Chapter 5

Action Figures

A/N

Apologies for the long wait from the last upload, but I went through a change in editors. Much of the story is now in the editing stage.

Nick and Judy spent the next morning finalising their research and preparing for the day ahead. The previous afternoon, they searched online to check the events at the Cascade Carnival. Most of the attractions involved water, but there was no dedicated pool or anything, so it was unlikely that a full swimsuit was required. The website was somewhat vague on exactly what they would experience, as though they wanted most of their attraction's tricks to remain a surprise.

There would be typical food stalls, and Judy and Nick felt like eating out, so they went without packing lunch. And since water resistant clothes would be pretty much essential, they also packed a change of clothes in waterproof plastic bags just in case, and took small travelling backpacks with water bottles.

Registration for the water tag event opened at 9am, so they wanted to get there reasonably early. Once they registered in person, it would start at 2pm that afternoon. Alex would not be a happy wolf if they missed their window.

As such, they got up early, had breakfast and fished for the most appropriate clothes they could find. Judy settled on a pair of green cargo shorts and a pink hoodie jacket thin enough to wear in Summer, while Nick picked out a pair of flashy red-black boardshorts and a hydrophobic blue T-shirt. They also packed some essential like umbrellas and first-aid items.

Judy suggested Nick call Finnick and ask if the fennec fox wanted to join them, but Nick warned that Finnick hates large events with children around, on account of him constantly being mistaken for one even when he wasn't wearing a costume – not to mention he was not allowed on most rides for the same reason. Judy texted the fennec anyway, and got a flat "hell no:(" as a response.

They were ready around 8:20, and so locked the house up and went next door. Nick, wearing a casual smirk, knocked on the door to the beat of a short tune.

'Coooming!'

They heard Bertha's gentle voice from within, along with intermittent shuffling and something heavy being knocked over. Then Alex growled with impatience, urging his wife to hurry up.

After a minute, they heard a heavy sigh, and the door opened to an intimidating grey wolf, wearing a white shirt and black jogger pants, straddling the line between short and long, and wearing a black backpack that was packed with straps, pockets and more pockets. All sorts of small survival tools were strapped to the outside. Despite being a grey wolf, his fur was more like a snow-grey than the dark steel tinge most of them had.

As the wolf stepped out and leaned against the door, pressing his back against the house's wall, Nick and Judy stared at the large pack incredulously.

'Uh… Alex?' Nick asked. 'Why does your pack seem armed to the teeth?'

'Because we're going to a war zone.'

The fox resumed smirking. 'I don't know how you say that with a straight face.'

Alex lowered his head grimly. 'Keep that attitude up, boy, and you won't last a second, despite your talents.'

'There'll be kids there, old man.'

Alex was unmoved. 'You underestimate them. Take it from me; children can be extremely vicious in a competitive scenario. Mine were, at least. I can bet you money a child will take one of you out.'

Nick and Judy glanced at each other uncertainly.

'We'll… take it under consideration,' Judy placated. She tilted her body to look inside the house, which was very similar to theirs in terms of structure, but the walls were painted in more subdued ebony and gold. 'Is Bertha going to be long? Registrations start at nine.'

The old wolf threw up his paws. 'I told her. "Make sure you're ready by 8:30, dear." "Yes, dear." And this happens. Figures.'

'It's only 8:25! Just a little longer!'

Alex ground his jaw slightly before calling back. 'You do know any makeup will be washed away within a couple of hours, right?'

'It's not makeup!' She called back. 'It's doing my fur up! I can't have wet fur covering my face all day.'

'Uggggh…'

Judy studied Alex for a moment, and like always, his light fur was long and jagged, especially around his ears and cheeks.

'Bertha might have a point,' she said. 'You might find all that fur sticking to your skin by the end of today.'

'Don't you start too, Judith.'

Nick's ears tilted with displeasure, while Judy subtly tilted her body towards her tod husband. 'You know, Nick might have a few pointers for you. He definitely takes care of his fur better than me.'

The fox then grinned at her, while Alex scoffed.

'Doing up my fur is a waste of time.'

Nick's thoughts flashed back to Friday night.

'As opposed to… what, exactly?' Nick said, still smirking as he pictured the wolf asleep on the porch. 'Especially since you're retired. Besides, it'd be nice to teach you a few things for a change, considering what you've taught me.'

Alex met his gaze for a moment. 'Teaching you was not a waste of time,' he said confidently. 'Waxing my fur is.'

The fox glanced down at his wife and shrugged helplessly. The old wolf was set in his ways, it seemed.

The echo of footsteps drew closer and a darker-furred grey wolf came out of the back hallway. Bertha was wearing a straw brim hat and a simple white dress decorated with flowers, along with a white raincoat. A large leather bag swung from her shoulder, filled to the brim.

'What have you got in there, a microwave?' Nick asked with amusement.

'Oh no, just some lunch,' she said, patting the contents fondly. 'As old folks, we can't indulge in too much carnival food.'

'Make sense to me,' Nick shrugged, as he turned to the main pathway. 'After Alex has waited so patiently, it couldn't hurt to stop for some ice cream on the way, right?'

Alex took the lead, getting as far as the subway before forgetting which train they were taking. It was up to Bertha and Judy to point him in the right direction, and this ended up happening almost every transfer. Thankfully, Judy and Bertha knew exactly where to go.

While it wasn't the first time they'd all travelled together, it was the first time they were travelling along a highly populated route. Several smaller prey were quick to back out of Alex's way in fear, but many more stared at Judy in bafflement while in the company of a fox and two large wolves.

This somewhat annoyed Judy, but she couldn't help reflecting on how she'd changed her attitude towards predators over the years, which all started when she and Nick began working together. To anyone else, even other predators, Alex was a scary-looking wolf with an equally unapproachable demeanour. As she sat on the train seat with her party of predators, she thought back to when she and Nick first moved in Tranquil Lane, on the first weekend after they had finally emptied Nick's apartment into their new home.

Nick and Judy watched the new, forest-themed neighbourhood loom into view. Judy had first taken her luggage to Nick's apartment on Cypress Grove Lane, where the delivery mammal to work packing up all their things into boxes their moving company had delivered yesterday afternoon. The badger driver, Cole, owed them a personal favour from recovering some of his belongings from a robbery a few months ago, and thus was performing all this for free. That morning, they had already assisted the badger packing their luggage into the back, and since they didn't own a car, he also let them ride in the passenger's seat.

Nick took one last, bittersweet look at his now old place, and Judy patted him on the back sympathetically,before they got in the van. They made their way through Savannah Central and into the borders of the Rainforest district.

As Judy reflected on the red fox moving in with her, she thought about what Nick was sacrificing to do so. Apart from Finnick, she didn't know if Nick had any close friends he was leaving behind. After nearly two years, she hadn't really met anyone else, but she felt the need to ask the fox, who was currently leaning out the open window.

'How do you feel?' She asked gently. 'About leaving your apartment, I mean.'

Nick inhaled as he collected his thoughts, still staring at the scenery passing them by. 'It's… complicated. Home always feels like home, even though I didn't actually spend much time there. But it was there that I started hustling in my early twenties.'

'So not since you were twelve, then?' Judy said with a grin.

Nick gave a nervous chuckle. 'Well, depends on whether you count profit in the definition of "hustling." Anyway, the only really good memory I had of the place was meeting Finnick, but even that was just for more lucrative opportunities.'

'Did you exploit… him?'

Nick frowned as he ground his teeth.

'... I most definitely thought about it. But after just talking to the guy for a few minutes, I got the impression he wouldn't appreciate beating around the bush, or my typical tricks. It was better to simply be straight with him. Maybe that's why I could call him my only real friend at the time.'

'What about now?'

Nick glanced at her for a moment. 'Outside of you? And those crazies at the precinct?' He grinned to himself. 'Not really anyone. Knowing everyone has the side effect of not really getting to know any of them.'

'Well, maybe that can change at our new place,' Judy said. 'The neighbourhood was built up by predators, after all.' She leaned towards him knowingly. 'Could be some wolves we could talk to.'

Nick chuckled but held his paw up to ward her face away. 'You're still pushing that, huh? But you could be right.' He glanced at her with some concern. 'What about you? If there's no prey to be found, you might have some trouble joining the local Gazelle fan club.'

Judy smiled at him devilishly. 'If I can become friends with you, I figure any other predator would be far less of a hassle.'

Nick recoiled mockingly. 'Ooh, the rabbit's barbed tongue strikes again! My shame is immeasurable.'

They fell silent, as they felt the scenery and buildings changing –a light rain began to fall, which meant they were only a couple of minutes away.

'Thank you, Nick. For willing to make this sacrifice for me.'

The fox glanced at her in surprise, before smiling.

'Hey, it's not like I'm not gaining something better. Right?'

Judy flushed for a moment,but couldn't help but glance over at the driver, whose name tag read "Cole".

'Don't mind me,' the badger said awkwardly, with an equally awkward smile. 'Keep talking about whatever you were talking about.

'I'm sorry if we make you… uncomfortable,' Judy said apologetically.

'Not at all,' Cole said with a quick smile. 'You kids are actually kinda cute.'

Nick's ears flicked back with a momentary scowl of displeasure. 'Why do I keep getting called that?'

'Maybe because you don't act your age.'

The fox stared back at her, before breaking into a smirk. 'Such slander! I am highly mature.' Nick waved his hand with an overly offended gesture. 'I demand my constipational rights!'

Judy stared at him flatly, while Cole actually laughed out loud.

'….Yep. Kid.'

Judy rolled her eyes fondly, before focusing them forward. After a minute, they turned a corner, and spotted a familiar building in the distance.

'Wait… Is this it?'

They leaned out further and squinted, and indeed, they recognised the house they had precariously inspected for several days beforehand.

'Sure, I don't see why a house would drop and run from a fox and rabbit wanting to move in.'

Judy groaned. 'Part of me can't believe this is happening.'

'Oh, it's happening,' Nick said with a smirk. 'Otherwise all your meticulous research will go to waste. As well as my new LambEnt cinema membership card.'

Judy grinned at him. 'Well, I guess I don't have to worry about you missing your old place too much.'

Cole pulled up into the vacant driveway on the left, and the three of them unloaded the half-dozen boxes as well as a few pieces of furniture. Only one of the boxes was Judy's.

Cole helped them prop the door open with one of the heavier boxes, and bring in all the luggage and furniture through to the main living area. As they were working, Nick spotted movement from the next door neighbour's front window –only a slight billow of the cream curtains. Being directly connected to the neighbour's house, since both were townhouses, it was hard to miss.

Once they were done, they thanked Cole, who saluted them as he reversed out of their driveway. After the van went out of sight, they started to work on unpacking the boxes. Judy mainly had her prey-tailored kitchen utensils and her clothes, which all immediately went in their surprisingly spacious cabinet. Judy also couldn't resist hopping on the large bed for moment to test its feel. It would be an interesting bed, to say the least. It was fortunate the larger furnishings were already in place, or it would have been difficult to drag a jaguar-sized mattress in.

Meanwhile, Nick was having a harder time sorting what belongings were in which box, to the point where three were half unpacked, and Nick was spilling his possessions onto the carpet in the entertainment corner. There seemed to be all sorts of useless items, like stamps, pins, fridge magnets, and pencil cases. Judy stood in the hallway with a mixture of amusement and bafflement.

'How did you manage to gather so much junk?'

'How did you manage to have so little?'

'…Touché.'

They both perked up when they heard several sharp knocks on their front door. Judy's eyes trained on their side, but she barely heard anything except for light footsteps. Nick hugged a few action figures of his to his chest protectively.

'Oh come on, Nick. They're not going to destroy your stuff.'

Nick shook his head stubbornly. 'You never know; they might accidentally tread on them. Most mammals are bigger than us, remember?'

Judy frowned thoughtfully for a moment. Whoever they were, they managed to get to the door without a sound. Maybe I was distracted, but still…

She did hear hurried footsteps in the background. She shrugged; might as well meet the neighbours now.

'Coming! Give us a moment.'

Nick hissed through his teeth. 'Carrots! What are you doing?!'

'They're our neighbours, Nick. What, you wanted to hide from them? Really?'

'Well, I mean, not forever, but…' He looked at all his possessions strewn over the floor. 'Now's not a good time.'

Judy sighed and tugged at his paw with both hands. 'First impressions matter! Come on.'

Nick reluctantly stood up and joined her in front of the door, dusting himself off of carpet fluff. Judy reached up and grabbed the bottom handle, and with Nick's help, pulled the entire door open.

'Hi, I'm Judy! We're your new–'

Nick yelped and backpedalled as a large, powerful-looking grey wolf was revealed, taking up most of the doorway. He was wearing a hooded black jacket and long trousers, glancing between them with pale brown eyes as if sizing them up.

Judy paused nervously, but after a couple of seconds passed, she continued.

'We're… your new neighbours?'

'A fox and a rabbit. Fascinating.'

Thankfully, another wolf in a blue dress was running down the path frantically, eyeing her husband with scorn.

'Alexander! Don't scare our new neighbours!'

As the she-wolf pulled her husband aside, Nick managed a wry smile. 'Kinda hard for him not to. Jeez…'

The she-wolf grimaced apologetically and bent down to shake Judy's paws. 'I am so sorry about that. It's not every day someone new arrives in the neighbourhood; and Alex here is a bit too curious for his own good.'

Judy nodded with a smile, some nerves lingering on in her voice. 'That's… alright. Um… you are?'

'Call me Bertha, young lady.'

'Her name's Judy, Berth,' Alex grumbled. 'Don't be rude.'

Nick let out a spitting chuckle after trying to keep his mouth shut. Alex raised a questioning brow.

'I say something funny, boy?'

'Yeah, I'd say so.' Nick took a moment to catch his breath, before frowning up at him. 'Did you just call me "boy"?'

'I did, yes.'

'The name's Nick! Nick Wilde.'

'You're still a boy.'

'Compared to you, maybe, but I'm thirty-four.'

Instead of retorting, Alex sniffed curiously as he spotted Nick's junk on the carpet.

'Are those… action figures?'

Nick zipped in front of the mess, inconspicuously placing his hands behind his back.

'Nope! Must be your aged eyes playing tricks on you, old man.'

Alex's gaze remained fixed on the toys, and he showed himself in to get a closer look. Bertha sighed heavily.

'Don't mind him, he's harmless.' She glared at her husband's back. 'Though it would be nice to wait for an invitation.'

'Oh! Sorry,' Judy said, prompting Bertha to glance at her in surprise. 'Come in! But we haven't got much set up yet.'

'Ah… Well, of course! I can help you sort things, if that's alright.'

'Well, actually the rest is all Nick's stuff, and, well…'

Nick watched Alex warily as he got closer.

'Hey! Paws off the merchandise!'

Alex didn't seem to hear him, focusing on one particular action figure of a brown-furred fox in a pilot uniform and wielding a laser blaster.

'Is that… McCoud?'

Nick's suspicious glare dropped, giving way to surprise. He followed the wolf's gaze, carefully picking up the figure in question.

'You a fan?'

'Indirectly, perhaps,' Alex said wistfully. 'My sons were really into Star Fox growing up.'

Nick studied the wolf curiously, but Alex shook his head uncomfortably, glancing at Nick's open boxes.

'So you want any help unpacking? Looks like you got some heavy junk in there.'

'True, but…'

The fox looked over the wolf again, and despite his age, Alex's arms alone looked powerful and could crush some of his possessions without trying.

Seeing this, Bertha walked up to Nick, leaning down to pat him on the back.

'Don't worry,' she assured, 'he knows how to be gentle with a guy's toys.'

Nick looked ready to object again, but Judy interjected.

'Saves me from having to carry them for you, huh?'

Nick met Alex's stubborn gaze one last time before sighing.

'Fine! But just the two boxes in the back, okay? I don't fancy them getting flattened.'

'I can handle myself, boy!'

After Judy had finished staring at the two in amazement, she sped off to the kitchen and began fishing through the cupboards for some teabags.

To Judy and Nick's surprise, Bertha had been right; Alex was very careful when handling anything fragile. Fortunately, Nick had packed his more expensive gear properly, but he drew the line when Alex came upon his Preystation 4, immediately hobbling over and carrying it over to the entertainment unit himself – almost like cradling a loved one.

'Gee, I wish you'd hold me like that,' Judy said between sipping her tea with Bertha.

Nick managed a wry grin despite carrying the heavy box. 'At least this baby doesn't complain when I press the wrong buttons.'

Bertha glanced between them with a momentary flabbergasted gasp, before smiling and continuing to sip her tea.

'What the hell is this?'

Nick's head swerved over to Alex bending over the box where his Preystation had been. He quickly but carefully put the box down and hurried over, but Alex had already grabbed something in the box. It was a black and blue gun too well built to be a toy, but wasn't a real gun, either.

'That's a light gun.'

'"Light" gun? It's an assault rifle.' Alex managed a tiny smile. 'Which happens to be my favourite.'

'It means a gun you use to play video games,' Nick explained. The fox took the gun and aimed it at the TV screen. It must have been lighter than it looked, since despite its size, Nick held it steadily in his paws. 'See?'

Alex stared at the gun as Nick placed it on the table, intrigued, and his gaze alternated between the light gun and the Preystation.

'I thought I'd seen these kinds of guns somewhere,' he mused. 'But I remember them being coloured like cotton candy and attached to those arcade machines.'

Nick smirked, but before he opened his mouth, Judy called out, wagging a finger.

'Don't even think about it, slick. We both know you're old enough to have grown up around those things.'

Nick was miffed while Alex grinned. Pausing for an awkward moment, the tod reached inside the box and fished out another light gun, which was a silver pistol and a better fit for his paws. His eyes widened along with another smirk at Alex.

'You… didn't want to have a go, did you?'

Alex stared at the assault rifle, his beady brown eyes sparkling.

'... What if I said I did?'

'Well…' Nick struggled to find the right words. 'This kind of game's better with two, and I haven't been able to find anyone as good as me.'

'I did try,' Judy added, 'but he always had higher scores than me. We only beat the game once, and even then by the skin of our teeth.'

Alex eyed the rifle with reservation.

'If I did, what would we play?'

The red fox broke into a devilish grin as he started sifting through the large box.

'Oh, here we go,' Judy said with exasperation, despite her also smiling.

Nick got out a blue case with cartoonishly grotesque zombie mammals surrounding a tiger and bull, back to back with guns pointed at the zombies around them. A giant zombie mouse was at the top.

Alex studied it sceptically. 'Mouse of the Dead 2?'

'Mhm! A classic.'

'So you just shoot zombies?'

'Pretty much.'

Alex gave a toothy, amused grin. 'I can work with that.'

Nick placed the case on the table, before fishing out another sizeable package from the luggage box. 'Good! Then help me get it all set up – starting with the speakers.'

Alex could only whine impatiently.

Judy and Bertha soon joined in as Alex was not the most tech savvy mammal, but it still took them half an hour to get the system working. However, the moment Alex's assault rifle blinked on, his ears were upright and focused on the screen as he tested moving his TV cursor with the gun sight. As they were doing that, Judy and Bertha focused on getting Nick's toys off the floor.

'Don't shoot–'

Nick's warning went unheeded as the old wolf began testing the trigger, inevitably leading them through the home screen menus.

'Great, you've already turned him into a trigger-happy psychopath,' Judy said cheekily.

Nick, standing on the table next to the wolf, pushed the rifle down and sighed.

'Let me handle getting into the game, old man. There's a practice mode. Then you'll be free to shoot whenever you want.'

The old wolf answered his condescending tone with an annoyed growl. 'I'll shoot you at this rate.'

Nick chuckled. 'Shooting outside of the screen just wastes your ammo.'

'Grr…'

Bertha leaned over to Judy, as the two were sitting on the couch, moved back a bit to give the guys space.

'They seem to be having fun already.'

'I'm… not so sure about that,' Judy said.

Bertha gave her a knowing smile. 'If my husband makes threats, he's having fun.'

'Huh?'

The lady wolf didn't elaborate, leaving Judy to wonder how such different wolves could have ended up together. Or maybe it was because they were so different that they ended up together.

The sound of over-the-top gunshots broke her train of thought, with Alex letting loose on the targets in a training simulator showing on the screen. He was hitting most of them, but was frowning with displeasure.

'What's up?' Nick asked.

'The aim is off.'

Alex mounted the gun on the table as if he was about to take it apart.

'Whoa! What are you doing?'

'Fixing it.'

'It's not a real gun!'

'Oh, right.' He glanced at Nick with scrutiny. 'Do you have an operating manual?'

'Uh… yeah, probably.'

'Find it for me.'

'Is it really that important?'

'If you want me to play, then yes. I refuse to use a malfunctioning gun.' Nick raised a finger, and the grey wolf groaned. 'Ugh… "light" gun.'

Nick frowned grudgingly, and was able to find the manuals digging through the bottom of the console's box, along with one for the silver pistol as well.

After studying the foldable document for a couple of minutes, Alex cleanly slid the front of the gun off via the front grip. Nick watched apprehensively, but relaxed when the wolf used a tissue to clean an internal glass lens, as well as some clogged dust, and slot the front back on.

When Alex started firing again, the difference was obvious, with the wolf looking satisfied.

'Wait, is that why we kept losing?' Judy wondered out loud.

Nick studied Alex and the rifle with scrutiny. 'Let me try that.'

The wolf gave a confident shrug and passed it down to him. Nick's eyes widened in disbelief as his accuracy, and score, rapidly increased.

'Well, I'll be darned,' Judy said incredulously. There was an awkward silence as Nick kept staring at the rifle.

'Well, slick? Don't tell me you've forgotten your manners.'

The red fox looked up at the wolf awkwardly.

'Uh… thanks.'

Alex gave a deep chuckle. 'I think that's the first polite thing you've said to me.'

Judy shot Nick a cheeky smile, who looked like he'd been punched in the gut. 'Well, I guess they're not so dumb after all, huh Nick?'

Alex's ears straightened. 'What was that?'

'Nothing!' Nick adopted an overly friendly smile, while carefully giving the gun back to the wolf. 'Go ahead and shoot to your heart's content.' He continued to smile stiffly while turning around and shooting Judy a questioning stare. Are you trying to get me killed, Carrots?

He quickly picked up his pistol. 'I'm going to need to try this out now, uh… Alex. Since, you know, it might have the same problem.'

Alex reluctantly lowered his weapon and Nick shot the screen to activate his gun. After just a few shots, he lowered the weapon and stared at it with scrutiny.

'Want me to fix that too?' Alex offered.

'No, no, I can do it myself,' Nick insisted as he pulled open the smaller manual, 'but I wouldn't mind you double checking my work.'

It was then that they finally started the game, and immediately Judy began cracking up at the familiarly awful voice acting. Meanwhile, Bertha could only stare at the screen in disbelief.

'How could anyone do this?'

'Impressive, isn't it?' Judy said, her own experience with laughably bad horror movies coming to mind.

'That is not the word I would use,' Bertha said, trying her best not to cringe at every spoken line.

Meanwhile Alex, who had gotten used to the basic rules of reloading and the appropriate targets to shoot, started shredding through most of the on-screen zombies with ease, Nick managing to keep up. The pale wolf seemed rather engrossed in the whole thing, and got annoyed whenever Judy or Bertha talked over the horrendous dialogue.

However, when they got to the first level's boss, some suit of armour and a deformed bat, they ran into their first hiccup. The suit of armour died halfway through the battle, but Alex seemed to take that as a victory, and started howling. Nick and Judy flinched, but Nick soon adopted a sly smirk, and after half a minute:

'Uh, old man? You seem to be dead.'

'What?!'

Nick had not intervened when the little bat swooped down into Alex's side of the screen and left a huge bite mark. Judy picked up on this immediately, but didn't want to blow his cover, as Alex howling would be a huge detriment to them winning.

Unfortunately, they had to start the game from the beginning, since Nick didn't want to continue alone. Thankfully, Alex did not howl again.

Watching Alex's impressive accuracy and reflexes despite his age told both Nick and Judy what they had already suspected; the wolf had a military background of some sort. After two bosses, they were both comfortable enough talking over the shooting without losing concentration.

'So I take it you use real guns a lot?' Nick half-yelled over the gunshots, deciding to lower the volume slightly as the game paused to transition to a new area.

'You could say that, though it depends on what you call a "real gun".'

'Funny, I don't remember seeing your name in the ZPD register.'

'I didn't work for the police,' Alex said gruffly. 'More like a private security group.'

'This group wouldn't happen to be completely made of wolves, would it?'

Alex fell into awkward silence as he and Nick momentarily had a loading break.

'Were they prone to howling at the wrong time?' Judy called out.

'Ugggh. Don't remind me. A lot of wolves needed serious re-conditioning after the stunt you two pulled.'

Judy and Nick stared at him for a moment before Nick resumed shooting to stop his head getting chewed off.

If he knows about that, he was definitely one of them, then…

'Uh… Re-conditioning?' Judy asked with slight dread. 'What do you mean?'

'Well, technically we called it "refresher training", but we basically stamped out this howling weakness. Wolves that can be triggered by a bunny imitating a howl made them utterly useless as a security force.'

Nick grimaced uncomfortably even as he continued to shoot the TV screen.

'I'm… sorry, if I caused problems,' Judy said.

'Don't be – It was necessary. Just imagine if we had found out this weakness via an assassination on our watch.'

'"We"? Nick raised a brow. 'I was under the impression you two were retired.'

Bertha nodded. 'We are. He just helps them if he gets too bored.'

Alex growled with irritation. 'C'mon, Berth. They needed my help.'

'You keep telling yourself that, dear.'

Alex fell silent as he and Nick came upon an enormous zombie hippo in a water-logged section of the ruined city, which even Judy found was legitimately terrifying in an otherwise silly game. The wolf was unfazed, though, with him and Nick progressing quickly soon after that.

It wasn't long before they arrived at the final level in a futuristic tower. The mastermind villain spouted an insufferable speech; waxing philosophical about nature and the life cycle, and Alex tried to shoot him as he was talking, which unfortunately didn't work. After they beat the final boss, they actually were able to shoot him off the top of the tower when he tried to spout his nonsense again.

And then the music suddenly grew sombre and orchestral. And then the credits began rolling, and Alex stared in disbelief, with a soft whine.

'Wait… it's over?'

Nick's shoulder slumped as he sat back on the couch behind them. 'Whew. Two hours of that non-stop can take a lot out of you.'He paused to watch Alex for a moment. 'You've got some stamina, old man. You seem the same as when we started.'

'Yeah, well, I've been posted on guard shifts for much longer than two hours back in my day.'

The wolf continued to watch the screen miserably, before turning the light gun in his hand wistfully.

'Can we do it again?'

'Alexander!' Bertha exclaimed with disapproval. 'We have well worn out our welcome! And I've just been sitting here watching this whole time, in case you forgot.'

Nick chuckled, waving his arm tiredly. 'As much as I'd like to, I don't think I can manage another round of that. There's a harder mode, though, for next time.'

'Next time?' Alex echoed hopefully. 'So you'll tolerate this "old man" coming again?'

'Well, you played with his toys instead of breaking them, sooooo…' Judy said with a deliberate shrug.

The fox on the couch grimaced and glanced away for a moment. 'Your first impression was iffy, but… yeah, I wouldn't mind you coming over again. But Carrots here and I should visit you first. It's only fair.'

'That would be lovely!' Bertha said. 'But we don't have this game system you have. You'll both get bored I imagine.'

Nick shrugged. 'If we do, we can drag you back over here.'

'That sounds good to me,' Alex said casually.

Bertha just sighed. 'I think we should let them finish settling in, dear.'

Nick scratched at his cheek fur awkwardly as he saw his action figures neatly piled into one of the boxes, as Judy and Bertha hadn't known where he wanted them.

'Ugh, duty calls, I suppose…' He said with a toothed yawn.

He and Judy followed the two wolves to the door, with Judy rushing to open the door for them.

'Thank you, young lady,' Bertha remarked as she and her husband stepped through the frame. 'You are quite strong for your size.'

Nick grinned proudly as he put his arm around Judy and drew her close. 'You're telling me.'

Judy grimaced with embarrassment. 'You guys give me too much credit. I need to get up and do something after all that.

'Bertha chuckled heartily as she waved and walked down the pathway. Alex meanwhile, gave them one last searching look.

'If you two need help with anything, feel free to knock on our door. Being retired isn't all it's cracked up to me.'

Nick snorted. 'So Bertha was right about you being bored, huh?'

Alex answered with a scowl. 'Tch… kids these days…'

Despite that, Alex shot them a small smile before he joined his wife.