by Devon Hughes
“Stay away from it!” Castor barked a warning. “There’s no killing it. No hurting it, even.”
But Samken had wrapped his eight trunks around a wing, anyway, and was slamming the machine against the ground hoping to bust it open to free their friend. The metal jaws didn’t budge, but a mechanical claw did spring out of the top. It snapped around Samken’s wispy tail and dangled the many-tonned octo-elephant upside down as it started to buzz off.
“No!”
Castor flapped after it, and Jazlyn raced along below. But though she was fast, Jazlyn was tired, and Castor could see the enemy pack closing in from the outsides, waiting for her to stumble.
“Don’t follow us, Castor,” Samken cried. “You have to get away.”
“We’re a team!” Castor insisted. But to make matters worse, he heard another buzz as a second trapping machine flew up over the trash mountain to the south of them. Soon he wouldn’t have a choice.
“Get to the Greenplains, shepherd dog,” Enza’s voice commanded through the holes of the flying metal sphere. “You have to carry the dream. You see that chance, and you jump for it!”
“I’ll come back for you,” he promised them. “We’ll find a safe passage, and wherever you are, we’ll find you. We’ll see you in the Greenplains!”
“See you there,” Samken said with a weak smile. “Now go help my Jazz, and tell her Sammie’s sorry he couldn’t say good-bye.”
Castor flew close enough to clasp one of Samken’s trunk tentacles in his paw, and then he swooped down, grabbed Jazlyn in his talons, and flapped harder than he’d ever flapped.
He spotted a Crusher Slusher up ahead, but it was lying on its side, busted up. Castor never thought he’d be running toward a Crusher, but right now, it was their only hope.
24
CASTOR AND JAZLYN STAYED HIDDEN INSIDE THE BELLY OF the old Crusher Slusher. For a while, Castor was sure the machine would spring to life, that its gears would start grinding and it would crunch them up. He’d seen it happen to other animals. After a Crusher Slusher got a hold of you, all that was left behind was sludge.
He didn’t hear anything stirring inside the machine, though. He couldn’t hear anything at all, actually. For all the commotion earlier, now the world was reduced to the sound of their breath, still coming quick in the darkness, and the feel of Jazlyn shivering next to him.
“Where do you think they took them?” Jazlyn whispered. “Samken and Enza?”
Castor hung his head and slumped against the sidewall. He was afraid to imagine. Based on his past experiences, he knew that things could be worse than you might think. A lot worse. That was what kept him crouched inside this awful machine—the only thing scarier than knowing he could be turned into soup was not knowing what could happen.
Because deep down inside, Castor knew the truth about himself.
“I’m such a coward,” he howled. His voice was low, but in the tight space the word seemed to grow.
“You are not,” Jazlyn protested. “I saw you fight Laringo. I saw you rescue those kids. That was brave—even Pookie said so.”
“You were brave, too.”
“I know,” Jazlyn said, surprising him. “We were all brave, Castor. We never would’ve escaped if we weren’t.”
Maybe that was true. But it was in the past. It didn’t seem to count for much in their current circumstances.
“I just let them take my friends away. I did nothing.” Castor was disgusted with himself.
“You saved me,” Jazlyn said softly. “That wasn’t nothing.”
“Then I hid.” And here he was, still hiding.
Jazlyn didn’t say anything for a long time. Castor worried he’d hurt her feelings—after all, she had hid, too. But when she finally spoke, her voice was thoughtful, measured.
“I think that sometimes, hiding is its own kind of bravery.”
Castor scoffed. “You met the dogs in my pack. Not one of them would’ve backed down from a fight. Not one of them would’ve just turned tail and run.”
“And not one of them has lived as a mutant, persecuted by the city’s most powerful humans,” Jazlyn countered. “Think of Pookie, waiting in the wings and coming up with a smart strategy. Or Moss, sacrificing his own freedom to help humans, when humans had beaten him down his whole life.”
She didn’t point out that not one of the dogs had shown up to help, either, but of course he had noticed that, too.
“Look, Castor. Before, back at NuFormz, we didn’t have much to lose. We were already miserable, and every day we stayed there, we knew something terrible might happen. Leaving might have been scary, but it was an easy choice. Now, decisions are harder. We have everything to lose.”
“What we had was our team. And we just lost it!”
“Stop it,” Jazlyn snapped, her body tensing. Castor was surprised to hear a sharpness in her voice. “You don’t think I feel awful? Enza was captured because she was defending me. And Samken is my best friend. But there was no way we could’ve protected them. What we can protect is our freedom. Stop acting like that’s worthless.”
Jazlyn scooted away from him, and though he couldn’t see her face, Castor could feel the tension between them. He’d spent plenty of time bickering with Enza and challenging Moss when they’d trained as a team, but things had always been easy between Castor and Jazlyn. She’d always been on his side, until now.
Before he could respond, there was a rap on the side of the machine. Boom, boom, boom echoed inside, and Castor flinched.
Is this it? Is it over?
Castor couldn’t imagine that if the humans had really come for them, they’d have the manners to knock. He crept to the front, nudged open the door with his nose, and peered out. The coast was clear. There was not a human or a flying claw in sight. There was only Pitbull Paula, one of the toughest members of the pack. Her ears were pulled back, and she looked impatient.
“Alpha wants to see you,” Pittie Paula said, without so much as a wag of the tail to say she was glad Castor was all right. “Now.”
Castor climbed out of the Crusher Slusher, and Jazlyn hopped out after him. They must’ve been inside for a long time, because night had already fallen. Castor arched his back and stretched out his back legs, his muscles crampy from sitting in one spot for so long. It had been a long, terrible day, and all he really wanted to do was get some sleep. But Alpha was waiting.
Pittie Paula trotted ahead, weaving her way through the hills and valleys of the trash mountains. Castor tried to keep pace, but he had to step gingerly so his talons wouldn’t snag on the many objects that littered the ground, and he found himself constantly scanning the black sky overhead, on guard for another attack. Jazlyn hung back even farther.
When they reached the dead-end alley, the other dogs were all sitting in a circle. The pack elders huddled together on one side, corralling a jumble of new pups, and the bulldogs flanked Alpha. Everyone looked up as the pitbull approached with Castor and Jazlyn in tow. No one looked particularly happy to see them.
“The pack has to move,” Alpha announced. “We have to go in search of new territory.”
“But it’s not you they’re after.”
“Does it matter? Have you been off the streets so long you’ve forgotten the risks? These streets are crawling with Crusher Slushers waiting to grind us up and turn us into sludge. More dogs disappear off the streets every day.”
“If the humans come back—”
“When they come back, we will all have to pay your debt.”
“Fine,” Castor agreed. “We should move.”
“Perhaps we should move in one direction, and you should move in another.”
The suggestion hit Castor in the gut. But many others in the pack were surprised, too. They started to growl and bark in protest.
“You put us at risk.”
“I stand with Castor.”
“Me too. He is still our brother.”
Alpha hadn’t been challenged, for as long as Castor could remember. He was
stronger than Alpha now, and he was an experienced leader. Now was his chance to challenge Alpha, to become head of the pack.
He could tell the others felt that way, too. They were looking at him, waiting for him to step up. But then Pittie Paula spoke up.
“Just you, though, Castor.” She sniffed Jazlyn dismissively. “A cat was never part of this pack, and neither was a rodent. Certainly not something that’s half of each.”
“Jazlyn is not something,” Castor snapped. “She’s someone.”
But it didn’t matter what she was. Castor could see that the rest of his supporters agreed with Paula. They were willing to stand by him, but only if he walked away from Jazlyn. His heart sank.
Jazlyn’s eyes met his. Despite their earlier argument, there was no resentment in her look now, only warmth. She smiled at him, gave a little nod, her long ears flopping forward. Castor knew she was telling him it was okay, that she would be fine on her own. She wouldn’t hold it against him.
In his heart, Castor knew there was only one clear choice. He had to be true to what he was. He had to stand by his family.
And that was Jazlyn, regardless of her DNA.
Castor had thought he could just come home, that he could go back to his old life. But Pookie turned out to be right: he was not a dog anymore. He had not been a dog for a long time. The only way he could know how to live now was to stay true to who he was inside. And what made him Castor was his loyalty, his honor.
The dogs were asking him to choose, but Jazlyn had never asked him for anything. She had been there for him since the first day they met, when she shared her water with a scared, thirsty stranger. She had been a friend even when he didn’t want or deserve one. Now he felt closer to her than almost anyone—even these dogs he’d known his whole life.
“Okay,” Castor said. “We’ll leave in the morning. I wish Alpha and his supporters luck in their search for a new territory.” Pitbull Paula started to move toward Castor, and Alpha growled, ready to fight to keep control of the whole pack. But Castor turned his back on them both and went to stand by the rabbit-panther’s side. “Jazlyn and I will head to the Greenplains. Together.”
25
MARCUS FELT LIKE A POT SET TO BOIL. THERE WAS NO word from Pete, no contact with Leesa, and no news about the Unnaturals. Add to that the fact that he was grounded and stuck in his room, and he was ready to scream. Not that outside his room was any better—his mom was a wreck trying to figure out what was going on with Pete.
Marcus’s room was stocked full of gadgets and toys, but with the slipstream cut and the Unnaturals matches done, most of his tech was pretty useless. He was sick of the dumb automopooch his parents had gotten him, and there were only so many times he could watch his skateboarding videos before wanting to chuck his own board at the wall. He actually ended up doing all his homework, for once.
And then he started looking out the window.
With the other towers packed so close together, Marcus had a pretty good view of the changing ad and news streams that broadcast along the buildings. Until now, he’d mostly considered them neon white noise, a constant flicker in his peripheral vision, but nothing to really pay attention to. But now that he didn’t have his simulink to look up anything he wanted, they were pretty much his only connection to the outside world.
Before, in his Moniac days, Marcus had sat in his highly coveted warp throne and virtually attended dozens of Unnaturals matches. Now, he scooted the chair right up close to the window, spun it to face the buildings, and stared out at the city. For hours and hours.
He saw smog warnings, and SunLife ads, and a preview for some new virtual show to hook all the old Moniacs who were missing the Unnaturals. Then he saw the Unnaturals themselves.
It was the Fearless and the Enforcer, being carried away in an auto-hele.
Captured!
Marcus pressed his nose against the glass, but the video loop didn’t show whether the Underdog and the Swift had been picked up, too. His heart dropped down to his stomach. Lion’s Head had been on lockdown since the escape, and the animals’ pictures were plastered everywhere. He knew that half the city was out looking for them.
But he still couldn’t believe it. After everything they’d done, how could the escape just fail?
Then he saw a headline scrolling across Cloud Tower: Mayor Agrees to a Sit-Down-Tell-All with Ex-Matchmaker Joni Juniper—Watch Now on Free101!
Marcus instinctively signaled for the simulink at his temple before remembering he was grounded. Then he sprinted out of his room and down the hall.
“Mom!” he yelled. “I need the slipstream password just for a sec. It’s really import—”
“Shh!” Marcus’s mom held a finger to her lips. She was standing in the living room with tense shoulders and wide eyes, already watching the interview.
Marcus went to join her. It felt comforting standing there with her, close but not touching, and he was relieved Bruce was working late.
It was a nonsponsor channel, so the quality wasn’t great, but Marcus saw Mayor Eris and Joni Juniper sitting and facing one another. It wasn’t a true face-to-face—they were using avatars—but it was still pretty impressive Joni had landed the interview. Since the mayor owned Mega Media, she probably didn’t want to give clicks to one of the other big streams.
“Why not resume the matches?” Joni was asking. “You’ve still got a lot of Moniacs out there who will be very disappointed to lose the Unnaturals.”
Why is she acting like it was a bad thing that the matches are over? Marcus knew Joni didn’t believe in the matches. She was Pete’s girlfriend, and she was the one who’d told him to help Marcus and Leesa with the escape. Maybe it was to get clicks from her old fans. Or to gain the mayor’s trust.
“As I said earlier, safety is our number one priority. The Unnaturals have had a good run, but we cannot risk these creatures terrorizing the city. Fortunately, thanks to the excellent work of our force, some of the escaped animals were apprehended today.”
“Can you tell us what will become of these creatures, now that they are no longer contestants?” Joni asked. “Many fans are quite concerned about their well-being.”
“I’m pleased to report that they will begin a new life in the Greenplains, where we have a resettlement program in the early stages.”
Marcus stared at the mayor’s smiling avatar. Is she serious? Are the animals really going to go free in the jungle?
“There are those who question your prohibiting access to the NuFormz island with so many questions still lingering about what went wrong that tragic night at the arena.”
“The facility is being evacuated,” Mayor Eris said, her voice rising a hair. “You can tell some people that Mega Media will certainly cooperate with any investigation. But it’s essential that we protect the citizens from these extremely dangerous mutants.”
“You hinted at one of your employees having a specific connection to the public endangerment. Can you comment on that?”
“Yes. The perpetrator is actually now in custody, as we have uncovered footage of the offense.”
An image of a man popped up on the screen. He was sticking the Vicious with a large needle. Even with the poor quality, Marcus recognized his brother right away.
He heard his mom inhale sharply next to him, and her hand flew up to cover her mouth.
Joni was visibly shocked and flustered. “W-what is Pe—this man—accused of?”
“Mega Media is filing charges of animal cruelty, endangerment, terrorism, and destruction of property,” Mayor Eris answered. “Peter Lund was entrusted with caring for the animals, but he was actually torturing them, giving them a shot that would make them further evolve into killing machines.”
“Sounds like a pretty scientifically advanced drug,” Joni said, recovering. Now she was on the offensive. “Was this a steroid? A virus? And how would an intern get his hands on something so dangerous? What might be his motives?”
The mayor took a sip of water.
“Well, Joni, I myself couldn’t imagine. However, as I’m sure you know, there is an unfortunate culture of betting surrounding the matches. We at Mega Media do not condone the practice. Some in the media have speculated that this employee was a compromised individual, and we can only speculate that it was a way for him to make money. Unfortunately, it could be part of what led to the disaster in the arena.”
“Part of? Are we to assume that there is further corruption inside the NuFormz facility?” Joni asked, her eyes flashing.
Mayor Eris gave a tight-lipped smile. “This single man is the only responsible party. He put our entire city at grave risk, and also let children into off-limits parts of the facility, endangering their lives. I’m thankful to put this whole unfortunate episode behind us.”
Marcus was horrified. So Pete was in jail!
The mayor was diverting attention away from the real horrors going on at NuFormz by framing Pete for some sort of gambling thing. And now that she’d been forced to shut down the Unnaturals, somehow she was going to look like a hero!
Marcus knew this mess was all his fault. He had to figure out a way to free Pete, but he knew he couldn’t do it on his own. His mom had collapsed onto the couch, and she was staring into space, shaking her head back and forth. She wasn’t going to be any help right now, and obviously neither was Bruce.
Marcus grabbed his mom’s device, checked into his slipstream, and looked up two contacts. He typed in three letters and quickly sent the message to Leesa, and then to Joni: SOS.
PART TWO
FOXES AND HOUNDS
“Fall of a Franchise and an Unnatural Unraveling”
“In a City Under Siege, Can Eris Lead?”
“The Mystery of Peter Lund: Where Is He?”
26
Back in the beginning, you learn to fly. You have no mother now, no littermates, so you learn to do it alone.
You squint with your poor eyesight, and you climb onto the tallest thing you can find, a lab stool, inching yourself up. You jump off and crash to the floor, crumpling into a fox-bat heap on the linoleum. You hear laughter from the other cages, but you do it again, again.