by Tom Jones
Upon entering the next room, Bocchino immediately raised his weapon upon realizing what he was looking at. Jason also realized what the problem was as well, and he raised his rifle just as Bocchino did. Arcades heard Bocchino yell, “You damn motherfucker! I’m gonna kill your fucking ass! You hear me, bitch?!” Arcades took in the sight of what he was looking at. The fox found himself standing in a room that featured several cages. Most of the cages were empty, but only two were still occupied. One cage featured a female red fox. She was lacking any clothing besides a yellow collar around her neck and her restraints. All she was able to do was cower in fear of the entire situation. In the other cage was a male red fox and an anthro doberman. The doberman was currently in the process of having anal sex with the red fox. In one hand, the doberman was holding a knife, and in the other hand, he was holding the red fox’s tail up while he proceeded with his deed.
The doberman brought the knife to the red fox’s throat, and he began to make a deep cut into the fox’s throat. Though he was in the process of killing the red fox, he still was not going to stop his rough anal sex with the restrained fox. Bocchino watched as blood began dripping on the ground, and he could not hold himself any longer. The cat aimed directly at both anthros, and he pulled the trigger while not letting go. Though the steel bars on the cage diverted the path of several rounds, most of the rounds tore through the flesh of the doberman, while some of the other rounds fired by Bocchino tore through the red fox’s head and torso. Both anthros collapsed to the ground, and the doberman’s penis started squirting out semen everywhere. Arcades began to feel sick once more, but he did not know what to do. Bocchino did not stop firing until the XMP-1’s magazine was completely empty.
Arcades could not believe what was happening. The fox realized that the anthros that he wanted to rescue were now all dead except for one. The fox moved towards the caged vixen while trying to not think about the events that had just occurred in the last three minutes. When Arcades approached the exterior of the cage, he could see that the vixen inside was desperately trying to hold her eyes shut as if she was trying to wake herself from a bad dream. Unfortunately for both foxes, this was not a bad dream, but it was rather a reality. Arcades inspected the lock that was on the cage, and he figured that he would be able to pick the padlock that kept the cage closed. The fox pulled out his various lockpicking tools, and he began to pick the lock. After a moment of fiddling with the lock with a wafer rake and trying to ignore the events that recently occurred, Arcades was finally able to remove the padlock from the cage. The fox removed the padlock, and he opened the cage in order to rescue the vixen.
When Arcades made his entry into the cage, he saw the vixen look at him, and something about the vixen was very familiar to Arcades. After a couple seconds of remembering past events, Arcades was struck with a realization. When Arcades removed the muzzle from the vixen’s mouth, she spoke to him, “It’s you?” Jason was confused, “What? What is she talking about?” Arcades replied, “Are you the fox I rescued from Las Vegas last year?” The vixen nodded her head, “Y-Yes… That was me.” Arcades was surprised for multiple reasons. He was surprised not only to find the same vixen, but he was also surprised to know that she was captured by Omega. Arcades tugged on the vixen, “Here, I’ll have you free in no time.” After dragging the vixen out of the cage, Arcades took out his keyring, and he looked at the restraints that the vixen was put in. Since the vixen was restrained using Smith & Wesson restraints, Arcades knew that his main ZAK Tools key was compatible.
After freeing the vixen from the restraints, Arcades was reminded that she was completely naked minus the yellow collar, “Does Omega have any clothes for you anywhere?” Jason spoke up within the next couple seconds, “Kurt, someone’s trying to talk to you on the radio.” Arcades’ train of thought was lost, “Huh? What?” Jason repeated what he was saying, “Turn your radio volume up. Someone’s trying to talk to you. The screen’s lighting up.” The fox twisted the volume knob on his radio, and he began to hear Spectre’s voice, “Arcades, this is Spectre. Do you copy? Over.” Arcades held the PTT button down on his radio, “Spectre, this is Arcades. Send traffic. Over.” Spectre soon replied, “Have you gained access to the main building? Over.” The fox replied again, but with some hesitation as a result of what just happened, “A-Affirmative…” Spectre then said, “Kitchi, Koh-Koh, and Kohei are all outside the front door. Can you let them in?” Arcades replied once more, “Affirmative… We’ll let them in through the front door. Out…” Arcades removed the keycard he was carrying, and he handed it to Bocchino, “How about go and let them in? Jason and I will stay here.” The cat received the keycard from the fox, and he wasted little time exiting the room Jason and Arcades were standing in after leaving his XMP-1 in the room. Arcades looked around the room, and he knew that the mission did not go as planned. Arcades shook his head before speaking to the wolf, “I didn’t think they’d start executing them.” Jason reminded Arcades of what had happened mere days ago, “Omega probably ordered those guys to execute the anthros to prevent us from rescuing them. They didn’t want to lose all of their live anthros like they did to CDI.”
Arcades sighed, “It’s very unfortunate. Omega doesn’t want to give the anthros freedom at all. They’d rather kill them than risk their freedom.” The vixen that Arcades rescued spoke next, “How did you guys find me again?” Arcades looked back at the vixen, “Honestly, it’s a long story…” Jason was confused, “Wait, Kurt. Is this the same fox that you rescued from Las Vegas before you met me?” Arcades nodded as he checked the vixen’s body for signs of recent injuries he could attend to, “Yeah. We rescued her from this organized crime group that was operating out of Las Vegas.” Arcades finished checking over the vixen, “Alright. You don’t look like they didn’t shoot you before we got here; you’re not bleeding. Have you been hurt in any other way?” The female fox frowned as she looked downwards. Arcades knew that something had happened, “Hey, if you’d rather not give any specifics right now, then you don’t have to. All I gotta know is if you have any immediate injuries that we need to treat right now. I don’t want you in a constant state of pain.”
After a brief moment of silence, the female fox gave an answer, “No, there’s nothing you need to treat.” Arcades then replied with a nod of his head, “Alright, then. We can get you out of here; we have a helicopter that is going to come and pick you up. We won’t let Omega catch you again. There won’t be a third time.” Arcades could see the vixen’s face conveyed an emotion of relief, but the fox also knew that she was still traumatized over what Omega had done to her. As a matter of fact, Arcades was still aware that the vixen was not wearing any clothing at all, “Do you want us to find you some clothes?” The female fox answered Arcades, “Yes, please.” Arcades stood up, and Jason looked at the fox before he spoke, “I can stay with her if you want to look, Kurt.” Arcades agreed with Jason, and he left the room.
Bocchino traveled down the hall, and he couldn’t help but look at the corpses of the deceased anthros and humans that littered the floor. The cat knew that he was the reason several of the anthros were dead, but he knew that he wasn’t able to bring them back to life. After stepping past most of the bodies, Bocchino looked down at the floor, and he noticed that he was trailing bloody boot prints on the floor. The cat wiped his boot off on the floor in order to get some of the blood off, but he was only able to smear the blood further. Feeling impatient, Bocchino decided that now was not the best time to clean the blood from his boots. After all, he had no way of knowing if the blood belonged to the humans or the anthros he killed.
Ignoring the spoils of the mission for the rest of his walk, Bocchino finally found the door Spectre’s fireteam was waiting in front of. The cat slid the keycard Arcades gave him into the slot, and he watched as the sliding door opened automatically. Bocchino was met with three anthros dressed in Soldier 2000 standing in front of the opening. The cat watched as the other three cats moved their goggles from their eyes to
their helmets, but Bocchino noticed that the group’s marksman was not with the rest of the fireteam, “Where’s Spectre supposed to be?” Kohei gave an answer when he pushed his balaclava down, “She’s still watching for any approaching hostiles. We can help you guys if there are any more in there.” Bocchino looked behind himself, and he remembered that the building contained more dead bodies than living beings, “Yeah, there’s nobody left alive in there.”
Koh-Koh then asked, “Oh, really? What happened to Kurt and Jason?” Bocchino realized that he wasn’t understood correctly, “No, no, no. They’re fine… Look, how about you guys come in and see for yourselves?” Koh-Koh said, “Alright, sure then. What’s in here anyways?” Bocchino stepped aside to let the other three cats in, but he did not answer Koh-Koh’s last question. The first floor was not much to see since the ground was littered with minimal casualties. Only two ISG personnel were lying dead on the floor, and they were fully equipped and armed with XMP-1s. Kitchi spotted one of the strange rifles, and he stepped aside to inspect the weapon. The cat stowed away his Milkor BXP, and he unclipped the XMP-1 from the fallen Omega operative’s sling. Kitchi held up the rifle to show the other members of the unit, “Look at this. It’s just like the gun that you were carrying, Bobby.” Bocchino stopped to look at the weapon that Kitchi was holding up, “That’s because it is the same as the weapon I brought here. The one I used originally belonged to Omega.” Kitchi looked back at the weapon he was holding, “Hmm… I don’t suppose you don’t mind us taking one of these with us?” Bocchino shrugged, “I don’t think dead men can answer.”
Kitchi picked up the sling that was left on the ground, and he made sure that it was not covered with blood before he clipped it to the rifle and slung it over his opposing shoulder. Now carrying an additional primary weapon, Kitchi rejoined the rest of his unit. Bocchino approached the staircase, but he did not want to ascend. After a brief moment of reluctance, the cat proceeded first while the rest of the fireteam followed. Kohei noticed Bocchino’s brief pause of reluctance, “Is there something up there?” Bocchino replied as he continued, “Erhm… You’ll see.” As the group reached the next floor, Bocchino could once again see the fruits of his labor. Kohei sharply exhaled as he looked at the bodies, “Phew… Damn, what all happened here?” Bocchino did not take credit for what he had done, “Omega started executing all of the anthros. It was too late to save them. They must’ve started when you guys made your entry.”
Koh-Koh called Bocchino’s bluff, “Really? I don’t see any windows in here. Would be rather reckless of them to start killing the anthros off when they first heard an explosion.” Bocchino shrugged as he realized Koh-Koh did not believe his story, “Too late to save them anyway.” Kitchi remembered the mission’s objective, “So, where are the anthros that you guys could rescue?” Bocchino briefly looked at the anthro who he had thrown a knife at. The cat immediately looked back at Kitchi to answer his question, “Oh, Kurt and Jason did manage to save one.” Kohei raised an eyebrow, “Just one? There’s at least a dozen anthros in here that were killed.” Bocchino remembered that he was responsible for at least a few of their deaths, “Well, um… How about you guys talk to Kurt? He’s the one who saved the anthro anyways.” Kohei looked around for the fox, “Yeah, sure… Where is he?” Bocchino looked at the door that was cracked open, “He should be in there. Why don’t you guys go and talk to him?”
Kitchi knew that something was not adding up, “Bobby, what happened to these anthros?” Bocchino stuck with his original story, “I told you, Omega killed them all.” Kitchi moved over to one of the corpses of the anthros, and he inspected it. The anthro had three gunshot wounds in the chest and one in the arm. Kitchi realized that Bocchino’s story did not make any sense, “Why would they shoot the anthro three times in the chest and once in the arm?” Bocchino struggled to come up with an answer that was anything but the truth, “Um, well… You see -- The thing is… Um…” Kitchi knew very well that Bocchino was lying, “Alright. Which one of you guys killed them?” At first thought, Bocchino wanted to blame the deaths on Kurt, but he knew that the fox had not fired a single round out of his weapon. The fox would be able to prove his innocence by the lack of gunpowder residue left on the barrel of his Salient GRY.
Bocchino decided to push the blame on the third member in the party, “It was Jason who killed them.” Kitchi did not believe this either, “Yeah, nah. You killed them, didn’t you?” Bocchino still did not want to admit what he did despite the fact that Jason did shoot a couple of the anthros himself, “I’m telling you, it was Jason who killed them!” Kitchi paused for a moment, and he realized that he had neither seen Jason nor Arcades since they were together in the helicopter. The black cat removed a Vektor SP1 from his holster, thumbed away the weapon’s safety, and he pointed the handgun at Bocchino. Kitchi accused the other cat in front of him, “Where are Kurt and Jason’s bodies? You have five seconds.” Bocchino looked back at the door, “They’re in there. They’re not dead.” Kitchi nodded to Kohei to check the door, “Go and see if they’re in there.” Kohei stowed away his Vektor R6, and he moved towards the door in order to see if Kurt and Jason were indeed alive. Bocchino then remembered that Arcades was planning on removing the vixen from the room, and he was not sure if either of the anthros were still inside. Bocchino knew he would surely be killed if Kurt and Jason were not found in the room. The cat had to act fast.
Bocchino looked at Kitchi, and he noticed that he was only using one hand to hold the Vektor SP1. He then saw that Kitchi’s left hand was busy keeping the XMP-1 from falling off his shoulder. Bocchino looked at Koh-Koh, who had placed the barrel of his Vektor Mini SS Compact on the floor so he wasn’t burdened by the weight. Bocchino noticed that Kitchi’s attention was shifted towards the XMP-1 as it started to slide down his left shoulder. Bocchino saw this moment as the perfect opportunity to make a move. Even though he was currently unarmed since he left his XMP-1 in the room with Arcades, he figured that he should be able to grab Kitchi’s SP1. Bocchino waited until Kitchi’s head turned to view the XMP-1 sliding off his shoulder. Bocchino took this opportunity as the time to make a move. Bocchino quickly grabbed Kitchi’s wrist with his right hand while he grabbed the slide of the handgun with his left hand. The cat pulled his right hand to the left and pulled his left hand to the right in order to disarm the cat. Taken by surprise, Kitchi dropped the XMP-1 that was on his shoulder, and the weapon produced a metallic thud as it landed on the ground. Koh-Koh was taken off-guard by the surprise as well, and he found that he was not able to grab his weapon. He had accidentally knocked his knee into the receiver, and the Vektor Mini-SS Compact was now lying on the ground. “Oh fuck!” Koh-Koh shouted as he began the process of switching to his secondary weapon. Kohei’s process of traveling to the door was also interrupted by the noise of the weapons falling as well as Koh-Koh’s shout, and the cat quickly turned around to view the disturbance. After viewing the situation for a split second, the cat raised his Vektor R6 to his shoulder, and he pulled the trigger after immediately sighting in Bocchino with his rifle. However, the rifle did not fire since it was still set to safe. Bocchino heard the click of the fire-selector switch, and he squatted down to avoid an incoming attack by Kitchi.
Bocchino quickly viewed Kohei in his sights, and he pulled his trigger. While Kohei was in the process of aiming at the cat again with his Vektor R6, he was immediately knocked backwards by the 9mm round that landed directly in the middle of his helmet. Since the cat’s helmet was an MICH 2000 rated to stop handgun rounds, he was not seriously injured by the incoming round, but the cat was now disoriented from the round hitting his helmet. Koh-Koh found that he was able to remove his Mossberg M590, and he racked the pump action to chamber a round before raising it at Bocchino. Bocchino heard the rack of the action, and he turned to see that the M590 was now aimed straight at him. The cat also noticed an unfired round that landed on the ground, and this was indicating that the shotgun already had a round chambered before Koh-Koh ra
cked the action. Bocchino pushed himself forward since he knew that Koh-Koh was prepared to fire.
Bocchino landed a few feet in front of where he was originally squatting, and he heard the blast of the shotgun fill the hall. The #000 buckshot round fired from the .12 gauge shotgun impacted the wall right behind Bocchino, causing considerable damage to the wall itself as dust kicked up from the impact location. Koh-Koh quickly went to chamber another round in his shotgun by racking the action, but he saw that Kitchi was standing in his way. Kitchi finally was able to grab the Milkor BXP he was carrying on his main sling, but the blast of the shotgun startled him greatly. Kitchi jerked his head backwards in surprise, and this caused the brim of the MICH 2000 to move downwards and cover his vision. While Kitchi tried to push the brim back up, he accidentally performed this action while trying to fire his weapon at the same time. Kitchi pulled the trigger of his Milkor BXP, and several rounds impacted the wall that Koh-Koh just finished shooting at. Since the submachine weapon was set to fully automatic, the entire magazine of the weapon was depleted within a couple seconds. None of the shots had hit Bocchino.
“Hey, hey! What’s going on?! What’s happening?!” A surprised Arcades was standing in the stairwell. The fox was not holding on to his Salient GRY, but he was not sure if he should have been holding it. Koh-Koh pointed the shotgun at Arcades once he had finished chambering a round. Bocchino was still lying on the ground holding the SP1, and Arcades could not see Bocchino since Kitchi was currently standing in front of the tabby-patterned cat. Arcades then looked down at Kohei, who was in the process of grabbing the weapon which he had dropped when he was shot in the helmet. Kitchi quickly removed the empty magazine from his BXP, and he chambered another round into the weapon once he loaded a new magazine. The cat pointed the submachine gun at the fox instead of the cat, “Don’t you move!”
