Chapter 7- Fate starts moving

Jack moaned as he regained consciences.

"Good, your awake", said Kanga blandly as she removed a damp cloth from Jack's forehead.

"Hello to you too", he groaned. He felt like shit. Which he considered was not that surprising since he did jump off a moving vehicle at high speed.

"What happened?" moaned Max groggily from the bed next to Jack.

"Him", said Kanga flatly as she nodded in Jack's direction.

"Makes sense", he said meekly before slipping back into unconsciousness.

"So where were you during that fiasco?" asked Jack as he rubbed his forehead.

"Well I waited outside that café you asked me to", Kanga said as she half sat, half fell down into a chair. "After an hour and about ten or more hungry glances from possible rapists, I decided it was time to leave". Jack chuckled inwardly at this. She left because she was bored; if one of those guys had tried to assault her she would have broken his ribs in 3 seconds flat.

"Then I back-tracked from the finish line Max put down and couldn't find either of you". "I was about to give up when I saw a cloud of smoke rising up from the section of the highway under construction", said Kanga.

"You don't need to keep going, I can imagined the rest", interrupted Jack before she could go any further.

"You should get some more rest", said Kanga as she stood up and headed for the door.

Jack just grunted in response as Kanga left the room. He decided he should at least examine his surroundings before going back to sleep. He was back in Max's apartment, which was evident due to the mounds of miscellaneous crap covering the floor.

Jack hadn't seen this room during his initial visit. The room was slightly cramped with just enough room for the two beds he and Max were occupying and a single chair. All other space was buried in junk due to Max's cleaning negligence. He noticed he still had his under shorts on and that the rest of his clothing was piled next to his bed. His sword was carefully placed against the wall with its leather holding strap next to it. Suddenly Jacks started thinking about the fact he was unconscious for a couple of hours. The scenario these thoughts were leading to made Jack blush almost as red as his scales. Jack quickly pushed those thoughts out of his head with the reasoning that Max was also patched up and seemed to be wearing as little as he was. He slowly sank down into the sheets to get to sleep, but as he did he noticed something. The cotton bandage that had been on his chest had been replaced with a new gauze band-aid. A look of anxiety passed of Jack's face as he placed his head on the pillow and drifted into an uneasy sleep

Meanwhile in the other room, Kanga tried to get some sleep, though her attempts of slumber were in vain. Her mind was a swirling current of thoughts and feelings.

"Why am I even here?" She thought to herself as she fell onto Max's lounge. No matter how hard she thought about it no answer would come to her. The answer was probably to fill the void in her life, though she would never admit that to anyone, not even herself. The closest explanation she could accept was to leave the life of a bandit and start anew. But if that was the case then she was just slipping back into the life she had been living before.

"I'm so confused", she thought just before her body finally succumbed to exhaustion and she fell asleep.

Meanwhile…

"What on earth happened to you?" asked Mr Zircon's astonished secretary. "You look like you were hit by a truck!"

"Close enough", growled the Hunter as he scowled at the light brown rat in front of him.

"I suppose you want to see Mr Zircon?" asked the rat even though they both knew the answer.

"Of course I do!" snapped the Hunter impatiently. "Why else would I be here?"

"Very well", sighed the rat, as if he was dealing with a disobedient child rather than an angry assassin.

"In you go", said the rat quietly as he opened the door to Mr Zircon's office.

The Hunter walked briskly into the room, his bandana fluttering limply in his wake, and slammed the double-doors behind him.

The room he had entered was rather plain, simple and businesslike. A handful of small paintings dotted the walls, none of them meant to be eye-catching. At the end of the room was a mahogany desk covered with several small mounds of paper-work. A few grey spines could be seen poking up from behind the centre-most mound. The Hunter cleared his throat somewhat louder than usual and when this didn't obtain the reaction the Hunter was hoping for, he strode up to the desk and curtly moved the mound of paper work out of the way and captured the attention of the Anthro behind it. Mr Zircon was a grey hedgehog of about 61. He wore a stereotypical lab coat, red tie and black business suit-style pants. He also had thick glasses which seemed to enlarge his ice-blue eyes.

Mr Zircon looked up as the small mountain of paper work in front of him was moved aside to see something he wasn't expecting, the Hunter and damn did he look pissed. His olive green combat bodysuit was torn, ripped and stained with industrial lubricants, his bandanna was starting to fray, his fur was covered in grime and scorch marks and he stank of motor oil.

"What happed?" gasped Zircon as he looked his associate up and down.

"He got away" growled the Hunter, only just holding his rage in check.

"How does one man escape more than a dozen armed men and an Apache helicopter?" asked Zircon as he twirled his moustache nervously.

At that moment, the Hunter just couldn't hold it in anymore. He spun around and brought his fist down upon a poor, defenceless pot plant. Breaking the clay pot and snapping a small palm frond.

"Would you mind not destroying my office", sighed Zircon.

Quickly regaining his composer, the Hunter simply clenched and unclenched his fists.

Before he could say anything else, another hedgehog strode into the room carrying a handful of folders under one arm.

"Oh hello Richard, please do take a seat", said Zircon to the young Anthro.

Richard was a light-black hedgehog in his late twenty's. He was wearing a pinstriped suit and red tie and his spines were neatly pointing down and outwards.

"No I'm quite all right farther, I just needed to drop off these progress reports and give you my own personal medicalreport", replied Richard.

The Hunter noticed as soon as Richard said 'medical report' Zircon straightened in his chair instantly.

"Um, Hunter, could you please step outside for a moment", asked Mr Zircon.

"Of course", replied the Hunter, his curiosity now peaked. Hunter briskly walked out of the office and into the lobby, closing the double-doors behind him. Thankfully the secretary was on his coffee break so this was a perfect opportunity to do some eves dropping. With his hearing more powerful thanks to his blindness, the Hunter could more than easily hear what was going on.

"How are you feeling Richard", asked Zircon with slight worry in his voice.

"I'm feeling ok father, though I'm starting to feel some side effects".

"Such as?" asked Zircon.

"Well some positive side effects would be increased agility, increased endurance and increased resilience", reported Richard.

"And the bad ones?" asked Zircon.

"Increased aggression, uncontrolled movement and decreased self preservation", replied Richard.

"Well those can be worked around", sighed Zircon, somewhat gratefully.

"The Hunter chose that moment to quickly take a seat and wait for the two hedgehogs to come out.

A minute or two later the two Anthros walked out of the room

"Thankyou for your patience Hunter", said Mr Zircon.

"By the way Richard and I also have a way to get rid of your little problem", added Zircon with a devilish smile.

Unknown to all three of them a fourth figure was watching and listening as they discussed the plan.

"So that's your plan, huh?" chuckled a shadowy figure seated atop an obsidian throne as he watched the three Anthros through a security camera.

"Well I can't have that happening can I?"

"It seems the chameleon has bought himself a little more time, and a guardian angel" stated another figure that stood next to his master's throne.

"But just until Zircon is out of the picture, then his protection expires", sneered the first figure with a note of finality.

Back at Max's house...

Now that Jack and Max had regained consciousness Jack and Kanga informed Max of how they came to be in Genocide city and the three Anthros began to discuss their current situation.

"Is it someone working at the company or is it the company itself that wants me dead?" asked Jack who still had a throbbing headache.

"I don't know, but considering the fact that they had a fucking helicopter I'd say the company", sighed Max who was holding an ice-pack to the side of his head.

"By the way what about that information you promised us?" asked Kanga.

Max's ice blue eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh yeah" he said as if he had forgotten the whole thing.

Jack rolled his eyes at this statement while Kanga just glared at Max with a look that would have frozen water.

"I have a friend who works at Zircon Industries; he'll tell you everything you want know", said Max, oblivious to Kanga's glaring. "I phoned him before my race and told him to wait and the Golden Glory-Hole for us".

"That's the name of a bar?" asked Jack in disbelief.

"It serves drinks, but it's not a bar", replied Max slowly.