They weren't clouds, no, definitely not. Clouds were collections of small water droplets or even ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. Cold but not difficult to pass through, especially with your mind. Everyone who has ever moved through even the thickest cumulonimbus knows that.

The substance was more like molasses. Thick, dark, and viscous. Getting stuck in it meant danger, and being buried under it was a death sentence. Dudley remembered seeing a video once about an incident with molasses that covered a whole street, even killing several people who were washed by the flood.

Back then the thought of a non-water flood amused him, but now having all his thoughts filled with a sticky thick tidal wave was a less-than-pleasant thing. He nonetheless tried to keep thinking, the mind is damned to think, especially if there's not much else to do.

He looked around and tried to take in his surroundings, even if it took immeasurably long. He was chained to a rather uncomfortable metal stretcher, he still knew that. Hobbs had his agent chain him to that at the beginning of the interrogation. Despite it being an examination if anything.

They started by attaching electrodes to his body and placed various kinds of measurement equipment around him. Some of these he knew from Keswick's lab, others seemed more than peculiar. That's when he received the first syringe. It was awful, it was like they had injected liquified fear into his body.

For a good ten minutes, he was hyperventilating while the people around him nodded complacently before sedating him replacing the fear with indifference for everything and everyone. Then another syringe that made him feel like someone ignited his bones. Every move had hurt even lying had been a pain. Then another sedating syringe, and then the one that turned his brain into molasses.

The last thing he noticed before his thoughts congealed was that his stretcher was pushed away from the place it was before. Now he probably was in a different room, somewhere else in the building. He just had no chance to perceive his whereabouts in any meaningful way. In an attempt to use the bit of fluidity his viscous mind had, he concentrated on one thing at a time.

At first, it was a weird thing, big, with a flat surface, wide enough to sit on. No, even wider, several people could sit on it. A chair? No… A table! That's what it was. And what was that back there? Something white, with something blue on top. All in all, very round and bulky. It took him another moment to recognize the water cooler standing there bubbling from time to time.

The last noteworthy thing in the room was the door, and he needed what felt like an hour to recognize it. Being successfully done with his assessment of his surroundings Dudley would have patted himself on the shoulder if he wasn't chained.

However, something told him that this gesture would have surpassed his capabilities at that moment. It took him a moment, probably much longer, to realize that his arms and legs felt numb.
The door opened, and Dudley noticed long after someone was already standing over him and placing another needle in his arm.

The prick was unnoticeable, his mind would have needed too long anyway to process it, but the effects hit Dudley like a sledgehammer. The molasses was drained, with still something staying back. Also, he regained the sense in his arms and legs, though his feet and hands still felt like someone had deadened the nerves inside of them.

"Wh…What?" The masked face of a dog in scrubs appeared for a brief moment in front of him before disappearing quickly from his field of view. What reappeared instead of more medical personnel was a bunny, wearing a medal-covered uniform who grinned widely at him.

"Mr. Puppy, good to see that you got through the testing phase." He grinned and walked closer to him, but stayed well outside a one-arm radius. Even with the chains, he didn't want to leave anything up to chance. "I hope these tests weren't too unpleasant?"

"What did… did you put into me…" Dudley had to press every word out of his throat. Talking was tiresome, and listening was so too.
"Oh, just a few things. We needed to test a hypothesis of one of our scientists and, what should I say, he was right. Clever boy." Hobbs's grin was downright vicious as he beamed it down onto the dog who had closed his eyes trying to focus just on words.

"Do you… What do you…"
"Oh, that's simple." Hobbs took the task of talking gladly off of Dudley's shoulders. "I want the Advisor, I want him to reappear here and then I will neutralize him."
Dudley even would have needed a moment to process that without whatever they put into his veins. He opened his eyes and looked up into Hobbs's maniacally grinning face. The idea was absurd, this was absurd, and it led Dudley to a very natural reaction.

"Are… are you for real?" He asked laughing weakly. "Do you want… want to give him a reason to kill… kill you?"
"I'd like to see him try this time." The General now frowned back at the dog, he seemed not to have liked that remark. "I got to admit, I was sloppy last time, thinking we could just talk with him but… this time we are well prepared."

"And what… what are you… trying this time?" Dudley coughed, was it just imagination, or was it harder to breathe for him? It felt like every breath was a little less effective.
"Oh, nice try Mr. Puppy, but if I tell you anything you might pass it on to your master through… I don't know, telepathy maybe? You tell me." Hobbs sneered and stepped again closer looking down like he was a biologist and Dudley a sample he just sectioned.

"There is no… no open line he… he knows that kind of stuff." The dog sighed tiredly, suddenly he felt he needed to explain the Advisor's nature to someone who understood it less well than he did. "He…watches without watching…"
"What is that supposed to mean?"

"No clue." Dudley tried to shrug but his arms started feeling fuzzy. "I… I always thought that it was his nature… that it is for him… like what is seeing for me."
"This is a rather unsatisfying explanation." The General frowned.
"I think we wouldn't un…" Dudley's legs started feeling odd now too and what he thought to be a trick of his imagination proved itself to be true. He was having a hard time to breath. "What… was in that… syringe." He croaked.

"Ah, yes, the toxin…" Hobbs sounded so casual that someone could think he was talking about the new flavored soft drink he just bought. "We were researching some of the old Soviet Novichok neurotoxins and found a derivate of them to be quite useful in this case. You are probably feeling its first symptoms now. It can get pretty nasty, I am surprised that you are still with us Mr. Puppy."

"Ar.. Are you… killing…"
"I am afraid in this war you will be the first collateral damage." Hobbs's inconsolable expression was not backed up in the slightest by his tone of voice. "But be sure that this all happens for the greater good and for the abolishment of evil. Ms. Katswell will hear of your great sacrifice." Hobbs sounded like a recruiter trying to sell Dudley the idea of signing up as a martyr. "She was such a good soldier. Arranged the dinner with you, found you again, and lured you in. She will know that she stood on the right side of history in the end, on our side, on my side."

It took all his strength to even form words at this point, but still, Dudley pressed out a few of them. "She… She..."
"I know that might hurt but she also did it for the greater good, so don't be angry with her." The bunny stepped closer and patted Dudley's cheek. "Even though she seemed a little less dedicated lately… we need to get this out of her. But these are jobs to do after the Advisor is handled."

Dudley retched and desperately tried to suck in air to quench his thirst for oxygen. "Please… I… He won't…"
"Oh, please, Mr. Puppy, why shouldn't he? His man on the ground is close to death. Wouldn't he try to save what's left of you?"

"Intervention… forbidden…" Breathing was useless at this point and still, he did it as the panic took over.
"Is that so? Who is opposing rules on him?" Hobbs moved closer to Dudley's face who was mostly preoccupied with trying to process every molecule of air he could.

"Con…Conti…" he tried to utter but it was simply not possible anymore. Darkness started engulfing him, and the sinking feeling of this being it for him unearthed a fear in Dudley he never knew. It was like every fiber in his body cried out in panic about its own death culminating in a horrendous cacophony of horrible proportions.

"Don't worry Mr. Puppy, he'll tell me himself." Hobbs stepped back from the chair and looked at a monitor mounted in the upper room corner behind Dudley. A graph that was showing the current energy emissions was so off the chart that the software wouldn't display it anymore. Hobbs grinned, the Advisor would soon manifest, they needed to keep the dog just a little longer in this state.

He took the syringe on the table next to Dudley and looked at it. The whole dose would probably ease his state but if he waited and did nothing the dog would probably die before making his master appear. Hobbs waited watching the readings on the screen. The values skyrocketed further but still no trace of the advisor.

"Sir, we are at the turning point, if you don't apply the antidote he will die." Someone from the intercom said.
"Now now, Smithers, we are so close." Hobbs was shivering with excitement looking alternatingly from Dudley to the screen.
"Sir, the team is working on a solution to keep the state stable but for now you need to end it."
"Fine fine," Hobbs growled and sunk the needle into Dudley's triceps. "But we inject him again as soon as he's awake." Hobbs waited for a remark from anyone on the science team knowing that they would try having the last word.

In his opinion, they had some quite loose mouths but then again, he needed them to make any progress so he allowed that verbal leeway. But this time they stayed silent. Hobbs felt unease settle in his mind like an unwanted guest. Something was wrong. He grabbed the walkie-talkie on his belt.
"This is General Hobbs, status, over." He ordered into the radio but instead of the known voice of one of his soldiers, he heard another familiar voice.

"Drop it." The tone was dry angry and lacking any kind of wish to negotiate. Accentuated by the shotgun Kitty made a quite compelling argument for Hobbs. He yielded and raised his hands.
"Katswell! Are you out of your mind?!" He yelled as Kitty moved closer to him.

Her shotgun's barrel glued to an area of his body too vital to live without. Her attention didn't stick around at Hobbs for long, even though her gun did, her eyes quickly widened in shock as she saw Dudley lying on the table.

"He's here!" She called out and moved to her boyfriend. Hobbs knew it was his chance to strike, he jumped at her. Ready to take the gun and the control. But in mid-air, in the void between him and Kitty, someone else seized control. The sound of the shotgun was loud, harsh, and hurled the bunny to the wall where he collided without anything else breaking his fall.

"Oh, hell no, you don't." Katty looked over her smoking pump action at the General who moaned in pain. She grinned complacently as he tried to get up but collapsed back down moaning. "Good, get used to the ground."

"Dudley, come on, Dudley!" Kitty held her fingers on his neck, she found a pulse but wasn't sure if that would stick around. She saw the syringes on the table.
"What's with him?" Kerry had entered the room and watched her sister attempting to wake the dog.
"I don't know maybe he…" She turned around to Hobbs, fire suddenly burning in her eyes. "What have you done to him?!"

"Agent Katswell, I promise, you can still get out of this. I will put a good word in if you help me now…"
Hobbs received an answer to this in the form of a fist to his face.
"What have you done?!" Kitty lunged out again and beat the bunny once more before he could answer. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Her fist started raining down onto Hobbs's face in a flurry of rage. She didn't want to hear the answer, she knew it after all.

"Kitty… as much as this is justified…" Katty said and grabbed her blood-covered fist as it was about to strike the unconscious Hobbs again. "We don't have time."
Kitty needed a few seconds to breathe and to see clearly again. Thinking it through the only thing she could do now is flee and hope a hospital could do something for Dudley.

"You're… right…" She panted. "You two grab Dudley, I take the lead."
"Already on it…" Kerry panted as she tried carrying Dudley alone. "Katty, give me a hand, he's heavier than he looks."

"Yeah, thought that it wouldn't be the other way around." Katty sighed and helped her sister.
Kitty's heart raced as the four of them rushed down the agency's similar-looking hallways. Time was of the essence, whatever was in Dudley's blood would kill him if they couldn't bring him out of there in time. Finally, the elevators, just upwards and they'd be as good as home.

Euphoria settled just for a moment in Kitty's heart. She pressed the button to call the lift down and a little smile crawled upon her lips.
"We are as good as out." She grinned at Kerry and Katty who held the unconscious dog.
"I have a ba-" Kerry just wanted to air what they all had in the back of their minds as reality took it out of her mouth. Red lights, sirens, the alarm was set off.

"I should have kept it to myself." Kerry huffed while Katty shrieked in panic.
Kitty's smile was wiped off her face, she turned to the elevators. They were offline, of course. In a hurried motion, she pointed at the doorway a few meters down the hall and shouted. "The stairs, hurry!"

She led the group into a seemingly endless stairwell. The three of them had to help together to get the dog from floor to floor at a sensible pace.
They were about three floors from the ground level as the first gunshots were fired from upstairs. A group of agents, armed and ready, was trying to intercept them. Kitty pushed her sisters and Dudley into the closet door.

"Dammit, what now?!" Kerry asked panting as they all ran through a sea of cubicles. Kitty knew this level, her office was also on this floor.
"There is a fire exit back there, we just have to pass through the break room over there!"
The three cats ran as fast as their feet could carry them and arrived at the breakroom.

The room was rather small, the door that led, in case of a fire, to a second stairwell, two vending machines, a couch, and a little table with some magazines on it were the only notable furniture. Kitty wanted to make a quick escape and pushed down the handle on the emergency door but it wouldn't budge. "Shit." She cursed and immediately started ramming her whole body against the door.

Kerry and Katty looked at each other, their faces were beyond worry.
"Is there another way?" Kerry asked.
"No, so we better get this to open." Kitty moaned and threw her shoulder once more against the door.
"Kerry, help me here." Katty was trying to move one of the vending machines, a snack machine, over towards the door.

The oldest sister nodded and with joined forces, they could buy themselves some time. However, there was no time to rest. With all shoulders the Katswell family could offer they tried to force open the door. The sound of bodies colliding with a metal door became a rhythm and over this regular recurring sound, none of them heard the dog slowly getting back on his feet.

Dudley felt worse than he had ever felt before. Parts of his body felt like someone had put dozens of needles in it and then didn't care about pulling them out again. He barely could feel something in his fingertips or toes. Standing up was a problem but he managed it with some patience.

As his stance seemed safe, he looked around, these three people over there seemed to not like this door… who were they anyway? Dudley focused his few for a moment and then remembered them.
"Oh, Kitty... and Katty and Kerry…" he thought and then simply let them carry on their work.

They probably had a reason to do what they did. Standing upright was possible the next step was walking, also that was working. But it felt more like a toddler doing his first humble steps. Dudley looked towards the vending machine. His throat felt like the Atacama Desert. All he wanted was something to drink.

As he reached the machine he fished a few quarters out of his pocket. They should probably be enough for a drink. The Coke looked fine to him, so after some struggle with the coin slot he pressed the button. Slowly the drink moved forward and just in the moment it should have fallen down, the machine stopped leaving the drink in a state between falling and standing.

"Oh come… on…" Dudley panted and gave the machine a weak punch.
"Kitty, look!" Katty was the first who had heard the dog and she grabbed her sister and turned her around.

"Dudley!" Kitty jumped to him and aided him back to the couch.
"Oh hey… hey Kitty." He grinned stupidly at her. "I didn't know, you could move so fast."
She gently took his head in her hands and kissed his nose. "What have they done to you?"

"Oh… got a syringe… is it normal by the way that… everything is so blurry?" he asked and blinked at the other two cats. "I know Katty and Kerry are here but… they look like blobs."
"We will get you to a doctor, just don't worry." Kitty's voice cracked as she held back the tears.
"Well, don't worry, it is better than before… in this room with this horrible man…" Dudley's voice became a whisper. "He scared me…"

The emergency door, now unattended by Katswells's shoulders swung open. Behind it, a battered Hobbs with two agents, guns at the ready, entered the room. Hobbs himself shouldered a big device none of them but Kitty had ever seen. It looked like a big tuning fork, but white and with some kind of trigger and shoulder support. Despite its odd shape, it looked menacing in Hobbs's hands.

"Drop your guns and surrender," Hobbs said in the tone of someone who was born in the military. "The room is surrounded, you will surrender and hand over Mr. Puppy to us."
"You will not get him!" Kitty said and aimed Hobbs who returned the gesture with the device on his shoulder.

"The time for games is over, Katswell." He stated angrily. "We are so close to luring that bastard into our dimension. I will not fail just because you don't have your hormones in check!"
"And then what?! Do you think you could do anything against him?"
"I have this device, an artifact, and a weapon strong enough to even kill something like him!" Hobbs laughed and the weapon started to charge.

"How can you be so sure about that?!" Kitty retorted and angrily moved a step closer to Hobbs. "All you do is based on assumptions! You have no proof that this could work!"
"Hogwash! I've seen it! Also, don't forget, we captured him the last time with a mixture of our technology and artifacts. If an artifact can summon him, one can kill him!" He nodded towards his agents and they started collecting the guns Kerry and Katty had dropped before placing themselves behind the cats.

Kitty looked in disbelief at her sisters and while Kerry looked away in shame. Katty at least tried to justify herself. "It's over Kitty… We need to admit it."
"No I…" Kitty was this time cut short by Dudley who had stood up from the couch and moved next to her.

"I recognize this voice…" He said and started smiling a little as he stumbled into the middle of the room. "Someone is laughing…"
"What are you talking about?" Hobbs nervously started aiming at the dog who grinned like an idiot.
"Yes… very interesting, you are right." Laughed Dudley and looked at Hobbs.
"I knew it, he's almost here." The bunny looked manically at Dudley. "He just needs a push, one last push to move over!"

"That doesn't make sense!" Kitty again moved in front of Dudley. "If Dudley hears him, he is clearly already here, please, General Hobbs." She slowly moved to the bunny with one arm outstretched towards him. "We can find other ways to lure him, Dudley can help us no one knows him better."

"You don't understand. There. Is. No. Time." Hobbs's move was swift for a bunny his age and at this crucial moment, Kitty had underestimated that. It was a dash to the side giving him a clear shot at the dog which he used without hesitation. A bright white beam pierced through Dudley's stomach leaving a burnt hole big enough to fit a whole pumpkin through. The dog looked down for a moment, at the absence of organs and flesh before sinking to his knees.

"NO!" Kitty yelled her sight blurry through the tears that welled up. She would have ripped Hobbs into pieces, but he still pointed the gun at her.
"Now…" he panted, lunacy in his eyes. "He will come."

But nothing came, only one sound. One sound familiar to the ones usually inhabiting the room during break time. The sound of a soda can, released from the Scrödingeresque state between motion and no motion, fell into the output compartment.

Hobbs spun on his heel, rifle aiming at the machine. Kitty didn't need another opportunity to strike. She unsheeted her claws and released all the fury of hell onto Hobbs who was nothing more than a defenseless hunk of meat for her. Kerry and Katty also reacted, opportunistic as they were they wrestled the guns out of the guards' hands and had them on the ground with a few well-placed punches.

Kitty kept going, no matter what their sister did. Hobbs would pay for this. Her claws ripped through his clothes his fur his flesh. Every new slash released more hate in her leading to a new strike against the bunny that didn't move anymore. It took both of her sisters to pull her off the General.

"He's got enough," Katty said looking at the mess her sister made. "Fuck…"
Kitty sat on her knees, eying her work for a moment before she crawled over to Dudley who was there, sunken into himself. His mouth still formed a grin while his eyes stared into eternity. He was gone.

Tears overwhelmed her as the realization and the pain finally settled in. She shook him in an attempt to maybe find anything left in the flesh he left back. But there was no reaction, just an empty stare. She hugged him, tightly.

"Oh, what a shame…" The door slammed shut as the voice filled the room. A bodiless voice impossible to locate. Kerry and Katty turned their heads, searching for a source. And all of a sudden, cold laughter made the two of them twirl around and petrify as they saw the creature sitting on the couch sipping from a tacky tea cup. "I gave you an easy task Miss Katswell, and you still saw the need to disappoint me. That is an odd choice I have to admit." The Advisor stood up from the couch and walked over to Dudley where he knelt down. "Tachyon pulse… The ripples through space-time are still palpable. It would have been painful, fortunately, the neurotoxin had damaged his nervous system enough that he was at least numb before he died."

Kitty kept on hugging Dudley and sobbed onto his shoulders. "Why are you here?"
"To express my condolences about the skillfully botched mission you conducted." The Advisor chuckled amusedly. "And you are supposed to be the competent one. Delightful comedy."

"Leave us ALONE!" Yelled Kitty into the wide smiling face of the creature.
"Oh no, not yet, I got matters to attend to… one of them is that your contract is, obviously, kept active. You need to at least complete one mission to pay back my generosity."
"Fuck, you are real…" Katty stammered as she crawled into the corner farthest away from the Advisor.

"In your fuzzy definition of the word, I am." The grin he gave Katty was short but nonetheless sent her into a state of panic. Kerry on the other hand was barely paying attention to the creature and knelt next to Kitty and Dudley. She gently tried to pull Kitty off the dog's corpse with scant success.

The Advisor looked down at the drama to his feet for a moment before a voice behind him exclaimed. "I knew it, I knew it would work!"
He turned around slowly looking first at the odd-shaped rifle and then in the insane eyes of its wielder. "Ah, the second matter."

"I knew that you would come if I just pushed him long enough." Hobbs laughed and then pushed the two tips of the weapon into the advisor's torso. "And now we end this once and for all."
"The display of your hybris is astounding in a way." The Advisor seemed anything but surprised or scared of Hobbs. "Mr. Hobbs, you might want to…"

Hobbs fired. Not just one shot, he had started pulling the trigger down mercilessly while laughing. Several rays of white light hit the creature and simply moved into it. Shots that could burn holes into steel and kill without a problem he absorbed effortlessly.

"Deplorable." The Advisor sighed as Hobbs's laughter turned into a scream of fear. A few more shots followed before he finally snapped his fingers and the gun disappeared from the bunny's hands. With nothing left to defend himself, Hobbs stumbled backward. All the hybris and the insanity drained from him just the essence of fear was mirrored by his face.

"You should have died with your agents, Mr. Hobbs. This lapsus shall not be repeated." The Advisor stepped close to Hobbs whose flight backwards had ended on a wall. "Let me show you something, Andrew Hobbs."

It was the same light as from the rifle that was emitted from the advisor's chest in several bursts. The same light and the same number of shots which this time, didn't reverberate without a reaction. And as the flashes stopped nothing more than a pile of ashes was left from the former leader of the D.E.U.P..

The creature nodded and turned around, boredom written over his face. "So much about the second matter. Back to you." He extended his hand towards Dudley and the dog started floating about a meter over the ground. Kitty was still holding onto him, not willing to let go in the slightest.

"I said leave us alone!" She cried pulling at Dudley's arm. "You will not take him."
"I still have plans for his body." He said and, slowly but steadily, the corpse drifted towards him. "And I can just advise you three to follow me." The emergency door opened again but didn't lead to the stairwell anymore.

Instead, a bright light was shining from the doorframe, too bright to see what was behind. The Advisor stepped through it, not caring if he was followed or not. He left the three sisters back in the room. One confused, one terrified, and one broken.

Kerry and Katty exchanged glances once more. They had a feeling what their sister was about to do as she stared longingly after the remains of her past lover.
"I will follow him," Kitty said and started marching. Katty was about to hold her back but Kerry grabbed her hand.

"No…" She said and then looked toward Kitty who stepped through the doorframe. "She… it maybe helps her."
"That thing is probably killing her!" Katty hissed pointing at the light.
"I know but…" The elder cat suddenly looked determinedly to the door. "Then we better not leave her alone. I don't want to explain that to mom," she walked towards the bright light and stepped into it.

"Fuck fuck… fuck!" Kerry looked around hectically. The only escape was the door leading back into the office area, this was probably flooded with agents right now. As much as she hated it, the only way to escape was through the bright cold light leading to who knows where. She gathered everything that was left of her courage, closed her eyes, and ran towards it. How bad could it be?

-Author's note: The end for Hobbs but also for Dudley? Well, you'll see in the next chapter. As always, thanks for reading, tell me what you think in the comments, and of course, stay tuned :D-