Janus missed on his first jab, but scored with the second, slicing into the wolf's ribcage.  The wolf let out a howl, and hit Janus hard across the face with his club.  Janus spun and fell.<br/><br/>The sergeant scored on his first swing.  With a wet chopping sound, the fox's head was severed.  It sailed in the air briefly before landing with a thud next to its dead body.  Blood poured from the neck, soaking the alley floor.  The sergeant turned to the wolf and scored a solid hit on his back as he bent over Janus.  The wolf yowled and fell, his spine cut.  The sergeant ended the fight with a quick blow to his head.  Janus woke up under a dead wolf, yelped in surprise, and struggled to get free and away.<br/><br/>Fenson tried to jump in and help the halfbreed, but the fight was so intense he could only watch.  Suddenly, the halfbreed was voring his opponent!  The four humans watched in surprise as the last fox disappeared, tail and all, into the halfbreed's gut.<br/><br/>“Sorry about… Your shit… whatever it was," the halfbreed said.<br/><br/>"No worries," said Collins.  "I didn't need any more anyway."<br/><br/>"Hot damn, boy," said the sergeant to the halfbreed.  "That wasn't half bad.  You could last a while with us.  What's your name?"<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>Lentan was watching the one surveillance camera he could get to point at 1440 Hempstead.  The whole block was dark now, and the men of the Fifth Brigade has taken up strategic positions in the nearby alleys.  He keyed his radio.<br/><br/>"Oil Rig, this is Dead Coney.  Do you have a radio in Hempstead anywhere?"<br/><br/>"That's affirm, Dead Coney," came the reply.<br/><br/>"1440 Hempstead is now Resistance property.  Take a four-man team and that radio into the building," ordered Lentan.  "Find Karogen and get him on the line."<br/><br/>"Roger."<br/><br/>Lentan hadn't spoken with Karogen in a while.  It would be cathartic to vent his frustration at him for a moment.  He also needed to make sure none of his do-gooders would get themselves captured when the Bitch came to get them.<br/><br/>The lieutenant in charge of the platoon guarding the S.E.M. building took three privates and his radio set to the main entrance of the apartment complex.  He banged heavily on the door.  "Open up!" he called.  Then he smiled to himself.  Of course they wouldn't.  He took out his compact revolver and fired once at the door's handle, shooting out the lock.  Then he kicked the door in.  As it slammed against the wall with a loud bang, he and the privates filed into the building, checking the rooms for occupants.  When nobody was found, he sent two men upstairs and took the other man with him down into the basement, wielding his revolver and a flashlight as the private next to him drew out a long knife.<br/><br/>They emerged into the basement, shocked at the amount of people they saw.  There were all kinds - furs, halfbreeds, and humans - scattered about the room.  The furs were all sitting in the corners, the halfbreeds and humans arrayed around them.  The lieutenant, sporting a blue windbreaker and a shaved head, called out, "Which one of you is Karogen?"<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>Deep in the commercial district of Kazmer, nestled in the northwest section of town, the Palace of the Wolf stood undaunted by the chaos raging throughout the city.  It was a ten-story citadel made of solid granite, built on the backs of thousands of slaves centuries ago.  It was rumored that every slave who was forced to help build the Palace died in one way or another during construction, and their crushed bodies were buried under its foundation.<br/><br/>The Palace tapered inward as it rose, looking roughly like a trapezoid from any angle.  It's top floors were decorated with hellish depictions of ancient fur soldiers in combat.  Only in recent memory had the palace become the home of House Shenzai.  Before Lady Alhanda's great-grandmother ascended to the throne, the city of Kazmer had been run by a vulpine family.  The Shenzais had been mere retainers.  Power plays being as they were in royalty, the foxes degenerated into infighting and the wolves rose to supremacy.<br/><br/>As she leaned slightly over the edge of her balcony on the topmost floor, Lady Alhanda Shenzai of Kazmer growled.  She could see the destruction being waged across town and was not happy with the performance of her night guards.  These riots should have been taken care of by now.  Were her fighters getting soft?<br/><br/>"My lady," came a voice behind her.  Alhanda turned her grizzled form to view the anthro-cougar servant bowing to her.  Her clothes scarcely made a sound.  Unlike her foremothers, Lady Alhanda opted not to wear the royal garments bestowed upon her by her title.  Rather, she dressed in simple embroidered gray tunics and pants, cut so that they clung to her powerful physical form and gave her superb freedom of movement.  Upon her head, in place of the heavy crown, she wore a simple silver circlet.<br/><br/>"What is it?" she demanded of the cougar.<br/><br/>"News from the streets, my lady," said the servant, holding out a computer printout.  "The leader of the rebels has been identified."<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">They have a leader?</span>she thought.  Perhaps they were more organized than they seemed.  She took the paper from the servant and read it over.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Mark Karogen Jr., leader of the Sentience Equality Movement, publicly identified the rebel leader as "Lentan" in a pirate radio announcement.  No further information has been released.</span><br/><br/>So the leader of that annoying group knew this "Lentan," and knew he was in charge of the human rebels.  Perhaps it would be worth her while to find out as much as she could about her new enemy.  The best option was to apprehend Karogen and... interrogate him.<br/><br/>Alhanda growled the orders to her servant.  As he scurried off to relay them, she returned to her balcony, listening to the screams and the clash of weapons.  Fires were burning intermittently throughout her city.  IThe images and sounds combined in her mind, bringing her mouth to a water and kicking in her adrenaline.  The heat of combat was upon her city.  When she found this "Lentan," she would utterly consume him.  No human stood up to her power.<span style="font-style: italic">Not one.</span>