In an undisclosed location hidden from the encroachments of civilization, near the area of the Great Lakes is a small tower hidden in the forest. Inside the tower is an entire facility dedicated to just one purpose. An entire staff was stationed there to maintain and protect what was inside. Yet time passes and priorities change, as a result employees underwent a slow attrition, one by one they were repositioned until only a skeleton crew was left. Then even that was reduced to the point that the building’s only personnel were two to three people at the maximum. Regardless there had to be somebody to watch over the one who was inside. Hello this is me Jake. If you haven’t heard of me I’m not surprised but I’m a fox of around 18 years. I used to be a runaway from this organization called S under D. I hated it because they were going to program me into a sex toy. My own father was the head boss of this organization and because I reacted badly to the programming I was sent to a facility to continue it. However one day I heard rumors of another escapee of S under D who was evading them for a long time. I foolishly took hope from this and joined with three other boys and escaped. We struggled to keep out of the caring hands of S under D but they caught up with two of the runaways and then only me, another escapee and the last runaway were left. We joined forces in the hopes of revealing S under D to the world. However events led to me being caught by my father whose voice I was programmed to always obey. My programming was completed and then I realized how wrong I was to oppose S under D all these years. The other runaway who was by my side for so long is also my husband a raccoon named Jason and he helped him return to the fold of S/D. There was only the matter of bringing the last runaway in a wolf named Benjamin. However it all went wrong, we cornered him and he jumped, jumped into the river and we couldn’t find him. It was a harsh blow to all of us, the enforcer Jeff especially who was Ben’s friend. Jeff thought he had caused the first death in recruitment in S/D history but I told him, Ben wouldn’t have jumped if he wasn’t sure that there was a chance he could live. I’m sure of it, I really believe that Ben’s still alive somewhere, we just have to find him. However the fact remained that we failed at bringing Ben back. Jeff was relocated so that he could get his confidence back. Jason and I were shuffled here to keep us out of trouble. This place was really creepy though, with only Jason around and that person we were supposed to keep an eye on. The person in question was a wolf with fur that was entirely white and he was sitting comatose in a chair. This single chair was connected to nearly all the systems that were installed in the tower. Gears, plugs, tubes, and wires a plenty all eventually led back to that single chair near the tower of the tower. I had no idea who that wolf was and father didn’t tell me anything about this person. Still it hurt looking at that slumbering wolf for it was a stinging reminder of our failure to bring Ben back. “Jake you alright?” Jason said. I looked at my husband; I thank my father everyday that he picked Jason to be my partner. We were perfect together; I just can’t believe it took us this long to accept it. “Yes Jason it’s just that wolf just reminds me of Ben.” I said. Jason was the other runaway that managed to escape S/D but soon followed me into loving the organization’s work. Jason was working on the few outdated computer terminals. He was trying his best to repair as much of the systems’ infrastructure of the facility. I guess that’s the other reason why my father sent him here. “I still can’t believe that he chose to die instead of joining S/D.” Jason said. “We were both like him too, he needs help to understand S/D’s message and the good that they do.” I said “We’ll find him and we won’t fail this time.” I suddenly noticed something strange and thought it was a trick of the light. “Jason did you see that?” “See what?” Jason looked where I was pointing, towards the wolf. “What? did he do something?” I told him that I thought I saw the wolf grimace and he assured me it was probably a lighting problem and he complained about the state of disrepair that we had to deal with. I cuddled up to him and whispered into his ear the fun things that we were going to do tonight. I put what I saw in the back of my mind, Jason was probably right the lights here flicked randomly at times. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jason had tried his best to deal with the shoddy equipment that he had but it wasn’t good enough. The security cameras and the alarms were shot, the only things the cameras could do was monitor but not record. S/D thought that the isolation was enough to deter intruders from the facility. So the security was rarely if ever updated, and when it was the upgrades were always cast-offs from other locations. It was a pity for both Jason and Jake; they might have been able to notice if there were recordings that the white wolf that had been comatose for so long opened his eyes and began to move around. The two would have had advanced warning that something wasn’t right. Then the next morning they would have been more careful of their food and drink… -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few days later ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi this is Jason, the raccoon from earlier? Both Jake and I are back from that tower near the Great Lakes, not because our time was up there and that’s what’s making Jake’s father very angry. “You only had to watch over an unconscious wolf and you couldn’t even do that right!” Mr. Taylor was infuriated and both Jake and I were both scared and regretful that we couldn’t do what we were told to. We were both kneeling in our underwear in Mr. Taylor’s office. The boss of S/D was pacing around and agitated; I wondered why that wolf was making Jake’s father this angry. Mr. Taylor wasn’t even this angry when he was told that Ben had escaped again and was most likely dead. “Tommy, Come here.” Mr. Taylor told Jake’s twin brother “and bring the paddle with you.” My heart sank, Jake’s father was going for physical punishment, and that meant both of us really messed up. “On your elbows!” Mr. Taylor shouted at Jake. Jake hastily complied and from the look on his face I could tell he had come to the same conclusion as me. Mr. Taylor yanked down Jake’s briefs. “Tommy, these disguising idiots have failed again, and they need to be taught a lesson on how I don’t tolerate failure.” Tommy nodded and Mr. Taylor continued “Jake, you will allow Tommy to punish you for your failure! No talking back! And this is an order!” “Yes master.” Jake said. “And as for you Jason you will watch every second of it and no helping Jake!” Mr. Taylor scowled and stalked out of his office. Tommy came up behind Jake. “Wow you really been a bad boy Jake, I haven’t seen this thing in action for a while” Tommy said, he had a long dull paddle and it seemed to be made of some sort of black material. Jake whimpered, and I wished it was me being punished in his place. The paddle went down swiftly onto Jake’s behind and my husband cried out with each blow. I could do nothing but watch helplessly; after all I couldn’t go against the boss’ orders and Jake was beaten mercilessly. I could only hope that we’d both be forgiven soon. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Taylor stalked through the headquarters of S/D; the fox followed a specific path until he reached a particular area that was set aside for recruiters, enforcers, and balancers to practice their marksmanship. In one particular range was the person Julius Taylor was looking. A tall wolf with fur black as the shadow he cast was using a single shot rifle to shoot bullets at a traditional bull’s-eye target. However every time this wolf fired, the bullet was always shot into the target’s center. Julius the top boss of S/D took a deep breath and if any other regular members overheard the following conversation they would had been surprised at the tone of respect Taylor had in his voice. “He has woken up.” Mr. Taylor said. The black wolf suddenly raised his head and set down the rifle. “Would you please say that again?” The wolf’s hands were shaking. “He woke up Noah.” Taylor said. The wolf named Noah took on an excited expression; his eyes seemed to glow with happiness. “Really? It’s been so long even I lost hope. Where is he now? Is he here? I want to see him now. Can I? I want to show him that what we’re doing does work. Please?” Noah said. Julius sighed, this was about to suck. “I’m afraid you can’t Noah.” “What?” Noah said the wolf’s face took on a suspicious look. “He’s also escaped” Julius said. Noah just paused for a second and then slammed his fist down on the table holding ammunition, he broke it and scattered cartridges everywhere. “How the hell did this happen? You’ve assured me that he was being looked after!” Noah shouted at Julius. “Do you know how much of a disaster this is? You’ve just let the one person who could completely ruin everything S/D has worked for get away!” “Silence Noah! You forget your place.” Julius said “He is only one boy we’ll deal with him later.” “You’re forgetting the fact that all of our programming techniques are based off his work and we’ve only managed to create cheap replicas after all these years. He’s the perhaps the last chance we have of perfecting our system. Do you remember the cancer fiasco we had before?” Noah said, he stood up and began to walk away. “Where are you going?” Julius demanded. “I’m going after him” Noah said. “No you won’t, I have something more important for you to handle.” Julius said, placing his hand on Noah’s shoulder. “What could be more important than…?” Noah said. “I need you to go after Benjamin.” Julius said. “The dead runaway?” Noah asked. “Why do you want me to go after a corpse? Isn’t it enough that we now have a death on our hands?” “That’s the problem, we can’t be sure and Benjamin is a thorn for our candidate for the sixth wing-man. I trust you to find out if Ben is still alive and if so bring him back under our control.” Julius said. “We can’t have anything preventing Ville from attaining his position. He has been an incredible asset to us in one swoop we’ve been able to expand our operations on an unprecedented scale.” “I fail to see how that requires my help.” Noah snarled. “His son has evaded us for more than seven years Noah, seven years. I find it hard to believe he would die from a simple jump off a bridge. He is more of a current threat to us at this point.” Noah gritted his teeth. “Fine but when I catch him I’m going after Steven.” Julius nodded “Very well then, take what equipment and assistance you need.” Noah stalked off and Julius walked off in a dark mood. Noah had been in S/D for a long time and he was the secret enforcer of the will of the S/D boss. Noah was totally loyal towards the organization’s mission but that didn’t mean that Noah didn’t have his own concerns. This was too much to handle, and Julius needed to blow off some stress. He decided to continue Jake and Jason’s punishment personally. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Far away from this scene, there was a beach at night. The full moon was shining beautifully in the sky. It was illuminating a solitary figure dressed in a cloak of black. The moonlight reflected off the white fur of this wolf. The wolf was gazing out to the horizon bounded by the ocean and dark sky. His hand went to his neck where a pendent that was shaped like a crescent hung. He brought it up to his face and stared at it. This wolf was known as Steven and he was angry, more than angry Steven was simply furious. “Noah, I won’t forgive you for this.” Steven cursed under his breath. He turned his back to the ocean and began to walk towards the city below. If he was going to fix his own mistakes he would have to start somewhere.