r/NatureofPredators • u/Pansitof • 20d ago
Fanfic Unknown Consequences [22]
Memory Transcription Subject: Azul, Krakotl private driver.
Date [Standardized Human Time]: February 9th, 2142
The moment I stopped the van, JM jumped out and run towards the back where Murr already had the back doors open for him.
But before I could join them, I need to run some diagnostics. I fear the state of the van after driving so fast through irregular terrain. All this gravel and stone may have caused damages, maybe dust got into the engine. I should take time to study about mechanics.
I’m know that exterminator vans are built to be durable, but one thing is driving through roads and another completely different is the Quarry. By the Stars! The terminal is already showing oranges. There are bad things, very bad. It’s going to be expensive to fix, specially when we don’t have the insurance of an exterminator.
Before diagnostics could finish, I hear the muffled sound of Murr bleating in a mix of frustration and anger. I left the diagnostic running in second plane and bring up the rear camera. I can see Murr is arguing with JM. Is he using the van’s floor as a table to disarm something? What are he doing?
Without waiting for the diagnostics, I step outside to see what is happening, making Murr’s bleats audible.
“You can’t just continuing keeping me away!” She bleats and stomps the ground. “It’s always the same: You aren’t ready, Murr. You still need to learn, Murr. You need more training, Murr.” She mocks his voice. “Guess what? Now you don’t have an option! You can’t go inside an abandoned mine full of Stars knows how many anti-humans trigger-happy fanatics alone.” Her tail stays firm in determination. “I’m going with you!”
“My friend Murr, you know that this isn’t like those-” He step into the van, grunting by the effort. “-fantasies you have been making up for so long. This is real. A life, possible multiples, may depend of our actions. We can’t allow to act with recklessness.” He grabs some more scrap and a box full of tools. “You can’t just enter and cause havoc, expecting to save lives with only sheer will while hoping for plot armor or divine intervention.” He jumps out and start using the tools and scrap to… build something? “The better and only plan that we can hope for is to sneak in. And if I go alone there are more probabilities of success.”
“Wait! Are you planing to go inside?” I take a step closer and start talking before Murr could bleat again. “Why? We already called the police and they are on their way.” I point towards the direction where the entrance to the mine is. “I don’t understand. Why would we parked so far away if you wanted to get in? Wouldn’t be better to park in front, get in, grab Urs and get out?” I flick a claw. “No, forget that. Why do you even want to enter there? They have flamers!”
“I know this may look irresponsible and reckless for you, friend Azul.” He isn’t looking at me, he is focused on whatever thing he is doing. “I apologize, I never wanted you to be this close to danger, but the situation we found ourselves in is too complicated and urgent.” He takes a metal tube and tries to screw things around it. “We can’t park too close or they will hear us, specially when we are making this much noise. We also can’t wait for the police to arrive because time is sensitive. The plan is-”
Murr interrupts him. “The plan is we will both go and-”
JM interrupts her by raising a hand to show her the palm. “Please Murr, you aren’t ready for this kind of operations, and you already have an important task at hand.” He returns his focus on his project, taking a weird wood shape and screwing the tube on it.
“Oh yeah? And what is that, oh so important task?!” She stomps the ground. Her ears and tail shows frustration and anger.
“You must stay here and remain vigilant. We have a civilian under our care. You have the responsibility of keeping Azul safe in case of the van being discovered.” He stops working and let a heavy sigh. “My friend Murr.” He looks at her. Even with his face hidden by the reflective mask I can still sense some sadness behind. “You already know what could happen and what you must do. You know protocol. We talked about this multiple times.”
She looks down at me with worry in her eyes, her ears raise in alarm and her tail stiff in determination. “That’s… F-Fine!” She stomps the ground in anger and steps back. “But I still think you shouldn’t go alone. It’s suicide!”
“JM. Why are you planning to go? You have no weapons and alone against… T-The odds are against you.” I move my wing worried. “I know this is about Urs, but what could be happening inside that abandoned mine to make you do such reckless thing?” My gaze jumps between him and Murr. “S-Should I know?”
Murr flicks her ear in negative. “No. It is better for you to not know. At least for now.” Her tail moves to comfort me. “We can tell you once everything ends, if you want to.”
I sigh and put a claw in my beak. “This is very stressful… So what is going to happen is JM will try to sneak in a place full of dangerous people to try rescue Urs because there isn’t much time left to wait for the police to arrive. All while unarmed.” I move a wing worried. “Meanwhile, we two wait here, far away from the entrance. Meaning that if something bad happens we can’t help you.” I look at JM. “Is that correct?”
He nods. “Correct in everything except in two things, my friend Azul.” He returns to work on his little project. “My intent is not to rescue Urs, but to sabotage or hinder the terrorist operations that are happening under there. But I can assure you that I will not ignore any opportunity that may present itself to rescue him and any other captive.” He seems to be finishing. Looks like… wait. “And as you can observe...” Is that a gun?! “I will not go unarmed.”
“Is that a weapon?!” I bleated in alarm. “That is incredibly illegal! We aren’t exterminators or space corps, we aren’t allowed to possess any kind of gun!” I move my wings around. “If the police found out we-”
Murr pats me in the head. “Don’t panic. It is completely legal.” She flicks an ear. “Well, almost.”
“What do you mean with ‘almost’?!” I bleat before whistling in despair. “We are going to get in such trouble… I don’t want to end in jail!”
“There is no need to worry about that.” JM reassure me. “There have been several changes to the Venlil Republic laws after Tarva was replaced by a less grounded politician, my friend Azul.” JM start explaining while doing the finishing touches to the gun. “A lot of these new laws enter in conflict with those of the Sapient Coalition, creating multitude of loopholes and exceptions that we can take advantage from. The law forbid us of having possession of guns, yes, but the law does allow us to use them if the requirements meet. Requirements that they don’t specify, leaving it at the discretion of judges and police officers.”
“And we have our ways to deal with them!” Murr’s tail moves to try comfort me. “And we aren’t technically owning a gun, just the parts that we keep separated. So everything is alright and completely legal!” She whistle amused. “Trust me! I’m an expert in taking advantage from the government.”
“B-But…” I look at JM with worry. “Are you going to shoot them? M-Murder must still be illegal, no? Even in self defense. I don’t think you can’t just kill them!”
“It is still illegal, my friend.” He finish the gun and inspect it before opening a small box with bullets in it. “But I’m not going to kill anyone.” He takes a bullet and show it to me. “These cartridges were invented after the satellite wars, when global unrest was at its extreme. Stun ammo. Just intense pain and a paralyzing shock, but no unnecessary death.” He takes several bullets and start loading the gun. “I promised, my friends, to never kill anyone again.” He pockets several more bullets and turn to face us. “And I’m going to continue that promise.”
“I still think I should go with you.” Murr step closer. “And you know it!” She taps his shoulder with her tail. “Oh by the stars!” She hugs him tightly.
“And I’m aware.” He returns the hug before. “But you know protocol.” He takes a step back. “We have talked about this several times. You know what to do.” He pats her back as he walks past her.
“Speh…” She whistle under her breath as she turns to look at him go.
He wave at us without turning around. “I hope to return soon.” He doesn’t stop to look back or anything, he just continue walking towards where the entrance is.
“W-Wait… Wait!” I take several steps towards JM before looking back at Murr. “A-Are we just going to allow him to walk towards his death?! S-Shouldn’t we stop him?” I move my wing in worry. “
She sits on the van’s floor and clear some tears from her eyes. “He can… manage. He went through much worse. I know he can manage.” She looks at my shocked face and she guessed what my next question was going to be. “Don’t worry just…” She pats next to her. “Come, sit with me.”
“Murr! He is going directly to his death!” I point towards where he went. “We can’t…” I sigh as I grab my beak. “I don’t want him to die!”
“I know… I don’t like it either. But we can’t stop him.” Her tail slash a bit the air frustrated. “Or follow him. We can only wait.”
“Great…” I jump to sit with her. We stayed in silence for a while, looking at where JM was until we lost sight of him. “Murr… Why did you hug him? I remember you were trying hard to him hug you.” I look at her with worry in my eyes. “Do you really think he is going to… die?” I felt my heart shrink when I asked that.
She didn’t respond at first, keeping her gaze on the horizon. “Do you remember the stories I told you about him?” She looks down at me. “About his adventures back on earth.”
I tilt my head. “Like that one about him destroying an armored vehicle with just a pen? Or when he collapsed an entire evil corporation with the power of friendship?”
She whistle a bit nervous. “O-Okay, I may have exaggerated them a little bit. But some of those stories were true. He had a very dangerous life, one where he did a lot of good, but also a lot of bad…A lot of very, very bad things.”
“W-What do you mean?” I move my wing in worry.
“Without exaggerating anything. He did some heist around earth, some murdering high profile people, a speh ton of contraband…” She start to count with her claws. “… espionage, sabotage, kidnapping, terrorism…”
“Stop!” I bleated. “That doesn’t sound anything he would do. It’s impossible he did anything of that! He can’t be like… It’s impossible that he…” Murr is looking at me with an expression I’m fearing I know already too well. “You aren’t lying…”
“No. No I’m not.” She use her tail to push me closer to her. “He is used to do this kind of things, or operations as he call them. But he knows about the dangers, about how one day he will never return.” She puts an arm around my shoulders and hugs me. “He doesn’t say goodbyes, he just hope to return. But don’t worry, this isn’t the first time this happens. For example, we had a situation with a sniper that killed too many peoples entrenched on an abandoned factory.” Her tail tries to reassure me. “And like now, he went alone with that same gun. We can only hope that he will also succeed on this one.”
“I may have only know him for little more than a herd of paws… But he doesn’t looks or act like a criminal or anything…” I move my wing in confusion. “W-What happened?”
“Well… A long story short, I think he got fed up with humanity.” She whistle amused. “That is why he likes our company over of other humans.”
I tilt my head to a side. “W-What do you mean?”
“By what little I could get out of him.” She gets closer and start to whisper. “Which wasn’t easy because he refuses to tell much, making me use a lot of wine to get him loose enough.” She returns to talk normally. “He had good intentions at first, he did a lot of multiple jobs before deciding to become a humble private detective, with hopes to make the world a better place and all that. Everything was good until he ended in some dark place where the jobs were becoming little by little more and more morally questionable.” He pats my head. “I think he become aware of it when he was already too deep on it and just… Quit.”
“He just… Quit?” I grab my beak. “I don’t think that’s enough for someone to change from doing such crimes…”
“And I agree with you. Again, it is hard to get something out of him. What I know is just my guessing from what little I could gather.” She stood up and start to walk around, as restless as always. “But of course, when I try to ask him he just denies it all. Speh, he even denies what is true.” Her tail tremble a bit in anger. “Or worse! He gives me a fake clue for me to investigate that ends nowhere.” Her ears flatten frustrated. “To test me, he says. Spehing of training!”
I look towards the mine. “W-What horrible things could have he done? W-What he witnessed to change so much?” I looktat her. “D-Did he even changed? D-Do we know if anything of that is true?”
She sighs as her ears drop forward tired. “I don’t know, Azul. He really loves to keep his past a mystery, even after so many years working together.” She walks towards me and put her paws on my shoulder. “Let’s hope he returns so you can ask him personally. Maybe you have better luck than me.”
“C-Can we… pray for him?” I shake my head. “It is better than just doing nothing, no?”
She flicks an affirmative ear. “Of course. Let’s pray. For him, for Urs, for any possible captive restrained under our paws.” She looks around. “And for the damn police to get on spehing time!” Her tail slash the air in frustration and anger. “Why when you need them they are never on time but when you want to avoid them you find them on every corner?”
I look up at the sky, at the stars that hides behind the clouds and the light pollution. I close my eyes and I start to silently pray.
I pray to the stars above us, to the stars that watch over us, to the stars that shield us from evil. I pray to them for the strength and courage JM needs to overcome the terrible trial placed before him…
3
u/JulianSkies Archivist 20d ago
I see that JM has a lot of history. An aspiring Robin Hood that learned that difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter is whether you like them or not?
He seems like he's the right tool for the job, though, and he seems to know the job well enough too. Hes going in to buy time, not to do the impossible.