FSE

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Phase 1, Chapter8.

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Despite all the insanity Kalevar had survived over the last eighteen hours of his 'life', the wildcat emerged from the bathroom refreshed and happy. His fur was still slightly dampened from the shower, steam wafting lazily out of the doorway as he stepped out with only a towel draped around his waist. He was greeted with a kiss on the cheek, Hannah's paws running up his chest as she met him at the door for her turn to shower up. They had considered sharing, but had decided that the idea would have been counter productive to the concept of getting clean and ready for the day, and Kale had a lot to be ready for. He wasn't sure what exactly it was that the doe who had taken him in did on a daily basis, if anything, but there was no doubt that he himself had plenty of business to attend to. Starting with that little voice in his head. Psionically toggling into his comm, the wildcat decided to speak silently this time. Using his mental capacities to communicate through the system as his hands went to work putting on a pot of coffee.

~Zulu-three to Fayah. Anyone awake on your side? Over.~

"Goodmorning, lover boy."

There was a painfully stale air in the way his Overseer put that nickname into use, which elicited a slight raise of the brow from Kalevar as he began to unpack the papers he had pilfered the previous evening. Beginning to spread them out on the small circular table which rested in the center of Hannah's kitchen, the wildcat began to psionically log and sort every file, placing them neatly into relative piles after he had mentally saved their images.

~Something I should know?~

"Possibly. Whether or not you've contracted AIDS might be a good start, judging by the chemical surges your scanners were showing."

~You can measure that sort of thing? The hell kind of system do you have in me, I mean shit, am I going to short out if I get hit by EMP or something? Because to be blunt, my chances of being radically electrocuted have drastically increased over the last few hours.~

"I'm sure I don't want to know what that means."

~Why the sudden attitude? I managed to steal a significant amount of information, AND I'm still breathing. Hannah got me out of there alive, we owe her.~

"She's a distraction, and a potential compromise to the mission!"

~Oh, is that it? For a second I'd almost thought you were jealous.~

"I'm being serious, Kalevar!"

The anger rising in Fayah's voice showed that she was being truthful in some degree, but he didn't miss the way her cheeks flushed an even deeper shade of red than the pink her fur already was. Running a paw tiredly through his hair, the wildcat leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling, the virtual displays running over his eyes made easier to see when contrast against the plain white paint. Portion by portion, he began to transfer the image files of the paperwork he had psionically mapped in order to start the packet flow, reaching for the jump drive which he had found left in the security systems. Carefully tracing his ear upwards with his fingertips, he found the port to his datajack where it rested completely hidden by his fur a little up and to the left of his right ear. Connecting the drive, he began to browse the poorly organized files with quick sweeps. His heart sank when all that appeared to be on the storage device was equipment diagnostics and manuals for the camera systems, as well as a few weeks worth of stored video feed from the system itself. No list of adresses, no master plans, not even a phone number. With his spirits crushed, Kalevar couldn't believe he had nearly killed himself to obtain so little intelligence. At this rate, the best he could do was send it all to the analysts in his own time period. With any luck they could potentially run some databank searches off of the images from the security video, pull some identity for the men he had killed a few hours ago... Men who were probably still alive in his own time period. It was a bit of an odd thought, but rather than contemplate how realistic it would be to ask if the soldiers in his time could locate one or two of these individuals and take them in for questioning, Kale decided to skip the theorizing and move on with what he knew.

~Well, unfortunately I don't have as much as I thought.. But I'll send it all your way. Two of the men, a reptile and a wolf, one of their allies called them by name. Justyn and Azel, if I recall correctly. I'm not entirely sure which was whom, but that's all i've got.~

"I'll put it on the share drive for the labs as soon as it comes through.. If there's anything to find, they'll dig it up."

~Alright then.. So, how was your night?~

"Well I certainly didn't sleep with any random tramps, if that's what you mean."

~Could you be a little more pissy? I'm just not getting the vibes you're trying to put off yet.~

"Oh, ha-ha, always with the jokes! Excuse me if SOME PEOPLE were up all night worrying if their partner had BURNT TO DEATH, only to find out he was having a merry time shagging some slut from the club! Because THAT sounds mission critical!"

~Back up there, Kitten. For one, you don't know Hannah. She helped me--~

"Pffyeah, I'll say she 'helped' you--"

~I'm not finished! Point A, that girl saved my life. She got me patched up and has given me a place to stay for now. She's done me a service and at the very least, I think she deserves better than being angrily labeled as a hooker. Point B, I don't know anything about this place. Sure, you can send me maps, but Hannah is inside experience. I'd much rather work with a bit of local input than run purely off of databased materials. So get over whatever petty erk you're harboring, because I do my jobs my way.~

"Fine. Just don't expect me to cry over you if she sells you out, and if you start getting distracted from the mission we're going to cut the plug and pull you back. You get it?"

~Duly noted. Let me know when the labs have the results. Zulu-three out.~

Pulling the drive from the port in his skull, Kalevar rose to his feet and moved over to pour himself a mug of coffee, beginning to set one aside for Hannah as he heard the door to the bathroom open. Glancing over, he smiled as she shot him a wink, the doe not having bothered to wrap herself before exiting the room. It was hard to tear his eyes away from her as she moved towards the dressers at the side of her bed to clothe herself, but Kale managed to pull his attention back to the coffee creamer just in time to notice he had been entirely missing the cup. Not the smoothest thing he had done in years, but the wildcat laughed it off, finding a clean piece of cloth to soak up the liquid before wringing it out into his own cup. Hannah came up behind him at that moment, wrapping her arms around his waist and tucking her head around to peek beneath his arm.

"What on earth are you doing, hun?"

"Oh, nothing. I spilled is all."

"You knucklehead, just make a new cup!"

She scolded, trying to take the liquid away from him to pour it down the sink. Her arms were much to small to beat out Kalevar's own reach, however, as he quickly lifted the cup and held it away from her. One paw on her head to keep her at bay, the wildcat resumed stirring up his mug as the tiny deer fought to take it away from him.

"No, i'm drinking this one.. Believe me when I say i'm used to a little grit."

"That isn't the point! You're in my home, you can have a nice cup of coffee for goodness sake, this isn't a warzone!"

"Too late, drinking it."

"Don't you do it!"

"Drinking. It."

The last taunt came murmured through a mouth half-full off liquid as Kalevar quickly executed a spin around Hannah, putting the table between himself and her. It didn't stay in his mouth for long, however, and the deer gasped as she caught a misting of coffee as it was spat across the kitchen. Unable to hold back a laugh, she rushed over to Kale and began to pat his shoulders, grinning from ear to ear.

"I told you not to!"

"It wasn't that, the coffee was hot! You made me burn myself!"

"Well if you would have listened, maybe you wouldn't have been in such a rush!"

"Maybe if you hadn't been trying to waste perfectly good coffee, I wouldn't have been in a rush!"

"Speaking of which."

Hannah snagged his cup from where Kale had set it down on the table, quickly dumping the rest of the contents down the sink before the wildcat could tackle her from behind. Finding that he was too late to salvage his drink, Kalevar wrapped his arms around the doe in a bear hug, lifting her off the ground and throwing her across the small appartment onto her bed. The both of them were laughing as she hit the mattress, deciding to just lay there for awhile. It took Kalevar only a few moments to fix up a fresh cup, also bringing over the one he had made for his companion and the two of them sat over the edge of the bed to share a morning drink. Watching him with fond eyes, Hannah glanced over more than once, giggling and finally speaking inbetween sips.

"So.. Kale.. What do you think you'll do now?"

"I'm waiting for my contacts to sort some things out.. Once I have a lead, I'll go back to stalking the streets."

".. Oh.."

"You don't sound too thrilled. I thought everyone wanted these people off the grid?"

"Well, I do, but.. I mean.. You nearly died this time, Kale. And... I dunno.. I was sorta hoping you might.. stay..."

"Hannah, I can't just hide from my mission. People's lives are dependant upon my actions."

"I know, I know, i'm selfish.. I've just never felt this comfortable around anyone. Even though I had never seen you before, when you walked into the club I knew that we would get along."

"Wanting to be near to a loved one isn't selfishness, Hannah.. Sometimes you just have to be accepting of the fact that everyone has responsibilities in this life... Mine just happen to be a touch more extreme than most men are willing to bear."

"Why?"

"Why...?"

"Why would you choose that life, Kale.. What made you decide to do what you do?"

"That's a discussion for another time.."

Yawning, the wildcat downed the rest of his drink before allowing himself to fall backwards into the soft blankets. As he considered for himself the question of what exactly he should be doing until the labs sorted some of the intelligence out, the soldier suddenly realized that he honestly didn't have any clothes to be wearing. There was the one extra outfit he had taken from the nightclub stuffed into his pack, but that wasn't exactly a lot to go off of. The towel he had tied tightly around his waist wouldn't exactly do well as streetware, nor would the burnt-up remains of the jeans from his last adventure. He needed a few flexible changes of clothing that could let him blend, and move freely within the public portions of the city...

This entire line of thought lead him to consider just how much supply he was actually in need of, as the matters of ammunition and other tactical gear rose to the forefront of his mind. Obviously accesories like a shoulder holster and other trinkets were not critical to his performance, but they certainly would be nice to have. Bullets were definitely a must. Glancing down as he felt Hannah's hair tickle his abs, he smiled as the small doe curled up beside him with her head using his chest as a pillow. Lightly he brought a paw down to pet her, playing with her still wet strands of dark chocolate fur.

"So, Hannah.. How do you feel about a shopping trip?"

Kalevar should have known better. He should have known not to say the word shopping around a female, nomatter how calm and sweet she seemed to be. Hannah's blue eyes lit up like diamonds and a huge grin broke across her face, and she sat up like lightning. Gripping his paws with hers, she bounced up and down on the bed, brining his arms with her.

"Yes, yes yes! You really want to go shopping with me?? Aaawhhh!"

_ "Well I.. I sorta meant for.. things like weapons..." _

The wildcat's barely audible murmurs of self-defeat were drowned out by the happy giggling of a doe about to hit the stores, and Kale just shook his head and went to retrieve his pack. Pulling on the one pair of clothing he had, some gym shorts with a black wife-beater tee, he touselled his hair a bit to make sure that his datajack was properly concealed. Glancing at his reflection in the mirror, he realized yet another item which he was lacking: A good pair of shades. Thankfully, getting the funds to pay for his needed equipment was more or less handled, thanks to the corpse robbing that had taken place during his shooting spree last night. This was the reason why he had done so, of course, as it was within the soldier's nature to always be one step ahead of the game. Having been dropped into hostile territory with literally nothing, he had known that any and all supplies he could snag were precious. A fact attested to by the pockets of his bag being stuffed with weapons and looted jewelry. All he needed was a pawnshop that didn't ask questions, or a street dealer willing to make trades. He could explain that to Hannah later, though, as there was also a substantial amount of hard cash tucked away in the wallets he had snatched. Emptying out all the paper currency in the different leather pouches, he selected a single black wallet to claim for his own, sliding the money into it and tucking it away in the deep pockets of his shorts. The slick, flimsy fabric was hardly Kalevar's idea of proper clothing. The sooner he got a good, durable pair of pants around his legs the better.

"I'm ready when you are."

"Oh oh oh, wait, I have to do my hair!"

Kalevar could only groan.