Traditions of the Trade

The cat would cautiously approach, sniffing her fingers. With a closer look, one could notice something attacked to its left side, kept in place with tape that matched the colour of the cat's fur. 

"Hey, I know that cat," Onyx would proclaim, approaching the cat with a smile. "Fed a couple of times."

Emmett, however, did not let his guard down, calmly observing from a safe distance.

63 reached out and picked the cat up, taking the object off of it. She was curious as to where the cat came from and what it had on it. Hopefully she'd get answers.

"What is this? And why is it on a cat randomly?" She held it up to the light to see what it was.

A small cassette without a label.

In this day and age, who even used these?

"Someone at the market might be selling a cassette player," Onyx thought aloud. "aybe we could ask them to play this.

Emmett would holster his weapon, but remain vigilant. Whatever was on that tape, he had a sneaking suspicion they wouldn't like it.

"Alright, lets go," 63 held onto the cat as she looked over the cassette tape, "I'll follow y'all."

The trio would leave the back alley and arrive at their destination.

The market was full of hustle and bustle, people shuffling, going from one shop to the next.

Fruits and vegetables, known and unknown, side by side, were the first on display, followed by food and a dime a dozen clothiers wanting to sell their goods, lacking any kind of labels or any guarantee of quality.

That was how the whole market operated - lower prices, with a chance to ripped off.

Off the beaten path sat a few tech and repair shops. Some of them still had phones and other electronics from a decade ago still on sale. The shopowners didn't expect anyone to actually buy them, but they made a nice backdrop for everything else.

Onyx opted to enter the first shop he came across.

63 followed close behind, keeping tight cassette and cat, as they entered. She immediately looked around for a player.

Electronics, in various states of disrepair, were visible all around. The shop owner, hearing them come in, would walk out of the back room, wiping his brow.

A brown bear, the gentle giant towered above the group.

"Ah, customers!" he'd say joyfully. "If you're looking for repairs, you're out of luck. I'm kinda busy with those at moment."

"That is obvious," Onyx would state. "But that's not why we're here. We're looking for a tape recorder."

The bear would cross his arms. "Well, you gonna show me the tape or not? Plenty of types all around; the players I have might not play it."

63 handed the tap to the bear, looking around the shop at all the different types of electronics around her,

"You like machines don't you," she walked around the room inspecting everything from old VHS players to busted stereos, "There is a lot of it in here..."

"Yeah, that's kinda my thing. Been fixing things ever since I was a cub," the bear would say, eyeing the tape. "Well, I'll be damned - this here's a proprietary XAC-2. The format itself flopped, but various features of it were incorporated into the dying tape market before digital audio and MP3 took over."

"So... can you play it?" Onyx would ask.


 "I don't have a player per-se - they are kinda rare and expensive these days, " the bear would admit, putting the tape on the counter. "But I think I should have an adapter for it somewhere around here. Gimme a sec."

The shop owner would then disappear into the backroom.

63 waited ever so patiently. Looking around the shop to see if she could occupy her time. Soon she found different books on various bits of history about a lot of the okd electronics in the place. Find herself intrigued she sat down and began flipping through them to her hearts content.

Silence.

Minutes would pass by. Five, ten, fifteen.

And shop owner was nowhere to be seen.

"What's taking him so long?" Onyx would mumble. "He can't have that many stuff back there, can he?"

63, too involved in her book, Whiled away the time reading. Almost letting her disguise fall if it weren't for the fact that she was in a public place and oblivious didn't want to be found.

She was completely oblivious to the passing time and Things around her. A small pile of books ranging from electronics to small syfy novels surrounded her.

"Think we should-" Onyx would start.

"-head inside?" And Emmett would finish.

"Yeah."

The two looked to the door of the back room, with Emmett drawing his weapon and heading in first.

The door would fall out of its hinges and slam unto the dusty floor. When it settled, the shop owner was lying on the ground, cuts and bruises all over.

"What the-!" But before the two could check whether he was still alive, someone would jump down from the ceiling.

Red fur, cyan eyes, left side of the face heavily scarred. Prominent saber-teeth.

By how he dressed, the two could be mistaken for thinking he was just any other teenager, but circumstances dictated otherwise.

And that wicked smile.

"Is that a banana in your pocket," he'd say cheekily. "Or are you just dying to know what's on that tape?"

63 wasn't paying attention as the two exited the room, only looking up when she suddenly didn't feel their life force near her. She got up and quickly walked over just as they entered the room, being greeted by a new voice. She let out a gasped when she saw the owner on the floor and the other person in the room. Instinctively she put herself in a position to jump in front of the two if needed, keeping her form up unless she needed too drop it.

"Who are you? Why did you hurt him?" The smell of blood in the air had already started affecting her as her voice started to change, "I want answers."

The saber tooth tiger would chuckle.

"Why, she asks. Because I could," he'd tell her. "And it's Felix. Not like that's gonna matter." He'd touch a steel cabinet and his arms would turn to metal.

"Stay out of this, you two," Onyx would grumble. "You don't know what he's capable of."

Emmett chose to remain silent. He wasn't backing off. If this Felix guy wanted a fight, he'd get it.

63 felt her inside boil as she looked him, "Because you could?" Her voice had already gotten more feral, "Because you could!?" Her form started to loosen as she felt anger rise and the scent of blood filled her senses, blinding her as her form completely fell apart and her eye went black.

She let out a hiss as she crouched ready to pounce, showing very little sign of control. In fact it was almost a willing change to feral.

She stared at Felix as she wait to see what he would do. Watching his every move.

Felix, with a smirk, would crack his knuckles and dare them to come any closer. The metal arms? Just a small showcase.

Anyone that wasn't an idiot always kept a few aces up their sleeve.

"Wait, don't!" Onyx would shout as the girl would hiss.

"Aww, where do you keep finding these, Onyx?" Felix would say mockingly. "She's adorable."

The skunk stayed silent, but observant. He was already planning how to get rid of him quickly and efficiently.

63 kept near deathly still as she stared at him, waiting for him to make a move before trying to attack. All the while her form deteriorated to being completely yellow liquid again, started to spread and coat the floor around her.

~Pain, anger, sadness... hungry...~ her mind rambled off as she morphed and created tendrils ready to grab him when she pounced. Every finber or her being gave off pure insanity as the crouched there.

From Onyx's point of view, things didn't seem to be going anywhere. Both of them were just waiting for one another to make the first move, see who cracks under pressure first.

And he was having none of that.

The wolf's suit would rip apart, revealing it to be lined with magnetized cobalt bearings and a skin-tight jumpsuit underneath, almost like one a superhero of sort would wear.

In a suprise attack, he'd send a large swarm of them Felix's way, keeping the rest orbitting around him as some sort of makeshift shield.

They shot through him effortlessly, careful enough not to hit the girl's new form, knocking him off his feet.

But the saber-toothed tiger got up almost effortlessly, merely dusting himself off. What Onyx though were clean hits merely pierced the skin and showed that there was metal underneath.

"You really though the same trick would work again?" Felix's arms would turn into a sword and hammer, respectively. "You're gonna have a good time thinking of something original when you're dead!"

He then moved forward with a swing of his sword and an overhead slam of the hammer.

63 immediately dodged away as the hammer came down, using the slime that coated the floor to swarm him as he attacked. Swarm around as she tried to grapple and pin him.

"Your not getting away with this!"

"That's cute." The saber-toothed tiger's arms would retract into his body and he'd gleefully let her pin him down.

Should she fall for the ruse, long, sharp tendrils would emerge from his back and start stabbing.

There were few things Felix loved more than a plan coming together.

As Felixs stabbed into her she let out a demented laugh,

"Not solid, won't work," her tendrils and arms gripped tightly as she began the process of drain him, "Now let me feed..."

She immediately tried to absorbed his DNA, pulling and trying to cut into him.

The saber-toothed tiger felt a tingling sensation, but something in the back of his head told him it would get much, much worse.

Not wasting a moment, he'd transform his arms and legs into crushers of a garbage compactor and start closing in on her. He'd have to applaud her later for telling him cutting isn't gonna, well, cut it. That was awfully nice of her.

63 smiled as she liquefied more and continued her hold on him, laugh insanely as she simply let her body slip out as Felix tried crushing her, sliding out of his attack.

"You like pain? I'll give you pain...." her eyes were set on him as she reformed, "Like metal? Have more!" As she said this she immediately grabbed several metal cabinets and brought them down to slam into into him.

The saber-toothed tiger would smirk

"You fool." He'd think. It seemed as if she was forgetting what he was capable of.

And so, when the cabinets would hit him, he'd wrap his arms around them and utilize them as makeshift weapons.

Both cabinets would be swung in 63's way, in quick succession.