Author's Note: Hello Lads and Ladies

Another Day another Dollar. Feelings are complicated and mine currently feel like scrambled eggs. Scrambled.

I would say more but I fear i'd be repeating myself. If one doesn't know what they want then that's very likely to happen. Much love, hope you enjoy this chapter.

Edited by: SuperAverageFoxyboy, The Dude who likes Tanks

Enjoy!

-Portal

Bill looked intently down his binoculars, watching the strip and the alley junctions below the building he was on. The streets were emptier than usual, the fresh night air announcing just how lonely he was, sitting atop his little overlook. Now that Gouhin had more than one employee, he had started working in shifts, concentrating his efforts more on the end goal of opening that day clinic and sleeping more than three hours at once.

Bill, of course, was a more than capable successor, becoming something of his own little legend in the back streets. The one-armed avenger moniker never really left, even if he was no longer on school grounds.

He thought of Ellen here, and sometimes he thought of Els. He thought he would disappoint the first and having abandoned the second in her moment of absolute need. He worried up here the most, where no one could interject his thoughts except the thrill of the hunt itself. He thought up solutions, only to scrap them again. He tried to stay realistic without becoming idealistic.

Last night fires painted the horizon, and the market was crowded with carnivores seeking shelter. Gouhin himself handed out blankets and tea to those in need while Bill was right here. The name of Omnivora was spreading around left and right, even here. The city was becoming aware of its allure even when, in the afternoon, backup police and military forces rolled into the town for extra citizen protection.

Someone caught his eye as Bill kept watching over the town, and he felt his fur begin to stand upright. The eagle walked broad-shouldered, towering over most of the others walking around. He walked intently without any sway or sense of casual behavior. He wasn't here to buy meat. He was here on a mission.

Bill jumped off the roof onto a lower one, landing in a roll to continue his forward momentum, jumping from building to building towards the main market strip. When he got close enough, he hung off a roof and dropped onto the alleyway ground, entering the lights of the market.

Eyes drifted to him and lingered as he walked past the crowds around the meat stands. Dirty looks and careful glances he was used to. The poised intruder, however, was entirely new in this ecosystem.

He covertly followed the eagle, the letterman jacket being an uncommon commodity here. That was an American high-school thing, not something that Japanese students would carry with them after they left school. Here, they left their student uniforms to rot in the furthest part of their closets.

Bill knew the wearer of the jacket well enough, the American being known to most members of the underbelly of Japan as the outsider. An overseas hitman who, for some reason worked with Omnivora. Besides the ties to the hybrid Organization and military experience, there was no info on the giant eagle. All there was, was theories. Some thought he went AWOL after a deployment, having enough from serving the American dream. Some thought that he owed Melon favors and was just migrating here until the whole Omnivora thing came to a head, and he'll be off to strike fear into hearts elsewhere.

The leading theory, however, told the story of an army veteran with an ugly past concerning the mob in the late nineties, the same reason why he showed up here as soon as the black market started acting up. He was cleaning personnel, here to fix the mess caused by the government.

The eagle took a hard turn and entered a shop through the glass door. Bill remained behind, waiting a minute before following.

The shop was a small one, full of clutter left and right. Boxes filled with old electronics, Microwaves, and TVs stacked in rows upon each other. Most shops on the market strip sold meat and other forms of forbidden cuisine and luxuries, but sparingly among them were black market merchants. Those with connections and a talent for getting the objects that the state had no intention of letting you have.

The eagle stood at the counter, wordlessly communicating via a list he brought. Bill pretended to browse, his eyes wandering to the eagle's shopping trip.

The shopkeeper grabbed for bags, putting together a lot of the things he had requested, collecting them from the storage room in the back or hidden in compartments behind the counter. All things were wrapped in black tape with small markings to show which item lurked within. The eagle bent over the counter, signing a check.

The eagle grabbed the objects, nodded at the shopkeeper, turned around, and left.

Bill remained in the shop for a moment, pretending to browse objects until he locked eyes with the maned wolf behind the counter.

"Anything to do for you, Mr. Bill?"

"Just checking in. Everything going alright, Brian?" Bill indulged in conversation, still strictly aware of the closing door right behind him.

"Oh, ahem... Terrible." The maned wolf scratched at his neck, his face revealing gloom.

"I'm sorry." Bill became earnest for a second.

"You don't have to be. My shop puts me through just fine, but I'm just... worried. I don't want my family to have to see their home become war-torn..." Brian's words pulled him back from the situation, and for a second, all he could think of was Ellen.

When this ended, and if it even would, what would become of them? Would they be the family that she wanted? Would they settle down, adopt a few kittens or maybe as luck would have sire a hybrid?

Bill knew that the formative and logical answer to this was a no. Even if things got better he would still be indebted to the black market, and rarely anything would change that. People like him would always have to protect those that couldn't protect themselves. And in the most ironic and mean turn of events his truest testament of love would be for him to forfeit the relationship in order to protect her and many others so that they would have a chance at living long, fruitful lives with families of their own.

People like me are protectors...

"I'm sorry, Brian, for the sake of this city. No one should have to worry about the place of their birth becoming a place full of danger." He looked around at the back of the room behind Brian and scrambled to find other things to say, the silence weighing down on them.

"No, I'm sorry for-"

"Can you get me a picture frame?" Bill broke the maned wolf off, and he stopped for a moment.

"Eh, sure." He walked into the back. The sound of opening drawers and items falling against each other filled the room. A little while later he came back out with a red picture frame.

"Here you go, 250 yen."

Bill paid the price and held the frame in its hands, pocketing it after marveling for a moment.

"It's gonna be ok, Brian. I can't promise to be out there, but in here... I'll be taking care of things."

Bill turned around and moved towards the door, transported back to the reality of the situation as a pink sticky note was stuck on the glass around his eye line.

The definition of the adjective "covert" is something not openly acknowledged or displayed. In a military context, a Covert Operation is an operation done without any bystander or person of interest knowing of its existence.

Bill tore off the sticky note and left the shop, walking out into the street, looking around himself, the eagle nowhere in his line of sight. His hand formed a fist as he breathed out through gritted teeth.

"Smartass..."

The door opened, and Richard had full access to his target's life. The target's apartment was neat, orderly... too orderly for Richard's liking. He suspected the target to be neurotic of some kind. His jackets were sorted by color in the wardrobe, and so were the different types of laundry detergents and dish soaps in the cabinet under his bathroom sink.

Richard had never met a researcher that was all there he had to admit. But this guy seemed squeaky clean. No prior police files, nothing in his student file, and the grades were of the ambitious type. He was no genius hyper intellect mastermind pulling strings from his home PC, but he knew how to improve his lacking grades at proper efficiency to qualify for university programs in the highly competitive Japanese schooling system.

He liked this guy, Taishiro. A person that knew exactly how intelligent they were and had no illusions of grandeur. A settled mostly solitary life, perfectly uninteresting from the surface view.

Richard liked it when people knew their place and weren't shy to admit to who they really were. No reason to think of yourself as a genius for understanding biology better than the average citizen. In turn, he had no clue how to run a cashier's register. There was no room for arrogance there, which was refreshing knowing just how many people lied to themselves about their position to feel good about the things they were lacking. Taishiro was happy with being an academic who had no idea how the real world worked.

Richard sat at his computer, pressing the on button. The machine booted up quickly and cleanly, a given for Taishiro's prestigious job. Richard plugged the flash drive into the computer and opened his flip phone. He went into the contact list and quickly dialed the correct contact.

"Affirmative." The voice on the phone answered as he idled at the table, looking at the stack of folders on the shelf. Color-coded and labeled, like a good little office drone was ordered to do.

"Program's installed. You can unplug."

The eagle hung up the phone and pulled the stick out of the computer.

Next, he snapped a picture of the folder arrangement and then began to slowly but surely pull files and see what projects Taishiro was currently part of.

Most of them were order forms, as the trusty little researcher was responsible for the management of a so-called Project Vertigo. The order documents mostly wished for chemicals and plant samples, at least that was as far as Richard's capability in science talk went. Some names were completely unfamiliar, but Omnivora had a diverse number of members of which some would surely know.

When he read the name Mcmillian he sighed to himself. The moose was an outsider much like Richard was, with the difference that the moose was Canadian while Richard stemmed from the East Coast. He held some disdain for the moose, the reports that he read allured him to be a strict stickler of rules, something Richard had no time for.

He checked the documents and took photos of everything regarding Project Vertigo that looked even slightly interesting.

He took extra time to return the folders to their original position and made his way to the door when something caught his eye. He looked into his living room. A bunch of files spread on the table, the smallest of mistakes. Richard moved in front of the table and looked at the document.

Project Vertigo – Research Team

Dr. Nori

Dr. Carol

Dr. Zoyechka

Dr. Ludwig

Dr. Taishiro

Dr. Delanna

Richard's beak twitched to resemble the smallest hint of a smirk as he took another photo. When he left the building he made the mental note that in the nice neighborhood where the modern apartment building stood that the surveillance system seemed prehistoric.

For how much he hated the rich he did love one fact a whole lot. That most of them were gullible people that enjoyed the barest hint of an illusion of safety.

Legosi's high-prestige government military job had turned into the old familiar for the wolf. They were out of their uniforms, for the sake of concealing their involvement in Cerberus, helping business owners, tenants, and all types of citizens pick up the pieces of the destruction caused nights ago.

He of course was met with smiles and appreciative glances, him being something of a local hero. But the days of warmth to others were gone. They suspected them everywhere, everyone checking over their shoulders and people sitting at the corner of the roads, ready to call when a hybrid ever so much happened as to walk by.

The sympathy he felt for the hybrid kind did not go with Omnivora, his feelings towards them being something that he thought only Louis would be able to feel. He thought them misguided. They were lost in Melon's words and abandoned by the world.

It was a messy affair to reconcile years of societal skewing against them, yet they were not making it easier for themselves.

Legosi thought about it longer as he stacked boxes of produce and various food items into the convenience store that he and a few of his compatriots were sent to help rebuild. The five young men made short work of hauling the boxes inside while the shopkeeper was beyond grateful.

They finished up in the late afternoon, the sun in the last quarter of his way below the horizon. The shopkeeper gave them sodas and they drank them sitting on the curb, next to their designated civilian vehicle.

He couldn't talk to them. It was a risk, first and foremost in the case they were more strict believers of Yahya's lies, on the other hand, he was sure they would not understand unless they knew just what Legosi was. The scales of his grandfather were a real shake-up to the image people had of the wolf. More than not he felt alone in his head all over again.

They thanked the shopkeepers and entered their covert civilian vehicle. Roads had become unruly. Cars were parked askew, police vehicles were drowned in paint, graffiti, or smoldering wrecks from the chaos. Messages of oppression, or a fight against deviancy everywhere. It was the dream of every freedom-fighting rebel teenage kid that refused to follow their parents' words. Though in this case, it seemed that Father State was a workaholic and Mother Rebellion was opinionated and crazed.

The city was the perfect circle. A ring of behaviors that were bound to endlessly repeat unless they broke that ring by means of violent derailment. Either side had to step out of line to start a civil war that would rival all conflicts in the last decades. And everyone around him, including himself, was born in the boiling pot of it all. No one wanted to leave.

To declare your home evil is to look at yourself and admit that you have lost your grip on your surroundings. It meant contemplating if you ever were safe and if your perception was just skewed. What if those rowdy folks that screamed too loud at night were always there? You might have been just too comfortable to see or hear them, maybe they even crossed paths with you and you simply were glued to your phone. The mind was a weird thing that filtered things only if it detected any deviancy from the usual order of things. To constantly listen would be a workload too big for even the supercomputer of the mind to handle. Every system needed a filter, an equalizer.

Legosi looked out the main window and saw just what he had just thought about. Carnivores on the street, protesting... more so vandalizing. The group stopped at the side of the road, and they left the vehicle to go input at least some order.

"Hey! What the hell are you guys doing." They approached in a friendly stance, the lead's arms outstretched to signify that he held no weapons.

The group didn't respond, too loud on their own as they stomped the ground in an asynchronous rhythm.

"Guys!" The louder speaking still had no effect. A few turned their heads but still continued with their chant as the group of covert operatives looked up to see just what they were protesting.

The white-bricked building in this middle-class district was of a dentist. A carnivore dentist that refused to adhere to the state ruling of Hybrids needing to identify themselves

What?

"Are you all out of your mind?! What are you protesting against?!" This time Legosi shouted out, and someone from the group turned to him. Their mouth turned to an angry frown.

"This asshole is offering a hiding place to them half-breed fucks."

Legosi felt fire spread through his system. All these years, all this hatred, all these people.

"You know you can't protest in front of private buildings, guys." The leader of Legosi's group began to say as he stood to the side, his hand balled to a fist, his maw clamped shut. This emotion was not new, but the situation in which it arose was new.

The group moved closer, Legosi standing still as he tried to calm the raging storm in his head somehow.

They like me... yet they don't even know me... Damning my kind...

He huffed, breathing irregularly.

The group began to come closer to the rowdy protesters trying to get them to move, yet everybody knew what would come next. They were under-prepared, mere intelligent academics. They didn't know the laws of the street. There had simply been not enough prep time. A perfect soldier trained in three months...

The first punch flew, and it was every man for themselves. The group itself was so angry they could hardly distinguish one from the other. The amped-up aggression made the group start fighting itself, plus the new grouping inside of It.

Legosi lunged and prioritized his teammates most and foremost. Well-placed kicks and well-timed punches were all needed to make the savage protestors topple over like the wooden blocks of a Jenga tower.

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW." Legosi didn't hear himself speak, nor did he notice himself crying. All he understood was that he was more effective than he should be.

He pulled terrified and bruised boy soldiers out of the group until he was battling the self-destructive cocoon himself.

"YOU ALL ARE THE REASON MOTHER IS GONE."

The words didn't stop, but the group did. After more punches flew that they couldn't even understand from where the more the group broke up into terrified kittens and puppies and ducklings and whatever.

"ALL OF THIS IS YOUR FAULT." The protesters fell apart, chunks dispersing and running away. By the end, Legosi was standing on the road looking at the terrified group running away and slowly returning to his senses.

He fell to his knees, sobbing for a moment before rubbing his face on his sleeve.

He rose from the ground. Looking across from the road and feeling hot tears streak down his face. He collapsed into a sitting position altogether.

Behind him, the boy soldiers were equally terrified as well as mystified. None of them knew Legosi as anything else but a sweet dreamer of a man, someone always lost in his thoughts. Only when they heard his cries did they only trust the situation enough to slowly approach Legosi again, sitting down beside him.

This was the male way or how it had always been. They sat in silence beside each other in silently shared torment. All closed doors, terrified of showing just how vulnerable they were because they knew there were people out there that would take advantage of that.

"What happened to her?"

"What?" Legosi looked at his team member who nearly jumped.

"Your mom... you said she was gone."

Legosi looked ahead, feeling the deep dark dredge over his heart open just a little. The rage and the depression subsided for a moment. This was temporary, and after his emotions were gone, he would still remain.

"She died because of prejudice... she couldn't live with herself... being different."

I should've kept my mouth shut-

"I'm sorry." The silent torment remained.

"She must have been a great mom."

Legosi nearly cried more as he heard those words and looked at the horizon.

I need to make sure that never happens again.

"She was the best I could ask for."

The car drive back was silent and tense. When one of them tried to put their hand on his shoulder, he leaned away, not wishing for touch.

I need to calm down.

He felt electrified, with constant static over his senses. Rage was more than fire, more than just a mental state. Rage drowned you. Rage made you feel against the whole world. Thoughts of burning down the state building, thoughts of strangling out every speciest bastard he could meet on the street.

They let him out at his home, and he thanked them dully, the rage that he had, now been somewhat replaced with muted sadness. He moved through the floors, not really here nor there. Emotional stress made him wish he didn't exist, the escapism fantasy that he so often indulged in. He opened the front door to his home to be met with the smell of food and his girlfriend whose face went from a smile to immediate worry.

She stood up, moving towards him. He saw her hands approach him and noticed himself holding his hands up.

"Don't... please... I need a little time."

He lumbered over to the laundry basket and started taking off his shirt and undershirt. His shoes were left at their wardrobe. He sat on his bed in nothing but his jeans.

"What happened?" She asked. The lovely wolf that she was. However, he didn't smile at her this time.

"Carnivores did... I'm losing hope that what we're doing is helpful." He looked over, mute and dead. He hated that he had to be like this in front of her. He acutely remembered what would happen if he kept it from her.

"Legosi..." Juno sighed.

"It's not about me." He retaliated, looking at her with a hint of angry energy

"Omnivora will make whatever hybrids stand up for themselves look like the villains. He will destroy any sort of hope that people will understand hybrids and listen to them... Whatever he thinks he's doing, he's going to kill them."

Juno looked at him and evoked a feeling of pity. He looked ahead and thought for a moment about what the hell he could do against this harrowing nightmare. He breathed out through his mouth and closed his eyes.

The stormy seas of his mind calmed down, and although the skies were still gray, the water became calm and clear. He peered down past the water's surface and saw the memories of the last weeks pass him by.

Louis put his hopes fully into Tokugawa, his political campaign being nothing but playing for time.

Bill Concentrated on the black market, having no capacity to care for anything outside its walls.

And he?

He was following orders like a good little dog and letting people trample him to death as he failed to find any meaningful solution to the problems at hand.

Through the troubled feeling, the water began moving, the waves obscuring the image below as his feelings made thinking harder. But there he was, a glimpse of a person he had not elected to think about yet.

Legosi opened his eyes and looked at the table. Steak and croquettes with some spicy mayo.

He looked over at Juno and saw the worried glance be more so one of waiting now. For if she was one thing, then it was accommodating. He slightly moved, inching towards her, his hand ever so slightly picking up hers. Their fingers intertwined, and his other slowly ran up her arm. He scooted in as close as he could, their interlocked hand releasing so he could reach around her and embrace her. She returned the hug, and Legosi leaned backward, pulling both onto the bed.

Legosi nestled his head onto her neck and held the hug tight as Juno rested her head on his.

"Thank you for doing... everything. I wouldn't know where my head is without you."

"I know..."

He raised his head until he looked her in the eyes.

"No. I mean it. Without you, I wouldn't be half as put together as I am now."

She smiled as her cheeks turned a shade of peachy red. Her hands caressed both sides of his face.

"You aren't as helpless as you think, Legosi." Their muzzles inched closer and connected, Legosi finally feeling himself let it go.

They ate their dinner, and Legosi got changed. He grabbed a pen and began writing a letter, the idea that had floated around in his mind now fully materializing. He ordered it properly and slipped back on his shoes.

"I'm going to talk to Yajuu for a minute." Juno looked at Legosi standing in the doorway.

"Are you ok now?" she asked earnestly. He smirked.

"I'm all better." He gave her a kiss and left their apartment, walking over to the weindeer's door.

He had no clue if Yajuu was going to be home, but as a son of a first-generation hybrid, he had reasons to believe why Yajuu would be more likely home than anywhere else. His guess turned out to be right when a few moments later, Yajuu opened the door.

"Ehm...hello." Yajuu awkwardly greeted the wolf.

"Hello, Yajuu. Sorry to come by announced, but... may I come in? I have to ask you for a favor."

"Ehm... sure."

He entered the Weindeer's home and settled down at the table where he put down the piece of paper on the table.

"Do you... want something to drink?" Yajuu tried to be hospitable to the sudden unexpected guest.

"No thanks... I just want to talk."

"Ok." Yajuu sat down opposite of him.

Legosi breathed out through his mouth again and tried his best to collect himself.

"I'm not on Yahya's side. Me working for the government is me trying to somehow stop this madness from getting worse. But I have a problem. My past is... catching up to me from time to time." Legosi saw the face across the table show sympathy as well as a slight hint of being uncomfortable.

"What I'm going to ask for is... stupid, I know that much..." Legosi placed the letter on the table.

"They won't believe me when I say I'm a hybrid, but they'll believe you. I know Melon is fighting for hybrid's sake, but he's making it harder for us all to change things with him attacking the city."

Yajuu's skin lost a lot of color, making him look light blue. Legosi held up his hands in surprise.

"I know, I know... going to Omnivora to deliver a letter is insane... but they'll trust you more than they'll trust me. And I need Melon to read this..."

The room remained silent as the weindeer stared at the table. Legosi sighed again and rose from his chair.

"It's stupid, risky, and dangerous. But they won't shoot the messenger, least of all one of them... Think about it. I'm not forcing you to do this. Just let me know should you decide not to do it... just throw the letter in our mailbox... I'm so sorry I had to ask."

Legosi left without another word. Outside on the balcony walkway that connected the apartments he could peek just over the ocean of roofs. In the distance, he could see Cherryton Academy on its infamous hill and far away the tip of the state building.

He felt smothered in the knowledge that this little apartment building was one of the few that housed hybrids in this city. They were nothing but little grasshoppers in comparison to the giant ant nest they were nestled in. He felt like he was a double agent, looking like a purebred while he was a fourth reptile.

He looked at the sky and wished that things could someway get a little better. Some way, something that made things just that little easier. He never was the strictly religious type, but he was sure there was something beyond this life.

Rex... please be kind to us.

He turned away from the sky and walked along the balcony to his apartment. The door closed and he was separated from the outside earth once again. He questioned how long that would still be the case.