Chapter Five - Do You See the Moon?
#6 of Within Escada
Jacob heads to a gathering to meet his partner. Wolfe and Alex are head over heels with one another; each having no idea.
Originally uploaded in 2008
Within Escada - Chapter Five - Do You See the Moon?
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Uroso Wajo Quantef - a 47-year-old Great ape who is the 'luggage' supplier for many of the agents in Red Fang. Many furs know very little of him other than the fact that he can be found everywhere around the world. Who is he really and what connection does he have between many members of Red Fang?
*Warning - Adult Content* Contains homosexual characters and themes.
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Wolfe woke up ten minutes before his alarm clock went off at 6 AM. He felt refreshed and ready for the day as he scratched his head fur and fluffed it out.
'I wonder what I should wear today.' Wolfe thought as he went over to his closet.
He had many clothes, to many for him to decide. With a final sigh, he pulled out a few articles of clothing and grabbed his towel.
Scott woke up with his alarm clock going off. He sighed as he awoke, and then rolled over to face Grant who was lightly snoring.
"Grant," Scott said in a whisper, "it's time to wake up."
"Hmm... five more minutes." Grant said as he wrapped his arms around the panther and squeezed him tight.
"Grant... come on. Wolfe will be here in forty minutes." Scott said as he tried to break free of the ursine's grip.
Grant sighed and rolled over after releasing Scott.
"Don't be a poor sport. Besides, you can always get a good round with me before I have to leave." Scott said as he reached for two towels.
The bear rolled over once more and grinned. "Sounds like a wonderful idea, we just have to keep an eye on the clock."
Scott looked at his phone and grinned.
"I have thirty minutes." The ursine said as he lunged at the panther.
Jacob loaded one of his handguns and slipped it into the holster under his jacket. He then went to the nearby mirror and looked at himself in the finely tailored Prada suit.
"Not bad, should be easy to blend in with the rest of the crowd." The wolf said as he picked up a small length of a titanium alloy.
It was small, no longer than an inch with a small RF on it and the insignia of a wolf, a simple tie clip.
"It's just delightful." He said as he slipped it over his tie.
Picking up a small bag, he fished out a small scrap of paper and put it into his pocket. Looking at his watch, he tossed the bag to his bed went out the door.
Alex jumped as his alarm clock went off.
'Man... I was having an awesome dream.' He said as he turned the alarm off and got out of bed.
Alex had a comfortable room for a teenager; a simple bed being his favorite area to kick back, a desk with his laptop and sheets of music for a play he was writing, a large bookshelf containing old leather bound books from decades past. He liked it, which of course was the most important thing.
'Today is going to be a great day.' He thought as he then realized that he had to be at school in thirty minutes.
Quickly getting out of bed, he cleaned himself up and threw on some clothes from his closet.
'I'm not big on looking good, but I sure as hell am not leaving this house like this.' The fox said as he quickly shed his clothing and trotted to the bathroom.
Wolfe reached into his pocket and checked the time.
'7:45 AM, come on Scott.' He said as he honked the horn once more.
Jessica opened the door and galloped down the driveway. She was grinning, a sight that made Wolfe cringe now and then.
"Well?" Wolfe said as he rolled down the window.
"They aren't ready." Jessica said as she stood outside the car.
They aren't ready?" The lupine inquired.
Jessica smiled, and then went around the car and got in. She said nothing and Wolfe smiled.
"That cat..." He said as he shifted into gear and pulled down the driveway.
'Next to the big tree...' Jacob thought as he entered the party.
The gala was for a few members of the Russian cabinet to display a presentation. It was a lavish gala in a sectioned off quad for the occasion. Of all the places to be, they chose the location for its aesthetics. The quad hand a few large trees except for one in the canter, a large one that they had decorated with lights.
"Hello sir, may I please see your ticket?" An ocelot asked Jacob.
"Sure can." He said as he reached into his jacket.
The ocelot stamped the ticket and handed it back to him. With a nod, he then proceeded into the party.
Jacob made his way slowly to the stage beneath the big tree and stood soundly as he listened to the string sextet play, its sounds creating a comforting mood.
"Do you see the moon?" A white wolf said to him as she handed him a glass of wine.
"Yes I do. How have you been Veronica?" Jacob said as he took the glass.
"Quite well, it's been great." She said as she slipped open her compact.
The wolf stood silently, he adjusted his collar and pulled out his cell phone.
"So are you ready?" Veronica asked as she closed the small mirror.
The wolf held out his arm, she slipped hers around it.
Wolfe pulled into the parking lot. Jessica turning down the stereo and rolling her window back up.
"You should be happy." Jessica said as she stepped out of the car.
"I know." He said as he put a smile on his face.
They laughed as they made their way to the elevators.
"Wait! Hold it!" Scott said as he ran with Grant in tow.
"So you two did wake up." Wolfe said with a grin.
Grant stuck his tongue out as he walked into the elevator car. Jessica stood and giggled as Wolfe pressed the button to close the doors.
Before they reached the ground floor the doors opened, Alex.
Wolfe jerked as Alex took off his helmet and tossed his head fur. He immediately blushed as Alex met eyes with him.
"Guten morgen Wolfe." (Good Morning Wolfe.) Alex said as he stepped in.
He lupine just smiled. Everyone else just smiled as Wolfe shyly made room for Alex in the elevator.
'Oh my god, he's so hot.' Wolfe thought as he stood inches from the fox.
When the doors opened, everyone made their way slowly out, Alex walking slowly with Wolfe as the others took off.
"So what's up?" Alex said as he nudged Wolfe's arm.
"Nothing, just nothing is all." Wolfe said as he began to walk faster to catch up with the others.
"Hey, don't act weird on me. That's not very nice." Alex said as he stopped the wolf.
Wolfe stood silent as Alex stared into his eyes, a wink.
"Now come on, I don't want to be late for class." Alex said as he let go of the lupine's arm and began to walk toward the Performing Arts building.
'Did he...' Wolfe thought as he then looked at his watch, quickly running to catch up with Alex.
Jacob and Veronica moved into position as the host for the gala took the stage.
"Target is in site?" Jacob whispered to the white wolf.
"Yes, five meters ahead." She said.
The target was a research scientist who has been working on a new form of energy that from Red Fang's research could be made into a weapon to eliminate whole countries. Rumors have spread through that he was the same scientist who was the lead researcher of dark matter properties in Antarctica. On the stage sat five individuals. A badger, a large bear that had two more bears standing next to him, and a grey fox.
"Welcome and thank you for joining us in this wonderful event." The badger said as he stood in the center of the stage.
"Be ready to advance on the target. I'll back you on this as we get away." Veronica said as she waited patiently with the wolf.
"We have prepared a wonderful presentation of a new energy source that could help the entirety of our world. As the host, I would like to introduce you to Vorchek Strabinof, president of Russia." The badger said as a bear of large stature stood up from his seat on one side of the stage and move toward the center.
"Thank you kind sir for this wonderful gala. I welcome you all to the beauty of this country. If I may inquire with you." The bear said as he turned to face the large tree.
Jacob reached into his jacket and checked his gun that sat in its holster, the cold metal sending a chill up his spin as he turned off the safety.
"As you see, we are beneath this bountiful tree. It is tradition in our country for the villagers to gather beneath it from meetings to weddings. I can say that as beings upon this world, we must gather beneath this tree to say one thing, what better can we do to protect this planet we all share?" He said as he turned back to face the crowd.
"I'll be back." Veronica said as she left Jacob to move to a more protective location.
As the bear continued to speak, Jacob slowly made his way through the crowd toward the target. Jacob felt time slow down as he then reached into his jacket pocket and removed a small, but discreet syringe.
He stood silently behind the target as he lightly tapped his shoulder. "Do you have the time?"
"Yes, it's 10:25 PM." The tiger said.
"Thank you." Jacob said as he silently stuck the needle into the arm of the tiger.
Jacob then quietly made his way back toward where he was.
"And with that, I would like to bring up to the stage a fur that has this wonderful vision for the future. Doctor Xavier Weinstein, come tell us your ideals." The president said as the crowd broke into applause as the tiger made his way toward the stage.
Dr. Weinstein made his way up the stairs and waved to the crowd. Soon enough he collapsed and fell of the stage landing face first into the crowd. Screams broke out as guards rushed toward where the tiger was lying.
Jacob quickly made his way out of the crowd as soon the guards shouted out.
"You over there! Stop where you are going." They said as they made their way out of the crowd toward him.
"Sorry guys, I would love to chat but..." Jacob withdrew his gun and fired four shots into the four guards that were advancing upon him.
Screams soon became louder as the crowd now ran to get as far away from the incident. As the guards rallied together in pursuit, they were soon bombarded with gunfire from above.
"There is a shooter at ten o'clock up in the balcony!" One of the guards exclaimed.
"Damn." Veronica said as she jumped down from her perch and withdrew two handguns.
When she reached the ground, Jacob quickly joined her.
"So how are we getting out of this one?" Jacob said as he fired another set of rounds and took cover near a planter.
"Well it's not going to be easy with gunfire left and right." She said as she reloaded her gun.
As she spoke, a grenade exploded behind them lighting much of the area in flames.
"Well then, now we need to make a clearer path since now they are closing us off." The lupine said as he twisted a second hand gun into position in his left paw.
"Go!" Veronica said as they both turned and rushed into the blazes.
They dashed across the flames as the guards drew into them. Jacob fired twice, a guard advancing upon him.
With a kick and three punches, the guard was incapacitated, but two more came upon him. He reached for a nearby chair as he jabbed it into one, using it at an advantage to push himself up into the air and deliver a chain of three kicks into the face of the other guard. Veronica soon joined as he tossed her a clip for her weapon.
Another drove of guards appeared but outfitted in all black and carrying small black riffles.
"Shadow Drones, it's time for the good stuff." Jacob said as he holstered his handguns.
Upon doing so, he quickly shed his suit jacket and from another holster withdrew a titanium handgun.
"I hear you on that." The female wolf said as she withdrew a small gun with a red button on it.
"Don't let me get killed, okay?" Jacob said.
"Promise, you're getting out alive." She said as the button was pressed and an explosion occurred.
A flash filled the area, a means for Veronica to escape. The Shadow Drones advanced on Jacob as the flash settled. Jacob grinned as he ran into the frenzy of soldiers. He fired the gun left and right, a tinge of blue following every bullet he fired.
"Not so fast." One of the soldiers said as the wolf turned to free himself of being cornered.
The soldier fired his gun, but as soon as the gun was fired Jacob was out of its path and behind the soldier. Jacob reached his hand out and punched the soldier sending him through the air into the other soldiers.
The soldiers quickly dodged their fellow member with the exception of one and open fire upon Jacob. In a wave of his hand, a flash of light appeared and produced a barrier in front of the bullets, runic symbols appearing where every bullet made contact.
"Nice try.' He said as with another wave of his hand the ground was covered in the strange symbols. The earth beneath them quaked and soon sent them into the air along with the ground from once hence stood.
Out of nowhere, a blast emanated from one of the buildings towards the north. From the smoke emerged the grey fox Jacob saw upon the stage. Jacob quickly dashed out of the way as a jet of wind streamed in front of him.
"You certainly will not make this easy; I'll just have to get to you before you even have a chance." The fox said.
"We'll see about that." Jacob said as he reloaded his gun.
Jacob got up from his hiding place and ran towards the fox. He almost reached him, but even before he was ten feet in front of the fox, he disappeared.
"I'm not going to make this easy.' The fox said from behind the wolf.
In a flash, Jacob was hurdled to the east of the quad as a torrent of water crashed into him.
"Damn." Jacob said as he slowly crawled back to a standing position.
The fox stared him down as he raised his hand and shot a frozen shard of the water he created at Jacob. The wolf quickly shot up a wall of flames, malting the ice as it made contact. He rolled and quickly stood up and fired three rounds at the fox, the fox stood and more or less jumped five feet out of the path of the bullets. Jacob ground his teeth as he shot once more, his bullets now tinged in purple as the traveled.
"You're wasting my time." The fox said as he withdrew his own handgun and fired.
Jacob drew once more another protective barrier to halt the bullets; he then followed it with a shot of thunder towards the fox. The lightening made contact: the fox falling to his knees.
"Gotcha fox." The wolf said as he dashed over to the fox.
The fox quickly stood up and threw a punch at Jacob. The wolf dodged it and met his fiat against the fox's muzzle, but with that, he left himself vulnerable to the fox's kick right into his abdomen. Jacob fell to the ground, this being the opportunity for the fox to get away.
"Not so fast." Jacob said as he fired three rounds into the fox's back.
As they pierced into the fox, he let out a cry before falling to the ground. Jacob picked himself up from the ground, the flames around him slowly dying off. He turned to leave, but as he left he was slammed to the ground by a gravity field.
"But, not fast enough." The fox said as he appeared next to Jacob. Jacob used whatever strength he had left to roll away from the fox and leapt into the air. When he reached the peak of his jump, he withdrew the small piece of paper he had and tossed it into the air. Time slowed as he planted his feat against one of the buildings and jumped even higher, strange symbols appeared as he holstered his pistol and glared down at the fox.
"Is that all?" Jacob said as his hand lit up into a green flame.
"No." The fox said as he looked up at Jacob.
In one motion, beams of energy flashed from the lupines paw and shoot through the parchment. It landed right were the fox stood and produced an explosion. There was no sound until the explosion died down, creating a sonic boom that echoed through the quad and caused the ground to sink. From the center of the beam, a swirl of energy crushed the earth, its vacuum affect pulling in the air and surrounding debris with it. Soon after, white light began to emanate from the once green orb that landed upon the fox. Jacob landed on the ground, he breathed heavily as his paw slowly started to return to normal and the glyphs around him dissipating.
"Well it's good to know you didn't need my help." Veronica said as she jumped down from the roof of one building.
"I almost needed it." Jacob said as he tossed his hand into the air and a shower of blue smoke poured over him.
"Let me help." Veronica said as she too created a blue smoke that expelled above Jacob.
"Much better." Jacob said as he picked up one of his handguns he dropped in the confrontation.
They both slowly made their way toward what was left of the damage. Jacob stopped before they were even fifteen feet to the site.
"Veronica, run!" He exclaimed as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.
A plume of gaseous smoke dropped down upon where they had stood. Jacob quickly produced another glyph between them and the smoke that blew it away from them. From the center of the site the grey fox emerged, although limping he made his advance upon them.
"Jacob he's..." The wolf said as she was pushed behind some of the fallen debris of a building.
"I'll take care of him." He said as he loosened his tie.
The fox began to stand upright and withdrew his gun.
"I'm not down for the count yet wolf." The fox changed his mood and fired three rounds.
Jacob quickly dodged it and ducked behind a crumpled table. As he checked his gun, a blade met down inches before his head.
"Almost, next time I will not miss." The fox said as he picked up his newfound blade and swung it once more.
Jacob disappeared in less than a second and appeared at a distance away from where he once was. He breathed deep as he removed his tie clip. Soon after, a large imprint carved its way into the ground and flashed. He held the clip at one end and as he did so, his own newfound weapon appeared. The blade glowed red hot and shown a black haze as it cooled.
"You're not the only one with tricks up his sleeve." The lupine said as he soon tossed his gun to his left hand and the sword to his right.
"You have no idea." The fox said as he shot forth a blast from his paw.
Jacob quickly dodged and dashed at the fox. Their weapons clashed with sparks flying in all directions, the clash sending a blast of hot air out from them.
'It's time to take this guy down.' Veronica thought as she removed a small jewel from her ring.
It glowed as she touched it, a low light of beauty. She removed her ammunition clip and pulled out a single bullet.
Jacob swung hard to deflect the fox's strikes, sparks bursting from the blades as each strike made contact. The Fox then jumped into the air and brought his blade down where the wolf stood. Jacob quickly did a backwards summersault as the blade struck the ground, then kicked the fox and fired three rounds. As the bullets came close to the fox, an aura reflected them back toward Jacob, narrowly missing him. The fox then lunged behind the big tree and slashed it.
"Hope you can catch." He said as a load crack was heard and the tree began to fall.
As the tree fell, the wolf ran away from where it was to fall. He quickly regained his ground and confronted the fox. More clashing blades, more punches, and more sparks flew as they continued. Jacob then found an opportunity and struck the fox with the end of his gun.
Veronica loaded her gun and dashed out of the way, Jacob knocked the fox toward her. She ducked behind a broken speaker and sat as still as possible. Jacob swung at the fox, his blade missing the fur by inches.
"Ornery bastard." He said as he then lunged at the fox and met him a blow to his chest.
The fox stumbled as he the wind was taken out of him. Jacob then blasted a bolt at him nearly directly that the fox could not deflect.
"Veronica! Shoot now!" Jacob shouted.
Veronica took aim and fired a round from her weapon, the bullet traveled in a white light towards the fox.
"No." The fox said as he swung his blade and struck the bullet down from where it was traveling.
Jacob leapt forward but as fast as he did the fox disappeared.
"We'll meet again my friend. Don't think that I will not finish this at where I left off." The fox said from the rooftop.
Jacob started to run after the fox but was stopped by Veronica.
"Don't bother. We need to get out of here." She said as vehicles began to pull into the desecrated quad.
"Right. We need to get to the safe house and back to HQ." Jacob said as he produced a small device just as the one Veronica had used earlier.
"Let's go." Veronica said as she depressed the button on the device creating a bright light.
Wolfe climbed up the portable platform and stood upon it. Many of his classmates had assembled for their regular warm up. Of all the furs he could see his gaze was affixed to Alex. Scott stood beneath him as he waited for any sign of the lupine being ready to give a command.
"Hey, if you are going to just gander at him all day then you should just come down." Scott said as he kicked the podium.
Wolfe stumbled and glared down at the cat that just chuckled to himself as he made his way toward the other students.
'Damn cat.' He thought as he called the band to attention.
Alex stood in the field as he waited for the next command from Wolfe.
'I wonder if he has caught on yet.' Alex thought as he clicked his sticks to begin the warm-ups.
They all listened carefully to one another, cycling through numerous scales and arpegiations that would prepare them for the hour of playing.
'I think I should go buy some new clothes later. Maybe I could get Scott and grant to meet me there.' Alex thought as he continued his rhythmic pounding on the head of his drum.
Grant and Jessica sat in the small commons outside of the Language Arts building.
"That wolf..." Jessica said as she chuckled.
"Tell me about it. He's head over heels for that fox and everyone knows it, even the fox." Grant laughed.
"I don't know what to tell that wolf anymore. He is scared to death of him. But, you have to give him a chance since he is crushing so hard on him." Jessica stated as she sipped some of her coffee.
"Well yeah. Sorry about this morning." Grant said solemnly.
"Huh? Oh... well I should be used to it. But I would prefer to not here my two friends getting off when I come in the door." Jessica said with a grin.
Grant frowned as she took another sip of her drink.
"Don't be so down. What can I expect?" She said reassuringly.
"Well it's not that." Grant said uneasily.
Jessica looked at him, the large ursine being quiet. He had no expression, an image that in her books was unheard of.
"It's nothing. I'm happy." Grant said as he lifted his head and produced a smile.
"There we go." Jessica said as she gave Grant a hug.
'It's not like I'm going to be here forever at this rate.' Grant thought to himself.
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See you all again in the next chapter, Chapter 6 - With Everything Eternal.
Wolfe Dimitrivich Escada
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All characters, structure, scenario, and plot © 2010, 2013 Wolfe Dimitrivich Escadaaka XenialShadow
All artists, music, brand names, company names, slogans, registers, and trademarks are copyright to their respective entities and used only to enhance the story.
The majority of the story is purely fictitious and is not to be taken into account in the event of coincidental reality.
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