Author's Notes: You will read, now. No blue lamp story, just reading.

Transition

Sergeant Tyler O'Donnell pressed the door panel as he escaped the cold perimeter and entered the heated outpost. His heavy coat and winter gear slowed him down even more than the effect the temperature had on him after scouting in the freezing cold for a couple of hours. Relieved he could no longer see his breath, and he could now feel his face again, he continued forward through the underground corridor.

It was surprisingly dark, but he figured this was due to them trying to save power. A heavy storm was coming in, and they had to conserve the best they could inside the outpost.

Upon reaching the central part of the outpost, he saw the unmistakable sight of life coming his way. It was his friend Private Taylor, who was travelling in the direction Tyler had just come from.

"Just in time…" Said Taylor, stopping to meet up with his comrade. "How cold is it out there?"

Still shivering, Tyler almost didn't need to reply with words to answer his friend. "Try not to open your muzzle too much if you don't want your saliva to freeze…" Tyler said, noting the Finchina's weather with nearly truthful hyperbole. "Feels like it's about 20 degrees out there…Kelvin*…"

"At least you don't have the night shift." Taylor chuckled. If there was one thing the two shared in common other than their similar names, it had to be complaining about the jobs they had to do. "Do you think when we get back home we'll be unable to live in normal climates?"

"I don't even know where my home will be after this, I'll be lucky if I can afford to live in a Papetoon offshoot colony with the pay we get."

"Yeah, but you never know, maybe you'll get a house in the city, as well as a nice job. Maybe you'll be able to start a family of your own on Corneria."

"C'mon Taylor, you think anyone would want to spend their lives with me? I don't have the strength let alone the emotions to have a real relationship." Tyler never feared having a family; he only feared having a bad one. His tendency leaning away from such feelings sprouted from how his brother had handles his family.

"You know Don, you might be a little more dependable than you give yourself credit for." Taylor said, checking his watch to make sure he wasn't late for his shift. "You're a great guy, I'm sure if you put yourself to it, you'd find some woman who loves you."

"That's… nice, but it's just not what I want. I've never had any desire for that; it's really not something I'd strive for if given the chance."

Taylor nodded as he began to walk down the famed 'cold corridor' for his routine patrol. "That's a shame. It's too bad you don't have any girl to return to. I know when I get back I'll have a warm mate to cuddle with, at least that's something to look forward to." Taylor continued on his way, moving farther from Tyler's position until they were on the edge of making eye contact. "If I see anything out there…" He trailed off, assuming Tyler would be able to guess the words after the final ellipses as the memory faded into the present time.

~X~X~X~X~X~

Detective Tyler O'Donnell sat down at his desk, which was surrounded by a secluded island of light coming from his favorite blue lamp. Reviewing his case notes for what was undoubtedly the last time, he sighed as he put away yet another file which he would no longer need after today. He still had trouble grasping the fact that his future had changed so much in one day, and that a rare and oddly convenient opportunity had been offered to him only hours before.

It came quick and without notice, much like his brief encounter while stationed at Finchina. Although unlike then, this had clear direction and purpose. This case no longer encompassed an entire city or even the entire planet; instead, it was now an inter-system manhunt, and he was right in the middle of it.

A few quick knocks pounded on his apartment door. Detective O'Donnell was shocked somewhat at first, but then his suspicions leveled out when he opened the door to see who it was.

"Hey, I wanted to come over because I didn't see you after they… took you aside." Walter said, faking the movements for a face first takedown. Tyler instinctively reacted in a clumsy stumble.

"Do you know what they took aside for?"

"No, but I bet it wasn't because they needed someone to go to a local school to rile up some kids for career da- aborting joke…" He finished when he saw Tyler's hostile response.

If there was one thing the vulpine hated, it was the memory of him having to work with children. Such things were on par with his assignment on Finchina and paperwork. But nothing relieved him more than the success and closure of a hard fought case.

"So… what did you do?"

"That's a rather generalized question."

"Detective, you and I both know you're going to tell me what happened one way or another. But let's just say one of those ways involves me sharing your most embarrassing escapades."

"Fine, I was going to tell you anyways." Tyler pointed to his beat up couch. "But first turn channel 8 on, I bet they're going crazy over the mysterious pile of smoke from the southern quarter."

Walter listened and flipped through the stations until he reached the destined network available in 'over 4 billion households'. They were currently playing another round of their droning commercials.

Walter pointed to the screen, directing Tyler's attention. "Hey, it's those shampoo guys! The one's we had to solve that murder for!"

On the screen was a video of a well dressed executive standing outside of an eerily familiar shampoo factory.

'At Schrodinger's, we strive to provide the best quality products for our customers, delivering the best quality care for every type of fur. But sometimes, we understand our products don't meet the standards of quality that you expect.'

"Dead women in storage vats are what I've come to expect." Walter noted.

As the commercial continued, the camera panned out to show the entire factory.

'That is why we at Schrodinger's, have decided to join with our parent company to pursue a more unconventional response to the deteriorating welfare of our city. And the best way to do that, is to BUILD A THEME PARK!' The commercial was then drowned out by an intense breakdown of fast heavy music.

'THAT'S RIGHT, only at Corneria City will you find thrills, chills, and a new 798 foot gravity coaster, the fastest on this side of the LYLAT! Get your ticket's now and get a free bottle of Schrodinger's quality shampoo, with your choice of short, medium, or lo-'

"A theme park? Really?" Walter said as he let the remote down. "But… why?"

"People want to get fighting out of their minds and just relax. Who knows what crazy rouge factions are in possession of dangerous weapons these days?"

"Right, some people can simply walk into a bomb facility and take whatever while the real security is out preparing for some weapons convention. Sloppy, but I guess it doesn't matter when you have someone like Mr. Doles."

"Warlord Freeman…" Detective O'Donnell corrected.

"What?"

"That's Mr. Doles' official name, at least it's what he's usually called."

Walter was confused, but interested. "Did… they tell you that?" he asked, immediately being answered with an assuring nod. "So tell me, who took you aside and why?"

Detective Tyler leaned back into the couch, recollecting the events from earlier that day. "Well…"

~X~X~X~X~X~

As the detective was led past the blazing sirens a utter lack of order around him by the armed guard, he became increasingly self admitting to the stray thoughts in the back of the mind. For starters, he could determine the man next to him holding an assault rifle was a Cornerian agent, not part of law enforcement and not technically part of the army. He was nonetheless employed by the government, judging by the interestingly official insignia on his shoulder.

He knew not why he was being led away from the central action zone, and he did not know who would even want to see him or why. It was only one of the mysteries he was passively trying to solve, but unlike the others, the answer to this case lied directly in front of him.

Out from a military converted vehicle walked a confident looking canid, geared with body armor taken from the newest stocks of lightweight materials. As he saw the detective being led to him, his shoulders dropped as if he were somewhat relieved at his arrival.

"Tyler O'Donnell?" He asked in the form closer to that of an acknowledging statement.

"Yes that's me…" The vulpine answered as the armed guard broke off from him in a seemingly scripted manner.

The agent moved closer to shake hands. "Weiler Rotte, I'm part of the Cornerian Tactical Espionage Agency, those Invaders you saw flying overhead were my doing, and it seems that just as we were on that bastard's tail, he manages to steal a stealth ship. We received reports he'd arrived on Corneria only a week ago; seems that it didn't take long for him to infiltrate a high security readiness facility."

Detective O'Donnell looked behind him to see the aircraft circling one more. "Sorry sir, but it was at such a short notice when we discovered we needed backup. How did the information relay to you so fast?"

"Our ships were in the sky long before you called for backup detective. As it so happened, we were tracking him to this part of the planet when we had an automatically filtered government transmission of your keywords and location transmitted to us. If only we got here sooner." Weiler slammed his fist into his other palm.

Tyler was overcome with a sense of failure; he knew he was partially responsible for being unable to delay Mr. Doles from escaping, and then he'd have a much tougher time getting off the ground. "I did all I could at the time…" Tyler said in a disappointed tone. "He had too much firepower with him."

"Fre- Mr. Doles is known for that." Tyler took instant notice of the canine's correction. "Some of these warlords have enough power to take down a couple platoons if they wanted. Fortunately, they're all too busy fighting among themselves and unable to develop any real organization under a single leader. A couple times they've been able to establish a commander, but then they start another civil war once they get to the problem of deciding on a name."

"He didn't seem to bring too much for this raid. It looks like it was an inside job."

Agent Rotte looked worried. "Inside job? Yeah, Freeman's the sort who'd do that. Most of the warlords are drooling idiots who need people just to tie their shoes, but Warlord Freeman is a former Theoretical Physicist from the Zoness University of Advanced Sciences."

"Freeman?"

"Yeah, Warlord Freeman, it's Mr. Doles' primary alias. These guys don't often use their real names so that later and life they can be themselves without having to worry about personal vendettas from rivals in the past. He's known also as the psycho with an advanced degree, or the One Free Man."

Tyler gained a new suspicion. "So he'd be able to deal with, advanced systems then. Do you think he'd be able to replicate the ship?"

"He definitely could if he had the time, but he couldn't work with the stealth drive even if he had all the spare parts. The only way he'd be able to reverse engineer it or extrapolate its usage would be if he had someone who originally worked on the systems. And the only place he could find that would be-"

"At the weapons exposition tomorrow." Agent Rotte nodded at Tyler's affirmation. "Mr. Doles said something about the convention, that's why he said the facility was understaffed."

"Warlord Freeman's

Agent Rotte approached his vehicle and searched for something he'd been meaning to give the detective. He inserted the small chip into Tyler's communication device, and immediately, the wrist bound computer recognized the signal.

"This will help us stay in touch." He tested the frequency out firsthand, calling himself to make sure it worked. "When we're at the convention tomorrow, we'll have to make sure we communicate properly."

"We're going to the weapons expo?" Detective O'Donnell asked both excited and unsure. The thought of going to such a prestigious event was almost as interesting as the weapons they'd surely have their.

The weapons they generally showed at the convention were ones deemed too impractical to use in true combat. Private military contractors were the main buyers of course, the Cornerian Military only desired weapons which were simple to use and easy to distribute, but some of the more individualized factions could suit their own tendencies with signature weapons.

Private Militaries (mercenary armies if you will) were under constant watch from the Cornerian government. Many of them were hired to defend key areas in case of an Aparoid attack, but they also had to be managed very tightly due to the possibility they might stray towards more illegal endeavors. When these private companies dispersed, the soldiers who made up their framework often took up work in the only other way their experience could direct, and that meant finding someone powerful to follow.

"It's clear as crystal that his intentions have something to do with stealing one of the many advanced weapons from there. They only have billions of credits worth of every kind of device there. They feel they have to show off their military strength, but having that all disrupted would be a demoralizing blow." Agent Rotte scanned the skies to see his Invaders circling back. "We may have lost the trail, but that doesn't mean we can't track down the warlord and give him goo old' Cornerian justice."

"Where do you suppose he is now?" The detective asked.

"It's a bit hard to guess with him being in a stealth ship and all, but my best guess would be he's headed to a station far from our control. By all means, he's probably in enemy territory and long gone, the only way we'd get to him is…" Agent Rotte pondered his idea. "Is if we were lowlife scum like the mercenaries he hired." His words came at the realization of a couple captured pirates being led away into a high security transport and undoubtedly on their way to be interrogated.

Agent Rotte then got an idea, a risky but still plausible idea. From what he could tell, it wouldn't take much, only an acute sense of what it's like to be part of the sticky underside on the tables of society.

"Have you… had any experience in espionage before detective?"

"I've been undercover more than a few times, dealt with the worst."

"Good, that might be helpful in the future."

"What are you talking about Mr. Weiler?"

Agent Rotte took out a business card as if he were a charismatic ship dealer. "We agents often deal in work very similar to yours. The only difference is that our spectrum encompasses a far greater span than your localized police force. I'm not proposing too much at the moment, but be ready to answer the call when… we call you."

"Thanks, but I was discharged from the army a while back. They're not going to let me back in even if I ask nicely."

"We're not really part of the army detective; we're part of the federal Cornerian government. Think of us as a more exclusive part of an executive branch, free from restrains put on our armed brothers and sisters."

"Right, but you still get your orders from General Pep?"

"Not directly, but my superiors do. We often initiate joint operations in more intense situations. But much of our small scale work includes as little as three operators."

Detective Tyler folded his arms. "Are you proposing that I join you Agent?"

Agent Rotte put his paws on the detective's back and pointed to the sky with his other hand. "Your authority at the moment stops when it reaches that atmosphere; but in the Tactical Espoinage Agency, your authority reaches as far as the range of your blaster."

The vulpine eerily enjoyed the sound of that.

"Why do you need to get to Mr. Doles anyway? What is it that brought you here?"

"I'm investigating the recent murder of Vixy McCloud, who was killed via car bomb only hours ago. When I confronted Mr. Doles the first time, I was unaware of the guilty knowledge he had about the murder until it was too late."

Agent Rotte smiled. "Looks like we both have our reasons to go after Warlord Freeman." He approached the front of his vehicle. "Would you care to join me detective? I think it's about time we interrogated those he left behind."

Detective Tyler didn't hesitate, for hesitation had already done horrible things to his day. "With pleasure." He said with a smirk.

~X~X~X~X~X~

On the ride over to the secure base, Tyler talked with his new acquaintance as if he'd known him for years. They shared past experiences of difficult cases and tension filled diversions alike. As they walked down the government building together, they laughed at each other's stories.

"And then, Major Povorich said: 'We're feasting on giant mushrooms tonight boys!' And that was the first time in my life I learned what it was like to clean the latrines in a counter-pressure suit."

Detective Tyler laughed as he finally had to admit he had been bested. "Well… other than the time I accidentally blew up our commander's wedding gift, I can't say I've done anything that crazy before."

"Hehe, and I've just shared the light stuff. You won't believe the things I've seen in my days." The two walked through the building until they came to a section closed off with a yellow line on the floor. Even though the yellow line would undoubtedly be a tough thing to sneak through, they still needed more firepower to keep undesirables at bay. An armed guard kept everyone not allowed past that point well… not past that point.

"He's with me." Agent Rotte waved off as he continued past the heavy metal door. The guard nodded and Tyler was able to walk with him into the highly restricted area.

"The interrogation rooms are right over here; hopefully we'll be able to get something out of these guys."

As Tyler looked about the twisting hallways, he saw windows which were specifically designed to see only one way. It was the strangest of feelings; knowing that someone might be watching, but unable to see them even though they were so close.

Agent Rotte stopped when he reached one of the rooms. "I believe they said one will be in here." He said as he opened the door.

The two came to a complete shock when they saw two guards equally shocked at the sight of the 'secretary' Tyler had met up with earlier, lying on the floor dead.

"What the hell?"

~X~X~X~X~X~

Author's Notes: Cool huh? It seems this story might be a little more ambitious, no? Anyways, I hope those of you with greater attention spans than gnats are able to follow along, I wish I knew what I was writing. Just kidding, I've got a lot more stuff planned, don't worry.

Also, I saw The Expendables 2 yesterday, awesome movie, you should really see it. It's almost like what I wish I could think of.

Twenty degrees Kelvin is absurdly cold by the way. Want to know how cold? As cold as my heart. There, that joke's out of the way. Please review!