I’ve seen a picture of Captain Yeti, so I knew what to expect of him physically, but I had not one fucking clue what to expect of him otherwise. I was under the impression that he was a terrorist that was hell bent on making the lives of humans as terrible as he could. A man filled with hate and loathing, so much so, that he was the cause of thousands, if not millions, of deaths on and off Earth.

  On the other hand, Noodle had talked about how the man had set up such a paradise for all the anthros stuck in shitty situations. He created a society of equity and caring, a pce of compassion and community where people worked together to make the lives of everyone a great pce. Something I was quite fond of, if I might say so.

  So, there was a battle of conflicting thoughts in my mind. The closed off versus the open minded, which one would win?

  I snapped back to reality when the door to the VIP lounge opened. This was the moment of truth. Was Uwu really in there with Yeti? I guess I would find out, or catch a smat of lead to the face. Hopefully, it was the former.

  Echo stood in front of me, Mama behind. Her usual position was st in, to make sure no one got left behind, but I also think it was also because she had a hard time fitting into things and she didn’t want to embarrass herself by getting stuck in doors.

  “Hey! Captain!” Echo’s raspy voice called out to our captain. I let out a short sigh of relief. My heart began to race as I could only think about embracing Uwu in a tight hug and never letting go. I needed some R and R time with him, maybe in a spa retreat orbiting around Neptune.

  I slipped into room behind Echo, just trying to get a gnce at Uwu. The room was dimly lit, smokey and made it difficult to focus on anything inside. I squinted my eyes as the smoke hit my pupils. I quickly spotted Captain Uwu from across the room, his leg crossed over his other and his arm resting along the back of a bck synth-leather couch. Speck was behind him, standing in the corner with his arms crossed and his trademark stonewall face. Uwu smiled at me.

  Our eyes met, and I felt like I could just melt away. All the stress that was built up in my body instantly faded away. I was relieved to see my love. I quickly pushed past Echo and made my way to Uwu. He stood as well and whipped his arms open as I stepped into him. Out lips locked and I held tight around his neck, not wanting to let go.

  His strong, hairy arms interlocked behind the small of my back and he pressed inward, forcing me tighter to his body. I just wanted to stay here in his arms forever. It was safe and warm.

  “Why, isn’t this a touching reunion?” A strong, commanding voice, as rich as mosses came from across the room. I pulled away to see who was talking. “This the gurl you’re shacked up with now, Uwu. Well, you ain’t lying. She’s a goddamn ten, as far as humans go.”

  I pursed my lips as some shit head was talking about me as a piece of meat, not something I generally liked. I could see the man chuckling across the room. It was a grey, long-haired cat, the same one in the photo at Noodle’s house. His arms were up around two other scantily-cd, female Anthro-Cats. They were snuggled up to his chest, rubbing his legs and shoulders like a couple of horny co-eds looking to fuck the college quarterback.

  I knew he was our client, and I probably shouldn’t bad mouth him, but you know me, I can’t keep things held back. “Big talk coming from a man who shits in a litter box.” I rose my eyebrow in defiance as I waited for him to retort.

  If I knew the room was full of Anthro-Cats armed to the teeth, I probably would’ve held back, but the room was dark and the thumping music from the club drowned out any little noise I otherwise would’ve heard.

  “Ay, bitch, you no speak dat wey to de Captain.” Azura pushed in with her hand on her weapon, “Apologize now…”

  Echo whipped an auto shotty from his bck cloak, “Don’t you even think about threating my friends here. Apologize for calling her a bitch…” His eyebrows furrowed as he stared into Azura’s own eyes, neither one of them backing down.

  The two slut-cats next to Yeto pulled their own pieces out and aimed it at Echo. Speck growled from the corner, whipping out his own pistols, aiming them at the two slut-cats. Mama was reaching for her slug-rifle when I pulled out my own pistol to aim at Yeti. I figured if we were stuck in this Mexican standoff, it’d be best to have the boss man under my thumb, or in front of my gun to be more realistic.

  “Drop it.” A heavy voice came from behind Captain Yeti. A rge white and bck Anthro-Cat, with a bck patch of fur over one of her eyes stepped out into the dim light, a massive Splicer in her hands. “Or you’re a puddle of goop.”

  I swallowed hard when I saw the weapon. I’ve only seen one before and the damage it did was undeniably atrocious. It was banned most pces for the death and destruction it causes. I definitely didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that beast.

  Everything was quiet for a moment that felt like we were suspended in time for a century.

  “Ha ha ha,” Captain Yeti cpped his hands together as he ughed aloud. “Oh, I haven’t had this much fun since our Tokyo heist. Ha ha ha.” He began ughing again as he wiped the tears away from his eyes. “Settle down everyone. Guns down.” He used his paws to lower the two slut-cat’s pistols. “You too, Azura.”

  Azura holstered her weapon, her eyes still burning into Echo’s. Echo pulled his own gun into his cloak. Mama rexed slightly, her arms still crossed and ready to pull out her rifle. Speck begrudgingly holstered his guns, his throat purring at the thought of violence.

  “Come on, Fat Dutch.” Yeti turned behind him to look at the rge cat, “We can all rex here, okay. Get yourself a drink. On me.” He smiled as the big cat lowered her Splicer with a grunt.

  I holstered my own weapon as Yeti turned back to me. He smiled, “You got some spunk kid, I like that defiance. I bet you don’t let anyone tell you what to do, just like myself. I like that punk ass attitude.” He turned to the room, “We can all be friends here. Rex, have a drink. We’re here to do business.”

  Uwu whispered in my ear, “You almost got us all atomized. Not the reunion I hoped for.”

  I whispered back, “Well, I can’t let him objectify me. Fuck that.”

  “I know. I was ready for you.” Captain Uwu holstered his own weapon he had aimed at Fat Dutch. He sat down back in his spot on the couch, “Yiffin crew, stand down. Let’s chill out for a bit. I know tensions are high with the Gellys assaulting the city, but we need to keep our heads clear, and work with our allies to fix the problem.”

  “Well fucking said there, Uwu.” Yeti spped his knee, “Comradery is what we built this city on, and it’s what we’re going to use to get back our city, and our moon. Fucking to the stars!”

  The room rang out in the battle cry, just like the warehouse crowd. Azura quickly tilted her head at Echo before she strode across the room. She spped one of the slut-cats out of the way before she sat down under Yeti’s arm, caressing his chest with her robotic limb.

  There was an unused drink on the small table in the center of the room. I grabbed it and raised it to Yeti, “To the stars.” I downed it with a few gulps. It burned something good and left a sweet taste in my mouth. “Can I get another?”

  Yeti spped his hands together and pointed to the dispced slut-cat, “Would you be a dear and grab this beautiful woman a drink? Thanks kindly.” Yeti gave a halfhearted grin at the woman.

  She crossed her arms, “Hmm,” she snorted as she strode out of the room, unhappily, but I was getting another drink I desperately needed.

  “Let’s get down to business.” Captain Uwu uncrossed his leg and leaned forward. “There’s an invasion going on right now. We’ve had our fun partying, but now we need to finish the deal and get out of here.”

  “You are so true,” Captain Yeti leaned forward himself, “You need money, we need guns, we got the money, you got the guns, we’ve agreed upon the price, let’s make the deal.” Yeti held his hand out for Uwu. Uwu stretched forward to take it, but at the st second Yeti pulled away, “Too slow!” He ughed out loud again.

  I scowled at the Anthro-Cat. This was no time to be messing about. How could this guy be leading a revolution and be this callous during and invasion of his own world. I leaned over to Uwu, “How can they be partying like this when Gellys are falling from the sky?”

  “Look out there,” Yeti cut in. His anthro ears most likely could hear anything I said, even with the club music bumping in the background. “You see all those men and women enjoying themselves? They do that because there’s a pretty good chance some religious nuts are going to gss the pnet, and so they think to themselves, hey, I better go blow this money on some good booze, a p dance, and a hooker, cuz this is it. This is my st moment alive and I better go out in style. I better get my dick wet and my mind melted into a puddle of dopamine, because at least then, I feel alive. At least then I’ve escaped the daily grind of being a nothing, of mattering to no one. At least now, I’m a someone, and I can die as a someone.”

  I took in a deep breath as I contempted the Cat’s words. He was right. Before I found my purpose here as part of the Yiffin II, I was a nothing stuck deep in depression, drowning my sorrows in cheap drugs, taking dangerous jobs to feel like I had the power to change my fate. I was nothing, with nothing to prove but the fact that I was still alive.

  “So, I would like to modify the deal.” Yeti snapped his fingers, and the rest of the cats left the room, save for Azura and Fat Dutch. “I’d like to hire your crew to help us take back out moon.”

  Captain Uwu gnced over at me, raising one eyebrow. I gave a slight shrug and he gnced up to Echo and Mama, who gave the same exact shrug. We were all thinking the same thing. Uwu was our captain, and we trusted him to do the right thing, to make the right choice for our crew, even Speck respected the captain’s authority in this regard. Whatever he agreed to, we would be behind him one hundred percent.

  “Of course, I will pay you double what we owe.” Yeti leaned back and raised his eyebrows.

  Azura spped him in the chest with her robot arm, “Dat wasn’t de deal.”

  Yeti held his hands up in surrender, “Do you know of any other mercs on the moon that will take the job? If you got a call list of well-trained and well-equipped mercs who will anser the call, then let me know. As for now, the Gellys have most likely toppled the local government, and most of the police are in hiding or bsted to particles so small not even their mothers would recognize them.”

  Azura leaned back in defeat, crossing her arms, “Whatever.”

  Yeti turned back to us, “So we got a deal?” He held his hand out, waiting for Captain Uwu.

  Personally, I would have liked to just take the money we had originally decided on and boost off the fucking pnet, leaving all this mess behind and grab our next job, but after seeing how fucked things were here, after hearing Noodle talk about her parents being held hostage, I had to do something about it. In front of me was a group of people who had the ability to do something. They had the hearts of the populous ready to get behind them and turn this moon into something better. I had turned my head away too many times. Now, I wanted to fight. Fight back against the corpos and the Gellys.

  Captain Uwu gnced behind him at Speck.

  “You know I’m down to kill the Gellys.” Speck grinned like he was a child about to open a stack of Christmas presents.

  Uwu turned back to Yeti and quickly snatched his hand, “You got a deal, friend.”

  “Fuck yeah! Drinks all around! Woo!” Yeti began to stand when the front door to the club burst open in a fsh of light and fire.

  We all stood and gazed out of the one-way window into the club. A hail of gunfire rang out into the club, spshing against lights, gsses, and hitting a few bystanders. A group of bck and grey dressed individuals, with metal stars dangling around their necks, strode into the club with their rifles aimed at anyone who still breathed.

  Behind them was the loud, ground shaking thumps of a Gellical Missionary ducking through the doorway, his power armor busting chunks of the doorway off, and gncing about the club with grimace pstered across his face. He stood tall, easily twice the size of the men around him. “Look at this den of filth and sin.” He spat on the floor. “We should cleanse this pce too, Father Brigum. It reeks of lust and adulterous pleasure. It’s a pox in God’s eyes.”

  Behind the Missionary, a slender man in a bck robe and white colr looked about the club, sneering at the anthros hiding behind what cover they could find. “I would have to agree, Brother Bartholomew. A cleansing is in order.”

  “Shit.” I ducked down, “They got a Priest and a Missionary here. This is gonna suck balls.” I looked up to see Speck pulling out his pistol, licking his lips with delight.

  Captain Yeti bent over and pulled out a shotgun from beneath the couch, “Well, it looks like you fuckers have your first mission. Let’s kill some Gellys.” He pumped the gun, chambering a shell.

  I let out a nervous chuckle. What else were we going to do?