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The Victoria Chronicles

Chapter 22

The Calm Before the Storm

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Vix heard an angry voice say as she approached the front area.

_Oh great! It's Karen again!_Vix thought to herself.

"I'm helping Ed. Is there something I can help you with?" Vix said with only slightly gritted teeth while she tried to remain cheerful and helpful voice and slightly forced smile.

"And what could you help_me with? You don't belong here!!" Karen said nastily with a look of utter contempt. Vix didn't know what she had done in her life to earn this _'person's' ire, but she was fairly certain that she didn't deserve this level of hostility. She didn't even know why this lady was even harassing her. Karen was in fairly good shape by appearances. Her looks however were defiantly hurt by her constant scowl of disapproval in just about anything she saw if Vix was any judge.

"And you're wearing jeans! So disgraceful! You should be wearing a dress for God's sake!" Karen continued.

Ah. Now it starts to make a bit of sense. She's one of those people. Vix thought to herself. "For your information, not that it's any of your business, I can't wear a dress because of the nature of my job. It would just get trashed while I work." Vix said by way of trying to inject a bit of logic and common sense.

It didn't work.

"Well then you are doing the wrong sort of work! It's not right for a young woman to do men's work." Karen spat back. "Your parents did a horrible job raising you!"

Vix had never hit a woman before, but right here and now she was sorely tempted to do so. She would have to ponder whether or not it was socially right for her to do so now that she was female at a later time. She was so tempted that she caught herself clenching her fist before forcing her hand to relax. And it was taking everything she had to resist the urge to slap this pain in the universe's posterior till some sense rattled back into place.

She never knew her father, and her mother had died while she was still very young. It had fallen onto her uncle to raise Vix alone. And in her opinion he had done as good a job as one could hope. And she was damned if this harpy of a woman was going to talk bad about her uncle who did the best he could and more.

Vix was about to make an accusing remark about Karen's own questionable upbringing, but it was at that point that Ed came back from the back.

"What's all the yelling about?!" He said as he stomped up to the front. When he saw Karen he didn't care who started what. He had a pretty good idea what was going on. "Karen! What have I told you about harassing people in my store?!"

"Of course you're harassing! You are always harassing! And I won't have it in my store!" he said putting himself between Victoria and Karen. "Now then, what are you here for? Besides causing yet another scene?!" He said, staring her down.

"Nevermind! I'll find it on my own!" Karen exclaimed angrily then turned on her heal and stomped down an aisle.

"Just so long as you remember my rules! No causing fights or arguments! And if you don't have anything to say about someone, keep your trap shut! Or I'll throw you out of my store! Again!!" Ed called after her before she had gone too far away. Karen for her part just grunted loudly and disappeared down an aisle.

"What's her problem anyway?" Vix asked in a hushed voice when she felt Karen was well and truly out of range.

"No one knows." Ed said, "And no one has wanted to get close enough to find out either." He then waved his hand dismissively, "Anyway, enough about annoyances, got your rebuilt kit here. Was ther--what's all this?" he said when he saw the small piles of stuff waiting to be purchased with hand written notes.

"There were a few customers that came through before trouble walked in." Vix explained, "I helped them out as best I could, but I didn't feel right going any further than that. I itemized their purchases and took their names and phone numbers for when you came back up front. The ones that couldn't wait anyway. There are some that are roaming the store. I'm sure they will come back soon enough."

Ed read a few of the notes before responding. "I'm impressed. I could always use an extra hand around here if you are looking to make a few extra dollars." Ed said.

"Thanks for the offer, but I have enough on my plate at the moment." Vix said, "But I'll keep your offer in mind."

"Fair enough." Ed said, "Do you need anything else today?"

"That's all I needed." Vix said politely. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet. "How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing." Ed said, "It's an old/new stock. It's not even in the system anymore. Besides, you've helped me out while I was looking for it. And I still own you for stopping those stooges a few weeks ago. Don't worry about it, I wouldn't have made much anyway. It is not an expensive kit." He smiled.

"You're sure you don't want something for it?" Vix asked.

"Just put it to good use." Ed said, "It's the least I can do for what you've done so far."

Vix nodded and put her wallet away. "Thank you. But I'll catch you next time around."

"I don't know how you dealt with those three men that tried to abduct me from my own store." Ed said.

"Mostly I stayed out of reach and let them trip over each other." Vix said modestly.

"Well whatever you did, thank you for stopping them. Pops was right, you do know how to take care of yourself." Ed said.

"These days it has become something of a necessity." Vix said partly to herself. Then she brightened a bit and forced a smile, "Anyway, thanks for the rebuild kit. This will make my task much easier." She waved to Ed, then left through the front doors.

Down a nearby aisle Karen had been listening in to their conversation. So that's where that bitch is staying. Well I'm not tangling with the Crawford's. That bastard Llewellyn can make my life a hell. I'll just have to think of another way to chase her out of town. She'll be a bad influence!

You do realize that you can rebuild that archaic thing without having to acquire addition parts, right Miss Victoria? Percii said in her head.

_I do, and I want to do it this way._Vix replied in her mind-space as she put the kit into a saddlebag then straddled the bike.

_I don't understand. With what the Mistress has given you why do things in such a slow and primitive way?_Percii asked in a condescendingly tone.

Because it reminds me of who I was before all this happened. Vix shot back.

Vix kicked the bikes motor into life and backed out of the parking space near the building. then she pulled out onto the street and turned towards the grocery store. After all, she couldn't just keep eating the Crawford's food forever.

As she rode down the street she was acutely aware that she was being watched. Percii assured her that it was just the local town's people, which made a kind of sense. After all, she was the outsider here, and after recent events they were more than a little leery about outsiders. But they quickly lost interest in her as she wasn't doing anything other than driving down the road.

At the grocery store it was much the same, other than the fact that now she was manly getting the attention from the male persuasion. Particularly the young teenage boy bagger at checkout. And he _was_checking her out as she came in. Vix just tried to ignore it as much as possible. She knew this would likely be a thing from now on. So as long as they didn't actually bother her she should just try to learn to ignore the looks. She idly wondered how many of them would still be interested if they only knew the truth?

Instead Vix went about her business gathering the basics. Eggs, sausage, bread, butter, the basics.

At the register the young girl rang her up, and the bagger checked her out again until he was nudged into bagging by the checkout girl.

Vix waited, then paid for her food, at which point the boy helpfully volunteered to carry her bags out to the parking-lot. Whereas the checkout girl rolled her eyes at him and Vix insisted that she was ok doing it herself. But he persisted, and rather than start a fuss at the front of the store Vix relented.

The teenager followed her out to the parking lot where he was a bit surprised when she stopped near a beat up old motorbike that looked like it was made from the parts of several other bikes. Vix flipped up the flap of one of the saddlebags and took one of the two bags from him.

"Urm, miss? I don't think that's going to fit." He said uncertainly.

"Trust me. I know how to pack." Vix simply said as she started taking items out of the paper bag and placing them into the left saddlebag. The teenager was baffled when everything from the paper bag did indeed disappear into the saddlebag. Vix then took the remaining paper bag off the stunned teenager and did the same with the right saddlebag as the first. And yet, the saddlebags looked as if they were either empty of mostly empty.

"I...I don't understand." The teenage boy stammered as Vix was re-buckling the straps of the saddle bags.

"I'm just really good at efficient packing." Vix said simply. "See ya around kid." She said as she swung a leg over the saddle and with a firm kick to the started peddle started the bike and drove away down the street. The teenager just stood there scratching his head.

Ok, so that was the carburetor and food taken care of. Vix thought to herself as she rode down the street. I should probably check in with Sheila and see if anything's been happening I need to know about.

Vix pulled into the parking lot of the police station and parked the bike in an open spot. She took off her helmet and placed it on the gas tank after turning off the bike and got off. Walking up to the front door Vix entered the vestibule looking like a human and exited into the front offices as her now normal vulpine self. She took a cursory look around the room and spotted the room's only occupant. Terry was sitting at the front desk doing some paperwork and hadn't noticed her yet. Sauntering up to the desk and put on a big toothy smile, making sure that her teeth were on full display.

The reaction she got was just what she was expecting from him. When he finally looked up over the desk what he saw was mainly teeth staring back at him over the counter.

"Hi!" Vix said with fake enthusiasm.

Terry flew backwards in his chair with such force that he actually fell off the chair and landed on the floor.

"What the fu--" he got off just before he hit the ground on the other side of the desk.

"What? Aren't you glad to see me Trigger?" Vix said innocently, adopting a more normal face without the smiling grimace. She still had a smile, but it was more of a friendly/mischievous smile as he got his feet under him and rose back up to a standing position.

"Oh, it's you again. What the hell do you want?" Terry said rather tersely.

"I'd like to talk with the sheriff if she's in." Vix said. Her ears were up, giving Terry her undivided attention.

Terry gave a disgruntled grunt then waved her off. "Just go. She's in her office. Now get out of my sight, I have work to do."

"What, not going to point a gun at me again?" Vix asked in a polite voice with just a bit of curiosity.

"The sheriff has ordered me to leave you alone." Terry replied sullenly, "So go ahead and find her and be her problem, not mine."

Vix gave him a quizzical look then shrugged before heading across behind the counter and through the front room to the hallway and down to Sheila's office. Standing outside the door Vix knocked politely. A few seconds later a voice inside the office said "Come in." so she did.

Sheila was sitting at her desk reading some reports. There was also a map on a table nearby of the town and surrounding farms and forests. "Oh, Victoria! Good to see you. What brings you by?"

"Running a few errands. Wanted to see if there has been anymore trouble Sheriff." Vix said.

Sheila motioned towards the couch. "Just Sheila is fine. We don't need to be so formal here." She said, "Have a seat. Would you like some coffee?" she asked.

"Yes please." Vix said as she walked over to the couch and sat down, remembering to cross her legs instead of sitting like a guy would. It was still strange getting used to how things were now.

"If I remember right you take it with just cream right?" Sheila asked as she handed Vix a mug of coffee.

"Yes, thank you." Vix said taking the offered mug. She took a sip and resisted the urge to grimace from the bitterness. She was getting used to it, but it still wasn't like she used to remember coffee being. With her new enhanced senses she probably never would.

"Town looks a bit subdued today. But considering everything I can't blame anyone." Vix said trying to get comfortable on the couch and still remain lady-like.

"It was that last abduction attempt in broad daylight." Sheila said, "After that people started taking things a lot more seriously."

"So there haven't been any more attempts since a week ago?" Vix asked.

"None. Seems after you foiled their last attempt they decided it wasn't worth anymore. Or they have what they want." Sheila said the last part forebodingly. "What about on your end?"

"I've been...recovering." Vix said looking down with her ears spayed. Her tail came to a dead stop. "I...had something of a breakdown. Everything since the beginning involving my changes and what it meant finally caught up with me."

"The commotion at the thrift store?" Sheila asked.

Vix got an embarrassed look on her vulpine face and scratched the back of her head. She really didn't want to explain, but she at the moment couldn't think of an alternative way to tell Sheila. "Uhm, yeah. I...finally saw myself as a human in the mirror, then...shifted...to vulpine. To say that it reminded me of a werewolf or monster freaked me out. Plus I had been avoiding mirrors up till that point. I really didn't know what I looked like overall."

"Could you shift for me please? I just want to see it again for context. I saw you do it before, but I want to pay close attention this time. Not just see it in passing as it were." Sheila asked. Vix nodded, a bit reluctantly, and shifted to her human form. She held it for a few seconds then relaxed her hold and shifted back to her vulpine form. "Yeah," Sheila said after a bit. "I think I can see were you might be coming from. If I could do that, and it was my first time in front of a mirror, and I wasn't wearing much in the way of cloths, then yeah. I think I would be caught a bit off guard."

"Yeah, try also adding that at the time I had been mostly ignoring all this." Vix said a bit flustered. She didn't really know why she was telling Sheila all of this. Maybe it was her friendly and concerned air about her. Or maybe Vix just needed someone else to tell besides Edna? In any event here she was telling Sheila anyway. Yet there was still things she wasn't going to tell Sheila or Edna. Or anyone really just yet.

"But anyway there you go. That's what happened and why I haven't been around town for a bit. Now," Vix started as she changed the subject, "what's been going on around town?"

"Not much." Sheila sighed, "Been pretty quiet around here surprisingly. No unfamiliar people wondering around. No new vehicles driving slowly or parked in suspicious areas or even on the main roads. Believe me, I've had my people looking." Sheila explained. "I'm a bit surprised, thankful, but surprised."

"Any new leads?" Vix asked.

"Not so far." Sheila said, "Got some discreet feelers out, but nothing returned anything yet."

There was a knock on the door. Vix thought about shifting, but anyone who had been in the main room would have already seen her so she decided not to. Sheila told them to enter as it should only be her officers who would be knocking anyway.

As it turned out it was Terry.

"I'm heading out to do my patrols sheriff." Terry said in a bit more professional manor then Vix expected. To be honest Vix did really know what to expect to happen in a police station as she had thus far before coming to this town avoided being in a police station for any reason. Much less in the back offices.

"Ok." Sheila said, "Keep an eye out for our friends and stay safe. Are you bringing anyone with you?"

"No. everyone besides my relief for the front desk is already paired up and out on patrol anyway." He said.

"Check in regularly and don't take any risks." Sheila said back. Terry nodded at Sheila and gave a sour glance at Vix before he pulled his head back and closed the door.

Vix stuck out her tongue at his sourpuss face after the door closed then turned to Sheila. "He really doesn't like me much does he?" She asked.

"Eh, he takes a while to warm up to people sometimes. He takes his job very seriously too." Sheila replied.

"Heh, yeah. I noticed." Vix said before getting back on topic. "Frank's been gone all week looking into things."

"Ah, so that's why the boneyard has been shut all week?" Sheila asked.

"Yeah." Vix said, "I waiting for him to get back. I sure hope he has something."

On the other side of town Karen stomped down the street fuming.

"That bitch doesn't belong in our fair town!" She muttered to herself. "She'll set a bad example! Not like me of course!"

She continued to grumble to herself as she walked down the sidewalk until she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see a tall man dress in everyday cloths but wearing dark sunglasses under his baseball cap.

"Excuse me ma'am, but I couldn't help but overhear you." he said in a firm but somewhat friendly manner. "Perhaps we can help each other out? Have you seen anyone new in town?"

Back at the Sheriff's office Vix finished her retelling about her week.

"Wow, I literally have no words. I honestly don't know how I would react to being changed into...well what you are now I guess. No wonder you had a freak-out." Sheila said sympathetically.

Vix didn't say anything but just kinda nodded. She still wasn't sure why she had told Sheila as much as she had. Maybe it was partly because she wanted Sheila to trust her, and showing that she trusted Sheila to keep this to herself was a way to garner that trust. But there were still things she didn't tell her. Telling her about being changed into a fox/alien hybrid was one thing. The other big change though...no. No one outside of certain members of the Crawford family needed to know. Who knows how others might react. Best to keep that under her hat.

So to change the subject Vix said, "So things have been quiet in town? Nothing at all?"

"Not a peep." Sheila said, "No abductions, no disturbances. Nothing."

"I don't like that." Vix said suspiciously, her tail twitching with agitation, "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad no one else has gone missing. But, no activity at all? Something's up."

"I agree." Sheila said putting her mug down. "No one puts that kind of resources into something then just stops."

"What about those soldiers and the two agents I caught about a week ago? Did you glean any useful information from them?" Vix asked.

"We couldn't get much of anything useful from them." Sheila said shaking her head, "They kept pleading the fifth. One of them made a comment that his life wouldn't be worth a damn if her spoke, but didn't go any further than that. He seemed very concerned about the whole thing. Then when they were brought forth in front of a judge a few towns over the judge set their bail high due to, well, you already know why. Thing is, someone paid their bail. Shortly after they disappeared and no one has been able to find them since."

Vix put her mug down before she accidentally broke it, she could feel her anger rising and her ears were folding back. She forced them back up and tried to will her tail still. "Great. Another piece of the puzzle but we have no idea where it fits." She grumbled. "What's the history with this judge that set their bail?"

"He's a straight shooter and on these types of crimes very strict. He set their bail as high as the law allowed, and someone actually paid it." Sheila said, clearly also not happy about the whole thing either. "I don't know who paid it, but they must have had some really deep pockets at their disposal to do it. From what info I could get the money seems to have been funneled through a shell company. Unfortunately we only found this out after the fact."

Vix sighed, "Well, that's something at least. Now we know that someone really doesn't want them to say anything. And they are willing to throw money to fix it. They may even be willing to go even further than that." Vix said severely. "And that's not good. I tried getting info out of them before turning them over to you and your officers, but I wasn't able to get anything useful out of them either. Granted, I'm not trained at interrogations, and I wasn't willing to go much further than leaning on them. I'm not generally a violent person."

Sheila nodded then took a sip of her coffee before saying anything. "With what you have gone through I think a little bad temper is forgivable. And considering the circumstances you've done a good job at controlling your anger. Otherwise I would probably be getting monster reports and complaints of, I don't know, boulders chucked through walls or something. And I haven't had any of either." She said comfortingly.

Vix gingerly picked up her coffee and took a sip before putting it back down again. "Ok, so we know a little more than we did before. I guess that's something." She picked up her coffee again and downed the rest before putting her empty mug down on the table. "Well, I should be getting back to the farm, and I'm sure you have work to do so I will get out of your hair." Vix said getting up and stretching.

"If I hear anything I'll let you know." Sheila said before adding, "What is your number anyway?"

Vix thought for a moment before Percii suggested something to her in her mind. "Here, let me see your phone please." Sheila gave a bemused look before pulling out her phone and handing it to Vix.

Vix took the phone and then pulled out her multi-tool. She pointed the device at Sheila's phone and the front of the tool opened like some sort of metallic flower exposing something that looked like a crystal. Sheila could hear a sort of melodic buzzing coming from the tool as Vix worked. It kinda looked like she was scanning the phone with it. In no time at all Vix finished what she was doing and the tool ceased making noise and closed up again.

"Here, now you can reach me anywhere. Just hit the little fox icon I put on the home screen and the app will do the rest." Vix said handing the phone back to Sheila.

"What did you do?" Sheila asked, taking back her phone.

"I put a little program on your phone and adjusted the communication parameters and modified the antenna a bit. Basically you can get hold of me anywhere." Vix explained, "Oh, and now you never have to pay for service on this phone ever again." she said with a mechievious smile.

"You did all that with my phone?" Sheila asked, a bit confused.

"You would be surprised how shockingly easy it is actually." Vix said, "I'd explain it more, but it's rather complicated to explain even though the process is simple." Vix explained, then got a slightly bemused look on her face as her ears dropped a bit, "And...I never would have understood what I just explained before a month ago. Just...just try to only use it if you really need to get ahold of me."

Vix then walked over to the door and turned back before opening the door.

"I'll see you later. If I hear anything I'll get in touch." Vix said.

They said their goodbyes and Vix left Sheila's office. Walking through the main office she noticed that Terry was nowhere to be seen. That made sense, he did say he was going out on patrol. Before she left the building however she quickly looked over her shoulder then shifted to look human. then she left the station.

Getting on her bike Vix turned on the key and gave the starter peddle a kick, bringing the engine to life on the first kick. While the engine idled she put her helmet on and pulled down the visor before backing the bike out of the parking space then out to the road.

Vix rode down Main Street at a reasonable speed, staying within the speed limits until she left town and on the open road where she goosed the throttle and took off down the road back towards the Crawford's farm. Also, now that she was outside of the town she relaxed a bit and shifted back to her regular foxy form. Out here there was less chance of anyone noticing any details, and her face was covered by the helmets face guard. Her paws would from a distance just look like gloves and not many would question the tail if she kept it laid flat against the saddle behind her. Just had to be careful not to let it get too close to the spinning wheel. That would hurt. Thankfully the bikes slip stream behind her seemed to be keeping her tail mostly straight behind her and flapping like a flag in a gale wind.

She had to admit it was nice to be on a bike again. She really hadn't been on a bike since she had moved out of her uncle's place. Her old bike was still there of course, but with nowhere to store it at her various apartments, and frequently moving due to unstable jobs, it didn't make sense to have it.

But riding down the road now, at a decent clip, it was nice to have the wind blowing past her. And now that she had a long fluffy tail for the wind to blow through, that just made the experience better. Maybe, just maybe this body wasn't all bad. It would be nice to have the wind blowing through her hair too, but riding a bike without the helmet didn't seem like a good idea. For a number of reasons. There was safety sure, but the full face helmet offered her a measure of anonymity so she didn't have to concentrate on looking human.

Maybe she could find a convertible to borrow sometime and see how that felt. or sit on the top of a hill on a windy day? Yeah, that could be nice.

Vix had put some miles between her and town when suddenly she heard sirens behind her. Glancing at one of the bike's side-view mirrors she saw the police car behind the dust she was kicking up.

Ah crap! She thought as she started pulling over to the shoulder. Now what?