 Quietly, a red Mini Cooper rolled into a parking lot near the harbour.
 Out of the driver's seat stepped a young ferret, holding a small camera with a determined, if slightly worried expression on her muzzle, while her lioness colleague emerged from the passenger's side.
 "You ready to get the story of a lifetime, Faye?" Said lioness exclaimed. "This stuff's gonna make us famous!"
 However, Faye didn't share all of her fellow journalist's enthousiasm. "Or get us killed... Don't get me wrong, Lexxi, I'm all for getting a juicy story, but wouldn't it be safer to just call in the lead to the police and report on that?"
 "Oh, pssh!" Lexxi brushed away her friend's concerns. "If we collect photographic evidence of this street gang's drug-smuggling and hand that in, we'd be able to get almost all the credit! Trust me, Faye, nothing bad will happen. Just get in, shoot some pics and get out before anyone knows we were there."
 The ferret rolled her eyes. Lexxi was a good reporter and a good friend, but sometimes she could be quite glory-hound. "As long as you remember that my overtime pay is coming from your pocket!"
 The lioness chuckled, nodded and then followed her photographer onto the docks.

 The harbour was eerily quiet that night. The lack of activity might have been the reason why a street gang, would plan their activities for tonight.
 "So, you never told me who your mysterious contact is. You sure it's a reliable sourc-smmmph!?" The ferret's inquiry was rudely interrupted when Lexxi suddenly clamped a paw over her mouth while making a panicked hushing sound and dragging her behind a nearby stack of crates. "Lephmmi!? Wmht thh hllmph?!"
 The lioness hushed her friend once more as the sound of an heavy, poorly maintained engine approached from the distance.
 As a white minivan, obviously on its last legs rolled past, the two reporters nervously held their breaths, managing to catch a small glimpse of the passengers.
 And those were hardly the faces of regular dock workers, scarred and decked out in various gold jewellery.
  "There! You saw those thugs?" Even though the van had passed, Lexxi didn't allow herself to speak louder than a whisper. "I knew my source was right!"
 "Dmmphit Lmmxi! Whmm- Gah!" Hissing through her teeth, the ferret pulled the paw from her maw and tried to demand answers without alerting the shady figures that had just passed them. "Who the heck even is your contact!? Why this ridiculous secrecy?"
 
"And here I was having a nice detective moment." The quip was met with an annoyed look from the mustelid. "Fine, I got a call from a friend who works here as nightguard. She told me she's seen shady figures lurking around at night. She's told her supervisors off course, but she believes they're in on it and will try to cover it up for the police. So that's why she needs someone from the outside to bust this operation wide open!"
 Faye quietly nodded, at last having some clarity on the situation, but also raising a legitimate concern: "So if this guard knew that there would be smuggling afoot tonight... then where is she now?"
 The lioness' face immediately dropped from a determined smirk to a worried grimace. "In her office, trying to keep quiet, I hope. Hmm... maybe we should check up on her. Get a read on the situation,  see if she's, y'know... safe?"
 Faye grinned. "Good to see you talking sense at last, Lexxi! Let's get a move on before the thugs come back!"
 
 The two journalists headed for the one building that still showed signs of life: the guardhouse, keeping their heads low and eye out for the mystery criminals.
 The feline snoop, having taken point, nervously knocked on the door of the office. "Karen? Karen, you there?" She tried to call out as loudly as she could without, but each second of silence that passed made her more and more anxious. "It's me, Lexxi! Open up!"
  Faye piped up from a few feet away, keeping an eye on the way they came to make sure no-one snuck up on them. "She okay in there? Think we should just let ourselves in?"
 The girls exchanged glances and silently agreed that it would be better to make sure their contact was unharmed.

 They did find her unharmed, but Karen could definitely in better shape.
 The poor mousey nightguard was laying on the floor, tied with thick, sturdy ropes. A large rag was jammed into her maw, with strips of ducttape sealing her lips, rendering the cries for help unintelligible, and inaudible to any passing potential rescuers.
 "Mmph! Gmmmm hwmm!" Frantically, the bound nightguard squirmed away from the duo.
 The lioness was the first to get over her surprise and tried calming her distressed friend down. "Karen! Karen, it's me, Lexxi! Relax, we're here to help!"
  Karen breathed a sigh of relief when she recognised Lexxi, and the two reporters crouched beside her, Lexxi undoing the ropes that bound her arms and chest, while Faye went on to unravel those that held her legs.
 Karen let out a gasp as the tape was ripped from her maw be her lioness friend and her ferret companion helped her get rid of the rag stuffing her mouth.

"Ugh... thanks Lex... these guys are even worse than I thought."  Tossing away the loose ropes, Karen climbed onto the nearby chair to catch her breath. "By the way, who's the new girl?"
 "Faye Mendez, photographer and semi-professional snoop." The ferret cut Lexxi off before she could answer. "Mind telling us who 'these guys' actually are?"
 The mouse sighed and took a sip from the glass of water her lioness friend handed her.
 "They call themselves the Fangs Of Midas, after their leader, 'King' Midas. They first showed up a few weeks ago, seemingly scouting around. I called my superiors about it, but they never did anything about it. Starting to think they're being paid off to ignore them at this point. Anyway, the Fangs soon showed up every other week, in increasingly larger numbers and bringing the occasional car and minivan too. Obviously they're using this harbour as some kind of smuggling spot for drugs, or weapons."
 Faye and Lexxi nodded along with a serious look. "So..." Faye piped up. "Why did they suddenly feel the need to tie you up in your own office?"
 "Didn't you notice all the vans driving about? They have a lot of people there." The rodent nightguard answered worriedly. "The Fangs have scored a massive deal, and they don't seem to want any prying eyes around."
 The ferret smugly poked her friends shoulder. "Looks you can earn yourself a story yet, Lexxi!"
"You betcha!" The lioness looked around the ragtag group. "Come on, gals! Let's do some old-fashioned snooping!"

Three figures made their way through the dark, making sure to stay away from the main roads, where the occasional shady minivan drove back from the only warehouse that currently had their lights on. 
 Quite suspicious, for a section of the port that had been unoccupied for months and scheduled for renovations soon. 
 An excellent hideout, Karen explained, for an enterprising criminal organisations to exchange their ill-gotten goods and funds once they ensured the resident nightguard wouldn't interfere.
 Fortune smiled upon the intrepid trio as they discovered they could climb the old dumpster to reach the roof of the warehouse, where they scrambled towards the large, dusty windows looking out upon the central packing hall inside.


 Inside, over a dozen thugs of all shapes and sizes, wearing rugged dark clothing adorned with lots of gold jewellery, were moving crates of firearms, pill bottles and bags suspicious white powder around.
 Three sets of snooping eyes widened simultaneously in surprise. "Holy crap!" Faye whispered, "If this is just today's delivery, then they've got enough merchandise to keep the city supplied for the rest of the year!"
 "Who says the Fangs are just sticking to this place?" Lexxi theorised, "I'm willing to bet King Midas is planning to expand his little kingdom."
 Their rodent companion suddenly gasped and pointed frantically through the dusty windows. "There! That's the guy who tied me up! Down there, the white wolf with the long silver hair!" Karen gestured wildly towards a young canine in a leather jacket that seemed to be passing around orders. 
 "Looks like wolfboy is the head of this little operation." The lioness scoffed as she pressed her face against the grimy glass, trying to get a better look of the silver-haired gang member.
 The ferret crouched next to her couldn't help but notice that the wolf, with his petite frame and young, pretty face, didn't look very intimidating. In fact, she wondered what gave the pup so much standing in the kill-or-be-killed world of organised crime.
 She had to break up her train of thought as she noticed the window Lexxi was leaning against slowly started to turn.
 "Lex, watch ou-!" Faye's warning came a little too late, as the window swung open and the lioness tumbled through with a loud yelp.

 Fortunately for Lexxi, a sheep with gray wool wearing a skull-print shirt and an eyepatch was standing underneath the windows to break her fall.
 Unfortunately, she now was smack in the middle of over a dozen hardened criminals, and they were not happy to find out they were being snooped on...
 "Oh, eh... hi guys! Haven't seen any criminal gangs here lately?" The Fangs seemed not impressed by Lexxi's terrible excuses and she quickly got snatched up by a gruff grizzly bear, who effortlessly held her in mid-air while the rest of the members gather around her, shooting death glares while the silver-haired wolf took charge of the situation.
 "Well, well well... We have a visitor among us!" His voice sounded as young and pretty as you expected from his petite appearance, yet carried a hint of malice and anger.
 As if he was once an innocent angel, now tainted by corruption and greed.
 He made some quick gestures to order around the various groups of henchman surrounding him. "You two, help Jesse up, that sheep is no good as a floor pillow. You guys over there, back to production! You, take some of your buddies to go look outside, snoops like this lovely lady here rarely come alone." He then turned his attention back to the massive muscled bear and his prisoner, who was now not only fearing for her own safety, but afraid her friends would soon join her as well. "Bruin... you're with me. We're going to teach this cat not to stick her snout where it doesn't belong..."

 As the grizzly evidently named Bruin started carrying off Lexxi, the lioness desperately tried to talk herself out of a hairy situation. "W-wait! How are you so sure there's anybody else!?"
 "Because, like I said earlier, snoops like you rarely come alone, especially when you start panicking like you did at the notion of us going to look for your friends."
 Lexxi gulped and just fell silent in defeat, as the massive bear carried her into a small storage room off to the side of the main hall, full of dusty closets and exposed piping on the ceiling. "Where do you want 'er, mister Silver?" A low grumble sounded from Bruin's throat.
 "Over there in the middle, underneath that pipe there." Replied the white wolf Bruin had addressed as Silver, who was busy retrieving coils of rope from a shelf in the back of the room. 
 As he walked back in front of the lioness, all the canine had to do was give his grizzly henchman a nod for him to brusquely force Lexxi's arms forward so his boss could tie her wrists.
 The bindings still had a long piece of rope left hanging off after being cinched off, which Silver threw over the piping on the cieling.
 Bruin caught the dangling rope and pulled it down, lifting Lexxi's hands above her head.
 "H-hey! What do you think you're doing?!" The frightened feline explaimed as nimble fingers started to unbutton her shirt.
 The wolf didn't answer, instead further exposing his captive by unbuttoning and removing the shorts she was wearing with an oddly innocent, blissful smile.

 The indignant protests continued: "Are you enjoying this!? You perv!" But the angry screams where only met with an annoyed pouty face from the wolf, and a gruff grumbling from Bruin.
 Quickly reaching into his pocket, Silver produced a pair of handkerchiefs, which he quickly wadded up and pushed into the maw of the furiously ranting lioness. "I swear, when my friends get here, we will kick you're a-smmmph!" A quick wrap of duct tape, and Lexxi was quickly and thoroughly silenced.
 "Mmmmnph! Ymmh mmmmhm gmmrph!" Ignoring the now muffled curses and pleas, Silver went back to his business, tying his captive's legs around the ankles, knees and thighs.
 The next step had the distressed feline rather confused as her canine captor looped ropes around her waist. "Mmmh? Wmmpg tmm phhmr?"
 A quick nod was given to Bruin, who had so far been standing silently and menacingly behind her, and he, with a short grumble, took the rope that was secured to Lexxi's wrists and he had been holding all this time, passed it in between the lioness legs, where Silver took it over and anchored it to the makeshift belt of rope.
 "Wmmmph... Nnnm!" The caught cat had only a few seconds to realise what was about to happen when Bruin let go of the rope, where the lioness bound paws, hoisted way up high above her head, automatically pulled it taut which yanked it deeply between her panties. "Mmmmmmmnnph!!!"
 Silver stepped back to admire his handiwork, the beautiful bound damsel who was now helplessly moaning and struggling in her bonds, with a satisfied, strangely innocent smile. "That should keep her busy for some time. Come one, Bruin, we have work to finish, we can play more later."
 "Yes, Boss." The grizzly nodded, and the pair left the room, leaving the poor feline alone in the dark with only her predicament for company.

 Attempts to reach her tied wrists were useless, as they were suspended above her and secured to her crotchrope: any attempts to pull them down only pulled the ropes tightly against her groin, leaving her to writhe in a peculiar mix of agony and pleasure. "Mmmph! Mmmhnn! Hmmmph~!"
 Lexxi tried to stand on her toes as much as possible to alleviate the pressure.
 Her heart jumped everytime one of the thugs in the main room came close to the door, the poor lioness each time fearing her captors would come for her.
 Of course, each time she got startled she jumped, which gave her another tug on her ropes with a little muffled whimper as result. "Mmmmmmhnn..."
 And so, at least an hour or two went by...

 "Hmm!" What really caused the feline to jump was a sudden creak coming for behind her. Carefully she tried to look behind her to see what made the noise, and the two distinct grunting and thumping sounds of two people climbing into the room and onto the floor.
 "Oh hey, Lex, how ya holding up?" As it turns out, Faye (with Karen in her slipstream) had snuck around the back of the building and entered through the little window that had generously offered what little light there was in the room.
 The mouse gasped in shock when she saw her friend in her predicament. The ferret, on the other hand knew both she and her were used to much worse, and calmly tried to get the lioness out of her situation. "Karen, quick!" She whispered." We gotta get her out of here before those creeps come back."
 The rodent gal nodded and grabbed a nearby chair to barricade the door, as Faye started picking the knots of the ropes holding her friend's legs thight.
  Those bindings came off rather easily. The real problem was getting Lexxi's wrists unhooked from her crotchrope. "Mmm-hmmph!!" "Yes, I know it's uncomfortable, but can you please stop struggling!?" "Hmmmn!" "Shhh! Even with that gag on you're still loud enough to call all the Fangs in here!"

 At last, poor Lexxi's crotchtie came loose, finally relieving the pressure on her groin and finally letting her pull her arms down for Faye to untie. "Mmmmf..."
 Then Karen, who had been listening at the door, spoke up in a panicked whisper. "Someone's coming! Hurry up!"
 "Right! We're leaving!" Rudely interrupting the lioness trying to pull the tape from her cloth-stuffed maw by pulling up her shorts up herself and quickly doing up a few buttons on her shirt, then hurrying her long to the window. "You can take care of that later, we'll have to go now!"
 And after an annoyed muffled grunt, the trio clambered through the tiny window, just as the thugs started to try and force the door open.
 Once on the docks, time was short. The sounds of a door splintering and angry shouting indicated Silver and his goons had noticed their captive having made her escape.
 "Whmmph dmh wmm dmh nnmmf!?" Lexxi mumbled, still trying to peel her gag off when Faye both proposed and then immediately executed a strategy. "We swim! Take a deep breath, ladies!"
 Before either Karen or Lexxi had time to yelp, they were pushed over the edge of the dock by the daring Ferret and into the dark waters below...

 And swimming they did, like their lives depended on it, because it really did.
 Their plan involved trying to stay underwater as much as possible as soon as they heard the angry voices of the Fangs of Midas gather on the docks.
 Things finally looked up for the intrepid trio. For starters, the water soaked off the tape from Lexxi's lips, which finally let pull out her cloth stuffing and breathe more easily.
 Secondly, as the shouting died down the girls were comfortable keeping on the surface, which significantly sped up their trek to the shore near where Faye had parked her car much faster.
 They heaved themselves upon dry land wet, cold, tired, but at the very least relatively unharmed and with the Fangs nowhere in sight, for now.
 With a silent nod, the trio got into the red Mini, and swiftly drove off into the night.

 After a long silence, Karen was the first to speak up from the backseat. "Well, after all this crap I'm definitely resigning, first thing in the morning. Maybe I'll go looking for someplace safer to guard. Like a mall or something."
 Faye let out a short, tired chuckle while she guided their vehicle through the dark streets of the city, but in the passenger's seat, Lexxi hung her head in shame. "Yeah... it's been a total bust. I'm sorry for getting you all in so much trouble, girls. I nearly got you killed and yet we have nothing to show for it..."
 That last statement was met with a smug little smile from the ferret behind the wheel. "Or do we...?" As her passengers looked on in a mix of confusion and intrigue, she removed a small, watertight digital camera from her pocket and triumphantly twirled it around on her finger with the wrist strap. "I managed to snap a few pics while we were busy dodging thugs and looking for a way to rescue you. All we have to do now is get them to our boss and blow this thing wide open!"
 "Haha! Faye, you're amazing!" The lioness gave her pal an encouraging fistbump against her shoulder. "I'll get working on our article right aw... a..." A loud yawn interrupted the exhausted feline. "Okay, maybe tomorrow, after changing into some dry clothes and a long nap..."
 Both other girls agreed wholeheartedly. "So then, Karen, where can I drop you off? You wanna stay with Lexxi for the night?"
 A quick shared glace and a silent nod sealed that deal. "Allright then, gals. Let's go home. It's been a long, long night."

 Half an hour and one drop-off later, the red Mini Cooper rolled into the garage of its owner's apartment building and a tired, soaked figure dragged herself up the stairs and into her home. Technically, it was still her boyfriend's home, but she'd already moved in last month and just needed to change her address. She was just glad to be able to step through the front door at all.
 With a deep sigh, she tossed her wet, cold clothes into the laundry basket and took a much-needed warm shower. "Ugh, what a night. I can't believe we made it out it there alive."
 She changed into her pyjamas and stumbled into the bedroom, where her ringtailed sweetheart was already fast asleep, with the ferret gal had never been happier to join him. 
 Faye felt a load fall off her shoulders when she, finally comfortable between the soft sheets, felt a still-sleeping Rutger's arms slowly wrap around her.
 Boy, did she have a story for him.


Credits:

Story by Rutgerman95/The Awesome Autist (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/rutgerman95/)

The character of Lexxi Smith is owned by ChemicalInfantry and borrowed with his permission
The characters of Faye Mendez, Silver, and "King" Midas are owned by yours truly.
Silver is also partially based a character I created with MiniRuri(http://miniruri.deviantart.com/), Tio Callaway, so extra special thanks to her! :3 
And a third dose of thanks to both for helping me with proofreading.
