially confused. "There's two of you now," He asked, somewhat awestruck as he looked at Jason. "No, he's just staying with us for now since they've been having... issues at where they work," I replied while he stepped aside and let us walk through, soon guiding us to the kitchen as Jason looked around the house while we passed a showroom.

"Holy shit, I think I've found heaven."

We both turned around to see him walking into one of the showrooms that didn't get trashed, walking up to a case where I saw a black rifle with a gray box protruding from the bottom. "Jeez, I don't think I've held one of these since Afghanistan," He said, resting his hands on the wooden edges as he leaned over. "Actually, that's a lie, I remember using one about five years ago… Except that was a black market rifle…" I heard him trail on as me and the avian looked at him, soon seeing a smile creep up Andy's face.

"You've used one before," He asked, walking up to the vulpine as he turned around, looking down at the avian before nodding to him. "I was about twenty-five when I first used one in a combat scenario… It was probably three years before I had Kimberly," He said, looking at the roof in though as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Kimberly," I asked, somewhat shocked as he looked over at me. "I thought you called her Kimber?"

"Well, remember how I said I wasn't always what I am now?"

"Uh, sure," I said, not really catching on. "Her original name was Kimberly, but when we all became… this," He said, motioning at his body before looking back over to me. "We shortened it just a bit. I kind of thought of Timber, and how it's to do with wood, and thought it had a somewhat woodland-y sound to it, fitting with how we're foxes," He added, now causing both me and the avian to stare, completely dumbfounded by his logic.

"What?"

"Nothing, just… Let's get out and start my practice," I sighed, turning around and leaving the room, soon heading towards the kitchen while Jason talked with Andy about several other things that I had no care for. "Alright, so, you're ready to start practicing, eh," Andy chuckled as he walked over to the counter and pulled out the small rifle again, setting it on the table. "ASR, huh," Jason asked, looking at the rifle. "Jason, why do you have so much experience with guns," I asked, sighing into my hand as he simply grinned.

"What? I was a weapons sergeant, what do you expect?"

"You two have more in common than I thought…"

"What does that mean," Andy asked, looking over at me. "Well, he likes to drink. You're a bartender. Perfect match," I replied with a slight chuckle. "Maybe," Andy added with a chuckle as he grabbed the gun and we all three walked out onto his back deck, seeing a line of targets that seemed probably fifty yards away, fairly intimidating range for me. "Okay, I guess you want me to shoot at the target," I asked him as he looked over at me and shook his head.

"Nah, we need to teach you gun safety and trigger discipline first."

I inwardly groaned, realizing this was probably going to take much longer than I originally thought.

The first hour was entirely him teaching me the rules of gun safety. It was relatively common sense, but they both stressed how it was incredibly important. After that they spent about thirty minutes teaching me how to hold and manipulate the rifle, drilling me on different things as they'd call out a command, eliciting a reaction from me. At first, it seemed pretty dumb and I fumbled around with it, but after a while of doing it, it started to feel like an instinct; no longer requiring me to think about it much as they'd yell it out, or say, "Hostile – enemy, thug, target, etc – dead ahead."

It took a few more hours until they finally loaded up a magazine and let me shoot at some targets, mostly missing from what they said, but I occasionally got a hit or two as I struggled with aiming. I was also left for a front-row seat of Jason's wrist gun, the vulpine switched to it and proceeded to unload on a target beside mine, seemingly hitting the target with ease. It looked like he could guide the shots even after he fired it, though, that might of simply been me struggling to keep watching as the sound of gunshots deafened my ears.

This is going to feel like training with Jason all over again…

Jeff Cooper's four rules of gun safety:

1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never point a firearm at anything you do not intend to shoot.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on your target.
4. Be mindful of your target and what is beyond it.