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  "description": "Kidnapped and bound, the kits awake to find themselves in the worst situation they could've imagined and things are about to get worse...\nHowever, hope is not lost. Their captors are about to find out they'd grossly underestimated their young captives. But is their ingeniousness and resourcefulness enough to get them out of this?\n\nAfter all, the real enemy may be at least as resourceful as they are...\n\nNote: I ask that you download the actual document to see this novel as it was intended. However, for those without patience (i.e., the dumb-asses), I am going to allow the InkBunny preview window to hold the entire story. I repeat: downloading the actual file is VERY much recommended. ",
  "description_bbcode_parsed": "<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>Kidnapped and bound, the kits awake to find themselves in the worst situation they could&#039;ve imagined and things are about to get worse...<br />However, hope is not lost. Their captors are about to find out they&#039;d grossly underestimated their young captives. But is their ingeniousness and resourcefulness enough to get them out of this?<br /><br />After all, the real enemy may be at least as resourceful as they are...<br /><br />Note: I ask that you download the actual document to see this novel as it was intended. However, for those without patience (i.e., the dumb-asses), I am going to allow the InkBunny preview window to hold the entire story. I repeat: downloading the actual file is VERY much recommended. </span>",
  "writing": "Tai’s Story - Chapter 10.\nBy Kichigai Kitsune\nCopyright 2005 onwards.\n\nDisclaimer: This story contains coarse language, violence, adult themes and scenes of a sexual nature involving two young “cubs” (young anthropomorphic non-humans). If you are under the legal age as prescribed by the laws under which you are subject to reading such material, do not continue beyond this disclaimer. \n\n\n\tRobert adjusted the ice-pack, gingerly pressing it more firmly against his bandaged temple. He couldn’t help but wince… \n\tHe was hurting, but glad to be home safe at least. Sitting in his comfy recliner, just nursing his injuries – and of course that latte he suddenly developed a craving for after being kicked square in the head. After the events earlier, being able to put his paws up in a soft cotton bath-robe was wondrous.\n\tThough he did wonder why being kicked in the head made him want a coffee. That was just bizarre.\n\t“Daaaad?” his eight-year-old son enquired, looking a little concerned as he wandered into the softly-lit den. “What the heck did you do to your head?”\n\tRobert shrugged. “I uh, just slipped on the stairwell at the university. Came down pretty hard.”\n\t“Oh. Klutz. You okay?” Mike flicked an ear as he took a seat on the recliner’s wide armrest. He looked pointedly at the bandages encircling Robert’s leg, just below the rolled up leg of his corduroy pants. “What about your knee? That looks pretty bad too.” \n\tThe grownup chortled, taking a sip of his coffee. He rarely allowed himself coffee; maybe it was time to stop being such a stickler for foolish things like that. He was getting older now. It was time for him to just enjoy life a little more, or so he tried to tell himself. “It’ll be alright soon, I hope. My headache worries me more.” That was a lie. His knee could well need surgery, but his son had a long list of little quirks, and the notion of his dad going into surgery of any kind frightened him. \n\t“You got injured during football, didn’t you?” Mike asked, leaning onto his dad’s shoulder affectionately. There was just a touch of admonition in the kit’s voice.\n\t“I did. Don’t sit on the armrest, Michael, you’ll damage it.” \n\tMike promptly slid onto his dad’s lap, careful to avoid hurting the leg. “You had a bad day,” the kit said gravely. “Anything I can do?”\n\t“Nope.” Without waiting a second, Robert gave his son a huge hug. It had only been a few days since Mike had been traumatically raped, and yet he was more concerned about his dad’s headache. “Thanks for asking though.”\n\t“No charge.” \n\t“I think I’ll just sit on my backside all night and let the pain sort of… subside.” \n\t“There’s some blood on your whiskers, you know.”\n\t“I know. Your hair is getting pretty long now, you know.” \n\tMike grinned and let his dad tenderly brush back some of his medium-length head-fur. “Yep. Gonna grow it. Wanna see how it looks if it’s longer.”\n\t“How much longer?”\n\tThe kit snickered. “Just a bit.”\n\t“That’s alright then. Wouldn’t want anyone to think you were a girl, would we?” They both chuckled. “Urgh.” Robert touched his head again. “I think this headache is just getting started.”\n\t“I’ll get you something for it! Don’t move!” Mike made to jump to his unshod paws, but he thought better of it and rather cautiously pulled himself off his dad. He made his way to the kitchen, hunting for the painkillers. \n\tThe apartment door rattled loudly as someone knocked it with all the delicacy of a butcher tenderizing an elephant carcass.\n\t“Do you want me to get it?” Mike called uncertainly back into the den, pausing. The catch in his voice indicated that he really didn’t want to.\n\t“No,” responded his father, hauling himself upwards and starting to limp towards the door. “I’ll get it.” His paw slipped around his back, closing around the metal handle protruding from his corduroy pants’ waistline. It never usually resided there or anywhere within reach of his son, but things were anything but usual at the moment.\n\tHe snuck up to the side of the door, and rapped the surface of the door, at about head height. There was no blast, nothing tearing through the door. After a moment he quickly stole a look through the eyehole, and blinked in surprise. Instantly, he tugged the door open. \n\t“What’re you doing here?” he gasped at the old, strangely lean brown-bear in his grey suit. \n\t“Good to see you too, Robert,” the bruin replied, amused. “Didn’t think I’d take a little interest in the current events?” \n\tRobert smiled wryly. “Events? Don’t you mean crisis?” \n\t“That hasn’t been decided yet. May I come in?” \n\t“Dad?” Mike asked, having joined his dad at the door. He looked enquiringly at the old bruin, but said nothing further. \n\tRobert thought quickly. “Er, he’s from the Education Department, Mike,” he said. “I didn’t expect him so, uh, early.” \n\tThe bark-furred pup instantly checked the clock on the wall behind him. “But it’s seven in the evening.” \n\t“Exactly, I expected him around eight. Come on in.” \n\tThe trio ambled back into the den, with Robert’s limping gait rather pronounced. Mike took up the rear, regarding the bruin suspiciously.\n\t“Would you like a drink of anything?” Robert asked graciously, gesturing for the old bear to take a seat on the comfy gray settee before the television. \n\tThe bear slowly lowered himself to the couch, groaning in exertion. “Coffee would be great,” he muttered. \n\t“Alright. Mike, please go to your room. This is a private discussion.” \n\tThe kit looked at his father, surprised. “D-dad?” \n\t“It’s alright, it’s nothing important. I’ll let you know if anything’s wrong. Go get ready for bed, okay; we’re hitting the pool tomorrow morning. You’ve missed over a week of practice.” \n\tWith one last uneasy glance at the bruin, Mike shuffled reluctantly towards his room. It was plain he wanted to object further, but recent events had made him a little nervous; he definitely wanted to keep in his father’s good books. So he obeyed without comment.\n\tWhen the bedroom door was finally shut, the bruin chuckled. “He’s sharp, isn’t he?” he said in his dusty voice. “How’s he holding up?”\n\tRobert folded his arms. “Very well. It’s almost as if it never happened.”\n\t“The therapy helping him out?”\n\t“Not really. I thank you for paying for it, but he absolutely resents it; says the therapist treats him like an idiot, and that he’s quite happy to forget about the incident. The therapy just keeps reminding him about it.” \n\t“Intriguing. He’s a stunning young lad; but why is he so apprehensive at my presence? Or is he just like that with everyone now?”\n\t“Hm? Oh, no.” The vulpine laughed briefly. “I slipped up, Mitchell. He’s got a few quirks, you see. One of them is simply that he hates the State Education Department.”\n\t“Oh? He has opinions like that and he’s not even ten?” \n\t“You could say that. He’s heard a few horror stories of the government taking children from their parents—and he knows that the reasons aren’t always good. Since he’s a special case because he’s home-schooled by a single parent, he’s basically scared that someday Social Services will kidnap him and take him away from me. He’s more concerned about it now than ever before.” \n\tMitchell scratched his nose. “That’s a much more mature fear than the ones that plagued me at his age. Monsters under the bed and all.” \n\t“I think you’ll find if you look back, that you did have rather mature points of view and fears amongst the childish ones.” Robert grinned. “I’m not so convinced that you ever grow out of them all. Do you want that coffee now?”\n\t“Oh dear god no; I had about three in the last two hours. I just wanted to set your boy at ease by not acting all business.” \n\t“Appreciate it. But what more do you need from me now?” \n\t“Not really that much. I just wanted to stop by personally and make sure you knew that we… that I appreciate what you’ve gone through.”\n\tRobert nodded solemnly. “Was there any way to tell whose information Nathan was after?”\n\t“Not a chance. He just took everything. No better way to conceal what you’re looking for.” Mitchell paused. “Though he mentioned Eraline, didn’t he?”\n\t“Yes, he did.” The fox’s expression became uneasy. “Shit, you don’t think-?”\n\t“Calm down, Robert. The records he got from you won’t help him if he’s looking for her. Though it would make perfect sense if she was his target—perhaps.” \n\t“Why won’t the records help him?” a baffled Robert asked, taking a seat on his comfy black recliner once again. “And why would anyone be after her? Nathan didn’t really know her, did he? It can’t be a personal thing.”\n\tMitchell laughed. “Oh, you just can’t help yourself, can you? The records won’t help him because she’s not on them anymore. Her full dossier is compartmentalized information; classified. As for why they’re after her, you know I can’t tell you. Really, it sounds like he was just trying to banter you to death.” \n\tRobert cursed. “If she gets hurt, you know I’ll kill Nate, right?”\n\t“I do, in fact, know that.” The bruin smiled. “You’re just itching for the rematch, aren’t you?”\n\t“Not exactly. I think next time I’ll just shoot him in the back; it’s probably the smarter option.”\n\t“Nathan wouldn’t want to face you again if he could avoid it. He’s always respected you. My guess is that you were the only one he had a location for.”\n\tFalling silent for a second, the fox wrung his inky paws. “God damn it,” he groaned. “I hope Eraline is alright.”\n\t“Thomas died, you know.” \n\tSlowly, Robert looked up, incredulous. “What?!”\n\t“Some time ago. He was on a fishing boat, and an ice-breaker carved it in half.”\n\t“You tell me this now?! W-was he…?”\n\t“No. As far as we’re aware, no. Visibility was poor; at about midnight, the breaker’s sonar systems were, uh, disrupted by winds and heavy rain. Everyone on board the trawler was killed either on impact or by drowning; except Tom. Hypothermia got him a few hours later.” \n\tThe news sent Robert reeling. He stared in horror at his section chief. “Unbelievable… when?” \n\t“About a year and a half ago, or so. I’m sorry; I couldn’t tell you until now.” \n\tThe fox nodded, touching a paw to his head again. “Oh my god.” \n\t“I’m sorry, Robert. It’s been a terrible few years for you. I’m really sorry.” \n\tThe fox blinked a few times. He felt hollow and weak all of a sudden. It had been some time since he’d spoken with his friend, and the pain this news evoked felt strangely distant, yet still horrible and insidiously sickening. It was, he supposed, like hearing of a brother’s death; a brother you had not seen in some time, but still loved deeply.\n“If you’ll forgive me switching topics, why do you still let Mike stay at home alone?” enquired Mitchell, as always definitively lacking in the realm of diplomacy.\n\tRobert nodded, in fact grateful for the subject change. “After that day, he begged me not to put him in daycare or change anything,” he said softly. “He likes the time alone.”\n\t“I’m surprised you listened.” \n\t“Mike isn’t a normal case, Mitch. I’ve been leaving him alone a few hours of the week since he was seven. He knows how to handle himself, and he’s not so young that he’ll drink bleach or see if he can fit forks into outlets. And he didn’t let Nate in; Nate got in by himself. If I freaked out over that, I’d be over-reacting.”\n\t“How do you mean?” \n\tRobert chuckled weakly. “It’s not every day a former field-ops officer breaks into your house. I don’t suspect it’ll happen again.”\n\t“I see your point. I take it he has opinions about day-care too?”\n\t“No, it’s me with those opinions. I’ll still let him have his alone-time, but I suppose I should cut back a little on how often I leave Mike by himself. I’ve taken a few weeks off to keep him company, but that won’t last. There’s a kid that I know—I know his father, and we both help out with the monthly swimming meets uptown. Mike competes, and this guy helps set it up. His son is about fifteen, and he baby-sits for me occasionally. I think I’ll be employing him more often now, though.” \n\t“I assume he’s reliable?”\n\t“Oh yeah. Straight-A student.” \n\t“I hope he can keep up with Mike then.” \n\tAllowing himself a laugh, Robert grinned at his boss. “They get along fine. Have done since they met.” \n\tMitchell sighed and stood. “Good. I’m sorry to bring bad news to you, Robert. But don’t concern yourself about Eraline at the moment; she and her son are safe for now, if a bit upset.”\n\t“I’m sure they are…” Robert sniffled, suppressing a sudden onset of shaking. “Is that all?” \n\t“Yeah, kid, it is,” the bruin grinned. “Keep your chin up. We’ll do all we can to track Nate and his employers down. I’m sure you want revenge for what he did to Mike?”\n\t“Somewhat.” Robert looked in the direction of his son’s room. “It’s hard to think of him as a victim. I know he doesn’t want me to get upset over him, and even he doesn’t seem to hate Nate. I guess you could say I just want to kick his ass into a coma, rather than castrate and hang him. That was my initial instinct, though.”\n\t“I’m sure he’d thank you for it. Now, call your son out here so I can put his fears to rest.” \n\tWith a curious expression, Robert called out for his kit. \n\tA few moments later, the bedroom door opened, and his pajama-clad pup came into the den, holding a junior biology book Robert had recently bought for him about the workings of eyes. Mike had only started reading it that evening, and he’d already devoured about two-thirds of its contents. “Yeah dad?” \n\t“C’mere a second.”\n\tThe kit obliged, laying his book on the floor in the corridor. “Um, sure.” \n\tMitchell chuckled. “Just wanted to say that I’m quite impressed by your work with your father,” he said. “You’re an excellent student.” \n\tMike blinked, but then seemed to get a little embarrassed. “Thank you,” he said, unusually diffident. He didn’t often find himself being complimented by total strangers.\n\tThe lean bear made to leave, but then he paused, an inquisitive and cheeky expression on his features. It looked bizarrely inappropriate on him; quite youthful. “One question, Michael,” he said. “What came first, the chicken or the egg?”\n\tThe kit raised an eyebrow. “The egg of course.” \n\tMitchell’s response was a bit surprised. “How so?” \n\t“Because chickens weren’t always around. They evolved from something, and that something laid an egg, and the first chicken came out of it.”\n\tThe bear stared at him. \n\t“Satisfied?” quipped Robert, grinning. \n\n\tIt had been a rather eventful day.\n\tThe meeting point was, as always, some rundown shitty little building in the middle of nowhere. Nathan, as he leaned against the grimy wall of the apartment complex, found himself wishing for once that he could do his business in a casino or something, the way they did in the movies. He was a little sick of backstreets, slums and desolation, and having to be here in this desolate backstreet in a slum felt like life was just kicking him in the nose.\n\tThough he did somewhat deserve it at the moment, he guessed. He’d done some nasty things in his life, but molesting a child came near the top. Not the top, he knew. Everyone always got so worked up over such things, but they always seemed to forget that there were much, much worse things you could do to someone than interfere with them sexually. Dental torture and cold-blooded murder came to Nate’s mind, and he’d done both of those. \n\tThe street was narrow and the buildings lining it were mostly occupied by families upon families of the poor and hopeless. Few strayed outside at this time. Only the occasional dirty, poorly dressed fur ambled purposelessly along, their fur unclean and their expressions of bleak indifference or hard suspicion.\nRidiculous things were strewn about the sorry street, such as a ruined boat that had rather clearly been converted into a swimming pool—the seating area had been stripped out and lined with moldy tarpaulin, and filled with water. It was filthy water, and things were quite obviously growing within it, but it was still quite likely in use. \n\tA street-light had a pair of shoes dangling from it, which indicated a drug-dealer was nearby. Nathan found himself wondering if the same children who used the boat-pool also partook of the narcotics just up the road. Probably, actually. And while he was thinking about it, how many of them were abused in ways that made what he did to Mike Donaldson seem like a friendly encounter?\n\t“What a shit-hole,” Nate grumbled to himself.\n\tHe heard the crunching of grit beneath tires, and finally some brakes squealed nearby. He looked down the road at the black SUV as two burly furs clambered out. They were rather large, to say the least. One of them, a huge tiger with biceps as big as Nate’s head, strode towards the grimy wall the ferret was leaning indolently on.\n\t“Did you get it?” he rumbled bluntly.\n\t“Naturally.” \n\t“I heard you had some fun while you were in there.”\n\tNathan smirked. “I suppose it could qualify as that. He was a cute little guy.” \n\t“I’ll look into him then.”\n\t“I don’t advise it, Marco. Not if you want to live.” \n\tThe tiger’s eyes narrowed. “Give it to me.”\n\t“All in good time, my muscle-bound friend. Where’s my money?” \n\t“You’re not in a position to be making demands, ferret.” \n\tNathan laughed in the big creature’s face. “Actually, I am. It’s not on me, so you’d better behave nicely towards me. Especially considering I can get my hands on you here.” \n\tNate hated this big fuck-wit, and had been hoping to provoke him for quite some time. It was quite easy to provoke someone like this; just imply that you can take him, and he’ll set out to prove you wrong. After the tension of today, Nate felt he deserved a cathartic release.\n\tThe tiger swung a huge haymaker right at Nate’s face, but the huge arm moved almost ponderously towards its target. Laughing, Nate leisurely leaned backwards, letting the over-extended punch whiff right by his whiskers, and he cheerfully retaliated with one of his favorites, a horizontal elbow. \n\tMarco cried out once and reeled backwards, almost falling to his backside. He gingerly touched his forehead above his left eye, and was visibly shaken to discover it was not only bleeding profusely, but that the injury was a huge gash nearly two-inches wide. The sticky red liquid started to ooze down his forehead and was already threatening his eye. “Wh-what-?!” \n\t“Oh, I feel so much better all of a sudden!” chortled Nathan. “You’re good at looking scary and lifting heavy objects my friend. Leave the actual fighting to the adults—or rather, to those with adult intellect, which certainly doesn’t qualify you.”\n\tThe tiger looked at him, genuinely frightened. There’s something unnerving about being cut open with a single strike by a chuckling maniac half your size, after all. \n\t“Now, are you going to keep this civil? Or do I have to shoot your idiot friend in the head for trying to come at me from behind?” Nate twisted to grin at the bull-dog behind him, who froze mid-creep. “I could be scrubbing down the barrel before you even hit the ground, moron. Get in front of me.”\n\tThe canine obliged.\n\t“I’ll be taking my money- and that ring of yours, Marco; it’s very nice- for my troubles. Don’t try to stiff me.”\n\tMarco rather carefully withdrew a huge wad of cash from his leather jacket and handed it to Nathan, who instantly stuffed it into his pocket. He then handed him another. And another. “Th-that’s ten thousand. You’ll get another forty when we have the stuff.” There was a pause while Nate just glared at the tiger, and eventually Marco removed the ring from his meaty finger and passed it to the ferret. His expression was sour, but he seemed to be keen on avoiding any more confrontation. He quickly put the paw to his forehead, trying to stem the flow of blood which was by now damaging his silk shirt.\n\t“Very good. Two streets away, there’s a broken section of the sidewalk.” Nathan smiled. “Business is easy if you stop trying to pick fights, Marco.” \n\t“Did you hear from our guy?” the dog suddenly asked. “We sent him to meet up with you.”\n\t“No,” Nathan replied coolly. “You sent someone, did you?”\n\t“Yeah. Javier. He’s one of the best shooters we’ve got. He was supposed to help you out.”\n\t“Afraid I heard nothing.” Truth be told, Javier was busy decomposing in the Hudson. Nate felt little remorse at killing a fur that was himself a murderer, and he had no intention of letting his employers know that Robert and Mike had caught his trail. The only thing keeping those two alive at this point was the fact that the ferret had convinced everyone his plan had gone off without a hitch. \n\tBut aside from that, this Javier was most likely also supposed to have disposed of Nathan and taken the records. That would, after all, save his employers fifty-thousand big ones. That might have inconvenienced Nathan a little, so he’d taken appropriate steps.\n\tThe two burly furs exchanged a moderately worried glance, and for some reason that brightened Nate’s day even more. He hoped the thugs would be appropriately distressed when their long-distance killer was discovered in Greenland with a broken neck. \n\t“Shall we go then, gentlemen?” He pointed firmly up the street. “You first.” All of a sudden he had his handgun in his paws, and the safety was disengaged. “Would rather not have either of you taking swings at me from behind. You know how it is. Dangerous times.”\n\n\tAlmost a year later, many miles away.\n\n\tIt had been a horrible day.\n\tThe cold had been biting, and the snowfall had been relentless, but the weather wasn’t the cause of young Tai’s worries. The air was chilly, but it had been all but nothing compared to the chill of the foreboding he had felt that entire day. \n\tIt had started the very minute he’d stepped onto his school’s grounds. He had made the mistake of looking up, and had met a pair of unfriendly eyes. He didn’t know the boy’s name yet – he was an older cougar, with misty gray fur, about eleven years of age, maybe a little older. They’d met before, alright. Tai had foolishly trusted him and his friend, and followed them one evening after school, only a few days ago. \nThey had led him a way into a nearby paddock. It was a short-cut, they claimed. They seemed to be friendly. He didn’t know why they did it, but the two of them waited until they were passing a small lake, and then suddenly they had attacked him.\n\tThey had lifted him and bodily tossed him into the water, which was struggling valiantly to remain unfrozen at the onset of Alaskan winter. The small fox kit had floundered, trying to propel himself to the dry shore, but the cold had sliced deep into him like a frozen knife. His body had begun to stop listening, and he’d been paralyzed by fear. He inhaled mouthfuls of frigid water as he tried to scream.\n\tThe cougar and his friend had found it hilarious. Tai’s mindless terror had been amusing to them, and when he had finally managed to crawl slowly and pathetically from the icy waters, skin beneath his matted fur a pale blue, they’d simply taunted him and walked off.\n\tTai had told his mother, who then made the appropriate complaints – it was one of the few times she seemed to be worried about Tai’s troubles. However, the older boys had simply declared he was lying, and their parents even provided them with a false alibi. They had headed to the cougar’s home immediately, and were there until late that evening, according to the story. The teachers, and even Eraline, had been fooled. Tai ‘must have’ got the wrong boys, or fallen in by himself. They accused him of lying.\n\tWhich naturally explained why some of their friends had shoved him into a wall at lunch-time the next day. Once more, some quick talking and a foolishly gullible teacher later, Tai’s tormentors had walked away, leaving the small fox stunned and betrayed. \n\tTai had thought that was it. It surely had to be over now. The attack at lunch-time had cost him a loose tooth, and he’d not been able to get all the blood off his muzzle until he was home. It was one of the worst incidents of bullying he’d ever experienced.\n\tBut that first minute of school today, his normally downcast eyes had met with the cougar’s. The older boy had given him a dark glare, then he mouthed two words to the tawny fox. “After school,” was all he whispered.\n\tThose words repeated themselves incessantly for every minute of the next six hours. Tai had been petrified. He didn’t speak to anybody the entire day – to make matters worse, even his fair-weather friends had been away from class today for some reason. He never did find out why.\n\tBut it was over now. He was on the familiar trail back home, his small boots leaving prints in the thick, wet snow. Nothing had happened after all, and Tai tried to enjoy the familiar scenery, to put the whole thing out of his mind. It was a long walk back home, and the trail itself had become Tai’s companion. He recognized twisted trees, broken logs and even the skyline itself: the majestic, ice-capped mountains blurred in the distance by the descent of a million, million flakes of snow. \n\tIt was as he was admiring the towering pinnacles that it happened. They had ridden their bikes to get ahead of him, and their trail had been washed over by the flurry of snow, while they had hidden easily behind thick trees. \n\tTai heard their paws in the snow, but before he could even turn he was savagely shoved forwards and he tumbled face first into the ground. The fall winded him, but he pulled himself to his paws again. \n\tFor his efforts, he was shoved again, this time landing awkwardly on his side. He cried out. \n\t“Hey, bitch,” taunted the cougar in a brittle voice. Tai quailed when he saw the older kit’s face. On the surface, he seemed calm, nonchalant, but there was a rage in his eyes that blazed forth so hotly, Tai half expected it to melt the snow. “You didn’t think I’d forgotten, did you?” \n\tTai looked around but there was already no point in trying to run. He was quickly surrounded by all four of the smirking band. \n\tWhat came next was honestly unexpected. The cougar stepped forwards and punched Tai right in the face. \n\tIt lacked power and momentum, but still it sent the tawny pup reeling backwards, and he collapsed again in the snow. \n\tTai had suffered much at the hands of bullies before. But being punched in the muzzle was a totally new experience. The stinging sensation in his face was numbed purely by the sheer shock. He gawped at the bigger kit. What he didn’t realize was that the others were all gawping too. \n\tWhen the cougar stood over him and raised a paw, Tai instinctively curled up. “Stop!” he wailed, protecting his face with his arms. The response was a powerful kick to the small of his back, and he stiffened, the muscles around his spine juddering in a brief, painful spasm. \n\tThe cougar grabbed his victim and pulled him to his paws. He then thrust the younger kit into the snow-covered, desiccated remains of a tree – its leafless, misshapen limbs quivered, like spindly claws clutching skywards in pain, raining heavy globs of snow down on them all. “You little asshole!” yelled the cougar, an inch from Tai’s face. He seemed in a stage of inarticulate rage, and Tai could merely stare at him in terror. This was a completely new level of violence to him.\n\tIt seemed like words were too difficult for the cougar boy at this point, so he just drove his fist into Tai’s stomach. Then he did it again. Not happy with that, he struck the kit again in the face, and Tai felt his brain rattle like a bird in a cage. His knees gave way, but the older kit had grasped his collar. The fist was raised again, but one of the bully’s friends interrupted quickly. \n\t“Ken!” he hissed, sounding a little afraid. “Ease up! You’ll hurt him real bad! He’s only a second-grader!” \n\t“Shut up!” snapped the cougar. But he looked a little sheepish, and he released Tai’s collar. The kit fell sideways to the ground. “This girly snitch deserves worse.”\n\tTai looked up and blurrily made out the cougar’s face. He seemed to be trying to get himself under control, and the air around him was literally steamed by his deep, angry breaths. \n\tKen knelt and grasped the fox’s ear. “Nobody listens to furs like you,” he said, voice thick with contempt. “Nobody cares. Nobody would miss you. Maybe you’d know that if you weren’t so busy running to mommy. Nobody listened to her, either.” He shoved Tai’s face into the snow, and leaned in closer. Tai didn’t resist. He was whimpering and shaking all over. “Do it again… and I’ll get you alone next time.”\n\tThe last sentence had been a deathly quiet whisper, and Tai understood its meaning immediately. The cougar had only stopped because there were witnesses. \n\tA few more choice comments later, Ken mounted his trail bike, and started to ride off. The other followed, but they looked at their leader with a certain amount of shock and even fear. They hadn’t expected this brutal scene when they agreed to accompany him; they didn’t think it’d be like this. One of them even looked back at Tai, clearly reluctant to leave the young cub there, alone and injured. \n\tTo say Tai was rattled would be inadequate. He lay in the snow, trembling, for half an hour. His muzzle stung and his gut ached, while his back still twitched to the rhythm of the excruciating throbbing. It didn’t feel real. It didn’t feel like a dream, though, either. \n\tThere was blood in his mouth, and he couldn’t breathe through his nose properly – he wasn’t sure if it was more blood or not, but it felt disgusting as it blocked his nose, and oozed disturbingly down his throat.\n\tHe didn’t want to move at first, but eventually he compelled himself to stand; the snow was getting heavier. He staggered the remaining twenty minutes back home, the pain in his stomach making each stumbling step a torment.\n\tWhat he didn’t know was that one of the boys returned alone to the site of the ambush, an hour later, to make sure Tai was safely gone. He’d never find out, because his mother transferred him from this school in short order. This also meant that he never found out just why Ken had such a problem with his own activities getting back to his parents. Perhaps there was a reason behind the insane attack.\n\tBut then… Tai had long since stopped caring. About everything.\n\n\tPresently…\n\n\tMike’s eyes fluttered open at last.\nFor his effort, he was greeted by a stuffy blackness. He slowly realized his head was enclosed in what seemed to be a black trash-bag; a plastic bag of some sort, at the least. It wasn’t too difficult to breathe so there was a hole somewhere, but it was still making him feel claustrophobic. It was clammy and stale-smelling. How had he ended up in a garbage bag?\n\tRealization crashed into him like a colliding jet and he drew in an alarmed breath. Nearly fully alert once more, the fox boy demanded a status report from all his senses. He could see nothing. He could smell stagnant water and rust. He wriggled his limbs and realized he’d been bound to a chair; from the hard, smooth feel of his bonds around his wrist, he gathered he was handcuffed. Real handcuffs, not those useless plastic ones that had a ‘release catch’ and would break if he sat on them. At a birthday party, he’d been handcuffed by a friend who had a real pair, and he couldn’t get loose at all. He’d erroneously thought, since they were made for adults, he could slip out easily.\n\tWhen he strained to hear however, was when he picked up the most information. He could hear heavy footfalls on a stone floor, echoes, and the sound of waves, muffled as if far away or through a few walls. Calm conversation could be picked up by his ears, along with the harsh, tinny noise of a television nearby.\n\tHe whimpered aloud. He was tied up in an industrial area, probably surrounded by people who had no intention of being nice to him.\n\t“Hey,” a deep voice intoned. It sounded amused. “The sleeper has awoken. You’ve been out for hours.” \n\tAnother voice laughed brusquely. “I think he actually fell asleep.” \n\tSomeone tugged roughly on the plastic bag, but it caught on the kit’s muzzle and jerked his head backwards painfully. “Ow!”\n\t“Untie it at the bottom first,” said yet another voice. The bag came off then, but a bright light immediately blinded Mike. He scrunched his eyes closed once more with a yelp of startled pain. \n\t“Too bright?” the first voice said mockingly. “Aww. Poor baby.”\n\tHis eyes were watering, and he tried to blink the tears away. Eventually he could see, but only blurry, indistinct figures and the light seared his eyes. “Wh-where…?” he choked weakly, trying to peer through his half-lidded eyes.\n\tA big paw grasped his muzzle, and suddenly he was forced to look directly up at the light, while his eyelid was pried back. \n\t“He looks alright so far.”\n\tIt was the massive tiger. The muscular thug that had led the way into Mike’s apartment. \n\tNow that he thought about it, it was probably the tiger that shoved him, and then punched him like an angry freight train.\n\tThe gigantic feline was clad in black cargo pants, a simple black muscle-shirt and sported a sickening scar over his right eye. It looked almost like a knife slash that hadn’t been tended to properly, but Mike thought it was too wide.\n\tAt last able to, Mike looked around. Eventually his eyes adjusted to the brightness and the spots before them eventually faded. It was a large, concrete room that he’d awoken in, with only one door—a big, metal one in fact, that looked rusted almost to oblivion. The walls and floor were dull concrete, and there was little furniture. A pair of wheeled tool-trolleys resided just a few feet to his side, and they were covered with draped tarpaulin sheets to conceal what they held.\n\tA bull-dog that he recognized as another one of his attackers was seated to the side, on a stool against the wall. Like the tiger, he was well muscled, wearing simply street clothes and a mocking scowl that seemed a permanent fixture. \n\tWith a gasp, Mike looked around wildly. Finally, he saw Tai lying on the floor, immobile and facing away from him. His paws were firmly tied with yellow rope behind his back, and he still had nothing on his body but his jeans and shoes. “Tai!” Mike cried, instinctively trying to stand and run to his friend. The cuffs foiled him easily. “Nhn! Wh-what’ve you done to him?” \n\tThe tiger grunted and looked down at the tawny, shirtless pup. “Him? Nothing.”\n\t“We barely touched him,” said the bull-dog. “When you passed out, he just gave up. Hasn’t said a word.” \n\t“We can’t get anything outta him.” The tiger shrugged. “He’ll be alright though. He’s just having a little breakdown. It happens. You get over it.”\n\tMike gawped at him. “G-get over it?!”\n\t“The other people I’ve ‘napped usually have.” He shrugged again. “Most, anyway.”\n\t“Wh-what? Why did you do this?! Who are you?” \n\tPulling over another stool, the tiger sat. “Right to business. We’ll get along fine.”\n\tWhen the tiger sat, Mike glimpsed something behind him. He frowned and stared hard at the figure in the corner, a few feet from Tai, watching the sleeping fox-kit. He was in street clothes, with a heavy black and gray hoodie. Even though it was indoors, his hood was up. So far, he had just stood there, staying mysteriously silent. Studying Tai intently.\n\t“Hey, Mikey,” the tiger laughed, snapping a pair of fingers in front of Mike’s face. “Pay attention. Now, you know what your daddy does for a living, don’t you?” \n\t“What?” \n\tMarco rolled his eyes. “You know who your daddy works for, don’t you?” he said slowly.\n\tMike blinked listlessly at the looming adult. “Who he…? O-oh.” \n\t“Yeah. Now do you know what he does for them?” \n\tThe kit shook his head, confused. He really didn’t.\n\t“Your daddy looks after all the little CIA rats in this area,” Marco explained patiently. “He’s their controller. That means he knows who they all are. Or he knows someone who knows. When they’re in trouble, they all scrabble back to their little holes. So he’ll know where that is – we’d like to get them out of our fur.”\n\tThe bark-furred kit just looked at the huge adult, utterly bewildered. “B-but why have you taken us!?”\n\t“Cuz we think you know who they are.” The tiger smirked. “And you’re going to be a good boy and help us.” \n\t“I-I have no idea!!” Mike screeched, eyes wide. “You’re kidding, right?! I only found out what he does two weeks ago!”\n\t“Think you do.” Marco leaned forward and rubbed his giant paws together. “Think ‘bout all the other furs he knows. Anyone suspicious. Tell us about ‘em, and we’ll check it out. We’ve got time.”\n\tIncredulous, Mike just gawped at him. There was no way he could be serious. But the tiger was shooting a nonchalant smile at him, as if nothing was out of the ordinary at all.\n\tThere was a hoarse cough from the other side of the room, and the hooded figure shifted. “Let me speak to him, Marco.”\n\tThe tiger frowned and looked over his shoulder. “You sure? I can handle this.”\n\t“You can have my leftovers.” The figure shuffled over, putting a cigarette to his shadowed muzzle and inhaling deeply. His voice was soft, but almost growl-like. Slightly gravelly, yet somehow oddly youthful. “C’mon man, let me have some fun.”\n\tMarco’s expression became confused. “Alright,” he eventually assented, hauling his gigantic frame to his paws. Whoever this new fur was, Marco dwarfed him. “Your call.”\n\t“Yeah. Give me a few minutes with them.” \n\tNow Marco really looked baffled. “Uhh… you sure?” \n\tThe hooded figure nodded, exhaling a thick cloud of smoke. \n\tShrugging at his bull-dog friend, Marco made his way to the huge rusted door, and the canine followed. With an easy jerk of his massive arm, the door swung open, but the tiger paused to look suspiciously back at the smaller fur. After a brief moment, he slipped out and shut the door with surprising gentleness. \n\tMike frowned up at the covered face, but he could make out shockingly little. Not only was the hood quite low, steeping the features beneath it in shadow, but the protruding cigarette was blinding him with its irritating smoke. A tickle was starting in the back of his throat.\n\t“God, I’ve fuckin’ waited so long for this,” the figure sighed at last. \n\t“Wh-who are you?” Mike said, before a vicious paroxysm of coughing overtook him. \n\tChuckling darkly, the figure dropped the cigarette butt to the floor and crushed it out, before lifting his paws up and adroitly knocking his oversized hood back. “We haven’t met.” \n\tStill coughing, Mike tried to look up. “Yeah, well a-all good things must come to an end,” he choked out unconvincingly, trying to sound at least a little confident. Trying to hide the fear that was slowly mounting with his usual flippant defiance. Immediately he wondered why his stupid tongue had spat that out. Luckily, the new fur didn’t punch him in the face as the kit expected. Instead he just chuckled darkly.\n\tIt was a wolf, Mike eventually saw. One with a stormy gray fur on his muzzle, and a slightly amused expression. He seemed younger than the others. Much younger; Jake’s age. “Nice one,” he complimented, taking the recently vacated stool in front of Mike. “Seriously though, don’t piss me off, kid. That’d just be a bad idea. You have no idea who you’re fuckin’ with.” \n\t“Wh-who are you?” repeated Mike, blinking the tears from his stinging eyes. The smoke was horribly acrid, and it still lingered around them. The smell was wafting over to him from what seemed to be the wolf’s very fur and clothing too. It was not something Mike was used to.\n\t“That ain’t important to you right now.” The wolf sighed and looked back at Tai’s limp form. His expression twisted into a sneer. “Marco tends to take awhile to get to the fuckin’ point, so let’s make this fast.”\n\t“B-but I don’t know anything! I swear!” \n\tThe wolf reached over and whipped the blue tarpaulin cover off one of the nearby trolleys. \n\tOn the three-tiered workman’s trolley were a variety of things. Mike frowned as he looked at first, but eventually his eyes jacked open to maximum width. There were scalpels, soldering irons, and even gardening implements; there was also a gigantic bolt-cutter that looked capable of crunching its way through anything it could fit around… like perhaps an arm. \n\t“Oh… shit…” whimpered Mike. His stomach knotted painfully and he felt himself become lightheaded immediately. “No…”\n\t“Yeah. This is why you’re going to tell us, Mikey.” The wolf shrugged. “When we get started, it’s not you I’mma be using them on.” He smirked evilly and gestured down at the floor behind him. “Him.”\n\tMike shook his head in alarm. “No, don’t!” he pleaded. “Don’t do that! I’ll tell you what I can, but I swear I don’t know anything!”\n\t“Every hour you don’t give me a name, I might use my little friend there,” the wolf pointed briefly at the bolt-cutters, “to take off one of Tai’s fingers and toes. Or maybe something else. Use your imagination.”\n\tMike fixed him with a petrified stare, and the yellow eyes that met his were coldly determined. He almost wet himself. Suddenly, all doubt that the wolf would do what he said vanished, along with whatever little fake confidence Mike could cling to.\n\tThere was absolutely no compassion in those eyes. Not one hint that he wouldn’t do precisely as he said.\n\t“Oh yeah, and when we’re done, Marco’s taken an interest in you. He won’t be as gentle as that fuckin’ ferret. He’d probably want the other brat too; a missing arm or leg don’t really bother him.” The wolf’s expression was absolutely straight. \n\t“Why… why are you doing this?” Mike whispered. “I’ll tell you. Don’t hurt us! Please, I just wanna go home.”\n\tThe wolf paused, looking thoughtful. “Hm… nope, I don’t think that’s on the cards.” He laughed. “Come on, why would I go through all of the trouble to invite you little shits here if I wasn’t going to have some fun with you?”\n\t“You’re crazy!” Mike felt faint with horror. “Please leave us alone! Don’t do this to us! Shit! Why us? Why not just my dad? I don’t understand!”\n\tThe wolf sniffed and scratched his neck. “We’ll get to him. When we start, you know, mailing bits of you both back to him, he’ll tell us anything we want.” He showed his yellowed teeth in a harsh grin. “Maybe. His bosses might not let him, and in that case you’re fucked, kid. They’ll be searching the Hudson for you for the next ten years. It’ll be tough, since they’ll have to find all the different bits. Probably just call it quits when they get most of you. Better hope your dad does what we want, or you’re gonna die, kid.” \n\tThe wolf twisted slightly and eyed the motionless fox-boy on the floor. There was a moment where the wolf seemed to freeze. He just stared at Tai, deep in thought all of a sudden.\n\tSomething was very wrong, Mike realized. There was something he was missing. He gazed at the wolf for some time, trying to place it. Trying not to look at the trolley.\n\t“The fuck you staring at?” The wolf continued to observe Tai. \n\tMike swallowed weakly. “Why are you doing this?” he quavered, a begging note in his small voice. “Really. We don’t know anything.” \n\tThe wolf snickered darkly. “I guess it’s obvious then. Game’s over. You know what? I just want to kill you.”\n\t“Why?! We don’t know you.” Mike frowned, and his eyes widened in incredulity. “A-are you-? Is your name ‘Darren’ or something?”\n\tThe pause this time was ominous. But the wolf started to laugh. “Damn, you’re sharp for a kid,” he chuckled. “It’s ‘Darron’. My mom couldn’t spell real good.” \n\t Mike blinked, utterly stunned. This was the wolf, the teenager, who had threatened Tai on his first day of school here in New York? That made no sense.\n\t“Those guys, they’re muscle-bound idiots.” Darron stood and stretched. “What went right over their heads, a little kid got in seconds. Of course you don’t know shit. But even muscle-bound morons are good for something.”\n\t“Th-then why-?!” The bark-furred kit twisted and pulled at the handcuffs futilely, and all he managed to do was have the cold steel bite deeper into his wrists. Darron looked behind the chair and checked them.\n\t“Hm. Had to put those on their tightest setting, but I don’t think you’re getting out.” He grinned maliciously. “If they pinch, too bad. Get used to it.” \n\tSome tinny music, rap of some kind, started to play, seemingly from the wolf’s pocket. With a sigh, he retrieved his small, silver phone and struck the answer key.\n\t“What?” he growled. There was a pause while whoever it is responded.\n\t“Help - we’ve been kidnapped!” Mike yelled, leaning forwards in his chair to get closer to the device in the wolf’s paws. “Help!” \n\tWithout changing expression, Darron bent down and punched the fox boy in the stomach. “Yeah, don’t worry, it’s just one of the kids I got ‘napped,” he said nonchalantly. “Down in the storerooms. Yeah.”\n\tWinded, pained and tasting acid in the back of his throat, Mike gawped in despair at the teenager. \n\t“Alright, fuck sake, I’ll be up soon.” Sighing, Darron placed the phone back in his pocket. “Afraid I have to leave you pussies for now.” He opened his hooded jacket, adjusting what seemed to be a gray muscle shirt. Mike stared in disbelief: there was a handgun tucked into the side of the teen’s waistband.\n\tThis was just insane. Had they really been kidnapped by gang members?! Or what…? What was going on?!\n\tGrumbling incoherently to himself, Darron strode to the heavy metal door and yanked it open. “Don’t go anywhere,” he taunted the handcuffed boy, before slipping past the portal and deliberately slamming the monstrously heavy door shut with a bang.\n\tMike stared impotently at the door. \n\t“No way…” he whimpered to himself. A minute of incredulous staring later, he looked down at the motionless tawny boy on the ground. “Tai! Tai, can you hear me? Wake up! Please!”\n\tThere was nothing from the small kit. No response at all. He seemed to be asleep; or dead. Mike couldn’t tell. \n\t Mike sniffed and hung his head. “Tai? Please wake up. Come on… please.”\n\tMinutes passed. Maybe even hours. Mike had no way of knowing. No clock, no windows; he wasn’t even sure if it was day or night. There was nothing.\n\tJust the dirty concrete walls of a mostly empty, grimy storeroom, and a flickering, nausea-inducing strip of light on the ceiling.\n\t“Dad…” Mike sniffled, tears welling up quickly. The true nature of the situation slowly started to come to him. He might never see his father again. This could be his last week alive - and they were going to kill Tai if he couldn’t give them information they knew he didn’t have. They were both going to be tortured to death worse than any movie or even website that he had ever seen had portrayed; he couldn’t even bring himself to look at the tray mere feet to his side.\n\tHe closed his stinging eyes and tried to stop the inevitable crying fit that he knew was coming. “Shiiiiit!” he wailed, scrunching his eyes shut and starting to sob pitiably. “I don’t wanna die!” His eyes filled with tears and within moments he was hiccoughing pathetically, unable to stop it. “I don’t wanna die! I w-wanna see dad again! I can’t… what the hell… is going…?”\n\tIt was hopeless. He cried himself dry, until his stomach hurt and his chest ached, and he just seemed to have no more tears to give; no more energy to cry. Eventually he slumped in the chair, listless, listening with splayed ears to what little activity he could hear from beyond the heavy door; only snatches of sentences, muffled through walls, or the occasional sound of footsteps. It wasn’t until he heard movement from right by him that he bothered to raise his head. \nA pair of vacant and unfocused eyes, the color of verdant leaves, gazed up at him.\nTai had rolled over and was staring blankly at him. There was no way of knowing how long he had been looking at him. “…Mike?” whispered the tawny kit at last. \n\tMike almost fainted. “Tai!! Oh man… are y-you okay? Tai?” \n\tTai blinked and tried to sit up. It was an effort, with his wrists bound behind him like they were. He struggled into a sitting position and continued to dazedly stare at his friend. \n\t“Tai, are you… can you hear me? Are you alright?” \n\t“Y-yeah.” Tai nodded and pulled himself shakily to his knees. His breathing was coming faster and faster. “I c-can...” Abruptly, the kit doubled over and threw up. It wasn’t much, but the fluid burned his throat and spattered on the concrete. After it had passed as suddenly as it had come, he fell sideways, gasping. \n\tMike stared at him in dismay. “Oh crap! Tai?!”\n\tNo response. The kit wordlessly got to his knees again, breathing hoarsely. But then he collapsed dizzily to his backside.\n\tTaking a deep breath, Tai struggled to focus.\n\tHe had never been so horrified. When he saw the kidnappers burst into the apartment and so viciously dispatch both Mike and Jake, there had been a rush of images and memories. \nOf his mom. Then a gun at his own head. His mother’s blood on his own paws. A familiar corpse on a table in a hospital. His father’s simple coffin. An incredible feeling of dread and sickness, so sure that he was going to lose someone else… \n\tAnd he’d just shut down. It was too much for him to take.\n\tNow he was awake, but trapped in a concrete prison. \n\tStill feeling weak, he fell to his side again and laid still. He tried to steady his breathing, calm down a little. Now he wished he was still in that dulling stupor.\n\tHe could remember, as if in a distant dream, that Darron was here. That was just… it made no sense. His entire body clenched and he fought off another burst of nausea. This couldn’t be happening. He knew he should be panicking but he couldn’t bring himself to feel anything. It was like a dream – a nightmare he just oddly didn’t seem to care about right now. The concrete right in front of his face had already blurred into a meaningless gray mass. He was just too dazed; this had to be a… \n\t“Tai? Tai!” Mike pulled on his chair, and scraped a few inches forward. “Are you still awake? Don’t go to sleep again, please!”\n\t“I’m here…” mumbled the topless cub. “W-where are we?” He asked, more out of needing something to listen to, something to focus on than out of desire to really know.\n\tMike swallowed and sniffed. “I-I dunno!” he said loudly. “It could be a f-factory or something, I’m not sure. Tai did you hear what that w-wolf said? We have to get out of here! They… they’re gonna…”\n\t“I-I know…” Again the tawny kit shifted around to look at his friend. \n\t“D-d’ya know why? Why is Darron here? Wasn’t he just a school bully? He’s got a g-gun in his pants, Tai! Who has a gun in their pants?!”\n\tSlowly, almost painstakingly, Tai shook his head. He didn’t understand either.\n\t“What’s going on?” wailed Mike, struggling slightly with his handcuffs. The look he fixed Tai with was horrible. The brown-furred kit’s eyes were wide with terror and confusion; Tai really hated seeing him like that. It was just so wrong. “Tai, don’t you know anything?!”\n\tAgain Tai had to shake his head. He felt sick again. Darron wanted him, but he had taken Mike too. It wasn’t fair. Mike shouldn’t have to be hurt for being Tai’s friend. \n\tNo, Mike should’ve stayed away from him. The way Tai’s other friends learned to do. Tai knew he was bad luck – he always attracted people like Darron to him. Brought them down on his friends too, before they learned. Before he drove them away. Now he wished he’d driven Mike away too.\n\tThe cub felt a peculiar wrenching sensation as he looked at Mike’s wild eyes. Mike was going to be hurt, because of him. Tai couldn’t lose another fur that meant so much to him. Not Mike. That would just be the most horrible thing ever. He loved him… \n\tFor several minutes, he just looked blankly at the distressed older boy. His best friend ever. It was his fault, wasn’t it? It was because of Tai that Mike was…\nBlinking back tears, Tai started to slowly twist and move, passing his paws under his legs, then up in front of him as he lay on the ground until his tied wrists were at his front.\n\tMike gaped at him as he stood, stumbling. “Tai?” \n\tThe kit leaned against the trolley, his wrists now in front of him. “Let’s get out of here.”\n\t“H-how?!”\n\t“W-we’ll think of something. We’re going home. I-It’s not going to happen, I won’t let it.”\n\t“Tai?” The bark-furred boy looked at him in confusion. There was something odd here. Tai’s demeanor was unusual; it wasn’t that he appeared confident – rather, he seemed strangely driven all of a sudden. Almost mechanically so. The tawny fox stood straight up and his formerly dazed expression was replaced now with one of preternatural focus.\n\tTai looked around the room, taking in what he could. There was only one entrance to the room, which was the thick iron door. The room’s actual purpose was something of a mystery; it looked like a storage room, but it was almost empty. It had probably been emptied specifically so it could be used as a makeshift prison cell.\n\tThey were alone, but Tai wasn’t stupid enough to think there weren’t guards right outside that door.\n\tThe contents of the makeshift jail-cell were a wheeled tool trolley holding what appeared to be a random collection of paraphernalia and tools; another trolley, still covered by a tarpaulin; a few thin rusted iron pipes that were about six foot tall long, splintered and flaking, leaned against the filthy, stained wall; and the stools.\n\tOn the wall opposite the door was a ventilation shaft, but the opening was blocked with a rusted wire mesh. It also wasn’t big enough for even Tai to fit his shoulders through. Tai narrowed his eyes at it speculatively.\n\t“T-Tai?” wavered Mike, curious. “What the heck are you up to?”\n\tTai walked back over to the covered trolley and pushed it over to the rusted door. He slowly and quietly maneuvered the wheeled table up against the metal surface. To push the door open, they’d have to knock the heavy trolley to the side. Tai wasn’t sure, since he knew he was small himself, but he didn’t think that’d be an easy chore. \n\tThen he strode over to the other trolley, stopping to look closely at the thin, yellow rope around his wrists. The edges of the trolley were blunt, and the rope was tight.\n\tBut there was that gigantic pair of bolt-cutters. Luckily, they had bound his slender arms together rather than crossed over at the wrists – he still had the dexterity to take a hold of things.\n\tHe attempted to lift the oversized tool, but the weight was surprising and he almost dropped it. Resting the plastic insulted handles on the ground and holding them in place with his skinny legs, he placed his wrists at the tip of the blade, and pushed downwards. The tip of the blade barely did anything to the strong synthetic rope.\n\tTai frowned, clumsily manipulating the handles with his legs to open the cutters’ jaws, and placed the knot pinning his wrists together into it. He used his leg to pull the handles together again, starting to saw and pick at the ropes with the sharp metal. \nThe process took time, and the cumbersome tool almost fell to the concrete several times, but at last he felt the rope slacken. The cinch came undone and the frayed mess the knot had become fell apart as he vigorously ripped his paws out of there. \n\t“Nice!” Mike exulted quietly.\n\tTai didn’t pause to congratulate himself. He darted behind Mike’s chair and knelt down. Mike’s arms were handcuffed behind the back of the wooden chair; they encircled Mike’s wrists quite effectively, though they did seem to be on the tightest possible setting. That probably explained the rope… if something could barely wrap around Mike’s arms, Tai would be able to slip out without even noticing it. \n\tThis was bad. Rope was one thing, but steel handcuffs were a totally different matter. Tai took the bolt cutters up again, going behind Mike’s back. It felt like he was carrying an anvil – the cutters were just too heavy for him; each limb was as long as his forearm. He gasped and grunted as he tried to maneuver into position. It had been hard enough to hold the stupid thing on the ground with his legs and saw apart a knot…\n\t“Tai?” the older boy enquired. “What are you gonna do?” \n\t“I’m gonna cut them…” Tai said, uncertainly. “Unless you can get out?”\n\tMike twisted his wrists and grunted. “Ah! No. It hurts.” \n\tAlmost immediately, he felt Tai place the cutters on the chain – rather, he nearly dropped them onto the chain. After a pause while the kit gathered himself, there was a loud, metallic snap. Tai let out a hiss and repositioned the tool. “It didn’t go through,” he huffed. “It slid off. I’ll- I’ll try again.”\n\tTai steeled himself and tried to close the levers together. He strained and panted against the safety spring that fought his efforts, his arms going numb and starting to shake. After well over a minute of incredible effort, his knees actually buckled and he let out a defeated whimper. “Unnhh! M-Mike!” he sobbed, struggling to hold the oversized cutters in place. “I’m not strong enough! I can’t do it!” He knelt down, feeling that odd, alien determination start to seep out of him, replaced by familiar cold self-disappointment. \n\t“You gotta keep trying!” encouraged Mike, straining against the cuffs some more. “You’ll get it eventually. You can do it.”\n\t“I can’t…” The tawny kit sniffed. Tai swallowed and lowered the tool to the ground. His entire body had gone rubbery all of a sudden. “I’m not strong enough, Mike…”\n\tMike growled quietly at him. “Well, think! C-c’mon Tai, you’ve done so well so far!! You’re smart! You can do it!”\n\t“B-but-!”\n\t“You can do it, I know you can. So get goin’! You’ll definitely never get it done if you just give up!”\n\tAfter a confused moment, Tai nodded. “O-okay. Alright.” He looked closer at the handcuffs. The chain holding them together was slender, constructed of many links of shiny metal. The kit frowned, gripping the bolt-cutters again.\n\tIt was phenomenally difficult now, but he slowly lifted the tool up, and lowered it in such a way the tip of a blade slipped into one of the slender links. He pushed downwards, jamming the sharp edge as deeply into the space as he could, before lowering the handles and straddling them. Mike winced as the weight of the cutters caused the cuffs to dig deeper into his wrists. \n\t“Ow! Careful!”\n“Sorry. H-hold on…” The tawny kit drew in a deep breath, his muscles shuddering from exertion. If he could snap the side of just one link in the chain... maybe…\n\tSuppressing a weak groan, Tai pulled the bottom handle upwards. The rubber handle pressed painfully into his groin, and he almost gave a pained outcry. His body’s shaking started to rise in intensity until he juddered uncontrollably. It took only several seconds, but they were several painful seconds. \nFinally, there was a violent crack, and Mike felt a vibration travel right down his arms. “You got it!” He slipped out of the chair and stood, almost falling over. His knees were weak and for some reason his chest hurt a little. When he looked back, Tai was picking himself off the floor. He’d stumbled to his backside.\n\t“A-are you okay?” Tai asked, winded. “Mike?”\n\tMike nodded. He reckoned he was still hurt – the tiger hadn’t been gentle at all with him, and Darron had punched him very hard too. “Now to get out of this room.” He looked down at the sturdy circles of metal around his wrists. “Wait, maybe on the thing…” \n\tHe quickly searched the trolley, upending a few of the items on its tray. Some of it was regular household equipment. Gardening implements, tools… it made Mike’s blood run cold just to look at it all. \nThey had to get out of here. \n\t“What are you doing?” The tawny kit was busy looking around, evidently trying to figure out what to do next and trying to catch his breath. \n\t“Looking to see if they left a key.” He hissed in disappointment, trying to shift the tight cuffs still pinching his wrists. “Guess not. Ow.” \n\tTai was frowning at the rusted grille of the air duct. “That…” he pointed. \n\t“Huh?” Mike shook his head. “No way… we couldn’t fit. It’s just too small.”\n\t“We’re not gonna go through it…” The shirtless fox-boy picked up the bolt-cutters and tried to lift them with his shaking paws. “Is this heavy for you?”\n\tBaffled, Mike took it. “Yeah… kinda…” \n\t“Can you throw it at the grate? Or whatever it is? Hard?” \n\t“Uh, I can try…”\n\tTai nodded, pushing the trolley quietly towards the grille. “After, run behind the door...” He jogged over to the spot on the side of the door he had in mind. “Here. We’ll make a break for it!”\n\tMike looked unconvinced. “We’re gonna pull the old ‘hide behind the door’ trick?!” he asked, shaking his head. This wasn’t going to work. They’d be caught before they even got out of the room. \n\t“Is there anything better?” Tai asked reasonably. Their voices were hushed; someone could be right next to the door, listening in already for all they knew. \n\t“No… I guess not. But we don’t even know how many are out there! We could run right into twenty of them.”\n\t“I know! Throw it anyway!”\n\tGritting his sharp teeth, Mike swung the massive tool around and heaved it over his shoulders at the grille. It hurtled through the air, and Mike actually felt disappointed at his throw. The oversized bolt-cutters were shockingly heavy, and his best efforts had only made it sort of tumble through the air in a manner best described as ‘reluctantly.’\n\tRegardless, when it struck the grille, the noise was incredible. It was almost explosive, resounding up the air duct, each echo louder than the last.\n\tThe duct-covering was torn from the wall and thrown backwards into the duct itself, and the bolt-cutters fell to the trolley below with a loud bang. Mike saw Tai let loose a silent “yes!” as he was making his way to join the smaller kit behind the door. They both ducked down by the trolley Tai had placed there.\n\tIt took a few moments, but the door suddenly rattled and was shoved open. It smashed right into the heavy trolley and barely moved. A few of the more precariously placed tools fell noisily off the top tray. A leopard in a long-sleeved white shirt and black pants grunted and pushed at the door again, finally able to squeeze through a small gap. He didn’t look behind the door or trolley, for his eyes alighted immediately on the smashed open air-duct on the far wall, and the trolley beneath it. \n\t“What the fuck?!” he gasped in dismay, running over to it. “No fuckin’ way!”\n\tIncredulously, he spun around. The room was empty.\n\tThey must’ve… no way! It may’ve looked too small for them to sneak through, but then he knew he was no expert when it came to kits. Maybe they weren’t as big as he remembered. They must’ve…\n\t“Shit!” he blurted, dashing back to the small desk with the tiny television out in the cold corridor, where he’d been stationed to guard the storage room. \n\tWhen he got there, he froze up. His cell-phone was no longer resting on the corner of his rusty desk. What kind of time was it for him to have lost his god-damn phone?!\n\tThe leopard paused. \nHe couldn’t have lost his phone. He was using it just before the crashing sound. It had been on the desk. He was sure of it.\n\tA sinking feeling came upon him.\n\tIt wasn’t possible. No way.\n\tThe leopard knew he could never live this down – he had just been fooled by a pair of children.\n\tEven worse: they had used the old “hide behind the door” trick on him. \nAnd it had worked.\n\t\n\tThey were in a warehouse. Hundreds of stacked boxes, cardboard and wooden, stacked high or nestled on heavy load-bearing shelves, towered far over their heads. \n\t“I can’t believe that worked!” gasped Mike, feeling oddly ecstatic as they slinked along, trying to keep their footfalls light and quiet on the dirty concrete.\n\tTai was truly amazing, he realized. The trolley barricading the door, combined with the distraction of the damaged grille… the adult had immediately jumped to the conclusion that they’d escaped that way and didn’t look around properly when he entered the room. Tai had gambled on his reactions, and it paid off. They had totally outsmarted an adult.\n\t“Where are we?” Tai whispered as they crept along, his angular ears perked and glancing around nervously. “I smell seawater.”\n\t“I think we’re at the docks.” Mike pressed his back up to a crate and peeked around it. “At least, I hope so. The alternatives would really suck.” \n\t“Like what?” \n\t“Like, a ship in the middle of the ocean. Though I guess there’d be more metal if it was… I dunno.” Mike shivered. If he was wrong, they were screwed. The New York docks they could escape from, but not a ship. He was a confident swimmer, but there was a limit.\n\tThe warehouse was large but cramped, and the high walls were constructed of dull, pock-marked concrete. Though it was a huge, rectangular building with no internal walls, the dozens of metal shelves, some roughly fifteen feet high and filled with heavy crates and sealed boxes, essentially created neatly laid out aisles, almost like a massive grocery store. It was through these aisles they crept, looking for a way out.\n\tAs they thought, they had been in a storage room towards the back, a few corridors away from what seemed to be an office. Thankfully, the office had been empty and their one guard had been left back in their makeshift cell. Their luck was holding: the door into the corridors had been lockable via deadbolt from the inside of the warehouse, probably to keep burglars from breaking into the office and moving freely into the warehouse or storerooms. Mike made sure to employ it. Their supposed jailor had been locked in, without any way of calling for help.\n\tAs yet, they hadn’t encountered another soul. Soft voices were echoing throughout the warehouse however, and there was clearly some activity. Fluorescent lights on the ceiling were turned on. They were not alone.\n\tNot far from them there was a metal staircase up against the dirty wall. It led to the walkways above, and at the first landing was a promising sight. A door. \nA thick, red fire door nearly twenty feet up and along the walkway.\n\t“Is that the way out?” Tai asked hopefully. \n\tMike bit his lip. “C’mon…” He snuck forwards. “Look, Tai. The docks are a big place. We’ve got a ways to go I think before we’re out. Gimme the phone? We’ll use it when we’re out of here. They might hear us otherwise.”\n\t“Alright. I’ll follow you.” Tai withdrew the small plastic object they’d prudently filched from the table in front of their cell and gave it to Mike, who pocketed it without breaking stride. \n\tThe tawny kit sighed quietly. He was more than happy to relinquish leadership, so to speak, to the older boy.\n\tMike stopped at the steps. “Damn…” he said quietly, looking around. There didn’t seem to be an alternative; at least not one he could see, and he didn’t want to move any closer to those muffled voices. “Let’s go! Crouch down!” \n\tThey mounted the stairs quickly, crouching low.\nShaking from the cool air that blew over his shirtless body, Tai took the time to look over the warehouse warily. Between the tall aisles and in clearings here and there, roughly a dozen furs were quietly moving closed crates, or appraising the contents of ones they’d pried open. The kit still couldn’t make out what was in any of the containers, but at least the adults were focusing on their jobs rather than looking at the fire escapes. Occasionally, they’d stop to chat with one another. He saw at least one forklift and several loaded pallet-jacks between some of the shelves.\nIt was an odd scene, Tai thought. Some of them were quite well dressed, suits and everything, businesslike, but others looked like common dock-workers – similar to the workers and fishermen he saw often in Alaska. The crates they were opening were not very big, made from thick slats of sturdy wood, and they seemed to be looking for specific ones, taking them towards the center of the warehouse on those jacks.\nAt this distance, it was hard to see, but Tai spotted a few small red ribbons on the crates they were selecting. He had to wonder what was in all of them.\nMike shoved at the door, and it opened a few inches, but he was thrust backwards and nearly thrown under the high hand-rails when the incredibly heavy door’s springs forced it closed again – knocking his small body away like a pillow. “Shit!” he squeaked, catching the railing.\n\tThe yellow-painted strip of metal clanged noisily when he did. Resounding along its entire length. A few heads snapped up from their jobs in the warehouse. The kits’ hearts froze: they were in full view of at least several of the suspicious grownups.\n\t“Holy-!” one of them yelled. “Stop them! Hey!”\n\tMike cursed again. “C’mon!” he cried at Tai, slamming right into the door again. This time he managed to open it enough for them both to squeeze through, and he and Tai burst out onto a metal platform and into the cool darkness of night.\n\tThey were on a noisy steel walkway that encircled the warehouse. Tai quickly looked around and realized they were now about twenty feet off the ground, on a fire-escape - a metal walkway that was essentially an extension of the stairs they had climbed, wrapped around the outer wall of the warehouse.\n\tHe saw immediately that Mike wasn’t kidding about the sheer size of the docks. They were in the middle of a huge industrial complex, and off to one side Tai could see nothing but rippling, murky water that stretched on and on to the misty horizon. There were other warehouses, huge shipping containers of sturdy metal, trucks, expanses of dull concrete and hundreds of bright floodlights on lofty poles… he couldn’t even see any hint of the edge of the complex with the many enormous buildings blocking his view.\n\t“Oh, crap!” he whined, gripping the handrail. “How are we gonna get out of here?!”\n\t“Tai! Come on! Don’t stop!” Mike bolted along the walkway. Tai could hear many heavy paws coming up the stairs on the other side of the fire door, and he quickly took off after the older kit. The warehouse was quite long and it took them twenty seconds of flat out running just to reach the end of the walkway. \n\tThey hurried down some more stairs, naturally made of more noisily clanging metal, until they jumped the last few steps and landed on concrete. Tai almost tripped, stumbling to his hands and knees with a panicked scream. \n“Come on!” Mike yelped, accelerating away as Tai struggled back to his paws. “Keep moving!”\n\tThey could hear some furs taking chase along the walkway and crying out to one another. Neither of the kits could bear to look behind. The many footfalls were getting louder, closer, as the adults started to close the gap already.\n\tWith their breath rasping loudly in their ears, Mike and Tai sprinted along the slightly wet concrete, unsure exactly where their frantic running was taking them. This section of the docks was steeped in impenetrable darkness, and all around them seemed to be concrete, metal and the black and gray nothingness of the night sky, stretching out forever in front of them as they made their way to the water’s edge. The rushing sound of the murky water and restless wind that howled in their ears as they ran was almost drowning out the cries of the adults chasing after them.\n\t“This way!” Mike gasped, turning and sprinting down the side of yet another warehouse that abutted the waterfront. Not more than a few feet away, just beside a half-open, massive shutter-door that looked to be the building’s main entrance, was a small concrete jetty that extended into the water about a dozen paces or so. Mike led them to the very end of it and stopped. “We- we’ll have to swim!” he said urgently. “If we keep running, they-they’ll catch us eventually! We’ll lose them this way!”\n\tTai skidded unsteadily to a halt on the wet concrete, his throat burning from deeply inhaling the frigid night air over and over. He looked in horror at the expanse of water before him.\n\tChurning waves of seemingly endless black waters, upon which several large vessels floated lifelessly several hundred meters away. The depth of the freezing water was indeterminate, obscured by the darkness of night, with the sky above was heavy with ominous clouds...\n\tPanic boiled up within him, suddenly making him nauseous and dizzy. The tawny pup backed away from the edge involuntarily and shook his head. “I- I can’t!” His voice shriveled to become almost inaudible and his knees nearly gave. “I can’t swim!”\n\t“Wh-what?!” screeched Mike, looking frightened himself. “Yeah you can! It’s just water, Tai! We have to!” He cast a look back down the pier. “It’ll be too late if we don’t jump soon!”\n\tTai let out a despairing cry, looking back as well. Their pursuers would soon be rounding the warehouse.\nIf he had been in his right mind, he might have done differently, for better or even worse, but as it was he knew he couldn’t jump into that water.\n\tSo, he turned to Mike with a wild and terrified expression. “You go! Go!” he yelled, and he shoved the bigger cub. Hard. \n\tMike was taken by surprise, confused by Tai’s behavior, and the push took him right off his paws. He fell the few feet into the water with a yelp of alarm, though he pulled himself quickly into the right position to tread the cold water. “Tai?!” \nWhat the hell was he doing?!\n\tThe pup had turned and dashed back down the pier – their hunters bearing down on him. Tai was fast, especially for his age, but a shadowy, grown-up figure intercepted him just as he reached the bottom of the little jetty. \n\tHowever, Tai jumped to cut the corner, leaping several feet over the drop, and the adult made a wild swiping grab for him, taken aback by the pup’s sudden change of direction. The big adult’s shoes slipped on the soaking concrete. With a sharp scream, he smacked his head on the rough concrete, and fell down what Tai had leapt over to splash lifelessly into the water.\n\tWithholding oxygen from his lungs, Mike could barely see Tai avoid another pursuer with his astonishing agility and dash into the open warehouse. His tail trailing in the air behind him. \n\tOthers followed him, plunging into the dark building after the kit. Tai was distracting them from following Mike. Deliberately or not, he couldn’t tell. It was also possible they hadn’t spotted Mike falling into the water in the darkness.\n\tA horrified gasp later, Mike reached into his pocket and tore out the stolen phone, pressing a button on it. The keypad lit up, but the display was indecipherable— water damaged. Was it working? He sobbed as he looked at it, tiny and plastic in his paw, feeling betrayed. The cub had to bite back a keening wail of despair.\n\tNow wasn’t the time for this. The grownups should have heard the splash as he fell into the water, so they would look here soon! Panting, he looked around, trying to think where to go next. He spotting what appeared to be some kind of drain in the side of the concrete bank. Peering into the murky water, he saw the latticed bars on it didn’t extend the entire way down… maybe some kind of safety precaution in case someone was caught in the drain, he didn’t know. It looked like a place to hide.\n\tHe struck out towards it, diving under the metal barrier to come up the other side, shaking his head to get the foul harbor water off his face. It was warmer there, which wasn’t saying much at all. He was already starting to shiver. Even still, it was far better than staying out in the cold, rushing winds.\n\tThe cell phone in his paws was soaked to pieces, unsurprisingly. But he had to try. Dogged denial made him stab at the keys, twice having to hit the cancel key because he was unsure what the heck he’d pressed since the screen was a watery, unreadable mess. His paws were shaking and he couldn’t remember the number… it kept dancing on the tip of his tongue, slipping all over the surface of his brain, so to speak. He’d never needed to call it that much…\n\tIn his panic, he didn’t even consider the simplistic ‘911’ number.\n\tAt last he thought he got it keyed in. He pressed the plastic thing to his ear, and strained to hear. \n\tIt was ringing! The sound was horribly far away and distorted, but it was ringing!!\n\n\tRobert sat inertly in the overly-warm office alone, dumbfounded and horrified. Outside jabbering analysts and other assorted workers toiled easily at their humming computers. \nThe news had come to him even as he was in the middle of the ‘meeting.’ He’d been pleading to be allowed to take custody of Eraline’s child, and for her savings to be released to a trust fund for him. Robert had a dark suspicion that the C.I.A. had direct access to the late vixen’s accounts, and would probably also be withholding her life insurance from the kit if he didn’t intervene. Or rather… convince them to have a heart. He also had a suspicion that they were going to use it to coerce him to give the tawny boy up for adoption, probably somewhere far away. That was something he wouldn’t do, couldn’t do, even if they ordered him. He’d quit faster than he’d drop a live snake.\nIt had been going well… until the phone call. His phone rang in the middle of his plea. He had almost collapsed. \n\tRobert could not even speak to the police about the matter, he’d been told. The risk of him folding to ransom demands was too high, they said. The cops were talking to one of Robert’s colleagues, rather than to the father of the kidnapped kits himself. They’d asked him to sit alone in an empty, stifling office and let others deal with it. It was such a fucking travesty.\nHis cell phone buzzed to life in his jacket, but he ignored it for the longest time. Well over a minute. Whoever it was could go fuck themselves.\nHowever, then the fox actually yelped and clawed at his chest pocket for the device. What the hell was he doing?! He ripped it out of the pocket, and sure enough, the number was not one he recognized. Swallowing painfully, he pressed the answer key and raised the phone to his ear…\n\t“Y-yes?” he said, his mouth flooding with the metallic taste of trepidation.\n\tThe voice on the phone was not what he expected. It was… it sounded as if it was underwater and very, very far away, interrupted by hissing and crackling, but it was a voice he knew.\n\t“-ad! Dad!” it buzzed weakly. \n\t“Mike?!” Robert gasped in incredulity, shooting to his feet, His ears stiffened on his head like flags caught in the wind. “Mike! Are you alright? Where are you?!” \n\tThe response was nothing but hissing and droning for a moment, and he felt his heart stop dead. Then… “…Water in the phone! Can’t ksshhzzear you! Help! Please, Tai ran akshkkk--! … trying to kill us! Brrrzzhhsshhhnnhh…”\n\tThe fox looked helplessly at the phone. The call was still connected, but it was descending into that incomprehensible hissing again. “Mike! Where are you? You have to tell me where you are, okay?” No response. Robert swallowed again. “Listen, Mike, if you can hear me, do not hang up! Don’t hang up!”\n\tA door was in his way, but not for long. The six-foot fox slammed it open and bore down upon a young operator like an inexorable steam train, thrusting his phone right at her. “Can you find out where this call is coming from?” he demanded. His manner seemed more appropriate to a death threat than a request. “It’s a cell phone. Where is it?! Exactly where?”\n\tThe operator, a young female rabbit with austere, shoulder-length head-fur, looked baffled and scared for a second. “Uh, um, y-yes, I think so, maybe,” she said, cringing away.\n\t“Then do it! Please!! Trust me, it’s justified!” \n\tShe nodded timidly and took the phone from him, thoughtfully pausing to put it on loudspeaker. The phone just hummed noisily. “I’ll try to, but…” She peered at the screen first, then hastily scribbled a few things on a piece of paper, and then started to work quickly on her computer, bringing up programs and entering commands with incredible speed. “Hold on, it’s very easy to get the general area from the exchange, but it’ll take a minute or so to get the GPS…”\n\t“Thank you!” Robert breathed explosively, leaning heavily on the operator’s desk. “Thank you! Shit, Mike, don’t hang up! Do you hear me? Hold on…” \n\nChapter Ten – Fin. \n\n-- By Krazy Kitsune/Kichigai Kitsune\nCopyright 2005 onwards.\n\n",
  "writing_bbcode_parsed": "<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>Tai&rsquo;s Story - Chapter 10.<br />By Kichigai Kitsune<br />Copyright 2005 onwards.<br /><br />Disclaimer: This story contains coarse language, violence, adult themes and scenes of a sexual nature involving two young &ldquo;cubs&rdquo; (young anthropomorphic non-humans). If you are under the legal age as prescribed by the laws under which you are subject to reading such material, do not continue beyond this disclaimer. <br /><br /><br />\tRobert adjusted the ice-pack, gingerly pressing it more firmly against his bandaged temple. He couldn&rsquo;t help but wince&hellip; <br />\tHe was hurting, but glad to be home safe at least. Sitting in his comfy recliner, just nursing his injuries &ndash; and of course that latte he suddenly developed a craving for after being kicked square in the head. After the events earlier, being able to put his paws up in a soft cotton bath-robe was wondrous.<br />\tThough he did wonder why being kicked in the head made him want a coffee. That was just bizarre.<br />\t&ldquo;Daaaad?&rdquo; his eight-year-old son enquired, looking a little concerned as he wandered into the softly-lit den. &ldquo;What the heck did you do to your head?&rdquo;<br />\tRobert shrugged. &ldquo;I uh, just slipped on the stairwell at the university. Came down pretty hard.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Oh. Klutz. You okay?&rdquo; Mike flicked an ear as he took a seat on the recliner&rsquo;s wide armrest. He looked pointedly at the bandages encircling Robert&rsquo;s leg, just below the rolled up leg of his corduroy pants. &ldquo;What about your knee? That looks pretty bad too.&rdquo; <br />\tThe grownup chortled, taking a sip of his coffee. He rarely allowed himself coffee; maybe it was time to stop being such a stickler for foolish things like that. He was getting older now. It was time for him to just enjoy life a little more, or so he tried to tell himself. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be alright soon, I hope. My headache worries me more.&rdquo; That was a lie. His knee could well need surgery, but his son had a long list of little quirks, and the notion of his dad going into surgery of any kind frightened him. <br />\t&ldquo;You got injured during football, didn&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; Mike asked, leaning onto his dad&rsquo;s shoulder affectionately. There was just a touch of admonition in the kit&rsquo;s voice.<br />\t&ldquo;I did. Don&rsquo;t sit on the armrest, Michael, you&rsquo;ll damage it.&rdquo; <br />\tMike promptly slid onto his dad&rsquo;s lap, careful to avoid hurting the leg. &ldquo;You had a bad day,&rdquo; the kit said gravely. &ldquo;Anything I can do?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Nope.&rdquo; Without waiting a second, Robert gave his son a huge hug. It had only been a few days since Mike had been traumatically raped, and yet he was more concerned about his dad&rsquo;s headache. &ldquo;Thanks for asking though.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;No charge.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ll just sit on my backside all night and let the pain sort of&hellip; subside.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;There&rsquo;s some blood on your whiskers, you know.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I know. Your hair is getting pretty long now, you know.&rdquo; <br />\tMike grinned and let his dad tenderly brush back some of his medium-length head-fur. &ldquo;Yep. Gonna grow it. Wanna see how it looks if it&rsquo;s longer.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;How much longer?&rdquo;<br />\tThe kit snickered. &ldquo;Just a bit.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;That&rsquo;s alright then. Wouldn&rsquo;t want anyone to think you were a girl, would we?&rdquo; They both chuckled. &ldquo;Urgh.&rdquo; Robert touched his head again. &ldquo;I think this headache is just getting started.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll get you something for it! Don&rsquo;t move!&rdquo; Mike made to jump to his unshod paws, but he thought better of it and rather cautiously pulled himself off his dad. He made his way to the kitchen, hunting for the painkillers. <br />\tThe apartment door rattled loudly as someone knocked it with all the delicacy of a butcher tenderizing an elephant carcass.<br />\t&ldquo;Do you want me to get it?&rdquo; Mike called uncertainly back into the den, pausing. The catch in his voice indicated that he really didn&rsquo;t want to.<br />\t&ldquo;No,&rdquo; responded his father, hauling himself upwards and starting to limp towards the door. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll get it.&rdquo; His paw slipped around his back, closing around the metal handle protruding from his corduroy pants&rsquo; waistline. It never usually resided there or anywhere within reach of his son, but things were anything but usual at the moment.<br />\tHe snuck up to the side of the door, and rapped the surface of the door, at about head height. There was no blast, nothing tearing through the door. After a moment he quickly stole a look through the eyehole, and blinked in surprise. Instantly, he tugged the door open. <br />\t&ldquo;What&rsquo;re you doing here?&rdquo; he gasped at the old, strangely lean brown-bear in his grey suit. <br />\t&ldquo;Good to see you too, Robert,&rdquo; the bruin replied, amused. &ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d take a little interest in the current events?&rdquo; <br />\tRobert smiled wryly. &ldquo;Events? Don&rsquo;t you mean crisis?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;That hasn&rsquo;t been decided yet. May I come in?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Dad?&rdquo; Mike asked, having joined his dad at the door. He looked enquiringly at the old bruin, but said nothing further. <br />\tRobert thought quickly. &ldquo;Er, he&rsquo;s from the Education Department, Mike,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect him so, uh, early.&rdquo; <br />\tThe bark-furred pup instantly checked the clock on the wall behind him. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s seven in the evening.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Exactly, I expected him around eight. Come on in.&rdquo; <br />\tThe trio ambled back into the den, with Robert&rsquo;s limping gait rather pronounced. Mike took up the rear, regarding the bruin suspiciously.<br />\t&ldquo;Would you like a drink of anything?&rdquo; Robert asked graciously, gesturing for the old bear to take a seat on the comfy gray settee before the television. <br />\tThe bear slowly lowered himself to the couch, groaning in exertion. &ldquo;Coffee would be great,&rdquo; he muttered. <br />\t&ldquo;Alright. Mike, please go to your room. This is a private discussion.&rdquo; <br />\tThe kit looked at his father, surprised. &ldquo;D-dad?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;It&rsquo;s alright, it&rsquo;s nothing important. I&rsquo;ll let you know if anything&rsquo;s wrong. Go get ready for bed, okay; we&rsquo;re hitting the pool tomorrow morning. You&rsquo;ve missed over a week of practice.&rdquo; <br />\tWith one last uneasy glance at the bruin, Mike shuffled reluctantly towards his room. It was plain he wanted to object further, but recent events had made him a little nervous; he definitely wanted to keep in his father&rsquo;s good books. So he obeyed without comment.<br />\tWhen the bedroom door was finally shut, the bruin chuckled. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s sharp, isn&rsquo;t he?&rdquo; he said in his dusty voice. &ldquo;How&rsquo;s he holding up?&rdquo;<br />\tRobert folded his arms. &ldquo;Very well. It&rsquo;s almost as if it never happened.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;The therapy helping him out?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Not really. I thank you for paying for it, but he absolutely resents it; says the therapist treats him like an idiot, and that he&rsquo;s quite happy to forget about the incident. The therapy just keeps reminding him about it.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Intriguing. He&rsquo;s a stunning young lad; but why is he so apprehensive at my presence? Or is he just like that with everyone now?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Hm? Oh, no.&rdquo; The vulpine laughed briefly. &ldquo;I slipped up, Mitchell. He&rsquo;s got a few quirks, you see. One of them is simply that he hates the State Education Department.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Oh? He has opinions like that and he&rsquo;s not even ten?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;You could say that. He&rsquo;s heard a few horror stories of the government taking children from their parents&mdash;and he knows that the reasons aren&rsquo;t always good. Since he&rsquo;s a special case because he&rsquo;s home-schooled by a single parent, he&rsquo;s basically scared that someday Social Services will kidnap him and take him away from me. He&rsquo;s more concerned about it now than ever before.&rdquo; <br />\tMitchell scratched his nose. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a much more mature fear than the ones that plagued me at his age. Monsters under the bed and all.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I think you&rsquo;ll find if you look back, that you did have rather mature points of view and fears amongst the childish ones.&rdquo; Robert grinned. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not so convinced that you ever grow out of them all. Do you want that coffee now?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Oh dear god no; I had about three in the last two hours. I just wanted to set your boy at ease by not acting all business.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Appreciate it. But what more do you need from me now?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Not really that much. I just wanted to stop by personally and make sure you knew that we&hellip; that I appreciate what you&rsquo;ve gone through.&rdquo;<br />\tRobert nodded solemnly. &ldquo;Was there any way to tell whose information Nathan was after?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Not a chance. He just took everything. No better way to conceal what you&rsquo;re looking for.&rdquo; Mitchell paused. &ldquo;Though he mentioned Eraline, didn&rsquo;t he?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Yes, he did.&rdquo; The fox&rsquo;s expression became uneasy. &ldquo;Shit, you don&rsquo;t think-?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Calm down, Robert. The records he got from you won&rsquo;t help him if he&rsquo;s looking for her. Though it would make perfect sense if she was his target&mdash;perhaps.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Why won&rsquo;t the records help him?&rdquo; a baffled Robert asked, taking a seat on his comfy black recliner once again. &ldquo;And why would anyone be after her? Nathan didn&rsquo;t really know her, did he? It can&rsquo;t be a personal thing.&rdquo;<br />\tMitchell laughed. &ldquo;Oh, you just can&rsquo;t help yourself, can you? The records won&rsquo;t help him because she&rsquo;s not on them anymore. Her full dossier is compartmentalized information; classified. As for why they&rsquo;re after her, you know I can&rsquo;t tell you. Really, it sounds like he was just trying to banter you to death.&rdquo; <br />\tRobert cursed. &ldquo;If she gets hurt, you know I&rsquo;ll kill Nate, right?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I do, in fact, know that.&rdquo; The bruin smiled. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re just itching for the rematch, aren&rsquo;t you?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Not exactly. I think next time I&rsquo;ll just shoot him in the back; it&rsquo;s probably the smarter option.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Nathan wouldn&rsquo;t want to face you again if he could avoid it. He&rsquo;s always respected you. My guess is that you were the only one he had a location for.&rdquo;<br />\tFalling silent for a second, the fox wrung his inky paws. &ldquo;God damn it,&rdquo; he groaned. &ldquo;I hope Eraline is alright.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Thomas died, you know.&rdquo; <br />\tSlowly, Robert looked up, incredulous. &ldquo;What?!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Some time ago. He was on a fishing boat, and an ice-breaker carved it in half.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;You tell me this now?! W-was he&hellip;?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;No. As far as we&rsquo;re aware, no. Visibility was poor; at about midnight, the breaker&rsquo;s sonar systems were, uh, disrupted by winds and heavy rain. Everyone on board the trawler was killed either on impact or by drowning; except Tom. Hypothermia got him a few hours later.&rdquo; <br />\tThe news sent Robert reeling. He stared in horror at his section chief. &ldquo;Unbelievable&hellip; when?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;About a year and a half ago, or so. I&rsquo;m sorry; I couldn&rsquo;t tell you until now.&rdquo; <br />\tThe fox nodded, touching a paw to his head again. &ldquo;Oh my god.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry, Robert. It&rsquo;s been a terrible few years for you. I&rsquo;m really sorry.&rdquo; <br />\tThe fox blinked a few times. He felt hollow and weak all of a sudden. It had been some time since he&rsquo;d spoken with his friend, and the pain this news evoked felt strangely distant, yet still horrible and insidiously sickening. It was, he supposed, like hearing of a brother&rsquo;s death; a brother you had not seen in some time, but still loved deeply.<br />&ldquo;If you&rsquo;ll forgive me switching topics, why do you still let Mike stay at home alone?&rdquo; enquired Mitchell, as always definitively lacking in the realm of diplomacy.<br />\tRobert nodded, in fact grateful for the subject change. &ldquo;After that day, he begged me not to put him in daycare or change anything,&rdquo; he said softly. &ldquo;He likes the time alone.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m surprised you listened.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Mike isn&rsquo;t a normal case, Mitch. I&rsquo;ve been leaving him alone a few hours of the week since he was seven. He knows how to handle himself, and he&rsquo;s not so young that he&rsquo;ll drink bleach or see if he can fit forks into outlets. And he didn&rsquo;t let Nate in; Nate got in by himself. If I freaked out over that, I&rsquo;d be over-reacting.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;How do you mean?&rdquo; <br />\tRobert chuckled weakly. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not every day a former field-ops officer breaks into your house. I don&rsquo;t suspect it&rsquo;ll happen again.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I see your point. I take it he has opinions about day-care too?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;No, it&rsquo;s me with those opinions. I&rsquo;ll still let him have his alone-time, but I suppose I should cut back a little on how often I leave Mike by himself. I&rsquo;ve taken a few weeks off to keep him company, but that won&rsquo;t last. There&rsquo;s a kid that I know&mdash;I know his father, and we both help out with the monthly swimming meets uptown. Mike competes, and this guy helps set it up. His son is about fifteen, and he baby-sits for me occasionally. I think I&rsquo;ll be employing him more often now, though.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I assume he&rsquo;s reliable?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Oh yeah. Straight-A student.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I hope he can keep up with Mike then.&rdquo; <br />\tAllowing himself a laugh, Robert grinned at his boss. &ldquo;They get along fine. Have done since they met.&rdquo; <br />\tMitchell sighed and stood. &ldquo;Good. I&rsquo;m sorry to bring bad news to you, Robert. But don&rsquo;t concern yourself about Eraline at the moment; she and her son are safe for now, if a bit upset.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure they are&hellip;&rdquo; Robert sniffled, suppressing a sudden onset of shaking. &ldquo;Is that all?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Yeah, kid, it is,&rdquo; the bruin grinned. &ldquo;Keep your chin up. We&rsquo;ll do all we can to track Nate and his employers down. I&rsquo;m sure you want revenge for what he did to Mike?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Somewhat.&rdquo; Robert looked in the direction of his son&rsquo;s room. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to think of him as a victim. I know he doesn&rsquo;t want me to get upset over him, and even he doesn&rsquo;t seem to hate Nate. I guess you could say I just want to kick his ass into a coma, rather than castrate and hang him. That was my initial instinct, though.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;d thank you for it. Now, call your son out here so I can put his fears to rest.&rdquo; <br />\tWith a curious expression, Robert called out for his kit. <br />\tA few moments later, the bedroom door opened, and his pajama-clad pup came into the den, holding a junior biology book Robert had recently bought for him about the workings of eyes. Mike had only started reading it that evening, and he&rsquo;d already devoured about two-thirds of its contents. &ldquo;Yeah dad?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;C&rsquo;mere a second.&rdquo;<br />\tThe kit obliged, laying his book on the floor in the corridor. &ldquo;Um, sure.&rdquo; <br />\tMitchell chuckled. &ldquo;Just wanted to say that I&rsquo;m quite impressed by your work with your father,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re an excellent student.&rdquo; <br />\tMike blinked, but then seemed to get a little embarrassed. &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; he said, unusually diffident. He didn&rsquo;t often find himself being complimented by total strangers.<br />\tThe lean bear made to leave, but then he paused, an inquisitive and cheeky expression on his features. It looked bizarrely inappropriate on him; quite youthful. &ldquo;One question, Michael,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;What came first, the chicken or the egg?&rdquo;<br />\tThe kit raised an eyebrow. &ldquo;The egg of course.&rdquo; <br />\tMitchell&rsquo;s response was a bit surprised. &ldquo;How so?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Because chickens weren&rsquo;t always around. They evolved from something, and that something laid an egg, and the first chicken came out of it.&rdquo;<br />\tThe bear stared at him. <br />\t&ldquo;Satisfied?&rdquo; quipped Robert, grinning. <br /><br />\tIt had been a rather eventful day.<br />\tThe meeting point was, as always, some rundown shitty little building in the middle of nowhere. Nathan, as he leaned against the grimy wall of the apartment complex, found himself wishing for once that he could do his business in a casino or something, the way they did in the movies. He was a little sick of backstreets, slums and desolation, and having to be here in this desolate backstreet in a slum felt like life was just kicking him in the nose.<br />\tThough he did somewhat deserve it at the moment, he guessed. He&rsquo;d done some nasty things in his life, but molesting a child came near the top. Not the top, he knew. Everyone always got so worked up over such things, but they always seemed to forget that there were much, much worse things you could do to someone than interfere with them sexually. Dental torture and cold-blooded murder came to Nate&rsquo;s mind, and he&rsquo;d done both of those. <br />\tThe street was narrow and the buildings lining it were mostly occupied by families upon families of the poor and hopeless. Few strayed outside at this time. Only the occasional dirty, poorly dressed fur ambled purposelessly along, their fur unclean and their expressions of bleak indifference or hard suspicion.<br />Ridiculous things were strewn about the sorry street, such as a ruined boat that had rather clearly been converted into a swimming pool&mdash;the seating area had been stripped out and lined with moldy tarpaulin, and filled with water. It was filthy water, and things were quite obviously growing within it, but it was still quite likely in use. <br />\tA street-light had a pair of shoes dangling from it, which indicated a drug-dealer was nearby. Nathan found himself wondering if the same children who used the boat-pool also partook of the narcotics just up the road. Probably, actually. And while he was thinking about it, how many of them were abused in ways that made what he did to Mike Donaldson seem like a friendly encounter?<br />\t&ldquo;What a shit-hole,&rdquo; Nate grumbled to himself.<br />\tHe heard the crunching of grit beneath tires, and finally some brakes squealed nearby. He looked down the road at the black SUV as two burly furs clambered out. They were rather large, to say the least. One of them, a huge tiger with biceps as big as Nate&rsquo;s head, strode towards the grimy wall the ferret was leaning indolently on.<br />\t&ldquo;Did you get it?&rdquo; he rumbled bluntly.<br />\t&ldquo;Naturally.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I heard you had some fun while you were in there.&rdquo;<br />\tNathan smirked. &ldquo;I suppose it could qualify as that. He was a cute little guy.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll look into him then.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t advise it, Marco. Not if you want to live.&rdquo; <br />\tThe tiger&rsquo;s eyes narrowed. &ldquo;Give it to me.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;All in good time, my muscle-bound friend. Where&rsquo;s my money?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;You&rsquo;re not in a position to be making demands, ferret.&rdquo; <br />\tNathan laughed in the big creature&rsquo;s face. &ldquo;Actually, I am. It&rsquo;s not on me, so you&rsquo;d better behave nicely towards me. Especially considering I can get my hands on you here.&rdquo; <br />\tNate hated this big fuck-wit, and had been hoping to provoke him for quite some time. It was quite easy to provoke someone like this; just imply that you can take him, and he&rsquo;ll set out to prove you wrong. After the tension of today, Nate felt he deserved a cathartic release.<br />\tThe tiger swung a huge haymaker right at Nate&rsquo;s face, but the huge arm moved almost ponderously towards its target. Laughing, Nate leisurely leaned backwards, letting the over-extended punch whiff right by his whiskers, and he cheerfully retaliated with one of his favorites, a horizontal elbow. <br />\tMarco cried out once and reeled backwards, almost falling to his backside. He gingerly touched his forehead above his left eye, and was visibly shaken to discover it was not only bleeding profusely, but that the injury was a huge gash nearly two-inches wide. The sticky red liquid started to ooze down his forehead and was already threatening his eye. &ldquo;Wh-what-?!&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Oh, I feel so much better all of a sudden!&rdquo; chortled Nathan. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re good at looking scary and lifting heavy objects my friend. Leave the actual fighting to the adults&mdash;or rather, to those with adult intellect, which certainly doesn&rsquo;t qualify you.&rdquo;<br />\tThe tiger looked at him, genuinely frightened. There&rsquo;s something unnerving about being cut open with a single strike by a chuckling maniac half your size, after all. <br />\t&ldquo;Now, are you going to keep this civil? Or do I have to shoot your idiot friend in the head for trying to come at me from behind?&rdquo; Nate twisted to grin at the bull-dog behind him, who froze mid-creep. &ldquo;I could be scrubbing down the barrel before you even hit the ground, moron. Get in front of me.&rdquo;<br />\tThe canine obliged.<br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be taking my money- and that ring of yours, Marco; it&rsquo;s very nice- for my troubles. Don&rsquo;t try to stiff me.&rdquo;<br />\tMarco rather carefully withdrew a huge wad of cash from his leather jacket and handed it to Nathan, who instantly stuffed it into his pocket. He then handed him another. And another. &ldquo;Th-that&rsquo;s ten thousand. You&rsquo;ll get another forty when we have the stuff.&rdquo; There was a pause while Nate just glared at the tiger, and eventually Marco removed the ring from his meaty finger and passed it to the ferret. His expression was sour, but he seemed to be keen on avoiding any more confrontation. He quickly put the paw to his forehead, trying to stem the flow of blood which was by now damaging his silk shirt.<br />\t&ldquo;Very good. Two streets away, there&rsquo;s a broken section of the sidewalk.&rdquo; Nathan smiled. &ldquo;Business is easy if you stop trying to pick fights, Marco.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Did you hear from our guy?&rdquo; the dog suddenly asked. &ldquo;We sent him to meet up with you.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;No,&rdquo; Nathan replied coolly. &ldquo;You sent someone, did you?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Yeah. Javier. He&rsquo;s one of the best shooters we&rsquo;ve got. He was supposed to help you out.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Afraid I heard nothing.&rdquo; Truth be told, Javier was busy decomposing in the Hudson. Nate felt little remorse at killing a fur that was himself a murderer, and he had no intention of letting his employers know that Robert and Mike had caught his trail. The only thing keeping those two alive at this point was the fact that the ferret had convinced everyone his plan had gone off without a hitch. <br />\tBut aside from that, this Javier was most likely also supposed to have disposed of Nathan and taken the records. That would, after all, save his employers fifty-thousand big ones. That might have inconvenienced Nathan a little, so he&rsquo;d taken appropriate steps.<br />\tThe two burly furs exchanged a moderately worried glance, and for some reason that brightened Nate&rsquo;s day even more. He hoped the thugs would be appropriately distressed when their long-distance killer was discovered in Greenland with a broken neck. <br />\t&ldquo;Shall we go then, gentlemen?&rdquo; He pointed firmly up the street. &ldquo;You first.&rdquo; All of a sudden he had his handgun in his paws, and the safety was disengaged. &ldquo;Would rather not have either of you taking swings at me from behind. You know how it is. Dangerous times.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tAlmost a year later, many miles away.<br /><br />\tIt had been a horrible day.<br />\tThe cold had been biting, and the snowfall had been relentless, but the weather wasn&rsquo;t the cause of young Tai&rsquo;s worries. The air was chilly, but it had been all but nothing compared to the chill of the foreboding he had felt that entire day. <br />\tIt had started the very minute he&rsquo;d stepped onto his school&rsquo;s grounds. He had made the mistake of looking up, and had met a pair of unfriendly eyes. He didn&rsquo;t know the boy&rsquo;s name yet &ndash; he was an older cougar, with misty gray fur, about eleven years of age, maybe a little older. They&rsquo;d met before, alright. Tai had foolishly trusted him and his friend, and followed them one evening after school, only a few days ago. <br />They had led him a way into a nearby paddock. It was a short-cut, they claimed. They seemed to be friendly. He didn&rsquo;t know why they did it, but the two of them waited until they were passing a small lake, and then suddenly they had attacked him.<br />\tThey had lifted him and bodily tossed him into the water, which was struggling valiantly to remain unfrozen at the onset of Alaskan winter. The small fox kit had floundered, trying to propel himself to the dry shore, but the cold had sliced deep into him like a frozen knife. His body had begun to stop listening, and he&rsquo;d been paralyzed by fear. He inhaled mouthfuls of frigid water as he tried to scream.<br />\tThe cougar and his friend had found it hilarious. Tai&rsquo;s mindless terror had been amusing to them, and when he had finally managed to crawl slowly and pathetically from the icy waters, skin beneath his matted fur a pale blue, they&rsquo;d simply taunted him and walked off.<br />\tTai had told his mother, who then made the appropriate complaints &ndash; it was one of the few times she seemed to be worried about Tai&rsquo;s troubles. However, the older boys had simply declared he was lying, and their parents even provided them with a false alibi. They had headed to the cougar&rsquo;s home immediately, and were there until late that evening, according to the story. The teachers, and even Eraline, had been fooled. Tai &lsquo;must have&rsquo; got the wrong boys, or fallen in by himself. They accused him of lying.<br />\tWhich naturally explained why some of their friends had shoved him into a wall at lunch-time the next day. Once more, some quick talking and a foolishly gullible teacher later, Tai&rsquo;s tormentors had walked away, leaving the small fox stunned and betrayed. <br />\tTai had thought that was it. It surely had to be over now. The attack at lunch-time had cost him a loose tooth, and he&rsquo;d not been able to get all the blood off his muzzle until he was home. It was one of the worst incidents of bullying he&rsquo;d ever experienced.<br />\tBut that first minute of school today, his normally downcast eyes had met with the cougar&rsquo;s. The older boy had given him a dark glare, then he mouthed two words to the tawny fox. &ldquo;After school,&rdquo; was all he whispered.<br />\tThose words repeated themselves incessantly for every minute of the next six hours. Tai had been petrified. He didn&rsquo;t speak to anybody the entire day &ndash; to make matters worse, even his fair-weather friends had been away from class today for some reason. He never did find out why.<br />\tBut it was over now. He was on the familiar trail back home, his small boots leaving prints in the thick, wet snow. Nothing had happened after all, and Tai tried to enjoy the familiar scenery, to put the whole thing out of his mind. It was a long walk back home, and the trail itself had become Tai&rsquo;s companion. He recognized twisted trees, broken logs and even the skyline itself: the majestic, ice-capped mountains blurred in the distance by the descent of a million, million flakes of snow. <br />\tIt was as he was admiring the towering pinnacles that it happened. They had ridden their bikes to get ahead of him, and their trail had been washed over by the flurry of snow, while they had hidden easily behind thick trees. <br />\tTai heard their paws in the snow, but before he could even turn he was savagely shoved forwards and he tumbled face first into the ground. The fall winded him, but he pulled himself to his paws again. <br />\tFor his efforts, he was shoved again, this time landing awkwardly on his side. He cried out. <br />\t&ldquo;Hey, bitch,&rdquo; taunted the cougar in a brittle voice. Tai quailed when he saw the older kit&rsquo;s face. On the surface, he seemed calm, nonchalant, but there was a rage in his eyes that blazed forth so hotly, Tai half expected it to melt the snow. &ldquo;You didn&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d forgotten, did you?&rdquo; <br />\tTai looked around but there was already no point in trying to run. He was quickly surrounded by all four of the smirking band. <br />\tWhat came next was honestly unexpected. The cougar stepped forwards and punched Tai right in the face. <br />\tIt lacked power and momentum, but still it sent the tawny pup reeling backwards, and he collapsed again in the snow. <br />\tTai had suffered much at the hands of bullies before. But being punched in the muzzle was a totally new experience. The stinging sensation in his face was numbed purely by the sheer shock. He gawped at the bigger kit. What he didn&rsquo;t realize was that the others were all gawping too. <br />\tWhen the cougar stood over him and raised a paw, Tai instinctively curled up. &ldquo;Stop!&rdquo; he wailed, protecting his face with his arms. The response was a powerful kick to the small of his back, and he stiffened, the muscles around his spine juddering in a brief, painful spasm. <br />\tThe cougar grabbed his victim and pulled him to his paws. He then thrust the younger kit into the snow-covered, desiccated remains of a tree &ndash; its leafless, misshapen limbs quivered, like spindly claws clutching skywards in pain, raining heavy globs of snow down on them all. &ldquo;You little asshole!&rdquo; yelled the cougar, an inch from Tai&rsquo;s face. He seemed in a stage of inarticulate rage, and Tai could merely stare at him in terror. This was a completely new level of violence to him.<br />\tIt seemed like words were too difficult for the cougar boy at this point, so he just drove his fist into Tai&rsquo;s stomach. Then he did it again. Not happy with that, he struck the kit again in the face, and Tai felt his brain rattle like a bird in a cage. His knees gave way, but the older kit had grasped his collar. The fist was raised again, but one of the bully&rsquo;s friends interrupted quickly. <br />\t&ldquo;Ken!&rdquo; he hissed, sounding a little afraid. &ldquo;Ease up! You&rsquo;ll hurt him real bad! He&rsquo;s only a second-grader!&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Shut up!&rdquo; snapped the cougar. But he looked a little sheepish, and he released Tai&rsquo;s collar. The kit fell sideways to the ground. &ldquo;This girly snitch deserves worse.&rdquo;<br />\tTai looked up and blurrily made out the cougar&rsquo;s face. He seemed to be trying to get himself under control, and the air around him was literally steamed by his deep, angry breaths. <br />\tKen knelt and grasped the fox&rsquo;s ear. &ldquo;Nobody listens to furs like you,&rdquo; he said, voice thick with contempt. &ldquo;Nobody cares. Nobody would miss you. Maybe you&rsquo;d know that if you weren&rsquo;t so busy running to mommy. Nobody listened to her, either.&rdquo; He shoved Tai&rsquo;s face into the snow, and leaned in closer. Tai didn&rsquo;t resist. He was whimpering and shaking all over. &ldquo;Do it again&hellip; and I&rsquo;ll get you alone next time.&rdquo;<br />\tThe last sentence had been a deathly quiet whisper, and Tai understood its meaning immediately. The cougar had only stopped because there were witnesses. <br />\tA few more choice comments later, Ken mounted his trail bike, and started to ride off. The other followed, but they looked at their leader with a certain amount of shock and even fear. They hadn&rsquo;t expected this brutal scene when they agreed to accompany him; they didn&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;d be like this. One of them even looked back at Tai, clearly reluctant to leave the young cub there, alone and injured. <br />\tTo say Tai was rattled would be inadequate. He lay in the snow, trembling, for half an hour. His muzzle stung and his gut ached, while his back still twitched to the rhythm of the excruciating throbbing. It didn&rsquo;t feel real. It didn&rsquo;t feel like a dream, though, either. <br />\tThere was blood in his mouth, and he couldn&rsquo;t breathe through his nose properly &ndash; he wasn&rsquo;t sure if it was more blood or not, but it felt disgusting as it blocked his nose, and oozed disturbingly down his throat.<br />\tHe didn&rsquo;t want to move at first, but eventually he compelled himself to stand; the snow was getting heavier. He staggered the remaining twenty minutes back home, the pain in his stomach making each stumbling step a torment.<br />\tWhat he didn&rsquo;t know was that one of the boys returned alone to the site of the ambush, an hour later, to make sure Tai was safely gone. He&rsquo;d never find out, because his mother transferred him from this school in short order. This also meant that he never found out just why Ken had such a problem with his own activities getting back to his parents. Perhaps there was a reason behind the insane attack.<br />\tBut then&hellip; Tai had long since stopped caring. About everything.<br /><br />\tPresently&hellip;<br /><br />\tMike&rsquo;s eyes fluttered open at last.<br />For his effort, he was greeted by a stuffy blackness. He slowly realized his head was enclosed in what seemed to be a black trash-bag; a plastic bag of some sort, at the least. It wasn&rsquo;t too difficult to breathe so there was a hole somewhere, but it was still making him feel claustrophobic. It was clammy and stale-smelling. How had he ended up in a garbage bag?<br />\tRealization crashed into him like a colliding jet and he drew in an alarmed breath. Nearly fully alert once more, the fox boy demanded a status report from all his senses. He could see nothing. He could smell stagnant water and rust. He wriggled his limbs and realized he&rsquo;d been bound to a chair; from the hard, smooth feel of his bonds around his wrist, he gathered he was handcuffed. Real handcuffs, not those useless plastic ones that had a &lsquo;release catch&rsquo; and would break if he sat on them. At a birthday party, he&rsquo;d been handcuffed by a friend who had a real pair, and he couldn&rsquo;t get loose at all. He&rsquo;d erroneously thought, since they were made for adults, he could slip out easily.<br />\tWhen he strained to hear however, was when he picked up the most information. He could hear heavy footfalls on a stone floor, echoes, and the sound of waves, muffled as if far away or through a few walls. Calm conversation could be picked up by his ears, along with the harsh, tinny noise of a television nearby.<br />\tHe whimpered aloud. He was tied up in an industrial area, probably surrounded by people who had no intention of being nice to him.<br />\t&ldquo;Hey,&rdquo; a deep voice intoned. It sounded amused. &ldquo;The sleeper has awoken. You&rsquo;ve been out for hours.&rdquo; <br />\tAnother voice laughed brusquely. &ldquo;I think he actually fell asleep.&rdquo; <br />\tSomeone tugged roughly on the plastic bag, but it caught on the kit&rsquo;s muzzle and jerked his head backwards painfully. &ldquo;Ow!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Untie it at the bottom first,&rdquo; said yet another voice. The bag came off then, but a bright light immediately blinded Mike. He scrunched his eyes closed once more with a yelp of startled pain. <br />\t&ldquo;Too bright?&rdquo; the first voice said mockingly. &ldquo;Aww. Poor baby.&rdquo;<br />\tHis eyes were watering, and he tried to blink the tears away. Eventually he could see, but only blurry, indistinct figures and the light seared his eyes. &ldquo;Wh-where&hellip;?&rdquo; he choked weakly, trying to peer through his half-lidded eyes.<br />\tA big paw grasped his muzzle, and suddenly he was forced to look directly up at the light, while his eyelid was pried back. <br />\t&ldquo;He looks alright so far.&rdquo;<br />\tIt was the massive tiger. The muscular thug that had led the way into Mike&rsquo;s apartment. <br />\tNow that he thought about it, it was probably the tiger that shoved him, and then punched him like an angry freight train.<br />\tThe gigantic feline was clad in black cargo pants, a simple black muscle-shirt and sported a sickening scar over his right eye. It looked almost like a knife slash that hadn&rsquo;t been tended to properly, but Mike thought it was too wide.<br />\tAt last able to, Mike looked around. Eventually his eyes adjusted to the brightness and the spots before them eventually faded. It was a large, concrete room that he&rsquo;d awoken in, with only one door&mdash;a big, metal one in fact, that looked rusted almost to oblivion. The walls and floor were dull concrete, and there was little furniture. A pair of wheeled tool-trolleys resided just a few feet to his side, and they were covered with draped tarpaulin sheets to conceal what they held.<br />\tA bull-dog that he recognized as another one of his attackers was seated to the side, on a stool against the wall. Like the tiger, he was well muscled, wearing simply street clothes and a mocking scowl that seemed a permanent fixture. <br />\tWith a gasp, Mike looked around wildly. Finally, he saw Tai lying on the floor, immobile and facing away from him. His paws were firmly tied with yellow rope behind his back, and he still had nothing on his body but his jeans and shoes. &ldquo;Tai!&rdquo; Mike cried, instinctively trying to stand and run to his friend. The cuffs foiled him easily. &ldquo;Nhn! Wh-what&rsquo;ve you done to him?&rdquo; <br />\tThe tiger grunted and looked down at the tawny, shirtless pup. &ldquo;Him? Nothing.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;We barely touched him,&rdquo; said the bull-dog. &ldquo;When you passed out, he just gave up. Hasn&rsquo;t said a word.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t get anything outta him.&rdquo; The tiger shrugged. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be alright though. He&rsquo;s just having a little breakdown. It happens. You get over it.&rdquo;<br />\tMike gawped at him. &ldquo;G-get over it?!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;The other people I&rsquo;ve &lsquo;napped usually have.&rdquo; He shrugged again. &ldquo;Most, anyway.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Wh-what? Why did you do this?! Who are you?&rdquo; <br />\tPulling over another stool, the tiger sat. &ldquo;Right to business. We&rsquo;ll get along fine.&rdquo;<br />\tWhen the tiger sat, Mike glimpsed something behind him. He frowned and stared hard at the figure in the corner, a few feet from Tai, watching the sleeping fox-kit. He was in street clothes, with a heavy black and gray hoodie. Even though it was indoors, his hood was up. So far, he had just stood there, staying mysteriously silent. Studying Tai intently.<br />\t&ldquo;Hey, Mikey,&rdquo; the tiger laughed, snapping a pair of fingers in front of Mike&rsquo;s face. &ldquo;Pay attention. Now, you know what your daddy does for a living, don&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;What?&rdquo; <br />\tMarco rolled his eyes. &ldquo;You know who your daddy works for, don&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; he said slowly.<br />\tMike blinked listlessly at the looming adult. &ldquo;Who he&hellip;? O-oh.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Yeah. Now do you know what he does for them?&rdquo; <br />\tThe kit shook his head, confused. He really didn&rsquo;t.<br />\t&ldquo;Your daddy looks after all the little CIA rats in this area,&rdquo; Marco explained patiently. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s their controller. That means he knows who they all are. Or he knows someone who knows. When they&rsquo;re in trouble, they all scrabble back to their little holes. So he&rsquo;ll know where that is &ndash; we&rsquo;d like to get them out of our fur.&rdquo;<br />\tThe bark-furred kit just looked at the huge adult, utterly bewildered. &ldquo;B-but why have you taken us!?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Cuz we think you know who they are.&rdquo; The tiger smirked. &ldquo;And you&rsquo;re going to be a good boy and help us.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I-I have no idea!!&rdquo; Mike screeched, eyes wide. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re kidding, right?! I only found out what he does two weeks ago!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Think you do.&rdquo; Marco leaned forward and rubbed his giant paws together. &ldquo;Think &lsquo;bout all the other furs he knows. Anyone suspicious. Tell us about &lsquo;em, and we&rsquo;ll check it out. We&rsquo;ve got time.&rdquo;<br />\tIncredulous, Mike just gawped at him. There was no way he could be serious. But the tiger was shooting a nonchalant smile at him, as if nothing was out of the ordinary at all.<br />\tThere was a hoarse cough from the other side of the room, and the hooded figure shifted. &ldquo;Let me speak to him, Marco.&rdquo;<br />\tThe tiger frowned and looked over his shoulder. &ldquo;You sure? I can handle this.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;You can have my leftovers.&rdquo; The figure shuffled over, putting a cigarette to his shadowed muzzle and inhaling deeply. His voice was soft, but almost growl-like. Slightly gravelly, yet somehow oddly youthful. &ldquo;C&rsquo;mon man, let me have some fun.&rdquo;<br />\tMarco&rsquo;s expression became confused. &ldquo;Alright,&rdquo; he eventually assented, hauling his gigantic frame to his paws. Whoever this new fur was, Marco dwarfed him. &ldquo;Your call.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Yeah. Give me a few minutes with them.&rdquo; <br />\tNow Marco really looked baffled. &ldquo;Uhh&hellip; you sure?&rdquo; <br />\tThe hooded figure nodded, exhaling a thick cloud of smoke. <br />\tShrugging at his bull-dog friend, Marco made his way to the huge rusted door, and the canine followed. With an easy jerk of his massive arm, the door swung open, but the tiger paused to look suspiciously back at the smaller fur. After a brief moment, he slipped out and shut the door with surprising gentleness. <br />\tMike frowned up at the covered face, but he could make out shockingly little. Not only was the hood quite low, steeping the features beneath it in shadow, but the protruding cigarette was blinding him with its irritating smoke. A tickle was starting in the back of his throat.<br />\t&ldquo;God, I&rsquo;ve fuckin&rsquo; waited so long for this,&rdquo; the figure sighed at last. <br />\t&ldquo;Wh-who are you?&rdquo; Mike said, before a vicious paroxysm of coughing overtook him. <br />\tChuckling darkly, the figure dropped the cigarette butt to the floor and crushed it out, before lifting his paws up and adroitly knocking his oversized hood back. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t met.&rdquo; <br />\tStill coughing, Mike tried to look up. &ldquo;Yeah, well a-all good things must come to an end,&rdquo; he choked out unconvincingly, trying to sound at least a little confident. Trying to hide the fear that was slowly mounting with his usual flippant defiance. Immediately he wondered why his stupid tongue had spat that out. Luckily, the new fur didn&rsquo;t punch him in the face as the kit expected. Instead he just chuckled darkly.<br />\tIt was a wolf, Mike eventually saw. One with a stormy gray fur on his muzzle, and a slightly amused expression. He seemed younger than the others. Much younger; Jake&rsquo;s age. &ldquo;Nice one,&rdquo; he complimented, taking the recently vacated stool in front of Mike. &ldquo;Seriously though, don&rsquo;t piss me off, kid. That&rsquo;d just be a bad idea. You have no idea who you&rsquo;re fuckin&rsquo; with.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Wh-who are you?&rdquo; repeated Mike, blinking the tears from his stinging eyes. The smoke was horribly acrid, and it still lingered around them. The smell was wafting over to him from what seemed to be the wolf&rsquo;s very fur and clothing too. It was not something Mike was used to.<br />\t&ldquo;That ain&rsquo;t important to you right now.&rdquo; The wolf sighed and looked back at Tai&rsquo;s limp form. His expression twisted into a sneer. &ldquo;Marco tends to take awhile to get to the fuckin&rsquo; point, so let&rsquo;s make this fast.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;B-but I don&rsquo;t know anything! I swear!&rdquo; <br />\tThe wolf reached over and whipped the blue tarpaulin cover off one of the nearby trolleys. <br />\tOn the three-tiered workman&rsquo;s trolley were a variety of things. Mike frowned as he looked at first, but eventually his eyes jacked open to maximum width. There were scalpels, soldering irons, and even gardening implements; there was also a gigantic bolt-cutter that looked capable of crunching its way through anything it could fit around&hellip; like perhaps an arm. <br />\t&ldquo;Oh&hellip; shit&hellip;&rdquo; whimpered Mike. His stomach knotted painfully and he felt himself become lightheaded immediately. &ldquo;No&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Yeah. This is why you&rsquo;re going to tell us, Mikey.&rdquo; The wolf shrugged. &ldquo;When we get started, it&rsquo;s not you I&rsquo;mma be using them on.&rdquo; He smirked evilly and gestured down at the floor behind him. &ldquo;Him.&rdquo;<br />\tMike shook his head in alarm. &ldquo;No, don&rsquo;t!&rdquo; he pleaded. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t do that! I&rsquo;ll tell you what I can, but I swear I don&rsquo;t know anything!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Every hour you don&rsquo;t give me a name, I might use my little friend there,&rdquo; the wolf pointed briefly at the bolt-cutters, &ldquo;to take off one of Tai&rsquo;s fingers and toes. Or maybe something else. Use your imagination.&rdquo;<br />\tMike fixed him with a petrified stare, and the yellow eyes that met his were coldly determined. He almost wet himself. Suddenly, all doubt that the wolf would do what he said vanished, along with whatever little fake confidence Mike could cling to.<br />\tThere was absolutely no compassion in those eyes. Not one hint that he wouldn&rsquo;t do precisely as he said.<br />\t&ldquo;Oh yeah, and when we&rsquo;re done, Marco&rsquo;s taken an interest in you. He won&rsquo;t be as gentle as that fuckin&rsquo; ferret. He&rsquo;d probably want the other brat too; a missing arm or leg don&rsquo;t really bother him.&rdquo; The wolf&rsquo;s expression was absolutely straight. <br />\t&ldquo;Why&hellip; why are you doing this?&rdquo; Mike whispered. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you. Don&rsquo;t hurt us! Please, I just wanna go home.&rdquo;<br />\tThe wolf paused, looking thoughtful. &ldquo;Hm&hellip; nope, I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s on the cards.&rdquo; He laughed. &ldquo;Come on, why would I go through all of the trouble to invite you little shits here if I wasn&rsquo;t going to have some fun with you?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;You&rsquo;re crazy!&rdquo; Mike felt faint with horror. &ldquo;Please leave us alone! Don&rsquo;t do this to us! Shit! Why us? Why not just my dad? I don&rsquo;t understand!&rdquo;<br />\tThe wolf sniffed and scratched his neck. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll get to him. When we start, you know, mailing bits of you both back to him, he&rsquo;ll tell us anything we want.&rdquo; He showed his yellowed teeth in a harsh grin. &ldquo;Maybe. His bosses might not let him, and in that case you&rsquo;re fucked, kid. They&rsquo;ll be searching the Hudson for you for the next ten years. It&rsquo;ll be tough, since they&rsquo;ll have to find all the different bits. Probably just call it quits when they get most of you. Better hope your dad does what we want, or you&rsquo;re gonna die, kid.&rdquo; <br />\tThe wolf twisted slightly and eyed the motionless fox-boy on the floor. There was a moment where the wolf seemed to freeze. He just stared at Tai, deep in thought all of a sudden.<br />\tSomething was very wrong, Mike realized. There was something he was missing. He gazed at the wolf for some time, trying to place it. Trying not to look at the trolley.<br />\t&ldquo;The fuck you staring at?&rdquo; The wolf continued to observe Tai. <br />\tMike swallowed weakly. &ldquo;Why are you doing this?&rdquo; he quavered, a begging note in his small voice. &ldquo;Really. We don&rsquo;t know anything.&rdquo; <br />\tThe wolf snickered darkly. &ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s obvious then. Game&rsquo;s over. You know what? I just want to kill you.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Why?! We don&rsquo;t know you.&rdquo; Mike frowned, and his eyes widened in incredulity. &ldquo;A-are you-? Is your name &lsquo;Darren&rsquo; or something?&rdquo;<br />\tThe pause this time was ominous. But the wolf started to laugh. &ldquo;Damn, you&rsquo;re sharp for a kid,&rdquo; he chuckled. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s &lsquo;Darron&rsquo;. My mom couldn&rsquo;t spell real good.&rdquo; <br />\t Mike blinked, utterly stunned. This was the wolf, the teenager, who had threatened Tai on his first day of school here in New York? That made no sense.<br />\t&ldquo;Those guys, they&rsquo;re muscle-bound idiots.&rdquo; Darron stood and stretched. &ldquo;What went right over their heads, a little kid got in seconds. Of course you don&rsquo;t know shit. But even muscle-bound morons are good for something.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Th-then why-?!&rdquo; The bark-furred kit twisted and pulled at the handcuffs futilely, and all he managed to do was have the cold steel bite deeper into his wrists. Darron looked behind the chair and checked them.<br />\t&ldquo;Hm. Had to put those on their tightest setting, but I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;re getting out.&rdquo; He grinned maliciously. &ldquo;If they pinch, too bad. Get used to it.&rdquo; <br />\tSome tinny music, rap of some kind, started to play, seemingly from the wolf&rsquo;s pocket. With a sigh, he retrieved his small, silver phone and struck the answer key.<br />\t&ldquo;What?&rdquo; he growled. There was a pause while whoever it is responded.<br />\t&ldquo;Help - we&rsquo;ve been kidnapped!&rdquo; Mike yelled, leaning forwards in his chair to get closer to the device in the wolf&rsquo;s paws. &ldquo;Help!&rdquo; <br />\tWithout changing expression, Darron bent down and punched the fox boy in the stomach. &ldquo;Yeah, don&rsquo;t worry, it&rsquo;s just one of the kids I got &lsquo;napped,&rdquo; he said nonchalantly. &ldquo;Down in the storerooms. Yeah.&rdquo;<br />\tWinded, pained and tasting acid in the back of his throat, Mike gawped in despair at the teenager. <br />\t&ldquo;Alright, fuck sake, I&rsquo;ll be up soon.&rdquo; Sighing, Darron placed the phone back in his pocket. &ldquo;Afraid I have to leave you pussies for now.&rdquo; He opened his hooded jacket, adjusting what seemed to be a gray muscle shirt. Mike stared in disbelief: there was a handgun tucked into the side of the teen&rsquo;s waistband.<br />\tThis was just insane. Had they really been kidnapped by gang members?! Or what&hellip;? What was going on?!<br />\tGrumbling incoherently to himself, Darron strode to the heavy metal door and yanked it open. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t go anywhere,&rdquo; he taunted the handcuffed boy, before slipping past the portal and deliberately slamming the monstrously heavy door shut with a bang.<br />\tMike stared impotently at the door. <br />\t&ldquo;No way&hellip;&rdquo; he whimpered to himself. A minute of incredulous staring later, he looked down at the motionless tawny boy on the ground. &ldquo;Tai! Tai, can you hear me? Wake up! Please!&rdquo;<br />\tThere was nothing from the small kit. No response at all. He seemed to be asleep; or dead. Mike couldn&rsquo;t tell. <br />\t Mike sniffed and hung his head. &ldquo;Tai? Please wake up. Come on&hellip; please.&rdquo;<br />\tMinutes passed. Maybe even hours. Mike had no way of knowing. No clock, no windows; he wasn&rsquo;t even sure if it was day or night. There was nothing.<br />\tJust the dirty concrete walls of a mostly empty, grimy storeroom, and a flickering, nausea-inducing strip of light on the ceiling.<br />\t&ldquo;Dad&hellip;&rdquo; Mike sniffled, tears welling up quickly. The true nature of the situation slowly started to come to him. He might never see his father again. This could be his last week alive - and they were going to kill Tai if he couldn&rsquo;t give them information they knew he didn&rsquo;t have. They were both going to be tortured to death worse than any movie or even website that he had ever seen had portrayed; he couldn&rsquo;t even bring himself to look at the tray mere feet to his side.<br />\tHe closed his stinging eyes and tried to stop the inevitable crying fit that he knew was coming. &ldquo;Shiiiiit!&rdquo; he wailed, scrunching his eyes shut and starting to sob pitiably. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wanna die!&rdquo; His eyes filled with tears and within moments he was hiccoughing pathetically, unable to stop it. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wanna die! I w-wanna see dad again! I can&rsquo;t&hellip; what the hell&hellip; is going&hellip;?&rdquo;<br />\tIt was hopeless. He cried himself dry, until his stomach hurt and his chest ached, and he just seemed to have no more tears to give; no more energy to cry. Eventually he slumped in the chair, listless, listening with splayed ears to what little activity he could hear from beyond the heavy door; only snatches of sentences, muffled through walls, or the occasional sound of footsteps. It wasn&rsquo;t until he heard movement from right by him that he bothered to raise his head. <br />A pair of vacant and unfocused eyes, the color of verdant leaves, gazed up at him.<br />Tai had rolled over and was staring blankly at him. There was no way of knowing how long he had been looking at him. &ldquo;&hellip;Mike?&rdquo; whispered the tawny kit at last. <br />\tMike almost fainted. &ldquo;Tai!! Oh man&hellip; are y-you okay? Tai?&rdquo; <br />\tTai blinked and tried to sit up. It was an effort, with his wrists bound behind him like they were. He struggled into a sitting position and continued to dazedly stare at his friend. <br />\t&ldquo;Tai, are you&hellip; can you hear me? Are you alright?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Y-yeah.&rdquo; Tai nodded and pulled himself shakily to his knees. His breathing was coming faster and faster. &ldquo;I c-can...&rdquo; Abruptly, the kit doubled over and threw up. It wasn&rsquo;t much, but the fluid burned his throat and spattered on the concrete. After it had passed as suddenly as it had come, he fell sideways, gasping. <br />\tMike stared at him in dismay. &ldquo;Oh crap! Tai?!&rdquo;<br />\tNo response. The kit wordlessly got to his knees again, breathing hoarsely. But then he collapsed dizzily to his backside.<br />\tTaking a deep breath, Tai struggled to focus.<br />\tHe had never been so horrified. When he saw the kidnappers burst into the apartment and so viciously dispatch both Mike and Jake, there had been a rush of images and memories. <br />Of his mom. Then a gun at his own head. His mother&rsquo;s blood on his own paws. A familiar corpse on a table in a hospital. His father&rsquo;s simple coffin. An incredible feeling of dread and sickness, so sure that he was going to lose someone else&hellip; <br />\tAnd he&rsquo;d just shut down. It was too much for him to take.<br />\tNow he was awake, but trapped in a concrete prison. <br />\tStill feeling weak, he fell to his side again and laid still. He tried to steady his breathing, calm down a little. Now he wished he was still in that dulling stupor.<br />\tHe could remember, as if in a distant dream, that Darron was here. That was just&hellip; it made no sense. His entire body clenched and he fought off another burst of nausea. This couldn&rsquo;t be happening. He knew he should be panicking but he couldn&rsquo;t bring himself to feel anything. It was like a dream &ndash; a nightmare he just oddly didn&rsquo;t seem to care about right now. The concrete right in front of his face had already blurred into a meaningless gray mass. He was just too dazed; this had to be a&hellip; <br />\t&ldquo;Tai? Tai!&rdquo; Mike pulled on his chair, and scraped a few inches forward. &ldquo;Are you still awake? Don&rsquo;t go to sleep again, please!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m here&hellip;&rdquo; mumbled the topless cub. &ldquo;W-where are we?&rdquo; He asked, more out of needing something to listen to, something to focus on than out of desire to really know.<br />\tMike swallowed and sniffed. &ldquo;I-I dunno!&rdquo; he said loudly. &ldquo;It could be a f-factory or something, I&rsquo;m not sure. Tai did you hear what that w-wolf said? We have to get out of here! They&hellip; they&rsquo;re gonna&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I-I know&hellip;&rdquo; Again the tawny kit shifted around to look at his friend. <br />\t&ldquo;D-d&rsquo;ya know why? Why is Darron here? Wasn&rsquo;t he just a school bully? He&rsquo;s got a g-gun in his pants, Tai! Who has a gun in their pants?!&rdquo;<br />\tSlowly, almost painstakingly, Tai shook his head. He didn&rsquo;t understand either.<br />\t&ldquo;What&rsquo;s going on?&rdquo; wailed Mike, struggling slightly with his handcuffs. The look he fixed Tai with was horrible. The brown-furred kit&rsquo;s eyes were wide with terror and confusion; Tai really hated seeing him like that. It was just so wrong. &ldquo;Tai, don&rsquo;t you know anything?!&rdquo;<br />\tAgain Tai had to shake his head. He felt sick again. Darron wanted him, but he had taken Mike too. It wasn&rsquo;t fair. Mike shouldn&rsquo;t have to be hurt for being Tai&rsquo;s friend. <br />\tNo, Mike should&rsquo;ve stayed away from him. The way Tai&rsquo;s other friends learned to do. Tai knew he was bad luck &ndash; he always attracted people like Darron to him. Brought them down on his friends too, before they learned. Before he drove them away. Now he wished he&rsquo;d driven Mike away too.<br />\tThe cub felt a peculiar wrenching sensation as he looked at Mike&rsquo;s wild eyes. Mike was going to be hurt, because of him. Tai couldn&rsquo;t lose another fur that meant so much to him. Not Mike. That would just be the most horrible thing ever. He loved him&hellip; <br />\tFor several minutes, he just looked blankly at the distressed older boy. His best friend ever. It was his fault, wasn&rsquo;t it? It was because of Tai that Mike was&hellip;<br />Blinking back tears, Tai started to slowly twist and move, passing his paws under his legs, then up in front of him as he lay on the ground until his tied wrists were at his front.<br />\tMike gaped at him as he stood, stumbling. &ldquo;Tai?&rdquo; <br />\tThe kit leaned against the trolley, his wrists now in front of him. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s get out of here.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;H-how?!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;W-we&rsquo;ll think of something. We&rsquo;re going home. I-It&rsquo;s not going to happen, I won&rsquo;t let it.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Tai?&rdquo; The bark-furred boy looked at him in confusion. There was something odd here. Tai&rsquo;s demeanor was unusual; it wasn&rsquo;t that he appeared confident &ndash; rather, he seemed strangely driven all of a sudden. Almost mechanically so. The tawny fox stood straight up and his formerly dazed expression was replaced now with one of preternatural focus.<br />\tTai looked around the room, taking in what he could. There was only one entrance to the room, which was the thick iron door. The room&rsquo;s actual purpose was something of a mystery; it looked like a storage room, but it was almost empty. It had probably been emptied specifically so it could be used as a makeshift prison cell.<br />\tThey were alone, but Tai wasn&rsquo;t stupid enough to think there weren&rsquo;t guards right outside that door.<br />\tThe contents of the makeshift jail-cell were a wheeled tool trolley holding what appeared to be a random collection of paraphernalia and tools; another trolley, still covered by a tarpaulin; a few thin rusted iron pipes that were about six foot tall long, splintered and flaking, leaned against the filthy, stained wall; and the stools.<br />\tOn the wall opposite the door was a ventilation shaft, but the opening was blocked with a rusted wire mesh. It also wasn&rsquo;t big enough for even Tai to fit his shoulders through. Tai narrowed his eyes at it speculatively.<br />\t&ldquo;T-Tai?&rdquo; wavered Mike, curious. &ldquo;What the heck are you up to?&rdquo;<br />\tTai walked back over to the covered trolley and pushed it over to the rusted door. He slowly and quietly maneuvered the wheeled table up against the metal surface. To push the door open, they&rsquo;d have to knock the heavy trolley to the side. Tai wasn&rsquo;t sure, since he knew he was small himself, but he didn&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;d be an easy chore. <br />\tThen he strode over to the other trolley, stopping to look closely at the thin, yellow rope around his wrists. The edges of the trolley were blunt, and the rope was tight.<br />\tBut there was that gigantic pair of bolt-cutters. Luckily, they had bound his slender arms together rather than crossed over at the wrists &ndash; he still had the dexterity to take a hold of things.<br />\tHe attempted to lift the oversized tool, but the weight was surprising and he almost dropped it. Resting the plastic insulted handles on the ground and holding them in place with his skinny legs, he placed his wrists at the tip of the blade, and pushed downwards. The tip of the blade barely did anything to the strong synthetic rope.<br />\tTai frowned, clumsily manipulating the handles with his legs to open the cutters&rsquo; jaws, and placed the knot pinning his wrists together into it. He used his leg to pull the handles together again, starting to saw and pick at the ropes with the sharp metal. <br />The process took time, and the cumbersome tool almost fell to the concrete several times, but at last he felt the rope slacken. The cinch came undone and the frayed mess the knot had become fell apart as he vigorously ripped his paws out of there. <br />\t&ldquo;Nice!&rdquo; Mike exulted quietly.<br />\tTai didn&rsquo;t pause to congratulate himself. He darted behind Mike&rsquo;s chair and knelt down. Mike&rsquo;s arms were handcuffed behind the back of the wooden chair; they encircled Mike&rsquo;s wrists quite effectively, though they did seem to be on the tightest possible setting. That probably explained the rope&hellip; if something could barely wrap around Mike&rsquo;s arms, Tai would be able to slip out without even noticing it. <br />\tThis was bad. Rope was one thing, but steel handcuffs were a totally different matter. Tai took the bolt cutters up again, going behind Mike&rsquo;s back. It felt like he was carrying an anvil &ndash; the cutters were just too heavy for him; each limb was as long as his forearm. He gasped and grunted as he tried to maneuver into position. It had been hard enough to hold the stupid thing on the ground with his legs and saw apart a knot&hellip;<br />\t&ldquo;Tai?&rdquo; the older boy enquired. &ldquo;What are you gonna do?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m gonna cut them&hellip;&rdquo; Tai said, uncertainly. &ldquo;Unless you can get out?&rdquo;<br />\tMike twisted his wrists and grunted. &ldquo;Ah! No. It hurts.&rdquo; <br />\tAlmost immediately, he felt Tai place the cutters on the chain &ndash; rather, he nearly dropped them onto the chain. After a pause while the kit gathered himself, there was a loud, metallic snap. Tai let out a hiss and repositioned the tool. &ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t go through,&rdquo; he huffed. &ldquo;It slid off. I&rsquo;ll- I&rsquo;ll try again.&rdquo;<br />\tTai steeled himself and tried to close the levers together. He strained and panted against the safety spring that fought his efforts, his arms going numb and starting to shake. After well over a minute of incredible effort, his knees actually buckled and he let out a defeated whimper. &ldquo;Unnhh! M-Mike!&rdquo; he sobbed, struggling to hold the oversized cutters in place. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not strong enough! I can&rsquo;t do it!&rdquo; He knelt down, feeling that odd, alien determination start to seep out of him, replaced by familiar cold self-disappointment. <br />\t&ldquo;You gotta keep trying!&rdquo; encouraged Mike, straining against the cuffs some more. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll get it eventually. You can do it.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t&hellip;&rdquo; The tawny kit sniffed. Tai swallowed and lowered the tool to the ground. His entire body had gone rubbery all of a sudden. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not strong enough, Mike&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\tMike growled quietly at him. &ldquo;Well, think! C-c&rsquo;mon Tai, you&rsquo;ve done so well so far!! You&rsquo;re smart! You can do it!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;B-but-!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;You can do it, I know you can. So get goin&rsquo;! You&rsquo;ll definitely never get it done if you just give up!&rdquo;<br />\tAfter a confused moment, Tai nodded. &ldquo;O-okay. Alright.&rdquo; He looked closer at the handcuffs. The chain holding them together was slender, constructed of many links of shiny metal. The kit frowned, gripping the bolt-cutters again.<br />\tIt was phenomenally difficult now, but he slowly lifted the tool up, and lowered it in such a way the tip of a blade slipped into one of the slender links. He pushed downwards, jamming the sharp edge as deeply into the space as he could, before lowering the handles and straddling them. Mike winced as the weight of the cutters caused the cuffs to dig deeper into his wrists. <br />\t&ldquo;Ow! Careful!&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Sorry. H-hold on&hellip;&rdquo; The tawny kit drew in a deep breath, his muscles shuddering from exertion. If he could snap the side of just one link in the chain... maybe&hellip;<br />\tSuppressing a weak groan, Tai pulled the bottom handle upwards. The rubber handle pressed painfully into his groin, and he almost gave a pained outcry. His body&rsquo;s shaking started to rise in intensity until he juddered uncontrollably. It took only several seconds, but they were several painful seconds. <br />Finally, there was a violent crack, and Mike felt a vibration travel right down his arms. &ldquo;You got it!&rdquo; He slipped out of the chair and stood, almost falling over. His knees were weak and for some reason his chest hurt a little. When he looked back, Tai was picking himself off the floor. He&rsquo;d stumbled to his backside.<br />\t&ldquo;A-are you okay?&rdquo; Tai asked, winded. &ldquo;Mike?&rdquo;<br />\tMike nodded. He reckoned he was still hurt &ndash; the tiger hadn&rsquo;t been gentle at all with him, and Darron had punched him very hard too. &ldquo;Now to get out of this room.&rdquo; He looked down at the sturdy circles of metal around his wrists. &ldquo;Wait, maybe on the thing&hellip;&rdquo; <br />\tHe quickly searched the trolley, upending a few of the items on its tray. Some of it was regular household equipment. Gardening implements, tools&hellip; it made Mike&rsquo;s blood run cold just to look at it all. <br />They had to get out of here. <br />\t&ldquo;What are you doing?&rdquo; The tawny kit was busy looking around, evidently trying to figure out what to do next and trying to catch his breath. <br />\t&ldquo;Looking to see if they left a key.&rdquo; He hissed in disappointment, trying to shift the tight cuffs still pinching his wrists. &ldquo;Guess not. Ow.&rdquo; <br />\tTai was frowning at the rusted grille of the air duct. &ldquo;That&hellip;&rdquo; he pointed. <br />\t&ldquo;Huh?&rdquo; Mike shook his head. &ldquo;No way&hellip; we couldn&rsquo;t fit. It&rsquo;s just too small.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not gonna go through it&hellip;&rdquo; The shirtless fox-boy picked up the bolt-cutters and tried to lift them with his shaking paws. &ldquo;Is this heavy for you?&rdquo;<br />\tBaffled, Mike took it. &ldquo;Yeah&hellip; kinda&hellip;&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Can you throw it at the grate? Or whatever it is? Hard?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Uh, I can try&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\tTai nodded, pushing the trolley quietly towards the grille. &ldquo;After, run behind the door...&rdquo; He jogged over to the spot on the side of the door he had in mind. &ldquo;Here. We&rsquo;ll make a break for it!&rdquo;<br />\tMike looked unconvinced. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re gonna pull the old &lsquo;hide behind the door&rsquo; trick?!&rdquo; he asked, shaking his head. This wasn&rsquo;t going to work. They&rsquo;d be caught before they even got out of the room. <br />\t&ldquo;Is there anything better?&rdquo; Tai asked reasonably. Their voices were hushed; someone could be right next to the door, listening in already for all they knew. <br />\t&ldquo;No&hellip; I guess not. But we don&rsquo;t even know how many are out there! We could run right into twenty of them.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I know! Throw it anyway!&rdquo;<br />\tGritting his sharp teeth, Mike swung the massive tool around and heaved it over his shoulders at the grille. It hurtled through the air, and Mike actually felt disappointed at his throw. The oversized bolt-cutters were shockingly heavy, and his best efforts had only made it sort of tumble through the air in a manner best described as &lsquo;reluctantly.&rsquo;<br />\tRegardless, when it struck the grille, the noise was incredible. It was almost explosive, resounding up the air duct, each echo louder than the last.<br />\tThe duct-covering was torn from the wall and thrown backwards into the duct itself, and the bolt-cutters fell to the trolley below with a loud bang. Mike saw Tai let loose a silent &ldquo;yes!&rdquo; as he was making his way to join the smaller kit behind the door. They both ducked down by the trolley Tai had placed there.<br />\tIt took a few moments, but the door suddenly rattled and was shoved open. It smashed right into the heavy trolley and barely moved. A few of the more precariously placed tools fell noisily off the top tray. A leopard in a long-sleeved white shirt and black pants grunted and pushed at the door again, finally able to squeeze through a small gap. He didn&rsquo;t look behind the door or trolley, for his eyes alighted immediately on the smashed open air-duct on the far wall, and the trolley beneath it. <br />\t&ldquo;What the fuck?!&rdquo; he gasped in dismay, running over to it. &ldquo;No fuckin&rsquo; way!&rdquo;<br />\tIncredulously, he spun around. The room was empty.<br />\tThey must&rsquo;ve&hellip; no way! It may&rsquo;ve looked too small for them to sneak through, but then he knew he was no expert when it came to kits. Maybe they weren&rsquo;t as big as he remembered. They must&rsquo;ve&hellip;<br />\t&ldquo;Shit!&rdquo; he blurted, dashing back to the small desk with the tiny television out in the cold corridor, where he&rsquo;d been stationed to guard the storage room. <br />\tWhen he got there, he froze up. His cell-phone was no longer resting on the corner of his rusty desk. What kind of time was it for him to have lost his god-damn phone?!<br />\tThe leopard paused. <br />He couldn&rsquo;t have lost his phone. He was using it just before the crashing sound. It had been on the desk. He was sure of it.<br />\tA sinking feeling came upon him.<br />\tIt wasn&rsquo;t possible. No way.<br />\tThe leopard knew he could never live this down &ndash; he had just been fooled by a pair of children.<br />\tEven worse: they had used the old &ldquo;hide behind the door&rdquo; trick on him. <br />And it had worked.<br />\t<br />\tThey were in a warehouse. Hundreds of stacked boxes, cardboard and wooden, stacked high or nestled on heavy load-bearing shelves, towered far over their heads. <br />\t&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe that worked!&rdquo; gasped Mike, feeling oddly ecstatic as they slinked along, trying to keep their footfalls light and quiet on the dirty concrete.<br />\tTai was truly amazing, he realized. The trolley barricading the door, combined with the distraction of the damaged grille&hellip; the adult had immediately jumped to the conclusion that they&rsquo;d escaped that way and didn&rsquo;t look around properly when he entered the room. Tai had gambled on his reactions, and it paid off. They had totally outsmarted an adult.<br />\t&ldquo;Where are we?&rdquo; Tai whispered as they crept along, his angular ears perked and glancing around nervously. &ldquo;I smell seawater.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re at the docks.&rdquo; Mike pressed his back up to a crate and peeked around it. &ldquo;At least, I hope so. The alternatives would really suck.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Like what?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Like, a ship in the middle of the ocean. Though I guess there&rsquo;d be more metal if it was&hellip; I dunno.&rdquo; Mike shivered. If he was wrong, they were screwed. The New York docks they could escape from, but not a ship. He was a confident swimmer, but there was a limit.<br />\tThe warehouse was large but cramped, and the high walls were constructed of dull, pock-marked concrete. Though it was a huge, rectangular building with no internal walls, the dozens of metal shelves, some roughly fifteen feet high and filled with heavy crates and sealed boxes, essentially created neatly laid out aisles, almost like a massive grocery store. It was through these aisles they crept, looking for a way out.<br />\tAs they thought, they had been in a storage room towards the back, a few corridors away from what seemed to be an office. Thankfully, the office had been empty and their one guard had been left back in their makeshift cell. Their luck was holding: the door into the corridors had been lockable via deadbolt from the inside of the warehouse, probably to keep burglars from breaking into the office and moving freely into the warehouse or storerooms. Mike made sure to employ it. Their supposed jailor had been locked in, without any way of calling for help.<br />\tAs yet, they hadn&rsquo;t encountered another soul. Soft voices were echoing throughout the warehouse however, and there was clearly some activity. Fluorescent lights on the ceiling were turned on. They were not alone.<br />\tNot far from them there was a metal staircase up against the dirty wall. It led to the walkways above, and at the first landing was a promising sight. A door. <br />A thick, red fire door nearly twenty feet up and along the walkway.<br />\t&ldquo;Is that the way out?&rdquo; Tai asked hopefully. <br />\tMike bit his lip. &ldquo;C&rsquo;mon&hellip;&rdquo; He snuck forwards. &ldquo;Look, Tai. The docks are a big place. We&rsquo;ve got a ways to go I think before we&rsquo;re out. Gimme the phone? We&rsquo;ll use it when we&rsquo;re out of here. They might hear us otherwise.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Alright. I&rsquo;ll follow you.&rdquo; Tai withdrew the small plastic object they&rsquo;d prudently filched from the table in front of their cell and gave it to Mike, who pocketed it without breaking stride. <br />\tThe tawny kit sighed quietly. He was more than happy to relinquish leadership, so to speak, to the older boy.<br />\tMike stopped at the steps. &ldquo;Damn&hellip;&rdquo; he said quietly, looking around. There didn&rsquo;t seem to be an alternative; at least not one he could see, and he didn&rsquo;t want to move any closer to those muffled voices. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s go! Crouch down!&rdquo; <br />\tThey mounted the stairs quickly, crouching low.<br />Shaking from the cool air that blew over his shirtless body, Tai took the time to look over the warehouse warily. Between the tall aisles and in clearings here and there, roughly a dozen furs were quietly moving closed crates, or appraising the contents of ones they&rsquo;d pried open. The kit still couldn&rsquo;t make out what was in any of the containers, but at least the adults were focusing on their jobs rather than looking at the fire escapes. Occasionally, they&rsquo;d stop to chat with one another. He saw at least one forklift and several loaded pallet-jacks between some of the shelves.<br />It was an odd scene, Tai thought. Some of them were quite well dressed, suits and everything, businesslike, but others looked like common dock-workers &ndash; similar to the workers and fishermen he saw often in Alaska. The crates they were opening were not very big, made from thick slats of sturdy wood, and they seemed to be looking for specific ones, taking them towards the center of the warehouse on those jacks.<br />At this distance, it was hard to see, but Tai spotted a few small red ribbons on the crates they were selecting. He had to wonder what was in all of them.<br />Mike shoved at the door, and it opened a few inches, but he was thrust backwards and nearly thrown under the high hand-rails when the incredibly heavy door&rsquo;s springs forced it closed again &ndash; knocking his small body away like a pillow. &ldquo;Shit!&rdquo; he squeaked, catching the railing.<br />\tThe yellow-painted strip of metal clanged noisily when he did. Resounding along its entire length. A few heads snapped up from their jobs in the warehouse. The kits&rsquo; hearts froze: they were in full view of at least several of the suspicious grownups.<br />\t&ldquo;Holy-!&rdquo; one of them yelled. &ldquo;Stop them! Hey!&rdquo;<br />\tMike cursed again. &ldquo;C&rsquo;mon!&rdquo; he cried at Tai, slamming right into the door again. This time he managed to open it enough for them both to squeeze through, and he and Tai burst out onto a metal platform and into the cool darkness of night.<br />\tThey were on a noisy steel walkway that encircled the warehouse. Tai quickly looked around and realized they were now about twenty feet off the ground, on a fire-escape - a metal walkway that was essentially an extension of the stairs they had climbed, wrapped around the outer wall of the warehouse.<br />\tHe saw immediately that Mike wasn&rsquo;t kidding about the sheer size of the docks. They were in the middle of a huge industrial complex, and off to one side Tai could see nothing but rippling, murky water that stretched on and on to the misty horizon. There were other warehouses, huge shipping containers of sturdy metal, trucks, expanses of dull concrete and hundreds of bright floodlights on lofty poles&hellip; he couldn&rsquo;t even see any hint of the edge of the complex with the many enormous buildings blocking his view.<br />\t&ldquo;Oh, crap!&rdquo; he whined, gripping the handrail. &ldquo;How are we gonna get out of here?!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Tai! Come on! Don&rsquo;t stop!&rdquo; Mike bolted along the walkway. Tai could hear many heavy paws coming up the stairs on the other side of the fire door, and he quickly took off after the older kit. The warehouse was quite long and it took them twenty seconds of flat out running just to reach the end of the walkway. <br />\tThey hurried down some more stairs, naturally made of more noisily clanging metal, until they jumped the last few steps and landed on concrete. Tai almost tripped, stumbling to his hands and knees with a panicked scream. <br />&ldquo;Come on!&rdquo; Mike yelped, accelerating away as Tai struggled back to his paws. &ldquo;Keep moving!&rdquo;<br />\tThey could hear some furs taking chase along the walkway and crying out to one another. Neither of the kits could bear to look behind. The many footfalls were getting louder, closer, as the adults started to close the gap already.<br />\tWith their breath rasping loudly in their ears, Mike and Tai sprinted along the slightly wet concrete, unsure exactly where their frantic running was taking them. This section of the docks was steeped in impenetrable darkness, and all around them seemed to be concrete, metal and the black and gray nothingness of the night sky, stretching out forever in front of them as they made their way to the water&rsquo;s edge. The rushing sound of the murky water and restless wind that howled in their ears as they ran was almost drowning out the cries of the adults chasing after them.<br />\t&ldquo;This way!&rdquo; Mike gasped, turning and sprinting down the side of yet another warehouse that abutted the waterfront. Not more than a few feet away, just beside a half-open, massive shutter-door that looked to be the building&rsquo;s main entrance, was a small concrete jetty that extended into the water about a dozen paces or so. Mike led them to the very end of it and stopped. &ldquo;We- we&rsquo;ll have to swim!&rdquo; he said urgently. &ldquo;If we keep running, they-they&rsquo;ll catch us eventually! We&rsquo;ll lose them this way!&rdquo;<br />\tTai skidded unsteadily to a halt on the wet concrete, his throat burning from deeply inhaling the frigid night air over and over. He looked in horror at the expanse of water before him.<br />\tChurning waves of seemingly endless black waters, upon which several large vessels floated lifelessly several hundred meters away. The depth of the freezing water was indeterminate, obscured by the darkness of night, with the sky above was heavy with ominous clouds...<br />\tPanic boiled up within him, suddenly making him nauseous and dizzy. The tawny pup backed away from the edge involuntarily and shook his head. &ldquo;I- I can&rsquo;t!&rdquo; His voice shriveled to become almost inaudible and his knees nearly gave. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t swim!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Wh-what?!&rdquo; screeched Mike, looking frightened himself. &ldquo;Yeah you can! It&rsquo;s just water, Tai! We have to!&rdquo; He cast a look back down the pier. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be too late if we don&rsquo;t jump soon!&rdquo;<br />\tTai let out a despairing cry, looking back as well. Their pursuers would soon be rounding the warehouse.<br />If he had been in his right mind, he might have done differently, for better or even worse, but as it was he knew he couldn&rsquo;t jump into that water.<br />\tSo, he turned to Mike with a wild and terrified expression. &ldquo;You go! Go!&rdquo; he yelled, and he shoved the bigger cub. Hard. <br />\tMike was taken by surprise, confused by Tai&rsquo;s behavior, and the push took him right off his paws. He fell the few feet into the water with a yelp of alarm, though he pulled himself quickly into the right position to tread the cold water. &ldquo;Tai?!&rdquo; <br />What the hell was he doing?!<br />\tThe pup had turned and dashed back down the pier &ndash; their hunters bearing down on him. Tai was fast, especially for his age, but a shadowy, grown-up figure intercepted him just as he reached the bottom of the little jetty. <br />\tHowever, Tai jumped to cut the corner, leaping several feet over the drop, and the adult made a wild swiping grab for him, taken aback by the pup&rsquo;s sudden change of direction. The big adult&rsquo;s shoes slipped on the soaking concrete. With a sharp scream, he smacked his head on the rough concrete, and fell down what Tai had leapt over to splash lifelessly into the water.<br />\tWithholding oxygen from his lungs, Mike could barely see Tai avoid another pursuer with his astonishing agility and dash into the open warehouse. His tail trailing in the air behind him. <br />\tOthers followed him, plunging into the dark building after the kit. Tai was distracting them from following Mike. Deliberately or not, he couldn&rsquo;t tell. It was also possible they hadn&rsquo;t spotted Mike falling into the water in the darkness.<br />\tA horrified gasp later, Mike reached into his pocket and tore out the stolen phone, pressing a button on it. The keypad lit up, but the display was indecipherable&mdash; water damaged. Was it working? He sobbed as he looked at it, tiny and plastic in his paw, feeling betrayed. The cub had to bite back a keening wail of despair.<br />\tNow wasn&rsquo;t the time for this. The grownups should have heard the splash as he fell into the water, so they would look here soon! Panting, he looked around, trying to think where to go next. He spotting what appeared to be some kind of drain in the side of the concrete bank. Peering into the murky water, he saw the latticed bars on it didn&rsquo;t extend the entire way down&hellip; maybe some kind of safety precaution in case someone was caught in the drain, he didn&rsquo;t know. It looked like a place to hide.<br />\tHe struck out towards it, diving under the metal barrier to come up the other side, shaking his head to get the foul harbor water off his face. It was warmer there, which wasn&rsquo;t saying much at all. He was already starting to shiver. Even still, it was far better than staying out in the cold, rushing winds.<br />\tThe cell phone in his paws was soaked to pieces, unsurprisingly. But he had to try. Dogged denial made him stab at the keys, twice having to hit the cancel key because he was unsure what the heck he&rsquo;d pressed since the screen was a watery, unreadable mess. His paws were shaking and he couldn&rsquo;t remember the number&hellip; it kept dancing on the tip of his tongue, slipping all over the surface of his brain, so to speak. He&rsquo;d never needed to call it that much&hellip;<br />\tIn his panic, he didn&rsquo;t even consider the simplistic &lsquo;911&rsquo; number.<br />\tAt last he thought he got it keyed in. He pressed the plastic thing to his ear, and strained to hear. <br />\tIt was ringing! The sound was horribly far away and distorted, but it was ringing!!<br /><br />\tRobert sat inertly in the overly-warm office alone, dumbfounded and horrified. Outside jabbering analysts and other assorted workers toiled easily at their humming computers. <br />The news had come to him even as he was in the middle of the &lsquo;meeting.&rsquo; He&rsquo;d been pleading to be allowed to take custody of Eraline&rsquo;s child, and for her savings to be released to a trust fund for him. Robert had a dark suspicion that the C.I.A. had direct access to the late vixen&rsquo;s accounts, and would probably also be withholding her life insurance from the kit if he didn&rsquo;t intervene. Or rather&hellip; convince them to have a heart. He also had a suspicion that they were going to use it to coerce him to give the tawny boy up for adoption, probably somewhere far away. That was something he wouldn&rsquo;t do, couldn&rsquo;t do, even if they ordered him. He&rsquo;d quit faster than he&rsquo;d drop a live snake.<br />It had been going well&hellip; until the phone call. His phone rang in the middle of his plea. He had almost collapsed. <br />\tRobert could not even speak to the police about the matter, he&rsquo;d been told. The risk of him folding to ransom demands was too high, they said. The cops were talking to one of Robert&rsquo;s colleagues, rather than to the father of the kidnapped kits himself. They&rsquo;d asked him to sit alone in an empty, stifling office and let others deal with it. It was such a fucking travesty.<br />His cell phone buzzed to life in his jacket, but he ignored it for the longest time. Well over a minute. Whoever it was could go fuck themselves.<br />However, then the fox actually yelped and clawed at his chest pocket for the device. What the hell was he doing?! He ripped it out of the pocket, and sure enough, the number was not one he recognized. Swallowing painfully, he pressed the answer key and raised the phone to his ear&hellip;<br />\t&ldquo;Y-yes?&rdquo; he said, his mouth flooding with the metallic taste of trepidation.<br />\tThe voice on the phone was not what he expected. It was&hellip; it sounded as if it was underwater and very, very far away, interrupted by hissing and crackling, but it was a voice he knew.<br />\t&ldquo;-ad! Dad!&rdquo; it buzzed weakly. <br />\t&ldquo;Mike?!&rdquo; Robert gasped in incredulity, shooting to his feet, His ears stiffened on his head like flags caught in the wind. &ldquo;Mike! Are you alright? Where are you?!&rdquo; <br />\tThe response was nothing but hissing and droning for a moment, and he felt his heart stop dead. Then&hellip; &ldquo;&hellip;Water in the phone! Can&rsquo;t ksshhzzear you! Help! Please, Tai ran akshkkk--! &hellip; trying to kill us! Brrrzzhhsshhhnnhh&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\tThe fox looked helplessly at the phone. The call was still connected, but it was descending into that incomprehensible hissing again. &ldquo;Mike! Where are you? You have to tell me where you are, okay?&rdquo; No response. Robert swallowed again. &ldquo;Listen, Mike, if you can hear me, do not hang up! Don&rsquo;t hang up!&rdquo;<br />\tA door was in his way, but not for long. The six-foot fox slammed it open and bore down upon a young operator like an inexorable steam train, thrusting his phone right at her. &ldquo;Can you find out where this call is coming from?&rdquo; he demanded. His manner seemed more appropriate to a death threat than a request. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a cell phone. Where is it?! Exactly where?&rdquo;<br />\tThe operator, a young female rabbit with austere, shoulder-length head-fur, looked baffled and scared for a second. &ldquo;Uh, um, y-yes, I think so, maybe,&rdquo; she said, cringing away.<br />\t&ldquo;Then do it! Please!! Trust me, it&rsquo;s justified!&rdquo; <br />\tShe nodded timidly and took the phone from him, thoughtfully pausing to put it on loudspeaker. The phone just hummed noisily. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll try to, but&hellip;&rdquo; She peered at the screen first, then hastily scribbled a few things on a piece of paper, and then started to work quickly on her computer, bringing up programs and entering commands with incredible speed. &ldquo;Hold on, it&rsquo;s very easy to get the general area from the exchange, but it&rsquo;ll take a minute or so to get the GPS&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Thank you!&rdquo; Robert breathed explosively, leaning heavily on the operator&rsquo;s desk. &ldquo;Thank you! Shit, Mike, don&rsquo;t hang up! Do you hear me? Hold on&hellip;&rdquo; <br /><br />Chapter Ten &ndash; Fin. <br /><br />-- By Krazy Kitsune/Kichigai Kitsune<br />Copyright 2005 onwards.<br /><br /></span>",
  "pools_count": 1,
  "title": "Tai's Story - Chapter Ten",
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