by Tom Jones
Terry listened to the fox, and he started to become curious, “How did that happen? How did you meet her three times over?” Arcades tried to answer the best he could without giving out details which he probably did not need to divulge to someone working with a secret society looking for him, “Well, I guess you could say that it was kinda a big coincidence. When I worked at my last job, I happened to pass her by twice. I don’t work there anymore, so I just happened to run into her yet again just recently.” The human asked for more information, “What was your last job?” Arcades replied while still trying to remain somewhat discreet, “I used to work for a security firm until two years ago when it closed down for good.” Jason briefly looked to his right to see that the human was simply looking straight ahead at the road. The wolf directed his attention back at the road when he heard Terry speak again, “Why did the firm close?” Arcades gave an answer which he hoped did not have too much information bundled with it, “The firm ran into difficulties that made it unprofitable to continue operating. The firm was losing too much money, and there was not really a way to get that money back.”
Even though Arcades did not explicitly tell the human about the specific reason Fox Security ceased to function, he was not lying to Terry. After all, Arcades did lose a significant amount of money during his original run-in with the Omega Foundation. He lost practically all of his employees as well, and he was really only left with Jason once the ordeal died down. However, an argument could be made that Jason was less of an employee and more like the fox’s family. Bobby Bocchino was probably the last true employee of the fox’s, but Arcades knew that the angry Italian cat did not want to keep in touch with him after the downfall of the Omega Foundation. The cat probably had enough of all of the secret societies and their plots to establish their totalitarian One World Government, and quite frankly, Arcades wanted it to end as well. The fox was tired of being on the run, and he just wanted to live without having to look over his shoulder to see if there was someone trying to capture him.
After a moment of driving in silence, Terry asked another question to the fox after he turned around in his seat to view him clearly, “You know. There’s just something about you that looks familiar to me. I have a feeling that I’ve seen you from somewhere, but I’m not entirely sure if you’re even the guy I’m thinking about.” Arcades was beginning to feel a little uneasy, and he was starting to feel concerned that Terry’s amnesia was wearing off. If the human was starting to get his memory back, then it would only be a matter of time before he would know that he was riding in the same vehicle with the very fox he was tasked with capturing. Arcades decided to play a very risky maneuver by asking the human a question to jog his memory, “You’ve seen me before? From where?” After all, maybe Terry was genuinely confusing the fox for someone else. The human replied, “Ahh, maybe not. You see, I remember seeing this one guy on the news a long time ago. It had to have been like ten years at least or something like that. You’re a black and white red fox, and I haven’t seen many of those around before.”
Jason looked to his right again to view the human, and the wolf had an expression on his face that communicated a mixture between astonishment and guilt. Arcades, on the other hand, did not entirely piece together what Jason seemed to already figure out on his own. Arcades was curious, so he asked the human for more details, “When and where did you see this?” Terry went back to face the road again and spoke, “Oh, it was a good ten or so years ago when I used to live in Crestview. On the evening news one night, there was a story about the cops catching a bunch of anthros for drinking on the beach in Destin. There was this one black and white fox that they kept focusing the camera on for a good while. He kinda looked like you, but he was a bit skinnier than you. Pretty weird, huh?” The fox was dumbfounded; he could not believe that he found yet another person who had seen him humiliated live on the news. For a local news story, it sure seemed to go further than just the locality it was originally supposed to air on. Arcades’ bound body had been displayed on an international level for many people to witness.
Arcades looked towards the left to view Jason, and he could see that the wolf seemed visibly embarrassed by the topic the human brought up. Though Arcades initially did not know why Jason would be the one to seem embarrassed, he remembered that the wolf said that he did indeed pleasure himself to the images of Arcades that were spread on the Internet back when the incident initially occurred. Terry did not seem to realize that he was sitting in the same car with the same fox he had seen back in 2018, but Arcades did not really feel like telling the human that he was indeed the same fox from that very news story. Terry would assume that he had seen someone else, and Arcades did not really mind the human maintaining his current conclusion. Jackie did not seem to realize this fact either, and she merely took what the human said at face value. The vixen did not meet back up with Arcades and Jason until after the fox had already explained the story to the wolf. She did see the two anthros appear slightly upset by the human’s mention of the news story, but she disregarded this observation and did not decide to think about it to any further extent.
The human tried to make some more smalltalk with the fox he was riding with, “So, where do you work right now?” Arcades replied, “Funny you should mention that. I’ve just recently become unemployed.” Terry raised an eyebrow and directed his head slightly to the left until he could partially see the fox in his peripheral vision, “How’d that happen?” The fox said, “There was an event that basically destroyed the company. The company wasn’t able to operate as it did before after that event, so it went defunct.” The human decided to guess as to what the incident was, but the context he was referring to was different from what the fox had in mind, “What, was there some sort of hostile takeover?” Arcades’ eyes widened, but he had to give the human the benefit of the doubt that he still did not know what happened to Fox Armaments, “Yeah, you could say that.” The human finally looked back away from Arcades, “I see. I mean, I guess it’s hard when there’s suddenly a bunch of new owners. They want to replace the old staff with new staff.” The fox finally realized that the human was referring to a completely different type of hostile takeover than the one he had in mind, so he decided to just play along, “Things get rough.” Terry gave a nod from where he was sitting, “Oh yeah.”
Terry still continued to speak with the fox, “Are you looking for a new job? How long have you been unemployed?” Arcades said, “It’s actually only been like a week. We haven’t found a new job yet.” The human was confused, “We?” Arcades alleviated the human’s confusion, “Yeah, Jason here lost his job the same time I did. We tend to stick together, and that’s been going well for us.” The human looked in the rear view mirror, and he could partially see Jackie in the backseat, “What about the other fox? What brings her out here with you guys?” Arcades said, “She’s down on her luck right now, and we’re helping her out. She’s staying with us.” The human sighed, “Damn, that sucks. All three of you guys seem to be down on your luck. I hope it all works out for you three.” Arcades nodded, and he found it ironic that one of the guys sent to capture him was wishing him the best of luck, “Thanks. We think it should all work out sooner or later.” The human took a deep breath before looking back at the road once more. Arcades was wishing that Terry would not come to remember what he was sent to do; he did not really mind having this conversation with the human.
Within the next ten minutes, the 4Runner had arrived at the address. Jason pulled into the driveway of what appeared to be a regular house which was relatively secluded from any other neighboring buildings. While there were no other houses that were imminently adjacent to the house the group arrived at, the house was not too far out of the way from the town. Jason looked up at the house, checked that the number on the mailbox matched with the number on the sticky note, and spoke to the fox once he confirmed that the numbers all matched up, “Looks like we’ve made it, mate.” Arcades looked out of the window and viewed the ho
use, “This is it?” The wolf nodded and said, “It sure is. This is the house where the address leads to.” Terry was silent, but his face began to look as if he was in a slight state of distress. The wolf looked to his right, and he noticed the expression on the human’s face. Terry looked to his left, and he saw the curious expression on Jason’s face morph into an expression which communicated suspicion. Terry’s eyes drifted to the left, and he looked Arcades in the eye.
After a rather awkward moment spent sitting in the SUV in complete silence, Arcades was the one to speak, “Is there something wrong?” The human stood still, and he looked at the fox while he replied, “You’re the fox I was supposed to get. My memory just came back.” When the wolf realized that the human’s amnesia had worn off, he reached down to his waistband to retrieve a weapon, but he found that he was still unarmed. Arcades noticed that Jason was looking for a weapon, so he spoke up in order to stop him, “Jason, stop that.” Upon hearing the fox, the wolf almost immediately aborted his search for a weapon, and he brought his hands away from his waistband as he looked back at the fox sitting in the backseat. Arcades looked at the human and spoke, “I know you’re looking for me.” Terry paused for a moment as he looked at Jason; he was not sure if the wolf was planning to attack him. The human knew that he likely did not stand much of a chance taking on two anthros by himself. He did not see Jackie as a threat, but he did see Jason as being a particularly imminent threat given how close the wolf was to him. Terry was rather surprised that he had not been attacked yet, and he was also surprised that Arcades had even ordered the wolf to stand down.
The human slowly shook his head and spoke to the fox, “I don’t want to have to deal with this.” The fox spoke calmly and slowly as to not agitate the human; he wanted to de-escalate the situation as much as he could, “I don’t want to have to deal with this either. I want everybody to walk away from this with no harm done. How about we lower the tensions and calm down?” When the fox said the word harm, the human was instantly reminded of what he did to his assigned partner, and he spoke under his breath, “Shit… Did I really kill him?” Arcades heard what the human had said and answered his question, “I’m afraid so. I was there to watch it, remember?” Terry cursed to himself again, “Dammit. Fuck…” Arcades made a new suggestion for the human, “How about we go inside and talk about it? Maybe you can tell us what all has been going on.” The human was a bit weary when he considered trusting a fox, but at the same time, he did not really have any other choice. Terry looked at the wolf, but Jason did not have anything to say. The human looked back at Arcades, and he briefly looked to the vixen sitting directly to the fox’s right. After some hesitation, the human finally decided to agree with the fox’s suggestion, “Alright. Let’s go inside.” Arcades gave a nod and perked up a slight smile, “That’s good. I’m willing to de-escalate if you’re willing to do so as well.” All four occupants of the vehicle opened their respective doors and proceeded to enter the house.
When the three anthros followed the human into the house, they did not see anything that looked too out of the ordinary. From what they could see, the house looked about as generic as any other dormacile would be. Arcades was the first to ask a question, “Is this your house?” Terry shook his head, “No, it’s one of the houses provided to me by my employers.” The fox watched as the human took a seat on the couch in the middle of the main room, and Arcades sat on the floor in front of the human. Jason and Jackie remained standing, and they looked at the fox while he asked the human, “The Foundation provided you this place?” Terry looked at Arcades with a bit of confusion on his face, “The Foundation? There is no Foundation. Not anymore.” The fox was a bit surprised to hear this specific detail, but at the same time, he was in disbelief, “What? The Foundation didn’t send you? Who did?” The human replied, “I’m not with the Foundation. I was sent by the Knights Templar, but I’m not really a Templar myself. They started outsourcing people from different organizations because they’re apparently short on personnel.” Arcades found the human’s story a bit suspicious, “How do you know about the Foundation?” Terry explained himself, “I’ve heard about it from some of the other people that the Templars hired.” Arcades was not entirely convinced, for he knew the secretive nature of the Knights Templar, “How did you get involved with the Knights Templar in the first place?” Terry said, “I knew some people who were.” Arcades’ face indicated that he was not believing the human’s story, “Why would they take you in, and what organization were you from before that?” Terry was beginning to catch on that Arcades was not buying his story, “Damn…”
Arcades still sat on the floor, but he was beginning to think that the floor in front of the human who killed his partner was probably not the safest place to currently be. By the time the fox stood up, Terry finally found the words he wanted to speak next, “It was you, wasn’t it? You were the fox who led to the downfall of the Foundation that everybody’s been talking about.” Arcades did not want to confirm nor deny the human’s statement. Arcades stood in silence, and he took a couple steps back away from the human. The fox was beginning to realize that he probably was not getting truthful responses from the human he was talking to. Terry spoke again, “They didn’t tell me that I’d be looking for you specifically. They just told us that we’d be looking for a fox, and I heard that the fox who took down the Foundation wasn’t your regular fox. I saw those guns in your car, and you sure don’t look like a regular fox, either.” The fox was now maintaining a decent distance away from the human, and Jason began to approach Arcades in order to give him some support if needed. Neither of the anthros were armed, so they would have to fight the human together if they had to. Terry looked up directly at the fox, completely disregarding the wolf standing directly to the right of Arcades. The human’s eyes began to appear agitated, and his face soon morphed into the same sort of angry expression. Arcades shook his head as he attempted to diffuse the situation, “We don’t need to do this. All I want to know is who is trying to come after me. I’m sick of running and hiding from these people.” Terry, on the other hand, was just about done listening to what Arcades had to say. Jason turned in such a way that he would be able to get to a fighting stance easier, but the fox remained standing in a posture with his body straight and directly facing the human.
The human spoke his final phrase before lunging out at the fox, “It was you. It was you!” Terry sprang off of his seat and began to charge directly at Arcades. Jason, almost anticipating this action occurring, moved in front of the fox to allow for Arcades to move out of the path of the human. The fox reacted instantly, and he quickly sidestepped to avoid the hostile human from directly running into him. Jason clashed with the human as he tried to readjust himself so that he would be able to catch the fox. The wolf pulled on the human, but Terry seemed to not even care about Jason; his only target was the fox. Arcades leapt over a counter, and the fox pushed his tail out of the way to prevent the human from reaching out to grab it. Jason grabbed the human’s shoulders from behind, and he pulled Terry until he collided with a wall. When Terry turned back around to face the wolf, his face seemed completely different from what it appeared when they were in the vehicle. Gone was the human’s peaceful expression; it was replaced with a face of pure hostility. The human struggled against the wolf, but it was clear to Jason that Terry would not be giving up without a fight.
When Terry realized that he would not be able to catch the fox with the wolf interfering, he decided that he would take him on in a fight. Jason backed up, and he assumed a fighting stance that would provide himself with the most balance. The wolf moved his arms in front of his face so that he would be able to block if needed, but his arms were still low enough that he was able to see his opponent. Terry threw the first punch, but it was blocked by Jason. The wolf responded by throwing his own punch at the human, and his fist impacted directly in the head of his attacker. Terry was struck off his balance, but he quickly regained it enough to throw a kick at th
e wolf. Jason was not prepared for the sudden attack, so he was struck in the chest by the human’s kick. Arcades, seeing that Jason was in need of help, jumped off of the counter he was standing on, and he proceeded to assist the wolf. Right before the fox jumped off, he had looked to see if Jackie was alright, but he did not see the vixen. Arcades was a bit concerned that he did not know where Jackie was, but at the same time, he knew that he had bigger issues to address at the moment.
When Terry saw that Arcades was moving in to engage him, he almost immediately disregarded the wolf who was staggering back from the wind being kicked out of his chest. Arcades saw the human throw a punch his way, and he blocked the attack with his forearm before using his right foot to kick the human’s left leg in. The human did not anticipate the attack, and he was knocked off-balance by the fox. While the human was briefly stunned, Jason had finally regained his composure, and he moved back into the battle once more. The wolf shoved the human to keep him off-balance, and the fox gave a kick of his own to the human’s torso to push him backwards as well as to stun him. Arcades was not really the type of person to effectively fight with his fists, but he still ended up trying. The fox threw a punch at the human’s face, but it was blocked by the human raising his arm to take the hit instead. Jason moved back in and threw a harder punch at Terry, and he was successful at doing so; the human was now up against the wall and receiving blows from both of the anthros.
Just as Arcades and Jason thought that they were winning the fight, Terry suddenly lashed out and grabbed both of the anthros by curling his arms around each of their necks. Arcades was caught completely off-guard, and the fox found himself unable to escape the grasp of the human. Terry was significantly more built than the fox was, but he was only a bit more built than the wolf. Using the fox he was holding in his bent arm, the human swung Arcades into Jason and knocked the wolf over. Jason hit the ground, but he immediately went to spring back into action, his adrenaline giving him some extra energy to continue the fight. By the time the wolf scrambled to his feet, he could see that Terry had Arcades pinned against the wall and was preparing to pummel the fox’s face. The wolf elbowed the human in the back of the head, causing Terry to finally release his grasp of the fox’s neck. The blow to the human’s head was pretty strong, but it was not enough to knock him unconscious. Terry spun back around and immediately began to engage the wolf once again.