Chapter 03: Intrusion (Page 13)
Vince slowly got up, and regained power over himself. He could already hear the footsteps outside the lab, coming to 'examine' him.
'No... I'm not letting them take this away from me..' Vince thought to himself.
His palms had returned black, as he was now only focused on the incoming danger. His own company. Quickly, he tilted his head a little, and just as two men fashioned in yellow plastic protective gear appeared in the doorway, the door slammed shut.
"Hey, who closed the door!" a woman yelled muffledly through the door, the doorknob jiggling madly.
The wolf didn't know if he could do it properly, but he was a man of science, heavily relying on science before physicality. If any man could control these powers, it would be him. Softly, he sighed, and turned toward the large glass wall facing outside the tower, out, almost seeing down the entire street to the edge of the planet, the city. Growling, he put a paw out, lab tables parting, moving out of his way slowly enough not to damage anything.
As his other paw moved up as well, he closed his eyes, walking straight to the glass outlook. His claws tapped the glass as they rested against it.
"Mister Cody, sir! You need to let us in!"
Lightly, he shook his head, "I need to break myself out."
The glass rumbled, and broke apart forward, the entire wall in the room flying outward, then freezing in glass shards in the air, at least 7 feet ahead of him, all the glass pieces rotated from the sudden jerk in motion. If he didn't allow the glass pieces to rotate in the air, they would break into pieces, and Vince wouldn't be able to handle that. This was the easy part of what he had to do.
Taking a step back, he also took a deep breath. Deftly, he burst forward, and leapt out the window. Opening his eyes, he turned over, facing the tower, back facing the ground. His labcoat was flailing to the side, away from him, as were the chains on his leash and belts.
'Come on, Vince, you're a scientist... do it right..!"
He pushed his palms forward, concentrating, and the glass all flung forward into the room, shattering into smaller pieces for only a second before it made the window again, a large shard of glass flying all the way into the lab and breaking on the floor.
The wolf didn't have time to care, though. He was plummeting toward his death, and he was losing breath and his body felt like it was going to rip out of his skin. He could hear screams below him, but those didn't matter either. Quickly, he closed his eyes again, and tightened his fists. Instead of falling to his death, about ten feet off the ground, Vince stalled in the air for a second enough to keep him from dieing. Gently, he floated down to his feet, on the ground below him, people darting out of his way.
The crowd of people had parted and were now wowed.
"How the heck..!"
"I want to be able to do that!"
"When's it coming out?!"

"What is it?"
The woman laid back on the long chair, customed for leaning back. Brass glared at it, allowing such a slacking lackey to be even lazier with his own invention. She popped the gum bubble, and chewed for a second.
"There's an openin' for one o' that girl's banks. They're havin' troubles with security. If you wanna find that tape, I think it's in the bank. That's what the whole staff room's been sayin', anyways," she looked at Mr. Todd in the eye, smiling, "So I get a raise, right?"
".. you're fired."
He turned, and walked down the hall, scoffing disturbedly, "and by the way, get Kyell and Marble before you start packing, tell them to meet me on my way to the door."
".. wait.. what?!" the girl shouted, "You can't fire me, I just got this job, you're 'apposed to get me a week's notice!"
Brass stopped short, and sighed. He reached in the satchel on his pant leg, and shoved his paw backward, two-needle revolver in hand, leaving four holes in the desk below her feet. Screaming, she darted up from her desk, gasps from within the room.
"Think of it as a week-long vacation without pay, then."
"Jared!" a woman's voice shouted behind him, the direction he was about to go.
As Todd turned around, his eyes caught an old man's appearance, a violet-grey-haired black fox with white hairs around the person's mouth, an old-fashioned bland red sweatervest.
"Kyell," he rose a brow.
"Jared, you don't need to call me by my operating name," she shook her head and took out the grey hairs with her paws, prodding at her hair, voice professional, but still quite casual and normal, "I heard gunshots in the direction the red fox from the paper was. She saw the paper I was holding, and ran for it. Was that you?"
Brass froze, and stared at the black fox, "... what?"
"Yeah, I tried to catch up with her, but she was a good runner. After she ran into the alley, I heard gunshots and saw the flashes."
"N-No.. you said.." he shook his head, thinking back, pausing, "... son of a bitch.."
Sam looked up at Brass, ridding her face of the white dye on it.
"Jared, what happened, who did you shoot if you didn't shoot the red fox?"
"The publisher of the Daily Dragoon, that... Hayden Vert\xE9 girl," he sighed, and looked up at the ceiling, "A.. a lavendar-haired fox wearing a.. probably a tank top and shorts was cowering in the corner before I left-- damnit, I should've known!"
"... well, that explains the commotion in the Golden Vert\xE9 bank."
Brass sighed. "I can't believe I was so stupid... wasn't she dressed exactly like she was dressed in the picture?" he looked at his spy, who looked away from him, sighing too, "She made it way too personal now.. she's being cocky, and I don't like that."
Nodding, Sam looked back at Jared, "Yeah, you're the only one that can be cocky."
Jared looked at Sam, and Sam smiled sidedly.
"Yeah, okay, where's Tarot?" he just sighed.
"Umm..." the black fox rose a brow, and looked down at the floor, "If... I'm not mistaken, she's making some preparations for a bank trip."
Standing a second, Todd put a paw on his hip, and looked past Sam with a troubled, and confused look, shaking his head. The was a pause, and the black fox almost opened her mouth to say something before Todd spoke.
"I never get any privacy around here.."
"So we're doing the bank robbery then."

The security guard in front of the bank was crushing the talk button on the large black device attached to his dark navy pants.
"I don't care, don't tell me you're searching, just find her! It's already eight in the night, for Christ's sake!"
'B-But, sir," the pleading voice on the walkie-talkie stammered, "She could be anywhere in the city, sir. It's going to take time. It's been an hour, we haven't found anything, sir, and we've only searched, like, a fiftieth of the entire city. You can't ask my team to continue searching like this, sir!"
Punching the bank wall hard with his bare fist, pieces fell off the brick.
"You find her in an hour or you and 'your team' is fired, okay?!"
"Geez, calm it down..." a familiar dark voice said under his dark glasses.
The angered man turned to the black-furred tiger quickly, and narrowed his eyes.
"What's your business here?"
Softly, a brown skunk dressed in a violet coat stepped up to one of the three bank machines aligned across from the overly large wooden doors to the bank, and punched in a few numbers before placing another machine on the screen. Under her light brown dreadlocked hair, her eyes reflected the running numbers on the machine.
"Hey!" the man looked at the tiger, then darted forward only to have a barrel heavily land on his forehead.
"Uh-uh-uh..." Brass grinned, gun against the man's head.
Money started practically shooting out of the ATM, and the machine murmured its glee, ordering the ATM to shoot out more. Softly, the skunk looked at the angered man, and started pocketing the money in her coat.
The man almost growled, and took the barrel of the gun, yanking it, pointing it away from him. Brass jumped, almost, and shot a few bullets into the pavement.
"Y-- ahh-- God, what the fuck?!" Todd shouted, fingers crackling beneath the man's burly hands.
Without hesitation, Jared let go of the gun, which caused him to fall back, and caused the man to tighten his fist around the gun, throwing it into the wall, breaking it to pieces. As Todd was coiled to the ground, his voice coarsely gave a grunt.
The skunk sighed, and turned to the man, stuffing her coat with more money, luscious paper.
"You're making this really difficult," her dry and soft voice spoke, her paw reaching into her coat for the final time, at least for now.
"You're the ones trying to rob me," the man stormed toward the skunk, clenching his fists, knuckles cracking.
Softly, Todd groaned, looking at the broken pieces of gun ahead of him.
The brown skunk backed up away from the man, taking her own, oddly-shaped yellow gun from her coat. Closing her eyes and turning her head, she clicked the trigger seconds before the man would reach out for her, and one of the bulbs on the gun shot out, and attached itself on the guard, zapping him. The guard shut his eyes closed, but consciously fought the shocks off. His body was so big, it almost could absorb the electric shocks, barely phasing him. He growled louder, grabbing at the cord attaching him to the gun and the pain.
"Rrrawhh...!!" he threw the cord off him and tore the bulb from his body.
As he threw the bulb and the shock gun flew forcefully out of the skunk's hand, his radio clicked off his pants. Turning his head to the radio, this was all the boost Jared needed to assert himself to the gun parts, picking the butt of the gun up, twisting to his stomach, throwing it directly at the back of the giant brute's head. The assault seemed enough to give the security guard an aneurism, making him exceedingly angry, turning at Brass vengefully after the connect, one hand on the bleeding bruise on the back of his head, the other grabbing Todd's shirt, forcing the tiger to get up with him.
On the way up, Jared grabbed at the shock gun, glaring at the man. They had experienced smart ones before, but he was taking this and the girl's bank personally already. As Brass thrust the gun into the man's stomach, the skunk girl had already picked up the radio. With the motion of the skunk, the man widened his eyes, ready to grab at the gun, which all too fast triggered Brass to shoot another electric bulb through the man's security jacket, directly into his stomach. The man was shaking now, angry, and electric.
"Hello, sir? I think we found something, there's blood in the back of a--"
Tarot, the hacker, the brown skunk, slapped the man across the same profusely-bleeding bruise Jared left with the radio, breaking the output inside, blood splattering across the sidewalk.
With that swift move, the man screamed loud, finally, feeling the pain a normal man would've felt by now, Jared's paw slamming his body into the brick wall, unexpectedly causing the wall to shake. The snap of the bulb just made the man scream louder, electrifying him. As Jared's shoulder pierced against the man's backside, and the electric force surged through his body, the security guard helplessly shouted.
"Yahhh'm going to KILL you when I get f-free..!!" he screamed.
With his face safely toward Tarot, who glared at him, the situation had been contained.
"We got him.." Brass sighed.
Softly, Sam's head popped in and looked on the scene from behind Brass.
"That's who you got for me..?" she raised a brow, "There's... no way I'll be able to-- ahh!"
A slim woman pushed open the door, looking toward Sam, backward to the door. Quickly, Brass pointed the stunner at her, and fired another bulb, at her.

Vincent Cody, the head bio-engineer and scientist of ToddTech had begun a mission that wasn't requested of him, that would've seemed impossible to any man, including himself, had he not had the accident.
As Vince moved past the trees in the shrouded and shadowed forest, he could hear the tree roots in the ground below him trying for their lives to sap up moisture from the completely dry ground. He could even completely understand what, in fact, the birds in the trees were chirping. He could also hear the thoughts of the distant industrial worksmen less than a mile ahead of him. Tilting his head toward it, he could barely hear it, though, he knew he was close. Only distance kept him from hearing what he wanted to. His rivals' plans.
It was a rare sight, to see trees in Sphere City. The city was only so small, but from what Vince had heard from the dragons of Sphere City, the trees hadn't always been rotting, and the streets weren't always packed. Streets seemed to crumple into one another and shrink smaller, foot by foot every few years. It seemed like since he was born, the city was rotting. Since just one bustling city engulfed the entire globe, it wasn't hard to believe. There could be any number of things that were happening to the core of the city. However, Brass dismissed all Vince's theories on how the city could be suffering from so much rot. Sickness was breeding like wildfire, people were breeding like wildfire, and all the life forms inside the city had to work hard to live.

Blam! Brains and blood splattered up against the brick wall of the bank, the brute's eyes rolling back, bleeding out his eyes like tears before falling to his knees, face forward.
Tarot sighed, the bank doors closing behind a 'guard', "How did I know you'd end up offing him as soon as Kyell turned her back?"
Jared looked down at the upturned body, and frowned at it, the white of his eyes staring up at him, a red and pink pool forming around its head.
"Aww, don't look at me like that. I did you a favor. Now you don't have to pay for all those anger management classes."
The skunk sighed again, and shook her head, facing it, after, to the ATM screen. There was an extremely crude green and black camera screen on it, and she could see the spiky-haired black fox coming into the bank with a navy security outfit, a knee-high skirt on that fit her perfectly, at least, from what they saw of it before Sam went in the bank.
Brass looked at the body for a few more moments, before looking to Tarot.
"Think we should move the body?" his eyes, safely hidden underneath the large green glasses, looked to Tarot, who shrugged, not caring much for his crime.
"I'm not touching something you broke, yourself," Tarot shook her head, watching Sam wave to another officer, "You know how I feel about this."
Jared only grinned, looking at the doors, scratching an eye brow.
"Well, it's either that or we leave it here or gross out Sam," he shook his head too, then looked back at the screen, "You're not scared of a dead body, right?"
Tarot sighed, looking to her right, down the street. Her nerves were getting to her since that man almost killed them both. She knew it was the right thing to do, yet still disapproved.
"Marble, look at the state of the city. It's rotting and so are its people. Crime and killing is necessary, and we're the ones doing the justified crime and killing. He was going to kill us."
Tarot narrowed her eyes.
"That's because we're the bad guys."
"Pssh, right, a rich family that ruins other rich businessmen\x92s' lives for fun. Besides, who the hell waves their money around like that bitch did? Believe me, anyone trying to protect her deserves to be killed, you'd have to be an idiot."
"It's not right, Brass," she snapped, and glared at him, "We're running around the city ruining peoples' lives--"
"Bad peoples' lives, and people that have ruined our lives' lives. I'm not debating this, are you moving the body or not?"
Softly, the bank doors opened up, and Sam's head peeked out.
"You guys coming..?"

Handing a large and heavy box to a shirtless, and rather hairy, but muscular man, the delivery officer sighed.
"These things are real tough to handle, what the hell's in these?"
Sighing, the man shook his head, shifting the box on one shoulder, holding it with a hand up top. He made a gesture with his other, bigger arm, to the officer, and the officer's eyes widened, staring at him. There was a very large casing around that arm, but that's not what shocked him. What shocked him was the fact that he knew the man just, almost gingerly, pushed a thirty pound box on his shoulder, then actually asked for another. Quickly, the officer managed down at the next box and picked it up with a noticeable effort. Shucking it into the large man's hands, he shifted that on his other shoulder.
"H-How..."
"Men are so completely useless.. Go on, get out of here," his low tone sounded exceedingly similar to Brass', except his tone wasn't dark in the slightest way, it was rather boyish and masculine, 'This load'll last us at least a month in research.. Maybe if I scare him, I'll get a good price for just these two... Besides, a month longer, we'll have the entire soul diamond mine to ourselves..'
From the forest behind the large purplish-red brick industrial factory, Vince watched the scene take place, with added commentary.
'Soul diamonds..?' Vince thought to himself.
".. o-okay, well, do you want the rest of the shipment, or..?" the man shook his head, raising a brow, still shocked from the show in front of him.
Vince looked at the soul diamonds. Something emanated from them, something not natural. As weird as it felt, and as sudden as his powers came over him back in the lab, the four other boxes of 'soul diamonds' laid out in front of him felt so much more not mortal. They really did emanate something Vince couldn't put his finger on, but it felt a lot more similar to Vince's concoction than he wanted it to feel.
"Take 'em back to whoever gave 'em to you, kid," the shirtless man nodded to the officer, and stooped down to place one of the boxes down, and reach in his leather plate skirt with that hand for a handful of money, "How much?"
"Hmm-- what?! the officer stepped backward again, looking at the boxes, "You can't just.. not take these things..!"
The large man's lips slowly pursed a polite grin, but what Vince felt from the grin was as dark as the soul diamonds.
"You're new... I get that," he looked at the delivery man, and shook his head, "But all I want is this. You can charge me for the whole delivery and take it back, I don't care. Right now, all I need are these two."
The kid looked down at the boxes in front of the large man, then at the man, and slowly and nervously nodded. "T-That'll be three fifty, then.."
The large and burly man's thoughts were getting less frequent, and less distinguishable from the officer's. His eyes flickered a little in their focus, and he sighed, large hands searching for the right amount of money, and handed it to the other man quickly.
"The whole price of the delivery," he said.
Vince was surprised, raising a brow at the cheap three-hundred dollar price. His paw accidentally slipped into a small bush, he was so surprised, creating a soft shaking of leaves.
Immediately, the large man's weary brown eyes turned straight to Vince's paw, the emotions in his head making Vince all the more surprised, but now, so much more scared. The man felt like certain death. All of the man's thoughts were centered on the bush, at crushing whoever was in the bush with his bare hands. It was then, Vince could see the man's metal skeleton in his mind's eye, making his arms like steel compressors, one arm completely made of machinery, and a strong clock gear battery that controlled all of these where one the man's kidney's should've been. There was no doubt. The grey hairs pushed back through his scalp, the huge muscles and the metal skeleton to go with it, and the certain fuchsia color of his metal skirt.
'Thomas Fuschio..' Vince thought to himself loudly.
So loudly, in fact, Fuschio's head raised, a puzzled look on his face.
"Thank you so much for your generosity. It's been nice, and... certainly cool doing business with you.." the officer nodded to the great man, pocketing the money in his uniform, and took the handle of the box-carrier, leading it with him, away from Fuschia Industrials and its hidden forest location.
Vince cursed himself in his head. He thought for sure his thoughts were safe, but for some reason, he couldn't control them half as well as he wished he could've now, or a fraction as well as before he entered the forest. As Fuschio eyed the bush still, and he took a suspicious step toward it, Vince was trying to figure out exactly how his abilities could've faded so fast. The 'soul diamonds'?
'.. if ther... omeone here, watchi... hen I have to fin..' Fuschio's quickly-disappearing thought trail managed to get to Vince's own thoughts.
Softly, Vince crept back away from the bush, trying to stay hidden, but Fuschio took another intimidating step forward. 'Is that whe... 're hiding..?'
Fuschio narrowed his eyes right at Vince's position, and Vince froze.

Chapter 04: Cornered (Page 25)
A creak split open the dark room like a melon, barely revealing much of the crimson and ivory room.
"Sir..? You here?" an orange tail swayed into the room, and after it, holding a large flashing green and black screen, was a half visible striped orange paw. As the paw and tail moved into the room, more light broke the darkness.
Nothing. Slowly, the other paw on the shadow moved across the wall closest to it, to find a light switch, and faded into the darkness again. The sliding noise disturbed the awkward silence, but then after a moment, just added to the queerness of the dark room. Once completely engulfed in the darkness, the no longer orange shape's paw ran over a bump on the wall. An invisible smile came to the shadow's face.
"Don't." spoke a dark, and heavy-toned voice. Obviously strong.
"G-- yahh!!" the shadow jumped back, and tore its paw away from the wall, "M--Mr. Zi--"
"Forget the formalities," the intimidating voice echoed through the crimson walls and the gold and silver plaques on the walls, "What happened?"
The screen adjusted position, and showed to the front desk of the room. The shadow of the large chair ahead of the flashing screen didn't look at all like it was occupied, but the voice distinctly came from someone that would be sitting in such a large chair in such a large office.
"Does that have a tracking system?"
The shadow shook its head, "Mina said the machine was just a hacking system. A trio tried to get into the bank."
".. and where is Mina now? or the other two officers I invested my money on."
"Uhh..." the cat's tail swayed nervously, swallowing back a lump in his throat, "Well, Mina.. said they.. killed Torque. When she felt the gunshot, she ran off to the door, but they knocked her out and stole her uniform, and her key."
"So I lost half of my investment," the aggravated voice sighed, "What about the shifter?"
"Mr. Z-- Uh, sir. They didn't kill anyone else. But they knocked the shifter out before he could do anything. I pretended to get knocked out, and put the key pieces in my mouth so they wouldn't find it if they searched me. Once they figured out they were missing something from the keys, I got out of there and stole their machine."
"Fine," the voice still sounded aggravated, "Did you see them? Do you know who they are or why they were there?"
"We don't need to, we have this," the shadow shook the screen a little, "We can find out who supplied it, and we can check what's on it. I did see them, though, and they were calling each other by codenames, but they had real names, at least, that's what Mina said."
"Leave that here and go find Mina and the shifter. Make a report of everything you know together, and return it to me once you're done."
The shadow nodded, and looked around.
"I can't see in the dark, I'm going to have to turn a light on.."
Sighing, the shape behind the chair moved from it. A long coat moved behind it as well as a spiky tail and large wings. The wings, though his face and tail were dragon, looked furry and feathery, and were much brighter than the rest of the shadow. Wings spanning away from the desk, it was hard to tell exactly where the large man was. Faster than expected, the screen was torn away from the orange cat's figure.
"Thank you. That's enough."
The figure barely had a chance to jump again before being ordered to leave, and the tabby back-stepped slowly back into the light.
"No, thank you, sir. I would be unconscious on the floor without you."
"You're not invincible. Remember that, Cole."
The form nodded, looking to the light.
"I could be, though.." the face of the orange tabby from the bank came into sight from the office at the side of the large doors.
"Don't. It's extremely expensive, and it's far too costly," the other form was making its way back to its chair, "One procedure at a time, Cole. If you do a good job, who knows, you might be the next Hayden.."
The tabby smiled. "That's all I ask, sir. Thanks again."
Moving out of the doorway, the tabby left the dark scene, into the mansion's lighted hallway again.
"But the bottom line is, don't push your luck.." the dark voice spoke to himself, disappearing into the chair again, and soon, the chair wasn't even distinguishable in the room.

"You what?!" a black paw pushed up two large green orbs on a black mount.
"J-Jared, I... I'm sorry, I completely disobeyed your orders.." Vince pleaded, leaning on one of the lab tables, shaking his head, looking up at Brass.
"Bullshit, you didn't disobey my orders, you disobeyed my plea for your fucking safety! You could've died, Vince, you know that, don't you?!"
"I just--!!" Vince sighed, and banged his head against the table, paws covering his head. Muffledly behind the table, he answered, "But I didn't.."
"What?" Jared looked down at Vince, own paw resting on the table in front of him, standing over him.
Vince softly rose his head, shaking it again.
"I didn't die," Vince licked his lips, and looked up at his boss, "Look, I'm sorry, but... Fuschio has something going on.. Something about.. soul diamonds.. That's more important. and this serum, this is more important too, it's a complete breakthrough."
Brass turned, and leaned his legs on the table, tail flopping onto the table, over Vince's right side.
"But it's only temporary."
Smiling, Vince pet the tail, looking at the other, shorter tail, the bone sticking a foot out from the covered fear. He knew Todd for a long time, and it still irked him. He broke away from Brass' backside, and looked off to the side.
"But it's still a breakthrough. All we have to do is make it last, but the effects aren't even dangerous."
Sighing instead, Jared turned his upper body to face Vince, looking down at his paw, then his face.
"We're so lucky.. All it took was seventy-four hundred recipes.. it must be monumental."
"Jared," he moved the paw up, rubbing his boss' lower back, smiling more, looking at him in the eye, "It's monumental to fly eleven stories to the ground and not get hurt, then read someone's mind and turn invisible before they can see you. Stop focusing on the wrong things. To any normal person, this would be insane, but I did it-- our serum did it. That's all that's important."
"I know what's important to me.. and you not dieing is important to me. Never do a stunt link that again."
Vince nodded slowly, looking away.
"So are you sure it's only temporary?"
"Yeah.." he sighed, "It started wearing away when Fuschio came up to me, and it totally went away when my heart stopped beating so hard. I tried to excite myself up again, but I couldn't. I could barely even use it when my heart was beating hard like that. It's all gone now, I can't do anything."
"Hmm.. and all you have to show for it are those nasty burns on your hands.." Brass took the paw patting his back, and turned all the way, flipping it upside down, horrible black stains on his fur still.
"I can live with it.. I'll say I spilled black dye on my fur."
"You better," he sighed, and looked up at the ceiling.
"You look like you could use some a coffee break.. How about we go out for a walk?"
Shaking his head, Jared looked to the new day's bright sun through the glass window and his green orbs. There was a tiny hole in the window where Vince miscalculated, but the entire window was otherwise perfect.
"You know how much I hate the sun."

Sighing, Grandon sipped his morning coffee, after a long night of watching the cameras and identifying each of the bank officers. The door to the coffee shop closed behind him, and he was back on his way to the glamorous ToddTech tower. The dragon never slept, so not sleeping the other night was nothing to him besides adding to the heavy bags under his eyes.
"Finally, some peace away from those blaring screens.." he said, talking, ironically, to the laptop strapped to his back, rubbing his eyeballs.
After a full night of breaking through security, cracking countless codes, and dealing with a few dozen computers trying to shut his IP address down automatically, he was beat and ready to just watch the cameras. As he looked around the very small amount of milling crowd, he knew most of these people were crazy morning people. Regretfully, though his boss was a morning person, though he didn't sleep, Grandon was not crazy nor a morning person, and would get a long list of security-esque feats that had to be completed that day.
Rubbing his eye again, he glanced over at where he first saw Brass shoot Hayden. Though Hayden was dead, that other girl wasn't. But even though the girl was dead, and it'd already been a day since the murder happened, this didn't stop him from trying to see the crime scene, taking a quick turn down into the alley. Sure enough, the woman's body was missing from its place. Body farmers that would sell rotting body parts to help aid the sickly were growing in number, since the number of sickly were growing in number. Even a fancy face like Hayden Vert\xE9 was still business to these monsters, probably.
"Any reason a guy like you's dressed so inappropriately, awake so early, and standing in a garbage bin alley..?" the soft voice said behind him.
Softly, and unsurprised, Grandon turned, only to see the face of the criminal who ripped his own personal work off in front of him, the red fox with lavendar hair.
"Wh-what-- are you doing here?!" Grandon blurted, before putting a large hand to his mouth, looking at her with wide eyes, waving a finger at her, "Mmm-- Nnm!"
Patrice, who was just about to pass the alleyway, looked at the dragon's large body, and decided it wasn't very wise to stay, staring at the left leg of his shorts, a gun strapped to it, quite obviously. Quickly, she turned, and ran into the small crowd, elbowing a passenger, making them fall and drop their coffee as she ran out in traffic, to escape him.
"Hey--, watch where you're going!!" the woman said, on the floor of the sidewalk, coffee spilled over herself.
Grandon looked down at the gun on his shorts, and sighed.
"It's... just there to protect me.. it's not like I'd use it.." he looked out at her.
Running from a large man was normal in the streets, but not common for large men wearing bright orange hoodies and shorts with soft and approachable voices. Nonetheless, not many people had heard their conversation, so Grandon found the issue safe to pursue. Gently, he leaned down to the woman that had fallen, teal green and pale red hair in her face.
"Umm, need help?" he put his hand forward to the woman.
As the girl shook her head, the hair parted way for her glasses, showing her soft lavendar eyes and dark skin.
"Damn rude these days.." she scoffed, looking up at Grandon's pants, still laying on the ground, mahogany coat splayed out behind her.
Looking oddly at her, Grandon looked down at the gun on his shorts, then her, and smiled, looking up, hand still out.
"Mm.. you going to stare at my crotch all day, or..?" Grandon tried to persuade her away from talking about his gun, or the woman that ran away, hoping this wouldn't take long.
The two-tone haired woman blinked for a second, then shook her head again, quickly taking his hand, shocking the dragon a little, but tugging her up nonetheless. She looked up at his face, smiling a little, laughing with an embarrassed face.
"Yeah, I'm sorry, it's just.." she put a finger on her white-gloss lip, and looked back down at him, "You know, I don't see many charming and polite guys running around with guns on them."
He nodded a little, and looked at her. Under her open coat, she was barely wearing much besides a violet tank top, and a white thong.
"On the other hand, I see plenty of that all the time," he pointed to her.
Looking down at herself, she jumped, and quickly covered herself up with her coat.
"OH!! Oh my-- Oh, I'm so sorry, I must seem like a total spaz and a slut!" she put two finger to her forehead, and looked out to the pedestrian traffic, then glanced back at Grandon, "No, I'm sorry, I was just taking a quick trip to the coffee shop, when I got blindsided by that really horrible impolite woman back there. Really, what was her problem, do you know her?"
"Uh.. yeah-- No, no, not really, but, uhmm.." Grandon was starting to lose sight of the fox, she was still running in the distance, and was already past the park, "Look, I have somewhere I have to be, so.. Nice talking to you, but I have to jet, kay? Sorry for the-- I gotta go, later."
Grandon patted the woman on the shoulder, and gave her a quick smile, gently moving through the thin crowd, then once out, ran across the street toward the park. He sighed again, and looked back at the woman, who was staring at him. He had no choice but to turn his head back to the fox, but when he turned to see a distant running figure, he only saw nothing.
"... damn," the dragon pumped a fist through the air, and sighed again, looking across to the large ToddTech tower.
He rubbed his hands together, and walked forward through the park. He had a feeling today was going to be an even longer day since he saw the fox.

"So.." Brass sighed, fixing his glasses so the sun wouldn't reflect on them so much, annoyed.
Vince leaned against a park bench, sighing happily, his tail wagging against the bench too, looking up at his boss, who was standing beside him, leaning against the bench with his paw.
"Jared, sit down.." Vince insisted.
Gently, he shook his head, and looked out to the playground.
"I wonder how lucky we'll be with the longevity factor.."
"Jared..." Vince looked down, discouraged, "Please, will you just stop... thinking about work for once? Once in your life? ... for me?"
"Vince, I can't.. Our work is way too important, we're bordering on being God," he smiled, scoffing, "You can't be blind enough to not see that."
Looking ahead, the wolf sighed again. "I guess you can be egotistical enough to let relaxation off?"
"Vince, please, it's been a day.." Brass looked at Vince, and nodded to him, "This is my relaxation. It's relaxing to know our hard work paid off, and even more relaxing that we'll get rich from selling this bitch."
Vince's ears perked up suddenly.
".. wait, who said we'd sell something that potent?"
"I did," he rose a brow to the wolf, and leaned his hand on him, "Won't we make a fortune from it?"
Vince cowered back on the bench.
"Wh-- What?! But... There are killers running around, like Fuschio-- and like us."
Brass smiled softly, and covered his muzzle laughing.
"Jared..." he stared at his boss, "It's not funny! You could put everyone in the city at risk by selling this kind of thing! It's not right!"
"Vince, it was a joke.." he shook his head, smiling over his paw, "I'm not an idiot. Giving this knowledge to anyone but my own staff would make me just that."
Vince stared hard at his boss, silently. Something was wrong with him, obviously. Brass always seemed anti-social like he was that day, but even though the anti-socialism was perfect for his business, he barely had any room to care for anyone for less than a quick buck.
"See? I'm relaxing, I can multitask," he slyly moved his paw away from his face, and ruffled the furrish hair on Vince's head.
"You always do," Vince said darkly, staring down at the sidewalk.

Her feet slammed on the ground loudly, the iron and rubber in her heavy boots making sure they were heard.
"Fucking.." she yelled out openly, turning a few heads as she ran down the street, already far away from the park, 'This is rich, Patrice. Run into the man you stole from, now he knows your face. What's next, you going to give him your drivers' licence?'
Although she hadn't seen Hayden since she paid her off to not spill her sister's secret, that she wasn't dead, Patrice refused to make any future contact, or be found by either her sister, or Brass of ToddTech's secret agents.
"You're going to have to try harder than that, Miss T. Thief," the kind voice said from behind her.
Quickly, she turned at the voice, but nothing was there but a small group of five staring at her as if she were crazy.
"Where are you?!"
"No, no," Grandon's voice laughed behind her again, "That voice you're hearing is on your back. The one you used to hide your face when you ran from an actually very nice guy."
Patrice tightened her eyes, and irises moved to the side.
"So what, you'll still kill me," she looked around for a place to hide.
There was a long pause, which gave her ample time to move into a small alleyway with an appealing unlocked door. Sighing, she stared forward into the street, a few people trash talking a 'crazy bitch' that just ran into the alley between Reddish's Bakery, and Chris' Magician and More store.
"I'm sorry, but I can't hear what you unless you press that black button on the compact communicator I gave you."
Shouting at herself, Patrice deftly grabbed the neck of her top, and tugged it over her head, off her shoulders, throwing it to the ground; a pin the size of her nail sitting in front of her, the same color as her shirt sitting on it. She sighed, and took it, looking at it, a black prong sticking out of it, making it look like a earring. She pressed the dull pin down, and held it a foot away from herself.
"It doesn't matter how nice you are, you still work for a crime organization. I did you a favor taking those files, so everyone could know who you really are."
There was a distressing sigh on the other side, and then a shift of noise.
"Listen, I'm just gonna try and find the files, not you, or your deathbed, which, by the way, if this was any other brother, believe me, the latter would be delivered to you as we're speaking," the voice calmly said, "I just need to know exactly what you did with the files."
Thinking about it, she leaned her bare back against the cold brick behind her.
"Look, you will get your ass handed to you on a platter if anyone 'sides me finds out where you are," the voice lied, "Now, all this is, is a communicator, I don't have no tracking device on it, I don't use those."
Shaking her head, she pressed down the pin again.
"Listen, I don't know where it is, I gave them to my ssss..." she stumbled, "Uh, my employer. I got paid, she got the files, that's it, and I've refused to work with her since."
"Yeah, I wouldn't either, your face was all over those papers. It's just, it looked like Hayden, the chick that's dead now because of the guys I'm working with."
Looking up at the orange sky, then down the street self-consciously, she scratched her arm.
"Why do you work with them if you're so harmless," she looked down at her shirt.
"Well, it's pretty easy. I hold 'em back from harming so much," there was a pause for a short time, "Of course, being one of the highest ups, one of three of the highest, actually. That's right, I'm the head security officer, that's why I have that thing you're holdin' there."
She cursed herself, and stared down, not wanting to know that.
"Okay, that's enough, if you don't mind, I'll be going now, there's nothing else I can tell you," she let go of the pin, and looked at it, readying to throw it.
"No, wait! That's mine, don't throw it away, it's the only spare I have, and those things are crazy expensive!"
"Hey, I know how to lock onto a frequency," a weak female voice said in the background, "If you want."
"That's not needed, I'm on the corner of Raven and Marrion, you can get this back, along with my shirt. No one'll be seeing it on me from now on."