<span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">Day 0 - Endless Hours</span></span></span><br/><br/>Chapter Theme:<a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa33P9A5iHs">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa33P9A5iHs</a><br/><br/><br/>It should have been old news by then to Felix as he trotted down the asphalt path, haven seen the story broadcast on nearly every news service in the area. Across air and radio waves, he had seen and heard the violent explosion that rocked Sector 2 described countless times, the inferno that firefighters battled valiantly, the charred remains of the tiny building that had been at the center of it all. Yet the German shepherd knew he had to see it for himself, and, just as he expected, those flat images and faceless voices could never properly convey the damages the calamity entailed.<br/><br/>The Eclipse was gone.<br/><br/>For the next few moments, the black-and-tan canine stood silently in the night's darkness, letting the chilly evening air flow through his black hoodie and over the dreary scene before him. The half-moon's light layered its pale glow on the burnt wooden spires, their long shadows drawing over the broken bricks and concrete that had once formed the bar's walls. Eventually, he brought himself to step slowly towards the crumbling structure, paws crunching over dirt laced with the metal and glass that once formed the club's windows and lights. Another gust broke the silence of his movements as he trotted into the wreckage.<br/><br/>He couldn't help but let his mind wander as he picked his way down the once-lively rooms and halls, drifting back into memories that populated his subconscious. The dog found scenes long gone replaying before his eyes, faces and figures from his past moving ghost-like before him despite the pub's decrepit state. His thoughts soon settled on one particular face, the piercing blue gaze of the big, scary-looking, but nice kitsune that had owned the establishment. What had become of him? None of the news companies could find answers to that question, and Felix could find even fewer answers in the twisted remains that he walked amongst. It only served to highlight the gravity that weighed him down, musings and loss that reached far beyond his sixteen years.<br/><br/>With a puff of ash, the German shepherd walked into the main room of the tavern, illuminated by the moonlight that could now filter through the decimated roof. The soft white glow seemed to fill the wide empty space, allowing the wisps of dust that swirled through the air to be seen. Much of it had settled on what remained of the tables and chairs, the legs and surfaces of the wooden furniture piled where the explosion had tossed them. Felix took a few apprehensive steps forward, approaching the center of the room before he spotted it.<br/><br/>A large clock, pinned over the shelves that once held the glasses and liquor behind the bar. As he drew closer, he was surprised to find it still turning slowly, marking the passing of each second with a barely-audible tick. The hands were nothing like the rigid stick-like hands so common on most clocks, black iron arrows cast in an ornate Gothic style to match the wooden carving that housed the mechanism.<br/><br/>Yes... he remembered those hands. He'd spent an hour watching them rotate lazily while he sat at the bar, waiting for his parents to finish their drinks for the night. Occasionally, they would ask the kitsune at the bar for another drink between talking and laughing with some family friends, their attention occasionally drifting to him and his sister as they sipped and ate things more appropriate for their age. The two of them would share awkward looks with each other, content to stay out of grown-up stuff and whisper amongst themselves about whether those cocktails actually tasted as good as they looked...<br/><br/>Another gust sent a chill up his spine. That scene only existed in his mind anymore, an endless hour he would have to relive. Nothing from it existed anymore, no one, not even a place. Nothing... but those turning hands. That clock.<br/><br/>Time.<br/><br/>There was still time.<br/><br/>“Come on, let's move out! See what we can find!”<br/><br/>Felix's pointed ears perked at the voices that echoed from the back of the building before his eyes trailed back up to the clock. It was 11:50, just a touch before midnight. He smiled. It was all the time he would need.<br/><br/>“Sia! Stand guard outside! Garret and I are going to poke around.”<br/><br/>“What?! I don't want to stand around here!”<br/><br/>The dog, on the move once again, crept silently through the door behind the bar with his smug grin still hung on his face. He worked his way past the old beer tanks and storage closets as the interlopers continued their bickering, unaware of the canine eavesdropping on them with glee. Eventually, he slipped out of what remained of the back exit into a small grassy space, likely used for shipping. And sure enough, after staking out a hiding space behind a nearby crate, Felix found what he was looking for: a troop transport shuttle, with three soldiers outside.<br/><br/>“Now is not the time for this!” one of the two male soldiers chastised. His armor, while remaining skintight, seemed just slightly heavier than that of his companions, although it bore the same white, black, and yellow coloration. His helmet, elongated to accommodate his muzzle, remained held in his arm, revealing the vulpine head beneath. “We need someone to watch the ship while we conduct our mission.”<br/><br/>“Stop holding me back!” the last female soldier complained, crossing her arms. She, along with the last soldier, were fully clad in their armor, although the shape of her helmet seemed to suggest a more feline figure. She rested a hand on her hip while the other clutched her rifle, the suit highlighting her curves a little more than she might have intended. “All I've ever been assigned to is grunt work! I want to see some real action for a change.”<br/><br/>A sigh escaped the fox's lips. “This is a search mission. I can guarantee you we aren't going to see any 'real action' as you have probably defined it. Now, like I said, stay here and watch the ship. If you're bored, look around here for anything we can find about the owner. Or anything about the girl, for that matter.”<br/><br/>Girl? Felix's brows furrowed as the word even as he watched the two male soldiers enter the building, leaving their exasperated colleague standing at the ship's cargo catch. As far as he could remember, none of the female workers or regulars at the bar ever seemed to be anyone particularly special, so the “she” they were looking for must have come relatively recently. Again, the curious canine found his mind wandering. Who could she have been? Where did she come from? And why were they after her? If these people were looking for her, it couldn't possibly be anything good, and he felt himself wishing her luck, wherever she was.<br/><br/>Of course, he would need his fair share of luck too, and it was time to see just how much was on his side.<br/><br/>With the two soldiers gone, the German shepherd slipped out of his cover and approached the remaining private, her voice still buzzing in the air as she complained to herself. Grinning darkly, the dog wandered ever-closer into the spotlights that shone from the side of the shuttle. Then, just shy of five feet away from the feline, a twig snapped beneath his paw.<br/><br/>Letting out a growl the soldier turned briskly, raising her rifle to her eye as she did. Upon seeing the teenage dog before her, however, her excited demeanor soon gave way to a more astonished posture.<br/><br/>“You... what are you doing here, kid? Don't you know it's past curfew? And that this is a restricted area?!”<br/><br/>“I know,” the German shepherd replied nonchalantly. “But... I couldn't sleep. Needed to get out for a while.”<br/><br/>The cat let out an irritated snort, returning her hand to her hip. “Is that so? Well, you best get running home little boy, before I decide to use you to spice up my evening.”<br/><br/>Felix's grin widened, a small thin cellphone unfolding in his grasp. “Oh, you don't need to go through all that effort. I plan on spicing things up<span style="font-style: italic">very</span>soon...”<br/><br/>*   *   *<br/><br/>THUNK!<br/><br/>“What the hell was that?”<br/><br/>The two males in the cockpit perked up in their seats, peering over their shoulders through the small window in the door. Neither the nekojin nor the dingo had been expecting anything of interest to be coming up while their comrades conducted their search. Thus, both were now reclining comfortably in their seats, their ration packs laid out on the currently defunct control panel. Their meal remained paused for a few moment as they listened on, but when nothing more sounded from the back of the shuttle they were quick to shrug it off and settle down once again.<br/><br/>“Eh, Terry probably just dropped a crate or something,” the cat demi muttered, taking a long drink from his canteen. “He's always been a little bit of a klutz.”<br/><br/>“Tell me about it,” the dingo added on with a laugh. “Still remember the time he accidentally dropped that hammer on Eli's foot. Probably why he specifically requested not to be put on this mission with him.”<br/><br/>They shared a quick chuckle before looking into their ration boxes again, but as the nekojin ate stoically the wild dog poked and prodded at his own food before letting out a sigh. “Man, you'd think they'd at least give us better food for sending us on a high priority mission.”<br/><br/>The cat scoffed. “High priority my ass. I know they just want to get us out of their hair for a while. Even if these two people are pretty high-risk, what can we possibly get from searching here again? I mean, it's been blown sky-high, for heaven's sake!”<br/><br/>“Well,” the dingo cut in. “High priority or not, this food sucks.” He sealed his rations and pushed them away before staring out of the cockpit window for a few moments.<br/><br/>“Hehe, you know Sia?”<br/><br/>The neko arched an eyebrow. “You mean the new girl? What about her?”<br/><br/>A mischievous grin crossed his face. “Thought she had quite a delicious-looking body the moment I saw her. Maybe they wouldn't notice if she got... lost on this mission...”<br/><br/>“Is that all you ever think about?” the cat chuckled. “I dunno about her. She sure looks mighty fine, but I hear she's got a temper.”<br/><br/>“That just means she'll squirm more on the way down. Can imagine it, just taking her into the little closet in the back, where no body is looking...” The dingo now seemed thoroughly lost in his fantasy, eliciting a roll of the eyes from the nekojin as he again reached for his bottle.<br/><br/>THUD!<br/><br/>Another bump echoed through the ship, causing the hull to tremble slightly beneath their seats.<br/><br/>“What the bloody hell is Terry doing?” the neko spoke up angrily. He stood up quickly, opening the automatic sliding door into the hallway with the dingo in tow. “What're doing back there man? No body told you to move around the weapons crates, you-”<br/><br/>CRASH!<br/><br/>Both pilots froze instantly as the body soared down the far end of the hall, slamming into the side wall with a resounding crack before crumpling to a heap on the ground. They raised their weapons simultaneously as they stared at the lifeless form of their friend, but while the cat demi held back the dingo let out a resounding growl.<br/><br/>“I don't know who you think you are punk, but you picked the wrong ship to mess with!” he snarled as he trudged down the passage. “Come out now, and maybe I won't digest too slow once you're stewing away in my gut!”<br/><br/>Even as he spoke, however, he remained unaware of the small lens peeking out of the side of the hallway. The electronics behind the glass disk soon began to focus on the neko's raised pistol, zooming in slowly on the trigger. Then, just as the wild dog was about to round the corner, the device let out a soft click.<br/><br/>The catboy's hair stood up on end as his gun discharged, sending a loud bang through the evening air. His eyes were wide with shock, staring down at the weapon that had fired itself in his grasp before finding the presence of mind to look up. He was just in time to see the dingo's form crumble to the ground, a small pool of red forming beneath it soon after.<br/><br/>At once, the neko dropped his gun, his heart beating out of his chest in fear. His eyes were glued to the end of the hall, backed up against the wall in terror of seeing the new threat that had befallen them. However, through his trembling and hyperventilating, he hardly noticed his combat knife unsheathing itself, raising into the air alongside his vulnerable neck...<br/><br/>Felix rounded the corner just as the nekojin's head hit the ground, admiring his handiwork with spiteful glee. His footfalls were fast against the steel surface as he headed down the now-cleared path, determined not to delay his plans more than he needed to. However, as he stepped over the catboy's body, his ears perked as a voice spoke over his radio set. Gazing down at it for a moment, he soon reached down and picked it up.<br/><br/>“Hello? What's going on? We heard shots fired!”<br/><br/>“I apologize for that,” Felix replied coolly. “I needed to borrow the ship, and they were... unwilling to relinquish it.”<br/><br/>He dropped the communicator on the floor and crushed it beneath his foot before they could respond, stepping into the cockpit and settling into the still-warm pilot's seat. His fingers were quick to rework the controls, punching the correct commands into them effortlessly and bringing the ship back to life. The craft shifting as it took off, he could hear the clinks of the two ground soldiers' bullets against the hull of the transport, but he knew it was too little too late. With a shudder, the small craft's engines worked up to full power before vanishing into the night sky.<br/><br/>*   *   *<br/><br/>It wasn't long before the shuttle broke out of the planet's atmosphere, a tremble working its way through the ship before it entered the black expanse of space. Felix quickly got to work on the final commands, adjusting the ships speed and rerouting power to save fuel for the trip ahead. Lastly, he typed his destination into the coordinate system and sent this ship zooming into the stars with a whirr. And at last he was done!... Not quite...<br/><br/>His hand trailing over his belly slightly, he rose from his seat and again entered the main hallway. The clicks of his claws echoed down the long pathway, the dog stepping over the bodies carefully before rounding the back corner again. There, his eyes trailed past the now-shut cargo bay to a small undemonstrative door in the back corner. With the push of a button, the door slid open, allowing light to flood into the small storage closet.<br/><br/>The female soldier, a jaguar as her now armor-less body showed, lay huddled against the far wall, staring up at the canine as he walked in slowly. He tread over the remnants of her suit as he advanced down on her, the feline twitching in the ropes that bound her hands and feet. He soon stopped before her, looking down at her with his ever-present smug smile.<br/><br/>“You... you must be crazy kid,” she muttered, squirming in her ties. “Do you have any idea who you're screwing with? The Herakor Military!”<br/><br/>“I'm fully aware of that,” Felix replied coolly. His hands grasped her trembling arms tightly, lifting her and pinning her against the wall with more strength someone of his stature should have been able to manage. “But if I was able to steal one of their ships this easily, I don't think I have much to worry about.”<br/><br/>A shiver coursed through her body. “W-well... you made your point then. Whoop-de-fucking-doo. Now what are you going to do now that you're on the shit-list for the galaxy's most powerful army?”<br/><br/>A low growl emanated from the dog's belly below, as if answering her question.<br/><br/>“Let's see...” he taunted, running his tongue across his lips. “I have a bit of a trip ahead of me, and I sure as hell not eating those disgusting rations you packed. So, to make things easier for myself, I'm just going to fuel up now. And don't worry about the army. I'll be long gone before they have a chance to interrupt us.”<br/><br/>Her struggles became more violent, which only caused the German shepherd's grip to tighten further. He could feel shivers course through the feline's body, exciting his predatory desires further as they vibrated down his muscles. A soft whimper escaped her lips as his long wet tongue lathered her in saliva, picking up the jaguar's delectable flavor as he licked across her forehead, down her cheeks, under her chin. Then, sliding that chin over his lower jaw, he welcomed her to the reddish-black past his fangs and gullet that would fill her vision forever...<br/><br/>His cellphone beeped, signaling the passage of midnight, and he could already tell it was going to be a good day...