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Note: Well here we are again; it's always such a pleasure. ^_^ But seriously, here it is. Me picking up where I left off just over one year back; Blood Red. And this time I have a remote idea of what I'm doing with the plot. Not much else to say really, other than I hope you enjoy reading this series as much as I enjoy writing it up.

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Time: 20:30pm.

Year: 2245, January 11th.

Location: New Vega, Club Phymn, 7th Floor, Administrator's Office.

If someone told me this morning that there would be an attempt on my life...I would've most likely hidden a gun under my pillow anyway; however, if said person continued to say that this assassin had blood-red fur, was capable of hypnosis and was a mutated Feral...I would have probably carried my gun up to the door before I let the sod into my room. At least I would have been saved a minor panic attack, my balcony window wouldn't have been shattered, and there would be no bullet holes or large amounts of blood painting the wall right next to said balcony. Of course, I never expected my life to go so smoothly anymore; there were always complications.

I looked around The Administrator's office slowly, as I had done almost every time I entered; the large rectangular window just behind the Dragon's desk was now shut, and the room's only source of light came from the multiple rings spreading out from the centre of the ceiling all the way to the edges of the room, revealing the simple and bare black walls that covered the entire room; even the door from which I entered seemed to blend into the surroundings once fully closed, leaving only three people in the room. The Administrator was sat at his desk, his jet-black scales somehow managing to distinguish themselves from the darkness he was sitting in, and his radiant purple eyes rotating around to meet my gaze; the only other person in the room was a black-furred Wolf, the same one that ended up saving my life less than an hour ago, who was now sitting in one of the two domed chairs lying in the middle of the room, facing the desk.

"I expected you to take about ten more minutes before arriving." The Administrator said bluntly, an edge of surprise in his tone. I saw him lay down a clipboard that looked almost tiny in his hands, but would've been a little large in mine. "We also expect you want some answers?"

"I had just about enough time to make a few theories as well." I replied, looking thee Dragon straight in his eyes, which seemed to almost pierce into my mind; I wasted no time in starting to list the few predictions I had made. "First; the Fox that tried to give me a drug overdose. He was from Blood-Clan, possibly after revenge for me killing two of their own, though this one was...different."

"No shit..." I heard the Wolf force a laugh, now looking me dead in the eyes; "looked like a Feral, but I've never seen one that could take over five rounds into the chest and remain standing; I'm thinking it was a Mutant, some kind of experiment that Blood-Clan decided to release on you."

"Kobalt, I'd like you to meet Lawrence, one of my double-agents." The Administrator introduced, indicating the Wolf with one hand. "I'm sure you two have met before, sometime this morning."

"Something like that." I replied, still looking the double-agent in the eyes, now turning my chair around to face him. "So do we have any theories as to why these guys are making an attempt on my life now, or are we stuck in the dark?"

"Right now, you know about as much as we do." The Administrator said, oddly enough after a short pause; usually he never left a conversation open at all. "This may have been a stray, just looking to get even, or it may have been the entire clan working at it, or maybe it was just some random gun-for-hire, killing you for someone else's revenge."

"Last time I checked, mercenaries don't mutate or pull syringes out of their wrists to give someone a drug overdose." I said, ruling out one of the theories and turning to face the Dragon again. "So who else do we think has a thing against my existence?"

"A disgruntled customer, maybe?" Lawrence suggested, swivelling in his chair slowly out of the corner of my eye; "but it's more likely the assassination attempt came from the Clan, not just one guy. You don't see many mercenaries or bounty-hunters these days, let alone anyone like the guy we just dusted."

"So we're down to two theories, both from the same source." I evaluated, almost stating the obvious in order to keep the conversation running. "...so we have no more useful information?"

"...that's what I wanted to tell you." The Administrator said carefully, exchanging a quick and concerned glance with the Wolf just to my right. "We only have one other source of information...but there's a slight problem."

"The girl's banged up tight." Lawrence said bluntly, planting one foot on the floor and halting his chair so it was facing me; "she's being held in the Police Headquarters in the dead-centre of the city; the rooftops are covered in Scarecrows by day and constantly monitored by Helicopter patrols by night. It's a fortress."

"When you say 'she'..." I began, now locking my gaze with the Administrator's; I could almost tell where this was going by the way the Dragon spoke, as if I knew her personally. "...please don't tell me it's who I think it is."

"I'm afraid it is, kid." The Dragon replied, giving me a sympathetic look and tossing the clipboard on his desk over to me. "She actually gave the law a run for its money, eluding them for about sixty years; she even managed to hitch a ride from Falsetto-city over to here."

I caught the clipboard instantly, bringing it to my lap and inspecting it quickly. My suspicions were dead on target; the person that managed to elude all law-enforcement for sixty years, and find her way all the way here, was Elise Elorara Mayer...half Dragon, half Red-Wolf, approximately eighty years old and didn't physically age, same as me. It'd been around sixty years since we met, and even then our encounter was short-lived; but now she was in the city, and worse, under the boot of the local law-enforcement. I took a moment to read through the contents of the clipboard; apparently she'd been arrested just this morning, and with an incredible record of her crimes, taking up almost half of the contents...I had to admit, I was starting to feel like I had some serious competition.

"From what I've found..." The Administrator continued, snapping me back into reality; "Her criminal record started about two months after you two went your separate ways; mostly consisting of illegal dealings...information, to be precise...and with a lot of success."

"So she's an information broker?" I assumed, receiving a nod from the Administrator, who was now setting out another clipboard, most likely containing more of Elise's crimes...I began to think in the back of my head 'now this is getting ridiculous'.

"She went under the name 'Ree-elle Mailer', expressing her fondness for blackmailing people." The Dragon continued, flicking through the contents of the clipboard slowly before looking up to me again. "We think this girl is the only other source of information we have; and even if she doesn't have anything, she must've come here for a reason, not just running from the law. Blood Clan must want her head as well, and probably blew her cover back in Falsetto."

"So she came here, to the one person she could trust." I evaluated, leaning back in my chair slightly and staring up at the ceiling; "but now she's been arrested, probably with a life sentence for the stuff she's done."

"As long as she's in jail, Blood-Clan can't touch her." Lawrence said bluntly, starting to turn in his chair again; "But then again, we can't get to her either; so to get her out, we have to risk letting Blood Clan get to her as well."

"And that's where we need you." The Dragon said calmly, pushing the clipboard to the far side of his desk with one hand whilst indicating me with the other; "we need you to find a way into the Police HQ and get Elle out of there. You have over fifty years of experience as a Seeker, which is a damn sight better than the rookies we have at the moment; you are the only person I know who can get this job done."

"I'll get it done, no worries." I lied confidently, getting up from my seat in the sense that the meeting was over; "these guys bloody well asked for it when they arrested Elle. I just need tonight to come up with a plan."

"She's hardly going anywhere in the meantime." The Administrator said, letting out a yawn that seemed to send a vibration through the walls as I just opened the door out of the office; "but until we get her out, we're going to go with the theory that Blood-Clan is still after you two."

I looked back and nodded in approval just before stepping out into the bright corridor, wincing and closing my eyes as they began to adjust to the brightness of my surroundings, sending a sudden jolt of pain through my head which subsided in moments. I quickly decided to make my way back to my room, all the while attempting to plan out how I would break into an impenetrable fortress, break out with a world-class criminal, and somehow avoid being noticed or shot at through the entire thing; the very thought of it made my head spin...

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In moments I was facing the door leading into my room, my head now aching from the amount of information taken in from just one day; already I'd been beaten up partly by a double-agent, almost assassinated by god-knows-what, and now I just learned that I had to break out a friend from the most secure place in the city. I almost brought up my fist to punch my door in frustration, when I began to hear heavy footsteps coming from inside; the Administrator did say he sent someone up to clean up the blood and shattered glass that littered the floor, but if that were the case, I would have seen some cleaning equipment of some sort outside, or at least the door would be open.

I slowly reached down to my right ankle, pulling out a small handgun that fit nicely into the palm of my left hand, whilst my right hand began to push the door open slowly, barely making any noise at all whilst I listened out for the heavy footsteps; it was almost as if the person inside was pacing around. I quickly grew impatient and forced the door open, sliding into my room quickly and holding my handgun up to the intruder, now facing me from the balcony.

"You know, when you almost get assassinated, it's not the best idea to hold a gun up to one of your closest friends, foxy." The intruder said, forcing himself to put a grin on his green-scaled face...it was Damien, just who I needed...

"Please, for the love of god, don't tell me the Administrator called you to let you know I nearly got whacked." I said wearily, shutting the door behind me and holstering my handgun, tossing both the gun and holster to one side. "At least tell me he explained absolutely everything to you so I don't have to."

The Green-Dragon looked a little hurt for a moment, just before stepping over to me and wrapping both arms around my body, hugging me close to him; after a short moment of letting myself fall into his chest, I began to hug back, drumming my fingers on his back softly whilst I looked around at the balcony; I noticed that the blood that stained the wall had been washed off, leaving a stain of water behind, and the broken window had now been replaced. The carpet however, had been torn up around the area that was previously soaked in blood, leaving a hard, cold surface behind.

"I'm going to have to get a new carpet now." I whined, finally breaking off the hug with Archer and stepping over to my bed, letting my entire weight drop onto it. The Dragon shortly followed, his weight pressing down into the bed and making me roll over onto his chest.

"Want to talk about what happened?" Damien asked, stroking my back with one hand whilst the other was slowly working its way up my legs.

"If you get any further with that hand..." I warned, grabbing the hand that was running up my legs; "I'm afraid I may end up losing a good friend."

"Message received." The Dragon laughed, placing both hands on my waist and lifting me up and off of him. "So come on; tell your Dragon the whole story. It'll make you feel better."

I began to take in a deep breath, trying to scavenge through my mind and recollect the entire night. It'd never been so much work trying to recall two hours of my memory; I felt as if a day's worth of information had been compressed into just two hours, making it even harder for me to explain everything to Damien, though I had to say, he was a good listener. I noticed him showing a concentrated gaze, processing everything that came into his ears until I had finally finished, giving him a moment of silence to put everything together.

"...damn..." The Dragon muttered, looking down at the covers of the bed, and back up to me; I felt him place one arm around me and pull me closer; "...this is...well, this is pretty...damn...how can things happen and just..."

"Yeah, that's what I thought." I said wearily, placing an ear against his chest to hear and feel his heartbeat. "How can so much stuff happen in just two hours and suddenly make your life a living shit fest? Is that what you were aiming for?"

"...I would have put it a slightly less obscene way." The Dragon whispered into my ear, resting his head on top of mine. "So what are you going to do now?"

"I only have one plan so far to get Elle out of jail." I replied, pulling my head away and looking up into his eyes; "but this is by far the craziest, impossible plan that I have ever come up with...ever...as in, over that past eighty years that I've lived."

"Listen...foxy..." Damien said slowly, now locking me in his vision; "if there's one thing I've learnt about you so far, it is that you are the most insane, unbelievable Fox I have ever met in my entire lifetime, and be aware that I've lived for over a hundred years, seen some pretty ugly things over the years; but you...you have the best kind of success when it comes down to insane plans. I have complete faith in whatever you have planned in that head of yours."

I took a moment to let those words sink in. In my entire life, I'd never met anyone like Damien; no matter what kind of situation I was in, good or bad, he somehow managed to make every memory that little bit more memorable; I didn't even trust the Administrator, or anyone at all, more than Damien. I let his hand slowly rub against my back for a moment whilst I ran my plan through my head once more, making sure I hadn't left anything out, and as soon as I was confident with it, I slowly wrapped my arms under the Dragon's shoulders and ran them along his back.

"So, Damien..." I said casually, wearing a grin on my face that the Dragon would immediately recognise as my 'insane-plan look'. "Are you doing anything tomorrow, by any chance?"