Author Note: Hello Lads and Ladies

Working on my discipline right now. I'd say we are one third done with this story. Not even gonna say much else beside that I'm gonna work on a better work ethic for the last stretch

Edited by: SuperAverageFoxyboy, The Dude who likes Tanks

Enjoy!

-Portal

"Melon,

I understand your anger and I know that you are justified in your rage against Yahya but you're making the lives of your fellow Hybrids worse! If the citizens of this city think of Hybrids as violent revolutionizers Yahya will stay in power forever. I understand- "

Every second sentence of the long and rambling letter started with "I understand." Melon felt slight irritation at first reading, more so at the factoid that Juu apparently trusted the moron that wrote this. The second time was filled with open hatred of the opinionated wolf that wrote this.

"Back to base, Roscoe." The driver followed suit and soon they were on their way to the garage units beside the subway station.

Your acts of revolution are making the citizens hate you, Hybrids will never be accepted if you present yourselves as terrorists.

He resisted the urge to tear apart the thinly wailed, high-strung manifesto when they finally entered the garage. He stored the paper in his pocket and left the truck. Roscoe grabbed a crowbar and two pairs of rain boots as well as rainproof pants. They clothed themselves in plastic clothing and began walking out into the yard of the storage unit property. They walked out to the road where Roscoe lifted the manhole cover in the center of the by-now-empty road. This part of Edobutsu was never really fully alive, not by night. The docks were just around the bend and they were surrounded by warehouses and storage, no living soul besides Omnivora made its way around here.

They wandered through the wet stinking foulness, resembling the parasites that the city thought they were. But as the smells penetrated his nose, making any normal animal retch in disgust he was simply baffled at how a trusted friend of his could be so blind as to be tricked by a wolf that staked moral high ground over the lowest denominator of this layered shit show of a social hierarchy.

They reached one of the checkpoints after ten minutes of walking, a walkway for sewer workers raised from the waterways by a small concrete platform. Through the maintenance door past the pump junction, they descended ladders to find a wall that had been destroyed.

For ease of construction and maneuvering many of the metro stations had overlapping checkpoints with the sewage system. In some cases, the metro even ran through one or two main pump terminals. Where there was overlap there were often employee-only doors between them, and where they weren't any Omnivora tore through it with drills and high precision.

They rinsed off at a bathroom in one of the staff areas for the sewage workers and stored their clothing among the lockers and left with the first train.

After four stations they went on foot to an abandoned metro stop that was once planned to connect the black market to the rest of the city's metro. For obvious reasons, this had never occurred.

Melon stoked his rage as he quietly began to question what exactly the wolf wanted from him. If he gave up now he knew exactly what Yahya would do. He would wipe Omnivora off the heel of his boot like a piece of intestine left after his shoe had crushed hundreds. He would straighten his tie and walk on into the new world, one without even a single shred of deviation, otherness, or...

"Sleep well, Roscoe." He said his goodbyes and climbed the ladder up to the street level.

He went through the abandoned grocery store and entered the luxury apartment that had its prime with a hate-filled bigot of a carnivore that Zass himself had killed when they had returned. He dropped the letter on the table and went into the bedroom, dropping himself on the hammock that was dangling out of view of the window.

As he tried to catch up on some much-needed sleep the Geopard wondered how big of a problem that arrogant fuckhead would become.

Carol woke up with a warm pressure In front of her. Her naked body close to a furred warm body, muscles under the pelt apparent to her even now.

It was uncharacteristic of her, much more uncharacteristic of him. To let yourself be swept off your feet so strongly and suddenly... she realized that this was the logical conclusion of her need for rebellion, her need for being something different than the state-loving and rule-following little doctor that she had become.

She opened her eyes to look at that handsome face of his, the context of their little relationship having gotten much more intense and complex. Most peculiarly she found that she didn't care at all. Yesterday was a beautiful release of pent-up feelings, carried out in the most gentle and loving way. He was shy, unsure of himself. And she had an itch that only he could scratch.

She was accommodating, and he gentler than the expectation of a lover's touch. There was passion, but yesterday wasn't passionate, it was a careful and graceful dance of two hearts.

He stirred too as she mused in her own words on how to describe the events of the previous evening even though there should have been no need to avoid the bright burning realization that followed. They had through circumstance and perhaps a hefty helping of fate, fallen for each other.

"That was... lovely." Yajuu held her closer, still so gentle as if she was a delicate flower.

"It was..." The act of deflowering another was an utmost sacred one, and she was glad that she was the one to guide him through it. She did it enjoy it after all.

"I really don't want to ruin this moment... but we didn't get much chance talking yesterday..." She giggled, eliciting a smirk from him.

"How long have you been living by yourself." She almost expected him to shy away and hide his gaze, but she figured that most likely the previous evening had a stronger effect on him than she had first expected.

"About eight years." He said without much emotional affliction.

"Ran away when I turned fourteen and looked for side jobs. I didn't have any school papers, had to teach myself reading and writing while I was homeless for a year and a half..." He recounted the story now in the same cool tone as before with a small undertone of melancholy and sadness, however, he held eye contact and it was apparent that the current moment was enough to stabilize him. She wasn't surprised, to have one's first intimate experience with twenty-five seemed like a big milestone. Carol was amazed at how far kindness and love could reach.

"Then I found work in that warehouse... moved into the hidden condo a little later and that was it. Been living like that, saving most of my spending cash, watching movies, living solitary life... that worked out until the new legislature rolled around."

"Well, I'm glad I met you..." Carol brushed her hand through the fur on the side of the Weindeer's face and soon the two were again looked together in a series of gentle kisses and a tight embrace.

They both used the small showering cabinet in her apartment, Yajuu using her shampoo. They toweled each other dryer and soon both put their clothes back on. They had a simple breakfast and afterward, she drove him home.

"Well, Carol... you said yesterday you'll come by today... bring a change of clothes, you're staying the night this time..." He bashfully gave her a quick kiss and left the car, leaving her sitting in the driver's seat with fuzzy feelings in her chest, her cheeks a peachy shade of light red.

She looked out through the windshield, the fuzzy feeling persistent. This is how all romances start. Under the bright pink lens of love, there was underlying ugly thought that popped into existence. Soon this arrangement will be illegal.

She pushed the thought away and disallowed herself from souring this. If she was going to enjoy this she was going to enjoy while she could. She put the car in reverse and drove off, listening to music while every part of the city seemed to be more alive.

She was in bliss.

"STRIGHTMAN GET IN HERE YOU TRAITEROUS BASTARD." The voice was muffled behind the heavy-set metal door in the maintenance tunnel.

"Rex... SHUT IT CHIEF OR I'LL BURN YOU SOME MORE." The threat by the Omnivora men in the hallway wasn't that effective as the muffled sounds of screaming remained.

Melon sat at a table, headphones on his head as he awaited radio calls from his men. Meanwhile, he flipped through the images in the folder. Surveillance photos of the diligent deer researcher that held the secret to Project Vertigo, whatever it was. Melon had vague ideas about what to expect but kept these thoughts to himself for now.

Melon was never one for music or any form of distractions, he seemed to be resistant to outside influence when deep in his work. He hated wasting time and so he was always doing something, even if it meant standing by and thinking. A life of no one ever rooting for him or standing in his corner had made him well-versed in spending his time with no one but himself.

"This is Bird's Nest, Patrol Cars on Fifth Avenue, circling the Commercial block. Over." Precise words meant to signify the arrival or departure of danger. The eyes in the sky to the agent below. Yahya had a flight division too, this was nothing but evening out the playing field.

The phone on the table rang. The Geopard moved the headset lower until It rested around his throat. He answered the phone, a few audible taps coming from the other line.

"Engage tomorrow." Melon hung up and placed the phone back on the table, setting on the radio's headset again.

"This is Point Martin. All strike teams prep for action tomorrow at zero-eight hundred. I repeat, all strike teams prep for action tomorrow at zero eight hundred. May Rex be with us all, over."

"Copy that." "Copy." "Loud and clear." Answered the never-ending radio chatter. He waved over a radio technician.

"Take my place." The radio technician followed suit, placing the large headphones on his head, and continuing to monitor the channel. Melon walked over into the common room, where a few of the men were loading up magazines and maintaining the various weaponry.

"Niko, you know where he is?"

"Sure do Boss. He's at a friend's place in the suburbs." The thick Slavik accent broke out with every word. Besides looking like a Russian tough guy the Coyote/wolverine hybrid was loyal and useful to a fault.

"Take me there. We're going on a little watchman stint."

"Yes, Boss."

The drive there was quick, just under twenty minutes until they stood parked across from a quaint little house built onto the incline of Mount Azama. A Labrador Retriever and a wolf sitting shirtless In the dirt of the front garden of the cozy little home.

"Who's he with?"

"Childhood friends. Were roommates in Cherryton." Niko held his direct gaze straight ahead through the windshield, Perfectly playing the part of a disinterested layman waiting on someone. In the back of the van Melon peeked past the seat to the garden, observing the two chatting as they cut out weeds and did gardening work.

Melon felt a weird twinge in his chest as he thought of Juu. The little time that he could properly identify as his childhood that he had spent most of it with the blueish-gray Weindeer.

"Why isn't he at work?"

"Cerberus Soldiers are on an on-call basis for most days of the week in order to throw us off. They have been operating in civilian clothes since the first bombing."

Melon continued to look straight ahead, seeing the wolf on the other side of the road laugh and smile as he talked to his friends. He was loved by the city, out in the sun, and lived his life like everybody else while Melon remained in the darkness of the quite stuffy and uncomfortable van in the direct sunlight.

"Make him a priority target. Tell the men to radio in should he In any direct way interfere with the next mission."

"On it, Boss."

"Good, Back to the watchtower." With a quiet hum, Niko answered the request and they drove away, leaving the quaint little house behind.

The sun shone down and enveloped both canines in warmth as they sat in the front yard of Jack's dwelling, ripping out weeds and planting some new flowers in one of the growing beds.

Jack's home was a secondary home to his quite well-off family that had fallen into a state of stagnation as no one had proper use for the property. When he graduated school with flying colors the only child to two scientists was offered the home as a reward and a place of learning how to take care of oneself.

Over the course of the half year that they were living here he had already started, with the help from the entirety of the former room-mates in Room 701 as well as their girlfriends as well as his own, the renovations of the kitchen and later on the renovations for the bathroom.

Today was just a calm day of gardening work that Legosi enjoyed a lot. After a whole week of riots left and right, some sunshine with a pal in close proximity to a few garden bugs seemed like a fine activity.

The rumbling of the car rolling past them on the road distracted him from the weeds for a moment as he glanced down the road after the van. He sniffed the air and took a moment to appreciate the day.

"How's work doing? You never really talk about it, did something bad happen?" Jack's voice ripped him out of the nice moment and reminded him of the events that happened a few night prior.

"It's terrible... I don't think I want to talk about it." He grabbed tensely at the next batch of weeds, his golden blonde friend deflating a little.

"I'm sorry."

"It's... ugh." Legosi's posture dropped into a limp sprawl, his long arms dangling in the dirt as his legs were outstretched before him.

"You can see what's happening in the city, I don't need to say it if you can already see it." Legosi looked over the garden fence seeing the town spread out below them. He couldn't avoid talking about work because his work was dealing with civilization in the most direct way possible.

"I want to enjoy today and leave my work life behind... I'm not mad at you, just mad at life." Legosi continued plucking weeds.

"... want to later go to B-Strike?" Said Jack meekly, trying to offer up any form of consolidation that he could give at this moment.

"That sounds good." Legosi continued on with the gardening work, happy to change the subject.

"How are you holding up? How are your studies?"

The Labrador stopped his gardening work as he thought for an answer.

"It's difficult but it feels rewarding. Helping others learn and moving on up the timeline with me maybe becoming a professor there one day..." Jack gained the same expression of sadness Legosi wore just a moment before.

"But it's like you said... it's getting more and more obvious how terrible things currently are..."

No... can one day be untainted please... Legosi found himself uncomfortable in the bright sun, feeling irritation boil under his skin. It had been weeks of uninterrupted bad news and every person you met lingering on that anguish of the times like it was all they could think about. Even worse was that the broad spectrum was angry at the wrong people for this current state.

He looked around, seeing Jack's face turning to a frown. He kept moving his head, hoping to distract himself from his own mind's bullshit when he saw the gardening hose plugged into the side of the house.

Meanwhile on the other side of the property past the house, a hedge being the only divider of the properties, sat Juno and Chelsea at a table. Although the house was built at an angle, and the end of the little property was a very steep incline leading up to the next road and the next back of houses up the mountain, the sun was in perfect position to shine down upon them.

Juno was wearing a flowing white dress with a yellow flower pattern. A wide summer hat was shielding her eyes from the direct sunlight as she sipped on an ice-cold lemonade, the ice cubes inside getting smaller by each second longer in the blasting summer heat.

Chelsea was in a pair of shorts and a black tank top, a pair of sunglasses being her choice for sunlight deterrent. She drank ice-cold coke, leaning back in her chair as they both listened to the radio that was standing on one of the countertops in the kitchenette.

"I'm sorry by the way... for being so cold to the two of you... Back when Legosi and you had Relationship troubles Jack took it the worst, seeing his best friend depressed... I guess I was still a bit mad... I'm sorry for it." Chelsea pointed her face at the ground as if Juno could see her eyes through the sunglasses. Juno on the other hand simply waved it off.

"Don't worry, I'd be mad too. Legosi is just one of those people that wears their heart on their sleeve." She nearly frowned when she remembered the woes of current life. She abolished the thought, tired of it consuming everything.

"He seems like a sweet guy... guess we both got our sweet spots." Chelsea chuckled and Juno joined in, drinking more of her sweet lemonade.

"We like them as sweet as our drinks." Juno's response elicited another laugh from Chelsea.

"To our sweethearts." They cheersed their drinks and both took sips.

"How did you meet Jack?" Chelsea smiled upon hearing Juno's Question. Juno herself was merely happy that this was the topic they landed on, this was a nice thing to talk about.

"I got reprimanded for leaving school grounds too much. My mom is a biker, always was. I took after her a lot, so even with just my Mountain bike I was up and down the hill, learning traffic and whatnot. I like speed I guess... feels good to have the wind ruffle up your fur."

Juno thought of the feeling of being on a roller-coaster, when the drop came and the force of the movement pushed you into the seat, wind blowing right through you. She smiled in agreement.

"You only got so many outing permits in the week, so I started faking them. Could've probably bought some from one of the counterfeiters but I didn't have that type of spending cash. They were good fakes ones too, they worked nine out of ten times. I was even smart enough to only ask teachers once so that no one would get suspicious... but not smart enough to change up the dates on the permit..."

"oooh..." Juno cringed in solidarity, remembering some of the embarrassing things she did when she was younger.

"Yeah... Later I learned that no teacher would have connected the dots if a certain harlequin rabbit hadn't tipped them off."

"Mizuchi." Juno grit her teeth in anger this time. The memory of that rabbit and how she tormented Haru were still quite open wounds.

"You know her?" Chelsea raised an eyebrow.

"Everyone did. Except for her posse everyone hated her and she hated everyone..." Juno eased up after letting off the angry sentence, Chelsea merely smiling.

"As revenge I poured black ink into her washing machine. To see her face when her clothing was speckled with deep blue spots... she knew I did it but I never let her get one in edgewise. Me and my roommates may have been different breeds and sure as hell different personalities, but when it came to our dorm we protected it like it was our fortress. We caught some members of her posse multiple times trying to sneak into our room, but they never managed to."

Juno smirked.

"But even though I got her back I still got reprimanded and was stuck on school grounds for two weeks. I was bored, didn't want to waste my time with learning but kinda had to. I always went late when the community room was empty cause everyone had to go to bed. I read a few books, mostly wandered. Before Jack showed up it was actually some of the worst time I ever had at school... But then I met that Labrador-retriever, just studying by himself." She smiled while deep in memory.

"To be honest I think at first I pitied him. Seemed awful to spend almost any day in the library just reading and filling out forms, doing vocabulary or whatever. So I asked him why he did that and... I don't really remember what we talked about first, we have different lifestyles in that sense. I like to go out, he likes to stay in, I like active things, he likes to take it easy..." She smirked even wider this time, Juno certain she would be able to see a love-strucken gaze if she could peek past the darkened lenses.

"My first crushes were on bikers, guys with aviators and leather-jackets. Jack is... none of that. But he's sweet... he's kind and always so gentle... And he's always thinking about things. His head is always re-contextualizing and thinking and thinking... He talks about interesting stuff and considers things. The teenage relationships I had before were all amateurish, I was a trophy or just one of the guys but Jack values me... He cares..." She laughed with the barest hint of breath and took another drink of her Coke.

"What about you and Lego-face?" Chelsea turned the conversation back to Juno.

"Oh... Legosi and I first met when I just come to school. It was right after Tem died and I was getting picked on heavily for being a wolf... He found me crying at the fountain."

"You poor thing..." Chelsea spoke with empathy.

"I think it's the same as you getting reprimanded. It sucked back then but in retrospect I'm kinda thankful... 'cause I got to meet him." Juno smiled a dope smile.

"Did you make the first move? I'm figuring that Legosi isn't exactly situationally aware."

"No, he is not." Juno snickered.

"I kissed him before he went out on stage for the first time when Louis hurt his leg and couldn't act for a while. He elected Bill as Adler and Legosi as Bill's replacement. He was worried beyond belief and so I... reassured him... I guess, I couldn't hear myself think looking at him."

"I would call you a cliché if I wasn't one too," Chelsea remarked, taking another sip of her Coke. She leaned back stretching her arms away from her.

"Rex, is it hot..."

"Yeah, it is." Juno waved at her face, emulating the look of a southern belle in her large summer hat and the flowing dress she was wearing.

"AAAH COLD, LEGOSI!" The yelp came from the front of the house, the sound reverbing against the side of the neighbor's house.

Juno and Chelsea exchanged looks, both wearing smirks as they expect their partners to have gotten themselves into some kind of Hi-jinks. They rose from their seats and walked past Jack's house to see the front garden.

Legosi was holding the gardening hose with its sprayer attachment at the front, holding the trigger on his blonde-furred friend who was comically running away, yelping whenever the cold water hit him. Jack was drenched, a trail of water following his movement.

The two broke out into a giggle when Legosi turned around to look at them, wasting not much time to redirect the hose to douse both of them.

"Agh, you lanky moron." Chelsea was instantly doused, the black fur glistening in the sun. Juno's summer dress stuck to her skin, making the flowy dress of before a skin-tight heavy layer of cloth.

The Black labrador immediately charged the tall wolf, trying her best to grab hold of the sprayer, but missing due to her eyes being firmly closed as the wolf was dousing her up and down. He was laughing as he took a few steps back.

"Oh, it's on Legosi." Juno ran forward, using her momentum to slide over the wet pathway at the front of the house. She grasped the sprayer and held on tightly as Legosi tried his best to keep hold of the hose, losing balance as he was tackled by his girlfriend's body weight. He stuck his arm out, trying to backpedal and finding his footing in the nick of time, the sprayer relinquishing from his grasp.

"Mercy! Mercy! Oh, have Mercy!" The wolf cried as he found himself equally drenched as the rest of his friends.

"hahaha, now you beg for mercy when I got the finger on the trigger." Juno laughed a comical villain's laugh as she thoroughly doused her boyfriend. The wolf eventually sunk to the floor.

"I give up, you got me. I give up to the cruel mistress Juno." Legosi's quip earned him a shot of water straight into his face.

"Don't call me cruel you buffoon. I am the most merciful in all the land."

"I bow down to you cruel- erm, agh." Legosi was bending over, face towards the ground as he got another splash into his face.

Juno stood in front of him in a kingly pose, looking around the garden.

"Come on then, bow before your new queen." Juno looked at both Jack and Chelsea, the former joining Legosi in bowing. Juno looked expectantly at Chelsea.

"Bow!" Juno spoke another sarcastic comment at the Black Labrador. She shook her head with her hands on her hips.

"I don't bow to tyrants." Chelsea flicked her head to move some fur out of her face, her sunglasses making her look like an action hero.

Juno puffed out her chest in mock offense.

"Then have a taste of my powerful water blaster."

Chelsea got into a stance readying her next movement.

"You betcha I will."

They waged wars between fake nations localized entirely in Jack's front garden for the next twenty minutes. After Juno's iron rule battled with Chelsea's Confederacy they yielded to a surprise attack by Legosi's Kingdom, leaving Jack's Democracy laying in the dirt.

They sat down on the pavement at the back of the house, letting themselves dry in the blasting sun.

"Refreshing..." Chelsea took another sip from her Coke.

"The game or the drink?" Jack asked, sitting beside her with a pile of towels beside him.

"Both... and you." she snickered, kissing him.

Juno looked over at Legosi, the wolf glancing at her.

"Are we having fun mister?" He smiled.

"Yep." They shared a kiss all the same. 

"Well, the gardening work is mostly done... I can get some ice cream, and we can watch a movie in the living room. Does that sound ok?" Jack asked the group with the excitement of a little child.

"I think a quick trip home to get our bathing suits and then to the beach sounds more pleasant right now." Legosi pointed his head at the sky, eyes closed in the absolute warmth of the sun.

"We all need to cool off."

"That work for you Chelsea?" Jack inquired with his mate. The black labrador merely laughed.

"Sure, sounds like a great idea."

Half an hour later they were crashing into the waves at the beach just south of the suburbia that Both Louis and Jack called home. The Water was the perfect distraction, the only thing to round out the worry and the fear. But they would lie if they didn't notice quite a few people less than normal around.

"Sucks for them." Chelsea was still wearing her sunglasses as she went back into the water. Legosi and Juno sat on the towel for a moment, taking a breather from all the activity. She looked up at him and smiled, him doing the same.

"How about we eat out tonight and then watch a movie." Juno offered, Legosi smiling ear to ear.

"Where would you like to go?"

"mmmmh... seafood?"

"Sounds alright to me." Legosi again closed his eyes as he let the sun envelop him from all sides.

"Tonight we'll do whatever you want. You get a craving and we'll get it."

"Well then." Juno got up from the towel, pulling Legosi by his arm.

"Right now I want to swim." Legosi got up onto his feet, following Juno's request.

"Your wish is my command, my love."