by Tom Jones
The fox remained still as he did not want to startle the human. Arcades noticed another human was climbing up to the helipad; he was wearing a black jacket with black combat pants and holding a regularly sized Remington 870 instead. The human pulled out the shotgun, and he walked towards the anthros while aiming right at Arcades. The fox saw that the human’s shirt read “Sealand Security”. The first man spoke while still aiming at Arcades with the shotgun, “Alright, so what are you guys really here for?” Bocchino was the first to say something despite what Arcades told him, “He’s telling the truth. We are seeking refuge here.” The man aimed his weapon at the cat, “Is that so?”
“Yes, we have evidence to prove it,” Arcades spoke as he still was holding his hands up. Jason was also holding his hands up as well, but the cat was the only one who was not. The human aimed his shotgun back at the fox after he heard him speak again. He spoke to the fox, “Evidence? What are you on about?” The fox looked up at the human, “If you would please allow me to grab it from my pocket. It is a USB with critical evidence on it. Please do not shoot me. Alright?”
The human was not entirely sure if he wanted to trust a fox, but he remembered that he was indeed the one with the shotgun. He even had another man with a shotgun just in case something were to happen. The human decided to allow Arcades to present his evidence, “Alright. Do it slowly with no quick moves. Place it on the ground in front of you, and then lay down on the ground.” The fox’s hand was a little shaky from the stress, but he tried to hide it the best he could. He did not want to escalate the situation any further than it had already been. Arcades slowly reached his left hand down to his pants pocket, and he slowly lifted up on one of the Velcro tabs. The fox then slowly moved his hand inside of the pocket, and he cautiously revealed a black USB stick. Arcades closed his pants pocket, and he got on his knees to place the stick on the ground. Once he finished, Arcades laid himself on the ground, and he placed his hands on the back of his head after crossing his ankles.
The man leaned down to pick up the stick while closely watching the fox. After grabbing the USB stick, he returned to his previous posture, and he stepped away from the fox before aiming his shotgun at the remaining two anthros. The human spoke to the guard, “Alright, take the fox.” The security guard moved towards Arcades, and he placed his knee on Arcades’ back, right above his tail. The guard stowed away his shotgun by using the two-point sling that was attached to it, and he grabbed a pair of Peerless handcuffs from his belt. The fox did not even have to see what was going on to know exactly what was about to happen as he noticed the distinct sound of handcuffs being taken out. Arcades felt the metal cuffs lock around his thin wrists again, and this was nothing new for the fox. He was wondering how many times in the past two weeks he had been in handcuffs. Arcades had lost count.
The security guard still kept his knee on the fox’s back, and he spoke to the other armed human, “Um, we only have enough to cuff one of these guys. Do you want me to keep the fox locked up? He doesn’t look too dangerous.” The remaining armed man looked at Arcades’, and he understood what the guard was talking about. Arcades was so thin that he did not even appear to be a threat to the guard. The armed man spoke again to the guard, “Keep the fox locked up. I don’t trust foxes.” The guard nodded, “As you wish, Sire.” Jason was not sure why the guard referred to the other human as if he was part of some kind of royal family, “Sire?” The armed man aimed his shotgun at Jason after he heard the wolf speak.
“He’s the Prince of Sealand, Jason,” Arcades spoke. The Prince aimed his shotgun at the fox again. The Prince barked, “Oi! Shut your fucking mouth, cunt!” The guard had just finished double-locking the handcuffs that were now on Arcades’ wrists. The guard had one other pair of restraints that he was going to put on the fox. The guard grabbed a pair of Peerless shackles that were in a different pocket. The guard looked down at the fox’s bare feet and asked, “Where are your shoes, fox?” Arcades replied, “I don’t come with shoes.” The guard began shackling the fox’s ankles, “Alright. I hope you had your tetanus shot.” Arcades knew that the guard was referring to the fact that a large part of Sealand’s exterior had already begun rusting away. The guard double-locked the shackles, and he stepped away. The fox was now subdued yet again.
“Alright. Now, you two! Step out of the helicopter,” the Prince said to Jason and Bocchino. The wolf and the cat slowly stepped out of the HH-60. Jason’s hands were in the air, but Bocchino’s hands were not. The cat knew that their only pairs of restraints were currently being used on Arcades, so he had nothing to worry about. The guard held his shotgun up at the anthros, and he looked them over. He did not notice any weapons on them. The guard asked, “Are you all unarmed?” Arcades replied from the ground, “Yes. We have no weapons.” The guard was unsure of what to do next, “Sire, what should I do?” The Prince was not entirely sure either. He was still aiming at the two standing anthros. After a moment of silence, the Prince decided to go with a risky move, “Alright. We are willing to listen to what you all want, so state your business.”
Arcades began speaking, “We need to upload that evidence to HavenCo. It is extremely important.” The Prince looked down at the bound fox again, but he lowered his weapon, “You need to use HavenCo? What type of evidence do you have on your USB stick?” Arcades turned his head to look at the Prince, “We have evidence that the Omega Foundation was behind the NSS attack that took place last week.” The Prince had never heard of the Omega Foundation, “Wait, the who, the what Foundation?” Arcades spoke again, “The Omega Foundation is a secret society that masquerades as a nonprofit private research group. They are behind a large anthro-trafficking operation.” The Prince had never heard a fox speak such words before, but Arcades’ words sounded so outlandish that the Prince did not know if he wanted to believe them or not.
“How did you come to that conclusion?” the Prince asked the fox. Arcades replied, “The evidence is all on that USB stick. I’m not sure if you know this, but…” The fox stopped as he was trying to figure out the best way to word his next thought. He continued again, “We are on the run from the Omega Foundation. They are hunting me personally because I had initially leaked the evidence to the internet.” The Prince was now curious as to what exactly was on the USB stick. He turned to the guard, and he gestured for him to lower his weapon. The guard lowered his weapon, and he engaged the safety. Jason felt it was now safe for him to slowly lower his hands. The wolf looked down at the fox on the helipad who was once again restrained. It only reminded him of what he almost had done to the fox mere days ago.
“Can we please go inside to talk about this?” Arcades requested. The Prince replied, “Alright. I guess we can see what evidence you got.” The Prince thought for a moment, and he realized that the anthros had not come to Sealand in order to capture and occupy it, “Hey, what’s your name, fox?” Arcades stated his name again, “Kurt Hofmeier. The cat’s name is Bobby Bocchino, and the wolf’s name is Jason Barter.” The Prince nodded slowly, “Alright, Kurt… I suppose that we can probably trust you. Want us to take those handcuffs off?” The fox gave an answer that surprised the Prince but it did not surprise Jason, “Nah… If it makes you feel any better to keep a fox under control, you should keep them on.” The Prince felt he had a general idea of what Arcades was talking about, “Hey, ignore what I said earlier about foxes…” The fox spoke again, “Don’t worry, I won’t hold it against you… It’s something I get pretty often.” The Prince figured that it would be best to drop the thought. Jason watched as the fox managed to get himself to his feet by himself. The wolf was wondering why Arcades chose to stay restrained.
“I’ll show you guys inside, I guess,” the Prince spoke. The Prince and the guard began escorting the three anthros down the helipad steps that would take them down to the fort’s main deck. Arcades was the first anthro to step over the large letters on the helipad that read “SEALAND” in bold capital lettering. The fox watched his step as he carefully move
d down the small length of stairs that would bring him down to the deck. Since he was handcuffed and shackled, he had to make sure that he did not trip up while stepping down; Otherwise, he would fall with no way to break his fall. The last thing he wanted out here was an injury. The wolf was closely following the fox, and he was watching his chained feet as he progressed down the stairs. Jason still couldn’t stop himself from looking at Arcades’ feet.
“Now, I take it that you already know a good bit about our nation, Kurt?” the Prince asked the fox. Arcades replied, “Yes, I do. I read up on Sealand a good bit on the internet.” The Prince chuckled a bit, “Heh, sometimes it’s good to have some company over. However, it’s kinda hard to tell when a helicopter pulls up unannounced.” The captive fox spoke, “I’m sorry there wasn’t prior warning. We really had no other place to go.” The Prince decided to believe the fox, “That’s alright. Ever since Sealand was occupied by the mercenaries back a while ago, we don’t really take our chances. You know what, in a couple of decades, then it will be a full one hundred years since that happened. Time flies, doesn’t it?” Arcades agreed, “Yes. It sure does.” The fox was mainly glad that the Prince was no longer pointing a 12-gauge at him, for he was not too concerned with being restrained.
The Prince opened the door that would bring the three anthros inside of the fort itself, “Okay. You all can come in here.” Arcades stepped in first, and he was followed by Jason and Bocchino. The hallway was very narrow, but there it branched into several rooms that looked a bit larger. The Prince looked at the fox’s restrained wrists and ankles, “Kurt, are you sure you don’t want us to take those off?” The fox stopped, and he turned his head to look at the Prince, “I know you don’t trust foxes, so I won’t make you feel uneasy.” The Prince said, “I thought you weren’t gonna hold that against me like you said.” Arcades remembered that he did indeed say such words, “Gosh… Look, I’m sorry. Being a fox --” The fox paused. He decided to continue and just say exactly what he wanted to say, “I know it’s what I deserve. Foxes just deserve to be locked up and shut up.”
The Prince was not entirely sure why Arcades was saying these things, “Mate, what the bloody hell happened to you?” Arcades frowned and turned away, “I-I’d rather not say. O-or at least right now.” Jason briefly thought that the fox was remembering what he had tried to do, but the wolf knew that Arcades already handcuffed himself before he had ever done it to the fox. It made Jason wonder exactly why Arcades was like this. Since the fox’s last response was less coherent than he normally spoke, the wolf thought that something must have happened to Arcades a long time ago that would cause such thoughts to occur. Jason made a mental note that he would talk about this with the fox later.
Bocchino shook his head, and he felt that Arcades was weak yet again. The cat reminded himself that he was still planning on leaving Fox Security for good after they were to return from this water fort. Bocchino felt that he did not have time to deal with the fox’s problems, as they would only drag him down and potentially get him killed. The cat was still silent however; he did not want to make anything get worse. The Prince spoke again, “Look, you don’t have to wear those restraints, Kurt. We can take them off.” Arcades refused, “No. Why would you ever free a fox?” Jason watched as the fox almost seemed to pin himself against the wall.
Bocchino was growing exceedingly impatient, “Your Highness, I can show you the evidence if you please. Kurt can work out his own problems with Jason somewhere else.” The Prince was confused as to what was going on still. He decided to agree, “Alright. I guess you can show me the evidence. Why don’t you -- uh, show them to the lower level?” The guard nodded, and he motioned for Arcades and Jason to come with him. The fox reluctantly agreed, but he did not feel that he had much of a choice, for he was still restrained. The cat watched as Arcades and Jason were escorted away by the guard, and he thought, ‘Fucking hell, what a damn bitch. I’ll be damn glad when I can leave that damned motherfucker behind. Fucking pussy ass motherfucking bitch.’
The Prince showed the cat to a room which held a collection of computer equipment. The cat saw the HavenCo servers for himself, and he figured that was what Arcades wanted the evidence uploaded to. The Prince sat down at the computer, and he powered it on. While it was logging on, the cat asked, “So, you guys can get Internet way out here?” The Prince nodded, “Actually, we make our own internet. We technically are our own ISP. We even offer VPN services again. We used to do that about a decade ago, but we shut it down for a bit.” Bocchino nodded back, trying to look interested, “Yeah, that sure is interesting.” The Prince made it to the desktop, but he did not proceed yet. He asked, “So, what’s wrong with your friend?” The cat sighed, “He’s being a fucking bitch, that’s what he is.” The human raised an eyebrow, “What? It looked like he was distressed.” Bocchino gestured as if he was throwing something away, “Aghh, just forget him. That dumb motherfucker… I never should have come with him to the UK.”
The Prince was not sure what the cat was mentioning, “I do not understand what the problem is.” Bocchino looked at the computer screen and made a suggestion, “How about you check the latest headlines on the news?” The Prince opened up his web browser, and he typed in the address of a news website that he frequented. After mere seconds of loading, the Prince read the title aloud, “Breaking News: Castle Defense Industries hit by an anthro terrorist attack in Ipswich, United Kingdom.” Bocchino looked at the picture of the burning CDI building, “Yup. That’s the kind of shit that dumbass brings me along for.” The Prince still was lacking context, “Who did the attack? How did that happen?” The cat sighed as he remembered the reality of the situation, “The Omega Foundation must have sent anthros to stage an attack.” The Prince did not understand, “What? How would they go on about doing that?” Bocchino took a deep breath to calm himself down before continuing, “Look. It’s probably best if I start this from the very beginning and show you the evidence.” The cat was prepared to give a lengthy recap for the human.
“Now, this’ll be the last time I ask you. Are you sure you don’t want me to take those off?” The guard was trying to give the fox one last chance at having the freedom to move his arms and legs to their fullest extent. Once again, Arcades declined, “No, please. I deserve to be chained up like this.” The guard was tired of fooling around with this fiasco, “Alright, suit yourself then.” The guard soon left by ascending back to the higher level, and this left a restrained fox and a wolf alone once again. Jason looked at Arcades, and he saw that the fox was looking at a small room in front of him. The room looked to be almost like a brig that would fit one person. It was most likely constructed for when the sea fort was in use by the British Navy back in World War II.
“Kurt, what are you looking for in there?” Jason asked the fox. Arcades stepped inside of the cell, “There is where I deserve to be. Locked up in a tiny cell. Foxes don’t deserve to roam free.” Jason shook his head, and the wolf attempted to mediate the situation, “No, no, no. What happened to you, Kurt?” Arcades dropped to his knees inside of the cell as he was facing the wolf. Jason could now see a few tears were forming in the fox’s eyes. Jason thought he would apologize again for what he attempted to do, for he felt that he was part of the reason Arcades was so distressed, “Kurt, I’m sorry for what I tried to do the other day. I hope that’s not what this is about.”
Arcades only silently shook his head while he sniffled once. Jason did not understand what Arcades’ trouble was, “Kurt, I don’t understand, mate. What is your trouble? I know what I did was wrong, but you gotta work with me here.” Arcades felt his tail with his cuffed hands, and he tried to rub his tail in order to calm himself down; However, this did not go anywhere. The fox leaned forwards, and he tried to bury his face in his thighs. Jason decided that it would be best to wait for the fox to say what the issue was, but he did not want to just leave Arcades alone in the open cell. The wolf entered the cell, and he grabbed the fox by the shoulders in order to pu
ll him out of the cell. The fox did not resist, but he kept his eyes shut as he began crying more. The wolf gently sat the fox on the floor, and he rolled Arcades over to his side. All he could do now was just wait for the fox to say something.
The Prince was now viewing the video that Arcades had recorded. He had gotten to the part when the fox had been walking past the anthros that were in the cells, “What’s supposed to be going on in those cells?” Bocchino shrugged, “You’d have to ask him about that. From what I remember, at one point he told me that they’re trying to condition them to be sold to the financial elite.” The Prince thought about the possibility, but he was not entirely sure. He paused the video briefly, and he minimized the window in order to pull up the image of the XMP-1 that Arcades had saved on the drive. The Prince asked, “You got this thing from a train?” The cat nodded, “Sure did. We found it in the car which held two anthros that were on their way to that complex.” The Prince became curious, “Did you guys take the weapon from the train?” The cat replied, “Yes, but… Actually, we may have it in the helicopter. I’ll go and look for it.”
Bocchino exited the room, and he traveled back out the hallway. When the cat was back on the main deck, he could see that the skies were completely clear, but some of the smoke from the CDI building was faintly visible over the horizon. The cat wondered what CDI was thinking back over on the mainland, but he reminded himself that the Typhoons broke off from following the helicopter. Maybe the few things that the fox was able to say to CDI was just enough to get them to believe him, but the cat doubted this possibility. Bocchino found that possibility hard to come by, especially since foxes could not be trusted. The cat traveled back up the steps that led to the helicopter, and he took note of the bold lettering around the helipad. However, some of the lettering had been worn down due to weathering and regular aging. The fort itself was almost a full one hundred years old now.