Under the orange sky, long shadows are cast as Velvet rushes forward, its six legs thick as logs rumble and shake the ground.
Birds scatter from trees and small animals scurry from their way to hide from this force of nature tearing through the forest.
Frank holds on for dear life to its thick tufts of coarse fur, Pineapple runs behind them, struggling to keep pace.
They break out of the forest and into the facility’s clearing.
“Velvet over there!” Frank shouts and points at the gate entrance to direct the Foxbear.
The faraway guards seem to have already noticed them.
However, Velvet keeps its course and crashes through the fence right in front of them instead.
Like match sticks, the iron fence bends and breaks, not exactly flimsy, but no match when on Velvet's way.
The gate guards no doubt having alerted the compound, run toward them as the first response group.
Oh great, I wished I could have talked to them first...
“Velvet, that’s enough.”
The wall of the facility approaches, but his mount shows no sign of stopping.
“Stooooop!”
The beast keeps on running, heading straight at the facility’s concrete wall.
Frank leaps from the Foxbear's back and rolls to soften his fall.
However, the backpack and gun on his back stop his roll and his legs strike the ground hard instead of completing the roll.
The foxbear strikes the wall with its shoulder, but the wall’s surface only cracks slightly.
Ahh, that... stings.
Frank sits up from the ground and holds his shoulder that got yanked by the backpack’s straps.
With an aching back, he struggles to stand, the guards are fast approaching, though the guards seem more concerned about the beast than him.
Playing it cool, he casually strolls toward them along the side of the building.
The gaping maw of Velvet opens up as it backs off from the wall slightly, it lifts up its tongue and globs a big ball of acid from the glands underneath.
The projectile hits the wall, which begins sizzling and melting, a green-gray concrete ooze mess slowly dripping down.
Pineapple runs to Frank’s side and proceeds to take some cover behind him.
“Let’s take the main entrance,” Frank says quietly to the cat.
The guards run towards them, heading straight for the foxbear, Frank avoids looking at them as they pass.
“Frank! What the hell is this about!?” The other guard grabs his shoulder as his partner continues to the foxbear.
Frank turns to look at the guard.
“Pablo! Oh, sorry about the mess!”
“This is no time for joking around, give me one good reason why I shouldn’t arrest you right now.”
“Because this is really important,” Frank looks at him serious with determined eyes.
“I’ll tell you all about it if we ever meet again.”
He breaks Pablo's gentle grip on his shoulder and breaks into a run with Pineapple.
“You better!” Pablo shouts after them and mutters under his breath:
“Better be the best goddamn story..."
At the main entrance, Frank pushes aside the door, too damaged to be locked.
They hear more commotion arriving from the residential area, entering the facility as quickly as the heavy door allows.
The lights are out as most workers' days are already over, anyone should have little to no business in the facility's premises at this hour.
“Pineapple, can you please give me some light, just this once.”
The cat’s cone swirls with light, row after row, before flashing on, powerful like an industrial spotlight.
“You’re the best! Follow me!”
Pineapple purrs happily which echoes in the massive hall, as they navigate through the maze of cages.
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Animals wake up as the light falls on them, some snarling at them disgruntled from the rude awakening while others ignore them entirely.
The Foxbear has entered the building through its own hole, bringing with it the sound of crashing cages and gunfire. Soon, a cacophony is complete, as more and more animals’ shrieks are added to the chaos, as they are broken free from their cages.
Frank proceeds forward in Pineapple’s light, barely able to hear the sound of his own steps anymore.
BOKOOCK!
Frank’s heart jumps to his throat as a Chickstrich on the loose enters the cone of light.
MEAOOW!
Pineapple dashes after it and the white and gray ostrich-like bird runs away.
“Pineapple!” Frank calls out, but before he can even finish, he is left behind in the darkness.
The cone of light flickers around the hall as the cat chases the bird all around.
It takes a while for Frank's eyes to adjust to the dark before he starts seeing the cage’s white-tinted forcefields.
They barely produce any light, he's only able to see the faint outlines of the few nearest cages.
Occasional electricity crackling on their surface gives off a split second of bright light, but not enough to tell him the correct path for sure.
Some loose red lasers swish over Frank's head, high enough that they likely weren't meant for him.
Followed by a loud clanging of metal, echoing from nearby, somewhere in the surrounding dark.
Frank gazes around wary, but does not see its cause.
As the clang fades a very quiet sizzling takes its place.
The lasers just probably hit something…
They should really watch their fire...
Y-yeah, that must be it.
He continues toward the back wall, or where he thinks it will be, the cages at least keeping him from going around in circles.
From the animals he saw or heard, he could establish his location more and more accurately, for he remembered the layout of the animals somewhat.
He dares not to check his communicator for the map to see where he is, what better way to get caught than to have the device transmit his location to the people he's trying to avoid.
New cage outlines stop coming into his view, he holds out his hand and carefully creeps forward.
After a bit of fumbling, he touches a cold stone wall.
Somewhere here is the entrance to the spaceship hangar...
He starts shuffling along the wall to the right, feeling the wall's rough surface for any protrusions.
Light footsteps sound from behind and a light beam shines on him.
He turns around and shields his face, Pineapple has returned with some gray and brown feathers in his mouth and some white downs sticking to its face.
“You actually caught it?”
Pineapple swirls its twin tails pleased.
Did he eat it?
No way, that’s just a mouth full of feathers from one bite…?
Right?
Frank gazes back at the wall, now lit up, and sees that he has just passed a large plastic blue button.
He presses it and the massive door, a meter to his right, starts rolling up.
Light floods into the dark space through the ever-widening gap as the spaceship hangar's lamps flash on in rows.
Dozens of spaceships are parked in the hall in neat rows with plenty of space between each of them.
The hangar is massive, almost as large as the main cage area.
Frank eyes the two kinds of ships available, the automatic ships resembling metal boxes with wings, unpainted and lacking in any flair or pizzazz.
While the manually flown ships are much sleeker and have two sets of wings for actual maneuverability within atmospheres.
He picks the closest manual ship, in front of the main door and a little to the left, its cargo door facing them.
The only way into these ships meant only for the transportation of goods, is through such a back door, no other options existed.
His chosen ship is otherwise completely metal gray, just two dark green strips running along its hull vertically set it apart from others of the same model.
The duo arrives at the ship and Frank digs his employee ID, flicking it over a dark black sensor, it beeps with a green light and the cargo door begins to descend.
They board the ship and he presses a button on the other side, the door starts to close back up.
A semi-large metallic cargo space opens before them, the floor full of cinches to ensure sufficient grip and the walls having rings attached to them to tie the cargo from.
A large but still narrower corridor leads their way into the cockpit.
It’s only a three-seater, the pilot’s seat, and one seat on each side of the wall, facing each other. On the back and sides, some table space is embedded, with maintenance hatches and grates around too.
Straight ahead, dominating the space is a large windshield, and below it, right ahead of the pilot chair are displays, with various buttons, gauges, levers, switches, and dials.
Frank sits on the pilot’s chair and checks some of the gauges as he turns on the power from a large reddish button.
Fuel... check.
Battery... check.
Alright... should be all good to go soon, just got to open the hangar door and warm up the engines...
Soon we are out of here Amethyst.
Just hold on a little longer...
He remembers the bone and quickly slides the backpack off his back, opening its flap.
Phew.
He breaths out, glad his fall didn’t break the bone in two.
Strange glistening shines on its surface however, he picks up the bone out of the way to look deeper into his bag.
The banaorange he grabbed as a snack is squashed and leaking liquids everywhere, on his spare clothes too...
Damn it, why did I pack it with me, this always happens!
He dunks the banaorange into the bin, located next to the pilot's seat, afterward drying his hands and the bone with a paper towel.
Alright, it's all fine now...
Though it definitely still smells like fruit...
Frank packs the bone back up and gazes at the dashboard, the energy levels have risen high enough.
Now to warm up the engines...
As he is about to start the proceedings for launch, he glances at the monitor that shows the ship's surroundings from different angles via cameras.
Some sort of triangular slab of metal has appeared on the ground behind the ship, a fair distance away.
