Chapter 6
Fox sat in the back of a rideshare suv that was taking him to a meeting. Butch messaged Fox that he would join but wanted to work out a contract in private. He now rode over to a place he and Butch determined would work for what they needed. Shortly after that the council wanted to talk about the next step in the meeting room. All Fox had to do now was just sit back and enjoy the ride through the city. The area around the spaceport could be described best as an urban ghetto. Houses just sort of built atop another. Some of the bottom buildings held random shops and restaurants at the bottom street levels. The streets were covered in people running to and fro. Many crossing in the middle of the street just barely missing cars that drove past.
Fox found himself slowly watching the world pass by him. He watched the people move by faster than cars because of all the mid street foot traffic. His suv which had no driver precariously inched through the crowded environment. Anytime someone walked in front of the car It stopped and waited a few seconds before starting up again. It somewhat annoyed Fox that he'd probably be late to his meeting with Butch. Fox didn't let it get to him and instead focused on the people walking on the sidewalk.
Fox watched for maybe a minute before he saw a young family. A lynx mother and german shepard father both in their late twenties walking through the streets with little girl. The girl took more of her father's canine features but had the mother's lynx ears. The daughter sat on the father's shoulders and stared in bewilderment at the world. Fox watched them a moment later but, as he blinked the whole scene changed. It wasn't the couple that was there a second ago. Instead it was Krystal, Marcus and himself. Marcus was on his shoulder and Krystal stood by him holding his hand. He and Krystal were looking at each other lovingly like there was never a fight between them. Fox blinked again and the whole scene was gone.
For awhile he sat staring out at the window pondering what he just witnessed. Fox just saw him and his ex happily together with their child. It made him happy thinking about it but after some thought he knew it was just a dream. Eventually he chalked it up to his subconscious playing tricks on him and trying to make what he wanted a reality. The scene he just saw would take a miracle to come true and maybe more. Fox closed his eyes to think more about him together with Krystal and Marcus.
His suv came to a stop a minute later in front of a house. The door handle went from red to green meaning he could now leave. A wave of hot and humid air rushed in to meet Fox as he stepped outside. The suv drove off down the street a bit faster than it did when he was in it. 'Could've done that before.' Fox thought. He looked forward at the house. It looked old based on the chipped white paint and wood that struggled to stay together. The rest of the block this house was on looked the same as this house. Disheveled and unmaintained houses mere feet away from each other. Fox walked up to the house's front. A screened in porch was the first thing that fox walked into. He knocked on the faded green door that looked older than the house. A figure in the porch a house over sat rocking on a chair caught Fox by surprise. Granted the figure was sitting down and looking away but it still surprised Fox that he didn't catch it.
The door knob to Butch's house audibly clicked and the door creaked open. Out stepped Krystal in a black tee shirt and blue jean shorts. "Oh hey Fox." She said in a masculine voice. Fox blinked and again she was gone. In her place was Butch wearing a black tee shirt and blue jeans. Butch looked over Fox worryingly. "You okay? You look like you've seen a ghost." Butch asked. Fox realized he was looking at Butch with the same eyes he saw Krystal with.
"Yeah, yeah no I just. Nevermind." Fox answered back dodging the question. Butch wanted to ask further but decided not too. He convinced himself that if it was important then Fox would tell him.
"Well should we talk business then?" Butch said motioning into his house. Fox nodded and stepped in. From the entryway of the house, Fox could see the whole first floor. An old couch by a newish tv and two consoles in the entertainment system. A kitchen full of outdated appliances connected to a dining room. The dining room had a small table with three chairs. Two on one side and one on the other. Fox took a seat on the chair with only one on that side. "Do you want anything to drink?" Butch asked.
Fox made a low and slow waving motion with his hand. "No thanks let's just get to business." Fox took out a small holo projector and placed it on the table. A blue light came out of the projector that stabilized into a white light about a foot above the lens. "I came up with a draft contract for you. You aren't a pilot so you won't receive the same I'll offer another pilot who may join. I'm giving you a two month contract with an extension option if I need you longer. All you need to do is put your hand on the projector." Fox said nearly in one breath. Butch looked at Fox with a look of confusion.
"Yeah if you don't mind I think I'd like to look this over myself. Take some time to make my choice." Fox wasn't disappointed at his response. He knew Butch might be hesitant in signing with someone he only knew for a few days. With some hope and time however, he hoped that Butch would take his deal.
"I understand." Fox said standing up. "If you make your decision then you know how to get in touch." Fox started walking towards the door. "In two hours if you decide yes, message me." He looked at his phone and realized that the self driving car was a lot slower than he initially thought. He had anticipated this meeting to take around ten minutes and he was still behind his desired schedule, even though he only spent maybe three minutes with Butch. 'This time no computer.' Fox thought as he opened the rideshare app. Three cars came up in a half mile radius. He choose the closet one with a living driver.
Fox looked next to him at the porch. The figure still sat in the chair rocking back and forth. Beyond him down the road was a white sedan that Fox recognized as his ride. He took one step down, nodded a friendly nod to the figure who waved back and walked down to the car. A driver remotely opened the back door. Fox slid into the cloth bench seat and closed the door behind him. The driver checked out Fox plus his window. He actually focused more on the window then on Fox.
"Hey is that window closed?" he asked. Fox moved his finger onto the side handle and pulled the window button up. It didn't move.
"Yeah it's up, why?" A ringing noise was sounded through the car. The kind of ring one might hear when a grenade pin is pulled. Fox turned around with lightning speed. Not quick enough though. The driver held up a fire extinguisher with the nozzle pointed at Fox. He squeezed the handles together shooting a yellow mist at force in Fox's face. Fox reached out to stop the flow but couldn't find the strength to lift his arm high enough. He fell back into the seat motionless.
"Enjoy the ride buddy. Might be your last." The last thing Fox saw was his driver lowering his window. Then he faded into unconsciousness
Later in the warehouse district.
Fox awoke with his hands tied behind his back. A cold steel chair rubbed up against his legs. It was then he noticed that for the second time in two weeks, he had been captured, tied up and stripped naked. 'Again really.' He thought to himself. This room was large enough to put an entire arwing maintenance depot inside. Suspended lights hung around the space but scarcely any worked. Ten out of the maybe fifty hanging lights illuminated random areas around the warehouse. In the distance in front of him were three silhouetted figures walking around. Before one of the figures could walk forward, footsteps started coming up from behind. Stomping from boots on pavement got louder as a shadow to Fox's right became larger. Fox lifted his head to meet whoever had walked up to him.
A female skunk came up next to Fox. She wore a grey sweatshirt with the hood up. The only defining feature was her white line on her nose. She probably aged somewhere near Fox, maybe a little older. A silhouette came running up with a chair. Another came up with a briefcase. The first set down the chair by the skunk. The second came up to Fox and opened the case. Silhouette two, now clearly a feline of some sort, grabbed something out of the case. This thing had two suction cups attached to a black box. The feline put one of the cups against his back and fastened the first to his upper back. The other was placed on his hip. The black box device hung on his chest.
"Is kidnapping and stripping people just a pastime here?" Fox asked. The skunk didn't move an inch. The feline finished up and pulled apart some of the front device on his chest. She held a square metal frame that turned into a holographic tablet. The third silhouette ran up with a first aid case. This one turned into a male husky.
"I'm sure you have other questions than our hobbies. Don't you want to know who we are, why we need you or how we knew where you were?" The skunk said. The husky opened the first aid case to reveal a syringe. The animal pulled out the syringe and a black liquid in a glass jar. Fox watched this and said nothing. "Intrigued are we?" The skunk said. Fox decided that if he stayed silent for now then maybe he could get out sooner. "Let me start off then, I'm Molly. These little worker bees running around help me run my little extraction business." The feline handed the holo tablet to Molly. "If you resist then that only makes this harder. So tell me who told you where the raiding base was?" She said inquisitively. Fox just looked at her calmly. In his mind silence made sense. If he just stayed quiet long enough then they would get bored and let him go.
The husky put the needle of the syringe in the glass jar. Black liquid filled the syringe to the fullest it could be. Inside the syringe the liquid seemed to almost move on It's own. The plastic holding it in pulsed back and forth with some escaping from the back end. "Wondering what that is? So am I. It's apparently an old venomian drug with a machine to go along with it." Molly said. She tapped a setting on the tablet. Pain couldn't describe what Fox felt next. The cups on his back and hip made such movements to make everything inside his skin feel like it tried to find its way out. He could feel his guts move and contort in ways he never imagined possible. Preoccupied with the fire inside him, he didn't notice the husky inject him with the black liquid.
Molly stopped the machine. "Ready to talk?" She mocked. Fox looked at her and in a low beaten voice he said.
"Death before Dishonor." A motto some Cornarian military units had. He straightened up in order to get ready for the next wave of torture.
"So you don't want to play my game. Then let me play yours. The drug my associate put in you has an advantage over all over I could administer." She poked at the tablet some more. "I control your trip."
Fox's vision went black. All he could see was a dark void with nothing around him. "I wish he were dead. It would of make this whole damn thing easier." Krystal's voice said in the darkness. A bar appeared like the darkness was water washing away. Fox watched from a ceiling corner like he were a security camera. Krystal sat in front of Fox talking to a white haired primate. Fox studied the ape for a second more until he knew who he was. Andross sat next to Krystal and conversed with her like one would with a friend.
"Maybe that could be arranged." Andross said. He looked at his phone typing up something. "Look at Fox's estimated bank account. Say if I were to make him take a little dirt nap. You give me thirty percent of that. Would we call it a fair trade?" Krystal glanced at his phone eyes in wonder at the screen.
"That could set me up for life." She said taking his phone in her hand. "That could set Marcus up for life." Krystal stood up and started to walk around.
"Could set me up too." A loud noise came from Andross's jacket. The jacket started turning blue along with the rest of his clothes. After a moment Andross looked exactly like Krystal. He put a set of fake teeth in. "And I'm not big on sharing." Andross said in Krystal's voice. He reached in his jacket again and pulled out a handgun, aimed it at Krystal and shot her. The blast hit her in the shoulder as she fell on the ground dead. Fox screamed her name but nothing came out of his mouth. Andross put on a mask that copied every single facial feature of Krystal's. "Be content that the last face Fox sees will be yours."
"Mom?" A young voice said. Fox and Andross looked over as Marcus stood in the bar's doorway. He ran over to Andross who now looked identical in every way to Krystal. "Mommy who is that?" Andross put his foot behind Krystal's shoulder to flip her over. Her limp body rolled over to leave a very confused Marcus. "Mommy?" He said with an audible sad voice. Andross pulled the handgun back out. Marcus looked back at Andross who had a gun pointed right at his head. Fox closed his eyes.
"NOOOOOOO!" Fox kept his eyes closed not wanting to see anything.
"See." Molly's voice said. "Your worst fears, your worst nightmares, I can bring them out in you." Fox opened his eyes to see he was back in the warehouse. He felt tears coming down his eyes down to his chin. His arm instinctively went to wipe his face but he remembered that he was restrained. Still though, his right arm moved more that it should have. Fox moved it more and realised quickly it wasn't tied down anymore.
"Then throw me everything you have." Fox said cockily.
"While you were in your high you mentioned the name, Krystal." Molly looked at the tablet. "I think I know that know who that is. Five years ago a pilot came to Kew asking for work. Blue fur, blue hair, tribal tattoos and baby that was maybe a day old." Fox got visibly worried. "If I remember right. That baby boy had a white stripe on his head just like yours." Molly looked at Fox evilly. "You know where I'm going with this. Tell me who told you about the base or I can make a certain family living in a spacecraft hangar disappear."
"The council." Fox said immediately. "The council gave me all my information." Molly opened her mouth to speak again. Before she could talk, A laser bolt struck her in the face. The three henchmen reached for their sidearms. The first got their weapon into the air aimed at where the blast came from. He fired off four shots before one came out of the directly hitting his chest. Fox knew this was his opportunity to run. He ripped off the rope on his left arm. The feline and the husky shot in random directions toward the original two shots. Fox untied his right leg husky pointed at Fox.
"He's getting away." The husky started shooting at Fox. He tried to run but the leg he didn't untie tripped him up and flung him backwards. The back of his head fell on the pavement knocking him unconscious.
Chapter 6 end.
A/N:
Fox= Two months, it took you two and a half months to write that.
Me= Yeah I said tomorrow a few to many times. I wanted some more time before I said anything, but I'm joining the army reserve. Don't worry I'm not abandoning this story but starting September 14th, I won't be able to post anything for at least ten weeks probably more.
Fox= So what your new upload schedule.
Me= Shut...shut up. Anyway sorry for this inconvenience but I'm going to try and get one more chapter up before I leave for basic. Do I want it to happen yes. Will it happen, maybe. I'm going try my best but based on my past trends don't count on it.
Until next time LONEW0LF out.
