by Tom Jones
When Arcades gathered his composure again, he realized all he needed to do now was to chamber a round and fire at the target. Before doing this, the fox made sure that he flipped the selector switch back to safe just in case Chris decided to pull the trigger early. Arcades had the idea of performing the ‘HK slap’ in front of Chris, “Hey, do you wanna see something cool?” The child was frankly happy with seeing anything which looked ‘cool’, “Yeah!” Arcades took his right hand off of the pistol grip which the child still held, and he made sure that he tightly held the handguard with his left hand since he would not expect for the child to be able to hold on to the weapon as he slapped the charging handle. Arcades held his hand up in front of the weapon for a few seconds, and he looked at the child to make sure that he was looking at his hand. The fox then slapped the charging handle, and it shot forwards as it returned to its ready position. The movement of the charging handle combined with the noise it made proved to be adequate stimulation for the child, “Wow, cool!”
Arcades chuckled lightly as he placed his right hand back on the pistol grip and spoke, “We’re almost ready! Are you ready to shoot the machine gun?” The fox subtly changed the fire selector from safe, to semi, then to burst, and finally to fully automatic. The child was ready to see the weapon in action, “Yeah! I wanna shoot the machine gun!” Arcades looked over the child’s shoulder from where he was kneeling, and he could tell that the weapon was pointed in a safe direction. The fox pressed the still retracted stock up against the child’s shoulder, and he also held on tightly to the handguard and pistol grip. He was holding Chris’ left hand up against the handguard in order to make sure that he would not try to grab the integrally suppressed barrel as the weapon fired. Once Arcades deemed that he would be able to hold the weapon for the child so that he would not lose control, he said, “Alright, here we go! All you gotta do now is just pull that trigger and keep it held down!” Chris was excited, so he wasted no time moving his little finger into the trigger guard. However, the young human was unable to pull the trigger hard enough, but Arcades subtly moved his finger into the trigger guard as well and pulled the trigger for the child. The weapon fired and quickly depleted its magazine of fifteen rounds, and Chris’ face was a face of excitement and joy, “Wow! That was so cool! I got to shoot the machine gun from Call of Duty!”
Arcades chuckled as he gave the child all of the credit, “Hah -- Yeah, you did! You fired the silenced machine gun!” As the child celebrated, the fox stood up, took back the MP5SD, and prepared to clear it. Arcades removed the magazine from the weapon and placed it on the table before he racked the charging handle a few times to ensure that no rounds were stuck in the chamber. After a few successful racks of the slide, the fox locked the charging handle back, switched the selector to safe, and placed the weapon back on the table. Once Arcades deemed that the both of the weapons were safe, he turned back to Chris, squatted down, and held out the palm of his hand, “How about a high-five?” The human child slapped the fox’s hand, and Arcades stood back up to address Jake, “So, how was that?” The child’s father looked at the two weapons on the table before looking at the fox, “Yeah. Not bad. I guess I’ll take the long gun.” Arcades nodded and picked up both weapons from the table after inserting the respective empty magazines back into each weapon.
Jake grabbed the ammunition box which still held three quarters of the ammunition it originally came with, and he brought Chris with him as they followed Arcades back into the store. When they made it back inside, Arcades sat the MP5SD back on the rack and placed the AR-9 on the table. Jake and Chris handed the fox the borrowed ear and eye protection, and the fox also removed his own ear and eye protection as well. After he finished his task, Arcades grabbed a polymer weapon case which was the original box for the AR-9, and he placed the weapon inside of the box. The fox spoke to Jake when he made it to the counter, “I’m legally required to have you to fill out the background check forum. It shouldn’t take too long, so I’ll get that for you to fill out while I get everything you’re buying together.” Arcades turned to Jason, and he could see that the wolf was already in the process of retrieving one of the forums for the background check. Jason handed the forum to the fox and then Arcades handed it to the human. Jake retrieved the forum and began to fill it out. Arcades had one more question for the human, “Do you want your ammo in the case?” The human nodded, “Sure, that’ll be fine.” Arcades took the box of ammunition sitting on the counter and placed it in the polymer case with the rifle. The fox remembered that he still needed to include the manual of the weapon in the box. Arcades searched around for a few seconds and found the manual to the AR-9, but the fox was not prepared to include it in the box yet. Jason watched as the fox grabbed a small Gospel tract and inserted it about halfway into the manual. The fox then placed the manual with the embedded tract into the weapon case and closed it up.
Within a few moments of Arcades finishing packing the weapon for his customer, he saw Jake approaching with the completed forum. The fox took the forum and inserted it into his computer. The computer would read the forum and reference Jake’s name with national police records almost instantly. The process completed, and it confirmed that the human was allowed to purchase the weapon. Arcades spoke of the outcome, “Alright, everything checks out. All I need from you now is payment for the weapon, and you’ll be on your way.” Jake reached into his pocket, removed his wallet, and he handed the fox his credit card. Arcades inserted the card into the chip-reader, and it validated within seconds. A receipt printed out within the next few seconds, and the fox handed the customer copy to the human along with the polymer case. Jake took both the receipt and the case, and Arcades spoke, “That weapon comes with a one year warranty from the manufacturer. That information’s in the manual, and I have that included in the case along with your ammunition. You may not read the manual, but I assure you that there is at least something in there worth looking at. I’d check it out if I were you. It goes over maintenance and everything.” Jake nodded in acknowledgement, “Thanks, Mr. …” Jake was going to thank the fox, but he already forgot Arcades’ name. The fox smiled and provided his first name again, “Call me Kurt.” Jake replied as he began to walk towards the door, “Thanks, Kurt.” The fox waved to the father before waving to the son, “Thank you.” Jason stood aside as he waited for the two humans to leave the store.
After the humans left the store, the wolf looked over to the fox and said, “Hey Kurt, isn’t it about closing time now, mate?” Arcades did not wear a watch, but he was close enough to read the computer’s clock, “Yup, it’s five-o’clock. I’ll go and lock the doors.” The fox moved from his place from behind the desk, and he went to go and lock the doors. While he performed this task, Jason looked at the different weapons on the walls. He saw the HK433, the Beretta ARX-160, the XMP-1 recovered from Facility Twenty-Four, an HK416A5, an HK G36, a Kriss Vector, an HK MP5K, and the fox’s personal Salient GRY. Jason continued looking at the weapons and he asked, “Are you ever going to sell some of the weapons we used back when we were still Fox Security?” Arcades finished locking the last door he needed and replied, “Well, I can’t sell most of those to regular Joes from off the street. Those are all full-auto weapons, but I can let people rent them out at our range.” Jason then asked a hypothetical question, “If you could sell them, would you?” Arcades shrugged before shaking his head, “Ehhh, not really. I guess they have meaning to me, and my GRY especially. I wouldn’t want to let those go. Not after what we’ve been through. The XMP-1 is also something that I wouldn’t want to let go. Since the Foundation is no more, we probably wouldn’t get another chance to have one of them.”
Jason experienced what Arcades went through as well, “Yeah, I can see why you’d want to keep it.” As the fox returned to where Jason was, the wolf asked the fox another question, “Did Bobby ever tell you how he’s enjoying his construction job?” Arcades replied, “I haven’t heard from him in a couple months, but I do remember him saying that
he was getting decent pay.” Jason remembered the Omega defector who helped them significantly, “What about Jim? Isn’t he a pilot for some helicopter touring company now?” Arcades nodded, “Yeah. He’s flying those civilian helicopters now for a tour company. I’ve heard from him a bit more recently, and he told me that it’s going pretty well for him. He works in California, and that’s pretty far from where we are.” Jason had another question, “He did change his last name, right?” The fox said, “Yep. He was a bit concerned that somebody would find him, so he changed his last name to MacLeod.” Neither Jason nor Arcades changed their names, “How come we didn’t need to change ours?” Arcades shrugged, “Well technically, nobody needed to change their names. Jim was just a bit concerned that somebody from the Foundation or whatever would be able to find him. Bobby didn’t change his name either.”
Jason looked around the empty store, “Y’know Kurt, what’s up with you living where you work?” Arcades grabbed the MP5SD from the rack where he had left the weapon, and he started playing with the charging handle, “You live here too, Jason. Just like you lived with me before we had our run-in with the Foundation.” Jason briefly remembered the events he and Arcades went through, “Blimey, I can’t believe that was almost a bloody year ago.” The fox locked the MP5SD’s charging handle back before performing the HK slap on it again, “But to answer your question, I like doing that because we’re small enough that we can do it. I mean, you and I are the only people we have working here, and that’s really all we need. We don’t see too many people coming in and out of here on a daily basis.” Jason looked around the relatively small store, “Yeah… I bet you like living with all of these guns here.” Arcades nodded as he slapped the charging handle of the MP5SD once again, “Well, you got that right for sure. Owning this store more or less gives me an excuse to keep my Salient GRY. You can thank the federal government for the LLC exemption.”
Jason looked over to the Salient GRY sitting on the wall, “Didn’t you say you’d need to do something in order to otherwise keep it without owning a company?” Arcades nodded while looking at the weapon on the wall, “Yeah, I’d have to ‘destroy’ the lower and replace it with one that was semi-auto only. Salient Arms lowers are kinda hard to come by nowadays. Also, the HK433 I would have to get rid of since they don’t really have a civilian version of it.” Jason remembered the fox’s Pave Hawk, “Was it worth selling your helicopter to buy this place and all of those guns you’re selling?” Arcades nodded, “I’d say so. The helicopter was fun and everything, but I would have to buy another place to store it and to maintain it. It would cost me a bit more than I had at the time.” Jason watched the fox remove the empty magazine from the MP5SD before inserting it back into the weapon again, “We don’t really have a gun culture like you guys do where I’m from.” Arcades removed the magazine and inspected the feeding lip, “I know. I’d say you guys are missing out. I’m pretty sure that almost everything in this building is against some Australian law.” Jason remembered the fox’s bag of restraints, “Guns aren’t the only things you have that are illegal in Australia, mate.”
Arcades inserted the magazine again, but he did look at the wolf indirectly. He knew very well of what Jason was referring to, “Yeah, but I have no idea why they consider those prohibited weapons. If you want my honest opinion, the Chinese-made ones that don’t lock like traditional models should be considered the real weapons. Those things are like freakin’ death traps. I can’t believe those aren’t illegal, but my Smith & Wesson models are. At that rate, I’m pretty sure some people have made death traps over there with that Chinese crap, and it’s completely legal to the Australian government.” The wolf shrugged, “Perhaps. Who knows?” Arcades looked down at the suppressed submachine gun he was holding, “Are you glad you’ll be an American citizen soon enough?” Jason replied when Arcades looked back up at him, “Would you consider me liberated when I do become an American citizen?” The fox smirked, “Perhaps. At least you’d be able to legally keep most of these weapons off the wall.” Arcades spoke again, “I am glad that we moved to this state anyways after the Foundation saga. Alabama is where I grew up, and they are a bit more lax when it comes to gun laws when compared with some other states such as California. I guess you could say I feel a bit more liberated here.” After a brief moment of silence, the fox decided to speak of something different, “In all actuality, you getting baptized will be ultimately more liberating than anything of the sorts. I’m all for having the right to own equipment like this, but at the end of the day, it’s just shaped pieces of metal and plastic.” The wolf remembered that he arranged for the fox to baptize him the next day, “Yeah. I’m glad that you agreed to baptize me, mate.” Arcades smiled and replied, “I’d be happy to baptize anybody. You don’t need some large audience to do it or anything. Heck, many saints used to simply take people out to whatever body of water they could find and baptize people.”
The room fell silent for a few moments, but the wolf looked at the fox’s bare ankles before looking back up at Arcades’ face and asking, “Hey Kurt, would you mind if I locked you up today?” Arcades was focusing on the submachine gun in his hands, but he lowered it when he heard Jason ask the question, “Well, I wouldn’t mind.” The wolf saw that the fox was now looking back at him, “Can you give me a yes or no, mate?” Arcades slapped the MP5SD’s charging handle one last time with the empty magazine still inserted in the weapon, “I give you my consent, if that’s what you’re asking. Mainly because we don’t have any work to do tomorrow besides me baptizing you, but I wouldn’t call that work.” Jason watched as Arcades placed the MP5SD back on the rack with the stock still extended. After he put the weapon back up he said, “Before we do that, I’d rather get changed first. I think my clothes got a bit dirty when I was outside earlier.” Jason nodded to the fox and took a couple steps back, “Yeah, take your time, mate.”
About five minutes later, Arcades opened the door behind the wolf, and Jason turned around to see what the fox had changed into. Arcades wore his Rhodesian Brushstroke shorts with a matching patterned t-shirt. Jason spoke to Arcades, “Are you ready, Kurt?” The fox gave a quick nod, “Yeah. I’m ready when you are.” The wolf said, “Alright, I guess we’ll get going, mate.” Both anthros exited the shop room, and they proceeded back to their own living area in the other half of the building. Arcades opened the door first, and he walked into his bedroom with Jason. The fox looked up at his black tactical tool bag which held all of his restraints, and he picked it up before setting it on the ground and sitting on his bed. With the bag lying on the floor, Arcades said, “Alright Jason, I’m ready now.” The wolf bent down and pulled the bag’s zipper to open the bag. The wolf looked at Arcades’ collection of restraints used by military and police forces around the world, and he prepared to make his decision of which he planned to use on the fox. Arcades watched as Jason shuffled around through the bag, and he remembered something important, “Oh, you should get the keys out first. It wouldn’t be fun to be in those without them.” Jason reached into one of the side pouches of the tool bag, and he removed one of Arcades’ two keychains and placed it on the small drawer next to the fox’s bed.
The fox commented on the keychain, “It didn’t take me too long to get all of the keys I needed back after losing one of my keyrings last year. I had plenty of duplicates already.” The wolf did not say anything in response, but he did eventually remove a set of Smith & Wesson 1850s from the bag. Arcades watched as one of the leg shackles dangled from the thirty-two inch connecting chain, “That was the same model I was in when we were taken in the Congo last year.” Jason did not remember this fact, “Oh, is that going to bother you? I won’t use them if it does.” Arcades shook his head, “I wouldn’t have replaced them if it did substantially bother me. Those are some of my favorite restraints to wear after all.” Jason heard the sound of some of the shackles colliding with each other as they dangled from the connecting chain, “These are?” The fox nodded, “Yeah. I’m
surprised Smith & Wesson still makes those. I remember I bought my previous pair about ten years ago.”
The wolf listened to the fox and gestured for Arcades to give him one of his wrists. Arcades raised his right wrist first, and he soon felt the carbon steel restraint locking around his wrist while he continued speaking, “They’re a bit more expensive than some of Smith & Wesson’s other models, but that’s mainly because they’re technically two in one. It’s not that bad though, and I think the price is still reasonable. They’re about one hundred dollars, but you do get two forty-five dollar restraints connected by a thirty-two inch chain.” Arcades handed the wolf his left wrist, and he soon felt the same sensation again. The wolf replied next as he tried to remember how tight the fox liked his restraints to be, “Why do you like these in particular so much?” Jason stepped away from Arcades in order to grab the key to double-lock the restraints, and he saw that the fox tightened the bows of the wrist restraints himself, “Oh, were those not tight enough for you?” Arcades replied as he looked back up at the wolf, “For this model, they’re tight enough for me when there’s only one notch on the bow still showing from the top of the frame.” Arcades held out his wrists for the wolf to double-lock the restraints, and Jason was able to see what the fox was talking about. As the wolf pushed the double-lock pins down with the tail end of one of the keys, he asked, “How about the legcuffs? How tight do you want those?”
Arcades replied after the wolf stepped away, “For those, I like them best when you push it down one click after no more notches on the bows are visible. Also, when you do those, I want you to make sure the keyholes are facing downwards.” Jason was curious as to why the fox had a specific request, “Why’s that, mate?” Arcades replied as he watched the wolf begin to lock the leg shackles around his ankles, “Because that’s how cops always seem to apply those.” The wolf finished locking the shackles around both of the fox’s ankles, and he placed the key into the double-lock slot to push the bar upwards to prevent the restraints from tightening further, “Why would they do that? It would be easier to take them off with the keyholes facing up.” Arcades replied once the wolf stood back up after he finished double-locking the carbon steel restraints, “My best guess is that they want you to kneel in order to remove them. It’s a psychological thing.” Jason was not entirely convinced, “I dunno about that, mate.” Arcades shrugged, “It’s what I can come up with. I don’t know of any other reason why you wouldn’t put them on with the keyholes facing upwards.” The fox then remembered that he did not answer one of the wolf’s questions from earlier, “Oh, you asked me why I like this model in particular. My reason for that is because it combines two pretty decent Smith & Wesson models with a chain connecting them together. The connecting chain is long enough to let you do basically everything but raise your arms too high. It’s not very practical, but I am fond of it personally.”