[FUR] AFiW: I'm Going to Break the Cycle
Fox Cutter
the Works, in fact this is the first of four new stories that will be
showing up in the next month or two. They are pretty big when it comes
to the over all plot, so hang on.
If all goes well 2008 should be a big year for the series (of course
I've said that about how many years). I'm not going to say exactly
what I have planed, but I do have plans. I just need to cross my
fingers and hope for the best.
Like I always say, you can find this story, and all my stories, right
on my web site.
--Fox Cutter
(Who's a Lion Morph)
Writer of "A Fox in the Works"
http://www.chaos-keep.com/
A Fox in the Works
I'm Going to Break the Cycle
By
Fox Cutter
05/15/2000:
I had finally gotten the children down for their afternoon nap. They
had all been fussy and it seemed like once one had gotten to sleep
another would wake up crying. The stress had gotten to me, just a
little bit, and my fur was on edge along my neck and shoulders. I had
taken a seat in the kitchen, closed my eyes and wrapped my tail around
my hips, trying to compose myself.
What little relaxation I had was taken away by the sound of the fold
room door opening. I cracked one eye and lifted my ears, but decided
not to get up just yet. Anyone who knew the code for the door was a
friend of ours and wasn't going to be a threat.
Santhara thought differently. She took a few steps out into the
hallway. "It's Sora," she said, drifting back into the kitchen with
me.
I gave her a short nod and brushed my paws over my hair, flattening it
down a little bit, I then brushed them over my skirt. A moment later
Sora came into the room. There was a bounce in her step that caused
her wings to flutter around her back. "Good afternoon, Oriana," she
said, smiling as she saw me.
"Afternoon, yourself. When did you get back on planet?" I asked. She
had been gone for about a week now, off on an assignment for the
Hunters.
She dropped down in a chair, her bushy tail flicking as she pulled her
wings around her back, the tips folding down over her shoulders to
meet just under her neck. "Two days ago. I just finished my debriefing
this morning."
"How did it go?" I asked, making small talk. I wasn't really
interested at the moment, but I didn't want to just ignore her.
Instead I got up and busied myself making something for lunch. There
wasn't much to choose from, so I just settled for some crackers.
Sora smiled. "It could have gone better. Four species, none with
wings, and all paranoid. They spotted me the moment I arrived and
didn't waste any time destroying my Matrix Chip. I got lucky and they
got sloppy, so I was able to get away. Left a bit of a mess in my
wake, but I don't think I hurt anyone."
"At least you're alive and in one piece," I told her as I sat back
down at the table.
She nodded and flicked out her wings. "In one piece now, I have a few
new scars to show for it, but nothing that wasn't treatable."
I nodded in return and tried to think of something to say, but my mind
was steadfastly blank. "I'm sorry, it's been a long day. The kids are
asleep and I think I might just join them, at least for a couple of
hours," I finally told her, rubbing the back of my neck with one paw
as the other stayed in my lap.
Sora nodded her head and flexed out her wings slightly. "I understand,
I'll let you get some sleep," she said, then stood up from her chair.
She was about to say something more when the fold room door opened a
second time.
Letting out a sigh I stood up and walked to the hallway. This time it
was Jadith walking towards me, a PADD held in her hand and a slightly
annoyed look on her face. "Oriana, is Fox in his office?" she asked as
she joined us in the kitchen.
"He's not here. Brian called in a favor; apparently he thinks there's
a fold on Velar and he wanted Fox to check it out. He'll be back in a
couple more days," I explained.
The elf sighed and placed her hand on her head. "Of all the times for
him to go jumping around the multi-verse," she said, the rest of her
words muttered under her breath.
I shrugged. "It's Fox, he usually reasonable, but he still has his
moments."
"I wish this wasn't one of them. We managed to pull some information
from Keller's computer. There are a couple of addresses in Corbin that
look like safe houses. I was hoping to look into them today," she
explained, offering out her PADD.
I frowned a bit, but took the PADD from her and looked it over. There
wasn't anything that interesting on it, but it did have the two
address called out. There were some dates further down in the file,
including today's. "You think Clark might be in one of these places?"
"We can hope. The next day that file lists is two weeks from now. I
would rather not wait."
Samantha reached over and took the PADD from my paw. I had not seen
the young woman come into the kitchen, and I had no idea how she even
knew to show up. That question was answered a moment later when Rhea
sat down next to me.
"There are enough of us here to take care of these places," she said,
reading over the PADD.
The elf took the PADD from Samantha and gave her a critical look.
"This is official business. I have the authority to go to these places
and so does Fox, but not the rest of you," she said.
"So call in someone else. It's not like you don't have the people,"
she replied, her cloth tail sweeping slowly behind her, showing a
touch of annoyance. My own tail was flicking in much the same rhythm.
"I would like to take care of this myself. Clark is a large enough
problem that if the wrong people learned about his being around, it
would be on the news in hours. He's not a popular person around here."
I frowned slightly, the memory of the Hammerheads jumping through my
mind for a moment. I shook it off and took the PADD from Samantha,
resolving to take care of this little problem myself. "None of
Jenner's men are local heroes," I said as I looked closer at the
addresses, one was on the outside of town, the other was closer to the
Marble Hall. "Which one is more likely?"
Jadith look between the two of us and shook her head. "One is in a
residential neighborhood, it's generally older, with a mix of species.
The other is a rundown section of town, a bit of a commercial slum.
It's not the kind of place that Clark would stay, he's a little too
arrogant for that."
I shrugged and handed the PADD back to her. "You take the house then,
Samantha and I will take the slum."
The elf frowned and reached behind her back, pulling a green apple out
of the air. She ran it between her hands, bouncing it from one to the
other as she thought. "You don't have any authority, and even if you
found anything you couldn't do something about it."
"If we find anything I will call you for help," I said.
A moment later I felt a bump against my leg. I glanced down and saw
Rhea looking back at me. Here ears were pulled back slightly and her
eyes were narrowed. <<I'll get changed,>>. she said, then rose to all
fours and walked briskly out of the room.
"This isn't a good idea. We need someone with some sort of authority
going with you," the elf finally said.
"I might not be my husband, but I still have some authority," I said.
Samantha chipped in with: "We can handle ourselves, don't worry. We
won't try to make any arrests unless we have to."
The elf looked between the two of us, and then let out a sigh, "We'll
have to check both locations out at the same time. We can't risk
someone at one calling the other. Just don't do anything stupid," she
said, finally biting into her apple.
"I'll do my best. Break out the information I need. I'll be right
back," I said, then turned away from my friends and walked towards the
bedroom.
Rhea was coming out as I was going in. She was morphic and dressed
casually in one of Fox's t-shirts and a pair of ill fitting pants that
she had cinched tight with a belt. "I'll check on the children," my
some-times wife said as she slipped past me, giving me a quick smile
as she did so.
I took a moment to watch her walk away. Even in her baggy clothing she
was attractive. It was a bonus that she had the same figure as Fox
did. Part of me wanted to get the pair of them in bed at once, but he
wasn't that interested in it as he saw Rhea more as a sister than a
wife.
Stepping into the bedroom I went right for the dresser, opening the
bottom drawer and taking out the lockbox where I kept my needler.
Punching in the code I pulled the weapon free along with the holster.
With a quick move I pushed my skirt down off my hips and strapped the
holster to my leg, right where the small weapon wouldn't be noticed.
Once it was secure I pulled my skirt back up, patting the fabric down
to make sure it was concealed.
I pulled the weapon free, opening the base to check the cartridges
that were inside. Three were empty, so I swapped them out with some
tranquilizers. The rest of the cartridges were fine, and all lethal in
one way or another. I locked the base back inside and set the dial to
one of the tranquilizers, just to be safe. Tucking the weapon back
into the holster, I put everything else back in the lock box and
returned it to the drawer.
Upon my return to the kitchen, I saw that Samantha had the same idea.
She had her own pistol tucked into her pants at the small of her back,
her tail flicking in anticipation. Santhara didn't need to get her
weapon, there was hardly a time that she wasn't armed.
"There's a fold about half a mile away from the address. Do you feel
safe walking?" Jadith asked as she handed me a new PADD. This one
contained both the address of the safe house and directions on how to
get there from the fold.
"They will be fine," my bodyguard said, her paw coming to rest on my
shoulder.
The elf looked up at the tigress and shook her head. "You had better
be sure. If anything happens to Oriana, Fox will have my hide," she
said, then glanced up at Sora.
"Let's not waste any more time here," the bat-canine said, then
started down the hallway towards the fold room. The rest of us
followed after.
Sora and Jadith went first, jumping through quickly enough that I
suspected Jadith had been to the fold before. I, on the other hand,
had to use a fold control to get where I was going. Taking mine out I
punched in the correct address and stood back as the fold flared to
life.
The three of us stepped through and came out between two dingy looking
buildings. The place wasn't really a slum, I had seen and lived in one
before and this place was a better than that, but not by all that
much. The streets were dirty and what little traffic there was seemed
to pass through without looking around. There were a few business open
that I could see, but they were outnumbered by the closed storefronts.
There were a few people on the street but they seemed to avoid us,
with a few casting dirty looks in our direction. Just as I was getting
my bearings a car pulled up next to us and the window slid open. The
driver was an older lion with streaks of gray filling in swaths of his
otherwise blue mane. "Hey dear, how much for an hour?" he asked with a
knowing smile.
I heard Samantha grunt but I motioned for her to stop whatever it was
she was about to do. I took a few quick steps towards the car and
smiled to him. "Sorry, hon, we're not on the clock today. Maybe next
time?" I asked in a sweet voice.
His face fell into a frown and his ears pressed slightly into his
mane. It seemed for a moment like he wanted to argue but it didn't go
that far. "I'll keep an eye out for you," he finally said, then drove
off.
"I'm not a whore," Samantha said as I returned to the group, a look of
disgust on her face.
I smirked slightly. "I am, but it's been a long time since I worked
the street," I told her, then glanced at the PADD and started on my
way.
"I still would have kicked his ass," she muttered softly, then with a
flick of her hand summoned up a cigarette, lighting it with another
flick.
"If he could find someone in a better part of town he would have done
so. It's best not to piss him off," I explained, old memories coming
back for a few moments. It had been a proposition much like that one
that had started my carrier as a prostitute. Luckily I had gotten off
the street before things went bad. My mind flashed to what had
happened to Tammy, and I suppressed a small shiver.
We walked on in silence for a few minutes and the area around us never
got much better. We passed a few other hookers, but none that I would
bother with. They were all too thin, with too much darkness around
their eyes. I wanted to help them, pull them out of the mess they were
in, but I doubted I could. You didn't end up in a place like this if
you could just walk away from it.
Even so, the idea of opening a house on Prid fluttered through my
mind, but I pushed it off. That was a crime here, and if I got caught
it would look just as bad for Fox as it would for me. It was best to
avoid the trouble, but I still wanted to do something. I made my mind
up to try and find some way to help the women I saw, either help them
get out of the business, or get them to someplace that would just be
better for them.
Our destination was soon in sight. It was a small corner market that
had seen better days. The front of the store had once been lined with
windows, but every one of them had been broken in the past, now
leaving the store with a series of hastily attached boards to block
the holes. The door stood ajar, bent in the middle by something that
looked like a boot print, and didn't seem to be able to be closed.
Samantha let out a soft groan and came to a stop, rubbing the side of
her head.
"Are you alright?"
She snorted and nodded. "I'm fine. It's just a headache," she said,
then started walking again.
I followed just behind her, watching her start to weave slightly as we
neared the buildings. I was worried about her, and reached out to
place a paw on her shoulder. She shrugged it off and took a couple of
quick paces, but stumbled on the curve.
She spun her arms around, trying to regain her balance as she started
to fall. I rushed up behind her, catching her before she hit the
ground. She grunted at this but didn't push away as she got her feet
back under herself. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine!" she snapped, grabbing the side of her head again, her eyes
seemed a bit unfocused.
"You are not fine," Santhara said in a stern tone.
The human shook her head and pulled out my grasp. "It's just a
headache, I've had them before, but I'm fine," she said, almost
growling, her tail flicking rapidly behind her legs, matching the look
of anger on her face. With a gathering of her resolve she stood
upright and pushed open the door, steeping inside the building.
She only got a single step inside before starting to wilt, crumbling
down onto the floor and landing with a dull thud. Santhara and I were
at her side in a moment. Her skin was pale, almost white, and sweat
was gathering along her brow and rolling down over her cheeks.
Without saying a word, I slipped my arm under hers and my bodyguard
did the same on the other side. Together we lifted her up and dragged
her back outside. The fresh air seemed to help her as the color
started to return to her skin.
"Are you going to be okay?" I asked.
Samantha took in a deep breath and rubbed her forehead with both
hands. "It felt like I had been hit with a hammer, and I've been hit
with a hammer before," she said, her words coming out slowly as if the
effort of speaking hurt her. Her tail was hanging limply against her
legs.
"We need to get you to a hospital," I said.
She looked up, her eyes flashing. "We need to check this place out
first. I'll be fine. I'm already feeling better."
"You are looking better," Santhara said, then bent down to take a
closer look at our injured companion.
Samantha snorted and pulled away, then started back for the building
only to stop after a just a step. Very carefully she started walking
backwards, the life coming back to her tail as it started to flick in
curiosity. She stopped, and then took a few steps towards us, wincing
with each one.
"It's the building, there's something inside that's giving me the
headache," she said with a perverse look of joy on her face.
I looked at my friend, then back inside the open door. "Then you stay
out here, we'll go inside and look around," I said, pulling my needler
free and resting my thumb on the firing stud.
A flash of anger crossed her face, but she still nodded. "I'll make
sure no one gets out this way," she said, pulling her gun free in the
process.
She was still going to take a trip to the doctor when we got home, but
I wasn't going to tell her that until we were there. Instead I stepped
back into the building, looking around the gloomy front room. The only
real light came from the boarded up windows, but it was enough to show
what bad condition the place was in.
The floor was littered with various debris: broken glass and
furniture, with cans and bottles mixed in. There was fire damage in
one corner, with soot reaching up the wall and covering most of the
ceiling. What had once been shelving was piled up along another wall,
each piece broken and smashed. Two doors led out the room.
Santhara went to check out one and came back a moment later, her nose
scrunched up and a look of distaste on her face. "That was once a
bathroom, and the fact that it doesn't appear to have worked in a
couple years hasn't changed how it's used," she said.
I nodded and started for the other doorway. It lead to a back room
that was in much the same shape as the front. There was an old
mattress with partly exposed springs in the corner, a blanket covering
the top of it. More cans were piled along the wall. Most of them were
food cans and all of them had been opened.
My bodyguard walked over to the pile of cans, poking over them as I
went to the mattress. I pulled the blanket off only to see how stained
it was. Grabbing the edge of it I lifted it up, finding nothing at all
under it.
"It's a ripple," Samantha said, her voice strained.
I turned to look at her, finding her resting her weight on the door
frame. She looked nearly dead, her face almost white and all of her
skin beading sweat.
"What is?" I asked, hurrying over to her.
"A ripple, but it's not moving, it's here in this room," she said, her
eyes dilated, giving her a panicked look.
Santhara looked around the room, then pulled out her own portal
controller. She looked at the screen for a moment then nodded her
head. "There is a fold here, but it's spiking like crazy. My
controller is throwing errors just by being in here with it."
Something was very strange, ripples always moved, that was what made
them ripples. If it wasn't moving something had to have been holding
it in place. "Are you sure it's a ripple?" I asked.
She didn't respond, she just looked past me.
"Have you ever heard of anything that could do this?" Santhara asked.
"No, but I've seen a device that could make a fold out of nothing. If
you can do that you can hold a ripple in place. If it's in this room,
so is whatever is holding it here," I said, starting to look around,
trying to find some sign of technology.
My bodyguard looked around, her eyes narrowing briefly before looking
down at the floor. It was covered in wood where the main part of the
building had been cheap tile. "Under the floor," she said.
I nodded and we both started to look around for some way to open the
floor. I debated going onto my paws and knees before my eyes returned
to the mattress. I decided that it was as likely as anywhere else. I
walked over to it and flipped it up, taking a closer look at the floor
under it. It looked solid enough, but just to be sure I gave it a
stomp with my barefoot. The boards flexed under the impact, then
bounced back.
Throwing the mattress clear I did drop to my knees, feeling around the
floor with my fingers. There was one board that seemed to move when I
pushed it. I grabbed at the edges, sinking my claws in and pulled at
it. The board protested for a few moments, then came free in my paws.
Under it I could see the soft glow of an orange light.
I grabbed more boards, pulling them away until I could see what was
under them. It was a simple box with a few buttons and dials, all
labeled in a language I didn't understand. A trio of thick cables ran
under the floor to the center of the room.
Taking a guess I reached down and pressed the switch next to the
glowing light. The light blinked out and Samantha let out a gasp.
I spun around to look at my friend. The color rushing back to her
skin. "It's gone," she said with a smile.
"So is anyone who might have been here," Santhara replied.
Samantha righted herself and walked across the room, looking down at
the device under the floor. "Why would anyone want to hold a ripple in
place?" she asked, her tail starting to come back to life.
"If you can find a way to use it, it does give you an unregistered and
uncontrolled fold onto Prid," the tigress replied.
"We need to call Jadith and tell her about this, and then tell Fox. He
has a friend who might be interested in this thing," I said, putting
my needler back into its holster and brushing the dirt from my skirt.
"And you're going to see a doctor when we get back home," I told
Samantha as we started out of the building.
She gave me an over exaggerated pout. "Yes, mother."
I was going to say something in return, but was cut off by the sound
of an explosion echoing from the other side of town.
* * *
The explosion came without warning, throwing Sora high into the air
before she ever realized what had happened. The scalding heat of it
blasted over her body, singeing her fur and burning the inside of her
ears. Flaming pieces of debris pelted over her back and her wings as
something sharp ripped across her thigh.
She tumbled through the sky, the air around her black with the smoke
as more debris crashed into her. Acting purely on instinct she snapped
her wings open, the air catching in the membranes and slowing her
fall. The whole of her weight was forced onto the muscles on her back
which started shaking in pain.
The air started to clear as she glided on her wings. She felt a twist
in her stomach as she saw that she was over a hundred feet in the air
and circling around a pillar of smoke that had, just moments before,
been the home she and Jadith were investigating.
It had been only the greatest of luck that she had even survived the
explosion. Where Jadith had taken the lower level she had taken the
upper, and had been on the balcony the moment before she found herself
in the air. She looked down at the house finding that very little was
left of it that wasn't on fire or larger than her wingspan.
Sora's more pressing concern was not the explosion, but her current
location. She knew that she was too high in the air to fly for more
than a few more seconds. Already her wings felt like they were going
to tear away from her shoulders. She pulled her wings closer to
herself and angled towards the ground. It was going to be a hard
landing no matter how she landed, she just hoped she could reach the
ground before her wings failed her.
Time seemed to crawl as she descended, the pain arching over her back
and sides. Her whole body burned both inside and out and her ears
buzzed, but there was no sound, even when another explosion ripped
through the remains of the building. It wasn't as strong as the first
one but it still sent debris high into the air. She tried to evade the
flying debris, but couldn't move fast enough. Her body was peppered
with pieces of debris that cut deep into her skin, points of fire
blooming over her chest and arms.
Other pieces hit the membranes of her wings, ripping neat little holes
though them. Any one hole wouldn't have caused anything but more pain,
but there were too many of them. With a sickening feeling they started
to rip under the air pressure, the holes growing larger until her
wings were torn to shreds. Without any lift she plummeted the last
thirty feet to the ground.
Sora let out a scream as she crashed into the street below, feeling
her body give way under the force of the impact. The pain rushed over,
her growing past what she thought she could take and forcing her mind
into the black.
The pain was too great to allow her to stay unconscious for more than
a fraction of a second. It drilled through her mind and pulled her
back to the surface. Her eyes opened, looking out onto a street and
the debris around her. She tried to move and let out a cry of pain.
Her arm was still intact, and it seemed like it was the only limb in
one piece. She tried to lift herself up but pain arced over her body.
She could see the lights of emergency vehicles in the distance, but
couldn't hear them. She turned her head to look back at the house. A
part of her hoped that Jadith had survived, maybe catching a ripple in
the first moments of the blast, but she knew that it was highly
unlikely.
Closing her eyes she finally looked away and then down at herself. She
looked worse than she had imagined. Blood was pooling under her on the
ground, one arm was bent in ways it shouldn't have and part of one leg
bone had pushed through the skin. From the rest of the pain in her
body she suspected she had even more damage inside, all in addition to
her loss of hearing.
She curled up slightly, trying to block out the pain, trying to stay
alive until help came, it was doing so that she realized she could
feel nothing from her lower body. She arched her head back and tried
to wiggle her toes, flick her tail, or do anything at all, but it was
all for naught.
Suddenly she felt hands on the side of her head, holding it in place.
She looked up to find an emergency worker standing over her and
another beyond him, their vehicle a few feet away. He was saying
something to her, but she tried to shake her head to show her lack of
understanding.
The man talked with his partner who pulled out a needle. Giving up
trying to talk with her they took her unbroken arm and injected it
into her. She felt warmth radiate for the injection site. It made her
feel very good before she slipped back into the darkness, hoping that
she wouldn't stay.
-----
This story (AFiW #510) is copyright 2007 by Fox Cutter. Hardcopy
reprints limited to one per person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission of the
author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.