Author's Note: Hello Lads and Ladies

I've been struggling with balancing my work project and my writing for a while now, but these last few weeks i had more mental struggles with the aspect that no matter what is going to happen, i'm going to have return to school. If i want to do the job that i would be interested in, then i need to work for it. And it's been bugging me.

I don't do well in places with a lot of people, it makes me anxious and makes me miserable. I get panic attacks and what not. Small groups of work colleagues of about 20 people i am fine with, but a school with 25 class mates plus additional thousands of students is hard. Studying and doing tests at home is going to be equally hard.

No matter what happens i am going to return, just i hope with stable mental faculties.

Thanks guys for being around, Love to all, and i hope we'll get to finishing this soon

Edited by: SuperAverageFoxyboy, The Dude who Likes Tanks
Enjoy!
-Portal

The cityscape was branded by fire that night. As Yahya drove through the back roads on the outskirts of the city, the inner highways a congested nightmare, fire painted the horizon like little stars that had crashed on earth. Two-thirds of the teams were injured and a handful of soldiers were dead, they were lucky those numbers were so low.

They reached the state building at 1 AM in the morning.

Yahya led the way, flashing his card at the guard and then walking towards the elevators. They entered quickly, Yahya swiping his key card in order to access the highest floor.

What ensued was a period of stressed silence. Sublime and regular Beastar in complete silence as the elevator rapidly ascended the floors. Legosi looked ahead, much like a soldier did. The horse sighed, rubbing his eyes.

The exhaustion was apparent. Whoever knocked him out was strong enough to give his eyes nearly a purple tint. Before Legosi had the opportunity to dwell on who might be the mysterious fighter strong enough to knock out the Sublime Beastar, the elevator reached its destination.

They entered the city database, Yahya limping over the ground.

"Sublime Beastar, how can I-"

"Richard. Haliaeetus Leucocephalus, threat grade 5."

Legosi observed the office worker spring to life from their obedient question to the worker mode, tapping away at the PC without questioning. He watched as Yahya moved behind the desk and look at the screens, hovering above the worker's shoulders. The worker himself didn't seem to mind, the gazelle following orders without question.

Legosi looked around and realized exactly where he was. The grand archives, the database that held most of Yahya's knowledge. This was one of the aces up his sleeves and within the first months of working along Yahya's forces, he had already seen it with his own eyes. Legosi thought about it for a while longer, thinking how exactly this place would fit into their shared plan, this was unexpected either way.

"Legosi."

Upon hearing his name Legosi looked over, Yahya standing in the elevator car holding a file under his shoulder. He followed quickly and wordlessly, the elevator starting its descent once again.

This time Yahya mumbled to himself something too quiet to make out. Legosi thought it to be random vocalizations, like incoherent mumbling at the end of a stressful day. The eyes of the Sublime Beastar told a different story, the exhausted horse being completely awake.

The delirious journey continued down the main road, being hit by the first major wave of congested panicked traffic on one of the high roads that floated above residential areas. Roads crawled with people, mostly panicked herbivores realizing that the face on TV had not been bluffing.

A group of policemen followed on the side of the road, trying their best to tell the families to go back to their homes, but obviously not being very effective.

Yahya rolled down his window, whistling loudly. The group of officers looked over and quickly followed the call.

"Sublime Beastar, what are you doing here?" The first officer asked, bending forward to be in eye line with their political leader. The bear was under obvious tension, his hand gripping the rip-resistant material of his pants.

"Police Chief Max, where is he?"

The face of the bear dropped.

"Chief Max? We've been trying to reach him for the last couple of hours but he neither goes to the phone nor does he receive radio. We have no idea where he is."

"He's on shift tonight." Yahya blankly looked at the bear.

"Yes, sir. But he never showed up."

Yahya turned his head forwards and breathed out a sigh. Legosi's feelings of things going wrong were not unprompted, but now he was sure the whole city was going to go up in flames over the next few hours.

"Come on, Legosi." Yahya opened the car door, Legosi following suit.

"Sublime Beastar, we really need these roads clear, this many people out in the open is a-"

"Sending them back home won't do good either if Omnivora's rigging apartments with explosives. Someone get me a radio." The Bear was silenced and looked at the sublime Beastar conflicted. From behind him one of his colleagues handed Yayha a radio.

"This is Sublime Beastar Yahya, We have a severe situation befalling the city, call for immediate backup, over." There was a moment of silence beside the loud honking of cars in the background. It was an excruciating period where everyone waited for the response, the weight of the situation crushing everyone.

"This is Sergeant Reon. Short-wave radio signal isn't going through. I repeat, we are receiving static, the short-wave radio is inoperable."

The group of people on the bridge remained stoically still, unmoving as the realization of just how botched the situation had become. They were in a silence that moved mountains, dried up oceans, and desolated civilizations.

"Hey! Can any of you tell us what's taking so long?" Came shouting a voice from one of the cars. A deer sitting in his car with his family in the passenger seats.

"STAY SILENT OR I'LL SHOW YOU HOW LONG IT'LL TAKE!" Yahya's rage didn't phase anyone at this point. He was the one in control, the one with the plan, and it had failed him more than anyone else.

"ugh... Tell everybody to go home or seek shelter somewhere and call through for chief max, go to his home and look for him there if he doesn't answer his calls." Yahya looked away from the officers at the face of Legosi.

"You're off soldier, return to HQ and tell them that come dawn we're officially in an emergency situation."

Legosi nodded and began walking along the raised highway, blocked up by cars.

"Hey private!" He turned around, an officer loosely tossing a set of keys over. He grabbed it in his hand.

"Take my bike, otherwise you'll never get out of here."

"Thank you, sir."

With those words Legosi went on his way, rifle on his back and his mind a rattled mess. Things were going wrong way too fast. When he saw the turn down the hill, the only person he could think of was Louis, because guidance was what they all needed right about now.

He arrived at home at about two in the morning, silently tip-toeing into his apartment. He looked upon Juno snuggled into her blanket. He looked outside their window. In the distance, fire reflected orange light against the dark clouds that hid the stars from the city denizens' view.

Legosi slipped into his sleepwear and laid on the bed. He stared blankly at the ceiling, feeling his mind wander to the furthest edges of possibility. Tonight he had witnessed the death of fellow soldiers, narrowly missing his own death by sheer luck of group arrangement. The hybrid terrorists had almost killed one of their kin.

He felt conflicted, the city he lived in all his life was becoming something he couldn't recognize. Ever since Riz, things were weird. The public image thing being one, the world showing him just how much of a shallow sham it all was. People wanted a pure-breed face to look up to, a paragon of purity and clarity, the right decision. They lived in denial of how complex life truly was, of how complex people were.

Someone like Yahya was inevitable if society allowed for someone like him. People only let themselves be abused or brainwashed if they didn't know any other version of life. Context changed so many things, and tonight the context of the city went from a peaceful metro-pole to a wartorn terrorist and corruption-infested trap in which every single door could be hooked up to an automatic shotgun ending your life before you even enter the room.

Juno's arm reached around his torso, her head snuggling to his, her muzzle resting on his throat.

He breathed in, smelling the rose-flavored scent and remembering the one thing that was still true tonight. He loved her, loved her deeply. He was her rock and she was his waves, both crashing against each other day and night. He engulfed her in his arms, the she-wolf wordlessly snuggling herself tighter into him.

He placed a kiss on her head and looked across the room, out the window. The clock was ticking, but he had her, and he was grateful for that.

Strightman had always hated Max. The damned dog was jaded, sexist, and incredibly judgmental even when he had just joined the ranks of the police. Though tonight Strightman was incredibly satisfied to see the dog's face as he knocked on his front door, wearing full uniform.

"Strightman, what the hell are you doing here?" The cheetah feigned panic.

"It's a madhouse out there, the precinct is swamped with predation offenders. We need backup." His chest rocked up and forth as he exasperatedly gasped for air, leaning with one hand against the door frame.

The dog almost stumbled back at the sudden change in the usually reliable Cheetah.

"give me a minute." Max turned around, Strightman grabbing for the syringe that had been fastened to his tool belt.

"Sure, Max." The suddenly relaxed voice made the dog turn again, only this time the cheetah rammed a syringe into his shoulder.

"What the hell?!" The scuffle that came was short, the drug robbing the dog's nervous system of any autonomy. The dog sunk to the floor as Strightman's ear perked up at the car driving down the street. As Strightman pulled the police chief out of his house, the brick walls enclosing his estate shielding him from anyone's view, he was again surprised at how liberating it felt to break the rules. Even if this was in an extreme fashion.

He pulled the dog's body towards the van standing outside of his estate, a few men jumping out to help him. They dropped the unconscious body of max into the storage area, closed the doors, and cuffed him with steal cuffs made to handle the strength of large breed carnivores.

Strightman didn't stay long on the truck, riding with the fellow Omnivora men in complete silence, an unspoken bond between them. He jumped out as the truck slowed to a crawl around the corner of a passageway close to the west gate of the black market, running along the sidewalk until he could peek down the road to the gate. There stood his police cruiser, awaiting him just as he had left it a mere twenty minutes prior.

He slid into the car and slammed the door shut, the key in the ignition awakening his loyal metal carriage from its mechanical slumber. The radio roared to life, the strained voices of the police-men sounding out. Strightman heard their panic, their desperation. Like a panicked animal backed into a corner. He smiled a wide and sadistic smile, vaguely remembering the helpful man he had once been. He grabbed for his phone placing earbuds into his ears. After he turned the corner he was loudly singing.

 

Cogs kept turning and people and things fell into place. Citizens shuddered in their homes, Policemen and the little military that was still around scrambled to regain control of the roads and the city's infrastructure felt a very noticeable hit to its core. Innocents remained unharmed but they could feel exactly how thin the walls to the outside were. All that Omnivora had to do was knock.

Richard parked his car in a garage unit beside a car mechanic. He locked the car and the unit and left for the subway station another block down. He was close to the docks, away from all the commotion of the inner city, and here the sounds of distant sirens sounded like background static on a faulty radio.

He walked down the stairs until he was in the metro, sitting down in one of the seats. There were some civilians around, commuters that were getting irritated by the extreme at this point two-hour-long delay. He took a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his beak, embers turning brighter as smoke left through his nostrils.

"I'm sorry sir, this is a smoke-free area."

Richard looked over and remembered vaguely a person that he had met long ago. He almost smiled when he remember the bear that had stopped to inform him of the health hazards of smoking. He left the bus stop in cuffs and the bear with a broken arm.

He pulled a drag and breathed out in the sheep's direction, the mister stumbling backward coughing.

"You crazy bastard." The Sheep in his suit marched away, the eagle continuing on with his cigarette. Two minutes later the sheep returned with a security guard, a rhinoceros.

"Sir, extinguish the cigarette and leave the area."

Richard delicately took the last drag of his cigarette and breathed out in a sigh. He jumped up throwing a punch into the rhino's stomach, the large breed herbivore falling into himself. He grabbed onto his face and jammed his fingers into the rhino's nose, forcing him to open his mouth. He threw the still-glowing butt into the rhino's mouth and closed it, kicking full force into his groin.

The rhino fell to the floor, the eagle glancing at the sheep who didn't take long to realize that only pain awaited him here.

The train arrived a bit later, the rhino still writhing in pain as Richard got on. The eagle didn't waste time mingling with the pedestrians but worked his way through the compartments into the tiny driver's cabin at the front. The train workers greeted him with nods, their tattoos visible when he briefly shook one's hand. He sat down next to the driver, another covert Omnivora man, listening to music as he operated the train.

At the next station, the train stopped and the Omnivora men started walking around, prepping the driver's cart with a seat opposite of the eagle, the men eagerly awaiting their boss. The walking around stopped after a while, Richard hearing the door to the train opening. Melon entered the room in complete silence, mirroring the preferred level of noise by his first lieutenant.

Melon sat down in the seat opposite of him, the train moving again, the driver still wearing large headphones.

Melon grabbed a package of cigarettes, opened it, and offered one to Richard, who accepted, immediately lighting it with his wind-proof military lighter. He ignited Melon's as well and put it back into his pocket, Lieutenant and General in wordless agreement. Feathered fingers grabbed for the folder and the flash drive, handing both over in a single motion.

Melon took both and placed them to his side, pocketing the drive. They continued with their smoke, the eagle looking sitting with a straight back looking at an individual he had always had an immense amount of respect for. A man of such youth and yet a genius organizer. In the distant memory of the war-torn middle east during his deployment when he still lived under the American flag, he had never once met a general as capable as the Hybrid sitting in front of him. Besides the respect of his fellow veterans, Richard felt only respect for the lead men of Omnivora.

Never once had spilling blood been more fun than under the moniker of domestic terrorists.

Melon grabbed for another box, giving it over to the eagle. The first and most important item of all laying atop it. A burner phone. Richard held the smallest hint of a smirk on his face.

"I need a monitor. Fresh and clear image, bought it for a new model. Recommended by a guy in the tech sector."

You could never be too careful in an organization as renowned as Omnivora. It paid off staying just that part more carefully. A watchman job, needing constant surveillance, an engineer or a scientist.

"Model's a little finicky, so the monitor should have a couple of adapters in case the standard doesn't work."

Target is paranoid, approach should be careful and have contingency plans at the ready.

"Keep the receipt in case it's not compatible."

Extraction alive.

Melon handed him a photo, printed out to avoid any mobile phone tracking. Richard looked at it and saw a Japanese red deer in his mid-twenties traveling along the plaza square in the middle of the road.

Richard shook Melon's hand and stood up, feeling the train slow down as they reached their destination. He gave one last look to Melon and nodded, the hybrid answering with only a nod back.

Richard left the train with the box under his arm, taking one of the maintenance tunnels opposite of the metro station side. He took a long hard look at the picture and breathed out in a sigh even mysterious to himself. He figured there was perhaps something to the idea that even though it's been thousands of years, predators were still just as ready for the hunt as they had always been.

Louis was awoken by his wife telling him to check the phone. After he had showered and dressed himself the red deer went to his telephone in his office, listening to the answering machine leave behind one terrifying message after the last.

"Mr. Louis, I pray to Rex that the bombings didn't affect you tonight. Call the directory as soon as you wake up. Due to the circumstances, a board meeting is in order."

The first message by board member Kuze was the first shock to the system as the family of three turned on the news channel. The burning buildings were plastered on every news station, even reports of catastrophic radio wave dysfunction overnight.

"We are going to stay calm and collected, Haru." Louis tried to calm his wife down as she moved into the children's room, Oguma in her arms.

"Easy for you to say." She placed their son back into his crib and mustered a smile at their Fit. The child mumbled as his mother shoved his father out of the room. When the door was shut the two stood opposite of each other.

"You told me things were fine." Haru stared daggers at Louis.

"I thought they were. How was I supposed to predict that?"

"By doing that precious research that you do each day?-" The rabbit walked into the living room, shooting glances at Louis as she moved around the couch. "You told me everything was fine. A good politician should know that."

Louis looked aghast at Haru

"You're not putting this on me, are you? That's not fair, how-"

"Nothing here is fair!" The rabbit moved closer to him again, now standing before him while wiggling her index finger.

"This isn't a place to have a family, Louis... This isn't... Oh, Rex." She broke down crying, Louis immediately kneeling down to her level.

"Haru, Haru... Look at me Haru." He held her by her shoulders, delicately yet firmly holding. After a moment she finally looked up from her hands into his eyes.

"No one is stronger than you are. No rabbit is a fighter like you are, that's why I married you. Because you don't give up, you fight."

"Louis." She crashed into his neck, her arms enclosed around him. He enclosed her fully.

"Sometimes I'm scared that I made the wrong choice... sometimes I think being part of this family here only puts me and Oggy at risk..." Haru sobbed into his neck while he remained quiet, running his hand over her back.

"No... you didn't make a mistake. I should've stopped to think about how a career in politics would affect this family."

Haru broke the hug and looked at him again.

"I wasn't being fair. How were you supposed to know."

The cries of their son distracted them from the moment, both looking in the direction of his room.

"I'll get him." Said Haru, already walking ahead towards the children's room, leaving Louis behind in the living room.

He grabbed for his forehead, sighing. He looked around the room, seeing the heart of his house left alone after the city it inhabited changed forms. Louis hadn't even started campaigning to the degree that he had planned to and already his home life was a mess.

If things got worse he knew she wouldn't stay. She had family outside of Edobutsu, and he was wise enough to know that when she would leave that he would not fight it. At the same time, he had no illusions of abandoning the fort here. This was his home, the place where he was born and where he had been raised. He couldn't bear the even thought that he would jump ship and leave it to rip itself apart.

He returned to his office and sat back down at his desk, listening to the second message on the answering machine.

"Whenever I'm lost you seem to know the way... call when you can." The wolf's voice was a welcome return to normalcy. Louis sighed out loud, thanking rex for the existence of that wolf.

L: Hello Legosi. I got a press conference at six. Come around afterwards, shouldn't take longer than an hour... Thanks for calling.

He sent the message and continued on with his daily proceedings. An hour later, a considerable amount of said hour he spent with Oggy and his wife, he sat in the back of his work car, Avon sitting in the driver's seat.

The first few meetings were already taxing. The shareholders were bickering among themselves about where and when they should pull operations out of the capitol while Louis held his ground of simply shutting down production for a week. The only way they accepted the plea was if Louis offered hazard pay out of pocket for accepting the dangerous position.

Louis knew again his own thoughts and emotions well enough to properly categorize the rage that built beneath the service, that the corporate board only accepted not cutting hundreds of jobs for the sake of material safety as long as one of them shelled out the payment themselves. They didn't deserve the hazard pay, and Louis knew that when this was over he would personally sign contracts detailing them being paid out their shares and cutting ties with the company completely. Oguma the first had been the one acclimated to groveling at the feet of his peers, Louis was more interested in changing the trajectory, actually getting things down with the uncountable amount of cash flow.

He kept them happy for now, knowing it would take time for him to manage what he needed to do. His own corporate spending so far was leaving him at 0 dollars of profit. Every penny this place made that was above the wages of his workers he spent in the ongoing remodeling of the Horns conglomerate manor.

After he fed the suit-wearing council their quarterly sacrifice of currency he moved on. His maroon-colored suit made his red tie peek out of his jacket like flowing blood from a wound. He moved on to feed other mouths information. The masses wanted reasons for what had happened last night, they wanted Yahya to curb-stomp him yet again.

When he entered his political office he went straight to his accountant. Miles was typing something up in his office, his reptilian eyes locking onto his boss.

"Hello, Mr. Louis." They bowed before each other.

"Give me a run down." Said Louis, expecting to hear the financial plan for the new quarter. His crocodile accountant simply smiled at him.

"We are covered for the next six months sir." Miles handed him a financial report. Louis scanned the data and then looked up at his accountant.

"We got a sponsor?" Louis looked up at Miles as if he had claimed to have met a unicorn somewhere and brought photographic proof. Louis as a corporate entity standing in for the horns conglomerate was a great friend to have, but his political campaigning was a detrimental damage to any self-respecting firm or figure in the Japanese market.

"Who's sponsoring us?" Louis asked Miles who simply smiled and shrugged.

"No idea."

Louis stared at him.

"What are you talking about? He must've given you a card or something to contact him by."

The crocodile chuckled as he shook his head.

"No, nothing. Smartly dressed Cougar, tallest one I've ever seen, walks in here and gives me a cheque for 80 Million yen, thanks me for my work, and just leaves without any further elaboration.... Haha, I had to call the bank twice to check the validity and by Rex, it is-"

Now that makes a lot more sense.

"Huh... how unusual." Louis thought for a second if he should state his affiliations with the mob boss but decided to keep those cards close to his chest for a minute.

"Well, sir... Thanks to the charitable stranger the world is wide open for the taking. What are your plans for today?"

Louis looked at the excited and quiet Content Crocodile.

I'd like a few hours alone with Yahya to make him pay for the fear he's causing my wife.

"Partake in tonight's press conference if everything goes to plan."

When the late afternoon turned into the early night, the sun was still strong enough to light out the day. However, the first shades of dark blue foretold the darkness of night that would soon come.

Louis was at the city hall. While the state house where the headquarters to Beastar proceedings Louis had not earned the privilege of attending a debate there. Nor would he ever according to his own predictions of future events.

He didn't even put faith in his own speeches at this point. He was playing for a time while others did the actual dirty work. He felt disappointed in himself, feeling like the shadowy wisps of the corporate family voice etch it's way back into his head.

Maybe you should have just remained CEO without tarnishing your father's-

"Reputation must exceed me, doesn't it? Not even a thank you, i'm disappointed." Louis turned around at the sudden voice to see the Cougar in his usual white suit.

"Hello Tokugawa!" Louis went to shake his hand, which The cougar accepted.

"Looking good there Louis. Becoming quite a prime example of prestigious youth." Tokugawa flashed his teeth with a glint in his eye.

"Well I appreciate the compliment... and the generous donation sir, but... I don't think my actions are doing much here." The Deer's lament earned him a scoff from the older cat.

"Your insecurities are further from the truth than the mad hatter is from being sane. A front-line soldier is what you are, going out here and putting your professional and personal name at risk just to fight Yahya on every line that you have. Your mind should hail you as the hero that you are." Tokugawa laughed and patted him on the shoulder, leaning in close.

"I'm not really here for small talk. As much as I would love to I simply don't have the time and neither do you."The cougar was unfortunately right, he had less than ten minutes until he would be called up.
"I'm here to be your outspoken personal sponsor, so don't mind the décor. I'm fighting my own little fight with the devil in black- Either way, Things have gotten worse, much worse and I wanted to let you know beforehand. My men will come in the next few days and pick you up, we'll talk plans then." He regained that real fatherly look in his eye and patted his shoulders from both sides.

"I'm so damn proud of you and your pack. I know Legosi gained all the Laurels but in my mind, you are the head of that group. As much as he is the heart, you are the head, and in a business like this... it's an incredibly useful tool to have."

The cougar let go of the deer and left through the side entrance.The deer was left to watch the door fall closed as the Cougar escaped from view. Louis sighed and chuckled to himself. He straightened his tie and looked onwards.

I'm a soldier... just on a different front-line.