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It's almost too much for a girl to take!", "description_bbcode_parsed": "As if Eos wasn't bad enough, Cedric and his cronies have to get involved. It's almost too much for a girl to take!", "writing": "\tDilapidation in a dome city became more common the further from a sector’s center you got. Human impulse had always been to expand outward, and so the middle of a dome would normally contain a dense number of buildings whereas those on the outside were sparser. Locksmouth had its fair share of old and abandoned buildings. In the 2300’s the dome city had an optimistic outlook on its future in science and industry. They expected to attract several diggers to uncover the past buried beneath the city, they expected to ride longer on a monumental wave of technological advancement that had swept up the era. Somewhere that all ended, and all the buildings made to house the people who never came remained empty.\n\n\tWere there more public service workers, this may not have been a problem. However, skilled labourers were increasingly hard to come by, generating the need for inter-dome businesses to supply landscapers and construction workers to every dome they could in an area. It was generous work if one could handle the heavy workload. Most people weren’t prepared for such a demanding business, creating a shortage of muscle and a surplus of creativity and logical minds in its stead.\n\n\tAn area on the far reaches of the residential sector housing a grand number of empty homes and apartments had gained the moniker of “the slums.” It looked about as run-down as its name implied, with the grass being let to grow too long and paint sometimes peeling off the buildings. Water still ran, plumbing still worked, electricity got to every home in the area… but there were no stores, and no local residents to make up a neighbourhood. The slums were practically a ghost town, given a wide berth both naturally as no one had any reason to travel out that far, and simply due to a bad reputation brought in by the few people who did go out there to be away from as much human contact as possible.\n\n\tCedric Onyx may as well have been the poster boy for the slums. The badger was tall and moody, broad of shoulder and purple of hair. Teachers called the teenage boy a trouble-maker, the police called him a scoundrel, and Natalie called him The Worst Ever. He had a loose relationship with rules or regulations, took things that didn’t belong to him, bullied other kids… there were very few like Cedric in a world where people saw the need to work together, where there weren’t many people to go around. Where the small fish had learned to share the pond, Cedric opted more for the big fish lifestyle.\n\n\tEvery now and then he would find someone who saw things the way he did. He’d find other youths who didn’t quite fit with society’s stringent expectations. Anyone who had broken the rules, anyone who was ever told that the way they thought was improper, Cedric would find them and they would end up in the slums. The place became something of its own society, where these rule-breakers and trouble-makers co-existed. Somehow their innate desire to disrupt the status quo hadn’t simply destroyed them all.\n\n\tAnd of all the “bad kids,” Cedric may as well have been the mayor of the place with his right and left hands, Coul Sael and Alliston Madriccie.\n\n\tKenny was exactly the kind of person who would have ended up there under any other circumstance. He was abrasive, he’d experienced things that no one else had, and the way he’d turned out for it was a way that was “wrong.” Instead of being welcomed there by invitation however, Kenny found himself taken there by force. Cedric was the host of an Inkling, and lorded over the lemming boy with the potential awesome might that brought. Kenny had little choice but to comply… even if Cedric didn’t use his powers, the guy was strong and could easily out-muscle his rodent captive.\n\n\tHe was taken to one of many abandoned houses that had been broken into. It was empty save for Cedric and his two cronies, who must have squatted there. The place was pretty Spartan even by the utilitarian standards of most folks. There weren’t any decorations on the walls, there weren’t any more than three seats at the tiny kitchen table, and each resident’s personal belongings were squirreled away into their own corners of the home and messily organized. There were no paper books, no games, no toys; the only things there were what they needed to live, and a number of lunches they’d taken from other students.\n\n\tThey didn’t give Kenny any chance to sit down or get comfortable. They pushed him into the front door and had him stand in the foyer and explain all he could about Duplex, his packmate’s Inkling, and Epheral, the Inkling Boogieman that was supposedly coming for them. Cedric was large and in charge, gruffly dragging everything he could out of Kenny with threats of harm should he fail to comply. As angry as that made the boy, he gave his captors everything he knew, from Duplex’s supposed origins as Osoth’s personal lackey, to Epheral’s apparent crash-course with Earth.\n\n\t“An Inkling Core, y’say? And ye say it’s not in any Inkling?” Alliston couldn’t wrap her head around the concept of Epheral. She sat on the counter of the bare kitchenette peering out at the boys.\n\n\t“Impossible,” Cedric crossed his arms, “That would be like a human brain with no body.”\n\n\tCoul made his way into the kitchen as well to sit up with Alliston. “Like a brain in a jar, from those sci-fi sims,” He said.\n\n\t“Except this knave isn’t in a jar, so it’s not possible!” Alliston argued, “Floe’s sayin’ it can’t be done.”\n\n\t“Well so’s Vissage but they could just be wrong,” Coul shrugged.\n\n\t“Epheral could simply be a tale spun by some Osoth sympathizer,” Cedric suggested, turning his mean stare to Kenny, “It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve been skulking around.”\n\n\t“What’re you looking at me for?” Kenny huffed, “I’m not the one with the freaky Inkling here.”\n\n\t“You said that this Duplex was close to Osoth,” Cedric reminded the boy, “I see no reason to trust it or anyone who’d work with it.”\n\n\t“Hell I don’t trust [i]any[/i] of you whackos!” Kenny barked back, “Are you done kidnapping me or what?!”\n\nCedric turned toward the front door and scanned the surrounding, empty neighbourhood. “No,” He said simply, “In fact, that air-headed butterfly should have already cried foul to Grayswift. If your pack cares at all about you, they’ll be coming too.”\n\n“I can’t believe that bosomy lass thought we couldn’t see her!” Alliston said.\n\nCoul laughed, “Yeah, I mean, [i]hello[/i]! Your gigantic jugs don’t fit behind a mailbox!”\n\n“Duplex will be right at my front door and then we can decide what to do with them,” Cedric said.\n\n“Decide what to…?” Kenny scrunched his brow, but then he glared at Cedric and balled his little fists, “What do you mean by that?!”\n\nAlliston bumped the ankles of her boots off the lower cupboard she sat atop. “Yer stowaway is going to bring the fleet right to our poopdeck,” She explained.\n\n“Those Eos creeps,” Coul nodded.\n\n“It’d be better to parlay and hand ‘er over,” Alliston gave herself an affirmative nod. Cedric just kind of grunted some form of an agreement.\n\nKenny paused a moment. “You want to send her home?” He asked. For once, it seemed someone was seeing things his way.\n\nCedric nodded. “We need to convince Grayswift not to make you our problem,” He said.\n\nKenny was confused, “This seems like a shitty way to get her to come talk to you.”\n\n“There probably won’t be much [i]talking[/i], not with her,” Cedric muttered.\n\nKenny furrowed his brow, wondering just what kind of person Natalie was when something like this was deemed as necessary… but then even he could tell there was something going on there he couldn’t have fathomed. He moved a little toward one of the windows, but tried not to act too suddenly less he drew the wrath of Cedric and his lackeys. He leaned to gaze outside into the afternoon sun, seeing people milling about outside. They just wandered around, regular old men and women doing their thing. None of it seemed particularly useful however, cementing the idea in Kenny’s mind that the slums had no real sense of direction.\n\nSomeone walking by the window met eyes with him. They were far away so it was hard to say at first, but they definitely seemed to lock eyes for just a moment. Right after that the man hurried away, walking out of sight of the window. Uncomfortable with the view out into the midway, Kenny turned his attention to a second window covered by some dark drapery. He shuffled on over as subtle as could be, making very little sound as the others busied themselves on the PETs. Kenny was able to press his back flush to the wall and with a gentle nudge of a finger he pulled the drapes back.\n\nSomeone was right out there; it actually gave Kenny a start. It could have been a neighbor or something, but some avian woman in tight clothes was standing between the houses, closer to Cedric’s squat. Kenny let the drapes fall back into place and turned his attention indoors instead, deciding that the people outside made him even more uncomfortable than the people inside. “Are all the people in this dump creepy or what?” He asked.\n\n“What’re ye squawking about?” Alliston looked back over her shoulder at Kenny and the boy shrugged.\n\n“Oh I don’t know, everyone else in this part of town? Just skulking around, it gives me the creeps,” He said, “No wonder you live here.”\n\n“Whaddya talking about?” Coul asked.\n\nCedric stepped back into the house and closed the door. He lowered his voice as he turned to Alliston and Coul, tilting his head slightly aside as a gesture toward a window. “Someone’s stalking the house,” He said, “You two, get up.”\n\nThe vixen and raccoon were on their feet in a moment, standing at attention in the kitchen. “What’s up?” Coul asked.\n\nCedric looked Alliston in the eye and mouthed two simple words: “Back door.” The pirate vixen gave the boy a salute and slunk off towards the back of the house. Coul was the next to receive instruction, but only a nod was given. Coul nodded back, and he got down real low behind the counters in the kitchen to duck out of sight. That left Kenny, who Cedric gave a stern look to and snapped his fingers. His firm point down was a clear instruction, and Kenny awkwardly lowered himself into a squat up against the wall, balancing on his toes.\n\nGentle breezes swayed the dark drapes as Cedric carefully made his way around the living area and closed them. He’d stand aside the windows and give a tug on the ties that kept the heavy curtains away from the window and simply let them fall into place.\n\n“Five of them,” Coul’s voice fluctuated from somewhere in the living room, “I think they got weapons.”\n\n“They’re here?” Cedric muttered mostly to himself as he moved back to the front door. Shadows passed by the windows, obscured by drapes and shutters. Cedric pressed up against the space just next to his front door as small as his broad shoulders could get, and in a moment the red-orange tinge of his Inkling spilled out from seemingly everywhere on his body to wrap him up like a protective suit. Burning yellows eyes peered out from his permanently scowling, cartoonish face. “The fools,” His dual-rendered voice groused.\n\n“Hey, kid,” Coul appeared, or at least the Inkling version of him. It was strange to see him though, since the light seemed to bend around his body in a way that made him look like he was using some old-fashioned cloaking device. His Inkling eyes were cloudy white, same with his mouth. Kenny leaned away from the inked raccoon. “Don’t move a muscle, got it?” Coul asked. Kenny just gave the kid a once-over and curled his lip distrustfully. Either that was enough for Coul or he really didn’t care, because in a moment the boy was gone again, completely invisible.\n\n“Fuckin’ Inklings…” Kenny exasperated.\n\nEverything fell silent. It was so quiet that the droning of the ventilation system was easily heard like a whisper in the wind. Every now and then something would bump or tap, but no one moved and no one said a word. Some clumsy person outside cast a dull shadow into the room through the curtains over the window, the shape cast over the far wall toward the back end of the house, where everything broke into hallways and probably bedrooms. Kenny watched these shadows shift and stir, but otherwise remain still. They were getting ready for something, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what.\n\nCedric moved carefully to stand in front of the front door, then carefully extended his inked hand until he was straight-armed with his palm open. Kenny flinched as a loud thud came from the back of the house, and then the front door crashed open with a sudden impact. Two clueless Eos grunts barreled into the door with enough force to knock it down, coming face-to-face with the molten Inkling known rather publicly as Emnas.\n\nTheir sudden intrusion was returned with a hot blast of liquid fire launched like a bazooka against their chests and barreled them back out into the lawn. The shadow by the window took off in a flash as Emnas stepped outside to pursue his would-be attackers. That person, whoever they were, was followed by a couple more.\n\nKenny briefly pushed away from the wall as Alliston glided through the house, passing over the carpet like a figure skater. Her body was likewise inked over in an appropriately icy blue. Her pony tail flapped as she breezed by Kenny, causing the lemming boy to stumble back. He watched her skate right by and out the door, leaving a trail of honest-to-goodness ice in her wake. Kenny hopped over the trail to keep his footing and made for the door as well just to see what was going on outside.\n\nEmnas marched right out into the lawn where he grabbed the two grunts he’d blasted outside by their scruffs and hefted them up off the ground. He held them up and smacked their bodies together as hard as he could. They grunted in pain and were thrown aside by Emnas, who turned to catch a volley of hard force blasts. He barely had the time to raise his arms up, and when the shots hit his ink dented and rippled over his arms, peeling away in small amounts. Emnas made a face like he was gritting his teeth, but he didn’t have any teeth to grit.\n\nAlliston took a hard right after exiting the door, kicking up frost as she shred her own ice. She leapt into the air with a graceful spin unexpected by the three assailants that had come around the house after failing to get into the back door when a sheet of thick ice blocked the way. The icy inkling landed her axel and swept out her leg, slipping up the right-most of the trio where the left-most found himself struggling to keep his weapon out of invisible, grabby hands. The one in the center of the firing line centered on Emnas, but a hot glob of lava swallowed the barrel of his weapon, rapidly cooling into tough, glue-like slag that rendered the weapon useless.\n\nCoul appeared and pulled the weapon out of the hands of a very confused blue jay in dark clothes. The little raccoon trained it on one of the twin pugs Emnas had dispatched and fired, hitting the man at center-mass and taking him clear off his feet. Emnas took the second, standing close enough to throw out his arm and knock the man’s weapon off balance. A hard-force burst took out one of the windows near Kenny’s head as Emnas began feeding the unwitting attacker left and right hooks. Planting his feet firmly, Emnas gave the man shattering blow after shattering blow, ones that tossed the man’s body around like a rag doll. He was helpless until Emnas decided he’d rattled his brains enough and released him, allowing the man to stumble around and then fall onto the overgrown grass.\n\nAlliston skillfully dodged incoming rifle butts and thrown fists from the firing line, arching her back and twisting her body like a skilled gymnast to narrowly avoid what was coming. With a kick of her foot she pushed off and slid back, thrusting out her hands to send a chilling wave at the grunts’ feet. The grass beneath them froze into a sheet of ice where their combat boots found no purchase. They slipped and fell over one another like a trio of stooges, with Coul managing to pull the rifle, strap and all, off the one at the end of the line.\n\nThe boy fired one shot that jerked the weapon back against his chest, knocking the wind out of him and sending him to the ground on his butt. The shot flew wildly wide into someone else’s home. Emnas growled as he finished freshly knocking the lights out of the second pug grunt, “Watch what you’re doing you idiot!”\n\nCoul vanished from sight before he could continue to get yelled at, but the rifle he carried bobbed in the air with him as he clearly scrambled to his feet and scampered away with the armadillo grunt’s weapon.\n\nThe three remaining assailants flailed on the ice until they found grass to grab hold of and drag themselves to their feet. Emnas and Alliston stood ready to attack, extending their hands to make one blast of ice and once blast of magma that collided in the air and hissed in a sudden cloud of thick steam that engulfed the three grunts. Only seeing a whip of a limb pass through the steam, the three of them were throttled. The sounds of their struggle were heard loud and clear outside of the obscuring mist, weapons were thrown out onto the lawn, and bodies were quick to follow. In mere moments the final of the five-man force was dispatched, landing in the grass with a groan and a roll. Eos’ forces writhed in pain in the dirt.\n\nEmnas knelt down and picked one up by their shirt, the embers of his fury scorching the fabric and burning smoking holes into the otherwise fine shirt. He spoke one word of command as angrily as could be: “[i][b]Leave[/b][/i].”\n\nHe threw the blue jay back harshly into the dirt once more. She bolted up in a panic with her companions who hurried to gather up the pug twins and drag them away. Those two canines would remember for a long time what had happened as they got the worst of it out of the bunch – clearly unconscious, their shirts had been burned right through to their chests where their fur had been seared off and their skin was badly reddened by burn.\n\nThey fled the scene gathering what weapons they could but were forced to leave some behind. Coul busied himself collecting them, becoming a floating bundle of APSRs. Alliston and Cedric watched the soldiers hurry off down the street, get into some vehicles, and leave. While this happened, Emnas receded into Cedric’s body and the badger’s eye caught a glimpse of a calico feline in a tweed suit just staring at him from across the street. The man smirked, folded his arm over his chest, and gave a bow to the boy before politely turning on his heels and walking away.\n\n“Get that one,” Cedric pointed to the man, and Alliston reacted in a moment. She fired a volley of hard-packed snowballs at the man.\n\nWhoever he was, he didn’t so much as flinch or pick up the pace. Instead, a vehicle screeched across the midway where it was parked, spewing sparks from its skiffs. Its strong metal frame dragged into place to perfectly block the attack. The snowy artillery pelted the metal with heavy thuds, and after that the man hurried off.\n\n“What the?!” Alliston shouted, “I mean, blow me down!”\n\nCedric narrowed his eyes, a little bit of confusion playing on his frown. He looked to Alliston, who de-inked and frowned at him, both their minds working out what had just happened. Coul was the one to break them up by appearing behind them, his cloaking melting away into his body. “Well that’s that, they’re gone!” He said, “Those are Eos goons? What a bunch of losers.”\n\nCedric turned and gave the raccoon a smack upside his head. “That was only five of them,” He scolded the boy, “Five very stupid ones. If they come back, expect ten or more.”\n\n“Ten?! More?!” Alliston and Coul looked mortified at the idea of it.\n\nCedric just stared them down. “Get back inside and wait for Grayswift,” He instructed.\n\n“But what about…?” Coul started.\n\n“[b]Get inside[/b],” Cedric repeated sternly.\n\nCoul and Alliston gulped and hurried back inside. Kenny ducked back into the house quickly when their attention chanced back in his direction. He scurried into the house, jumped the ratty old sofa and landed on the uncomfortably saggy cushion. He crossed his leg and sat rigid, trying much too hard to pretend he’d not moved a muscle. Alliston and Coul didn’t really notice him – instead the vixen moved to the back of the house to thaw the door and Coul moved past to duck into one of the bedrooms with the weapons. Kenny heard him loudly drop them in a clutter, and when the raccoon returned he paced nervously around the living room.\n\nKenny wasn’t sure he could take much more of this. He was getting so afraid that it was causing him physical pain. His breathing was heavy for no reason at all, his chest heavy with the weight of mounting stress. He rubbed his temple, kneading the side of his head and closing his eyes, just trying to get a handle on himself. His ear twitched when Cedric closed the front door behind him, and he fidgeted uncomfortably. The idea that all the doors were closed somehow perturbed him more than it should have. He was feeling like a bird in a cage.\n\nCedric barely got to sit down at the kitchen table before a loud banging was heard at his door. It made Kenny jump, and he twisted with a start to stare at the door. Cedric just folded his hands together and stared straight ahead, making no move to get up and answer the door because he knew what was coming next. Carrie Oakenfield burst through the door a second later, barreling through with a hard shoulder, forcing the door to swing open and crash against the wall. One of its hinges broke.\n\n“Cedric! Give back the kid!” Carrie yelled.\n\nKenny got offended for some reason. “I’m older than you!” He yelled back.\n\nCarrie blinked and looked Kenny’s way as Natalie slipped in past her with Jacent. “Wait, what? Do you just let captives chill on your couch?” She asked.\n\nCedric breathed in deep and sighed. “[i]You’re late[/i],” He said.\n\n“I had to pick up my muscle in case you tried anything,” Natalie supplied. Cedric looked tiredly at Jacent, who wasn’t sure if he should pose or try to look intimidating or whatever else.\n\n“… Right,” Cedric pushed his chair out and stood back up again, “You just missed Eos.”\n\nNatalie, Carrie and Jacent’s eyes widened a little and they all stared at Cedric. “What?” Natalie asked, “They were [i]here[/i]? Did they attack you?”\n\n“Worried about me?” Cedric huffed, “If you call that an attack, you’re weaker than I thought.”\n\n“Hey, dick, we don’t know how they came at you, alright?” Carrie firmly pointed at the badger.\n\nThere was a fuss outside before Daxton pushed in past Carrie. He marched into the house fists clenched. “Hey Sebastian or whatever, where’s my packmate?!” He demanded.\n\n“Over there,” Cedric gestured with a cant of his head, “Take him, he’s useless to me anyway.”\n\nDaxton eased up as Kenny approached him from the living area. Alliston and Coul were right in behind him, just waiting for something to happen. Kenny walked right past Daxton and turned to walk outside without as much as a word. Daxton struggled to say something, or find some witty remark, but he came up short. He just stuttered on a few syllables, gave Cedric a firm pointing at, and then turned to hurry outside after his friend.\n\nNatalie watched this in confusion. “If you’re just going to give him back, why take him in the first place?” She asked.\n\n“Are you that dense? You know who this is about,” Cedric responded.\n\n“Quincey,” Jacent suggested.\n\nCedric rolled his eyes. “The ape has some sense,” He said, “That’s Duplex, right?”\n\n“What do you want with her?” Natalie got defensive.\n\nCedric crossed his arms, “I had a raid on my home and you’re wondering what my problem is? [i]Someone[/i] brought these morons to our doorstep, and you should be just as concerned about it as I am.”\n\nThe tension in the room seemed to diminish by the second. Cedric wasn’t being all that combative if everyone was being honest. In fact he was the only one there who didn’t look ready to start throwing elbows. Everyone relaxed, at least as much as they felt comfortable doing in each other’s company.\n\n“She’s here because she was being hunted,” Natalie said.\n\nCedric shook his head. “I heard her story, I don’t believe it. Are you going to constantly take in enemies and believe their pretty little lies?”\n\n“Cedric we don’t have time to be paranoid right now and you know that’s the opposite of what we should be doing,” Natalie stepped up to the taller boy without fear, “Quincey’s one of us, and it’s her decision if she wants to leave. I’m not going to let you force her.”\n\n“You’re going to stand in front of a refugee? You’re going to take responsibility for them?” Cedric rose a brow, “Are you going to take responsibility for the attacks on our people too? That’s rich. Go ahead, compromise everything you’ve done.”\n\nNatalie grit her teeth. Cedric had a real knack for getting under her skin. “Yes, I am,” She said.\n\n“It’s one thing that people are scared, we get it,” Carrie said, “But we can’t just let people come in and kick us around.”\n\n“I want to talk to this Duplex,” Cedric ignored the feline and demanded Natalie’s compliance.\n\n“So you can intimidate her?” Natalie shook her head, “Not a chance.”\n\n“You say it’s her decision, I simply want her to be informed of the risks she’s taking with us,” He said. It sounded oddly paragon of Cedric, so Natalie knew something had to be up. She knew from experience that nine times out of ten, there was nothing to be gained by talking with Cedric.\n\n“[i]Hypocrite[/i],” Cedric scoffed, “Call her what she is: a prisoner under your deluded idealism.”\n\nNatalie huffed. Before she rose to anger, she took a few relaxing breaths. “You want to talk to her? Fine,” She said.\n\nCarrie was a bit surprised, but she provided the stipulations, “You make one wrong move and I’m gonna…”\n\n“Feed me my skinny jeans,” Cedric ended her sentence flatly and pushed past Jacent and Natalie in a march outdoors. For a second Carrie was blindsided.\n\n“I need new lines,” She said.\n\nCedric stepped outside, seeing the rest of Natalie’s pack outside with the unfamiliar kids from Harbington. He silently watched as Kenny, the boy he’d snatched, argued with the other kids about whether or not they should stay. Natalie’s reptile mutt stepped off to clear room for Cedric as he marched right up to the group and got their attention by presence alone. Laila was the only one there taller than he was.\n\n“Which one of you is Quincey?” Cedric demanded an answer, souring the mood of the Harbington pack right away.\n\nTo Quincey, Cedric was big and intimidating. She had to gather her nerves before she even claimed her own name. “I-I am…” She answered, nervously tugging at her sweater.\n\nCedric’s nose wrinkled immediately and he gave the pig a harsh study, looking her over from head to toe. “This?” He asked, “This… disgusting blob of a creature is Duplex? How could I have been worried about you? I can practically smell how pathetic you are from here.”\n\n“[i]Excuse me[/i]?” Laila cut in harshly, “You kiss yer mama with that mouth?”\n\n“Buddy you’d best back off,” Daxton stepped in between Quincey and the badger, standing on his toes to get in the boy’s face.\n\n“Hold on!” Natalie called out as she hurried out the door, waving her hands to get everyone’s attention. She rushed over to Quincey’s side and wrapped an arm around the girl, squeezing her close to protect her somewhat. “Quincey, this is Cedric. He’s a jerk,” She nodded her head slowly and spoke in deliberately clear terms, as if what she said was remedial knowledge for the people of Locksmouth.\n\n“I’ll say,” Laila sniffed.\n\n“He’s bonded with an Inkling named Emnas,” Natalie explained, “So, uh, Daxton? You might just want to step back. Don’t worry, if he does anything we’ll triple-team his ass so hard his head would spin.”\n\nCedric and Daxton quietly stared one another down, but eventually Daxton lowered himself flat onto his feet again and stepped back. He took the confused Quincey’s hand and held her close. Now she was being protectively hoarded by both Natalie on one side and Daxton on the other. They unknowingly held her aloft, since her legs were trembling and they wanted to give out. She was confused and a little scared that she was being approached so suddenly, and by someone so mean.\n\n“Get out of Locksmouth, pig,” Cedric sneered.\n\nDaxton perked his ears in a hurry, “Hey she…!”\n\n“Keep quiet!” Cedric snapped at Daxton.\n\nQuincey looked at Daxton, then quickly turned her attention back to Cedric. “S-Stop yelling at him,” She barely whispered.\n\nCedric got real close, glaring daggers at the girl, “Or else what?”\n\n“J… Just stop,” Quincey kind of glared back at him.\n\nNatalie stared Cedric down. “You said you wanted to talk, so talk,” She said.\n\n“Very well,” Cedric puffed up his chest, “Because of you, Eos has gotten into Locksmouth and is putting every Inkling at risk. It’s your fault.”\n\nDaxton opened his mouth, but caught himself and shut it. Quincey’s breath fluttered a moment, passing by her lips like she wanted to cry. She sucked in some courage though and stood up a little straighter. “A-Actually no, there’s… no evidence s-suggesting that I…” She started to explain.\n\n“It’s just a coincidence then?” Cedric cut her off, “Do you expect me to believe that? A mysterious Inkling shows up at our door and armed forces that are moving against us just happen to get in right on her heels? You’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”\n\n“And wolves are the worst,” He gave a glance Natalie’s way, who puffed up her cheeks.\n\nQuincey watched Cedric warily. “You’ll just have to take my word for it… I-I came here because my Inkling wanted to meet with Echelon. She’s… going to help me save my Inkling’s life.”\n\n“Please,” Cedric huffed, “I heard you were two Inklings in one, but that’s bull. That can’t happen.”\n\n“Well it did,” Quincey said, “A-And they’re relying on me and Echelon to save its life so unless you want to kill an Inkling then you’ll back off.”\n\nThe porcine girl ducked her head down, unable to meet Cedric’s eyes when she spoke so firmly to him, because he scared her. Cedric soaked up this fear like a sponge and he raised his voice to make her flinch. “Your backwards lies aren’t going to work on me you Osoth drone!” He shouted at her, making her shrink back a bit. Daxton and Natalie held her and kept her from moving too far, but to her that felt like she was just shackled.\n\n“Duplex isn’t like her, she… she broke Duplex’s heart,” Quincey insisted.\n\n“That sounds like the worst kind of fanfiction,” Cedric shook his head.\n\nQuincey sniffled and shook her head. “I’m not going back,” She said.\n\n“Quinn, come on…” Kenny sounded tired, leaning in from aside.\n\n“No,” She shook her head quickly, “I won’t.”\n\nCedric glared at her in disgust. “You spoiled child,” He said, “Don’t you realize what you’ve brought? You’re a threat to everything. Whatever you hoped to accomplish here has failed – Osoth is gone, an echo of the past. Your phony story about this Inkling core is nothing. All you’ve done is endanger everyone. All you’ve done is be a burden. You’ve brought them to me, and you don’t even apologize to my face. You’re [i]worthless[/i].”\n\n“Alright that’s enough!” Daxton growled, releasing Quincey’s arm.\n\nCedric reached out and pushed Daxton’s head, shoving his hat off so it fell behind him. Without giving the boy a chance, Cedric then grabbed his shirt, shook him so his equilibrium was thrown off, and then shoved him away. Daxton kept his footing for a step or two but ended up falling to the ground anyway.\n\n“Cedric!” Natalie shouted at the boy, letting go of Quincey just to get a back-hand from the badger across her face with no power pulled. That boy may have had skinny legs but he had a strong arm, the blow was enough to make Natalie stumble, bringing a hand to her cheek to nurse the sting of impact.\n\n“Oh you son of a bitch!” Carrie hissed, marching on Cedric.\n\nThe badger was set to deal with Carrie when someone plowed into his middle, shoving him off-balance with a weight he wasn’t prepared for. Quincey let out a terribly angry grunt of exertion when she wrapped her arms around his mid-section and hoisted him up off the ground a good couple of feet in a couple of angry seconds. Cedric rose, then inertia took him as Quincey screamed and slammed his spine into the dirt, knocking a surprised gasp for air out of Cedric’s body. The un-Inked boy hit hard enough to bounce a little as he struck Earth. Quincey stumbled back after her throw, her face red as a tomato.\n\nCedric inked over, but before Emnas could even raise a hand, Arus slammed her foot hard into his chest and pinned him to the ground. “Go ahead,” She said, standing over him, “Fire away.”\n\n“Cedgie!” Alliston cried, rushing ahead only to be grabbed by Jacent, who skillfully took spun her and twisted her arm behind her back. He held her tightly to him and kept her from moving, and Max had done the same to Coul by grabbing hold of the boy with arms and legs, holding on for dear life.\n\nQuincey stepped back a couple of paces. “I’M NOT GOING BACK! I MADE UP MY MIND!” She screamed, “SHUT UP YOU IDIOT!”\n\nQuincey stopped and looked around seeing all eyes on her. They were staring at her in shock. Not even her pack had heard her scream like that, so shrill and so hard that it hurt her throat. She looked so angry for just a few seconds, but it all washed away and was replaced by the faltering expressions of a girl pushed too far. Tears streamed down her chubby cheeks, she panted, and her face scrunched up as she tried to hold back her tears. She couldn’t, and she ended up breaking out in loud sobbing as she turned and ran from the yard, clumsily sprinting down the street as fast as her legs could take her. She was crying loudly all the way.\n\n“Quincey!” Laila called after her, “Wait!”\n\nDaxton got his hat back and stood up, looking down at Emnas and snarling. “Man, get fucked,” He spat, before hurrying off after his girlfriend. Kenny took up the ear, jogging after the lot of them.\n\nNatalie couldn’t help but growl in her throat. “I hope you’re happy, Cedric,” She said, “Come on guys, let’s go.”\n\nEveryone released their captives, with Arus being the last. She firmly shoved Emnas down, burying him a little in the lawn before stepping off. Emnas made no effort to stand against them, and with their leader deciding upon inaction, Alliston and Coul did the same. Everyone skulked off awkward and somber after Quincey, leaving Natalie behind.\n\n“And if you get anywhere near her I promise you Emnas, you are going to regret it,” She didn’t even look at him when she spoke, “I [i]promise[/i] you that.”\n\n“You’re the one who’s going to regret this,” Emnas spat back.\n\nNatalie grumbled in frustration, “Would it kill you not to be a complete ass for, like, five seconds of your life? God.”\n\nNatalie hurried off after the group who had run off after Quincey since she was going in the wrong direction. Emnas rose from his place on the lawn, dirt flaking off his shoulders. The Inkling retreated back under the boy’s skin and Cedric pushed himself up to his feet.\n\n“Ye want to go give them some payback?” Alliston asked.\n\nCedric marched right past his underlings, shoving them both aside roughly to get into the house. He pushed his hand into his lower back as he sulked inside. “Let them go,” He called back, “Hopefully Eos destroys them all.”\n\nCoul and Alliston gave one another a concerned look before they followed their leader back into the house.\n\n-\n\n--\n\n-\n\n“Mwah!”\n\nCarrie’s lips puckered on Natalie’s cheek and provided comforting smooches for seemingly the fiftieth time that evening. Natalie giggled and turned her head in a display of rejection that only succeeded in providing more of her cheek to kiss. Carrie did just that, peppering her girlfriend with more affection before nuzzling as a cat do. She rubbed cheeks with her canine companion and happily bumped and brushed her forehead against her too. Her tail whipped around and she purred her affection for Natalie.\n\n“Oh my puppy,” Carrie burbled past a pout, “My poor puppu!”\n\n“Stop,” Natalie laughed, “Don’t call me a puppu!”\n\nHer cheek long since stopped stinging after Cedric had struck her. She was no stranger to pain, which in a way was shockingly unacceptable, but she could handle it. Carrie was undoubtedly even more capable of taking the abuse anyone would dish out, and she wasn’t commonly such a suck when it came to nursing the wounds later. In fact, she probably still wasn’t so emotional, and at that point her fussing over her girlfriend was just to tease and annoy. Still, it made Natalie blush and feel all lovey-dovey, so she didn’t try to stop her. The two of them cuddled on the sofa in Kelvalde’s apartment, feeling pretty isolated since most of their pack had gone home because it was a school night.\n\nMax remained, and had busied himself on his PET while sitting upside-down in an arm chair with his feet up over the top of the back. Jacent insisted on staying behind as well to no one’s surprise because he couldn’t help but worry about others more than he worried about himself. It was getting late, and it wasn’t up to the pack to do all that work. That fell onto Natalie, the Alpha, who had consciously decided to help Quincey in any way she could. Carrie as the Beta and as her lover would support her no matter what, and Natalie would never have dreamed of sending her away, but the others had to go for their own good.\n\n“Guys, it’s getting late,” She said, “You need to go home.”\n\n“No I can stay too,” Max looked away from his screen. He yawned unconvincingly.\n\nNatalie shook her head and gave him a look that was ruined by how Carrie’s forehead smooshed her cheek. “Max, you’re tired, and you’re going to be tired at school tomorrow if you don’t go to bed,” She said, “Don’t make me count.”\n\n“Aww,” Max grumbled, tumbling from the armchair and somersaulting on the floor until he could push himself onto his feet.\n\n“You too, Jacent,” Natalie turned her attention to the red-headed boy who tried to be as small as possible next to her and Carrie, trying not to somehow intrude on their affection. He was no less disappointed to be found despite not hiding his presence at all, but he stood from his seat even so, dutifully following his pack leader’s recommendations.\n\n“If you’re certain,” Jacent said, giving a polite bow of his head, “Sleep well, Natalie.”\n\n“Goodnight Jacent,” Natalie smiled.\n\n“G’night,” Carrie peeked at Jacent and waved her fingers at the boys.\n\nJacent and Max left the apartment, and when the door closed behind them Natalie and Carrie got into a more comfortable position. They sprawled out on the sofa with Natalie laying back and Carrie cuddled up against her side. Natalie closed her eyes and idly played with one of Carrie’s ears, which the cat seemed to enjoy. For a while they just remained silent, taking a well-deserved rest after the last couple days’ events. It seemed far from over and they couldn’t really be totally off-guard, but for the very moment it felt they had some time to relax. Quincey hadn’t really been eager to talk after she returned home, and her pack was just tending to her to make her feel better. It had taken a surprisingly long time.\n\n“So, you had a good day at the mall I hear,” Natalie spoke with a little smile.\n\nCarrie gave her puppu a coy glance, “Mhm. Mm… You wanna hear about it?”\n\nCarrie rolled over until she was pinning her girlfriend’s chest down with the considerable weight of her own. Natalie heart thumped as it always did when she felt those big fat kitty bosoms bearing in on her. They had a tendency to completely overtake Natalie’s smaller chest, bunching up in Carrie’s top with deep cleavage, and she [i]really[/i] enjoyed that. Her legs were likewise pinned under Carrie’s body to assure her she wasn’t going anywhere, and the cat adoringly stroked Natalie’s shoulder and collar with one hand. It was as much a display of affection and closeness as it was a mildly domineering pin with some kitty coy thrown in for good measure. Carrie’s tail waved in the air above her in an interested motion.\n\n“No,” Natalie insisted, but her cheeks’ red tint said otherwise. Every now and then Natalie would hear stories about the sorts of OC her girlfriend got up to. Seldom did she ever actually ask to hear about them, but every now and then she’d be genuinely interested. Laila was a good-looking girl by nearly every step of the imagination, and even Natalie had to admit that getting down with someone so much bigger and taller than her was a thrilling idea. It could have felt like a conquest, like climbing a mountain.\n\nCarrie got comfortable, putting some thought into an analysis. “Well, I think you’d like her boobs,” Carrie said, “They’re pretty nice.”\n\n“But not as good as yours,” Natalie supplied.\n\nCarrie looked shocked at the thought. “Oh god, no!” She insisted, “Mine are the fuckin’ best. But you’re a titty-monster and I know you’d love one handful as much as five.”\n\n“And man, it’s weird when someone’s so big,” Carrie reminisced, “She’s like six and a half feet tall or whatever? She just looms over you. And she was [i]nuts[/i] – she just wanted us all to go at her as hard and as often as we could. She’s as bad as Erwin.”\n\nNatalie raised her eyebrows. “That bad?” She asked, bewildered, “No way.”\n\n“Yeah way,” Carried nodded insistently, “And, the other cool thing? She’s got a huge tongue like Sam’s. And the first, like, half of it is like dark purple for some reason and she can move it all around. It felt great on the sticker, and she can down you in a second. I figure she practices on zucchinis back at her farm.”\n\n“It’s always the farm girls, isn’t it?” Natalie grinned.\n\n“Psh!” Carrie pinched her fingers together in a prissy gesture, “Uh, I can do that [i]too[/i]? My neck just isn’t as long.”\n\nNatalie gave a teasing pout and reached up with both hands to rub Carrie’s ears. “Oh I know,” She burbled at her like she were a kid, “You’re such a good slut! Yes you are!”\n\nCarrie laughed and shoved her face against Natalie’s neck, dragging her teeth over her fur to make the wolf squeal. “You love it, bitch,” She insisted, nipping and biting at Natalie’s neck and throat to make her squirm and fuss and squeal.\n\nThe two of them were interrupted when Quincey and her pack came down the stairs, finally emerging from the bedroom. Carrie and Natalie smiled at one another before moving to sit up and welcome them back. Quincey, Laila, and Daxton came down but Kenny was oddly absent.\n\n“Well speak of the devil and she shall appear!” Carrie smirked, “Hey Quincey, how you doin’?”\n\nQuincey moved to the arm chair Max had once been in and heavily landed in it. She blushed and said, “I’m, um, okay. S-Sorry… about earlier, I just...”\n\nNatalie smiled big, “You just [i]kicked Cedric’s butt[/i]!”\n\n“Yeah good job!” Carrie said, “You practically broke him in half!”\n\n“I haven’t seen a hit that big since Jess took the championship, Carrie,” Natalie gave her girlfriend a sideways glance.\n\nCarrie grinned big. “In all my years as a sportscaster,” She joked.\n\nQuincey was confused. She watched the two of them ham it up like her outburst was no big deal and she was honestly perplexed. “It’s… okay? But I…” She started to say something, but lost it a little later.\n\nDaxton sat on the coffee table across from Quincey, his coat removed for his muscle shirt that showed off his strong arms. Carrie noted he wasn’t as built as she was. “Well he was being a real jerk,” Daxton said, “Normally you’d get me to deal with guys like him, but you did it all on your own!”\n\nLaila inserted herself between Natalie and Carrie, forcing them to make room for her. She crossed her legs and threw her arms over their shoulders, kind of goofing it up herself. “What is that little fella’s problem anyway?” She asked, “He got some kinda chip on his shoulder the size of a ham or what?”\n\n“Wow, I never thought I’d hear someone call Cedric a little fella,” Natalie snickered.\n\n“Dude’s a straight-up bully,” Carrie answered, “So don’t feel bad about rearranging his vertebrae, he [i]deserves[/i] it.”\n\n“But he’s an Inkling like you,” Quincey blinked.\n\nNatalie and Carrie chuckled at the notion. “Emnas is [i]not[/i] like us,” Natalie said, “I wouldn’t consider him to be on our team.”\n\n“A bully, huh?” Laila removed her arm from Carrie’s shoulders and scratched an itch on her nose, “Aw well, guys like him don’t win. Surprisin’ enough? If you’re always tryin’ to under-cut someone, you reach rock bottom before they do, I reckon.”\n\n“How profound,” Carrie said.\n\nDaxton shrugged. “Laila used to be a bully too,” He said, “So she’d know.”\n\nLaila cocked a brow at that. “What, you know?” She asked.\n\nDaxton laughed, “Well yeah, you’re hard to miss, stupid.”\n\nLaila looked to Quincey for a response and the porky girl just nodded her head. “Oh, yeah, we know about you,” She said, “We always did.”\n\nLaila looked confused, “Seriously? Darnit, you coulda told me!”\n\nCarrie and Natalie just watched on, waiting for their opportunity to ask just what the other kids were talking about. Laila rubbed Natalie’s shoulder while she held the girl close for no real apparent reason – it seemed like she just couldn’t help but be warm and comforting, albeit a little forcefully. Natalie felt like she’d have a hard time getting away, so she didn’t try. Carrie was free to do whatever, so she nudged Laila and got her attention. “What, you were like Cedric?” She asked.\n\n“Like him? Heck no!” Laila turned sharply to regard Carrie, pulling Natalie against her chest, “That boy’s the most ornery bull I ever laid eyes on! Could start an argument in an empty house and probably has, as little friends as he must have.”\n\n“But I [i]was[/i] bigger n’ everybody else when I was a kid,” Laila explained, “I could get away with anythin’ I wanted, so I just did whatever came into my head. Eventually I found these folk that kinda did the same thing so I went with ‘em. Didn’t even realize what we were doin’ was bullyin’, I thought we were just playin’.”\n\n“At least until you decided to ‘play’ with Quincey,” Daxton said, “That’s kinda how I remember you.”\n\n“Yup, then Daxton rearranged my Alpha’s priorities a lil’,” Laila chuckled, “With fists.”\n\nNatalie struggled to look up, a healthy giraffe boob shoved up against her face and mussing up her dreadlocks. “You seem pretty okay with that,” She muffled.\n\nLaila huffed, “My pack started dillin’ my pickle, if you get my meanin’. It’s one thing to smash water balloons on a kid on a hot day, [i]that[/i] was fun, but they got too big for their britches. They were fixin’ to do really nasty stuff, started kickin’ like mules. Then they started expectin’ me to do it!”\n\n“Laila really started bullying people then,” Quincey added, “I remember that.”\n\n“My Alpha…” Laila continued.\n\n“Jimmy,” Daxton supplied.\n\n“[i]Jimmy[/i] was so mad at everythin’, just had a real mouthful of bees,” Laila continued, “He got outta control. Started breakin’ kids’ stuff, and if we didn’t do what he said he’d threaten to mess up [i]our[/i] stuff. Eventually I got tired of it, told him that if brains were leather he ain’t got enough to saddle a June bug.”\n\n“Yeah after he had you steal my STOP,” Daxton kind of grinned at her.\n\nCarrie leaned back a bit and looked up at Laila. “You stole a blind kid’s eyes?” She asked.\n\n“Oh she did other things too,” Quincey said, “She, um, well she took his clothes out of gym class once. Oh, and she destroyed his homework twice and stole his lunch.”\n\n“Wow,” Natalie wiggled, freeing herself from Laila’s grip.\n\nLaila sighed, “Jimmy told me to do it! And I just said I had enough of it didn’t I? So he kicked me outta the pack and started bullyin’ me. Figured I kinda deserved it at that point. Got me as nervous as a long-tail cat in a room fulla rocking chairs.”\n\nCarrie protectively held her tail in her lap.\n\n“Look the moral of the story is that I know what guys like him get comin’ to them eventually,” Laila raised a hand to end the conversation, “And it sounds like this guy deserves a whoopin’ from time to time.”\n\nQuincey sat back in her chair and frowned. “Still, I’m sorry…” She said.\n\nNatalie smiled at her. “Aww, don’t be embarrassed, it’s alright,” She insisted.\n\n“If anything, it was [i]super cool[/i],” Carrie added, “I never get to see anyone stand up to Cedric! It’s nice to watch someone else clean his clock for a change.”\n\nQuincey pulled at her sweater, her cheeks red, “Well I, um… I d-didn’t mean to scream and stuff…”\n\nDaxton made her squeak when he threw himself into her lap, wrapping his arms around her and sitting draped sideways over her legs. “It was pretty surprising, but hey, you were just upset,” He said, “I was pretty ticked off too. If you didn’t do it, I think I was gonna punch him in his smug face.”\n\n“You’d’ve had to beat me to it,” Carrie said.\n\nNatalie laughed, “Quincey, I think everyone in this room was mad enough to hit Cedric. That’s just what he does, you have to understand. He always pushes people like that; the difference is that you did something about it. That’s more than most people can say. Most people are too scared of him to do anything.”\n\nQuincey smiled a little. “Well, okay…” She said, “But what about the things he said? It really must be my fault that these things happened…”\n\n“I think these Eos guys would have come looking for a fight on their own,” Carrie shrugged, “And if that’s what they want, then, well… whatever, right? If Cedric can beat ‘em, so can we.”\n\n“It sounds like it’s causing Echelon a lot of trouble…” Quincey said, hugging herself to Daxton.\n\nNatalie chuckled again, “God, [i]everything[/i] is causing Echelon trouble. Don’t worry about it. We definitely need to talk to these guys though, maybe see if they’ll listen to reason.”\n\n“Doubt it!” Carrie exaggerated a cough.\n\n“Double doubt it,” Laila added.\n\nQuincey shrugged her shoulders, her eyes lowered. “I guess it’s worth a try,” She said.\n\n“That’s the spirit!” Natalie smiled, before she tilted her head somewhat, “By the way, where’s that other guy? Kenny?”\n\n“Oh he’s mad,” Quincey answered, “Like, really, really mad.”\n\n“Yeah but he’s just worried,” Daxton gently brushed his fingers through Quincey’s hair, “About you. He gets really freaked out when any of us are in trouble.”\n\n“Well hopefully he’ll cool down soon,” Natalie said.\n\n“Doubt it,” Carrie coughed again.\n\nNatalie gave her girlfriend a sideways glare, but then returned to Quincey. “Well, we’ll just have to deal with this Eos problem. We’ll talk to them tomorrow, then I think we should help that detective,” She said.\n\n“Oh, right, her,” Daxton said, “What’re we gonna do?”\n\n“I’m thinking we can go back to that camp and take some pictures,” Natalie said, “We can’t do anything to these guys directly until we have Harbington on our side. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? So if she can prove that Eos is a bunch of phonies, then maybe we’ll have the in we need.”\n\nThe others in the room looked at one another for silent agreement. They all nodded their heads and murmured that it was a decent enough idea. It was perhaps less direct than Carrie would have liked, but she knew when fisticuffs wouldn’t solve everything. Even if fisticuffs was tremendously more satisfying.\n\n“Well hey, we can do that thanks to the new PETs we got,” Daxton said, “Thanks for that by the way.”\n\nCarried shrugged, “No problem.”\n\n“Well that sounds like a plan,” Natalie nodded, “Just, we’ll have to do it after school one day.”\n\n“Ugh, school,” Laila grumbled, “We got like two weeks of homework on our PETs.”\n\n“Well I guess you’ll have something to keep you occupied then!” Carrie said, reaching across Laila and grabbing hold of Natalie. The wolf yelped as she was pulled across Laila’s lap and kissed by her girlfriend.\n\n“Now if you’ll excuse us, we were in the middle of something,” Carrie giggled.\n\n-\n\n--\n\n-\n\nQuincey barely slept that night. She was kept up tossing and turning by her imagination. Little voices in her head nibbled at her fears and she couldn’t get comfortable. What sleep she did get was fairly short with unpleasant dreams pushing themselves upon her. Duplex couldn’t help, it wasn’t strong enough to do so. It was somewhere in there, in her dreams, in her body, doing something… probably just resting. Quincey wished she could rest, but it was no use. Cedric, Eos, it was more than she was used to putting up with.\n\nShe wasn’t sure what she needed, but she needed something. Maybe it would have been enough if it all just went away, but it wasn’t going to. Something needed to change or adjust. At the end of that trail was her. She needed to adjust, she chose to keep Duplex and she’d chosen not to leave Locksmouth. Whatever came after that was on her, no matter how hard she tried to think around the fact. Perhaps that meant some sleepless nights, an upset tummy, and some headaches. Normally on days like that she’d have a nap, but that probably wasn’t going to happen. Something was going to come up.\n\nShe awoke in the morning in the big canopy bed with Daxton. Somehow he was fast asleep, probably because he was confident that things would turn out alright. He always was the forward-thinker, even if he was wrong. Quincey carefully dragged herself out of bed and found the loose tank top she’d been lent and slipped it on. It was enough to keep the cold air from nipping at her too badly, and she left the bedroom quietly so as not to wake Daxton. What she’d do with the time she had? She wasn’t sure. All she knew is that she couldn’t get any more than the couple hours sleep she had managed.\n\nLaila was sleeping in the guest room, snoring as she always did, her body sprawled out all over the bed, just long limbs everywhere. She must have been exhausted just trying to keep everything together like she always did. She was always so quick to remind everyone what they should be focusing on, keeping everyone on track, comforting through intimacy. Even if she had a selfish slant to her, she was a good girl. Quincey felt bad for dragging her into things, but looking at her on the bed? Quincey wouldn’t have thought anything was wrong. Laila was just Laila, like always.\n\nAnd then there was Kenny, who had slept on the sofa by himself because he was too frustrated to have company. Quincey went downstairs into the living area to see how he was doing.\n\nHe wasn’t there.\n\nAn empty spot remained where Kenny had once balled up for sleep. Quincey looked and listened but could see or hear any sign of him. Still, she wandered the apartment, passing by the bathroom slowly to see if the boy was in there. She peeked into the kitchen to see if he was eating. She looked in every room and even tip-toed back upstairs to check again. He was absolutely nowhere to be found, and Quincey didn’t want to yell for him and wake the others.\n\nAs carefully as possible Quincey stepped outside the apartment. Kenny was nowhere up or down the hall, so Quincey made her way down the access stairs and into the lobby. From there, she went outside. The morning was sunny and warm, but on her bare skin it felt a bit nippy. She wrapped her arms around herself and stepped out onto the stoop, stopping there and looking all around for any sign of Kenny. Again, he was nowhere, so Quincey doubled back to Kelvalde’s apartment.\n\nShe carefully snuck back into the room she slept in and grabbed her new PET. It was so new and sleek that its black frame nearly slipped out of her hands when she held it. She hurried as quiet as could be back to the living area to sit down on the sofa where Kenny’s warmth had long since vacated. She dialed Kenny and waited, feeling a little forlorn as she stared back at a still image of a featureless shadow with a big question mark on it. She still hadn’t gotten a picture of Kenny to put in there, and he hadn’t been in the mood to get one taken.\n\nThere was no answer. After enough ringing tones, the call just dropped itself. Quincey tried calling again to the same effect, and then she started to get worried. Kenny had just disappeared! How could that have happened? Why? Did he leave on his own or did something happen to him? Quincey tried to figure this out on her own just by doing a second look-around. She very narrowly remembered that Kenny kept his sword in the kitchen, the one he’d taken from the museum. It was gone too. Quincey’s heart thumped. What happened to him?\n\nShe went back upstairs with a bit more urgency, walking back to her bed and shaking Daxton’s shoulder. “Daxton!” She whispered, “Daxton get up!”\n\nDaxton groaned a little and rolled onto his back. His hair fell back from his face as he lifted his head like he was looking at her, but of course he wasn’t. “What? What?” He mumbled, rubbing his face, “What’s wrong?”\n\n“Kenny’s gone!” The girl explained, “I can’t find him anywhere!”\n\n“… Gone?” Daxton puzzled, “Like… gone-gone?”\n\nQuincey nodded and grabbed Daxton’s hand, pulling him out of bed. The still half-asleep boy stumbled to his feet. He grabbed for his hat on the way on the bedside table but missed it, so he just swayed a little on his feet as Quincey held his arm.\n\n“Yes, gone-gone!” Quincey repeated, “Daxton what if something happened to him?”\n\n“Did you call him?” Daxton asked, grabbing blindly for his hat.\n\nQuincey nodded again, “Yes! He didn’t answer both times I tired.”\n\n“God damnit Kenny…” Daxton sighed, finally snagging his hat after leaning over the table. He put on the knit cap and sight came to him. He turned to Quincey and put his hands on her shoulders. “Let’s go look for him,” He said.\n\n“Yeah,” Quincey nodded. She turned and left the room to duck into Laila’s room and wake her as well.\n\nThey got up, got dressed, and hit the streets of Locksmouth to find the lost little lemming, but they had no idea where to start. They didn’t know every nook and cranny that Locksmouth had to offer, they didn’t know where Kenny would have gone. No one place seemed any more likely than the other, and they could only pray that he hadn’t been taken away or got into some kind of trouble. Would Cedric have tried to take him again? Given how terrible he clearly was, that was a likely possibility. But then if that wasn’t the case, would Eos have tried something? They clearly weren’t above kidnapping humans, they’d done it already… But that was just to get at Quincey, so what reason would they have?\n\nQuincey kept calling Kenny, just endlessly throughout the morning and never giving it a rest. She left him messages numerous times, just expressing to him that she was worried and how sorry she was for getting him involved in her problems. She couldn’t apologize enough, and the more she did, the more distressing it became. She had to have covered at least half of the Residential District of Locksmouth by the time the sun was hanging right over their heads, and there’d still been no sign of him. Quincey needed to hear something, she needed to know if Kenny was okay. She didn’t want anything to have happened and have it be her fault.\n\nFinally Daxton called Natalie, who answered between classes. “Hey, what’s up?” She answered, casual as could be.\n\n“Have you guys seen Kenny at all? Like, [i]at all[/i]? Because he wasn’t in the apartment when we woke up this morning.”\n\n“Huh?” Natalie blinked, “I dunno, let’s see…”\n\nThe wolf pushed a few buttons and numerous other calls were conferenced in. Carrie, Max, Erwin, Shelly, Jacent, Sam, Gren, she called anyone in her pack who would pick up. Numerous faces dotted the screen, crowding for space. The same question was posed to the group: had they seen Kenny?\n\n“Nope,” Carrie shook her head.\n\n“Who’s Kenny?” Shelly asked.\n\n“I haven’t seen him since yesterday dude!” Max said.\n\n“Where ever could he have gone?” Sam puzzled.\n\nThe answers all formed similar thoughts, all of them in the negative.\n\n“Maybe we should track Cedric down and punch him until he tells us where he is!” Carrie suggested.\n\nNatalie shook her head, “Cedric wouldn’t pull the same trick twice, he never has. Besides, he’d need more time, I’ve never beat his butt and had him come back within twenty-four hours. That wouldn’t add up.”\n\n“Maybe he’s desperate,” Jacent suggested.\n\n“Nah, if Cedric was desperate, he’d just get in touch with me himself,” She said.\n\n“The nuclear option,” Erwin supplied.\n\n“What did Kenny say last night?” Jacent asked Daxton.\n\nDaxton gave it some thought. “Well, he said he was fed up,” He said, “That he couldn’t handle all this crap anymore.”\n\n“Which would be alarmin’ if he didn’t say that every single darn day we’ve been out here,” Laila added.\n\n“He kept begging Quincey to reconsider, kept saying if she kept Duplex around that she was going to get hurt,” Daxton said, “We tried explaining to him that we still just couldn’t go home, and he kinda knew that, but…”\n\n“He doesn’t know what to do,” Jacent finished, “Kenny is likely in a state of confusion as he’s torn between his personal feelings and that of his pack; the things he wants, or needs, and what’s for the greater good. If I may be honest, it’s not completely unreasonable to think he’s done something rash.”\n\n“No, probably not…” Daxton sighed, “So he’s run away then.”\n\n“Well if he’s trying to just work out his own feelings, he couldn’t have gone far, right?” Natalie suggested, “I’ll call Murphy and get a Missing Person Report put out on him. He probably won’t be able to stay hidden long.”\n\nJacent pondered, “Knowing he’s safe would be beneficial, but would it really be wise to drag him back kicking and screaming? It likely won’t accomplish anything in the positive, or cause him to react any differently.”\n\n“God, what is his problem anyway?” Carrie huffed, “It’s not like the world is ending. Again.”\n\nDaxton kneaded the bridge of his nose. “Look, Kenny’s got some real problems, okay? He told me about them once,” He explained, “Kenny lost his mom when he was just a kid, and he had to move because everyone at school kept saying he’d killed her. I think it’s [i]kinda[/i] understandable if he’s got some major trust issues.”\n\nEven Laila and Quincey were surprised to hear this. Quincey covered her mouth.\n\nEveryone conferenced in the call was silent, until Shelly awkwardly looked away from her screen and said, “Ooookay, heavy…”\n\nDaxton frowned. “Yeah, he told me not to tell anyone, but I can’t just let you guys keep treating him like he’s a freak or something,” Daxton said.\n\n“Jeez, I’m sorry,” Carrie lowered her ears, “It’s not like I knew [i]that[/i].”\n\n“That sounds so sad!” Gren sniffled.\n\n“Yeah…” Natalie lowered her gaze a moment, “No, I think I get him a little better now. Look, we’ll find him, okay? The police will flip this dome upside down just to get him.”\n\n“We’ll help too!” Max offered, “I know everywhere there is to go around here! He can’t hide from the all-seeing eyes of the Magical Climber Kid!”\n\nHe spun his eyes in opposing directions.\n\n“Thanks guys,” Daxton said, “We’ll keep looking too.”\n\nDaxton ended the call and turned to the girls. Laila gave him a good smack upside his head, making him growl.\n\n“Y’coulda told us you dummy!” Laila insisted, “When a guy says ‘don’t tell nobody,’ he means ‘don’t tell nobody except for your best and most trusting friends!’”\n\nDaxton shook his head, “No, he made it expressly clear that I wasn’t supposed to tell you or especially…”\n\nQuincey dove into Daxton’s arms, bawling. Daxton hugged her with a crooked smile. “Especially Quincey,” He said, sighing. Daxton rubbed her back as the girl sobbed, just standing there on the midway in the Residential District as people passed them by and tried not to look at them or seem nosy. Laila exhaled and ran her fingers through her hair, just trying to figure out what steps could be taken from there, all while trying to think back on all the interactions she had with Kenny where she didn’t know about his mother. In hindsight it was pretty easy to suspect that Kenny’s strange behavior was all some deeply rooted issue with losing someone he loved. It would explain why he was always nagging them so much like an old mother hen.\n\n“I didn’t know [i]that[/i]!” Quincey insisted, “I… I thought he… well I mean, when we met him he…”\n\n“Was just lonely? Yeah I guess he kinda was,” Daxton pat Quincey on the back and tried to soothe her.\n\nLaila rubbed her chin. “So then, what? He don’t trust us?” She asked.\n\n“Nah, that doesn’t seem right,” Daxton said, “Kenny’s our friend, has been for years.”\n\n“He hates me,” Quincey frowned.\n\nDaxton shook his head, “He doesn’t hate you! Why would he hate you? Why do you always think he hates you?”\n\n“He just does!” Quincey pulled away from Daxton, angry with herself, “I made him come out here, and it’s my fault!”\n\n“It ain’t your fault, bacon-bits,” Laila said, “Ya’ll gave him plenty of chances to turn around and go home.”\n\n“Yeah but he wouldn’t because he didn’t want me being a big fat idiot!” Quincey practically yelled, tugging on the longer sections of her hair, “I’ve been so stupid!”\n\nDaxton stepped over and tried to comfort Quincey, as well as block her from the gawking eyes of a few passers-by. “Hey, you didn’t know, and Duplex said it was going to kill you,” He quickly reminded her, “He chose to stay out there, probably even though he wanted to go home so badly. He did it for you.”\n\nQuincey rubbed her teary eyes and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her sweater. Her lower lip pouted as she scrunched her brow into a determined look. “Well, I’m going to make it up to him,” She insisted.\n\n“How?” Laila asked.\n\n“By finding him myself!” Quincey said, “But first I have to do something…”\n\nQuincey tugged her PET out of her cleavage and started pressing on the screen in a fury. She dialed a number and waited for an answer. When she got it, it was Walter, her father. He looked surprised to see her face on the other end of the call, his beady little eyes blinking. He looked a little disheveled, his short black center-part on his head looking like he hadn’t bothered to comb it in a while. Since he was confined to Harbington, he wasn’t able to get to Locksmouth to work, so odds were he just lazily let himself sleep in terms of hygiene.\n\n“Quincey!” His jowls shook in surprise, “Sweetie, are you alright? Are you coming ho…?”\n\n“Dad, get me Cyril Page, the guy that was on the news,” She practically demanded.\n\nWalter’s eyes lit up in shock. “W-What could you want him for?!” He snorted, “Quincey, sweetie, please…”\n\n“I want to tell him to go shove his head up his butt,” She huffed, “Get him!”\n\nDaxton and Laila looked at one another in utter shock.\n\n“Quincey! What’s wrong with you?” Walter’s shock gave way to worry, and he practically started to sweat, “This isn’t like you! It’s got to be that Inkling! Please, sweetie, just come home so we can help you.”\n\n“DAD KENNY’S MISSING JUST GET HIM!!” Quincey screamed, startling Walter so much that he clearly dropped his PET on the floor. He scrambled to pick it up again, scared in ways he never thought possible.\n\n“R-Right away sweetie!” Walter fussed on his end, and Quincey ended the call.\n\nIf Daxton had eyes, they would have been staring at his girlfriend in shock and awe. “Whoa,” He breathed, “Quincey, wow. Just… wow.”\n\n“S-Sorry if I startled you,” The pig girl blushed, breathing heavily after having raised her voice like that, “I, um, never yelled at my Dad before but it looks like it works!”\n\n-\n\n--\n\n-\n\nWalter scrambled to comb his hair, practically yanking it out of his head in the effort. He threw on a baggy shirt and some old slacks and practically barreled down the stairs as he tried putting his socks on at the same time. Paula was in the living room just reading on her PET when Walter made impact at the bottom. This quickly got the woman’s attention, and she turned to regard her husband with question. “Walter, honey, what are you doing?” She asked.\n\n“I have to go!” He breathed an asthma-addled wheeze, “Hhhhave to go!”\n\n“What?” Paula stood up from the couch and approached the man as he struggled to get his shoes on, “Go where? Walter, what’s going on?”\n\n“Eos guy! Gotta… gotta get Eos guy for Quincey!” Walter wheezed. He kissed his wife on the cheek and nearly broke down his own front door, waddle-running onto the road and making a turn for the tram station. Paula had to blink a few times as her mind processed what had just occurred, her lips parted a little with words left unspoken.\n\nShe’d [i]never[/i] seen Walter move like that.\n\n-\n\n--\n\n-\n\n“Piglet, are ya’ll sure about this?” Even Laila had to put some oomph in her stride to keep up with Quincey as she marched on the commercial district.\n\n“Yes, I want breakfast,” The girl huffed and panted.\n\nLaila smacked her own forehead. “No I mean ya’ll should be waitin’ for Echelon!” She said, “She’s gonna wanna have words with this dingus.”\n\n“I can do it!” Quincey panted, “I can do it just fine! Then we’re going to go find Kenny and we won’t have to worry about it!”\n\n“Quincey you are being a little crazy right now,” Daxton insisted, “Maybe we should back up just a little bit.”\n\nQuincey stopped and turned on Daxton, almost causing her boyfriend to run into her. “If I’d just backed up a little bit before, Kenny wouldn’t have run away!” She said, “I can’t back up now, it’s too late! I… I gotta solve these problems on my own!”\n\nDaxton raised his hands. “Whoa, whoa, alright, calm down,” He said, “You’re going to make your nose run.”\n\n“It already is!” Quincey snorted, turning on her heels and continuing the march.\n\nDaxton took a slow and deep breath as Quincey left him in her dust, and he looked up at Laila who took her new PET out of the pocket on the jacket Casey had given her. “I’m callin’ Natalie,” She said.\n\n“Good idea,” Daxton nodded. Then the two of them hurried to catch up to the furious little pig.\n\nQuincey was tired of bad stuff happening to her and her friends. She knew that something needed to change and she knew that something had to be her – so she was going to take Daxton’s headstrong attitude as a lesson, and she just barreled forward. It was time for [i]her[/i] to happen to bad stuff.\n\n-\n\n--\n\n-\n\nQuincey had enough time to get on a train and head toward the mall, where she looked for something to eat while she considered what she was going to say to Cyril. She found a nice bagel stand in the mall and parked her butt on one of the stools set up in front, with Laila and Daxton sitting at either side of her. An elder badger manned the stall, and seeing the group sit down he turned his attention to them and gave them a curious rise of his bushy brow. Quincey ordered a BLT sandwich, Daxton got an egg and bacon, and Laila settled for something with some meat and cheese on it. As the bagel-maker whipped up the orders, Natalie called Quincey again.\n\n“Okay seriously,” The wolf said, “I understand that you’re kind of freaking out right now, but you can’t talk to them by yourself. At least conference us in, alright?”\n\nQuincey sighed, a little of her rage having subsided but she was still peeved as all heck. “I just want this over with so we can look for Kenny,” She said, “Sorry I couldn’t wait until after school.”\n\n“No, no, it’s alright,” Natalie breathed an assurance, “I get it, really. I just had to bail on a math test, but it’ll be fine. This is way more important than that.”\n\nQuincey’s PET rung, and the pig blinked. “I guess that’s them,” She said, the number belonging to her father, “Dad must have found them.”\n\n“Great, just patch us in when you’re ready,” Natalie said, ducking into one of the bathrooms at school for some privacy. Her body inked over so that Echelon could do the talking from that point, and the Inkling wolf fussed a bit as she ducked into a bathroom stall and closed the door.\n\nQuincey answered her other call to see Cyril, an old snow owl dressed up in combat fatigues. He had on a long-sleeve shirt, black of course, and some very dark blue pants. He stood with a straight posture, hands behind his back, yellow eyes gazing at the screen. He had no real hair to speak of, but his plumage was fluffy-looking, which kind of bunched up in the neck of his shirt. Even so, he looked strong and proper, like a gentleman almost… but then the face of any organization looked like that. He stood in what looked like a tent, probably one set up in Harbington somewhere.\n\nQuincey pulled Echelon into the call right away, so that Cyril was then looking at the Inkling as well. The man’s eyes narrowed as he studied Echelon’s visage. Behind Cyril was Walter, flustered and nervous and doing his best to get in-frame so that Quincey knew he was there, but a couple of Eos thugs kept pulling him away to keep him clear. Every Eos member there was armed with the same rifles as everyone else, even Cyril who wore his on his back. Neither Quincey nor Echelon were going to allow themselves to be intimidated by that.\n\n“Miss Abram… Echelon,” Cyril spoke the Inkling’s name with an unimpressed trill.\n\n“You must be Cyril,” Echelon spoke first.\n\n“And I didn’t think I’d be addressing you,” Cyril said, “Colour me impressed. I’d begun to think you were content to remain silent.”\n\nQuincey cut to the chase. “I’m not coming home,” She said, “And it’s my decision and mine alone. I don’t trust you, and I won’t let you harm Duplex.”\n\nCyril raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Harm Duplex? Why, I’d think that creature would deserve what’s coming to it after what it did,” Cyril said, “How am I to believe that what you say isn’t simply at the whims of an Inkling puppet master?”\n\n“I assure you that Quincey is in full control of herself,” Echelon explained, “Osoth was the kind of Inkling who might take control of her host, and those of us who remain aim to be nothing like her.”\n\n“An empty assurance,” Cyril scoffed.\n\n“Your bagels are ready,” A grumpy old voice came through Quincey’s end of the call, and she blushed in embarrassment as she turned away to get her food. Cyril looked just somewhat confused, but he wasn’t going to appear shaken or put off if he could help it. He just waited patiently, as did Echelon, for Quincey to finish her business.\n\n“Sorry,” She meekly said, “I’m just getting breakfast.”\n\n“Well I’m glad they’re treating their prisoners well,” Cyril commented.\n\n“I’m no prisoner, I can go wherever I want,” Quincey insisted, “And where I don’t want to go is anywhere near you. We found your camps out in the woods, we know you guys let aliens into Harbington on purpose. There’s no way I’d go anywhere near shady people like you.”\n\n“Such wild accusations, and preposterous at that!” Cyril argued, “Why would we put our fellow humans in jeopardy? There’s no benefit to such a thing! And no prisoners? I won’t believe that for a moment.”\n\n“She speaks the truth, Cyril,” Echelon nodded, “We are not the same creatures who once invaded Locksmouth. I will not pretend that the struggle for our independence of our former leader hasn’t left us appearing… less than favourable, but I assure you these instances are internal. Humanity is not our enemy.\"\n\nCyril turned and took a few paces to one side. “Ah, yes, well, as it turns out I’ve no reason to believe you,” He said, “I received reports yesterday of a kidnapping? My men moved in to retrieve the captive and were attacked in brutal fashion by one of your cohorts. Perhaps this will jar your memory.”\n\nCyril pushed a button on his PET, which has been hooked up to a large-scale projector. Inserted into the call was a video that played before Quincey and Echelon both depicting Cedric's abduction of Kenny, from the moment he picked the boy up and carried him off to the violent fight between Emnas and the Eos soldiers. The footage looked to already be cut and edited in such a way that it showed the important parts and left out the rest. It emphasized Emnas’ cruelty and merciless manner in which he dispatched the members of Eos and sent them packing.\n\nWhen it ended, Echelon tried not to sigh. “Emnas is not part of what you might call my faction,” She explained, “His actions don’t reflect upon my interests or character.”\n\n“My men were injured, rather severely, at the hands of your ilk just trying to save a boy,” Cyril sneered, “If what you say is true, then where is Kenny now? What do I tell his father?”\n\nQuincey and Echelon paused, and Daxton palmed his own face out of frame.\n\n“We… don’t know,” Quincey explained, “Kenny ran away this morning.”\n\n“A likely story,” Cyril said, “Honestly you Inklings should be able to think up better lies than that. You seem certain that you’re taking care of your captives, so where is he?”\n\n“It’s true!” Quincey said, “We’re looking for him already, and look! Daxton and Laila are with me right now! And Echelon’s at school! I couldn’t be freer!”\n\nQuincey panned out the shot so that Daxton and Laila could be seen. They waved to Cyril.\n\n“Hey, dick,” Daxton said, “Inkless guy here, you know, the one your guys captured and took to that camp?”\n\n“I haven’t any idea what you’re talking about,” Cyril assured him.\n\nDaxton took a bite of his sandwich and carried on with his mouth full, “Suuure you don’t, jerk. Listen, we know about you, and it’s only a matter of time before we make sure everyone else figures it out too. Also, thank that Garrison asshole for rearranging my jaw. That was real nice of him.”\n\n“Ya’ll better scoot your butts outta Harbington,” Laila added.\n\nCyril closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. “Echelon,” He began, “As far as I see it, your thinly veiled lies are an utter refusal to release your prisoners into our care. That is, in fact, as far as [i]anyone else[/i] sees it as well. You are in no position to demand anything from me.”\n\n“She’s not demanding anything, we are!” Quincey protested.\n\n“You have twenty-four hours. If you fail to comply by that time we will be forced to take action,” Cyril pressed the matter.\n\n“Uh, no, hey, excuse me? No you won’t.”\n\nEchelon pushed a button on her PET and Officer Murphy appeared on the screen, looking seriously unimpressed with what she was listening to. She glared her blue eyes into Cyril, unwavering. “You terrorists aren’t welcome within one hundred feet of our dome,” She explained, “We’re not going to entertain your false sense of heroism, nor are we going to believe that you’re acting in our best interests,” She bore into him, “I’m not sure you’ve kept up with the news recently, but inked citizens are protected under the full extent of the law in Locksmouth. If you come in here and try anything, it will be considered an act of aggression and will be met with legal action.”\n\n“I’ve heard your declaration and find it insane,” Cyril regarded Murphy, “You’ll even let them do this after they assaulted law officials? I fear your leadership has lost its sense, Officer.”\n\n“Look, I know what you’re thinking,” Murphy went on, “We can’t do anything to you. You’re behind the people of Harbington, using them like a shield. You also have weapons that we don’t have. But you know what we [i]do[/i] have? Inklings. You take one step in here, and Echelon has full permission to turn you right around, as an arm of the law. In case you forgot, these Inklings are hosted by our citizens, and we [i]will[/i] protect our citizens Mr. Page.”\n\n“They’re [i]dangerous[/i],” Cyril argued.\n\n“So are you!” Quincey cut in, “The only difference is that when they’re gone, you’ll still be around! And then what will we do? You’ll have all the weapons and we’ll have nothing. We’ll be your Poland.”\n\nMurphy raised a brow at that.\n\n“Quincey has a point, Cyril,” Echelon agreed.\n\nCyril stepped over to Walter’s PET and placed his fingers firmly upon it. “We will not be swayed by your words, Inklings,” He insisted, “If you continue to insist on this course of action, then we’ve no choice but to consider you and your allies to be our express enemies.”\n\nEchelon narrowed her eyes. “I assure you Cyril, no one wants that,” She said, “We don’t want to fight with you.”\n\n“Well that’s very unfortunate for you,” Cyril said, “Goodbye.”\n\nCyril’s feed cut out and Quincey sucked in a breath. “That… went awful!” She whined, slumping in her seat.\n\nMurphy huffed, “I didn’t expect much more from a tight-ass like that. They weren’t going to reason with us in the first place.”\n\n“Well, hopefully your support will dissuade them from taking action,” Echelon said, “Though… with the difference in power, that’s probably unlikely.”\n\nThe officer sighed and nodded her head. “We’ll arrest anyone who we can prove works with those guys, but when it comes to a straight-up fight? No can do,” She explained, “That militia of ours was done away with, and we had to give up the power suits after… you know. We’re fish in a barrel if they decide to start shooting.”\n\n“Well, if they do that then they’ll be in the same position we are,” Echelon said, “Locksmouth would be against them in seconds. They’d lose any support they’d have in our home base.”\n\n“This is starting to sound like a war…” Quincey frowned, “That I’m stuck in the middle of. And now Kenny’s out there and he could [i]really[/i] be in trouble.”\n\n“You could be in trouble too, don’t forget,” Echelon reminded the girl, “We’ll need you to stay safe. Murphy, we’re going to collect some evidence of the activities Eos has been performing outside the dome. I’m going to bring a small force out there, and I’ll leave Carrie and Jacent here to protect Quincey and help hold down the fort.”\n\n“We’ll do what we can, but no promises,” Murphy said, “As for that kid, we’ve got his picture plastered all over the dome already. Everyone’s going to be looking for him.”\n\n“Thanks Officer,” Quincey said. Murphy gave a salute and ended her end of the call.\n\n“And Quincey?” Echelon spoke up, “Thank you for not telling Cyril to shove his head up his own butt.”\n\n“Ah, um…” Quincey flustered, “S-Sorry.”\n\n“That’s alright,” Echelon laughed, “Just be sure to tell him the next time you see him.”\n\n-\n\n--\n\n-\n\nWalter wasn’t sure what to think, having just witnessed that call in its entirety. When Cyril turned to face him, he straightened up, and when the owl took a step, Walter stepped back. He could have denied the Inklings all he wanted, he could have wanted Quincey to come home all he wanted, but after listening to his daughter explain the wrongs that Eos was likely capable of, he started to second-guess his support for the call to action. Quincey seemed a lot like herself, and he’d seen Duplex that one night in her room. He couldn’t believe in his heart that it could seem so much like Quincey and somehow not be her.\n\nShe even dropped one of those historical references… or, well, he thought she did, regarding that Poland thing. He really wasn’t as read up on the subject as she.\n\n“So, I, uh, I want my PET back!” Walter demanded.\n\n“No,” Cyril said simply.\n\nWalter wanted to shout, but he was grabbed at either side by the two soldiers guarding the tent and escorted out with his ankles dragging through the dirt. His yelling and screaming at Cyril faded into the distance and was cut off suddenly when he was thrown to the ground. After his “kind” removal from the premises, Cyril’s call picked up.\n\n“Chief? I have a call for you to trace,” He said.\n\nWalter picked himself up off the ground and brushed off his clothes, shaking his fat fist at the armed thugs as they left him behind. “You barbarians!” He yelled, “I shouldn’t have trusted you! Don’t you dare touch my little girl! Are you listening to me?!”\n\nAn officer looked over his shoulder from nearby, but a gentle hand caught his cheek and guided his eyes back toward the face of a young husky who leaned up against his squad car parked by the University, ornate cane in hand. “Oh, please,” Kelvalde smiled warmly at the man, “Tell me a little more about what you do… I’ve never seen the inside of a police station before.”\n\n“It’s about the only place without Eos crawling around right now,” The officer blushed.\n\n“Oh,” Kelvalde turned his attention to the officer’s chest, placing a gentle hand upon it. Being a rather large ape, the officer had some serious pecks underneath that uniform. Kelvalde didn’t hesitate to knead them just a little. “Nice and private, is it…?” He asked.\n\n“Uh,” The officer blushed harder, “Well, I mean, there’s not a lot of criminals, so…”\n\n“I think that will do just nicely,” Kelvalde gave the man a toothy grin, “When are you off?”", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "\tDilapidation in a dome city became more common the further from a sector’s center you got. Human impulse had always been to expand outward, and so the middle of a dome would normally contain a dense number of buildings whereas those on the outside were sparser. Locksmouth had its fair share of old and abandoned buildings. In the 2300’s the dome city had an optimistic outlook on its future in science and industry. They expected to attract several diggers to uncover the past buried beneath the city, they expected to ride longer on a monumental wave of technological advancement that had swept up the era. Somewhere that all ended, and all the buildings made to house the people who never came remained empty.

\tWere there more public service workers, this may not have been a problem. However, skilled labourers were increasingly hard to come by, generating the need for inter-dome businesses to supply landscapers and construction workers to every dome they could in an area. It was generous work if one could handle the heavy workload. Most people weren’t prepared for such a demanding business, creating a shortage of muscle and a surplus of creativity and logical minds in its stead.

\tAn area on the far reaches of the residential sector housing a grand number of empty homes and apartments had gained the moniker of “the slums.” It looked about as run-down as its name implied, with the grass being let to grow too long and paint sometimes peeling off the buildings. Water still ran, plumbing still worked, electricity got to every home in the area… but there were no stores, and no local residents to make up a neighbourhood. The slums were practically a ghost town, given a wide berth both naturally as no one had any reason to travel out that far, and simply due to a bad reputation brought in by the few people who did go out there to be away from as much human contact as possible.

\tCedric Onyx may as well have been the poster boy for the slums. The badger was tall and moody, broad of shoulder and purple of hair. Teachers called the teenage boy a trouble-maker, the police called him a scoundrel, and Natalie called him The Worst Ever. He had a loose relationship with rules or regulations, took things that didn’t belong to him, bullied other kids… there were very few like Cedric in a world where people saw the need to work together, where there weren’t many people to go around. Where the small fish had learned to share the pond, Cedric opted more for the big fish lifestyle.

\tEvery now and then he would find someone who saw things the way he did. He’d find other youths who didn’t quite fit with society’s stringent expectations. Anyone who had broken the rules, anyone who was ever told that the way they thought was improper, Cedric would find them and they would end up in the slums. The place became something of its own society, where these rule-breakers and trouble-makers co-existed. Somehow their innate desire to disrupt the status quo hadn’t simply destroyed them all.

\tAnd of all the “bad kids,” Cedric may as well have been the mayor of the place with his right and left hands, Coul Sael and Alliston Madriccie.

\tKenny was exactly the kind of person who would have ended up there under any other circumstance. He was abrasive, he’d experienced things that no one else had, and the way he’d turned out for it was a way that was “wrong.” Instead of being welcomed there by invitation however, Kenny found himself taken there by force. Cedric was the host of an Inkling, and lorded over the lemming boy with the potential awesome might that brought. Kenny had little choice but to comply… even if Cedric didn’t use his powers, the guy was strong and could easily out-muscle his rodent captive.

\tHe was taken to one of many abandoned houses that had been broken into. It was empty save for Cedric and his two cronies, who must have squatted there. The place was pretty Spartan even by the utilitarian standards of most folks. There weren’t any decorations on the walls, there weren’t any more than three seats at the tiny kitchen table, and each resident’s personal belongings were squirreled away into their own corners of the home and messily organized. There were no paper books, no games, no toys; the only things there were what they needed to live, and a number of lunches they’d taken from other students.

\tThey didn’t give Kenny any chance to sit down or get comfortable. They pushed him into the front door and had him stand in the foyer and explain all he could about Duplex, his packmate’s Inkling, and Epheral, the Inkling Boogieman that was supposedly coming for them. Cedric was large and in charge, gruffly dragging everything he could out of Kenny with threats of harm should he fail to comply. As angry as that made the boy, he gave his captors everything he knew, from Duplex’s supposed origins as Osoth’s personal lackey, to Epheral’s apparent crash-course with Earth.

\t“An Inkling Core, y’say? And ye say it’s not in any Inkling?” Alliston couldn’t wrap her head around the concept of Epheral. She sat on the counter of the bare kitchenette peering out at the boys.

\t“Impossible,” Cedric crossed his arms, “That would be like a human brain with no body.”

\tCoul made his way into the kitchen as well to sit up with Alliston. “Like a brain in a jar, from those sci-fi sims,” He said.

\t“Except this knave isn’t in a jar, so it’s not possible!” Alliston argued, “Floe’s sayin’ it can’t be done.”

\t“Well so’s Vissage but they could just be wrong,” Coul shrugged.

\t“Epheral could simply be a tale spun by some Osoth sympathizer,” Cedric suggested, turning his mean stare to Kenny, “It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve been skulking around.”

\t“What’re you looking at me for?” Kenny huffed, “I’m not the one with the freaky Inkling here.”

\t“You said that this Duplex was close to Osoth,” Cedric reminded the boy, “I see no reason to trust it or anyone who’d work with it.”

\t“Hell I don’t trust any of you whackos!” Kenny barked back, “Are you done kidnapping me or what?!”

Cedric turned toward the front door and scanned the surrounding, empty neighbourhood. “No,” He said simply, “In fact, that air-headed butterfly should have already cried foul to Grayswift. If your pack cares at all about you, they’ll be coming too.”

“I can’t believe that bosomy lass thought we couldn’t see her!” Alliston said.

Coul laughed, “Yeah, I mean, hello! Your gigantic jugs don’t fit behind a mailbox!”

“Duplex will be right at my front door and then we can decide what to do with them,” Cedric said.

“Decide what to…?” Kenny scrunched his brow, but then he glared at Cedric and balled his little fists, “What do you mean by that?!”

Alliston bumped the ankles of her boots off the lower cupboard she sat atop. “Yer stowaway is going to bring the fleet right to our poopdeck,” She explained.

“Those Eos creeps,” Coul nodded.

“It’d be better to parlay and hand ‘er over,” Alliston gave herself an affirmative nod. Cedric just kind of grunted some form of an agreement.

Kenny paused a moment. “You want to send her home?” He asked. For once, it seemed someone was seeing things his way.

Cedric nodded. “We need to convince Grayswift not to make you our problem,” He said.

Kenny was confused, “This seems like a shitty way to get her to come talk to you.”

“There probably won’t be much talking, not with her,” Cedric muttered.

Kenny furrowed his brow, wondering just what kind of person Natalie was when something like this was deemed as necessary… but then even he could tell there was something going on there he couldn’t have fathomed. He moved a little toward one of the windows, but tried not to act too suddenly less he drew the wrath of Cedric and his lackeys. He leaned to gaze outside into the afternoon sun, seeing people milling about outside. They just wandered around, regular old men and women doing their thing. None of it seemed particularly useful however, cementing the idea in Kenny’s mind that the slums had no real sense of direction.

Someone walking by the window met eyes with him. They were far away so it was hard to say at first, but they definitely seemed to lock eyes for just a moment. Right after that the man hurried away, walking out of sight of the window. Uncomfortable with the view out into the midway, Kenny turned his attention to a second window covered by some dark drapery. He shuffled on over as subtle as could be, making very little sound as the others busied themselves on the PETs. Kenny was able to press his back flush to the wall and with a gentle nudge of a finger he pulled the drapes back.

Someone was right out there; it actually gave Kenny a start. It could have been a neighbor or something, but some avian woman in tight clothes was standing between the houses, closer to Cedric’s squat. Kenny let the drapes fall back into place and turned his attention indoors instead, deciding that the people outside made him even more uncomfortable than the people inside. “Are all the people in this dump creepy or what?” He asked.

“What’re ye squawking about?” Alliston looked back over her shoulder at Kenny and the boy shrugged.

“Oh I don’t know, everyone else in this part of town? Just skulking around, it gives me the creeps,” He said, “No wonder you live here.”

“Whaddya talking about?” Coul asked.

Cedric stepped back into the house and closed the door. He lowered his voice as he turned to Alliston and Coul, tilting his head slightly aside as a gesture toward a window. “Someone’s stalking the house,” He said, “You two, get up.”

The vixen and raccoon were on their feet in a moment, standing at attention in the kitchen. “What’s up?” Coul asked.

Cedric looked Alliston in the eye and mouthed two simple words: “Back door.” The pirate vixen gave the boy a salute and slunk off towards the back of the house. Coul was the next to receive instruction, but only a nod was given. Coul nodded back, and he got down real low behind the counters in the kitchen to duck out of sight. That left Kenny, who Cedric gave a stern look to and snapped his fingers. His firm point down was a clear instruction, and Kenny awkwardly lowered himself into a squat up against the wall, balancing on his toes.

Gentle breezes swayed the dark drapes as Cedric carefully made his way around the living area and closed them. He’d stand aside the windows and give a tug on the ties that kept the heavy curtains away from the window and simply let them fall into place.

“Five of them,” Coul’s voice fluctuated from somewhere in the living room, “I think they got weapons.”

“They’re here?” Cedric muttered mostly to himself as he moved back to the front door. Shadows passed by the windows, obscured by drapes and shutters. Cedric pressed up against the space just next to his front door as small as his broad shoulders could get, and in a moment the red-orange tinge of his Inkling spilled out from seemingly everywhere on his body to wrap him up like a protective suit. Burning yellows eyes peered out from his permanently scowling, cartoonish face. “The fools,” His dual-rendered voice groused.

“Hey, kid,” Coul appeared, or at least the Inkling version of him. It was strange to see him though, since the light seemed to bend around his body in a way that made him look like he was using some old-fashioned cloaking device. His Inkling eyes were cloudy white, same with his mouth. Kenny leaned away from the inked raccoon. “Don’t move a muscle, got it?” Coul asked. Kenny just gave the kid a once-over and curled his lip distrustfully. Either that was enough for Coul or he really didn’t care, because in a moment the boy was gone again, completely invisible.

“Fuckin’ Inklings…” Kenny exasperated.

Everything fell silent. It was so quiet that the droning of the ventilation system was easily heard like a whisper in the wind. Every now and then something would bump or tap, but no one moved and no one said a word. Some clumsy person outside cast a dull shadow into the room through the curtains over the window, the shape cast over the far wall toward the back end of the house, where everything broke into hallways and probably bedrooms. Kenny watched these shadows shift and stir, but otherwise remain still. They were getting ready for something, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what.

Cedric moved carefully to stand in front of the front door, then carefully extended his inked hand until he was straight-armed with his palm open. Kenny flinched as a loud thud came from the back of the house, and then the front door crashed open with a sudden impact. Two clueless Eos grunts barreled into the door with enough force to knock it down, coming face-to-face with the molten Inkling known rather publicly as Emnas.

Their sudden intrusion was returned with a hot blast of liquid fire launched like a bazooka against their chests and barreled them back out into the lawn. The shadow by the window took off in a flash as Emnas stepped outside to pursue his would-be attackers. That person, whoever they were, was followed by a couple more.

Kenny briefly pushed away from the wall as Alliston glided through the house, passing over the carpet like a figure skater. Her body was likewise inked over in an appropriately icy blue. Her pony tail flapped as she breezed by Kenny, causing the lemming boy to stumble back. He watched her skate right by and out the door, leaving a trail of honest-to-goodness ice in her wake. Kenny hopped over the trail to keep his footing and made for the door as well just to see what was going on outside.

Emnas marched right out into the lawn where he grabbed the two grunts he’d blasted outside by their scruffs and hefted them up off the ground. He held them up and smacked their bodies together as hard as he could. They grunted in pain and were thrown aside by Emnas, who turned to catch a volley of hard force blasts. He barely had the time to raise his arms up, and when the shots hit his ink dented and rippled over his arms, peeling away in small amounts. Emnas made a face like he was gritting his teeth, but he didn’t have any teeth to grit.

Alliston took a hard right after exiting the door, kicking up frost as she shred her own ice. She leapt into the air with a graceful spin unexpected by the three assailants that had come around the house after failing to get into the back door when a sheet of thick ice blocked the way. The icy inkling landed her axel and swept out her leg, slipping up the right-most of the trio where the left-most found himself struggling to keep his weapon out of invisible, grabby hands. The one in the center of the firing line centered on Emnas, but a hot glob of lava swallowed the barrel of his weapon, rapidly cooling into tough, glue-like slag that rendered the weapon useless.

Coul appeared and pulled the weapon out of the hands of a very confused blue jay in dark clothes. The little raccoon trained it on one of the twin pugs Emnas had dispatched and fired, hitting the man at center-mass and taking him clear off his feet. Emnas took the second, standing close enough to throw out his arm and knock the man’s weapon off balance. A hard-force burst took out one of the windows near Kenny’s head as Emnas began feeding the unwitting attacker left and right hooks. Planting his feet firmly, Emnas gave the man shattering blow after shattering blow, ones that tossed the man’s body around like a rag doll. He was helpless until Emnas decided he’d rattled his brains enough and released him, allowing the man to stumble around and then fall onto the overgrown grass.

Alliston skillfully dodged incoming rifle butts and thrown fists from the firing line, arching her back and twisting her body like a skilled gymnast to narrowly avoid what was coming. With a kick of her foot she pushed off and slid back, thrusting out her hands to send a chilling wave at the grunts’ feet. The grass beneath them froze into a sheet of ice where their combat boots found no purchase. They slipped and fell over one another like a trio of stooges, with Coul managing to pull the rifle, strap and all, off the one at the end of the line.

The boy fired one shot that jerked the weapon back against his chest, knocking the wind out of him and sending him to the ground on his butt. The shot flew wildly wide into someone else’s home. Emnas growled as he finished freshly knocking the lights out of the second pug grunt, “Watch what you’re doing you idiot!”

Coul vanished from sight before he could continue to get yelled at, but the rifle he carried bobbed in the air with him as he clearly scrambled to his feet and scampered away with the armadillo grunt’s weapon.

The three remaining assailants flailed on the ice until they found grass to grab hold of and drag themselves to their feet. Emnas and Alliston stood ready to attack, extending their hands to make one blast of ice and once blast of magma that collided in the air and hissed in a sudden cloud of thick steam that engulfed the three grunts. Only seeing a whip of a limb pass through the steam, the three of them were throttled. The sounds of their struggle were heard loud and clear outside of the obscuring mist, weapons were thrown out onto the lawn, and bodies were quick to follow. In mere moments the final of the five-man force was dispatched, landing in the grass with a groan and a roll. Eos’ forces writhed in pain in the dirt.

Emnas knelt down and picked one up by their shirt, the embers of his fury scorching the fabric and burning smoking holes into the otherwise fine shirt. He spoke one word of command as angrily as could be: “Leave.”

He threw the blue jay back harshly into the dirt once more. She bolted up in a panic with her companions who hurried to gather up the pug twins and drag them away. Those two canines would remember for a long time what had happened as they got the worst of it out of the bunch – clearly unconscious, their shirts had been burned right through to their chests where their fur had been seared off and their skin was badly reddened by burn.

They fled the scene gathering what weapons they could but were forced to leave some behind. Coul busied himself collecting them, becoming a floating bundle of APSRs. Alliston and Cedric watched the soldiers hurry off down the street, get into some vehicles, and leave. While this happened, Emnas receded into Cedric’s body and the badger’s eye caught a glimpse of a calico feline in a tweed suit just staring at him from across the street. The man smirked, folded his arm over his chest, and gave a bow to the boy before politely turning on his heels and walking away.

“Get that one,” Cedric pointed to the man, and Alliston reacted in a moment. She fired a volley of hard-packed snowballs at the man.

Whoever he was, he didn’t so much as flinch or pick up the pace. Instead, a vehicle screeched across the midway where it was parked, spewing sparks from its skiffs. Its strong metal frame dragged into place to perfectly block the attack. The snowy artillery pelted the metal with heavy thuds, and after that the man hurried off.

“What the?!” Alliston shouted, “I mean, blow me down!”

Cedric narrowed his eyes, a little bit of confusion playing on his frown. He looked to Alliston, who de-inked and frowned at him, both their minds working out what had just happened. Coul was the one to break them up by appearing behind them, his cloaking melting away into his body. “Well that’s that, they’re gone!” He said, “Those are Eos goons? What a bunch of losers.”

Cedric turned and gave the raccoon a smack upside his head. “That was only five of them,” He scolded the boy, “Five very stupid ones. If they come back, expect ten or more.”

“Ten?! More?!” Alliston and Coul looked mortified at the idea of it.

Cedric just stared them down. “Get back inside and wait for Grayswift,” He instructed.

“But what about…?” Coul started.

“Get inside,” Cedric repeated sternly.

Coul and Alliston gulped and hurried back inside. Kenny ducked back into the house quickly when their attention chanced back in his direction. He scurried into the house, jumped the ratty old sofa and landed on the uncomfortably saggy cushion. He crossed his leg and sat rigid, trying much too hard to pretend he’d not moved a muscle. Alliston and Coul didn’t really notice him – instead the vixen moved to the back of the house to thaw the door and Coul moved past to duck into one of the bedrooms with the weapons. Kenny heard him loudly drop them in a clutter, and when the raccoon returned he paced nervously around the living room.

Kenny wasn’t sure he could take much more of this. He was getting so afraid that it was causing him physical pain. His breathing was heavy for no reason at all, his chest heavy with the weight of mounting stress. He rubbed his temple, kneading the side of his head and closing his eyes, just trying to get a handle on himself. His ear twitched when Cedric closed the front door behind him, and he fidgeted uncomfortably. The idea that all the doors were closed somehow perturbed him more than it should have. He was feeling like a bird in a cage.

Cedric barely got to sit down at the kitchen table before a loud banging was heard at his door. It made Kenny jump, and he twisted with a start to stare at the door. Cedric just folded his hands together and stared straight ahead, making no move to get up and answer the door because he knew what was coming next. Carrie Oakenfield burst through the door a second later, barreling through with a hard shoulder, forcing the door to swing open and crash against the wall. One of its hinges broke.

“Cedric! Give back the kid!” Carrie yelled.

Kenny got offended for some reason. “I’m older than you!” He yelled back.

Carrie blinked and looked Kenny’s way as Natalie slipped in past her with Jacent. “Wait, what? Do you just let captives chill on your couch?” She asked.

Cedric breathed in deep and sighed. “You’re late,” He said.

“I had to pick up my muscle in case you tried anything,” Natalie supplied. Cedric looked tiredly at Jacent, who wasn’t sure if he should pose or try to look intimidating or whatever else.

“… Right,” Cedric pushed his chair out and stood back up again, “You just missed Eos.”

Natalie, Carrie and Jacent’s eyes widened a little and they all stared at Cedric. “What?” Natalie asked, “They were here? Did they attack you?”

“Worried about me?” Cedric huffed, “If you call that an attack, you’re weaker than I thought.”

“Hey, dick, we don’t know how they came at you, alright?” Carrie firmly pointed at the badger.

There was a fuss outside before Daxton pushed in past Carrie. He marched into the house fists clenched. “Hey Sebastian or whatever, where’s my packmate?!” He demanded.

“Over there,” Cedric gestured with a cant of his head, “Take him, he’s useless to me anyway.”

Daxton eased up as Kenny approached him from the living area. Alliston and Coul were right in behind him, just waiting for something to happen. Kenny walked right past Daxton and turned to walk outside without as much as a word. Daxton struggled to say something, or find some witty remark, but he came up short. He just stuttered on a few syllables, gave Cedric a firm pointing at, and then turned to hurry outside after his friend.

Natalie watched this in confusion. “If you’re just going to give him back, why take him in the first place?” She asked.

“Are you that dense? You know who this is about,” Cedric responded.

“Quincey,” Jacent suggested.

Cedric rolled his eyes. “The ape has some sense,” He said, “That’s Duplex, right?”

“What do you want with her?” Natalie got defensive.

Cedric crossed his arms, “I had a raid on my home and you’re wondering what my problem is? Someone brought these morons to our doorstep, and you should be just as concerned about it as I am.”

The tension in the room seemed to diminish by the second. Cedric wasn’t being all that combative if everyone was being honest. In fact he was the only one there who didn’t look ready to start throwing elbows. Everyone relaxed, at least as much as they felt comfortable doing in each other’s company.

“She’s here because she was being hunted,” Natalie said.

Cedric shook his head. “I heard her story, I don’t believe it. Are you going to constantly take in enemies and believe their pretty little lies?”

“Cedric we don’t have time to be paranoid right now and you know that’s the opposite of what we should be doing,” Natalie stepped up to the taller boy without fear, “Quincey’s one of us, and it’s her decision if she wants to leave. I’m not going to let you force her.”

“You’re going to stand in front of a refugee? You’re going to take responsibility for them?” Cedric rose a brow, “Are you going to take responsibility for the attacks on our people too? That’s rich. Go ahead, compromise everything you’ve done.”

Natalie grit her teeth. Cedric had a real knack for getting under her skin. “Yes, I am,” She said.

“It’s one thing that people are scared, we get it,” Carrie said, “But we can’t just let people come in and kick us around.”

“I want to talk to this Duplex,” Cedric ignored the feline and demanded Natalie’s compliance.

“So you can intimidate her?” Natalie shook her head, “Not a chance.”

“You say it’s her decision, I simply want her to be informed of the risks she’s taking with us,” He said. It sounded oddly paragon of Cedric, so Natalie knew something had to be up. She knew from experience that nine times out of ten, there was nothing to be gained by talking with Cedric.

“Hypocrite,” Cedric scoffed, “Call her what she is: a prisoner under your deluded idealism.”

Natalie huffed. Before she rose to anger, she took a few relaxing breaths. “You want to talk to her? Fine,” She said.

Carrie was a bit surprised, but she provided the stipulations, “You make one wrong move and I’m gonna…”

“Feed me my skinny jeans,” Cedric ended her sentence flatly and pushed past Jacent and Natalie in a march outdoors. For a second Carrie was blindsided.

“I need new lines,” She said.

Cedric stepped outside, seeing the rest of Natalie’s pack outside with the unfamiliar kids from Harbington. He silently watched as Kenny, the boy he’d snatched, argued with the other kids about whether or not they should stay. Natalie’s reptile mutt stepped off to clear room for Cedric as he marched right up to the group and got their attention by presence alone. Laila was the only one there taller than he was.

“Which one of you is Quincey?” Cedric demanded an answer, souring the mood of the Harbington pack right away.

To Quincey, Cedric was big and intimidating. She had to gather her nerves before she even claimed her own name. “I-I am…” She answered, nervously tugging at her sweater.

Cedric’s nose wrinkled immediately and he gave the pig a harsh study, looking her over from head to toe. “This?” He asked, “This… disgusting blob of a creature is Duplex? How could I have been worried about you? I can practically smell how pathetic you are from here.”

“Excuse me?” Laila cut in harshly, “You kiss yer mama with that mouth?”

“Buddy you’d best back off,” Daxton stepped in between Quincey and the badger, standing on his toes to get in the boy’s face.

“Hold on!” Natalie called out as she hurried out the door, waving her hands to get everyone’s attention. She rushed over to Quincey’s side and wrapped an arm around the girl, squeezing her close to protect her somewhat. “Quincey, this is Cedric. He’s a jerk,” She nodded her head slowly and spoke in deliberately clear terms, as if what she said was remedial knowledge for the people of Locksmouth.

“I’ll say,” Laila sniffed.

“He’s bonded with an Inkling named Emnas,” Natalie explained, “So, uh, Daxton? You might just want to step back. Don’t worry, if he does anything we’ll triple-team his ass so hard his head would spin.”

Cedric and Daxton quietly stared one another down, but eventually Daxton lowered himself flat onto his feet again and stepped back. He took the confused Quincey’s hand and held her close. Now she was being protectively hoarded by both Natalie on one side and Daxton on the other. They unknowingly held her aloft, since her legs were trembling and they wanted to give out. She was confused and a little scared that she was being approached so suddenly, and by someone so mean.

“Get out of Locksmouth, pig,” Cedric sneered.

Daxton perked his ears in a hurry, “Hey she…!”

“Keep quiet!” Cedric snapped at Daxton.

Quincey looked at Daxton, then quickly turned her attention back to Cedric. “S-Stop yelling at him,” She barely whispered.

Cedric got real close, glaring daggers at the girl, “Or else what?”

“J… Just stop,” Quincey kind of glared back at him.

Natalie stared Cedric down. “You said you wanted to talk, so talk,” She said.

“Very well,” Cedric puffed up his chest, “Because of you, Eos has gotten into Locksmouth and is putting every Inkling at risk. It’s your fault.”

Daxton opened his mouth, but caught himself and shut it. Quincey’s breath fluttered a moment, passing by her lips like she wanted to cry. She sucked in some courage though and stood up a little straighter. “A-Actually no, there’s… no evidence s-suggesting that I…” She started to explain.

“It’s just a coincidence then?” Cedric cut her off, “Do you expect me to believe that? A mysterious Inkling shows up at our door and armed forces that are moving against us just happen to get in right on her heels? You’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“And wolves are the worst,” He gave a glance Natalie’s way, who puffed up her cheeks.

Quincey watched Cedric warily. “You’ll just have to take my word for it… I-I came here because my Inkling wanted to meet with Echelon. She’s… going to help me save my Inkling’s life.”

“Please,” Cedric huffed, “I heard you were two Inklings in one, but that’s bull. That can’t happen.”

“Well it did,” Quincey said, “A-And they’re relying on me and Echelon to save its life so unless you want to kill an Inkling then you’ll back off.”

The porcine girl ducked her head down, unable to meet Cedric’s eyes when she spoke so firmly to him, because he scared her. Cedric soaked up this fear like a sponge and he raised his voice to make her flinch. “Your backwards lies aren’t going to work on me you Osoth drone!” He shouted at her, making her shrink back a bit. Daxton and Natalie held her and kept her from moving too far, but to her that felt like she was just shackled.

“Duplex isn’t like her, she… she broke Duplex’s heart,” Quincey insisted.

“That sounds like the worst kind of fanfiction,” Cedric shook his head.

Quincey sniffled and shook her head. “I’m not going back,” She said.

“Quinn, come on…” Kenny sounded tired, leaning in from aside.

“No,” She shook her head quickly, “I won’t.”

Cedric glared at her in disgust. “You spoiled child,” He said, “Don’t you realize what you’ve brought? You’re a threat to everything. Whatever you hoped to accomplish here has failed – Osoth is gone, an echo of the past. Your phony story about this Inkling core is nothing. All you’ve done is endanger everyone. All you’ve done is be a burden. You’ve brought them to me, and you don’t even apologize to my face. You’re worthless.”

“Alright that’s enough!” Daxton growled, releasing Quincey’s arm.

Cedric reached out and pushed Daxton’s head, shoving his hat off so it fell behind him. Without giving the boy a chance, Cedric then grabbed his shirt, shook him so his equilibrium was thrown off, and then shoved him away. Daxton kept his footing for a step or two but ended up falling to the ground anyway.

“Cedric!” Natalie shouted at the boy, letting go of Quincey just to get a back-hand from the badger across her face with no power pulled. That boy may have had skinny legs but he had a strong arm, the blow was enough to make Natalie stumble, bringing a hand to her cheek to nurse the sting of impact.

“Oh you son of a bitch!” Carrie hissed, marching on Cedric.

The badger was set to deal with Carrie when someone plowed into his middle, shoving him off-balance with a weight he wasn’t prepared for. Quincey let out a terribly angry grunt of exertion when she wrapped her arms around his mid-section and hoisted him up off the ground a good couple of feet in a couple of angry seconds. Cedric rose, then inertia took him as Quincey screamed and slammed his spine into the dirt, knocking a surprised gasp for air out of Cedric’s body. The un-Inked boy hit hard enough to bounce a little as he struck Earth. Quincey stumbled back after her throw, her face red as a tomato.

Cedric inked over, but before Emnas could even raise a hand, Arus slammed her foot hard into his chest and pinned him to the ground. “Go ahead,” She said, standing over him, “Fire away.”

“Cedgie!” Alliston cried, rushing ahead only to be grabbed by Jacent, who skillfully took spun her and twisted her arm behind her back. He held her tightly to him and kept her from moving, and Max had done the same to Coul by grabbing hold of the boy with arms and legs, holding on for dear life.

Quincey stepped back a couple of paces. “I’M NOT GOING BACK! I MADE UP MY MIND!” She screamed, “SHUT UP YOU IDIOT!”

Quincey stopped and looked around seeing all eyes on her. They were staring at her in shock. Not even her pack had heard her scream like that, so shrill and so hard that it hurt her throat. She looked so angry for just a few seconds, but it all washed away and was replaced by the faltering expressions of a girl pushed too far. Tears streamed down her chubby cheeks, she panted, and her face scrunched up as she tried to hold back her tears. She couldn’t, and she ended up breaking out in loud sobbing as she turned and ran from the yard, clumsily sprinting down the street as fast as her legs could take her. She was crying loudly all the way.

“Quincey!” Laila called after her, “Wait!”

Daxton got his hat back and stood up, looking down at Emnas and snarling. “Man, get fucked,” He spat, before hurrying off after his girlfriend. Kenny took up the ear, jogging after the lot of them.

Natalie couldn’t help but growl in her throat. “I hope you’re happy, Cedric,” She said, “Come on guys, let’s go.”

Everyone released their captives, with Arus being the last. She firmly shoved Emnas down, burying him a little in the lawn before stepping off. Emnas made no effort to stand against them, and with their leader deciding upon inaction, Alliston and Coul did the same. Everyone skulked off awkward and somber after Quincey, leaving Natalie behind.

“And if you get anywhere near her I promise you Emnas, you are going to regret it,” She didn’t even look at him when she spoke, “I promise you that.”

“You’re the one who’s going to regret this,” Emnas spat back.

Natalie grumbled in frustration, “Would it kill you not to be a complete ass for, like, five seconds of your life? God.”

Natalie hurried off after the group who had run off after Quincey since she was going in the wrong direction. Emnas rose from his place on the lawn, dirt flaking off his shoulders. The Inkling retreated back under the boy’s skin and Cedric pushed himself up to his feet.

“Ye want to go give them some payback?” Alliston asked.

Cedric marched right past his underlings, shoving them both aside roughly to get into the house. He pushed his hand into his lower back as he sulked inside. “Let them go,” He called back, “Hopefully Eos destroys them all.”

Coul and Alliston gave one another a concerned look before they followed their leader back into the house.

-

--

-

“Mwah!”

Carrie’s lips puckered on Natalie’s cheek and provided comforting smooches for seemingly the fiftieth time that evening. Natalie giggled and turned her head in a display of rejection that only succeeded in providing more of her cheek to kiss. Carrie did just that, peppering her girlfriend with more affection before nuzzling as a cat do. She rubbed cheeks with her canine companion and happily bumped and brushed her forehead against her too. Her tail whipped around and she purred her affection for Natalie.

“Oh my puppy,” Carrie burbled past a pout, “My poor puppu!”

“Stop,” Natalie laughed, “Don’t call me a puppu!”

Her cheek long since stopped stinging after Cedric had struck her. She was no stranger to pain, which in a way was shockingly unacceptable, but she could handle it. Carrie was undoubtedly even more capable of taking the abuse anyone would dish out, and she wasn’t commonly such a suck when it came to nursing the wounds later. In fact, she probably still wasn’t so emotional, and at that point her fussing over her girlfriend was just to tease and annoy. Still, it made Natalie blush and feel all lovey-dovey, so she didn’t try to stop her. The two of them cuddled on the sofa in Kelvalde’s apartment, feeling pretty isolated since most of their pack had gone home because it was a school night.

Max remained, and had busied himself on his PET while sitting upside-down in an arm chair with his feet up over the top of the back. Jacent insisted on staying behind as well to no one’s surprise because he couldn’t help but worry about others more than he worried about himself. It was getting late, and it wasn’t up to the pack to do all that work. That fell onto Natalie, the Alpha, who had consciously decided to help Quincey in any way she could. Carrie as the Beta and as her lover would support her no matter what, and Natalie would never have dreamed of sending her away, but the others had to go for their own good.

“Guys, it’s getting late,” She said, “You need to go home.”

“No I can stay too,” Max looked away from his screen. He yawned unconvincingly.

Natalie shook her head and gave him a look that was ruined by how Carrie’s forehead smooshed her cheek. “Max, you’re tired, and you’re going to be tired at school tomorrow if you don’t go to bed,” She said, “Don’t make me count.”

“Aww,” Max grumbled, tumbling from the armchair and somersaulting on the floor until he could push himself onto his feet.

“You too, Jacent,” Natalie turned her attention to the red-headed boy who tried to be as small as possible next to her and Carrie, trying not to somehow intrude on their affection. He was no less disappointed to be found despite not hiding his presence at all, but he stood from his seat even so, dutifully following his pack leader’s recommendations.

“If you’re certain,” Jacent said, giving a polite bow of his head, “Sleep well, Natalie.”

“Goodnight Jacent,” Natalie smiled.

“G’night,” Carrie peeked at Jacent and waved her fingers at the boys.

Jacent and Max left the apartment, and when the door closed behind them Natalie and Carrie got into a more comfortable position. They sprawled out on the sofa with Natalie laying back and Carrie cuddled up against her side. Natalie closed her eyes and idly played with one of Carrie’s ears, which the cat seemed to enjoy. For a while they just remained silent, taking a well-deserved rest after the last couple days’ events. It seemed far from over and they couldn’t really be totally off-guard, but for the very moment it felt they had some time to relax. Quincey hadn’t really been eager to talk after she returned home, and her pack was just tending to her to make her feel better. It had taken a surprisingly long time.

“So, you had a good day at the mall I hear,” Natalie spoke with a little smile.

Carrie gave her puppu a coy glance, “Mhm. Mm… You wanna hear about it?”

Carrie rolled over until she was pinning her girlfriend’s chest down with the considerable weight of her own. Natalie heart thumped as it always did when she felt those big fat kitty bosoms bearing in on her. They had a tendency to completely overtake Natalie’s smaller chest, bunching up in Carrie’s top with deep cleavage, and she really enjoyed that. Her legs were likewise pinned under Carrie’s body to assure her she wasn’t going anywhere, and the cat adoringly stroked Natalie’s shoulder and collar with one hand. It was as much a display of affection and closeness as it was a mildly domineering pin with some kitty coy thrown in for good measure. Carrie’s tail waved in the air above her in an interested motion.

“No,” Natalie insisted, but her cheeks’ red tint said otherwise. Every now and then Natalie would hear stories about the sorts of OC her girlfriend got up to. Seldom did she ever actually ask to hear about them, but every now and then she’d be genuinely interested. Laila was a good-looking girl by nearly every step of the imagination, and even Natalie had to admit that getting down with someone so much bigger and taller than her was a thrilling idea. It could have felt like a conquest, like climbing a mountain.

Carrie got comfortable, putting some thought into an analysis. “Well, I think you’d like her boobs,” Carrie said, “They’re pretty nice.”

“But not as good as yours,” Natalie supplied.

Carrie looked shocked at the thought. “Oh god, no!” She insisted, “Mine are the fuckin’ best. But you’re a titty-monster and I know you’d love one handful as much as five.”

“And man, it’s weird when someone’s so big,” Carrie reminisced, “She’s like six and a half feet tall or whatever? She just looms over you. And she was nuts – she just wanted us all to go at her as hard and as often as we could. She’s as bad as Erwin.”

Natalie raised her eyebrows. “That bad?” She asked, bewildered, “No way.”

“Yeah way,” Carried nodded insistently, “And, the other cool thing? She’s got a huge tongue like Sam’s. And the first, like, half of it is like dark purple for some reason and she can move it all around. It felt great on the sticker, and she can down you in a second. I figure she practices on zucchinis back at her farm.”

“It’s always the farm girls, isn’t it?” Natalie grinned.

“Psh!” Carrie pinched her fingers together in a prissy gesture, “Uh, I can do that too? My neck just isn’t as long.”

Natalie gave a teasing pout and reached up with both hands to rub Carrie’s ears. “Oh I know,” She burbled at her like she were a kid, “You’re such a good slut! Yes you are!”

Carrie laughed and shoved her face against Natalie’s neck, dragging her teeth over her fur to make the wolf squeal. “You love it, bitch,” She insisted, nipping and biting at Natalie’s neck and throat to make her squirm and fuss and squeal.

The two of them were interrupted when Quincey and her pack came down the stairs, finally emerging from the bedroom. Carrie and Natalie smiled at one another before moving to sit up and welcome them back. Quincey, Laila, and Daxton came down but Kenny was oddly absent.

“Well speak of the devil and she shall appear!” Carrie smirked, “Hey Quincey, how you doin’?”

Quincey moved to the arm chair Max had once been in and heavily landed in it. She blushed and said, “I’m, um, okay. S-Sorry… about earlier, I just...”

Natalie smiled big, “You just kicked Cedric’s butt!”

“Yeah good job!” Carrie said, “You practically broke him in half!”

“I haven’t seen a hit that big since Jess took the championship, Carrie,” Natalie gave her girlfriend a sideways glance.

Carrie grinned big. “In all my years as a sportscaster,” She joked.

Quincey was confused. She watched the two of them ham it up like her outburst was no big deal and she was honestly perplexed. “It’s… okay? But I…” She started to say something, but lost it a little later.

Daxton sat on the coffee table across from Quincey, his coat removed for his muscle shirt that showed off his strong arms. Carrie noted he wasn’t as built as she was. “Well he was being a real jerk,” Daxton said, “Normally you’d get me to deal with guys like him, but you did it all on your own!”

Laila inserted herself between Natalie and Carrie, forcing them to make room for her. She crossed her legs and threw her arms over their shoulders, kind of goofing it up herself. “What is that little fella’s problem anyway?” She asked, “He got some kinda chip on his shoulder the size of a ham or what?”

“Wow, I never thought I’d hear someone call Cedric a little fella,” Natalie snickered.

“Dude’s a straight-up bully,” Carrie answered, “So don’t feel bad about rearranging his vertebrae, he deserves it.”

“But he’s an Inkling like you,” Quincey blinked.

Natalie and Carrie chuckled at the notion. “Emnas is not like us,” Natalie said, “I wouldn’t consider him to be on our team.”

“A bully, huh?” Laila removed her arm from Carrie’s shoulders and scratched an itch on her nose, “Aw well, guys like him don’t win. Surprisin’ enough? If you’re always tryin’ to under-cut someone, you reach rock bottom before they do, I reckon.”

“How profound,” Carrie said.

Daxton shrugged. “Laila used to be a bully too,” He said, “So she’d know.”

Laila cocked a brow at that. “What, you know?” She asked.

Daxton laughed, “Well yeah, you’re hard to miss, stupid.”

Laila looked to Quincey for a response and the porky girl just nodded her head. “Oh, yeah, we know about you,” She said, “We always did.”

Laila looked confused, “Seriously? Darnit, you coulda told me!”

Carrie and Natalie just watched on, waiting for their opportunity to ask just what the other kids were talking about. Laila rubbed Natalie’s shoulder while she held the girl close for no real apparent reason – it seemed like she just couldn’t help but be warm and comforting, albeit a little forcefully. Natalie felt like she’d have a hard time getting away, so she didn’t try. Carrie was free to do whatever, so she nudged Laila and got her attention. “What, you were like Cedric?” She asked.

“Like him? Heck no!” Laila turned sharply to regard Carrie, pulling Natalie against her chest, “That boy’s the most ornery bull I ever laid eyes on! Could start an argument in an empty house and probably has, as little friends as he must have.”

“But I was bigger n’ everybody else when I was a kid,” Laila explained, “I could get away with anythin’ I wanted, so I just did whatever came into my head. Eventually I found these folk that kinda did the same thing so I went with ‘em. Didn’t even realize what we were doin’ was bullyin’, I thought we were just playin’.”

“At least until you decided to ‘play’ with Quincey,” Daxton said, “That’s kinda how I remember you.”

“Yup, then Daxton rearranged my Alpha’s priorities a lil’,” Laila chuckled, “With fists.”

Natalie struggled to look up, a healthy giraffe boob shoved up against her face and mussing up her dreadlocks. “You seem pretty okay with that,” She muffled.

Laila huffed, “My pack started dillin’ my pickle, if you get my meanin’. It’s one thing to smash water balloons on a kid on a hot day, that was fun, but they got too big for their britches. They were fixin’ to do really nasty stuff, started kickin’ like mules. Then they started expectin’ me to do it!”

“Laila really started bullying people then,” Quincey added, “I remember that.”

“My Alpha…” Laila continued.

“Jimmy,” Daxton supplied.

“Jimmy was so mad at everythin’, just had a real mouthful of bees,” Laila continued, “He got outta control. Started breakin’ kids’ stuff, and if we didn’t do what he said he’d threaten to mess up our stuff. Eventually I got tired of it, told him that if brains were leather he ain’t got enough to saddle a June bug.”

“Yeah after he had you steal my STOP,” Daxton kind of grinned at her.

Carrie leaned back a bit and looked up at Laila. “You stole a blind kid’s eyes?” She asked.

“Oh she did other things too,” Quincey said, “She, um, well she took his clothes out of gym class once. Oh, and she destroyed his homework twice and stole his lunch.”

“Wow,” Natalie wiggled, freeing herself from Laila’s grip.

Laila sighed, “Jimmy told me to do it! And I just said I had enough of it didn’t I? So he kicked me outta the pack and started bullyin’ me. Figured I kinda deserved it at that point. Got me as nervous as a long-tail cat in a room fulla rocking chairs.”

Carrie protectively held her tail in her lap.

“Look the moral of the story is that I know what guys like him get comin’ to them eventually,” Laila raised a hand to end the conversation, “And it sounds like this guy deserves a whoopin’ from time to time.”

Quincey sat back in her chair and frowned. “Still, I’m sorry…” She said.

Natalie smiled at her. “Aww, don’t be embarrassed, it’s alright,” She insisted.

“If anything, it was super cool,” Carrie added, “I never get to see anyone stand up to Cedric! It’s nice to watch someone else clean his clock for a change.”

Quincey pulled at her sweater, her cheeks red, “Well I, um… I d-didn’t mean to scream and stuff…”

Daxton made her squeak when he threw himself into her lap, wrapping his arms around her and sitting draped sideways over her legs. “It was pretty surprising, but hey, you were just upset,” He said, “I was pretty ticked off too. If you didn’t do it, I think I was gonna punch him in his smug face.”

“You’d’ve had to beat me to it,” Carrie said.

Natalie laughed, “Quincey, I think everyone in this room was mad enough to hit Cedric. That’s just what he does, you have to understand. He always pushes people like that; the difference is that you did something about it. That’s more than most people can say. Most people are too scared of him to do anything.”

Quincey smiled a little. “Well, okay…” She said, “But what about the things he said? It really must be my fault that these things happened…”

“I think these Eos guys would have come looking for a fight on their own,” Carrie shrugged, “And if that’s what they want, then, well… whatever, right? If Cedric can beat ‘em, so can we.”

“It sounds like it’s causing Echelon a lot of trouble…” Quincey said, hugging herself to Daxton.

Natalie chuckled again, “God, everything is causing Echelon trouble. Don’t worry about it. We definitely need to talk to these guys though, maybe see if they’ll listen to reason.”

“Doubt it!” Carrie exaggerated a cough.

“Double doubt it,” Laila added.

Quincey shrugged her shoulders, her eyes lowered. “I guess it’s worth a try,” She said.

“That’s the spirit!” Natalie smiled, before she tilted her head somewhat, “By the way, where’s that other guy? Kenny?”

“Oh he’s mad,” Quincey answered, “Like, really, really mad.”

“Yeah but he’s just worried,” Daxton gently brushed his fingers through Quincey’s hair, “About you. He gets really freaked out when any of us are in trouble.”

“Well hopefully he’ll cool down soon,” Natalie said.

“Doubt it,” Carrie coughed again.

Natalie gave her girlfriend a sideways glare, but then returned to Quincey. “Well, we’ll just have to deal with this Eos problem. We’ll talk to them tomorrow, then I think we should help that detective,” She said.

“Oh, right, her,” Daxton said, “What’re we gonna do?”

“I’m thinking we can go back to that camp and take some pictures,” Natalie said, “We can’t do anything to these guys directly until we have Harbington on our side. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? So if she can prove that Eos is a bunch of phonies, then maybe we’ll have the in we need.”

The others in the room looked at one another for silent agreement. They all nodded their heads and murmured that it was a decent enough idea. It was perhaps less direct than Carrie would have liked, but she knew when fisticuffs wouldn’t solve everything. Even if fisticuffs was tremendously more satisfying.

“Well hey, we can do that thanks to the new PETs we got,” Daxton said, “Thanks for that by the way.”

Carried shrugged, “No problem.”

“Well that sounds like a plan,” Natalie nodded, “Just, we’ll have to do it after school one day.”

“Ugh, school,” Laila grumbled, “We got like two weeks of homework on our PETs.”

“Well I guess you’ll have something to keep you occupied then!” Carrie said, reaching across Laila and grabbing hold of Natalie. The wolf yelped as she was pulled across Laila’s lap and kissed by her girlfriend.

“Now if you’ll excuse us, we were in the middle of something,” Carrie giggled.

-

--

-

Quincey barely slept that night. She was kept up tossing and turning by her imagination. Little voices in her head nibbled at her fears and she couldn’t get comfortable. What sleep she did get was fairly short with unpleasant dreams pushing themselves upon her. Duplex couldn’t help, it wasn’t strong enough to do so. It was somewhere in there, in her dreams, in her body, doing something… probably just resting. Quincey wished she could rest, but it was no use. Cedric, Eos, it was more than she was used to putting up with.

She wasn’t sure what she needed, but she needed something. Maybe it would have been enough if it all just went away, but it wasn’t going to. Something needed to change or adjust. At the end of that trail was her. She needed to adjust, she chose to keep Duplex and she’d chosen not to leave Locksmouth. Whatever came after that was on her, no matter how hard she tried to think around the fact. Perhaps that meant some sleepless nights, an upset tummy, and some headaches. Normally on days like that she’d have a nap, but that probably wasn’t going to happen. Something was going to come up.

She awoke in the morning in the big canopy bed with Daxton. Somehow he was fast asleep, probably because he was confident that things would turn out alright. He always was the forward-thinker, even if he was wrong. Quincey carefully dragged herself out of bed and found the loose tank top she’d been lent and slipped it on. It was enough to keep the cold air from nipping at her too badly, and she left the bedroom quietly so as not to wake Daxton. What she’d do with the time she had? She wasn’t sure. All she knew is that she couldn’t get any more than the couple hours sleep she had managed.

Laila was sleeping in the guest room, snoring as she always did, her body sprawled out all over the bed, just long limbs everywhere. She must have been exhausted just trying to keep everything together like she always did. She was always so quick to remind everyone what they should be focusing on, keeping everyone on track, comforting through intimacy. Even if she had a selfish slant to her, she was a good girl. Quincey felt bad for dragging her into things, but looking at her on the bed? Quincey wouldn’t have thought anything was wrong. Laila was just Laila, like always.

And then there was Kenny, who had slept on the sofa by himself because he was too frustrated to have company. Quincey went downstairs into the living area to see how he was doing.

He wasn’t there.

An empty spot remained where Kenny had once balled up for sleep. Quincey looked and listened but could see or hear any sign of him. Still, she wandered the apartment, passing by the bathroom slowly to see if the boy was in there. She peeked into the kitchen to see if he was eating. She looked in every room and even tip-toed back upstairs to check again. He was absolutely nowhere to be found, and Quincey didn’t want to yell for him and wake the others.

As carefully as possible Quincey stepped outside the apartment. Kenny was nowhere up or down the hall, so Quincey made her way down the access stairs and into the lobby. From there, she went outside. The morning was sunny and warm, but on her bare skin it felt a bit nippy. She wrapped her arms around herself and stepped out onto the stoop, stopping there and looking all around for any sign of Kenny. Again, he was nowhere, so Quincey doubled back to Kelvalde’s apartment.

She carefully snuck back into the room she slept in and grabbed her new PET. It was so new and sleek that its black frame nearly slipped out of her hands when she held it. She hurried as quiet as could be back to the living area to sit down on the sofa where Kenny’s warmth had long since vacated. She dialed Kenny and waited, feeling a little forlorn as she stared back at a still image of a featureless shadow with a big question mark on it. She still hadn’t gotten a picture of Kenny to put in there, and he hadn’t been in the mood to get one taken.

There was no answer. After enough ringing tones, the call just dropped itself. Quincey tried calling again to the same effect, and then she started to get worried. Kenny had just disappeared! How could that have happened? Why? Did he leave on his own or did something happen to him? Quincey tried to figure this out on her own just by doing a second look-around. She very narrowly remembered that Kenny kept his sword in the kitchen, the one he’d taken from the museum. It was gone too. Quincey’s heart thumped. What happened to him?

She went back upstairs with a bit more urgency, walking back to her bed and shaking Daxton’s shoulder. “Daxton!” She whispered, “Daxton get up!”

Daxton groaned a little and rolled onto his back. His hair fell back from his face as he lifted his head like he was looking at her, but of course he wasn’t. “What? What?” He mumbled, rubbing his face, “What’s wrong?”

“Kenny’s gone!” The girl explained, “I can’t find him anywhere!”

“… Gone?” Daxton puzzled, “Like… gone-gone?”

Quincey nodded and grabbed Daxton’s hand, pulling him out of bed. The still half-asleep boy stumbled to his feet. He grabbed for his hat on the way on the bedside table but missed it, so he just swayed a little on his feet as Quincey held his arm.

“Yes, gone-gone!” Quincey repeated, “Daxton what if something happened to him?”

“Did you call him?” Daxton asked, grabbing blindly for his hat.

Quincey nodded again, “Yes! He didn’t answer both times I tired.”

“God damnit Kenny…” Daxton sighed, finally snagging his hat after leaning over the table. He put on the knit cap and sight came to him. He turned to Quincey and put his hands on her shoulders. “Let’s go look for him,” He said.

“Yeah,” Quincey nodded. She turned and left the room to duck into Laila’s room and wake her as well.

They got up, got dressed, and hit the streets of Locksmouth to find the lost little lemming, but they had no idea where to start. They didn’t know every nook and cranny that Locksmouth had to offer, they didn’t know where Kenny would have gone. No one place seemed any more likely than the other, and they could only pray that he hadn’t been taken away or got into some kind of trouble. Would Cedric have tried to take him again? Given how terrible he clearly was, that was a likely possibility. But then if that wasn’t the case, would Eos have tried something? They clearly weren’t above kidnapping humans, they’d done it already… But that was just to get at Quincey, so what reason would they have?

Quincey kept calling Kenny, just endlessly throughout the morning and never giving it a rest. She left him messages numerous times, just expressing to him that she was worried and how sorry she was for getting him involved in her problems. She couldn’t apologize enough, and the more she did, the more distressing it became. She had to have covered at least half of the Residential District of Locksmouth by the time the sun was hanging right over their heads, and there’d still been no sign of him. Quincey needed to hear something, she needed to know if Kenny was okay. She didn’t want anything to have happened and have it be her fault.

Finally Daxton called Natalie, who answered between classes. “Hey, what’s up?” She answered, casual as could be.

“Have you guys seen Kenny at all? Like, at all? Because he wasn’t in the apartment when we woke up this morning.”

“Huh?” Natalie blinked, “I dunno, let’s see…”

The wolf pushed a few buttons and numerous other calls were conferenced in. Carrie, Max, Erwin, Shelly, Jacent, Sam, Gren, she called anyone in her pack who would pick up. Numerous faces dotted the screen, crowding for space. The same question was posed to the group: had they seen Kenny?

“Nope,” Carrie shook her head.

“Who’s Kenny?” Shelly asked.

“I haven’t seen him since yesterday dude!” Max said.

“Where ever could he have gone?” Sam puzzled.

The answers all formed similar thoughts, all of them in the negative.

“Maybe we should track Cedric down and punch him until he tells us where he is!” Carrie suggested.

Natalie shook her head, “Cedric wouldn’t pull the same trick twice, he never has. Besides, he’d need more time, I’ve never beat his butt and had him come back within twenty-four hours. That wouldn’t add up.”

“Maybe he’s desperate,” Jacent suggested.

“Nah, if Cedric was desperate, he’d just get in touch with me himself,” She said.

“The nuclear option,” Erwin supplied.

“What did Kenny say last night?” Jacent asked Daxton.

Daxton gave it some thought. “Well, he said he was fed up,” He said, “That he couldn’t handle all this crap anymore.”

“Which would be alarmin’ if he didn’t say that every single darn day we’ve been out here,” Laila added.

“He kept begging Quincey to reconsider, kept saying if she kept Duplex around that she was going to get hurt,” Daxton said, “We tried explaining to him that we still just couldn’t go home, and he kinda knew that, but…”

“He doesn’t know what to do,” Jacent finished, “Kenny is likely in a state of confusion as he’s torn between his personal feelings and that of his pack; the things he wants, or needs, and what’s for the greater good. If I may be honest, it’s not completely unreasonable to think he’s done something rash.”

“No, probably not…” Daxton sighed, “So he’s run away then.”

“Well if he’s trying to just work out his own feelings, he couldn’t have gone far, right?” Natalie suggested, “I’ll call Murphy and get a Missing Person Report put out on him. He probably won’t be able to stay hidden long.”

Jacent pondered, “Knowing he’s safe would be beneficial, but would it really be wise to drag him back kicking and screaming? It likely won’t accomplish anything in the positive, or cause him to react any differently.”

“God, what is his problem anyway?” Carrie huffed, “It’s not like the world is ending. Again.”

Daxton kneaded the bridge of his nose. “Look, Kenny’s got some real problems, okay? He told me about them once,” He explained, “Kenny lost his mom when he was just a kid, and he had to move because everyone at school kept saying he’d killed her. I think it’s kinda understandable if he’s got some major trust issues.”

Even Laila and Quincey were surprised to hear this. Quincey covered her mouth.

Everyone conferenced in the call was silent, until Shelly awkwardly looked away from her screen and said, “Ooookay, heavy…”

Daxton frowned. “Yeah, he told me not to tell anyone, but I can’t just let you guys keep treating him like he’s a freak or something,” Daxton said.

“Jeez, I’m sorry,” Carrie lowered her ears, “It’s not like I knew that.”

“That sounds so sad!” Gren sniffled.

“Yeah…” Natalie lowered her gaze a moment, “No, I think I get him a little better now. Look, we’ll find him, okay? The police will flip this dome upside down just to get him.”

“We’ll help too!” Max offered, “I know everywhere there is to go around here! He can’t hide from the all-seeing eyes of the Magical Climber Kid!”

He spun his eyes in opposing directions.

“Thanks guys,” Daxton said, “We’ll keep looking too.”

Daxton ended the call and turned to the girls. Laila gave him a good smack upside his head, making him growl.

“Y’coulda told us you dummy!” Laila insisted, “When a guy says ‘don’t tell nobody,’ he means ‘don’t tell nobody except for your best and most trusting friends!’”

Daxton shook his head, “No, he made it expressly clear that I wasn’t supposed to tell you or especially…”

Quincey dove into Daxton’s arms, bawling. Daxton hugged her with a crooked smile. “Especially Quincey,” He said, sighing. Daxton rubbed her back as the girl sobbed, just standing there on the midway in the Residential District as people passed them by and tried not to look at them or seem nosy. Laila exhaled and ran her fingers through her hair, just trying to figure out what steps could be taken from there, all while trying to think back on all the interactions she had with Kenny where she didn’t know about his mother. In hindsight it was pretty easy to suspect that Kenny’s strange behavior was all some deeply rooted issue with losing someone he loved. It would explain why he was always nagging them so much like an old mother hen.

“I didn’t know that!” Quincey insisted, “I… I thought he… well I mean, when we met him he…”

“Was just lonely? Yeah I guess he kinda was,” Daxton pat Quincey on the back and tried to soothe her.

Laila rubbed her chin. “So then, what? He don’t trust us?” She asked.

“Nah, that doesn’t seem right,” Daxton said, “Kenny’s our friend, has been for years.”

“He hates me,” Quincey frowned.

Daxton shook his head, “He doesn’t hate you! Why would he hate you? Why do you always think he hates you?”

“He just does!” Quincey pulled away from Daxton, angry with herself, “I made him come out here, and it’s my fault!”

“It ain’t your fault, bacon-bits,” Laila said, “Ya’ll gave him plenty of chances to turn around and go home.”

“Yeah but he wouldn’t because he didn’t want me being a big fat idiot!” Quincey practically yelled, tugging on the longer sections of her hair, “I’ve been so stupid!”

Daxton stepped over and tried to comfort Quincey, as well as block her from the gawking eyes of a few passers-by. “Hey, you didn’t know, and Duplex said it was going to kill you,” He quickly reminded her, “He chose to stay out there, probably even though he wanted to go home so badly. He did it for you.”

Quincey rubbed her teary eyes and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her sweater. Her lower lip pouted as she scrunched her brow into a determined look. “Well, I’m going to make it up to him,” She insisted.

“How?” Laila asked.

“By finding him myself!” Quincey said, “But first I have to do something…”

Quincey tugged her PET out of her cleavage and started pressing on the screen in a fury. She dialed a number and waited for an answer. When she got it, it was Walter, her father. He looked surprised to see her face on the other end of the call, his beady little eyes blinking. He looked a little disheveled, his short black center-part on his head looking like he hadn’t bothered to comb it in a while. Since he was confined to Harbington, he wasn’t able to get to Locksmouth to work, so odds were he just lazily let himself sleep in terms of hygiene.

“Quincey!” His jowls shook in surprise, “Sweetie, are you alright? Are you coming ho…?”

“Dad, get me Cyril Page, the guy that was on the news,” She practically demanded.

Walter’s eyes lit up in shock. “W-What could you want him for?!” He snorted, “Quincey, sweetie, please…”

“I want to tell him to go shove his head up his butt,” She huffed, “Get him!”

Daxton and Laila looked at one another in utter shock.

“Quincey! What’s wrong with you?” Walter’s shock gave way to worry, and he practically started to sweat, “This isn’t like you! It’s got to be that Inkling! Please, sweetie, just come home so we can help you.”

“DAD KENNY’S MISSING JUST GET HIM!!” Quincey screamed, startling Walter so much that he clearly dropped his PET on the floor. He scrambled to pick it up again, scared in ways he never thought possible.

“R-Right away sweetie!” Walter fussed on his end, and Quincey ended the call.

If Daxton had eyes, they would have been staring at his girlfriend in shock and awe. “Whoa,” He breathed, “Quincey, wow. Just… wow.”

“S-Sorry if I startled you,” The pig girl blushed, breathing heavily after having raised her voice like that, “I, um, never yelled at my Dad before but it looks like it works!”

-

--

-

Walter scrambled to comb his hair, practically yanking it out of his head in the effort. He threw on a baggy shirt and some old slacks and practically barreled down the stairs as he tried putting his socks on at the same time. Paula was in the living room just reading on her PET when Walter made impact at the bottom. This quickly got the woman’s attention, and she turned to regard her husband with question. “Walter, honey, what are you doing?” She asked.

“I have to go!” He breathed an asthma-addled wheeze, “Hhhhave to go!”

“What?” Paula stood up from the couch and approached the man as he struggled to get his shoes on, “Go where? Walter, what’s going on?”

“Eos guy! Gotta… gotta get Eos guy for Quincey!” Walter wheezed. He kissed his wife on the cheek and nearly broke down his own front door, waddle-running onto the road and making a turn for the tram station. Paula had to blink a few times as her mind processed what had just occurred, her lips parted a little with words left unspoken.

She’d never seen Walter move like that.

-

--

-

“Piglet, are ya’ll sure about this?” Even Laila had to put some oomph in her stride to keep up with Quincey as she marched on the commercial district.

“Yes, I want breakfast,” The girl huffed and panted.

Laila smacked her own forehead. “No I mean ya’ll should be waitin’ for Echelon!” She said, “She’s gonna wanna have words with this dingus.”

“I can do it!” Quincey panted, “I can do it just fine! Then we’re going to go find Kenny and we won’t have to worry about it!”

“Quincey you are being a little crazy right now,” Daxton insisted, “Maybe we should back up just a little bit.”

Quincey stopped and turned on Daxton, almost causing her boyfriend to run into her. “If I’d just backed up a little bit before, Kenny wouldn’t have run away!” She said, “I can’t back up now, it’s too late! I… I gotta solve these problems on my own!”

Daxton raised his hands. “Whoa, whoa, alright, calm down,” He said, “You’re going to make your nose run.”

“It already is!” Quincey snorted, turning on her heels and continuing the march.

Daxton took a slow and deep breath as Quincey left him in her dust, and he looked up at Laila who took her new PET out of the pocket on the jacket Casey had given her. “I’m callin’ Natalie,” She said.

“Good idea,” Daxton nodded. Then the two of them hurried to catch up to the furious little pig.

Quincey was tired of bad stuff happening to her and her friends. She knew that something needed to change and she knew that something had to be her – so she was going to take Daxton’s headstrong attitude as a lesson, and she just barreled forward. It was time for her to happen to bad stuff.

-

--

-

Quincey had enough time to get on a train and head toward the mall, where she looked for something to eat while she considered what she was going to say to Cyril. She found a nice bagel stand in the mall and parked her butt on one of the stools set up in front, with Laila and Daxton sitting at either side of her. An elder badger manned the stall, and seeing the group sit down he turned his attention to them and gave them a curious rise of his bushy brow. Quincey ordered a BLT sandwich, Daxton got an egg and bacon, and Laila settled for something with some meat and cheese on it. As the bagel-maker whipped up the orders, Natalie called Quincey again.

“Okay seriously,” The wolf said, “I understand that you’re kind of freaking out right now, but you can’t talk to them by yourself. At least conference us in, alright?”

Quincey sighed, a little of her rage having subsided but she was still peeved as all heck. “I just want this over with so we can look for Kenny,” She said, “Sorry I couldn’t wait until after school.”

“No, no, it’s alright,” Natalie breathed an assurance, “I get it, really. I just had to bail on a math test, but it’ll be fine. This is way more important than that.”

Quincey’s PET rung, and the pig blinked. “I guess that’s them,” She said, the number belonging to her father, “Dad must have found them.”

“Great, just patch us in when you’re ready,” Natalie said, ducking into one of the bathrooms at school for some privacy. Her body inked over so that Echelon could do the talking from that point, and the Inkling wolf fussed a bit as she ducked into a bathroom stall and closed the door.

Quincey answered her other call to see Cyril, an old snow owl dressed up in combat fatigues. He had on a long-sleeve shirt, black of course, and some very dark blue pants. He stood with a straight posture, hands behind his back, yellow eyes gazing at the screen. He had no real hair to speak of, but his plumage was fluffy-looking, which kind of bunched up in the neck of his shirt. Even so, he looked strong and proper, like a gentleman almost… but then the face of any organization looked like that. He stood in what looked like a tent, probably one set up in Harbington somewhere.

Quincey pulled Echelon into the call right away, so that Cyril was then looking at the Inkling as well. The man’s eyes narrowed as he studied Echelon’s visage. Behind Cyril was Walter, flustered and nervous and doing his best to get in-frame so that Quincey knew he was there, but a couple of Eos thugs kept pulling him away to keep him clear. Every Eos member there was armed with the same rifles as everyone else, even Cyril who wore his on his back. Neither Quincey nor Echelon were going to allow themselves to be intimidated by that.

“Miss Abram… Echelon,” Cyril spoke the Inkling’s name with an unimpressed trill.

“You must be Cyril,” Echelon spoke first.

“And I didn’t think I’d be addressing you,” Cyril said, “Colour me impressed. I’d begun to think you were content to remain silent.”

Quincey cut to the chase. “I’m not coming home,” She said, “And it’s my decision and mine alone. I don’t trust you, and I won’t let you harm Duplex.”

Cyril raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Harm Duplex? Why, I’d think that creature would deserve what’s coming to it after what it did,” Cyril said, “How am I to believe that what you say isn’t simply at the whims of an Inkling puppet master?”

“I assure you that Quincey is in full control of herself,” Echelon explained, “Osoth was the kind of Inkling who might take control of her host, and those of us who remain aim to be nothing like her.”

“An empty assurance,” Cyril scoffed.

“Your bagels are ready,” A grumpy old voice came through Quincey’s end of the call, and she blushed in embarrassment as she turned away to get her food. Cyril looked just somewhat confused, but he wasn’t going to appear shaken or put off if he could help it. He just waited patiently, as did Echelon, for Quincey to finish her business.

“Sorry,” She meekly said, “I’m just getting breakfast.”

“Well I’m glad they’re treating their prisoners well,” Cyril commented.

“I’m no prisoner, I can go wherever I want,” Quincey insisted, “And where I don’t want to go is anywhere near you. We found your camps out in the woods, we know you guys let aliens into Harbington on purpose. There’s no way I’d go anywhere near shady people like you.”

“Such wild accusations, and preposterous at that!” Cyril argued, “Why would we put our fellow humans in jeopardy? There’s no benefit to such a thing! And no prisoners? I won’t believe that for a moment.”

“She speaks the truth, Cyril,” Echelon nodded, “We are not the same creatures who once invaded Locksmouth. I will not pretend that the struggle for our independence of our former leader hasn’t left us appearing… less than favourable, but I assure you these instances are internal. Humanity is not our enemy."

Cyril turned and took a few paces to one side. “Ah, yes, well, as it turns out I’ve no reason to believe you,” He said, “I received reports yesterday of a kidnapping? My men moved in to retrieve the captive and were attacked in brutal fashion by one of your cohorts. Perhaps this will jar your memory.”

Cyril pushed a button on his PET, which has been hooked up to a large-scale projector. Inserted into the call was a video that played before Quincey and Echelon both depicting Cedric's abduction of Kenny, from the moment he picked the boy up and carried him off to the violent fight between Emnas and the Eos soldiers. The footage looked to already be cut and edited in such a way that it showed the important parts and left out the rest. It emphasized Emnas’ cruelty and merciless manner in which he dispatched the members of Eos and sent them packing.

When it ended, Echelon tried not to sigh. “Emnas is not part of what you might call my faction,” She explained, “His actions don’t reflect upon my interests or character.”

“My men were injured, rather severely, at the hands of your ilk just trying to save a boy,” Cyril sneered, “If what you say is true, then where is Kenny now? What do I tell his father?”

Quincey and Echelon paused, and Daxton palmed his own face out of frame.

“We… don’t know,” Quincey explained, “Kenny ran away this morning.”

“A likely story,” Cyril said, “Honestly you Inklings should be able to think up better lies than that. You seem certain that you’re taking care of your captives, so where is he?”

“It’s true!” Quincey said, “We’re looking for him already, and look! Daxton and Laila are with me right now! And Echelon’s at school! I couldn’t be freer!”

Quincey panned out the shot so that Daxton and Laila could be seen. They waved to Cyril.

“Hey, dick,” Daxton said, “Inkless guy here, you know, the one your guys captured and took to that camp?”

“I haven’t any idea what you’re talking about,” Cyril assured him.

Daxton took a bite of his sandwich and carried on with his mouth full, “Suuure you don’t, jerk. Listen, we know about you, and it’s only a matter of time before we make sure everyone else figures it out too. Also, thank that Garrison asshole for rearranging my jaw. That was real nice of him.”

“Ya’ll better scoot your butts outta Harbington,” Laila added.

Cyril closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. “Echelon,” He began, “As far as I see it, your thinly veiled lies are an utter refusal to release your prisoners into our care. That is, in fact, as far as anyone else sees it as well. You are in no position to demand anything from me.”

“She’s not demanding anything, we are!” Quincey protested.

“You have twenty-four hours. If you fail to comply by that time we will be forced to take action,” Cyril pressed the matter.

“Uh, no, hey, excuse me? No you won’t.”

Echelon pushed a button on her PET and Officer Murphy appeared on the screen, looking seriously unimpressed with what she was listening to. She glared her blue eyes into Cyril, unwavering. “You terrorists aren’t welcome within one hundred feet of our dome,” She explained, “We’re not going to entertain your false sense of heroism, nor are we going to believe that you’re acting in our best interests,” She bore into him, “I’m not sure you’ve kept up with the news recently, but inked citizens are protected under the full extent of the law in Locksmouth. If you come in here and try anything, it will be considered an act of aggression and will be met with legal action.”

“I’ve heard your declaration and find it insane,” Cyril regarded Murphy, “You’ll even let them do this after they assaulted law officials? I fear your leadership has lost its sense, Officer.”

“Look, I know what you’re thinking,” Murphy went on, “We can’t do anything to you. You’re behind the people of Harbington, using them like a shield. You also have weapons that we don’t have. But you know what we do have? Inklings. You take one step in here, and Echelon has full permission to turn you right around, as an arm of the law. In case you forgot, these Inklings are hosted by our citizens, and we will protect our citizens Mr. Page.”

“They’re dangerous,” Cyril argued.

“So are you!” Quincey cut in, “The only difference is that when they’re gone, you’ll still be around! And then what will we do? You’ll have all the weapons and we’ll have nothing. We’ll be your Poland.”

Murphy raised a brow at that.

“Quincey has a point, Cyril,” Echelon agreed.

Cyril stepped over to Walter’s PET and placed his fingers firmly upon it. “We will not be swayed by your words, Inklings,” He insisted, “If you continue to insist on this course of action, then we’ve no choice but to consider you and your allies to be our express enemies.”

Echelon narrowed her eyes. “I assure you Cyril, no one wants that,” She said, “We don’t want to fight with you.”

“Well that’s very unfortunate for you,” Cyril said, “Goodbye.”

Cyril’s feed cut out and Quincey sucked in a breath. “That… went awful!” She whined, slumping in her seat.

Murphy huffed, “I didn’t expect much more from a tight-ass like that. They weren’t going to reason with us in the first place.”

“Well, hopefully your support will dissuade them from taking action,” Echelon said, “Though… with the difference in power, that’s probably unlikely.”

The officer sighed and nodded her head. “We’ll arrest anyone who we can prove works with those guys, but when it comes to a straight-up fight? No can do,” She explained, “That militia of ours was done away with, and we had to give up the power suits after… you know. We’re fish in a barrel if they decide to start shooting.”

“Well, if they do that then they’ll be in the same position we are,” Echelon said, “Locksmouth would be against them in seconds. They’d lose any support they’d have in our home base.”

“This is starting to sound like a war…” Quincey frowned, “That I’m stuck in the middle of. And now Kenny’s out there and he could really be in trouble.”

“You could be in trouble too, don’t forget,” Echelon reminded the girl, “We’ll need you to stay safe. Murphy, we’re going to collect some evidence of the activities Eos has been performing outside the dome. I’m going to bring a small force out there, and I’ll leave Carrie and Jacent here to protect Quincey and help hold down the fort.”

“We’ll do what we can, but no promises,” Murphy said, “As for that kid, we’ve got his picture plastered all over the dome already. Everyone’s going to be looking for him.”

“Thanks Officer,” Quincey said. Murphy gave a salute and ended her end of the call.

“And Quincey?” Echelon spoke up, “Thank you for not telling Cyril to shove his head up his own butt.”

“Ah, um…” Quincey flustered, “S-Sorry.”

“That’s alright,” Echelon laughed, “Just be sure to tell him the next time you see him.”

-

--

-

Walter wasn’t sure what to think, having just witnessed that call in its entirety. When Cyril turned to face him, he straightened up, and when the owl took a step, Walter stepped back. He could have denied the Inklings all he wanted, he could have wanted Quincey to come home all he wanted, but after listening to his daughter explain the wrongs that Eos was likely capable of, he started to second-guess his support for the call to action. Quincey seemed a lot like herself, and he’d seen Duplex that one night in her room. He couldn’t believe in his heart that it could seem so much like Quincey and somehow not be her.

She even dropped one of those historical references… or, well, he thought she did, regarding that Poland thing. He really wasn’t as read up on the subject as she.

“So, I, uh, I want my PET back!” Walter demanded.

“No,” Cyril said simply.

Walter wanted to shout, but he was grabbed at either side by the two soldiers guarding the tent and escorted out with his ankles dragging through the dirt. His yelling and screaming at Cyril faded into the distance and was cut off suddenly when he was thrown to the ground. After his “kind” removal from the premises, Cyril’s call picked up.

“Chief? I have a call for you to trace,” He said.

Walter picked himself up off the ground and brushed off his clothes, shaking his fat fist at the armed thugs as they left him behind. “You barbarians!” He yelled, “I shouldn’t have trusted you! Don’t you dare touch my little girl! Are you listening to me?!”

An officer looked over his shoulder from nearby, but a gentle hand caught his cheek and guided his eyes back toward the face of a young husky who leaned up against his squad car parked by the University, ornate cane in hand. “Oh, please,” Kelvalde smiled warmly at the man, “Tell me a little more about what you do… I’ve never seen the inside of a police station before.”

“It’s about the only place without Eos crawling around right now,” The officer blushed.

“Oh,” Kelvalde turned his attention to the officer’s chest, placing a gentle hand upon it. Being a rather large ape, the officer had some serious pecks underneath that uniform. Kelvalde didn’t hesitate to knead them just a little. “Nice and private, is it…?” He asked.

“Uh,” The officer blushed harder, “Well, I mean, there’s not a lot of criminals, so…”

“I think that will do just nicely,” Kelvalde gave the man a toothy grin, “When are you off?”", "pools_count": 1, "title": "Issue 15: Abduction", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "application/msword", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "3", "name": "Violence", "description": "Mild violence", "rating_id": "1" }, { "content_tag_id": "4", "name": "Sexual Themes", "description": "Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "f", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "1", "views": "159" }