The halls were a trail of blood and viscera, easily followed without Echo’s sonar. Some Praxis bodies here and there, mostly the militia, workers just an hour ago, id about, gunned down carelessly. Workers were easily repced. Well, so are corporations. There’s always someone ready to fill the vacuum left behind.

  I was getting sick to my stomach. So many lives, needlessly waisted to maintain control of a power pnt and the money that comes from it. The Meowtws, no, the people of this moon needed this power. It should be readily avaible to them all. Not locked away behind a paywall.

  Echo hopped over a body that began pooling that crimson lifeforce across the floor. His voice was hushed and raspy, “This is getting crazy. We need to get off this rock and get back to our day jobs, before one of us bites a bullet. It’s only a matter of time. We’ve already had a few close calls with you. I was shot up. Who knows where everyone else is.”

  I couldn’t argue with him. He was speaking the truth. We’d be better off dodging authorities and get back to smuggling and transporting goods. Maybe a few heists, but straight up rebellions were not our forte.

  “I…” I wasn’t sure what to say. I saw firsthand the struggle of the people here, and looked around at all of them fighting to make their world a better pce. The sacrifices of the people here could not go in vain. If we didn’t stand up to the powers that be, then who else would?

  I whispered back as we scurried through the halls towards the fighting, “I can’t just leave everyone now. We must stand up to these corporations. We must take out the Gelly threat. We must do something.” Waves of hopelessness kept crashing against my costal fortress of a mind, looking for a crack to break my resolve.

  Echo scoffed, “This isn’t our fight though. We don’t need to be here.”

  “You more than anyone should know that the despair doesn’t end here. This shit reaches as far out as the Corporations can reach. Do I need to remind you of your asteroid days? How many more Anthro-Bats have to go through what you did before you stand up for them? Standing up here is standing up for ourselves, and the rest of them out there that can’t. I can’t leave.”

  Echo grumbled to himself, “I guess. You really like bringing up my past, huh?” He rolled his shoulders, “You’re right. Fuck these corporations. Plus, I am having fun here. Beats getting trapped in an asteroid… Shit, get down!”

  Bullets rattled the wall beside me, barely missing my head. We ducked down, nowhere to really hide in the hall. My foot slipped in a puddle of blood. I tumbled down into Echo, crashing against the wall as both of us fell. My rifle rolled across the floor.

  A Praxis soldier stepped into the hall, rifle raised, “I got two more here!” He held the hall entrance, his gun never wavering, “Should I terminate them? Hello? Squad leader…”

  Footsteps echoed across the hall, a dozen or so from the sounds of it. More gunshots. A few Praxis goons ran past the hall, heading who knows where.

  “Fucking run, there’s a psychopath on the loose!” A praxis security guard ran past our detainer.

  Another ran and turned, raising his gun, “Fuck! Ahhh!” He fired from the hip, blindly spraying away at something out of sight. He screamed as the Jaguar growl was let loose, piercing our ears to the deepest canal.

  Speck dove from the side of the hall, ripping right into the guard’s neck with his cws. His fur was stained red, his arms and hands the deepest crimson, eyes wide and dited, leaving him with two rge bck holes in his head. With a jerk of his arm, he ripped the throat out of the guard. The Praxis man fell to his knees, gurgling, trying to refrain from drowning in his own blood.

  Our own detainer turned to fire, shouting out in horror. Speck twisted fast, kicking the guard’s gun upwards. The rifle sprayed bullets into the ceiling on full auto. Without missing a motion, Speck’s cw was at his throat, the sharp natural daggers digging deep into this man’s neck.

  Speck smiled like a devil about to make a deal, “You dare repce me?” He snarled as he began to rip another throat from it’s owner. “I have been loyal from the start!”

  More guards leveled their rifles and fired at him. A piece of his ear disintegrated before us, turning to mist as blood splurted from his head. Speck lifted the body in the air and turned, using the man as a shield.

  I finally awoke from my stupefied slumber, nudging Echo, “We got to help him.” I crawled around, hoping a bullet wouldn’t find a home in my body, trying to scramble to my gun.

  Echo rushed to the hall mouth, peeking out and bsting a few rounds back at the Praxis guards. They began to retreat, turning back to run. Speck twisted again, tossing the body at the retreating guards. They crashed to the floor, arms filing to get up.

  Speck pounced on them, sshing left and right. A guard aimed his gun at Speck’s head, and pulled the trigger. An empty click rang out.

  Speck smiled at him, “Cws don’t need ammo.” He grabbed the rifle and yanked it back before crashing right into the guard’s nose. “Hahaha, you think you can repce me in my jungle? I killed your pups, now you die!” He smmed the rifle down over and over until the guards face was a pulpy mess of blood.

  My eyes furrowed. What was he talking about? He kept sshing and cwing until the bodies were lifeless and still. He let out another growl and began sshing more. I inched forward, hand extended, to break him from his bloodlust.

  Echo grabbed me from behind and jerked me back, “Leave him. He’s having a fshback. You touch him now and you’re as dead as those guards. Come, let’s go find Uwu.”

  I let out a deep breath. I wasn’t sure what life Speck had lived before, but it must have taken it’s toll on his brain. We never had a conversation about our lives. I turned to follow Echo as he let loose some more sonar.

  “This way, Vixie. I can see Uwu ahead.”

  I took one more gnce backwards at Speck. He was bleeding from multiple pces in his body. It didn’t look good for him. I wanted to help him. He stood and growled again, his remaining ear twitching about, his whole body was covered in blood.

  “Leave him be. We got work to do.” Echo pulled me forward, not letting go until Speck was out of sight, leaving nothing but a guttural growl as we left him behind.

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