FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

It was the dawn of a new day and Alkali awoke with a snort from the bed of the suite, looking around before seeing what time it was. He grumbled and turned off the alarm before walking out in the main living area where Draggor had set up his computer systems, the demon already at work while the ferret was still in his pajama pants. "Morning sunshine," Draggor said, getting a grunt from Alkali before he turned back to his screen. "I see you're as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as ever."

"Well considering that we might be going to jail in twenty-four hours..." Alkali replied as he made himself a bowl of cereal, grabbing what he thought was milk before realizing it was rumchata and poured it in anyway. "So what's the skinny on the screen? Do we have a swat team outside of our door already?"

"Not that I can see," Draggor replied. "Looks like the patch that I put into the system is still working, which means we still have our eyes on the prize including..." he enlarges of the screens and shows a large steel blast door set into an equally intimidating wall. "...the vault itself. Now are you sure that we're alright with us still using this place as our command post with Miko knowing your name?"

"Unless you want to set yourself up in the pool it's our only option that I can think of," the ferret replied as he went into the shower, shouting over the spray of water. "Besides, if everything happens the way it should then he's going to be too busy stopping his head from spinning when we get this done. Just be sure to be ready for the transfer when it comes and then go from there."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Draggor replied as he typed in more command console lines to keep the system stable and unseen from the other administrators. "So you ready to be the cheese?"

The ferret walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist, combing his wet fur. "Almost," he stated simply. "If I'm going to be the bait I may as well look good while doing that. I mean why would you be a cheddar when you can be a brie?"

The demon just rolled his eyes and looked back the screen, letting the ferret get prepared. A few minutes later Alkali made his way down through the hotel into the convention center, already feeling the eyes of security on him as he made his way into the expo. After he had been made by Miko he had little other choice than to modify his role from overseer of the whole operation to being a distraction for the guards. As long as security was watching him it would distract from the rest of the group as he looked up into one of the cameras...

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...Miko watched as the ferret seemed to look straight at him, his grin only widening as he sat in the chair at the center of the room. "It appears that the game has started," the mouse stated while he watched Alkali move from camera to camera. "Let's see if we can find your friend too..."

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Elsewhere in the expo Xander walked through the back entrance of the expo wearing a dark blue coverall, moving a large box on wheels with the Foxes and Peppers logo stenciled on it. With the convention coming to a close and the concert getting ready to play, the chaos helped the dragon move about without drawing too much attention to himself. The one that he was watching out for was Dixie since she already knew his face and was under the impression that he was the personal assistant of Kage. Thankfully it appeared that she was elsewhere, though that meant that he had to deal with someone else entirely as he got to the main area backstage.

"Oy, hey you!" a brown bear in a hat said as he pointed to Xander. "Where's that going?"

"Main stage two, boss," Xander replied as casually as he could. "Got woofers in here."

The bear looked down at the clipboard he had and then nodded and pointed. "Get those set up as soon as possible," he said. "Once woofers are done we need subs at the front and instruments ready for sound check. Let's move it, people!"

Xander once more nodded and kept his head down as he got through the stage doors into the center field, seeing people frantically putting together pieces to make up the main stage while others put up chairs where they could as the vendors in the area pack up to leave. It was a sign that they were getting close to the zero hour, once the concert started they needed to have everything fall into place. Part of that was the dragon getting the travel box wheeled into place to open it up. Inside was one of the rather large speakers that were littered all along the stage, this one having the words back-up written on it as he put it behind a row already in place. One he had gotten it completely out of the travel case he looked around intently before knocking on it twice.

"We're in position?" Serathin said, his voice slightly muffled from the layer of plywood between them as Xander said that he was on the stage. "Alright, this should be fun..."

The dragon couldn't help but chuckle as he immediately walked off the stage and back towards the casino proper, heading towards one of the bathrooms that were backstage. Maintenance worker Xander once more gave a quick scan of the area to make sure no one was watching him before going inside, and then a few minutes later waiter Xander came back out. With his identity still intact from when he infiltrated the party he made his way to the kitchens in back, ready to blend in with the others. Of course that meant that he would actually have to work, but he needed the others to get acclimated to his face if he was going to be able to do what he needed to later...

At the same time Zen made his way through the casino floor proper, trying to glance around for some sign that he was being followed as he made his way to the bar in the back. Once he was there he went to the exit door and, making sure to stay clear from the camera, made the call to Draggor. "Alright, I'm ready," he stated simply. "Let me know when I can let the others in."

"Hold on," Draggor said as he watched the security room, seeing Miko in there with the other guards watching the various camera feeds. What the demon was more specifically looking for was when the door that Zen was standing near no longer appeared on the screen, which given that the casino and expo had hundreds of cameras, was not long. "Alright, go now."

The fox quickly darted forward and opened the door, pulling Citrine and the huscoons in before closing the door behind them. "Alright, the package is in the hallway," Zen said as the others nodded to him. "Where do we go from here?"

"Hold on, hold on," Draggor replied as he continued to watch the cameras. "Alright, Citrine is going to go to table seven on the second floor but you're going to have to guide him through. The five huscoons just need to spread themselves out through the tables and make sure that they don't look up."

"Why do we have to be smuggled in again?" One of the huscoons asked as the others looked around the casino.

"The front entrance has facial recognition software and it pointed directly at the doors," Draggor explained. "We need you guys to be off the grid as long as possible so they don't get suspicious of your intentions. You guys are in for the long haul, and if we call on you the element of surprise is crucial."

The group gave various means of acknowledgement before Zen and Draggor helped guide them all to their various spots in the casino floor. The five huscoons remained as spread out as possible and Citrine was brought up to the second floor, which was nearby to one of the entrances to the main hall. The doors were currently closed and though the ones that were guarding the entrance were on Kage's payroll, there was no reason for him to go interact with them at the moment. Instead Zen continued to wander around the casino floor and gamble briefly as he waited for the next phase of the plan to come around.

But before that could happen Alkali suddenly got a call on his private line, the ferret looking around before putting in the fitted earpiece and activating it. "What's wrong?" Alkali asked as he tried to get to a busier section of the expo where the guards he was fairly certain were following him couldn't see as well.

"I'm about to be made," Xander whispered as he looked around from one of the tiled columns that were in the kitchen area, the dragon peeking around the corner to see a lioness arguing with one of the chefs. "That Dixie lady that I encountered before is here right now complaining about something that Pepper wanted and I have no way out. If she comes back here I'm screwed.'

"Is there anywhere you can get out or hide?" Alkali asked.

"There's a door back here but it's going to scan my identification card," Xander replied, looking at the metal door that seperated the kitchen from the serving hallway. "Pandez said that I can't use it too many times or security will get suspicious. The only other things here are store rooms and people come in and out too many times for that to not be weird that I'm just standing there."

The ferret thought hard about what to do, knowing that every second he waited was another possible second that the liaison would storm to the back of the kitchen and see the dragon. Mentally he tried to think of something he could do to help Xander, but nothing was coming to his mind to link him being in the kitchen, unless... "Xander, do you see a wooden door with a temperature gauge?" the ferret asked, the dragon responding that he did. "Alright, I have an idea that I don't think will be too hard to sell..."

Xander listened to what Alkali's plan was, then nodded and quickly darted back towards the hallway that contained the various storerooms the hotel kitchens used. It was just in time as Dixie came back towards the area that the dragon had just been standing in to see check on the menus that were posted on the nearby whiteboards. Now she was standing directly between Xander and the way out and if she moved her head just a few centimeters to the left she could catch him. While he hoped that wouldn't happen, he had his hand on the handle of the door just in case.

Meanwhile Dixie let out a sigh as the chef once more refused the special order that she had put in for both Fox and Pepper, stating that she needed to tell them a week in advance for food that wasn't on the menu and not a dietary requirement. With the venture proving fruitless she began to turn so that she could tell the two the bad news when she noticed a familiar face heading into one of the storage areas. It took her a second before she realized who it was, which took longer than usual since the blue dragon was in a waiter's outfit, before moving forward to investigate.

Just as he was about to open the door, however; Xander pushed it with his foot, the two jumping back slightly in surprise and causing the box of wine bottles in his arms to jingle slightly. "You're... Xander, right?" Dixie said, the blue dragon looking around before grinning sheepishly. "Why are you dressed as a waiter? Shouldn't you be-"

The lioness paused when she saw was in the box, pulling out one of them and looking at it. "The casino was being rather adamant at only serving him one bottle at a time," Xander revealed. "So he sent me in here to try and help expedite the process a little bit."

"Clever little cockroach," Dixie replied as she slid the bottle back into its position. "Well I won't tell anyone if you might do me a little favor. Since you seem to have the keys to the kingdom back here, why don't you go ahead and deliver a few of these bottles up to Fox and Pepper's room a little later? I'm sure they would be most appreciative and pay above and beyond to have them... we're also running into a little problem with their alcohol policy here."

Xander nodded and got the room number from the lioness, who then thanked him before walking back out of the entrance. The blue dragon breathed a sigh of relief and put the bottles back in the store room, then walked out in order to continue the act of being a waiter...

With the close call averted Alkali took out the earpiece as stealthily as possible and made his way towards the back of the vendor area where they continued to set up the stage. His target wasn't there, though, it was with one of the sellers that hadn't packed up yet. "Excuse me, sir," Alkali said to the spotted hyena that was on the other side of the booth table. "I am very interested to hear about your..." he looked up at the sign that was on top of the booth. "Annuities... exchange rate... collective acquisition options... and please spare no possible detail."

"Well you're in luck!" The hyena, who introduced himself as Wren, said as he shook Alkali's hand. "I happen to know the subject backwards, forwards, and every direction in between! Now normally I happen to just give the sales pitch, but since you seem like a sharp individual I'll tell you everything! ...now just so you're aware the first half an hour is a little dry, but it picks up from there, I promise!"

Alkali just gave a nod and look of interest as Wren pulled out a number of charts and began to eagerly inform him of all the potential options he could do with premature life insurance payouts, but his real focus was on the crowd around him. With the concert starting in a few hours and the people thinning out as vendors left it was going to start becoming very clear if he had anyone following him. One could only pretend to be interested in various vendors or, if there weren't any nearby, plants, and it wasn't long into the pitch that he spotted three that looked extraordinary and out of place as time went on. He made a motion to stop the hyena and apologized for the interruption before pulling out his phone and saying that he had to make a phone call to someone else that might be interested in the subject.

The ferret made sure not to step too far away from the booth as he faced away from the plain-clothes security team, waiting for Draggor to pick up. "Hey honey," Alkali said as he gave a glance over his shoulder to make sure that he wasn't being approached. "I was wondering if you could tell our friends that I might not be able to make it until later tonight? I have to work until three."

"So you got three people following you right now," Draggor replied on the other line as he brought up the expo cameras, looking down at the ferret as well as the group of people that swirled around him. "Alright, I'll mark them, which ones are they?"

"Oh, you know which friends are coming over sweetie," Alkali said as he took another glance behind him at the ones he had made. "There's that lovely couple that we met in yoga, the tiger guy with the broad shoulders and the ten point buck. Then my childhood friend Bill, the dragon who was scrawny but then bulked up to like four-hundred pounds of muscle."

Draggor zoomed in and scanned the crowd before he found the three that Alkali just described, using the casino's own facial recognition software in order to tag them in his own database. "Alright, I got the three," the demon confirmed. "We'll be able to make sure they don't suddenly pop up to ruin someone else's day. Have fun and play nice, sweetheart."

"You too, pumpkin," Alkali said as he turned to the hyena and gave him a thumbs up. "Love you..." the ferret immediately hung up the phone and turned back to the booth where Wren was waiting for him. "Now I missed the part where you were talking about the thirty-year actuarial tables and how they might relate to payout enhancement bonuses, can you please explain that again but in even more detail, maybe even go through each year?"

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As the day continued to tick onward Zen took his leave of the casino, walking deliberately out of the front door and onto the street. He was just about to head into the butcher shop when he stopped dead in his tracks, seeing the police car that was in front of it. The fox cursed and stomped on the ground before he regained his composure and rubbed his muzzle in thought. While it appeared that the cop that was inside the building hadn't gone in yet it appeared he was fixing to, which wouldn't have been a problem except for the fact he just moved in all his supplies to the basement. Unfortunately with Xander in the kitchens and everyone else in their respective positions, it was up to him to settle the situation.

"Excuse me, officer?" the fox said as he went up to the dragon that had gone up to the window of the butcher shop and shined a flashlight into it. "Is there something that I can perhaps help you with?"

The dragon shined the light into Zen's eyes, then looked down at the tablet that he held. "Are you... Richard Parkinson?" The officer asked, once more bringing back up the light to shine in the fox's face as Zen nodded. "I'm Officer Arc Nova, and I'm here due to a suspicious reading that's being given off from your place here."

"Suspicious reading?" Zen asked as his eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Look, if you're talking like salmonella or something I haven't even gotten the place started in renovations yet, much less bringing in meat."

"Not that kind of reading, sir," Arc replied as he showed the fox his tablet, which had a graph on it labeled explosive ordinance and had a rather large spike in the middle of it. "I'm talking about the kind that registers similar to what you'd find at a blasting quarry. As per local and state law I can go in there and do a search based on this reading alone."

"Oh wow, uh..." Zen replied as his mind drifted to the pile of explosives that were laying on the floor of the cooler inside. There was nothing that he could do to hide them, save for maybe shoveling them into the tunnel which would involve exposing it in the first place. As he looked around for something that could possibly help him out of the situation he saw an advertisement that caused his ears to perk up. "I can explain!"

When he realized he gave that way too much to the point where the dragon looked at him in slight shock Zen quickly dialed it back with a chuckle. "I mean, I can understand why you're so concerned about that reading, just let me show you what would be causing it and I think you'll have a laugh at it too. If you could just wait here for like five minutes everything will be explained."

Zen continued to try and put on a happy smile on his muzzle as he used his keys to unlock the door to the shop and closed it behind him. The dragon sighed and started to type out his report on the tablet, looking down on the screen and failing to see the fox running out of the back of the store and into the alley. As Arc typed in that he had made contact with the owner of the establishment he also didn't see Zen running through the street to the other side of the road, narrowly avoiding a car as he raced through the intersection to one of the nearby stores. When the officer did look up it was because Zen had ran all the way down the street and cut in front of a car that honked, but by the time he had already made it inside the shop on the other side.

As time passed the dragon continued to look at his watch, then sighed as he realized he had been standing there for nearly ten minutes. "Dispatch, this is Officer Nova," he began to report. "I might need an entry warrant to search a premises, address is-"

Suddenly the door to the shop burst open and Zen stood there panting with a rather large box, pointing down to it after placing it in front of the dragon. "Basement... full of... those..." he said between gasps as he rested against the door frame. "That's... what you... picked up... big show..."

Arc looked at the exhausted vulpine before kneeling down and opening the box, finding them to be full of rather large fireworks. "You're not kidding about that," he said as he picked up one that was essentially a large sphere. "Is this happening out in the street? Because we don't have any permits that have been filled out for street closures in the area."

"No no..." Zen tried to explain, waving one of his hands and pointing to the expo while the other rested on his knee. "Big... after party... for Fox and Pepper... in convention center... big surprise..."

"I see," Arc replied as he brought back out his report and typed the new information in it, stopping only when Zen sat down in the entrance. "Are you... alright? Do you need water or something?"

Zen looked up at the officer and shook his head, swallowing what little he could before responding. "Asthma," he stated simply as he regained his breathing. "Very dusty..."

"Well... that will happen I suppose," the dragon replied as he typed in the last of the information. "Now, do you have a license or something that would allow you to safely store and set off as much ordinance as you say you have?"

Zen's entire body froze as he heard that. While he did have a license for such things it wasn't under the name of the person that owned the building, but if he didn't give it to the dragon he could cause all sorts of problems. In the end he decided to roll the dice and give him the license, which the dragon immediately started to frown when he looked at it. "I thought you were Richard?" he asked.

"Sorry, I misunderstood you," Zen explained. "I... I'm just the fireworks guy, but I can give you the number for the owner. Just... let me write it down."

Arc gave Zen a pen and paper, letting the exhausted fox continue to save his breath as he wrote down the number. Once he had finished he handed it back to the officer and slumped forward to keep trying to steady his breathing from his sprint. The dragon took out his phone and gave it a call, waiting for it to connect as he heard a hello. "Hi, this is Officer Arc Nova looking for a Richard Parkinson?" Arc stated simply.

"Yeah, that's me," Boozy replied, the badger sitting on his desk with his feet in the air. "What's this all about?"

"I have a person by the name of Zen that's claiming he's using your store for a fireworks storage and staging area," Arc explained as he read from his report. "Did you allow him to do this, Mr. Parkinson?"

"Please, call me Dick," the badger replied as a small smirk appeared on his muzzle. "And of course I gave him permission to do that, do you think I'd just let anyone into my place of business and not know what they were doing? If I didn't know any better I would think this was harassment and need to get my lawyer on the phone. I don't need to do that, Officer, do I?"

"No sir, it's fine," Arc quickly said. "Next time please make sure that you inform the local enforcement agency before you bring in that many fireworks, we can't be too careful out there." As the dragon hung up the phone he swore he could hear chuckling, but shook his head and turned his attention to the fox. "Now are you sure you don't want me to get you a bottle of water or something?"

Zen just waved the officer off and watched as the dragon got back into the cop car before driving off, leaving the vulpine sitting in the entryway. He waved the officer off and then got up, stretching his aching muscles before dragging the box of fireworks he had purchased several minutes ago inside and closing the door. "Hey Draggor," Zen asked once he got the demon on the phone. "How possible would it be to have Kage set up a fantastical fireworks display? Like a really big one?"

The demon just sat dumbfounded in his chair at the fox's request for a second before shaking his head. "Let me just repeat that so I'm sure I heard you right," Draggor stated. "Did you just ask me if I could arrange a, quoting you, fantastical fireworks display? In six hours?"

"Yeah, that would be great," Zen replied, going on to inform Draggor what had just happened with the cop that nearly busted him for the explosives that he had down in the meat locker. As the two talked about how that could even be possible a thought came to the demon's mind and he told the fox that he would see what he could do. Once they had hung up he called on Pandez and Kage to get into a three way call with him.

"Alright, so we ran into a little snag with our plan in the butcher shop," Draggor stated as soon as they both got on the phone. "However we're going to make some lemonade out of these lemons, and I need to know from Pandez how well you know the maintenance and possible entertainment coordinators."

"I mean, I know them pretty well," Pandez replied. "I could talk to them, why?"

"I think with a little bit of Kage's help on this party he's planning we may have those cues that Serathin needs to time everything up with me," Draggor explained as he looked at Kage and Pandez through the camera monitors. "The only two questions I have for you Kage are do you think you can sell a fireworks show without them letting Miko know, and how much training did Ronnie have with the pulley system?"