FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

DISCLAIMER: No adult action in this one, but a few violent moments so please be advised. There's not much character/plot development in this chapter, although the title of the chapter speaks for itself. I'd like to thank everyone that let me use their characters again (especially Ryan Masterpaladin Lewis here on Sofurry)

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7493121/#cid:52934043

Hope you all enjoy :)

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(just in case anyone doesn't know, <<<< = flashback, **** = change of point of view, and >>>>> = back to present after flashback)'

*O_O*

"N-NURSE!!!!"

The injured human mercenary looked on very fearfully, barely being able to move as the pain emitting through his lower area was excruciating. The look in Tony's face as he started into Gordon's eyes was one that no one would ever forget if they were in the same situation.

"Don't worry, no one can hear you. It's just you, and me." *CRACKLE*Tony replied, cracking his fists.

"W-what?!?!?! SOMEBODY H-HEL.....AGH!!!"

The human tried to shout for help, though no one was coming into the hospital room, and the human also kept feeling terrible sensations of pain in his body while he was yelling.

"W-what d-did you d-do?!?!?! HEEEEEEEELLLLPPPP!!!!"

"Just shut up, you're going to talk to me whether you like it or not."

Tony looked towards the entrance of the room, but he knew who was out there and he wasn't worried at all after what someone assured him earlier.....

<<<<<

"And that's why I'm here right now to see Junir...."

"................"

After Tony explained the whole story to his tiger friend Michael for a good 45 minutes, the two simply didn't exchange any more words for several moments. Michael didn't really know what to think, but he did realize that Tony was pretty much going through a VERY rough time.

"..............I......I don't know what to say Tony.....I.....I thought Marco was locked up a long time ago!"

"Y-yeah....I thought so too....I still don't know how the fuck he got out...." Tony moaned back.

"And it seems like he hasn't changed either....I'm just glad you helped me get away from him when you did....otherwise I wouldn't be talking to you right here at the moment."

"Yeah....that was such a long time ago too.....but you're right, he definitely hasn't changed....though his henchmen have definitely changed...." Tony pointed out to Michael.

"You've got that right....seems like he has so many fucking connections now it seems....."

"I wonder what happened to Samantha and Alejandro....." Tony then mentioned.

"Beats me. I wonder if they broke out with Marco....."

"Well I haven't heard or seen them at all......ugh, I just hope Junir is okay, should we go in and see him?" Tony asked as he seemed fed up with anything that related to Marco at all.

"Yeah....b-but.....Tony...do you mind if I at least give my opinion on one of the other issues you mentioned?"

"Hmmm?" Tony replied while a few more cops exited the building and walked past them, and while a few other cop cars started to leave the hospital driveway, as if they were done recording everything that went down.

"Well.....I know Junir might be glad to see you....but I mean.....when he finds out that you've parted ways with the people that HE'S also friends with..... won't that make him think you're acting somewhat selfish?"

"...................."

"................I............don't know Michael.....I've been through so much bullshit here.....I really have no idea what to think.....just the thought of the smallest problem in my mind is making my head hurt...." Tony replied slowly, as he felt his head right then and there, squinting a bit from the pain.

"Well we're here regardless, I mean he will be glad to see us anyway. I think he'll really be surprised that we know each other though heh."

"Yeah, good point. Still....I can't believe all of this shit is happening.....ugh....I just can't take it anymore!"

Tony clearly had enough and simply walked into the entrance of the building, trying to do anything possible to get his mind off of what had happened over the course of the last month, and that seeing Junir would be the best way to do so.

Michael simply followed Tony into the hospital entrance, worrying about the big guy but still worrying just as much about Junir since he wanted to see how the Lion was doing as well.

As the two walked past the automatic doors into the front lobby, both Tigers went up to the front counter to talk to the receptionist that looked to be VERY busy, as she was taking phone calls left and right.

"I bet they have their hands full with people phoning to ask about the patients here after what just happened out there...." Michael mentioned.

"Yeah you got that right.....I just hope this lady can at least tell us where Junir is so we don't have to wait much longer around here..." Tony nearly whispered back. Right as he was done talking though, the timing seemed to be perfect for the two.

*CLICK*

"Whew! These calls won't stop coming in! H-how can I help you.....hey wait.....aren't you....."

"Yeah, that's me." Tony replied, almost looking a bit impatient right there but still trying to act polite towards the receptionist.

"Wow! I'm honored to meet you Tony! Anyway, what can I do for you two?" The female lizard replied.

"Well our friend Junir Espizona was admitted here last night.....do you know what room he's in?" Tony asked, with Michael nodding next to him.

"Let me see here.....I think I remember logging him in last night.....yep, room 332. Just take the elevator to your right and go to the third fl-"

"Wait Beth.....did you say Junir?" A nurse suddenly interrupted that happened to walk up next to the front counter.

"Yeah, Junir Espinoza. Is something wrong?" The receptionist replied while Tony and Michael were listening to the two talk to each other.

"Well.....we've brought all the patients back to their rooms after everything that just occurred.....b-but Junir.....he hasn't returned!"

"W-What?!?!" "WHAT?!?!"

Nearly all three shouted at the same time, though Tony and Michael were MUCH more worried compared to the two females standing in front of them.

"I haven't seen him anywhere! I've notified the rest of the staff around the hospital, so they'll let me know if they do find him." The nurse replied, as she started to walk past Tony and Michael towards the entrance.

"Ok.Thanks Liz." The receptionist replied, though she didn't know what to say to Tony and Michael, who seemed to have a shocked look on their face still.

"I-I'm sorry guys....I don't know what to say.....if you want to wait to see if he comes back you're more than wel-"

"Hang on, there's something else I wanna know." Tony suddenly interrupted. The receptionist could clearly tell that Tony had a very serious look on his face, and knew that the Tiger was in no mood for anything light-hearted.

"W-what is it?" The lizard replied. Michael didn't even know what Tony was going to ask, and he simply listened to what the Orange tiger wanted to know.

"Those police officers outside mentioned that one of the gunmen involved in whatever went down here was brought into this hospital and that he's going to be put into their custody when he's released. I wanna know where he is, right now." Tony nearly demanded from the receptionist.

"I actually just logged that into here, he's in room 205, but I know there's a couple of cops there, so I doubt you'll be able to talk......to him...."

Before the receptionist could even finish, Tony found himself walking VERY fast towards the elevator. Michael was a bit thrown off and confused, but quickly remained behind Tony at that moment.

****

*VRRRRRRRROOOOOOOMMMM.....SCRREEEEEEEE.....VRRRROOOOMMMMMM*

"Hurry Thunder!" Aquin mentioned hesitantly as the Dragon quickly took the highway exit to get onto the road leading to Elmhurst hospital, picking up speed quickly after getting onto the main road.

"What's the rush? Do you think something's going down?" Thunder asked as he quickly got his car down the road near the hospital entrance, eventually pulling up his Lambo into the driveway.

"I just think...that Tony's going to do something stupid if I don't do something......here, drop me off at the median here." The Gator pointed out as Thunder's car quickly made it in front of the hospital entrance.

"I just hope this thing doesn't follow me in...." Aquin then added as he actually took off his sword for once, putting it into the back seat of Thunder's car and quickly running towards the entrance door as he got out of the car.

"I wonder what he's sensing....." Thunder thought to himself as he drove past the entrance and turned into the parking lot on his left to find a space.

*****

*DING*

The elevator arrived on the second floor, with Tony quickly walking out and looking for the signs telling where each room was.

"Hey! Hold up Tony!" Michael quickly mentioned as he tried to grab the Orange tiger to calm the frantic Tiger down.

"Let go Michael, I need to have a one on one talk with this guy." Tony replied, as the two came up to a hallway with a sign pointing to where each block of rooms were located.

The two took a left at the sign saying "ßROOMS 200-220" and quickly noticed a cop standing near one of the rooms roughly a couple hundred feet from the two. Right as Tony noticed the cop, the Tiger began to walk at a VERY fast pace, with an unbelievably intense look in his eyes to go along with it. Michael tried to keep up with Tony, but also realized that Tony was not going to let up no matter what he did to slow the big tiger down.

******

"Come on....come on......" Aquin mentioned as he waited for the elevator to come down, as he felt Tony's presence in the hospital and pretty much knew where to find the Tiger.

*DING*

The elevator door opened, and the Gator quickly got in, pressing every button for every floor as he planned on checking every area of the hospital to find Tony, even though he had a hunch. The elevator door eventually closed, and Aquin knew that it was only a matter of time before he found the tiger.

*****

"Excuse me, you cannot go in here."

Tony walked up to the room where the large numbers on the door read "205". The cop that was there was making sure that no one would head inside except for hospital personnel, but the human that was guarding the door did feel a bit intimidated when a much taller & muscular Tiger stood in front of him, with a look of wanting to get inside no matter what the cop threatened to do.

"Oh I'm going in, the guy in there has caused my friends too much pain and grief for me to not do anything."

Tony reached for the door handle, but the cop quickly stopped him.

"Hey! I said you can't go in there! Now if you won't comply with me, then perhaps I might just have to put you in my custody."

"Tony, let's just go, I don't want you to get in trouble here!" Michael then mentioned, as he grabbed Tony's shoulders.

"Let go of me, both of you. Handcuffs won't be enough to simply stop me from getting to this asshole." Tony mentioned, opening the front door a bit.

"That's it, you're under arrest." The cop swiftly mentioned, grabbing Tony's arms very forcefully, which threw Tony off. Michael didn't know what to think, and he quickly moved away as he didn't want to get in any trouble himself, but he still had his eyes wide open as he noticed everything going down in front of his eyes.

Just before the cop could put cuffs on the Tiger though.....

"HEY! Officer!"

".......Wait...how did......ugh...thank god...." Tony thought to himself, looking over towards the hallway that he entered from the elevators and seeing Aquin running towards the three.

"Excuse me mister, I'm busy right now. You have the right to remain silent." The officer replied to Aquin, and then giving Tony his rights right as he took his handcuffs out.

"No he doesn't officer. You're going to let him go. NOW." Aquin replied.

"................................"

*CLINK....CLINK*

".............................Yes.....sorry for causing you any trouble."

Aquin swiftly got right in front of the cop that was about to put the cuffs on Tony, and stared right at him for less than a couple of seconds with a VERY distinct look in his eyes.

"Now, my friend is going to go inside, can you please leave?" Aquin then asked the cop.

"Yes sir, sorry for any trouble." The cop replied with a very plain look on his face, acting like he was almost being controlled in a way. In less than a minute, the cop went from nearly handcuffing Tony, to dropping the cuffs and leaving the area, which left Aquin, Michael, and Tony in front of room #205 on the 2nd floor of the Elmhurst hospital.

As the cop left the scene, Tony breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"T-thanks Aquin.....I owe you one."

Aquin nodded, but walked up to the Tiger, and then replied:

"No, you don't owe me one. You owe an apology to your friends that you left behind Tony. But I'm here to help you take care of your problem first." Aquin replied, looking right into Tony's eyes.

"Wait...so you're Aquin?" Michael then asked the Gator, as Tony had mentioned the Gator earlier when the two were talking outside the hospital entrance.

"Yeah Mike, this is Aquin, he's one of the reasons why I'm even alive today after what Marco has tried to do to us."

The Tiger and Gator shook hands, though Michael still looked a bit confused.

"Hang on...so how did you get that cop to stop arresting Tony??" Mike asked.

"It's a long story, and I'd rather not explain it. Don't you have some business to take care of Tony?" Aquin replied.

"Yes I do. I'm gonna get some answers out of this guy whether he wants to give them to me or not."

"I'll stay out here then, so if you need me, lemme know. No one will bother you, trust me." Aquin insisted. Tony nodded back, and slowly opened the door handle, walking into the room and closing the door behind him while Aquin and Michael remained outside the room to make sure no one else would come in.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"SOMEONE HELP ME!!!! GAHHHHHH-"

*SMACK*

"Shut up. No one can hear you. Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. "

Tony slapped the human in the face, and quickly put his face right up to the injured human on the bed, looking angrier than ever.

"W-what d-do you w-want?!?! Leave me alone, please!" Gordon exclaimed, acting more scared than he could ever remember.

"You heard me from before. You're going to tell me everything about Marco, which includes what he's doing right now, where he is, and especially what he's planning on doing. And if you don't, well I'm going to force you to do it anyway so you might as well tell me before I have to make you stay in this hospital even longer."

"W-why should I tell you?! I'm going to be dead anyway! Those cops are going to b-b-bring me to jail, and Marco is going to make sure I'm not alive no matter what!"

Tony thought for a couple of seconds and realized that it wasn't going to be easy to get the human to talk, and that he might just have to bring Aquin in to force the words out of the human's mouth. He knew that he didn't want to have to use Aquin any more since this was his own concern, so the Tiger came up with his own idea.

"Tell you what. If I bail you out of this situation myself, will you talk?" Tony asked, which surprised the human a bit, though it also made Tony sigh a bit as he felt like he was getting soft on a situation that he knew he couldn't take lightly.

"W-what's the point?! I can't go back to the g-group....Marco will find me anyway and make sure I'm dead before I can even-"

"That's it, you had your chance. You're on your own now, but I'm still making you talk." Tony replied, acting VERY fed up now as he walked towards the entrance of the room.

The human still looked on very fearfully, and noticed the big Tiger opening the door, mentioning "Hey 'Quin, I need you., this guy ain't talking."

Gordon watched on as Tony entered the room again, but this time there was a well build Gator walking in as well. The human still couldn't move, and looked like he was going to cry from all the pain in his body, which was something he NEVER did.

"Ok, this is Aquin. He's going to make sure you give me the answers I want, and then we'll leave. Simple as that." Tony said to the human.

"I-I'm not t-telling you anything! You two can kiss m-"

"WHERE IS MARCO?" Tony shouted at the human.

"....................................."

The human went from shouting at the Tiger and the Gator, to looking at the two with the same face that the cop gave them outside. Aquin was staring right into the human's face, clinching his fist as he knew that Tony wanted the answers from the human.

"........................."

"................................M-M....."

"...................M-Marco...............is.............in............Saratoga.....springs...in.....a warehouse..."

The human replied very slowly, but Tony was satisfied with the answer that emitted from the human's mouth.

"Good, now we're getting somewhere." Tony replied, then looking at Aquin and nodding as he was glad that the Gator was helping out.

"Now tell me, what is he doing right now?" Tony then added.

The human kept a straight look on his face as Aquin kept staring into Gordon's eyes while still clinching his fist.

"Marco........is trying....to kill you, Tony.....and he's dealing drugs....to his customers....."

"Good, making progress here. Now, those cops outside said that your two companions escaped. Tell me who they are and what they look like." Tony demanded.

"...............Tristen........ and Jamie. Tristen..... is an Orca and Jamie.....is a bull."

"Ok, good , good, but NOW- you're gonna tell me, WHERE. IS. JUNIR?"

"...................."

Aquin made sure the human would answer, and kept emitting a stare into Gordon's eyes, in which he finally answered:

".......the Lion.....flew away....with some Dragon.... That's all I know...."

"Huh??" Tony asked with a confused look on his face. "Is he serious Aquin?"

The Gator broke his intense look at the human, and took a moment to catch his breath.

*pant pant* "Y-yeah Tony.....he's serious.....he told you everything you wanted to know."

The human lying on the bed immediately went from having a normal look on his face, to the same look he had on his face before the Gator walked in. He seemed terrified again, and clearly looked like he wanted to just be dead rather than continue to have Tony standing right in front of him.

"Well, thanks for the info about Marco. I guess I'll let the cops take care of you when you get out of here." Tony mentioned to the human as the Tiger headed back towards the entrance to the room.

"W-what?!?! What are you talking about?!?! A-agh!!!" Gordon replied, not having a single clue what just happened in front of him while squinting some more from the pain he was in. Tony and Aquin simply shook their heads, and walked out of the door to let the human be alone again.

Right as Tony and Aquin walked outside, Michael was still waiting near the door. The tiger came up to the two, and asked:

"What just happened? Is everything alright??"

Tony put his head down at that moment, and replied:

"W-well....we've got our location on Marco.....but....ugh....I just wish the others didn't have to go through with this bullshit that Marco and his men have put them through!"

"Who was that guy in there? Did you know who he was?" Michael asked.

"I....I don't think I've ever seen him before....but he definitely was one of Marco's men....and the thing is....the policemen outside said that the two other henchmen got away that he was with.....I wonder if they're back with Marco already....."

"Yeah...you're right......w-what do you wanna do now though??" Michael asked, while Aquin also kept looking at Tony with a bit of a worried look.

"W-well.....I gotta go back......to my place.....see what I can salvage...ugh..." Tony moaned out as he nearly forgot about his own wrecked home while he focused more on Junir and Marco & his men.

"I'll come with you Tony, if that's okay with you." Michael insisted, as he knew that Tony was not in a good mood at all, and that he wanted to help out the Tiger to help the big guy calm down.

"T-thanks Michael.....I just....I just wish I could reverse time....." Tony replied. Both Tigers started walking back towards the elevators where they first came from, while Aquin followed behind them with a very calm look on his face. However, the Gator did turn around briefly, and shook his head after looking back at the hospital room that the human was in, as if he knew that the human wasn't going to last much longer.

"Wait....Aquin....how did you know I was here though?? And....how the hell....did you get here so fast?!?!?!" Tony asked as the three came up to the elevator and got into it to head back down to the parking lot.

"Instinct. After hearing what happened to Junir, I figured you headed here first. And don't worry, my friend Thunder....well let's just say he's a REALLY good driver."

"Uhhhhh....yeah." Tony replied with a confused look, but really didn't need to know any more about how Aquin got there. The big Tiger was just glad that a couple of his friends were there to help him out, although Tony still couldn't get the thoughts of Mike and the others out of his mind as well.

*DING*

The elevator arrived on the bottom floor, and the three got out to head towards the front door. Before they walked near the front entrance though, the three passed by a waiting area in the hospital that had a TV. Once again, it seemed like a moment of perfect & awkward timing......because the television was on a national news station that was reporting a story....which was going on right at that moment.

As Michael and Tony walked past the lobby without paying attention, Aquin quickly glanced at the TV.....and noticed where the news report was coming from.

"Hey....wait a sec......hey........guys........TONY!"

Aquin quickly called for the two Tigers as they were both right in front of the entrance. The two quickly turned around, wondering why the Gator was calling both back over. As Tony and Michael came back to where Aquin was standing, they were both confused as to what was going on.

"Something wrong Aquin?" Michael asked, though he noticed that the Gator's eyes were wide open. Tony was surprised himself to see the Gator the way he was, but he then realized what Aquin was looking at. As Tony looked up at the TV in the lobby himself, Aquin turned up the TV to hear what was occurring as a female news reporter stood in a parking lot, with a restaurant in the background.

"And as you can see, the cops have moved in, and it looks like more hostages are coming out of the restaurant. This situation finally seems to be calming down, though the power is currently off in the building. We will keep you updated on this, back to you in the studio Kelly."

"Oh my god......I was right......holy fuck....." Aquin thought to himself, as he knew that something bad was going down when he was riding with Thunder back to New York, although he just couldn't point his finger on it at first. But now, everything was showing on the television, and the three just continued to look on, even though their reactions were totally different.

Aquin was shocked.

Michael was confused.

And Tony.....was very, VERY pale.

****

"..........is......is it over???"

"W.....what happened?!"

"You alright Eric?"

*SNIFF*

".................."

".....MIKE! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" "MIKE!" "Oh my god, Mike!"

"........."

"Mike! Speak to me! It's over! Everything's alright now!"

"........................*SNIFF*hhnnnnggggg...."

My mind still felt blank. After dealing with what seemed like a million different events happening in less than a couple of hours, I had no idea what to think anymore. It really felt like my brain couldn't process anything, as it felt so overworked to the point where I didn't even know my surroundings. My head was hurting, I felt dried blood on my face, and I was speechless.

"MIKE!!!!! *SLAP*"

"W-what?!?!"

*SHOOM*

I heard all these voices around me, but then I ultimately started thinking again when I felt a quick slap in the face from Sully, who was standing over me along with Chowder, Ord, Eric and Kimahri. As the four stood near me around the table, the lights also came back on in the restaurant as well.

"W-what......happ-... ....??? *SNIFF*"

Even though I was a bit aware of my surroundings again, I couldn't help but start crying again as my body was still exposed from everything that had just happened in the back room over the course of the last hour in general. To think that we all went from having a great time eating at Chowder's Café, to sitting around a table with guns pointed in our faces.....it was something I just couldn't bare to think about.

And knowing that the bears....that had caused me so much pain in everything that they had done to me in the past, from the pawn shop, to the warehouse.....were the ones responsible for what happened in Chowder's café, I realized that Marco's gang was not going to stop until all of us were dead.

"Mike!!!! Oh my god!!! Are you okay?!?!" Chowder mentioned, quickly wrapping his arms around me as I sat up on the table with barely any clothes on.

"..................I-................I d-hnnnngggggg"

"Leave him be.....Chowder....I think Mike needs to regain his composure here.....you guys head out there, I'll stay with him here." Sull mentioned to the others.

"Wait.....how the hell....Sully....your arm!!"

The rest of the guys realized that Sully was pretty much up and moving without any problems, and that his arm was also moving the same as it did before it was shot. Ord knew what the mage did, though he still couldn't believe that his mate seemed to be perfectly fine as he was standing tall right next to the others.

"Whoa.....you're right....I thought I was shot.....what the hell happened?!?!?!"" Sull replied, as he didn't even realize he was doing fine since everything else was occurring at once.

"Wait...where did he go??" Ord asked, as he was wondering where the mage that apparently healed Sully had went, though there were also A LOT of voices chatting out in front in the main part of the restaurant, as it also sounded like the police had barged in.

"A-are the police in h-here?" Chowder asked, as he still didn't know what was going on in his own restaurant, though it did sound like the two bears weren't in control of the place anymore as many different voices were still emitting in the front area.

"They have to be, let's go out there guys." Kimahri firmly replied. The ronso seemed to not be as shaken up compared to the others, but he definitely didn't want to remain in that area of the restaurant any longer. Eric clinged onto Kimahri as well, as the two both quickly opened the swinging door and headed back into the front part of the restaurant.

"I...I can't believe those bears did this.....w-wait.......what happened to them out there anyway???" Chowder then asked, since he was still a bit confused, though he was also very upset at what went down. The Tiger slowly walked to the swinging door and went back out to the front part of the café himself, leaving Ord, Mike, and Sully alone in the back.

"Mike.....we're here for you, come on hun, let's get you dressed and take you back home, ok bud?" Sully mentioned to me. I still didn't know what to think, although I did look at the monster and nodded a bit.

"H-Here you go Mike..." Ord then added, handing me some of my clothes that were taken off by one of the bears earlier.

"T-t-t-thanks O-ord....O-ow...." I mumbled back VERY badly, since my head was still hurting from the blow I took to the head from the gun of one of the bears. I slowly got my clothes back on, and got off the table as well. I found myself being helped in terms of walking by both Ord and Sully, although I did feel like my muscles were fine in general and that I had no problems moving. It was mainly my head that was hurting more than anything, both mentally and physically.

As the three of us opened the swinging door to head back into the main part of the restaurant, we were simply bombarded right then and there. Several people were crying themselves as the policemen were trying to calm them down, but it also seemed like a lot of the hostages had already left the building. Eric, Kimahri, and Chowder were all talking to a couple of cops that were standing next to another officer that was finishing putting handcuffs on one of the bears that lied motionless right near the back door entrance.

"H-how did these guys....." Sull started asking, before he was ultimately interrupted by a loud roar on the other side of the restaurant.

"OWWWWW.....FUCK....."

I happened to look over, and really didn't know what to think right then and there. I noticed a large red dragon that was sitting on the ground, nursing his arm heavily as a paramedic was looking at it.

"Hold still! This will only take a sec here!" The EMT was mentioning as he was looking at the Red Dragon's arm. I had no idea who that dragon was, or how he even got into the restaurant in the first place. It made me wonder though....was he perhaps the one responsible for turning off the lights in the café? Once again, these thoughts just made my head spin, and I actually needed to hold onto Sully and Ord this time to make sure I wouldn't get too dizzy or anything.

"Stop it! It hurts!!!!!"

"HANG ON, I SEE THE BULLET................THERE....." *TING....TING*

"GAHHHH!!! Ow! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

The paramedic was able to get the supposed bullet out of the Dragon's arm pretty quickly, though the Dragon himself was moaning like crazy from all the pain he was in.

It wasn't long though before Ord, Sully, and myself noticed another being that walked up to the red dragon right then and there after the EMT had helped him out.

"Hey! I think... yeah! That's the guy that healed you Sull!" Ord mentioned to the monster.

*****

"Gahhhh! Fuck.......OW!!!!"

"Hey......I want you to hold still, okay?"

"W-what?"

Dracon was still thriving in pain while the EMT kept looking at his arm as blood was trickling down the side of the Dragon. It was then however that Emon himself came up to Dracon, with a very confident yet also intense look on his face, as he kneeled down on the ground to check the Dragon's arm himself.

"Good, this is simple again. This will only take a second, okay? Just hold still like you did before." Emon mentioned.

"What are you doing?!" The paramedic asked the mage that was next to him.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing. Please go help out the others outside."

"O-okay....yeah I'll go do that." The guy replied to the Mage.

"W-what are you going to do to my arm?!?!?! AGH!!! FUCK!" Dracon frantically asked, still squinting from the pain.

"Hang on here....I've got this."

Dracon watched as Emon put his hands on the wounded arm that was still bleeding, but was surprised when he saw the mage take a small trickle of blood, and go up to the Dragon's wounded wing from earlier.

"H-hey! My wing's f-fine! What are...."

Before the Dragon could say any more, he noticed a green glow emitting where his wing was shot earlier, and that Emon was pressing his hands softly against the wing, which ultimately was now showing no traces of blood at all after a couple of seconds.

"W-whoa...."

"Whew....ok, now for the arm...."

"W-what did y-you just...."

"Like I said, hold still dude....."

Dracon once again agreed and let the mage go to work on his arm, in which Emon pretty much did the same thing that he did to the Dragon's wing. The mage put his hands on the flesh wound, and closed his eyes for a few moments.

*****

"Whoa....what the hell is he doing??" Sull quietly asked.

"I think this is how he healed you Sull! Wait a minute......why does that guy look familiar??" Ord replied.

".....Is this guy like Aquin??" I thought to myself, looking on and seeing what I thought was unheard of. As we were looking on, I did notice that all of the other hostages in the building (including chowder's workers) had already left the café, and some were talking to other policemen and the EMT's outside. I then also noticed.....that the two bears were starting to move a bit as they were lying on the ground with handcuffs on while the policemen were hovered over them to take them out as soon as they were awake.

As soon as I saw both of the bears moving and eventually being forced up by the policemen, I felt like I wanted to do something in return....for everything they did to me.

Everything seemed like a blur again at that moment.

"W-what happ.....hey WHAT DA FUCK.....GET DEEZ CUFFS OFF ME!"

"You're not getting these cuffs off pal, you're coming with us and being sent back to where you belong." One of the cops replied right into the bear's ear as Marcus had to be grabbed by three cops in general to stop the bear's movement.

"FUCK! ANDRE!"

"Fuck bro! dey got us! Shit! Fuck you pigs! FUCK YOU!!"

Andre was expressing himself loud and clear while he was pretty much in the same situation, as he was being nearly dragged towards the doors very ruthlessly by the cops that were there.

Before the two bears were officially brought out though......I lost it right then and there.

"OFFICERS....WAIT."

"Huh?" "What?"

I yelled out for the officers to stop dragging the bears, as I felt like I needed to really do something before they were brought outside to be eventually taken back to jail. Several of the cops stopped, as they kept holding the injured bears in their grasp while I walked up to them.

As I came up to one of the bears, the big guy just looked right into my eyes and gave me a very disgruntled look. Before he could emit anything though (even though he didn't look like he wanted to talk) I said out loud:

"You.....you two have caused me so much grief and pain....I really hope that you one day can somehow come clean and become better people. Until then though, I have NO pity for you."

"Yeah you have no pity, but marco ain't gon' stop when he finds you's alive foo. I shoulda shot you when I had the chance, you pathetic human." Marcus replied right to my face.

".............FUCK YOU."

*SLAP*

With that said, I went from acting somewhat calm, to just lashing out and slapping the bear as hard as I could in the face. The bear simply took it and didn't say a word back, and the cops finally dragged the bear out of the café.

Right as the other cops were about to bring Andre out himself, the bear simply looked right at me as he was being dragged near the entrance, and said right to my face:

"You ain't seen the last of us, we gon' find you assholes and KILL YOU ALL!!!! HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

I didn't really know what to think right then and there after what Andre yelled at myself and the others around me, but I knew that both bears clearly had problems that went a step further than just being about the gang that the two hung out with. It was obvious that both bears definitely had mental problems themselves, and that they weren't going to change their personalities anytime soon.

With the two bears finally out of the café along with most of the other hostages, it was only Sully, Ord, Chowder, Eric, Kimahri, a couple police officers, and the two people I didn't know that were on the floor near the bathrooms that were in the café. After the bears were finally brought outside, I looked back over to where the two people were whom I didn't know.....and my eyes widened when I saw what happened.

****

"There you go, you should be good now."

"Whoa! Holy crap!"

Emon pretty much did the same thing he did to Sully earlier, as the mage felt and healed both the wing and the arms of the dragon, and in less than a couple of minutes, the Dragon was already standing up again, though he didn't know what to think or what to say.

"W-what did you do to...."

"Relax dude. You feeling better?"

"Y-yeah....but....what the hell....did you do?!"

"Don't worry about that. I'm just glad you're okay."

Emon and Dracon both exchanged a few words with each other, but after everything was said and done, Dracon's bullet wounds on both his wing and his arm were both completely healed, and he wasn't feeling any pain from either part of his muscular body.

"T-thanks for whatever you did I guess.....you okay there yourself?" Dracon asked the Mage.

"Yeah I'm fine, just pissed off that I tried to enjoy a day downtown for once, only to have this happen. At least it's all over with." Emon replied.

"What's your name anyway? I'm Dracon."

"Emon. Nice to meet you Dracon."

"Same here, though I wish we didn't have to meet like this I guess heh."

"Heh yeah. Anyway, I'm gonna go check the people outside, if you start hurting again let me know."

"Will do. Actually....hang on....."

****

As I was looking over to see the Dragon and the other person (even though I had no idea what he was) talking to each other, the guy that looked mostly human came walking over towards Sully, Ord, and myself near the front door. Chowder, Eric, and Kimahri walked outside for a bit themselves as they were still talking to the police officers, leaving only the five of us inside the café.

As the guy came closer to me, I noticed he looked into my eyes, and seemed concerned for me. The solid stare he gave me though felt weird.....it almost seemed....like my bad thoughts......were slowly melting away from my brain. It didn't feel painful, but I did feel somewhat fatigued and did end up feeling my forehead as the guy kept looking at me.

I really had no idea what the hell was happening, but before I could even think straight, the guy came up to me and said:

"Hey man, everything will get better. Just forget everything that happened here today and let's all move on from this, okay?"

"Y-yeah I guess......who are you though?" I asked. It was then that I felt like I was speaking more clearly now than before, and that my brain actually felt like it was calming down.

"I'm Emon. And before you ask, I'm a mage."

"Oh ok....well I'm Mike." I replied, as I was going to ask what exactly he was after he introduced himself.

"Yeah I heard, nice to meet you. Seems like you have some pretty good friends here that care about you." Emon said to me as Sull and Ord still stood behind me.

"Yeah, these guys are definitely great friends to have.....I'm lucky to have them." I replied. I didn't even realize that I had pretty much forgotten about any bad thoughts right then and there that had just occurred, although one thing was still sticking out in my mind.

"I just wonder how Tony's doing....." I added, putting my head down a bit and kicking the ground.

"Tony's fine Mike, like I said before, he'll be back soon." Sull replied, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah Mike, and we're not going anywhere until he does. We're gonna stay with you as long as you want." Ord then added.

"Thanks you guys....I really do appreciate it." I replied to the two that were standing behind me. "Thank you as well Emon."

"Hey, it's nothing. Hang on....does your head hurt at all?" The mage then asked me, as he was looking at the dried blood streak on the left side on my face.

"N-not really.....but it stings a bit when I blink....." I replied.

"Here......hold still...."

"Wait...what are you...."

"Mike hold still, he did this to Sully!" Ord then added as he stood behind me, though he backed a couple steps away from me.

"Wait...what happened to sully?!?!" I thought, as I didn't remember what happened for a good period of time after I first saw the bears enter the café, and since everything that I did remember all seemed like a blur to me afterward when I woke up in the back room.

I did listen to Ord though, and stood still as the mage put his hand on the very top of my forehead, where the hair line started. My wound wasn't very deep, but it still stung a bit when Emon touched it with his hand. I simply closed my eyes and figured that this reminded me of what Aquin did in the past, so I just let the mage do what he needed to do.

"I don't care what he's doing, I'm just glad he's not like those bears.....thank god they're finally getting what they deserve." Sull whispered to Ord as the two looked on. Dracon was still looking on himself from the other side of the restaurant, still flexing his arm and wing as he couldn't get over the fact that both were completely healed.

"Good, this wound isn't that bad. Everything's all set." Emon mentioned after only roughly 15 seconds of having him feel my forehead.

As the mage took his hand off of my face, I felt MUCH better right then and there. My face didn't feel dry anymore, nor did I feel any stinging sensations/pain either. I slowly opened my eyes again, and saw Emon looking right into my eyes again and smiling.

"You three, stay safe together and enjoy your lives, and don't ever follow the same road like those two bears did." Emon mentioned to the three of us. Before we could even say anything back though, the Mage opened the front door and left the café.

"Hey, you ok Mike?" Ord asked as both the Dragon and the Monster looked at me as they walked next to me.

"Yeah I'm much better now.....today's been absolutely ridiculous though....." I replied.

"Just who was that guy anyway?" Sull asked as he looked outside to see the Mage walking towards the parking lot while the rest of the hostages (including Chowder, Eric, and Kimahri) were still out there along with other policemen, and with news trucks swarming the area too.

"He said his name was Emon.....but he really reminds me a lot of Aquin." I replied.

It was then though that I realized that the red dragon that was on the other side of the restaurant started walking towards us, as he almost had as much of a curious/confused look on his face just like we did.

"D-did that guy.....do the same thing to you like he did to me??" the big, muscular dragon asked me.

".....uhhhhh.....yeah he did....." I muttered back. For once, I actually couldn't help myself and blushed as the tall dragon stood in front of me. He was VERY muscular and tall as well, as he clearly looked much taller than Sully and Ord. He had long, black hair, and was wearing blue jeans and a white tank top, and he also had a ying-yang tattoo on his right arm.

"Wait.....how did you get in here? And what happened to your arm in the first place?!" Sully asked, looking VERY confused.

"Let's just say it's a good thing I can fly with these babies.....otherwise I couldn't have gotten in here from the roof heh." The dragon replied.

It was then that I quickly remembered what Junir told me on the phone when I called him earlier.

"Wait....if you can fly....are you.......Dracon?" I slowly asked.

"Hey......yeah that's me! How did you kn-.....wait....that must mean that you're....Mike?"

"W-wait....DRACON?!?!? IS THAT REALLY YOU?!?!" Ord then asked out of nowhere as he walked right up to the red dragon, since he knew that the Dragon looked familiar when he first noticed him, though he then realized who it actually was.

"Hey wait....is that you....Ord? Holy shit!! What's up man?!" Dracon replied, as the two quickly hugged each other, since they hadn't seen one another in the last several years.

As the two dragons hugged each other, I started thinking a bit though myself. Even though the dragon was surprised to know that I knew his name, I was even more surprised that he knew MY name. At that same moment though, it made me realize....that if Dracon was there at the café.....

"Wait.....does that mean.....is....is Junir here?!?!?!?!" I exclaimed as I realized that the Lion told me he was with the Dragon when I had called him.

"Yeah! I just hope he didn't move or get himself hurt out there, but he's a cute lion that's for sure." Dracon replied to me as both he and Ord had their arms around each other's shoulders like they were best friends.

I wasn't even thinking and quickly bolted out of the front door, as I wanted to see the Lion again unbelievably badly.

Right as I bolted out the front door, I noticed Chowder, Eric, and Kimahri near one of the cop cars.

"Oh....Mike! You feeling better?" Eric asked as I walked up to the three, though I was looking around at the same time trying to locate the Lion.

"Y-yeah I'm fine.....hey....have you guys....."

"MIKE!!!!"

Before I could even ask, I looked to my right where another batch of police cars were, and immediately felt my heart racing when I saw the muscular Lion standing only about a couple hundred feet from me.

"JUNIR!!!!" I shouted back, quickly bolting over to the Lion, as he also started running himself towards me. As I kept taking each step towards the big guy, my face lit up and I actually smiled for once. Before I knew it, I came right up to the Lion and threw myself into him, much like I did when I saw Tony in the forest only a couple of days earlier when they found me. I truly felt really happy right then and there, knowing that Junir was alive and that he was there after everything that I had just went through in the café.

"Mike.....I'm so glad you're okay.....w-what happened in there though??" Junir asked as we gave each other a very long hug right then and there. I knew I liked the Lion a lot, but it was then that I realized....that I wanted to be with him just as much as much as I wanted to be with Tony as well.

"I....really don't want to talk about it.....*SNIFF* I'm just....so happy....to see you....Junir...." I replied, feeling my heart beat ridiculously as I broke my hug with the Lion, and then almost shedding a tear as well.

"Hey....why the tears Mike? You okay bud?" Junir asked. I almost felt like Junir was just acting just as caring as Tony did towards me in the past, even though Tony wasn't there with us at that moment.

"Y-yeah.....I'm just happy you're alive....." I softly replied, hugging the Lion again.

"I am too.....let's go meet up with the others over there." Junir then mentioned to me.

"Yeah def.....hey wait.....I thought you had some injuries on your body??" I asked, looking at the Lion's body and noticing that there were no visible wounds at all.

"Well.....I DID have some pretty bad cuts and burn marks....but....hey wait a minute...where did he go??" The Lion replied.

"Lemme guess.....did he have pointy ears?" I asked curiously as we both walked back towards Chowder, Eric, and Kimahri. I then noticed that Sully, Ord, and Dracon were finally walking out of the restaurant themselves, leaving the café empty at the moment while the police and news crews were still on the scene. Dracon and Ord were happily talking to one another, which to any other person would probably seem a bit surprising since the two were held at gunpoint not long before, and one of them was even shot.....but the friendship bond between the two was much stronger than the seriousness of the hostage situation.

"Yeah he did.....don't know where he went though...." Junir replied. Before we could think about where the Mage went in the area, we were bombarded by numerous shouts near the police cars.

"JUNIR!!!" "Hey look! Is that....Junir?!" "JUN!"

Sully and Ord were mainly the ones yelling as they both saw the Lion walking with me towards them, but Chowder, Eric, and Kimahri were also just as surprised to see the Lion there as well after hearing what had happened to the Lion on TV.

"Hey guys!" The Lion exclaimed as we walked over to the group, while a bunch of the other hostages were now being interviewed by the television crews, as well as still talking to the policemen.

"What the hell happened? How did you get here anyway?!?!" Sull asked as the eight of us got together as a group. Both Sully and Ord immediately exchanged hugs with the Lion, and everyone smiled as they watched everything go down.

"Well....it's a long story......but forget me, are you guys okay?!?!" Junir then replied, still wondering exactly what went down inside the restaurant.

Ord replied "Y-yeah we're fine.....thank god those bears were taken care of.....they've caused-"

Before the blue dragon could talk any further, the Lion quickly interrupted him.

"Wait....did you say....bears? Don't tell me....that you're talking about....."

"Yeah.....the same bears that nearly killed Mike and Tony....and the same bears that broke out from prison.....and nearly killed Mike again......" Sull replied.

I put my head down at that moment, and I really didn't want to think about everything that I had been through over the last month in terms of dealing with those bears and all the horrible things they did to my friends...and especially myself.

"Jesus! How the fuck are these guys always getting to us?!?!" Junir asked.

"Well......I guess it's not that hard since we're popular people....." Sull replied, scratching his head a bit.

"Still! This is ridiculous! I just hope it finally stops now that those two guys have been taken away." Junir added.

"Yeah, but I just hope that we don't hear them breaking out of prison again....." Ord replied.

Just then, all of us heard a noise emitting from Eric's pocket. I happened to notice that the music emitting was Kingdom Hearts music. Eric quickly pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and answered it.

****

"Hello?"

"ERIC! Are you okay?!?!?!"

"Oh hey bro. Y-yeah I'm fine....just a bit shaken up after everything." Eric said into the phone, as his brother Ryan was calling him.

"Good....good.....phew.....Morrell saw you and Kimahri on the news at the sports center here at the campus and called me to let me know about what they were reporting. Is Kimahri okay?"

"Y-yeah he's fine. Oh yeah, remember how you told me how you guys found that human Mike in the woods a couple of days ago and how you guys then ran into Tony the tiger and a few others?" Eric asked back.

"Yeah.......haven't heard anything since then though.....why do you ask?"

"Well.....I guess it's kinda funny, they're all standing next to me right now, except for Tony." Eric replied as he looked at the rest of the gang while everyone listened in on the phone conversation. At the same time though, everyone else exchanged some more small talk with Junir as well, with Chowder and Kimahri also introducing themselves to the Lion.

"Wait.....you serious? Hang on.....are you saying....that Mike was a hostage himself?!?!" Ryan exclaimed.

"Unfortunately......he's been through so much over the last few days it seems.....I think he also broke up with Tony this morning...."

"Jesus! I REALLY feel bad for him.......I really think we should head up there and hang out with Mike and you guys.....I can't get over what he's been through....holy shit...." Ryan mentioned.

"Yeah, I think Mike would like that. I miss you guys anyway, we haven't hung out in general in a couple of months." Eric said back.

"Good point. Anyway, so is everything else okay there then?"

"I think so, but I'm still a bit shaken up over this and so are the other guys, but yeah we're safe now though."

"Thank god. Well I'll keep in touch with you bro, stay safe."

"You too Ryan, and tell Morrell I said hi."

"Will do, see ya later!"

"See ya!" *CLICK*

*****

"Hey, was that Ryan?" I asked Eric curiously.

"Yeah it was, they found out what happened on the news.... Eric then added.

"Well it seems like some reporters are leaving though....what are you gonna do about the café though Chowder?" Sull then asked the Tiger.

".......I don't know.....I think I'm going to close it for a couple of days though....I told my guys that they don't need to come down to work until I call them...." Chowder replied.

I knew that the Tiger was feeling down and also seemed worried at that point. I had to do something to cheer him up, cause the last thing I wanted to see happen was have Chowder feel like he couldn't run his place because the neighborhood felt unsafe, even though Newburyport was a very safe town in itself.

I walked up to the big Tiger who had his head down, and put my arm on his shoulder.

"Hey Chowder....everything's fine now....we're all fine, and those bears are done for. Let's just move on from this, okay?" I mentioned.

Chowder slowly lifted his head up, though he still had an upset look on his face though. Before he could even reply though, I found myself being hugged tightly by the Tiger.

"M-mike.....I'm just so glad they didn't hurt you.....but I think I still need to at least give myself a couple of days here......I've never.....been involved in something like this...." The Tiger replied.

Everyone nodded, as this was definitely an incident that none of us had really experienced before. (Except for when Tony and I were held at gunpoint in the pawn shop)

"Hey Chowder, don't you worry, we're all here to support your café, right guys?" Sull insisted.

"Yeah!" "Most definitely!" "Your café is really, REALLY good Chowder." "Absolutely." Nearly everyone replied.

"I also want to eat here myself too!" Junir then added, which made all of us smile, including Chowder.

"T-thanks guys, you've been so kind and generous. I still need to replace that shattered window though and repaint over all the bullet holes.....so it will take a couple of days regardless....but I'll re-open the place once we can clean everything up and I'll make sure that you get a taste of my famous clam chowder Junir." Chowder replied with a grin.

We all smiled and seemed to forget about the incident that we had just been through, and Junir especially seemed really happy to be there with us. I was definitely happy that the muscular and handsome Lion was there, and I really felt like I wanted to be with him in general.

"So.....what should we do now?" Eric asked.

"Well...I've gotta clean up this mess here....." Chowder replied with a bit of a sigh. Once again, I felt really bad right then and there, and quickly replied:

"Not without us you aren't, let's make everything look even better than before when everything is said and done." I replied. Right after I said that, nearly everyone else agreed with me, as they wanted to help the big Tiger too.

"R-really? You guys w-would do that??" Chowder asked.

"Hey, you're a really nice guy, and you deserve to have a nice looking place." Sully insisted. Chowder nearly blushed right then and there, and replied:

"If that's the case, you all are getting a free round of my chowder and sushi when I re-open here, how does that sound?"

"Yeah!" "Sounds good!" "definitely!" Several people replied. We all smiled at each other once again, and with that, the eight of us walked back to the café to clean the place up.

****

"And as you can see, the chaos is over, and some of the victims are leaving peacefully now after the two Klodia brothers were arrested and taken away by the cops, and it seems like some of the cop cars are leaving now as well. It definitely seems like everything is calming down here at the scene of the incident, which is a very good sign. Back over to you Kelly." The news reporter mentioned on the television.

"..................."

"......................FUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!"

"THOSE FUCKING ASSHOLES!" *CRASH* "WHY THE FUCK WOULD THEY DO SOMETHING SO STUPID?!?!" *SMASH*

*Pant....pant....pant*

"That's it....."

*BEEP BEEP....BEEP*

*RIIINNNNGGGGGGGG......*

*RIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG.....*

"Hello?"

"Duco, it's me again."

"That you Marco? What's up?"

"Listen, I'm not in the mood right now. There's been a change of plans."

"Yeah.....well there's something I need to let you know myself."

"What."

"I guess.....that shark I was telling you about....well, he just left yesterday before I could even tell him anything that you wanted me to do....and he hasn't come back at all, nor has he called or anything."

"Screw that. Listen, I need you to do something for me, and you're not gonna like it, but you need to do it, cause otherwise, our business is gonna go down the shitter."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Listen up. I want you to..."

TO BE CONTINUED......