Out of the Darkness

Central City.
3:57 AM.

It was a typical late night/early morning in the big city. Bright streetlights and high-rise building lights illuminated the skyline, leaving the sky itself clear and starless, painted a solid midnight blue. The full moon was just peeking over the horizon of the city's famous not-Golden Gate bridge, beginning to fade and set and make room for the new day. Most people at this hour were still asleep, and the majority of the businesses were either closed or just about to open. Yet, traffic was still heavy on the main roads, breaking any potential silence with honking horns and screeching tires.

For a city of this size, it was fairly peaceful this night: no large-scale crimes, no major events, very few reports of illegal activities—in fact, only rarely did a police/ambulance/fire siren ring at all throughout the night. And for one particular male Mobian, who was leaning on the safety rail atop the roof of a tall skyscraper, his job was to make sure things stayed that way.

This Mobian—codenamed ‘Volt’—was a vigilante, a member of an infamous travelling gang of heroes known as DVNz. Naturally, he wore a disguise: a long, black hooded cloak shrouding his body; a black-and-yellow, lightning-print bandana and black, tinted goggles concealing his face; and a long, black-and-yellow rifle latching onto his back by a cross-shoulder scabbard.

Volt and his gang came to Central City to do what they did best: to take down a violent crime syndicate with their swift, hard-hitting brand of ‘street-justice’. Their target this time was a local underground mafia, known for their corruption of government officials and witness intimidation. The takedown mission was successfully completed a few days ago; they left GUN and the other law enforcement agencies to...‘clean up the mess’, if you will.

Tonight was their last night in Central City before they headed back to their home base in Spagonia. Volt was out giving one last patrol to make sure things here were now safe.

“...58...59...aaaaand bang. 4 o’clock,” he whispered to himself, watching the time go by on the video feed from his mechanical goggles. With an exhausted sigh, he leaned off the rail, stretched his back, and raised his left hand to his ear, pressing a button on a communicator.

“Biiiiig O, it's Volt. Come in,” he spoke in his nasally voice.

Within seconds, a youthful male voice chimed in from the other side: “I'm here, over.”

It was another member of DVNz, codenamed ‘Overclock’: the tech guru and communications operator for the gang. He was still at the DVNz safehouse, monitoring the city streets with Volt via a set of hacked security cameras.

“Ayyy my man!” Volt replied. “How’s it lookin’ on the monitors?”

“Everything looks clear from here. We’re all set to round up back at base.”

“Phhhew, finally!” Volt replied, stretching his arms behind his head. “Man, dude. You really gotta look into puttin’ some movies on these goggles or somethin’. Gets kinda borin’ up here when nothin's goin' on.”

Overclock chuckled. “Whatever you say...Just head back to base, ok?”

“10-4, bud. Check back in 20.”

Volt pressed the button on his communicator again to turn it off. He dipped his right hand inside of his cloak, taking a few backwards steps away from the railing. From his right hip, he un-holstered one of his two black-and-yellow pistols; he gave it quick spin, a short crack of electricity whipping around his wrists. He paused for a second, let out a deep exhale, and stepped forward, breaking into a sprint towards the roof’s edge.

Planting his foot on the safety rail, he leaped off the skyscraper’s rooftop, descending rapidly towards ground level with violent wind whipping through his cloak. Mid-air, though, he pivoted his body, aimed his pistol toward the roof corner of the next building over, and fired: a long, yellow, glowing beam of electricity projected from the barrel of his gun and latched onto the building. This beam broke his momentum, allowing him to swing with ease to a lower rooftop.

As he landed, he broke the grapple beam and dived into a roll. He then got up, drew his other pistol, and dusted himself off. “Heh, that never gets old,” he said to himself.

He continued moving across the city rooftops—grappling to higher buildings,  jumping/parkouring across lower ones—beginning to make his exit out of the city, heading back to his safehouse.  

Night time was always the best time to get a job done.

That wasn't to say anyone really wanted to be working this early on in the morning, but it came in the description - if you could even call it that.
A shadow darted swiftly across the streets and bounced up walls in a parkour like fashion to reach to rooftops and get a better vantage point. It was hard to make out the figure as they were seemingly phasing in and out of solidity, but that could merely have been a trick on any set of tired eyes.
Finally, the figure stopped at the peak of a flat topped building to look over the place known as Central City. Upon this sudden stillness, it was now apparent that the phasing Mobian was female. She wore a black leather jacket with a zipped up hoodie underneath to hide her fur colour from any potential onlookers. She had to remain at least partially concealed, even in the nighttime glow of the city lights. She wore a beanie hat that had her marroon-white tipped hair tucked in to further maintain her anonyminity. The only thing that made her current form stand out from others was the obvious lack of where to put her red and white tail.

Oh, and lets not forget about those shiny black horns that curled around her ears. These things were not as easy to disguise as the rest of her. But hey, at least the hat was black, right?

The female huffed to herself as she looked over the landscape, her keen sapphire blues taking in everything possible, somehwat afraid to miss anything out.
Then, there was her target. An avian Mobian was talking on some sort of communicator, and if he hadn't spoken so suddenly, she would have surely missed him.

Naturally she couldn't hear what he was saying due to the distance between them, but she was informed by her intel that he spoke with a nasally voice and could sometimes be known to be louder than he meant to be.

That didn't mean he wasn't dangerous.

Taking a quick scan through the information on her wrist comm, it was clearly apparent that GUN did not have a great deal of details on this group of vigilantes. However, the codenames of each were at least given. This one was known as 'Volt'.

Taking a moment to ready herself, she felt around her wrists to ensure her silver bracelets were still present before making her way down as quietly as possible in order to ambush the male she had been looking for for the past three hours. She growled lowly to herself as her black booted feet touched on the sidewalk. 

"The pay for this better be worth it."

While Volt was making his way out of the city—using the shadows of the dark rooftops as cover—Overclock kept eyes on the streets via his hacked cameras, just in case something came up before Volt made it to base. Yet and still, though, there was nothing noteworthy on the feed: aside from the passing car here and there, the city streets were vacant, practically barren even. After a long night of switching between cameras for naught, Overclock assumed that it’d be safe to call it in and get ready for tomorrow's trip back home. He began typing on his keyboard to cancel the feed; but just as he was about to press a button to release the cameras—

—he spotted something.

It was quick, and very faint; if the streets weren’t so empty, he’d miss it. But what he caught on his monitor was just enough to grab his attention: a peculiar shadow swiftly moving in and out of view of not just one, nor two, but multiple cameras—one after the other, as if following a specific path.

Curious, Overclock leaned forward in his chair and typed some more, isolating the cameras that caught this shadow. He replayed the video feed frame-by-frame and enhanced the image in attempt to make out its shape, yet he couldn’t get a good view of it. Could it just be a camera glitch?

To be safe, he pressed the button on his communicator and contacted Volt, who was still traversing the city rooftops. “Volt? It’s Overclock. Come in.”

Upon hearing Overclock's voice, Volt also reached his hand up to his ear and pressed the button on his communicator. “Yea, sup?” he replied.

Switching his language to DVNz's code language— that is, German— Overclock responded: “Sei in Bereitschaft. Mögliche verdächtige Entität entdeckt.” 

‘Be on standby. Possible suspicious entity spotted.’

Upon hearing these words, Volt immediately slowed down and stopped. He looked around the rooftop he was on for a second, trying to find a place to hide; then, upon spotting a large HVAC unit, he ducked behind it and waited until further instructions.

((OOC note: Ok so...I don’t know German ^^; aaand I used Google Translate to come up with that last line. Aaaand considering that I don’t want to trigger any native German speakers out there, I’ll write out the next bit of dialogue in English. Just assume everything within brackets ([ ]) is said in German. ))

”[What’d you find?]” Volt asked, whispering as quietly as he could into his earpiece between panting breaths.


Overclock continued typing, switching from camera to camera to track the shadow’s movements. "[I...really can’t say. It could be just a glitch but...it’s not one that I’ve seen be..fo...re...]"

Before Overclock could finish his sentence, he watched the strange shadow move straight up the side of a building, onto the rooftops. Even more puzzled now, he began typing again, switching from the street cameras to the rooftop cameras to keep it in his sights.

Although there were fewer cameras on the rooftops—most of them with lower quality than the street cameras—Overclock did manage to pull up one that, after remotely adjusting its angle and zoom, allowed him to get a good look at the strange entity. What seemed to be the source of this shadow was now standing still, in plain view:

A Mobian.

Although neither their face nor body could be seen, Overclock did make out their long tail, some sort of wrist communicator...and jet-black horns. That, plus the dark clothing, a telling sign that they were deliberately trying to hide themselves...

...Whoever this was, they looked suspicious.

Alerted, Overclock used the camera to zoom in on the strange Mobian and snap a picture of them. He then transmitted it to Volt’s goggles. "[...Volt...we’ve got company. What do you make of this?]" he asked.

Volt brought his right hand to his goggles, pressing a button on the frame to view the sent image. "[Ooh man, e d g y,]" he chuckled. "[Yea, they don't look like they're out here for nothin' I'll tell ya that...Think it’s somebody from that whole mafia deal?]"

"[I...I really don’t know. That communicator looks too high-tech for those guys, but...I agree: whoever this is, they’re definitely looking for trouble.]"

"[Psh, you’re tellin’ me. Any idea where they might be headed?]"

"[It's hard to say. But judging by the path they’ve been following, it’s…. Almost as if they’re travelling in the same general direction you are.]"

"[...Huh….Heh, great. Just makes things easier,” Volt said as a brief crack of electricity enveloped his wrists. "[I’ll keep eyes on 'em. If it comes down to it, I'll question 'em. Keep me updated on their movements.]"

“[Affirmative. Volt...please, stay safe.]”

“[You got it, bud.]” 

Volt then stood up from behind the HVAC, lying low and keeping as quiet as he can. “Finally, some action!” he whispered excitedly, spinning his pistols in his hands again.

With that, he’d ducked back into the rooftop shadows, veiled in his solid black cloak. Overclock’d kept him updated on the Mobian’s movements; meanwhile, he attempted to track them at a safe distance, trying to avoid detection—and confrontation—unless the situation called for it.

What he wouldn't know was that this Mobian was also looking for him.

The female pressed a small button on her wrist before speaking into it as quiet as a whisper.

"Commander, suspect is in sight. Awaiting further instruction."

A few seconds went by in static silence, before a deep male voice responded in almost a rumble. "Good work Agent, tail him, and try to find where their base is. There are more of them, and we must intercept them at the core than one by one. You have your locator, correct?"

"Yes sir." Her soft voice spoke abruptly. "Should I activate it now, or wait until I get further in?"

"Leave it for now, we can keep tabs on you once you're out of ra-HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?" 

The sudden louder voice made the dark clothed female jump slightly as she swiftly turned off the communicator with a low growl. 
The Commander seemed to forget what the meaning of stealth meant if something distracted him.

'He may well have just stuck a bloody beacon to me and called me out with that outburst. Why do I work for these guys again?' She thought angrily to herself.

'Oh yeah, that's right. You can't work for anyone else with your damn limitations.'

Her ears fell flat against her head at her own thoughts as she shook her head to get back to the task at hand. This was no time for self depreciation; she had a mission to carry out. 

Looking back to where the avian Mobian was, she knew something had gone wrong in her communication with her higher up. He was gone.
She hissed slightly to herself as she felt like giving the Commander a powerful crack in the jaw for potentially messing up her mission by being incompetent when issuing orders. Stupid, stupid humans.

Tala looked up to the sky for a brief moment , not to admire the beauty, but to focus on hearing everything around her. As soon as any noise was caught in her sharp ears, she made her way over, disappearing into the shadows anywhere she could to maintain her position. With any hope, this Volt guy hadn't spotted or heard her, but she knew she had to prepare herself in case the opposite were true.

After scaling a few more rooftops, Volt caught up to the suspicious Mobian, spotting them just shy of a city-block ahead on the sidewalk below. Upon catching sight of them, he quickly dropped into a prone to keep himself hidden. He kept his eyes on them, however, pressing a button on his goggles to zoom in for a better view. 

It was strange how the Mobian just...stopped, right out in the open. They were just standing there, completely still with their hand up to their mouth. Upon further inspection, it appeared as if they were speaking to someone over their wrist communicator. 

Curious, Volt whispered into his own communicator: “[Hey, turn that up for me.]"

“[10-4.]”

Overclock began typing some more, enhancing the audio feed as Volt requested. Now, they both were able to overhear whatever conversation the Mobian was having; although their voice came in clear, only bits and pieces of of whoever they were speaking to came through.


“...em….intercep...core….l..cator….rrect?”

"Yes sir. Should I activate it now, or wait until I get further in?”


Those words only raised Volt and Overclock's suspicion even higher. Activate….what?

“[...They’re definitely trying to infiltrate the city for something. But…]” Overclock paused, a very scary thought entering his mind. “[...C...Could it...be some kind of b-bomb? Ar...are they..a t—....terrorist??]”

Volt also paused for a second, thinking. “[Dunno...And I ain’t tryin' to find out the hard way,]” he replied, tightening his grip on the pistol in his hand. “[Yea...Better safe than sorry. I’m goin’ in.]”

Overclock, although nervous, knew that Volt was right; if they leave this highly suspicions individual person be, there's no telling what could happen. “[...O-O...ok...just, d-don't let them see you...They seem e-extremely dangerous, and—]”

“[Dude, dude, chiiiill,]” Volt chuckled. “[I mean c’mon, this wouldn’t be the first terrorist whatever we've dealt with....Well, maybe the first with devil-horns and a wolf tail but you get the idea. We got this. Just like usual.]"

“[...I..If you say so.]”

“[You bet you spines I do, bud. Be on standby.]”

Volt then slowly rose from his prone position into a crouch. At this point, the Mobian seemed off of their communicator but...was still just standing there in silence, as if deep in thought. Volt ducked back into the rooftop shadows, stealthily advancing towards the Mobian as quickly and quietly as he could.

When he'd eventually get to the rooftop directly behind them, he’d peek over the edge and look straight down at them. Seeing them up-close—although Volt wouldn't admit it...it sent a chill down his spine. The vibe they gave off was...dark. Angry. Malevolent, as if ready to throw down with anybody that crossed their path. (Little did he know that was probably because of the person on their communicator.) Volt gave a slow, silent, steady breath as to not alert them—and then proceeded to make his move. 

He'd take a step forward, beginning to jump down; but the moment he did, the Mobian began to shake their head violently, causing him jump back onto the rooftop, out of sight. After a few more seconds, he’d leaned forward again, his pistol in steady grip. Now they were just standing there, head towards the sky...

Now was his chance.

Volt'd vault over the edge of the rooftop, landing on the sidewalk below, directly behind them. His raised his right pistol towards them, pointing it directly at the back of their head. 

“Hey,” he’d bark.

“Don’t. Stinkin'. Move. If you even breathe in a way I don’t like, I’m turnin’ ya into Apotos cheese.”

His free, left hand would slowly drift towards his hip, towards the pistol in his left holster. The entire time, his gaze would be steady fixed on the Mobian, ready to act on his threat if they made any sudden movements.

“Now...Let's just cut to the chase. I saw ya scamperin' across town and uh...you don't look like you're out here just for a mornin' jog...What, you lost? Sightseein'? Lookin’ for an open cafe? Arcade? Bathroom?...Your way back to wherever the crap you came from? Or is it uh...somethin’ to uh…’activate’?”

He’d pause for a second, then continue: “Answers. Now. The heck have you got up, huh? ‘Cuz if you’re lookin’ for trouble...oh, now you found it.” 

“Hey,”

Her maroon ears twitched at the sound of the familiar voice. She mentally face-palmed herself as she knew then and there she had been seen. 

Stupid bosses.

She raised her hands into the air and made her way to turn around to face the avian male, not entirely certain on whether he already had a weapon trained onto her, and definitely didn't want to cause a commotion at this hour.

Or course unless things got...unruly. Then she wouldn't hold anything back. Mission first, pah!

The female snickered a little at the comment about turning her into cheese. If only it would be so easy for him. 

"I take it you have an interceptor to listen into other communicators? Well you're jumping to the wrong conclusion, kid. I'm on the side who protects the people of this city, not you."

While she spoke those words confidently enough, she couldn't tell herself to believe them strongly enough. Lately, her missions had all been shrouded in mystery, and whenever she enquired as to why she was to do certain tasks she was shut out and most of the time threatened with her job if she didn't just 'shut up and do what grunts did.'

Yeah, sure, whatever. She was only a stupid grunt with no real purpose. It called into question how valuable she really was to then considering she did the things they wouldn't send others out to do normally. Then again, not everyone was like her. The Commander knew that, and surely didn't want to lose that either.

A dark smirk crossed her white muzzle as she saw fit to lower her arms slowly. They guy was younger than her by a few years at least. Even if he was to fire, he wouldn't be able hit her thanks to her abilities.

Hopefully.

But he didn't know that, so maybe she could give him a false sense of security. That may make her feel better about her position being given away by the very one who sent her on this mission in the first place.

She took a couple of hesitant steps closer to Volt, keeping her wits about her in case he did lash out or shoot. The most unusual feeling came over her just as she got within a certain distance. Familiarity? Kinship? There was something...

She narrowed her blue eyes warily at the white male and slightly bared her teeth at him as a way of telling him to back off with his accusations. "Funny, you're the renegade here. I'm just doing my job to keep the city safe. Nothing more, nothing less."

Before Volt would be able to act with accuracy, she melted into the shadow beneath her and appeared right behind him through his own and produced a short blade from her thigh and held it out as close to his neck as she could get.
"Now... you're gonna put that little compensator away, and we are going to have a nice little chat. We've been looking for you Deviants for a long time now, and you will come and give us what we need, or suffer the consequences. Simple, right?"

Whoever this suspicious person was, they evidently knew what to do when approached by someone with a weapon. As soon as they heard Volt’s voice barking orders from behind them, they began carefully raising their hands to show they weren't armed. But, instead of following Volt’s order to stay still, they turned around, attempting to face him. Volt, still not knowing who this person was, couldn't let that slip by; if they were the threat he and Overclock feared, he had to show them how much he meant business.

Right as they pivoted, a short, yellow beam of lightning—with a speed and force identical to a bullet—would fire at them; instead of hitting them, however, it'd just miss left side of their face, hitting the wall of a building next to them, leaving behind a small, smoking crater in the bricks. This projectile was a shot from one is Volt’s pistols: a warning shot he fired just to keep the Mobian at bay.

“I said. Don’t. Move. What, the horns blockin’ ya ears or somethin’?...Try it again and the next one’s goin’ between the eyes.

Now...the only thing I wanna see movin’ are those lips. Answers. Now.”

Despite the threatening order, the Mobian didn’t crack. They began speaking—their voice revealing they were evidently female—questioning how exactly Volt overheard the conversation, whether he had an interceptor on him to listen to other communicators. Before Volt could open his mouth(beak) to reply, she continued, accusing him of jumping to the wrong conclusion, calling him ‘kid’ and claiming that she was the one of the true protectors of this city, not him.

Volt stayed silent, trying to make sense of her words... sudden feeling that something was really off beginning to overtake him.

This Mobian didn't seem surprised, immediately hostile—nothing typical of a perp with squandered plans. She didn't seem to be forcing herself to stay this calm either...in fact, call it a stretch, but it was almost as if she expected him—wanted him, even—to confront her like this, as if already aware of his presence in the city. Volt knew for a fact he stayed hidden on the rooftops while tailing her, but she apparently already knew who he was and why he was there despite, to his knowledge, not even seeing him. On top of this, the claim of being ‘the real protector of this city’—was she from some sort of rival gang? Or…

Within seconds, Overclock’s alarmed voice came through Volt’s communicator.

[“Volt, change of plans! This is serious trouble, you might need to get out of there, quick!”]

Keeping his eyes and pistol on the Mobian, Volt switched his language and began softly whispering into his earpiece, Overclock's panicked voiced prompting him to take a slow backwards step: ["What? What’s goin’ on? Talk to me.”]

Overclock wasn’t simply watching and waiting back at base; as Volt was sneaking, he continued replaying the feed, trying to find a clearer shot of something—a glimpse of her face, an identifying mark, anything—that could give him and Volt a better idea of who/what they were working with. He did find a camera that gave a better angle of when she stood on that roof looking into her communicator; it still wasn’t enough to see her face, but...he did see the communicator in plain view. And after zoom-enhancing the pixelated image, he spotted something on that communication that took him by both surprise and fear.

A picture of Volt.

Overclock immediately jumped on the communicator to alert his brother that whoever this person was...they had it out for him.

[“I-I still don’t know who they are b-but...They were already ready for y-you! This m-might be a trap o-or—”]

Volt, still keeping his pistol locked on the Mobian, whispered back: [“Dude, dude, calm down. Tell me what’s wrong...You sayin’ I should scram? Am I supposed ta’ just leave ‘em here like this?”]

[“...N...No! I-I mean, y-yes! I-I mean...I-I don’t know, b-but you can’t stay ther—!”]

Mid Overclock’s shrieking, the female Mobian began moving again. This time, she began letting her arms down, taking advantage of Volt’s momentary lack of focus on her. Volt caught sight of her as she took a step forward towards him, taunting him and calling him a ‘renegade’.

“For heck's sake, I said, stay STILL!” Volt barked at her again, firing another shot—this time, aimed straight for her, just as he threatened.

But just as it was about to hit her, she disappeared into a shadowy haze.

In a split second, quicker than he could even think, Volt suddenly felt something pressed to his neck—a sharp object...evidently a blade. And as for the Mobian—her dark, menacing voice was now coming from behind him, telling him to drop the gun and come with her—him and the rest of his crew—lest he ‘suffer the consequences’.

"...Oh no," Overclock whispered to himself, cusping his hands against his mouth as he watched and listened over the feed. Volt on the other hand...he just stood in still silence, refraining from making any sudden movements...and trying to mentally replay what the heck just happened...

...This definitely wasn't right.

Who was this person to claim they were the 'protector of this city'? Who were they to be trying to hunt down DVNz, claiming to have something they want? Even beyond that, those powers—evidently some sort of darkness teleportation—allowed her to simply slip by him while his guard was down like it was nothing. Impressive, yes, but...something about it felt rather odd. He had never seen such a power before, but there was a strange…familiarity to it, like deja vu almost...

...but nevermind that right now.

Right now, Volt had to focus on his current situation. If this Mobian was in fact looking for him, knowing who he was before he confronted her, she had to have been tracking him all night. She must be employed by someone; likely, whoever she was talking to over the communicator, whom she called 'sir’. Adding it all up, the signs seemed to point towards a DVNz rival—and the first of which that came to mind was the organization that's been tracking down DVNz ever since the gang formed, Mobius's most powerful military organization considered to be DVNz’s main enemy...

...GUN.

It'd all make sense; so much sense, it made Volt's squinted eyes twitch behind his googles in both fear...and anger. GUN was something he despised with every single bone in his body; he hated their very existence on the Mobian planet, so much so that the very sight of that G logo was enough to set him off. All because of a deep, personal vendetta that he's carried with them since his youth.

Whoever this person was, she was looking to capture him. He couldn't let that happen—not to him, nor to the rest of his gang—especially if she was from GUN. He promised such to his leader, Alloy, and most of all, his parents…

Volt gave a light, silent exhale. C'mon Jonas. Calm down. Think rationally here.

Even though many signs pointed to GUN affiliation, a few things still didn't add up. Sending out a counter-patrol solely for him—that wasn’t normal for GUN to do. On top of this, GUN usually travelled with some sort of squadron behind them—as Volt glanced about the street, she appeared to be alone. She could be some sort of special agent, but sending 1 person to take down all 4 DVNz...

…Could she be that strong?

A few more seconds of silence passed, then Volt replied to the wolf: “...Alright. Alright...Fine. You got me. It's cool. You wanna chat? Let’s chat. Just...be chill with the knife, k?...I’m droppin’ the gun.”

Volt’d slowly loosen the fingers of his right hand, beginning to let go of the gun as he said. His left hand would pull away from the holstered pistol on his hip. He’d then drop the pistol on the ground, then raise both hands to show that he was unarmed.

“See? I’m cool. Everything’s cool...I’m not gonna reach. It’s whatever you want…”

No matter what he was feeling...there wasn't anything he could do at this point. The Mobian had him; given there was no real guarantee she wouldn’t try to kill him, it'd be game over if he made any big movements. He had no choice but to submit to her demands...

...well… That's what he wanted her to think, at least.

No matter how strong she could've been, one thing was for certain—she was underestimating Volt. His situation looked bleak, that's for sure. But despite his young age, Volt was trained to handle situations just like these. In fact, the position she was in, holding the knife to his neck—it was one Volt was *specifically* trained to counter.

He wasn't going down as easy as she'd think.

He'd begin speaking to her in a more casual, conversational— albeit somewhat taunting—tone: “...So, what, am I 'under arrest’ now or somethin’?...Where’s this you tryin' to take me, eh? 'n' whatsit ya ‘need’ from us?...Or, heh, do you even know yourself? Just 'doin’ your job’ and all that crap?... Speakin’a jobs, where's the rest of y—”

His words, solely meant to throw the assailant off-guard, would abruptly cut off. And at that very moment...he’d strike.

((OOC note: just in case I described this a little... weirdly, here's a link to see it in action. I tried to describe it as best as I could but grapples are kinda hard to word ;-)

Suddenly, he’d snatch his arms out of the air,  attempting to grab the wolf’s wrist with both of his hands. If he touched her, his palms would begin to spark and crack with electricity; upon contact, they'd act like tazers, intensely shocking and hopefully stunning her. Using this window of opportunity, he’d next try to yank her arm downward, forcing the blade away from his neck; he'd then launch a backwards elbow straight towards her gut. Following this, still keeping a tight grip on her wrist, he'd duck and slip underneath her arm, twisting it as he’d try to get behind her. He'd follow up with an armbar takedown: delivering a hard forearm chop to her twisted arm to force her downwards, then, with a hard push, slamming her face-first on the sidewalk, pushing his knee into her back to pin her in place.

If the takedown proved successful, he'd stay on her back, driving his knee harder and harder in her spine if she tried to struggle. Still holding on to her twisted arm with one  hand, he'd reach for the back of her neck with the other; once again, if he touched her, he'd send another light shock into her body, just to weaken her a bit more. "Listen here, toots. I ain't ya normal punk 'kid’, and ya dang sure ain't takin' me nowhere I don’t like that easy. Capiche?”He'd release her neck for a second, another electric current circling his wrists. This time, the current would flow over his fingertips, collect in his palm, and congeal to form a glowing electric knife. He'd hold the blade right against her neck, its static just singing the tip of her fur. "Now...try anything funny, and you'll be leakin' ya' fur color all over the sidewalk. Ya better tell me who the heck you are, pronto. I'm startin' to lose my patience, here."

Volt's attack was risky, but he felt he had no other choice. Although it would've been safer on him to flee, he couldn't bring himself to just leave the city knowing someone with such a threatening presence was lurking about. Fortunately, his takedown maneuver fared successful, and he was able to put the Mobian into submission. Now, all he had to do was interrogate her.

"I said. Talk," he coldly demanded, pushing his knee harder in her back and pressing his electric blade even closer to her neck. She'd begin to feel its hot static popping and lightly zapping her throat. "You tryna' test me?"

Of course, he wasn't going to make the fatal blow—that is, unless she left him with no other choice. Neither he nor the other DVNz were inherent killers. But he had to keep the heat on like this to get the answers he needed, to be certain she wasn't a public threat. That, plus he wanted to send a message to whoever she was working for, who were also apparently after Volt and his family—

—"don't mess with DVNz".

Answers or no answers, though, he couldn't carry this out for long. His plan was simple: incipaciate her (via takedown), make her talk, and upon finding out who she was, knock her out, tie her, and leave GUN/local law enforcement to handle the rest—just like DVNz always handles suspected criminals. But most importantly, he needed to get the heck out of there before whoever she was talking to on the communicator tried to call for backup.

As Volt kept her pinned, though, he felt like something wasn't right about her. If she was sent by herself to go against, not just Volt, but the entire crew at once, she had to have been strong. The brief display of her powers showed that she could do more than just fight back.

But...she wasn't. Not as much as he expected, at least.

It wasn't as if he wanted to fight her—especially if it involved risking capture—but she seemed rather off her game, contrasted to the menacing threat that he and Overclock first suspected. And as he was holding onto her, it was as if her body went entirely limp, as if all the fight drained from her the very moment she hit the pavement. Volt's words before the takedown were meant to throw her off guard, but she seemed…*too* off guard.   

And as he looked down at her, watching her as her gaze became fixed on her wrist—namely, the broken metal bracelet on it—her demeanor began to change. He simply watched as her facial expression expression began to change from malice to pure dread, color flushing from her cheeks, a quiet "oh no" escaping from her lips...

...when suddenly, she moved.

She pushed him in an abrupt panic—not like a formal counter attack, but an instinctual movement out of sheer desperation. The push was so sudden and fierce, it knocked Volt off balance, despite him being the one pinning her. He immediately jumped off, leapt back to his feet, and ran back to gain some distance from her, quickly nabbing his dropped pistol along the way. He turned to face her again, quickly drawing his other holstered pistol; he aimed both square at her torso, rearing up to unload every shot he had charged, thinking she was going to attack—

—until he noticed her position: stepping away from him with her arms raised...almost as if in defeat. And the moment Volt aimed at her, she began pleading with him to stop, saying she didn't want to hurt him...that she didn't care about her mission anymore.

Volt's eyebrow subtly raised behind his goggles. Yea, right. She already tricked him once; this was obviously some kind of diversion...But the way she was acting—the tone of her voice, the look on her face, her body language—it was a complete contrast to the way she was before. If it was an act, boy was it good— 'rivaling Volt's sister, Mirage' good.

The wolf continued speaking, her speech hurried and panicked, pleading with him as if her life depended on it. Volt, though somewhat reluctant, decided to hear her out, keeping both pistols aimed at on her, staying keen of her movements just in case she tried anything funny. She addressed the questions Volt threw earlier: she claimed she was solo, that she came alone—that, for her, things have always been that way—and that working with and for humans was against everything she stood for...heck, that she couldn't even stand to see her comrades doing the same.

Skeptical, Volt began to retort: "Uhhhhh-huh. What, ya think I was born ye—" But then she cut him off again, further claiming that she didn't have anywhere else to go. She had no choice but to do as she was ordered.

Volt just simply glared through her. It was beginning to sound more and more like she was, indeed, GUN-affiliated; and, if so, she was getting no sympathy from him. His hatred for the entire organization blinded him from any compassion towards their members—be it this Mobian, be it Carville*, be it the tall human that handed him off to Area 99...He hated all of them. Who cares if they were just 'following orders'—they had a brain, they could think for themselves. They could see whether or not what they were doing was right. But instead, they just went along with whatever they were told, no matter who get hurt in the process, all in the name of 'following orders'.

Pathetic.

Volt's cynical thoughts were cut off by the female's voice yet again, who told him that, despite it all, regardless of whatever transpired on this night, he needed to get out of there—as if he was in some sort of danger.

He tilted his head in confusion. He admittedly wasn’t the best people-reader, and he normally wouldn't believe a GUN agent, but...realistically, she didn't seem to be putting on airs. Volt didn't know what to think. This...this wasn't like any other GUN agent he’d met before, let alone criminal. 

Before Volt could even think of a way to answer her, she dropped to her knees as if she was in...pain. Nothing but pain. She was holding her wrists, visibly straining with all her might. Volt—and Overclock—simply watched, silent...completely confused as to what was going on. She spoke again, this time begging him even harder to get out of there, to escape.

This...definitely wasn't an act.

Was she really giving up her mission, just like that? Did she not care about what her higher-ups were going to say? Was she really trying to look out for him more than herself? Was she actually...

Volt took a hesitant backwards step, keeping his pistols locked on her. All he could do was just….stare, watching as she continued straining in pure agony. What the heck was going on?

As he watched her, her words began rattling through his mind...And as he looked into her face, those eyes of hers, that pain...it triggered something with in him. He started to feel something for her, as if there was a connection. An empathy...as if he knew the pain that she was feeling right now.

Which, in fact, he did.

"...A...are you...oka—" he cautiously started to ask, on reflex. He caught his tongue midway through before the words fully escaped his mouth (beak).

This entire thing...this was one of the strangest nights—with one of the strangest people—Volt has ever encountered. He didn't know what to feel about this individual anymore. On one hand, he hated GUN, criminals, terrorists, etc. But, this person...something wasn't right about her. Despite their encounter, she actually seemed to be like any other Mobian in trouble. And overall…

...overall, she looked like a person just trying to survive. Just like him.  

Volt silently stared at her for a few more seconds. Then...he softened the grip on his pistols. He pointed one of them away from her and at the corner of a building across the street; he then fired at its roof corner another grapple beam. Once it latched on, he zipped onto the rooftop, leaving the Mobian behind just as she told him to. He looked back at her once more, then proceeded to duck back into the shadows, .

Leaving the Mobian behind, he continued his sprint across the rooftops, heading out of the city. But as he was about to jump an alleyway gap to the next building over...he stopped. For some reason, the entire scene that just played out kept repeating over and over again in his head; the look on her face, the panic in her words, not to mention her words themselves—he couldn't get it out of his mind. Then the thought came to him: no matter who she was…she actually tried to look out for his safety, even above her own. She didn't view him as just a vigilante, as a criminal, a fugitive, a monster...but as a Mobian, like she was. Someone who was trying to survive and had just as much right as she did to survive. 

...and Volt wouldn't allow himself leave another survivor behind that easily.

From the roof he was on, he looked up, trying to see if there was somewhere else he could go to gain a safe vantage point, not too close yet not too far away. He found another, higher building the next block over. Setting his sights for it, he changed his direct, and, using his grapple beam/parkour skills once again, climbed up to it, perched on the ledge, looking down at the street corner where the Mobian stood. Using his goggles, he zoomed in and kept an eye on her, following her movements, trailing her wherever she might go...

It seemed to be taking what felt like a lifetime for the bird guy to actually decide what he wanted to do.
He stood analysing her, as if she was playing him, but to be fair she couldn't blame him. After all, she just held a knife to his throat and could have ended it before he even managed to take his last breath.

Okay, so he managed to get out of that pickle and held his own against her, even if she wasn't in the mood to fight in the beginning. Sure, he was her enemy at this point, but from the very moment she came into close range of him, she felt something from him. A familiarity, maybe even kinship?
He didn't believe her words as she held on to her wrists and begged him to go. Begging was something she did not do. She made it a point to never care or show any concern to anyone at any point. This time however, she didn't know what actually happened, but she felt as if it was a certainty that she needed to ensure Volt was safe from her. The horrible, life-destroying secondary power she held inside like a dirty secret was something she never wanted to ever feel pumping through her system again.

Today was not her day. These damn bracelets were just useless if she wasn't keeping tabs on them anytime she got into any sort of a scuffle. The familiar rush of energy she felt all around her was now rushing into her body like a dehydrated animal lapping up the last of its water supply. 

In short, it felt horrible. 

Just as she was about to close her eyes to hold the fearful tears back, she felt the presence of the avian male shift and back off slightly. Looking up, she tried to look for his eyes, but it was quite difficult considering the goggles he wore. She couldn't tell if he was taking pity on her or not. It was frustrating to say the least. She felt like a sitting target, and he was just standing around as if nothing was going to happen.

Maroon ears twitched at the sound of Volts voice starting to ask something, but then it appeared he caught his own tongue and fell silent once again. Was he seriously about to ask if she was alright? Before she could look to his face, she heard a static-like sound followed by the white male zipping off using a grappling hook of some sort. He finally decided it was safer to go. 

Thank Chaos.

Dropping her guard now that she was alone, she wobbled back to her feet. The world around her was spinning. Why was this happening? Why was this curse working overtime? Because she had kept it repressed for so long? It hurt like nothing else in the world. Well, almost. 
Grunting to herself with every footstep she took to try and get to someplace safe and out of the way, she felt her vision greying out at the corners. "Ahh crap..."

As the last word made it out, the female felt her legs turn to jelly and she hit the ground. Hard. Her knees got scraped and cut with how she went down, but she didn't even feel it. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she was already unconscious before her head made it to the ground. 
Her body shook a little bit, as if going through some sort of strange fit before falling still. The horns on her head had grown, and had began to curl backwards.

The last thought she had before she dropped was only of how glad she was that nobody was around to see her fall so fast.

Why Volt stayed back to watch the Mobian, he didn't fully know himself. Heck, this person was a natural enemy of his—a possible GUN agent, or some kind of terrorist, who'd been tracking him down this night to attack both him and his gang. Normally in the face of such threat, he'd stay and fight or flee to save himself, the latter of which he had the perfect chance to do so...But after seeing that worried look in her eyes as she backed away from him, pleading with him to run and save himself; after hearing the agony in her voice as she fell to her knees, straining as if she was desperately holding something back from within her; after being told the desperation of her situation, yet despite what trouble it could cause her, still being willing to throw her mission just to protect another Mobian she didn't even know; after witnessing what she was putting herself through, simply out of fear of hurting someone...He couldn't just leave her like that. Curiosity aside, there was this nagging urge of his conscience compelling him to stay behind and not abandon her...the kind of instinct that isn't shown just for anyone. 

Volt couldn't explain why, but...all of a sudden, he was drawn to her. As if she was one of his own. And seeing her in such dire straights—such a fearful look on her face, reminiscent of someone trying to hold back a 'monster'—to Volt...it was like looking in a mirror. That is, if this was real. 

Who knows, maybe she was faking it. Maybe whatever she might've been holding back would just die off. Maybe she'd suddenly gain control...

...or not.

Slowly but surely, it became evident that what she was struggling with was trying to take over. Volt could only watch as she began to...transform. Her horns slowly began to emit a faint, mysterious, black-and-red glow, appearing inch-by-inch to be getting longer. Her eyes, half-open from her grimace, slowly began to turn completely black, a shadowy aura leaking from them over her pained tears. But more than just her body was changing: in the area immediately around her, strange black and red particles seemed to come out of nowhere and began to draw towards her. With each second that passed, these particles got more and more numerous, the radius of where they began to appear slowly expanding. They'd collect around her body—but especially her horns, covering them in a faint, red, vein-like aura. 

The entire time this went on, the Mobian appeared to be in pure suffering. Whatever pain she was in before seemed to pale in comparison to now. She tried and bear through it, struggling to get back on her feet and walk, grunting in pain with every step she attempted to take...but the more she endured it, the more it seemed like her body was going to completely break down. She didn't even seem to know exactly where she was going, she was so out of it—only that she needed to try and get somewhere and get relief fast before she gave out.

Volt just...watched her. The entire scene unfolding before his eyes would scare off any regular Mobian, true, but...to Volt, it hit him especially hard. In fact, as his eyes were glued on her, he slowly began to feel something: this strange but extremely familiar phantom pain that made him involuntarily clutch at his heart...a searing, seething pain that felt like boiling lava flowing through his skin and over his bones. It wasn't real, it was all in his head...but one thing was for certain—

This Mobian was suffering through something he knew all too well...and watching her—he began to feel reminiscent of what she was feeling. 

Volt's squinted eyes began to tremble, his breathing beginning to get heavy. He bit his bottom (beak) lip, trying to keep himself calm…

…and then his mind drifted. A voice came to his head: the familiar voice of a middle-aged male with a thick German accent.


Mid Volt's flashback, the Mobian's steps slowed...the energy collecting towards her body began to pile extremely heavily on her. Her horns were glowing bright red and crackling with harsh energy, the vein-like pattern almost completely encasing them like chains; the red glow emitting from her body was so thick and bright, it was near impossible to find where she ended and it began; her eyes were solid black, her pupils completely invisible. It looked as if she was approaching her limit...but the strange energy kept coming and coming, even faster, farther, and more intense than from before, multiplying these effects on her as she tried to trudge along.


The Mobian pushed to take another step.


Volt began to hear the child blowing into the balloon again. As the child exhaled as hard as he could, the Mobian took a step. The child blew again, and she took another. He blew. She took another…

...Then the child, after one deep inhale, blew with all his might into the balloon:


And as if on cue, the grimace on the Mobian's face faded away, her legs buckled, her body went limp...and she collapsed with a hard thud face-first on the pavement.


Overclock's voice yelling through the communicator snapped Volt back to reality.

"Huh, wha…u-uh...yea, yea wassup?" Volt replied, pressing his communicator to his ear.

"Um...are you okay? I thought I almost lost you there…"

"U-uh...y-yea, yea, I'm good. I'm...I'm good, uh…," Volt'd say with a clear of his throat, trying to regather his composure. 

"...I-If you say so…"

After a bit of awkward silence, Overclock spoke again, turning his attention back to the Mobian:

"...D...Do you think she's—"

"...I'll go check," Volt replied.

"O...Ok...Be safe."

Volt jumped off the rooftop, shooting a grapple beam to a lower roof and swinging back to the street surface with ease. Landing in another roll, he got up, set the unconscious Mobian in his sights, and hurried to her side. When he got there, he'd crouch next to her and place two of his fingers on her neck to check her pulse.

"...Nah, she's alive. Just out cold."

"Phew, well...that's...a-a relief, I guess. Whoever they're working for would've thought we...you know..." 

Volt stood up and looked her once over. His eyes drew to her wrist, to the communicator next to her still-intact bracelet. Volt gave a disgusted glare at it, then bent down, picked up her hand, and slid it off her forearm. He'd flip it over, inspecting it…

...and there was a G logo on the underside of its band, signifying that it was, in fact, from GUN.

Almost on reflex, Volt ferociously hurled it on the ground away from him. After it hit the asphalt, he quickdrew one of his pistols, unloading several shots directly at it. Upon being hit, the communicator would end up completely fried, broken into steaming mechanical bits. Volt would stand there, aiming at it still, his hand shaking and breathing heavy out of rage. 

...But then he'd turn behind him, looking down again at the passed-out Mobian.

"Please...I don't want to hurt you...I have nowhere else to go," her voice would again ring in his head. And almost immediately...he calmed down. He didn't know exactly why, but...GUN or not, he couldn't project that hatred on her.

"...Volt," Overclock chimed in again. "What are you doing?? You need to get out of there ASAP. I can ping the police and tell them to pick her up—"

"No," Volt retorted.

"...Huh?"

"...I can't do that, man. Sorry."

"C...Can't do what?"

Volt sighed, re-holstering his pistol. He stared at the blank sky for a few seconds, trying to re-center his thoughts, then once again to the Mobian's unconcious face.

....Man, this night was strange.

After another while of silence, Volt sighed, then replied to Overclock with a bit of hesitation in his voice: "Dude...When's the last time I made Pops mad at me?"

"...You're acting really weird, are you sure you're ok?"

"Just...Do me a favor...," Volt said, squatting next to the unconscious Mobian. He'd begin to go through her pockets to see if she was carrying anything else suspicious. "...Get the darkroom ready for a uh…'visitor'."

"...Wait," Overclock paused. "...Wait...wait, wait, wait, wait, no, n-n-n-n-noooo-hoh-hoh you're not! You're definitely not bringing her back to base! You kn—"

"I know, I know…", he said, stopping to raise his hands with a sigh. "I know, I'll...I'll take the heat for it...I know...But I can't just leave her, dude. Not like this."

"...Volt, seriously what is wrong with you?! She's GUN! I-I thought—"

"Save the feed for me, alright?...I'll see you in 20, bro. Just...please, roll wit' me here. That's all I ask." Volt interrupted. Before Overclock could reply again, Volt shut off his communicator, anticipating his objection.

After a while of more pocket checking, Volt felt something in one of her jacket pockets. He pulled it out and inspected it: it was a small device with a button on it...something he immediately recognized.

"...Tracker, huh?" Volt said to himself. He rotated it in his hands for a while, then shook his head. He then turned back to the Mobian, talking to her though he knew she couldn't hear him: "Ya know…" he continued, tossing the device over his shoulder behind him into one of the street's sewer gutters.

"...Ya better be glad I'm doin' this." 

Volt then grabbed her arm, draped it over his shoulders, and stood up, pulling her deadweight up with him. As he lifted her, something would drop from the grip of hand—the broken bracelet. Volt looked at it for a bit, then bent down and picked it up, placing it inside of his cloak pocket.

After fixing his grip on the Mobian, Volt'd use his grapple beam again to make his way back to the rooftops. With no more threats in the way, he'd make a clean getaway out of the city with her in tow. 
_______
It'd likely be a few hours before the Mobian came to. Whenever she did, though, she'd find herself somewhere completely different than inner Central City: inside of a large, mostly empty room with a solid metal floor, nothing notable in sight other than the thick soundproofing of the walls surrounding her, a large metal sliding door in the wall in front of her, a metal cabinet to her right, and a small hidden camera in ceiling corner.

This was DVNz's interrogation room, inside their Central City safehouse.

But she wasn't here for an interrogation. Not yet at least. This was just somewhere to keep her until she came back to, to treat her for...whatever that just happened to her. Granted, to be safe, she'd be restrained: she'd find herself in a metal chair firmly bolted to floor, her forearms, wrists, and legs held to it by thick metal restraints. However, in attempts to keep her at least somewhat comfortable, she'd be sitting on a pillow, another one behind her head to lean on. Her injured leg would be wrapped and bandanged as well. 

Additionally, when she would wake up, she'd likely be a tad...loopy. Not just because of the after-effects of her passing out, but because of an IV stuck in her elbow, pumping contents of a bag hanging on a pole next to her. It'd mostly just be sedatives and pain relievers to keep her at ease, and to keep her body at an equilibrium so…'that' wouldn't happen again.    

She wouldn't be alone; instead, sitting in another chair close by her, his arms folded, legs crossed, staring down at the floor in deep thought—Volt. He'd have calmed down a bit by now, and when she would begin wake up, he'd turn to her, his signature grin hidden behind his bandana, speaking somewhat conversationally to her:

"...Hey….Hey. Have a nice nap?" he said with a chuckle, trying to get her focus. "Just kiddin'...And before ya ask, I know, I know, where are ya, what am I doin' here, all that. Don't worry...you're safe. Just be chill and everything'll be fine."

"Heh, ya thought I was just gonna leave ya sprawled out on the street like that?"

Tala lay on the cold ground, unable to open her eyes or move at all. That wasn't to say she was completely unconscious yet though.
A few moments after she had fallen, she heard someone approach her location. 

Great. She had been found by some delinquent who was now going to take advantage of the fact she can't function and try to rob her of all her current possessions.
The joke would be on them though. In the state she was currently in, nobody would be able to physically touch her without a shock wave of energy sparking through them and hurting them.
However, that was not to be, as she heard the familiar voice of Volt talking to whomever it was on his own communicator, she tried to focus on maintaining her consciousness, but ultimately failed as she completely blacked out shortly afterwards.

A few hours later, Tala sluggishly awoke to extremely blurry vision and a raging headache. Blinking a few times to try and clear her sight, she managed to make out that wherever she was, it was inside and quiet.
Her head lolled around as she continued to try and get her bearings back on track, only to keep falling into a state of semi-consciousness. 

What on Mobius was going on with her? Was she drugged?
A sudden rise of panic rose and she looked over herself to see an IV line in her arm.

No. No no, this wasn't happening. Not again. She thought she outran them. How did they find her? Was this the result of her bracelets breaking?

"...Hey….Hey. Have a nice nap?"

That voice...

Looking over to the source of the voice, Tala made out the blurry shape of a Mobian. Was that Volt? He brought her to them? She couldn't believe it.
Then he continued and basically ruled out most of what she was going to ask him. She didn't have the energy to try and fight him to get free right now, so just leaned her head back and sighed to herself.
Then, a thought occurred to her.
"How were you able to touch me?"

It was so unusual. Normally she would wake up after a 'scenario' and still be where she was previously, purely because of how dangerous it was for someone to come into physical contact with her. Did he have a special ability that cancelled out him being hurt by her curse?

As Tala waited for the white male to give any form of an answer, she glanced around the room again now that her eyes were a bit clearer. Now she could distinguish things, she noticed that she wasn't where she thought. It was just an interrogation room.

It had definitely been an extremely strange night.

As expected, the Mobian was rather puzzled when she came to, disorientedly gazing about trying to figure out where she was. She became somewhat alarmed at the sight of the IV in her arm, but hearing Volt's voice reassuring her safety seemed to have calmed her down. Granted, she still didn't look all too happy about the condition she found herself in, but she simply sighed and leaned her head back on her pillow, evidently too drained to make a scene. Really, who could blame her?

Keeping an eye on the Mobian, Volt uncrossed his legs and leaned forward in his seat during the brief silence following his words to her. This was the first time he was able to get a good look at her without a hood or the night's darkness concealing her. Aside from the horns, she looked fairly...normal to him—not so much the cookie-cutter, hard-edge soldier most GUN agents were. Couldn't really say the same for her attitude, though.   

Volt faced the floor again, continuing to reflect on the night up til now—a night that looked to be far from over. Should he really have brought this girl back to DVNz's base? Normally, he wouldn't have even thought to give the benefit of the doubt to a GUN agent—especially one who could've *killed* him for Mobius's sake. Yet…there was still this strange feeling in his gut about her. She didn't fit the mold of any GUN soldier or agent he's ever ran across, true, but beyond that there was this weird feeling about her in particular that he couldn't shake. If only he could figure out what it was...

His thoughts were broken when the girl suddenly and groggily began to speak up. She didn't say much, only asking Volt how he was able to touch her. It was a rather...odd question, one that led Volt to cock his head and raise an eyebrow under his goggles. "...Huh?" he flatly responded. He paused, then chuckled under his breath, figuring she was just still high from her meds. "Whaddaya mean? I just picked ya up and hauled ya off that sidewalk, no sweat...Heheh, what, ya got some magic forcefield protectin' ya or something?" he joked.

He rose from his chair and began making his way towards the Mobian. "Heh, I gotta say, you're a pretty light carry too," he continued to ramble. He approached the IV pole and began pressing a few buttons on the infusion pump. "It was smooth sailin' on the way back to base. Well...minus the horns. Things almost knicked me in the throat a few times." After pressing another button on the pump, a series of beeps chimed from it. "Theeeere we go. That should be better on ya," he said.

He proceeded back to his chair and reclaimed his seat, again folding his arms and crossing his legs. "I slowed the drip a lil' bit; ya shouldn't feel so loopy after a while. Lemme know if you're still hurtin' or anything. We gotta couple painkillers lyin' around we can push if ya need it. Capiche?"

Volt just sat and watched her for a moment before he replied to what she asked before. Tala found herself frowning in confusion. That wasn't right. If she had a meltdown like she had a few hours ago, normally nobody would be able to lay a hand on her without there being a surge of the energy overflowing within her bursting out, almost like an offensive defence mechanism.
"Not magic, really. I wish... It was that simple."
She had trailed off for a few seconds, pondering over whether she should tell the avian what her 'ability' does or not. Sure he essentially put himself in a lot of danger even coming into contact with her, and his motivations could still be on the other side of the scale of safety for her, but the weird liquid being pumped into her body at present was making everything feel quite hazy, like a dream. She felt truely calm for the first time in a good while.

"I don't know how else to say this, but you broke my right bracelet. That was the reason I sort of lost it out there." Her maroon ears lowered in defeat. "Why didn't you just leave me? I was your enemy. My boss wanted your information whether you were willing to give it or not... "

Perhaps she had said too much already, but at this point she really didn't care. The commander was, in a way the whole reason she was in this predicament. If he hadn't bellowed like a banshee into her communicator and acted like a head of the military should, then she could have already been able to follow Volt, and in a sense infiltrated their base.

Sighing softly, Tala twitched her ears as the Mobian stood up to come closer to her, prompting her demeanour to stiffen up slightly. She still couldn't trust him, especially considering he had put this IV in her arm. She couldn't do needles. She just felt everything flooding through her head at the thought of what happened to her before.
Looking up, she blinked rather stupidly when the male hadn't come over to her, but to the drip that was flowing onto her bloodstream, making her feel woozy, only to slow the flow down and commenting that she should feel better now that he slowed it.

As he sat back down, he regained a stand-offish position by crissong his arms and legs, as if he was waiting for something to happen. She couldn't understand why he was still garbed in his outfit; particularly his goggles. She wouldn't question it though. He was probably still trying to maintain some sort of anonyminity to her.

Tala let a low chuckle escape. "Funny, to think I was supposed to capture you and your allies, and here we are with me strapped to a chair unable to do anything. I'm the worst agent in Mobius right now."

As she continued to think of what her boss was going to do with her once she got free, she realised that Volt had actually in a way called her short. He said she was light. An easy carry.
Well, she didn't eat that much even though she wanted to pig out all the time. But the fact of the matter was, he called her small.

She didn't like that, but she couldn't physically do anything, so she sat upright a little more to try and straighten herself out a bit more to appear taller as a child-like pout came on to her features.
"I'm not short."

The Mobian got a bit more talkative after Volt's reply to her. She was mostly explaining herself, how her bracelet breaking during the earlier exchange sent her off into that weird state. Volt cocked his head a little—all that because of a little bracelet?...Man, having powers is weird.

She finally asked the big question just before Volt got up to fix her IV: why didn't he just leave her out there, considering she was his enemy? Volt didn't immediately reply and just went on with adjusting her IV. He wasn't trying to be rude, he just…didn't know how to answer at the time.

After he sat back down, she spoke up again with a pitiful laugh, claiming she had to have been the worst agent ever to have been caught by her target. Volt grinned a little and shook his head at her. "Nah, I doubt it. Heck, you scared the crap outta me with that lil' knife thingy. You're pretty slippery, ya know that?" he said with a laugh. He then sighed and slouched a bit, tilting his back and staring at the ceiling.

Aaand cue another moment of awkward silence. Volt, still facing the ceiling, side-glanced at the Mobian; he felt like he should say something to her, but...what? Should he try to make smalltalk? No, it was already awkward enough. Should he ask her for her name, or for some info on who she was? No, she might get defensive...

...Well...there was still that question she asked that he could at least try to answer.

"...But yer wonderin' why I didn't just leave ya stranded out there, huh?" he said. He paused again, looking back at the ceiling with a sigh. "...You know, honestly…I've been sittin' here for the past couple'a hours tryin'a figure that one out myself. Heh, dang sure woulda been an easy getaway too."

He paused once more, trying to gather his thoughts. He genuinely didn't know how to answer her; anytime he asked himself this question, all he'd see in his head was that struggling face of hers, followed by her plea: "Please...I don't want to hurt you...I don't have anywhere else to go."

He sat up in his chair, propped his head in one of his hands, eventually continuing: "...Look. I don't know how else ta say it but...Let's just say it's my way of returnin' the favor. I know you don't know a lot about me, and I definitely dunno the first thing about you. But...even still, though I know I ain't the best judge'a character, you...don't really look like the stone-cold jarhead GUN tends 'ta recruit, ya know? And I dunno all what's up witcha but, heh, I could tell you were goin' through enough already without bein' left out cold on a sidewalk in the middle of the city."He turned his head to her. "Ya know despite what those pricks at GUN mighta told ya, our gang ain't bad people. Whole reason we're doin' this schtick in the first place is to look out for people who can't defend themselves. I mean, it's hard out here. Especially...especially when you're just tryin'a survive in a world that's out to getcha."

Volt slowly lowered his hands and began to stare at his gloves. His demeanor was slowly starting to shift from jokey and lighthearted, to more serious and empathetic. Although it might've looked like he was just answering the Mobian's question, he spoke less from his mind and more from his heart. In fact, as he again pictured her agonized face helplessly holding herself back earlier...he was starting to see himself in the position—the intense pain, the sheer dread of passing that pain to other people, the frustration of being unable to control themselves and the hatred of having such a 'monster' inside them in the first place:

It was all a position he knew too well.

"...You know, I—" he was about to continue, yet was abruptly cut off by a chime in his earpiece. It was one of his teammates calling him. "One sec," he said to the Mobian. Switching languages again, he turned on his earpiece and spoke into it:

["Volt. What's up?...Yea, she's stable. Woke up a few minutes ago...Yea. I slowed it down a little, though. It's not the full dose but it's still enough to keep her from tryin' to escape or something...Uh-huh…Already?...-sigh- 10-4. I'll be right out."]

He cut off his earpiece and stood up from his chair, turning his attention back to the Mobian.

"I gotta go handle some business. You gonna be ok by yourself for a few minutes?" He'd wait on her reply, follow through any reasonable request she'd make, and then tell her "Alright. Need anything else, just holler." before heading towards the room's sliding door.

"And don't try anything funny while I'm gone, capiche? We got eyes all over this place," he said while walking away. He reached the door, but before he exited, he half-turned back to the Mobian and face her again.

"...Hey," he'd say rather quietly with an embarrassed scratched to the back of his neck, "…I know this is gonna sound weird but, I just wanted to say...thanks. It might not seem like much to ya, but...lookin' out for me like that when you were about to...you know...It uh...it means a lot."

The door then slid open, and Volt walked outside the room, leaving the Mobian to herself.

Tala watched the avian Mobian like a hawk, pardon the pun. He didn't answer her questions at first, but looking at his slightly troubled expression told her that he was, in a way trying to work out what to say in response to it. She couldn't exactly blame him. After all, it isn't every day your previous enemy just comes forward and voluntarily takes them into their safe place. No other reason other than 'not wanting to leave her out there' sat strangely with her. There just had to be a secondary reason.

Silence fell in the room again. It felt awkward, but not, in a way. She couldn't quite understand it. Maybe it was the strange liquid coursing through her system but she felt more comfortable around the male than what she should be. They barely knew each other.

However, he did save her life, so she owed him that much. Great. Another debt to repay, and to a vigilante no less.

Volt then spoke up about seeing her as something other than a mere agent of GUN. That raised an eyebrow from her in curiosity. What an odd thing to say. She was an agent, nothing more, nothing less.
"I have no other purpose than to serve them. Being unable to do many things you all take for granted really limits employment, and how food gets put on the table. I'd rather not be working for them as they're the reason behind why I am the way I am, but we can't always get what we want."

Tala hadn't realised, but the longer she went on in the sentence, the lower her ears fell and the more venom became apparent in her voice. She knew they were witholding information that was beyond important to her, but she had been working on gaining trust with them to try and get into their systems. How she would do that, she had no idea, but she was desperate.

Volt stood up suddenly as a small sound came from him. He changed to their code language again, meaning the maroon female couldn't understand him anymore.
Asking if she would be okay, she simply turned away from him. Why was she even talking to him in the first place? Her head was pounding, so she opted to not respond to him and merely stared at the wall blankly.
Then a quiet, serious tone floated over to her. Filled with sincerity she had never heard before.

"...Hey…I know this is gonna sound weird but, I just wanted to say...thanks. It might not seem like much to ya, but...lookin' out for me like that when you were about to...you know...It uh...it means a lot."

Flicking her ear to tell him she had heard what he said, he left shortly afterwards, leaving her to her own thoughts.
He said thank you.
Thank you.
He was not like the others, was he? She felt the gratitude for her putting his safety above her own life.
Why?

As she continued to wait for Volt to return, the same words kept bouncing around in her head.
Thank you.

If only everyone understood she didn't want to fight anyone. If only they all understood she just wanted to fit in.

If only she could be like everyone else.

When Volt made it outside the interrogation room, he stopped, took a deep breath and leaned back against its sealed door, taking a moment to regain his composure. He rested a hand on his head, quietly whispering to himself: "Jeez, dude...the heck are you doin'?"

As cool as he acted in front of the wolf—albeit true that most of his apprehension towards her was now gone—the idea of being stuck in a room with a GUN agent for so long couldn't help but make him uneasy. On top of that, the conversation he just had with her onl conflicted his feel about her even more. She disputed the Volt's perception of her not being a typical GUN mercenary, but her tone wasn't enough to convince Volt she believed her words herself. It was a obvious she had a tough exterior, yet her actions showed she was more than that. What stuck out to Volt the most, though, was how she didn't seem to care about her 'orders' as much as she did the people who'd get hurt by them. Heck, she even said it herself: she'd be far from affiliated with GUN if given the chance. But because of circumstances beyond her control, she saw no other option but to work for the most militant, corrupt organization on Mobius (at least in Volt's eyes) just to get by.

If only the rest of them thought like her...

Volt took another breath, leaned off the door and gave himself a double slap to the cheeks to refocus. He began to walk off and head elsewhere in the safehouse, leaving the interrogation room and the Mobian inside it behind.

There'd be plenty of time to work out his feelings later on. Right now...well, let's just say it was time to face the music.
___
Minutes later, elsewhere in the DVNz safehouse, another sliding door to different room opened.

This room was fairly large and filled to the brim with technology, each wall displaying an assortment of blinking LED lights from computers, server racks, towers, wires, etc. built into them. The room's overhead lights were off, but a grid of large monitors on the far corner wall practically illuminated it. In front of these monitors was a long desk/workstation housing numerous consoles with various buttons and switches,  a few blueprints and schematics spread about it. Opposite the workstation, in the rear corner of the room, was a small sitting area with a couple of couches, a coffee machine, and a sink with a few cabinets.

And occupying that sitting area: three other Mobians. Two of them were wearing hooded cloaks similar to Volt, and a third...well, let's just say they didn't need one.

Upon hearing the door slide open, the three turned; stepping in was the cloaked figure of Volt yawning and stretching his arms behind his head.

"Mornin'!" Volt greeted them with his usual charisma, making his way over to join the others.

"G-Good morning…" one of the cloaked Mobians replied. Their voice was youthful but timid, with a tinge of anxiety upon seeing Volt.

"Mmhm…," mumbled the other cloaked Mobian in tandem. They had the voice of a younger female; judging from her tone, she seemed to be a bit tired—and annoyed.  

The third uncloaked Mobian, who was sipping out of a cup of coffee, responded with an older, deeper, more authoritative male voice with a thick German accent: "Guten morgen, Volt."   

These other three were none other than the fellow members of Volt's gang, DVNz.

After exchanging greetings, Volt vaulted over and plopped in an empty seat on the one of the couches. He pulled down his hood, removed his goggles, and lowered his bandana to reveal his face to his comrades.* He then slouched back and gave another, louder yawn.

"Pheeew man, long night huh?"

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

"...Well jeez, you are guys dead. Heheheh, c'mon, don't tell me a lil' all-nighter drained ya this much!"

The uncloaked Mobian—whose aura alone could easily distinguish him as the leader of the gang—lowered the coffee from his lips, sternly looking Volt straight in the eye. "Son...ve need to talk. Jetzt*."

"...Oh. Uh...o...k--I mean, uh, yes sir," Volt replied, taking the hint and dialing back his carefree tone. He was deliberately trying to not show his nervousness despite already having an idea of what his leader wanted to talk about. "'Sup?"

The leader, after setting his coffee cup on the table, began: "Oferclock has informed me on sie events of last nacht…First and foremost, I am fery glad zat you are safe. It vas a very dangerous situation you vere in, mein son."

"Oh...eh, well...yea. Hehe, no biggie, really. Heck, I oughta be thankin' Big O and those sharp eyes'a his for spottin' her when he did!"

"Agreed...fery much agreed. But I also commend you for defendink yourself so well. Successfully engagink a GUN agent is no small feat...I am fery proud of you and sie progress you have made in your combat trainink."

"Heheheh, aww, thanks!"

"...Nonezeless," the leader continued, contemplatively folding his hands over his mouth, "Sie nacht has presented a razer...interestink development, ja? Namely, sie presence of your assailant—a GUN spy—in our safehouse."

"...O-Oh, heheh, y-yea...that…" Volt chuckled apprehensively, scratching the back of his head. Here we go, time for the earful he'd been dreading for hours now. "W...well, uh…a-about that..."

"Is...zere somezing you vish to say?"

"Er...I-I uh…" Volt hesitated, then continued with a impatient scoff, "O-o-ok, look, Pops, Pops, just, hear me out. I-I get why ya'd be upset for bringin' her back and all, b-but trust me, I can explain! Ya see, she—"

"Volt."

"Y...yes sir?"

"Please...calm down. I am not upset."

"Y...You're not?"

"Nein. Admittedly, I vas not initially...zrilled, at sie prospect of holdink an agent of GUN here. Howefer, after zhinking sie matter ofer, mein perspective of sie situation has changed...somevat."

Volt went silent, completely stunned. It took him a second, but once it registered to him that he was let off the hook, he gave a huge sigh of relief. It was as if all the tension built up in him over the night let up at that very moment.

Yet, before Volt got too comfortable, his leader continued. "Have you learned anyzink of zem after zey awakened?"

"Huh?" Volt snapped back to reality. "Oh, uh...nah, not really. Just that they're workin' solo and have some sorta weird shadow-y power and wrist doohickeys."

"Hm...I see. Oferclock?"

"Oh--y-yes sir?" the teammate with the timid voice—namely, the one who had been speaking to Volt all night over the earpiece—responded.

"Vere you able to find anyzing in GUN's database on zem?"

"O-Oh, u-um, n-n-n-not yet, no sir. U-uh, B.R.I.C. is uh, currently traversing GUN's database as we speak a-and will alert me as to what they find. U-um...a-apparently her dossier a-and all other information pertaining to her mission are deeply encrypted a-and...u-um, it may take some time. Y-Yet. I'm. Certain to find somezink--I-I mean, something, soon."

"Affirmatife," responded the leader with a nod. He took a second to pick up his coffee and take another sip, then sat it back down and refold his hands over his mouth. A tense silence fell the room as he began contemplating quietly, eventually thinking out loud: "...Dispatchink a solo agent to intercept our patrol und infiltrate our base...Vat a razer...direct, move, you hafe made against us, GUN."

After a few more seconds of silence, the gang's leader arose from his seat and approached the monitors in the opposite corner of the room; Volt and his comrades' eyes curiously followed him. He stopped, fixedly glaring at one particular monitor—the one showing a live camera feed of the restrained Mobian sitting in the interrogation room.

"....Uh," Volt broke the silence, "is...somethin' up?"

The leader did not immediately answer, evidently still deep in his thoughts. Within time, though, he declared: "Volt…you are reliefed of your post for sie day. I vill take ofer your duties from here."

"...Huh?" Volt honked stupidly. "...Huh, w-wait, what? W-Why?! I thought ya said ya weren't mad!"

"I am not...not at you. Zis is no punishment."

"Then why? I—"

"Because," the leader interrupted, "last nacht has shown zat GUN is, as you vould say...'playink hardball' vis us. For reasons I can only speculate, zey seem to have resorted to take us on one by one...Vatever operation zey are plannink, ve must be ready for. And zis spy….Zey could be a valuable source of intel for us. It vould require a razer…'special touch' to get zem to...cooperate, knowink how tenacious GUN's soldiers tend to be, howefer. Unfortunately, Volt, you hafe not been properly trained to handle such individuals. Und, moreofer...It is only logical zat ve, as sie expression goes…'fight fire vis fire', ja?...I vould personally like to delifer a…'message', to zis person—and, by extension, to GUN—about how unkindly I take to havink a knife held at my sohn's throat."

"...Uh...Oh," Volt , hesitation welling in his voice. "...U-Uh...ok, right. W-Well, uh...w-what are you…plannin' on doin to her?" he asked. One of Volt's teammates—the female—suspiciously tilt her head at this question.

The leader stayed focus at the monitors, staring intently at the sleeping Mobian in the interrogation room. His hatred for GUN was clear in his tone as he ominously seethed the words: "...Vatever it takes to get vat I vant. No matter ze cost. I refuse to allow GUN to endanger mein blood vizout consequence...nor punishment."

"R...right…" Volt muttered, looking away submissively. His leader's answer wasn't very definitive, but...he got the gist of what those cryptic words meant. His leader was extremely protective of the gang; all bets were off when their 'family' was put in harm's way, and especially if it involved someone from GUN. Mobius knows what he'd do to the wolf, even if she gave the answers he wanted, let alone if she didn't...

...Volt reluctantly had to admit, though, his leader was right. The fact of the matter was a fact he had to remind himself avouce everything else: he was dealing with a GUN agent here. In the end, no matter what happened the night before, they were still enemies. It was indeed possible she could hold information vital for the gang's defense against GUN, and for the sake of him and his family, what had to be done had to be done. Besides, it's not like he didn't want to send his own message to GUN about attacking him so directly himself. What better way to get the point across than letting his leader do the job for him...

...But, something about Volt just...didn't accept this. 

For some reason, it just wasn't...right. Something about this entire picture just didn't sit well with him. Ok yes, she was his enemy. Yes, she almost captured him. Yes, she may have information. Yes, GUN does need to pay for, not just the one night, but for everything they've done over the past decade...but did she deserve to pay for it, being treated as nothing but a simple GUN agent? Especially after throwing her mission and refusing to see him as a simple criminal on their wanted list?

Why do people who're just trying to survive have to suffer a life of turmoil for just doing what they can to get by?

As that question came to his mind, he clenched his fist. Snap out of it Jonas. Business is business. What, are you just going to stand up to your own commander—your 'father'—for the sake of some stranger who hours ago had a knife at your throat?

...No, it's more to it than that. You saw it yourself talking to her in the interrogation room. You saw how despondent, how tired and how broken she looked and sounded—not just from what happened that night, but evidently from life itself. Heck, she even said it: she didn't want this life. She didn't want to hurt anyone. She just didn't have anywhere else to go. She wanted better. She wished for better. But she just never had the opportunity for better…

...What if you could change that?

Amidst Volt's mental back-and-forth, his leader announced: "If zere is nozing else to add...Time is on sie essence, ja? I vill be in my quarters preparink for sie interrogation. Alert me of any new developments."

"Roger," responded the other teammates; all besides Volt. He was still so conflicted about this. Something was nagging at him...something that he couldn't just ignore. Namely, something about this girl that resonated with him, awakening a desire to...protect her. And, like a broken tape stuck on 'repeat', that image of her from hours ago on the city streets came back to him: the image of her struggling to hold back whatever monster was inside of her, begging him to leave her before he gets hurt…

...but something about that image was different this time. As he stared into her pained eyes...he sensed something. Something that wasn't articulated, but...something that it felt her heart was saying that she herself was too scared or too ashamed of to say. And it was a phrase that resonated him more than anything else that said night:

"Help me."

The sliding door opened to let Volt's leader out at that very second; as if on reflex, Volt sprang up and turned around in his seat, calling out: "H-Hey, Pops!"

"Hm?" the leader responded, stopping in his tracks.

Volt hesitated the moment his leader's intimidating gaze fell back on him, fizzling out his sudden burst of courage. Oh, Mobius, this was *not* a good idea...but Volt swallowed and tried to continue.

"...U-Uh...I uh—" he stuttered, nervously scratching the back of his neck, "—w-well...uh...heheh...um. H-Hey! I-I was j-just. Uh. Wonderin'...u-uh...ya know….u-uuuhhh d-do we uh...y-ya know...r-really...h-have to...grill...her…*that* hard..."

His leader's eyes narrowed at the sudden objection. "...Wie bitte?*"

"W-well, uh...i-it's...just...y-ya know," Volt swallowed, got up from his couch and approached his leader speaking a bit quietly, "m-maybe she's uh...n-not as. Big of a deal as. It might looked like? I-I mean, she's...only one person, right? A-And, heheh, not to mention I, uh...ya know, took her down pretty easy. That ain't whatcha'd expect from, ya know, s-somebody GUN'd trust with, like, any...serious...big info anything like that. J-Just, you know i-if we... Did to go too hard on her, i-it might. Be a...waste'a….time...ya know?"

His leader stayed silent, but the look on his face showed that he was both perplexed and...well, unamused.

"A-and besides," Volt continued, pointing over his shoulder back to his comrades, "I-I-It's been a long niiight a-and, I'm sure everybody's...uh, pretty tired—I mean Mittens over here's probably got somethin' ta study for a-and...w-well, we. Ya know. Were already plannin' on heading back home anyway, s-so," he cleared his throat, "wwhat if...we uh...just...ya know...sorta...skip….the interrogation…perio—?"

"Oh, for MOBIUS'S SAKE."

The sudden outburst caused Volt—and Overclock, who was silently shrinking into his couch the entire time—to jump and turn around. It came from the female comrade, who'd been watching and listening to Volt the entire time, and quite frankly, was fed up with his caginess.   

She sat up in her seat, staggering daggers at Volt. "Ok. Dude. Seriously? This is just, like, sooo painful to watch? What the heck is wrong with you, huh? You're acting like, so sketchy? It's almost like you're like, hiding something from us?"

"W-Wha? Whaddaya mean hidin'? I told ya guys everything I know, I don't got nothin' to hide!"

"Then why are you acting so…ugh, this? Seriously you're like, biting your tongue so hard it's …disgusting. It's not like you at all. And whatever it is just spit it out already so we can hurry up and go home, jeez…"

"...Und additionally," the leader stepped towards Volt eyeing him with a touch of suspicion, "You seem to be defendink a member of our sworn enemy. Your attacker. Zis is...unheard of. Especially for you, considerink your...history."

Volt, submissively looking away again, shakily mumbled: "I...I know."

The leader paused, analyzing Volt's behavior. He then took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and calmed his tone. "…Jonas."

"Y...yea?"

"I can see zere is somezink troublink you, mein son. Howefer, as mentioned...time is on sie essence. I vill give you one opportunity to explain yourself. Vatefer it is...please. Tell me. Now."

Volt sighed and wiped his hands across his face. He was still a bit fearful of telling his leader how he felt about the wolf, but it was now or never.

"....Ok….ok. Just…Promise me you won't get mad," Volt began."...Ugh, look, just...I know. I know this is...weird. I mean you're right, I got no reason to speak up for any of those...pigs. Not after all they've done to our people, how hard they've been ridin' our tails for years for pretty much no reason, how much the jarheads that work for 'em ain't nothin' but a buncha mindless pawns who only care about followin' orders and nothin' else, and...well. You know," he ranted before rubbing the right side of his neck. "Point is, it's like you said: they're the enemy, nothing more nothing less....

...But...but I can't say the same for her."

"...Elaborate, please."

"It's...a long story. It's like—" Volt suddenly froze a visible lightbulb going off in his head "—wait, matter of fact: Big O, you still got the tape from last night?"

"H-Huh? O-Oh, u-um. I-I do, j-ja--I mean, yes. W-Why?" Overclock answered.

"Yo, you mind pulling it up for me? I think it can show it better than I can tell it."

"U-Um...s...sure. I-I can….I can do that," confirmed Overclock, who then slowly arose from his seat and began making his way over to the monitors.

"Sweet! Appreciate it dude. Dunno what I'd do without ya," Volt answered, giving Overclock a friendly buttslap that made him yelp in surprise as he walked past. Volt then turned back to his leader and the female comrade and continued: "Look...I want you guys to see this. 'Cause...I don't know how to describe it, but hopefully you guys can see it for yourselves."

"Fery vell," the leader nodded, stepping aside to make way for Overclock to get to the workstation. He then glanced over at the female still sitting at the couches, signaling her to join them. She scoffed, reluctantly got up and made her way over. "This better be worth it..." she grumbled. 

Overclock began typing away at one of the consoles to retrieve the video; Volt and the others stood by watching. Volt clenched his arms, bracing himself to see once again the peculiar events of the night before.

A few minutes passed and it appeared that the male Mobian wasn't going to be returning for a while. He was more than likely going over his findings with his comrades to see their standing with everything. He was possibly going to be told off for bringing her here, and shortly afterwards she would either be attacked or released; more than likely it would be the latter considering their standing with GUN as a whole. She was a threat after all. She had to admit, since being here, she noticed how differently their way of looking out for eachother was to how GUN did it. If something happened to you, you had to somehow bail yourself out or die trying, unless you were a higher standing agent. Then you actually mattered to them somewhat.
She would never be one of them, not really. She had no place in the world to fit in and she hated it more and more each day that passed. If only she knew the details of her life apart from flickers that showed in her dreams from time to time.
That being said, she didn't get to sleep much either as every time she dis somehow drift off, she was met with images she'd rather not see.

Unbeknownst to her, Tala had actually fallen asleep while deep in thought, and these images she had been thinking about resurfaced yet again.

A light blonde female wolf was seen directly across from her eyes. Wild crystal blue irises darting around the room as her ears folded back in fear and submission. She ran towards her, arms outstretched as tears began to stream down her face.
"They can't take her! She deserves to live a life like everyone else!"


A deep maroon male wolf appeared in her peripheral vision, bruised and beaten. She felt her own eyes welling up at the sight of this man. She began to cry as she was cradled by the lighter female. It was a soft touch, one that comforted her, but didn't stop the crying regardless.
"Aurora, you must go..." He walked behind her and brought all of them into a gentle, warm embrace. It felt like a good-bye to her but she couldn't explain why. "Take Accalia and get her to someplace safe. Once they lose our trail, we can return for her, I promise."


A group of armour-clad individuals began entering the area like shadows. They were clearly human as told by their thinner, and taller frames, along with the lack of any ears or tails as well.
Guns were pointed towards the three before one spoke aloud.
"Hand the child to us, she is GUNs property now."
Aurora stepped back as she held on tighter. "No! Zeke, we can't let them win like this!"


The area went dark, until she realised that the eyes she was looking through were covered up. All she could hear was gunfire and cries of pain and fear all around her. It made her cry out herself, as more tears escaped her.


In the real world, Tala had began crying out in her sleep. It began as mere wimpers, but had slowly escalated as more images flashed through her head.
A horrible sterile area, her being tossed around a room like a toy, getting needles thrust into the small of her back for whatever reason. Seeing her own reflection changing shape and last but not least;  witnessing her horns growing for the first time. She could never forget that pain.

Her cries continued to echo in the room, her body convulsing every now and then, sometimes angrily, sometimes softly as if she was ready for giving up whatever fight it was that was happening inside her fragile mind. She still saw these horrible visions in her eyes, more and more flashed faster and faster, not all of them registering. She was stuck in some sort of sleep trance, as she continued to whimper and cry out for help.