Foxenetics

[PTGigi]

Yay my random, surprisingly well thought out story! Working on Part 6 right now, my friend irl is proof-reading Part 5 for me too The title is a combo of Fox and Genetics

Foxenetics is basically about a Fox...Or is it basic? Oh yus and if this seems a bit Mewtwo-esc remember I'm obsessed with Mewtwo

Since this story has some 'mature content' (nothing over-the-top I hope ) I'm going to put a warning at the top if there is any content you should worry about And if I can upload any sketches of the main fox character I'll do that, I have sketches around here somewhere XD

Now go forth and conquer the giant wall of text! (I tried code tags to shorten it but it removed the italics and made it look weird )
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Part 1: (Content Warning: Violence/Gore)

The fox raised its head to look over the ledge. Dense foliage covered the ground below. Trees of varying types and sizes created a swaying ocean of green underfoot; they were just calling for her to leap in and swim beneath its surface. She took one step closer to the edge and peered into the vast ocean, but not much could be made out for all the creatures of the forest were hidden beneath the waves. She had no choice but to plunge beneath its surface.

With a great force she shoved her body off the small ledge and into the unknown below. She fell rapidly but quickly regained herself and angled for landing. Much as she had done before she landed on her front paws but quickly leaped off again and after a few bounds landed in a running stance. She slowed to a stop and looked behind her, the cliff she had just perched on towering over her. Seeing nothing quite of interest, she turned head and began the walk into the woods, the trees calling her inwards.

She slowed herself down to a crawl as she passed beneath the great trees. The mighty evergreens released scents of pine, flower aroma, and traces of the various animals that had defecated and slept under their branches. But these smells could not deter her from her goal. She quickened her pace as she neared the source, the scent unmistakable.

She crouched beneath the emerald ferns that had begun to populate the forest floor. These plants had began to grow much more densely and much taller as she approached her goal. On her belly she crawled on further, but upon seeing the light of the other side she stopped and crouched down as far as she could. Peering out of her camouflage she could see a stream making its way lazily down through the forest. She noticed this was the only part of the forest in which the sky could be seen, as she watched a hawk or two drift about in the sky above.

Besides the stream, sky, and ever embracing trees, there was a lone hare in the middle of the clearing. It approached the water carefully, watching the skies above. When it crawled closer to the water's surface the fox realized that the hare, which was actually a young rabbit, had scars upon its back and hopped in a slightly off manner. She curled her tail around her legs and began to get ready to leap. The rabbit stared in her general direction, whether aware of her or not she didn't care.

She took one last look before her leap; her target had not moved, and probably didn't even realize what was about to happen. With a quiet snarl she leaped out of the brush at a great speed. She saw the faint brown of the rabbit ahead but this quickly disappeared as she hit the water. The water was cold but in her rush she did not notice. Quickly, she bounded out and landed near the edge of the stream, her prize in her mouth.

Before eating her meal, she gave the rabbit one last glance. Oddly the creature had not moved as she leaped in, possibly knowing itself not to be the target of her strike. She gave a low growl to ward the rabbit off, as she did not like others watching as she ate. Slowly, the small thing turned around and gently leaped into the dense brush behind it; its brown hide fusing with the background of the forest foliage.

Giving one last glance around, she began to tear off the skin of her kill, a fairly large trout. The scales that gleamed in the harsh sunlight began to dull as she ate. By the time she had ripped out the spine, the scales and her head fur were stained red with blood. Discarding the bones in the river brought more fish to the scene, some of which she quickly scooped into her mouth, threw onto land, and then proceeded to snap their head to silence their movement. After she had consumed this lot, she proceeded to cleanse her fur of the blood. The fresh blood that spilled into the running waters turned the water into a living rose gem.

After her fur had mostly returned to its yellowed state, with only small specks of fire tinting, she raised her head upwards to the clear sky. The hawk still flew about, its pace appeared to have quickened since the rabbit had left. She figured it had lost its meal. Kindly, she left, leaving the cannibalistic fish to face the wrath of the creature of the sky.

She quickened her pace as she neared the densest part of the forest. Though there were no enemies, she kept a close watch on the surrounding trees. Finally she caught the familiar scent in her nose; she slowed down to a trot.

Blankly, she stared at the darkened mess of leaves that lay before her. She paced around this mass a couple times, making sure none watched as she entered.

Diving into the blackness, she crawled on her belly through the dark chamber. Her long tail had just reached the darkness when a light began to shine from ahead. Crawling as quickly as she could, the light slowly became brighter and brighter until it opened up into a small cavern.

The cavern was circular, and for the most part empty. In the middle lay a dish-like formation. Upon this dish lay a bundle of grass, weeds, and other soft, organic materials. But within this bundle movement could be seen. Slowly, a small furry bundle lifted its head out from the nest. Sneezing loudly, it succeeded in startling itself and the other fluff bundle.

The two raised their heads in unison as smiles began to creep onto their faces. The female fox was pleased to see the two, happy and awake. But her joy turned to shock as two golden blurs rushed towards her. Taken off-guard, the two little ones managed to knock her down onto her back. She lay down for a moment, stunned by the short fall.

The twins crawled all across her body, yelping loudly. She stared at the sun hole located in the middle of the cave, just above the twins nest. Sunlight streamed through the center and gave the cave a green light due to the leaves reflection. But her calm gaze was sharply interrupted when a little fox decided to leap upon its mother's head.

Shaking the child off gently, she walked over to the nest, the pups following close behind. She lay down in the nest and watched as the little ones crawled across her tail to reach her belly. Patting them upon the head with her tail, they began to settle down and nuzzled against her belly.

All was at peace. She couldn't have possible foreseen what was to occur over the course of next week…

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Part 2 (Content Warning: None!)

Twilight had come. The she-fox raised her head to the sun-hole, now darkened by moonless night. Owls, night-stalkers, and crickets could be heard. Tthe night creatures would not dare enter her lair, for if they did they would meet a sudden death. She peeked downwards at the twins for a moment, their movements were slowed. She watched as their backs rose and fell to the rhythm of their breathing.

She nuzzled them gently, not to wake them, but merely to comfort herself in knowing of their safety. She continued to watch the sun hole, noticing a growing light on the horizon. She snorted gently and drew her ears back slightly, but before she could ruff up her fur in agitation, the light came through the sun-hole; the moon having just risen above the tree line.

Slowly she rested her body again; nothing was there, just the moon. She stood up slowly, shifted the twin with her nose so her absence would not wake them, and proceeded to take her leave. The darkened hole seemed longer in the darkness, but eventually a silver sliver of light appeared at the edge of her vision. Crawling slightly faster, she made her way towards light and broke the surface. Bursting out from the dark leaves with great speed, she managed to startle some roosting owls. In protest, they hooted about noisily, but eventually flew away in their rage.

She put her ears back slowly, a deep growl rising up from her chest. The soft growl wasn't heard by the owls, but instead by smaller mammals that scattere, leaving her to peace. Sniffing the air, she determined that she was alone. No one would dare enter her lair that night.

As she walked through the forest that she had just visited earlier that morning, she sensed a change, a feeling floating about in the air; it lingered. Her ears twitched, trying to detect another presence, but she was truly alone. Glancing around to confirm with her other senses, she could not see a single form in the darkness.

The fox continued its trek, keeping her ears back and neck fur raised, to ward off that which she sensed in the beyond. She had never felt this kind of fear before, as one of the few canine residents of the forest, she was at the top of the ground-based food chain; the sky domain being that of the hawks. She had only felt this fear when her children were first born; she never dared to leave the nest for even a moment for she was afraid of the outside coming in. Back then her mate was still in full form. He had left without a trace, she never had smelled a trace of his leaving and it worried her for days after.

Lost in her thoughts, a sudden movement to her right caught her off-guard. She leaped towards the source in full fury; her eyes gleamed in the night, ears pinned down onto her neck, and all her fur standing on end. She pounced, closed her mouth around the creature's midsection, and shoved the thing's legs to the ground with her front paws. Just before she went in for the kill, she stopped, frozen in place. Gently she snorted in a compassionate manner to calm the creature she had grasped.

While golden foxes were known for their fury and killings, they were also known for their compassion for those they meant no harm to. Slowly, she licked the furry creature's back and released her hold. The younger rabbit sat there in horror; frozen in place it refused to move even after she gently shoved it. Sensing the fear of the young one, she lost her fear completely, losing herself in the well-being of another.

She sniffed the air for a moment and caught scent of more rabbits ahead. The young rabbit, who, in the moonlit night, appeared to have silver fur, had not yet moved but instead was trying to make itself appear as small as possible in the face of possible death. She nuzzled the rabbit softly, before gently picking it up in her mouth; just as she always did with her own pups.

Trotting ahead, she came upon a rabbit warren. As she suspected, the younger and mid-aged rabbits had scattered; however a couple elders remained and stared at her with questioning glances. Gently placing the rabbit down, the young rabbit finally seemed to have warmed up and bolted as soon as its hind legs touched the ground.

Her duty done, she walked away from the rabbits. A few elders hopped behind her for a couple seconds, then stopped and turned around. As she paced through the darkened woods, more lights appeared on the horizon. These artificial lights brought back the growl to her throat. The rabbits scurried away at the sound.

A lone figure walked in front of the lights. She kept growling softly, noticing that this figure had seen her. The scent of the figure was male, an elder. He approached her slowly; voices from behind this elder seemed distressed, upset at him. She could also smell fear.

He turned slightly and spoke calmly to the others, he was not afraid. This made her cautious. Humans who did not fear often had bad intentions or shot venom stingers at her, much like a cobra shoots poison at its victims. But this human was not holding the venom stick, which confused her.

He lowered himself down to his knees and placed an offering before her. She continued to stare at this human. Why? Why was he placing an offering and helping her? She sniffed at the food; it smelled fresh.

The other humans were continuing their fruitless protests. One or two carried the venom sticks of which she feared. She growled softly and crawled towards the offering, caring more to watch the venom humans than the elder. The meat was fresh, juicy and tasted like elk. She liked elk meat; but being she was a loner she had often tried, and failed, to kill one of the great beasts.

Because her meal was done, she gave a warning growl to the elder. He was unmoving and continued his gentle human speech. The others held harsher tones, and sounded more aggressive. She began to slowly walk away, her movement felt sluggish, slowed. She began to sway from side to side as she walked, bumping and scraping her feet against the branches and tree roots on the ground floor.

She knew little human speech from the small contact she had come into with them; she usually ignored it, but as she fell one last time she decided to listen. When she hit the ground she could not move. Her head would not rise, but she was not asleep. Her vision began to blur at the edges as she lay there. For a long moment, none of the humans spoke. Then, the elder gave a call to the venom humans. They approached, their voices full of evil intentions.

But the elder halted them. He knelt beside her and ran his hand through her fur. His voice was full of calm words; she tried to listen for the false kindness but heard none. He spoke few words; she could pick out "safe", "fox", "sleep", "help", and other words that expressed emotions of kindness. But beneath them was something more. "Return later" set her on edge. Return to where later? Why? Who was this?

The venom humans began to pick her up. They were not gentle about their manner, but this went unnoticed as she drifted into a deep slumber…

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Part 3 (Content Warning: Violence/Gore)

The female fox awoke slowly. Her vision was cloudy, nothing but shapeless blurs could be made out before her. Her entire body ached, especially when she slowly tried to lift herself off the ground, but like the few times before, that she could only vaguely recall, she collapsed before she could rise to a crouching stance. Attempts to stand evaded her as she tried again and again; with each attempt she could stand higher, but eventually her energy began to weaken. She began to sink lower and lower, until she could no longer lift her own head.

As she lay in silence, her vision began to restore itself. While she could see anything minutes ago, now she could see blurs of color about her. These blurs were mostly white and grey, but there was the occasional tint of green and blue; sparkles danced in her vision, taunting her shattered sight.

She rested for a moment, listening to the rushed beating of her own heart. She was afraid; scared. Where was she? What had happened? Where were her children? What had that elder human done? He had hidden his true intentions quite well. She had never suspected he'd harm her, but that is a typical human. Trust them once and you are gone.

She tested her legs without standing; yes, she had regained some strength. Lifting her head, she looked straight up; the sun was there to meet her gaze. She turned her head to the left; the sun met her there too. Feeling slight nauseous, she turned to the right, fearing what she saw. The sun was there too. This 'sun' covered the sky above; this unnatural sky was all above her. Oddly it ended right where the green tinting began.

Her heart beating faster, she tried to stand once again, this time the adrenaline rushing in her system. Sharply, she rose up, pushing as hard as she could on the ground, nearly jumping into the air. But just before she could stand, a sharp tug threw her to the ground. Shaking off she tried again. The snap brought her down again. Again and again she tried to stand, but to no avail. At last she collapsed; even the adrenaline could not keep her standing.

Panting in visible pain, the fox opened her eyes, realizing she had shut them tight as she failed. Her vision wasn't at its best, but it had come a long way from the dancing lights. Now she could see what lay before her, and it was not home. It was not anything she'd seen.

As the fox looked around the sun, or artificial lights, on the ceiling flickered every couple seconds; the green trees were never trees, a sickly green paint had been thrown on the walls in order to give the dim room some small amount of life. The floor tiles, edging, and single door were all silver in color, reflecting all that lay in the room.

The table that the fox was on was silver in color as well; it reflected the image of the dishearten creature who lay upon it. To her right was a large mirror, scents of humans laid behind it, yet she didn't understand how humans could live in walls. The artificial lights cut out for a moment, shrouding her in complete darkness. It was at this moment she felt calm, the darkness hid what she feared. But the betrayal came too soon, as the lights flickered back on only moments after their disappearance.

Falling into a state of disarray, she began to claw at the restraints holding her down. The restraints were on her muzzle, legs, belly, and tail. They were designed to restrict her movement, and prevent her from attacking anything. Her long tail was restrained in 3 sections, one close to her rump, one in the middle, and one close to the tip; the table was elongated to make room for her long tail, which was the length of her body.

As she struggled, the restraints, even though they had been layered with cloth to prevent cutting, began to dig into her skin, turned her golden fur red. She let a howl escape from her mouth; though it was muffled by the mask she wore, the sound echoed off the walls. Continuing to yip loudly, her calls were answered when the silver door opened.

A human walked through quickly. He was making soft, desperate sounds. "Shhh…shhhh…Calm down, it's alright." Though she did not understand most human speech, she could read his face. He was fearful, but not of her harming him; he seemed fearful for her.

He walked over and stroked her back. At first she shivered at the touch, but slowly the calming motion began to work its magic. Her scent glands in her nose had been slightly dampered by the drugs, but slowly the exact scent of the human reached her nose. Quickly, she recoiled backwards, once again snapping the restraints.

It was him! The elder human! The Deceiver! How dare he approach her with calm words! His kindness has brought her here; his kindness had harmed her. He had betrayed her.

Slowly he picked up one of her paws in his hand, the ruby red blood dripping onto his paled skin as he did so. He gently stroked her injured paw with his other hand, and then turned slightly to his right. Still holding onto her paw with his left hand, he reached over and grabbed a white cloth. Ever so gently, he rubbed the cloth on her wounds, quickly staining the pure cloth.

As he rubbed down all of her wounds, he spoke words of kindness. A deep confusion was set over her; a human showing kindness? But no he had betrayed her! But he was healing her…no! It was another trick! Just a mere—but what if it was truthful? What if—NO! Yes! No…no…yes…no…yes? Maybe…But why?—How?—Why? No! They are all lies! But he is kind…gentle…and a Deceiver…maybe his deception was not to harm? Maybe…

Her head began to ache; too many thoughts, too many. The fox lying on the table let out a moan of despair, and sunk down into the table, wishing the silver ice would consume her. "Calm down, we mean you no harm," the human spoke softly. She stared up at him, understanding little. She knew he spoke of "calm" and "no harm". Never had she considered humans putting "no" and "harm" together.

Slowly, she moved her head upwards to better see this human. He was an elder, not an ancient one. His mane was silver in color, paler than the silver of the room. His skin was pale but not deathly pale, and the covering he wore was pure white, giving off a slight glow in the artificial light. He gently reached out to stoke her again, this time she did not shiver.

"Hello there old girl, I suppose you're confused aren't you?" the human spoke. She could not make out most of the speech, but was sure she was being addressed. A small smile came to his face as the human noticed he had her attention, "Though I suppose you cannot understand me, my name is Danto", he then pointed to himself, "Danto".

The female fox was not stupid. Most often humans had a way of pointing to themselves when addressing who they were, and this one was no different.

He smiled at her. "So now you know my name, but what should yours be?" The fox just stared back at him blankly, but beneath the look of no understanding was an intelligence which gave away her thoughts. "I see, so you can understand a bit of what I am saying, so maybe you recognize me as well." He chuckled softly and smiled at her again, soothing her distress.

He continued to smile and patted her as he spoke, "How about I just call you Crystal? Your eyes are the color of the crystal necklace my daughter has. So how does that sound Crystal?"


She looked up at him with her bright violet eyes. 'Crystal?' She thought; snorting gently. She accepted this new human name for herself. Humans had a knack for giving everything else names in their own language; then again she did too as she thought of this human as the Deceiver. But now she considered giving him a new name, as he was friendly to her and appeared to mean no harm. Though the title of Deceiver could easily be returned to him if he ever betrayed her again.
Nuzzling his hand gently she spoke, "Elder Human, hello". Obviously this was not understood by the human and he just smiled at her some more, taking her soft noises as an agreement. "So we are in agreement then, your name shall be Crystal."

"Talking to animals again Doctor?"

Crystal the fox shot up at the new sound. This new human was female and had a higher, more aggressive voice. The human named Danto turned around, revealing the female who stood behind him. She was not an elder human like this Danto, she was a young mid-age. Her mane was fire-red and came down to her shoulders; she was thinner than the male but stood at the same height as him. Similar to the male her skin was pale and her covering white, but unlike the male her skin held a more vivid color, as if sun touched, and her lower clothing was a dark grey.

"Why yes, I am." Danto replied to the strange human passively, "She appears to have been frightened by her sudden move. She's much better now though and has calmed down enough to let me pet her. She seems like a passive one but I wouldn't be surprised if she could deal some damage if we freed her—"

The female human let out what sounded like a snort, "Stop babying it, it's just a stupid wolf and we'll just throw it out when we're done."

"Actually" Danto replied, "she's a fox, and a rare one as well. We thought all the Golden Foxes had been hunted to extinction ten years ago, but it appears we were wrong; luckily they are now protected by law so no harm should ever come to them again. Now their population can build up again, that is, if there are other males." He stared down at her again, with a smile, and patted her gently. "She means no harm," referring to the female human.

Crystal sat there in silence. The female was aggressive, she looked like she wanted to strike the male but wouldn't; humans were strange like that. The male on the other hand was talking in a calm, collected manner, as if he didn't care what the female was saying. He seemed to like her, the fox; but the other female looked as though she wanted to attack her. Did the human think because she was a female she'd try to take the male human as a mate? Were these two humans mates? Because Crystal had no interest in cross species relations; stupid humans.

The female seemed a bit more upset by this point, "Can we just get this over with? I know it's a stupid, special dog—I don't care what it is! Stop trying to interrupt me!" she shouted when Danto tried to remind her of the fox, not a dog, not a wolf.

"Now," she continued, "This—thing—has the antibody in its system correct? So all we have to do is inject it with the virus, wait for it to produce the antibodies, and then harvest those. No harm done since the thing already can heal itself. We can finally cure the Plague. Think about how rich we'll be!" At that, she laughed; Crystal put her ears back. Her laugh; it was menacing; full of evil.

The Danto human sighed, "No, no Janna. This isn't about money, it's about a cure! My daughter caught this sickness and she only has a couple months left. She was lucky enough to only get the weakest strain of the virus…"

This female human, who seemed to be named Janna, snorted again. "Whatever, I've got the serum with the virus in it, let's just inject the thing and get it over with. It'll take a couple hours for its system to begin producing the antibody, so we can continue this stupid discussion then."

Showing mild signs of anger for the first time, the elder male took a small, clear tube from the female. He also took another container with a blue liquid inside and placed this upon the table where she, Crystal, lay. After sticking the clear tube into the blue goo and collecting some of the liquid inside, the elder walked over to her slowly, making shushing sounds as he did. "Don't worry; this will just put you to sleep for a little bit. When you wake up everything will be fine and you'll be back in your forest, all nice and happy again." He smiled at that.

As Danto bent over to inject the she-fox, he gave a quick side glance to Jaihannah (who preferred the nickname 'Janna') and asked "Are you sure this is the right serum? I recall this being a slightly greener tint than it is now."

Janna lashed out in anger, "What!? Are you saying I made a mistake! How could I make a mistake? The serum's label was M3W700 and that was the serum with that label. How else could I have made a mistake?" She turned away angrily, "I'ma go put this back now if you're just going to insult me."

She grabbed the serum quickly, and was on her way out the door in matter of seconds. Walking down the corridors, she lost the outermost part of her anger. The walls around her were pure white and reflected her image. Turning a few times to look at herself, an egotistical smile crept unto her face. Stopping for a moment to fix her hair on the door's reflection, she finally had reached the Storage Closet-Sector 7B.

Walking into the darkened room, Janna reached over and placed the blue liquid back on the shelf. What she didn't notice was the container next to the blue one. The container read M3W700 and was of a teal color. Her container on the other hand read M2W708, a fatal mistake…

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Part 4 (Content Warning: Violence/Gore, Swearing (once))

Crystal woke again. Her sleep had been disturbed many times over the past couple hours by a deep pit in her stomach. This feeling could only be compared to her stomach being ripped open, but this was not the case. Sitting up, she began to lick her body, ensuring she was in no physical pain and nothing had changed from hours ago.

Looking around, she noticed she had changed landscapes sometime within the past hour. No longer was she chained against the silver ice, instead she was free; free from the bonds, free from the humans, free! Freedom! Home at last.

She could barely contain her excitement! The trees were all around her, grass beneath her feet, a warm sky above her! All was perfect! She began to run playfully in circles; much like she would have as a pup. She knew what she had to do; go home. Her children were waiting.

She broke out into a sprint as she ran though the trees. Crystal ran as fast as she could to where she hoped her den was. She began to near her top speed, running towards a particularly dense clump of trees. Just before she reached the trees though, she realized how flat they looked—WHAM!

Stopping dead in a matter of seconds, she felt her body crushed by the sheer force of her speed. Falling backwards and stumbling, she threw herself at the trees again. But they refused to move. Even the clear spots between the trees would not let her pass. Slashing out desperately with her front paws and fangs, she only managed to wound the trees with tiny scratch marks. Her fear began to come to life. She was not home…she never was…

Suddenly a jeering pain brought her to the ground; it was not running into the wall that was causing this pain but her stomach. In her joy the pit had gone away, hidden in the darkest place of her being; but it had fed on her fear and come back, much more venomously.

Her cries pierced the skies, now dulled in her eyes by the truth. Rolling around she tried to shake away the pain; she even tried ripping at her stomach with her teeth, bloodying her golden body.

Standing now, she threw herself at the wall, knowing the false sleep was an easier pain than this pit. But before she could exert her energies on the wall again, a shadow came over her. Flinching back in a rage, she flattened her ears and raised her mangled fur. A human. She truly had never left their lair.

He knelt beside her and held out his hand, the false lighting cast dark shadows over his face. But when he began to talk, his calming scent drifted over. The Elder Human had come back for her. He had…but what was he here for?

Slowly she lowered her guard, allowing him to move close; but just as she did the pain seeped back in, demanding her attention. Unsure of the cause of the pain, she nearly lashed out at the Elder Human; but he quickly stumbled backwards to dodge her attack. Grunting slightly as he hit the ground, he watched her struggled fight within.

Danto groaned from the short fall and rubbed his back, "Shit…Keyen come here, get the tranquilizer. Something's not right." A shorter human quickly came over; he was carrying a venom stick. Pointing the weapon at Crystal, he pulled the trigger just as the fox leaped towards the humans.

With muffled howls, the dazed fox crashed into Danto. The force took the breath out of his lungs for a moment, but otherwise he was unharmed. Danto lay panting on the ground, the now unconscious fox lying on top of him. Slowly, he started to rise up and gently picked up the fox in his arms as he did. "I'm fine," he spoke quickly to Keyen, the assigned assistant. "She's out cold. Here, come take her, I don't have half the strength I use to."

Quickly the unsure assistant came; then he gingerly picked up the fox, trying to avoid getting the vivid blood, which had stained Danto's coat, onto his own attire. Groaning again, Danto managed to stand up unaided. He motioned towards the small vehicle they had driven in. "Put her on the back, we have to take her back to the lab to see what is wrong. She should be out long enough for us to reexamine her."

As quickly as the order was given, Crystal's body was laid upon the miniature truck. She was restrained with cloth and rope to prevent her body from sliding off the vehicle and blindfolded to keep her in a calmer state if she awoke too soon.

Danto sighed and stumbled over to the passenger's seat. Waving off Keyen as the man tried to help, the Doctor sat down heavily and rested his leg up against the frame of the vehicle. After picking up the two-way radio installed in the truck, Danto held the recorder end to his mouth. Before pressing the button, he let out some short, deep breaths. He'd nearly been killed by the female fox. Had she gotten a hold of his throat in her desperate struggle he'd have been killed in an instant.

Slowly pressing down upon the radio's 'on' switch, he requested Janna to come to the radio. Trying to remain as calm as possible in the minutes that ticked by, he slowed his breathing down, and glanced at his lab coat. Red blood from Crystal's wounds stained the jacket. Most of it was on the torso and arms, from when she had landed on him to when he had picked the poor creature up and handed her over to Keyen.

"Bzzt…Janna here, I was told you wanted to speak with me Doctor?" a fizzy voice came through the radio at that moment. Quickly, Danto regained his composure and replied to the voice.

"Yes, it's Danto." A pause. "Janna...are you sure you gave this fox the right serum? I hate to bother you but the reaction that is going on is not—I repeat—not natural. Any species infected with the strain of the virus should not undergo the bizarre behavior I just saw; even those who are infected do not act like that. This creature was—literally—trying to tear off its own skin and knock itself unconscious, to end the pain. Can you run down to the Storage Closet on Sector 7B and double check what she was given?"

There was a long pause before the voice spoke back. "Fine. Fine; I'll double check. Though I wouldn't be surprised if that thing caught a different disease as well and that's causing an amplified response."

"Thanks Janna," Danto answered back. Waiting for a reply, he looked over at Keyen who was starting up the vehicle. "We need to find out what's wrong," he said to no one in particular. After Keyen got the vehicle started, the Doctor finally gave up waiting. Placing the radio back in its slot, he held on to the frame of the car to lessen the pain in his back.

* * * *

As the vehicle came to a stop, three other scientists ran up. Danto nodded at them and began the monotonous task of catching them up with the entire experiment as a whole. A cure for the plague, this was well known.

Approximately 70 years ago, a new strain of virus was discovered. It was nicknamed 'Autumn Flu' because of the number of people who generally got infected during that season. It was a mild virus that only caused exhaustion, coughing, and in rare cases vomiting. Otherwise it was relatively harmless, that is until it was turned into the biological weapon of the century. The virus was found to easily take on characteristics of other viruses if put in close contact and high temperatures.

When this new weapon was developed,it became known as "Autumn's Death". It was first tested on an empty wasteland. It was later noted that only plants could survive the initial wave, but many species soon died after days of being infected. Animals died instantly. When measures were made to put a stop to this new weapon, high standing military officials argued for the sake of their troops. Never again would troops need to be sent into battle if this virus could be launched at any uprising. But this was overruled and soon only the powerful countries at the time gained a few containers of the virus.

But a new world war began over the now dwindling resources, and these weapons were brought back from their silent graves. As the virus was turned into an airborne gas, it leeched into enemy cities; blown over by the wind, the virus began to spread past its initial point of origin.
When the war had reached a conclusion, only a few spotted countries remained. Crippled by the death and disease, these few remaining safe-havens formed an alliance, and destroyed all left-over traces of the virus. But the wound was left unhealed; the virus thrived in the wilderness, and killed thousands of species of flora and fauna.

Eventually the virus died out in the wild populations; as the infected animals died off, the uninfected population moved towards clean lands. These species that migrated survived the epidemic. Humans on the other hand, were not as smart. The human populations buried their death in the earth, causing the virus to seep into the ground, infecting the water the humans drank. Cities were not evacuated but 'cleansed'. Attempts to clean the cities of the virus resulted in lower cases of this infection, now simply referred to as 'the Plague'. But this did not solve the problem as the virus lurked in the dirtiest parts of city, occasionally latching onto a random civilian.

Attempts to cure the plague failed, until a single species was found in an infected forest. A small golden fox pup, left behind when all the other's had migrated, had survived the disease. A natural immunity in its body kept it safe from harm. But sadly the pup died before researchers could nurse it back to health. But this single fox sparked the continued search for the elusive creature, known now as a mythological figure in these dark times.

Sadly, the news took too long to spread as many of these foxes were killed when farmers thought the foxes would eat their livestock; which was untrue, because golden foxes rarely ate other mammals. Most often they fed on fish and small ground birds. Nevertheless, their population decreased until many feared them to be extinct. That is, until they found Crystal.

Danto watched as the others lowered the unconscious fox onto the examining table. Slowly he reached out to pet her back, but as soon as the Doctor had touched her hide he quickly he drew his hand back; her fur was thicker, and much more bristled on her spine. Even more oddly, he noted the length of her fore and hind claws. The fore claws were nearly double the length of the hind claws, which were half an inch longer than they should be; but on all four feet her middlemost claws on each paw were another half an inch longer than the outermost.

He frowned. Something was not right. The serum she was injected with may have caused her body to produce an exaggerated growth in her hair and claws, but that still didn't explain why it was doing that. Obviously something had gone wrong somewhere.

"Juan, Karlee. I need you two to get blood samples as soon as you can," motioning to the other assistant, "and Erick, I need you to find Janna. If I'm correct she should be in the Storage Closet on Sector 7B. Go now!"

He sighed heavily as he watched the others do their work; his shift had ended more than an hour ago and he should be home with his sickened daughter. He needed to call her to tell her what happened. Quickly he excused himself from the room and walked out into the hallway.

Dialing her number on his phone, he looked through the one-way mirror at the work of the others. Doing their job correctly, they took blood samples for later study. Crystal would then be relocated to a 'dark room'. It was a room encased in complete darkness; as a nocturnal creature, it would calm her down. Bright lights would only startle her.

"Hey Dad? That you?" A weak voice from the phone quickly pulled him back to his own task.
"Hey Rose, how are you? Still the same?" He couldn't bring himself to ask much more than that given her state.

"Yeah," a weak voice struggled to sound cheerful, "Hey where are you? It's 6:32 at night; you said you'd be home at five." A pause, "Or is the clock in the den broken again? Sorry, I just woke up." But before her father could apologize she added, "No, the phone didn't wake me, just the rain on the roof. It sounds nice when the whole house is quiet and only the rain can be heard. It's—peaceful. "

"Sorry my dear, I would have called sooner but a lot has been going on. And I'm sorry for staying late as well; a miracle happened last night, and—I can only say something has gone terribly wrong with that miracle—I'd tell you more but, obviously I could lose my job if I told too much about the latest project. But don't worry, I'm coming home in a few minutes, I just have to make sure everything is okay on this end." He waited a moment for a response from his daughter, hearing only a quiet squeak of agreement from the other end he continued, cheerfully, "I'm bringing home take-out from that new Italian restaurant I keep forgetting the name of, I know you told me you'd like Italian sometime soon so I figured tonight was better than any."

"Thanks Dad, I'd like that." The voice was sounding weaker, it also sounded like she'd sat up because of the rustling of blankets. "Hey Dad," another long pause, "see you soon."

The phone clicked off just as the operation room door opened. "All set Doctor! She's fast asleep in the dark room. I suspect she should wake up within the hour. You can go home now—just one quick question. I have to put a name for her on the charts, mainly because it's a dog chart and that seems to be the only thing we have as far as canines go. Under the 'owner' column I just put 'wild', but should I just leave 'name' blank or what?"

Danto stared at the phone in his hand for sometime, finally he replied, slowly at first. "Crystal, her name is Crystal."

__________________________________________________ ______________
Part 5 (Content Warning: None that I can remember )

The darkness surrounded her. Slowly, Crystal opened her eyes. A feeling of relief swept over her as she peered out into the black abyss. She knew she was still in the human lair, because their scent was about, but she was glad she could not see her surrounds. If peace was to come blind she would chose it.

But what had happened? How did she get into this room? Her last memory was of the pain, and then…She had attacked him—the Elder Human; her only friend in this unfamiliar world.

Carefully, she raised herself to her feet. Something…something was wrong. It was impossible to tell what sent this feeling through her veins, but this was the truth, she knew it.

Daintily, she paced about her enclosure, hitting the wall a few times in the process. Her night vision was not accustom to a complete lack of light, as the moon shone bright on most nights. Making her way back to where she had awakened (for the scent of her piss was there from when she had released the liquid during her sleep), she brushed her paws against something furry.

Leaping back, startled by this silent creature, she landed awkwardly but quickly regained her posture. Snarling into the abyss, no echo or frightened sounds of a poor creature were returned.

Once again, she slowly began heading back towards the spot, this time walking so slowly even a lowly turtle could have gone faster. Upon reaching this—thing—she knelt before it and tried to gain a trace of it via scent. It was odd, it was truly dead but the smell she could not determine. Never before had she met such a creature, it was neither a rabbit, nor a hawk (for hawks had fur too Crystal thought, just an odd type of fur that came in clumps). It was also not one of the rare creatures she caught only glimpses of as they darted away, or in the rare case she darted away. Bear, deer, elk, porcupine, rodents, and other winged creatures did not match this smell.

Gently, she picked up the thing in her mouth, but instantly threw it down. It was long, like a serpent, but had fur and small legs. Shoving the body around with her paw, it seemed much like a rodent in head shape, but its tail was bushy, not the lizard-like tail of most rodents she had seen.

Not a huge fan of mammal meat, but very hungry, she ate the creature with little satisfaction. Crunch-crunch went the bones before she swallowed her mouthful, she didn't mind eating bones, but she enjoyed to crunch them up into a fine paste before the disappeared into her gut.

Reminded of the pain he had felt earlier today, she was surprisingly pleased to find her stomach in complete cooperation. No more was it trying to destroy her from the inside out, but rather it happily accepted the food offering; making quiet gurgling noises after its long absence of sustenance.

As her meal was slowly dissolved, the warm blood on her paws suddenly made her question the room. While the room was neither cold, nor hot, there was no sun to bring heat, or moon to bring cold. Sniffing, she also sensed an airflow as strange, very diluted scents, were being whisked around the room. Postponing her curiosity, she began the tedious task of chewing upon the larger bones. Only the skull remained when her work was done, she didn't care to remove the soft, squishy thing within the skull. Other carnivores adored this delicacy, but her own stomach often rejected this meal in a violent manner.

Rising up again, the darkness still hugging her body tight, she began the hard task of tracing this strange wind. It was hard due to the calmness of the air, and the lack of strong scents to follow.

Pacing about slowly, she was slowly drawn about the room in circles. Dizziness struck on occasion, causing her to sit and rest for a short moment. But eventually, as the cycle repeated, she was able to at long last locate the source. Oddly, the source was coming from the center of the room.

As she had been in this abyss for some time, her eyes had slowly adjusted to the lightless room. A dim disc-like shape could be seen; only a small bit of the rim appeared in her vision but slowly a change began before her eyes, literally.

Slowly the disc began to brighten. Darting her head about, the room had the same effect. Oddly there was no light; the abyss was still as bleak as before. It was as if she was becoming accustomed to the darkness, as if her vision was improving at a sudden rate.

Blinking rapidly, she was astounded by the clarity of the truth. Staring around it was as though a soft, violet light had lit up the room. The smooth highlights were a pale shade of purple, much like her eye color. Walking to the shimmering wall (which she assumed was a human door), she peered at the image she saw. A mangy canine was looking back at her. Its violet eyes pierced the reflection, it was as though those eyes could shatter the silver ice just by their stare; but of course this wasn't true.

This canine was not like her, it was larger, more muscled. Its claws were much longer, and even she found herself in fear of the power they could hold. A stiff mane stuck up from the creature's head, this mane was much like a horse's, but spiked like a porcupine's. This mane continued along the creature's backside, turning less spiked but still retaining its stiffness; it slowly dissolved onto the thing's fur as it neared the brushy tip of the massive tail.

Raising her snout towards the ice, she watched as the reflection moved with her; just as she had feared. Jolting back in terror she fled to back wall, far away from the silver ice. What had become of her? Was this natural for her species? She was not old herself; and back during the great migration, she remembered as a pup many an elder keel over and die along the cold ground, but never had one of her kind grow like this.

Curling into herself, defeated, she lay on cold, unforgiving floor, pondering her existence. Is this her fate? To have her own body turn against her just when there was no one to comfort her? But there was one. Only one she could reach right now; her children were hopefully safe in their den but here…here she only had him, that human.

He was strange, an elder of his species. He possessed a great capacity for understanding, but did he still feel the same about her? Did he still care to heal her, to calm her, to end the pain? She nearly killed him, she had betrayed him, her body had forced her to betray him…

Surely he knew what she was going through, maybe he even knew how to help her, but where was he? He was always just within her call.

Shaking her head softly, she realized how scared she was. These thoughts of hers, they were like a frightened pup, wondering where in the narrow world of its den its parents could be, unaware that there was more that lay beyond the haven. An outside world in which only the parents could enter, until the young pup had finally proven itself worthy of departure.

At last she could no longer contain herself, jolting upwards from her resting position; Crystal threw herself at the silver door. Her impact didn't even leave as much as a scratch. A small thud, then a series of pinging sounds echoed off the door as she crashed, then desperately began clawing in hopes of digging through the door.

But before she could harm the door, or rather herself, more something began to happen. Something…unordinary…It started as a brief itch on her side, which spread throughout her body. No matter how hard she tried it could not be stopped.

Where was he? The Elder Human was suppose to protect her? Where was HE?

* * * *

The Elder Human of which she spoke of course could not hear her cries over the miles of dirt road, a road which remained hidden to the public eye and quickly joined onto an old highway, in the dim light various rusty signs could be seen dotting the sides of this massive path. As this river of black wavered, it turned into the cobblestoned drive of an ancient city. This ancient city wasn't that old, it possessed some of the most recent achievements in human developments, but the look and feel of the city had an almost rustic nostalgia.

As Danto neared Anadarko, nicknamed the timeless city, he peered off into the darkness. The city, though a large urban city, has many wide pastures in which farmers raised livestock and animals. Alongside the road, a dark shadow moved directly opposite to his vehicle, keeping pace. He smiled and watched the great beast run, this was an example of a healthy horse, which was a good sign. The horse species had nearly become extinct, that is until the remaining members of the species began to pop up in sporadic numbers, quickly breeding where there were no predators to harm them.

That had happened to many species during these times, slowly as the Plague washed out of various habitats, the displaced animals would return to their homes and start anew.

Reaching the end of the field, the great beast stopped and stared at his car as he drove away. Making a mental note, Danto hoped he could drive his daughter, Rose down her sometime, she loved horses and it would brighten up her dreary remaining months.

Finally he reached the small, almost unseeable road of Glyphina, hidden in the darkness and nestled between the two great elms that lay up either side. It was a quiet road, there were houses snug right up next to each other in the cold night. Despite the houses in close contact the backyards were often very wide, as nothing but woods lay behind these great homes.

At last, driving into his own garage, Danto could finally stand up and stretch, he wasn't that old, only in his late forties, but as a child he had been a bit too active, and eventually this caused an accident in which he had to be hospitalized. He was healing but being run over by a rather large fox didn't help matters.

"Hello Dad"

His entry into the room was not all that stealthy, apparently Rose hadn't gone back to sleep after the phone conversation.

"Hey there" he responded. Walking over to the kitchen counter he set down their dinner. He was not much of a cook, his wife had been but she had left in the mass fear of the disease; he hadn't heard from her since. "I brought dinner. You need any help standing up? Or would you rather we just ate in the den?" Turning around as he asked, he found himself staring at a pale figure lying on the large sofa.

She was nearly white, with very little color left in her skin. Her bright autumn hair offset the colors of her body. As a child she had nearly gained the name Autumn, but being born in the Spring changed that. Her hair was a brilliant mixture of browns, reds, and even a few blond streaks. He wasn't sure who she got it from, as Rose's mother had black hair, but he loved the color.

Daintily, she pulled up the mass of blankets about her, deciding whether to leave her cocoon, or whether to venture into the adjacent kitchen. "I'm...I'm fine here. If-if that's-s okay with you?" A pained smile crossed her face. "Will you…will you eat over here too? It's been-n lonely all day."

"Of course, let me just heat this up. You can never trust those Styrofoam containers to retain all the heat of a good meal." Walking back over to the kitchen to throw the meal in the oven, or microwave if it was still warm, a sudden gasp from behind him caused him to forget about the meal.

Rose had a shocked look on her face, "D-dad. The-ere's blood-d!" She was staring at the lab coat sticking out of his heap of dirty clothing on the floor.

Quickly, he picked up the blood stained cloth, careful not to let her see how much it had been stained, and quickly threw it in the washing machine. "It's nothing, it's nothing." Sitting down next to her to help calm her down, "Why the worry? It's just a little blood, no big deal."

"But Dad!", her eyes pleading, "How did it get on your coat? Are you bleeding!?"

"No, no", quickly interrupting her, "an animal got loose and I guess it had just eaten, I'm perfectly fine!" He sat up straighter as he said this, hopefully her keen observation skills wouldn't notice.

Whether she had noticed or not, she at last gave a sigh of relief and lay back down. Slowly, she reached her hand over to his and held it. "I'm fine Dad. You don't have to worry, but I am a bit hungry if you wouldn't mind."

Chuckling, he kissed her on the forehead and squeezed her hand gently. Before heading back to dinner he gently placed her hand upon her stomach, "I'll get you something; don't worry." Continuing to smile, he walked back over to the counter and began to finish preparations.

In all the joy he had forgotten about Crystal. Not completely, but enough to think she was in good hands and most likely sleeping it off. He had been called on his way back that she had been given some drugs to help her fight this unknown illness. Janna hadn't been able to relocate the false canister, as it was gone from the shelf when she had returned.

Something was wrong, but for now he dared not think about these thoughts. His daughter was surprisingly well, well enough to order him about nonetheless! But looking at the necklace which she had refused to remove throughout her sickness, he could not help but wonder about the violet eyed fox.

Part 6 coming soon :3

[PTGigi]

*half-bump* Part 5 up (I hope this double post is okay because I'm just informing of a new part )

[Lunaria]

I remember reading this on DA xD Anyway, Love it!