Chapter 74

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Standing up in the lounge of the Fox family home, Mrs Fox looked on, her eyes darting at the scene around her. Her husband, smiling happily with a subdued look of success on his face; her youngest kit, sleeping peacefully in his fathers lap; her oldest kit, kicking his heels and reading a comic book; her cousin, waiting over here until some important mammals came to pick something up; the hyena who was a slight family friend, and had been doing some activities with the two teenages; and the kung fu master tigress who'd been helping to train them and protected them in a pitched high stakes battle involving masses of polar bears and weaponised fireworks.

"Mrs Fox?" the feline asked.

She raised an eye as she glanced over. "Are you intending to ask me if I'm a hidden dragon?"

Tigress blinked, her head tilting a little with confusion, one ear rubbing up against the, for her, very low ceiling. A short laugh coming from Ash seemed to confuse her further, the crouching feline sparing a glance at him. "Can you… explain the joke?"

"-It's not a joke if you explain it," Mr Fox cut in, Ash looking over and nodding in agreement.

"I…" She shook her head, looking over to the vixen of the house. "I was just asking out of concern. You seem rather tense?"

"Don't worry, I am."

"I…" The tiger blinked, settling back further into the corner of the room she was currently taking up.

"The important thing to note here is that I am not the root cause of it," Mr Fox said, walking up and holding her close. Though a little tense, she settled somewhat as he spoke to her. "And the fact there isn't a singular individual at the root cause of her deep frustration of this frustrating sequence of events is naturally frustrating. Would you like to pretend it was my fault?"

With a sigh, she walked away, picking up Rowan. "Unfortunately no, I prefer it if there's an individual of note I can personally scold."

A slight gurgle came from the fox kit on her lap as she looked down.

"Your attempted volunteering is appreciated but unnecessary."

"You know," Haida began, shuffling forwards, back bent against the top of the ceiling. "There is a thing you can scold, which at least has some blame for this."

He glanced over at Kris, who pulled out the small item around his neck. Mrs Fox looked on at it, knowing it very well from all the times around Judy's neck. Thankfully they hadn't known it as something of utmost importance then, and hadn't spilled that fact right in front of the bugged flowers that had been spying on them throughout their important planning meetings, fraught discussions over how they could help Kris, and her verbally recounting her strawberry pie recipe.

In any case, now that she had carefully and very quietly moved them to the utmost room of the house on Kris' suggestion, as opposed to the compost heap where she and Ash had initially to thought to dump them, they were able to talk freely about issues in the room without fear of being eavesdropped. Or, in this scale, scold the small item she was now holding in her paw.

"Is there any reason why this second rate piece of scrap is of such importance of value?"

A round of shakes and shrugs went around the group, except from Tigress. "Master… Master King and Kozlov believed it held the spirit, as it were, of some great entity. Something powerful, evil, terrifying, yet also with what he believed was a small spark of redeemability in there. Some ember of trauma, or something… In any case, he believed that he was philosophically bound to at least attempt to reach in. To try and communicate. If not to lead the spirit to peace, to at least understand how it came about."

"So it was a helpless third party in this arrangement and I cannot gain any catharsis from it," she said, dropping it in a bowel on the mantelpiece where the flowers had once been. "Though I suppose when these experienced mammals and non-mammals you say are coming to take it to safety turn up, I can try it on them."

"Aren't they trying to help us?" Ash asked.

She paused, looking down at him. "I suppose. Seems I can't try it on them then." With a sigh, she rested back in her chair, staring at the ceiling.

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"You know, after all of this is done I could get you my punching bag!" Haida suggested.

She gave him a glance. "Punching bag?"

"Yeah, you know. Things have been all crazy and everything, you're frustrated and want to get that out. Punching bag, punch it!" He made a few boxing motions with his fist before opening up his paws, smiling.

Mrs Fox gave him a look and nodded her head a few times. "Something mindlessly destructive does feel a little cathartic. Maybe in-lieu of browbeating the source of my frustrations, I can just take it out on something inanimate."

"That's the spirit!" the hyena cheered, as Ash sided up to her.

"Will it make you feel better?"

She glanced down and nodded, taking a breath in. "Yes, I think it might."

"Okay," he agreed. "And now you can't use that question on me again. Did that make you feel better…"

She glanced down at him. "You were free to answer yes at any one of those times. The important question is why you didn't?"

He glanced up at her and blinked. "I…"

To which she nodded, standing up. "Exactly."

"Oppressively domineering and passive aggressive parenting techniques instilling an unhealthy fear of minor criticism and desire for meagre respect?" Kris asked.

Mrs Fox just looked at him with narrowing eyes as Ash jumped up. "Yes, that, that there…" He walked over and shook Kris' paw a few times, before looking back at his mother.

She had just laid down a smotheringly disappointed stare at them, especially Kris.

Ash giggled, whispering in his cousin's ear. "Nooo, that's not how you're supposed to play the game."

She levelled it at him, smothering it further. At first he stepped back, ears tucking away as he seemed to buckle, only to double down, standing his ground.

"Uh, Mrs Fox?" Tigress began, only to wilt back as Mrs Fox turned it on her. "I uh, never mind…"

The vixen shrugged. "Do mind, the important thing is that I still have it, they're just teenagers and have become temporarily immune."

"Temporarily immune?" Haida asked.

Mrs Fox nodded, before turning her stare on her husband.

"Nggggrrrrrrr…"

She turned back to the Tiger and smiled.

Tigress nodded. "Regardless, I…"

They were cut off as the TV screen fizzled to life, the picture displaying a terrified looking rat, trying to adjust the camera.

Not long after, the room was quiet. Finally, it was Mrs Fox who spoke. "Thank you," she said, looking over at Tigress, the feline fully laid out over the television and blocking it from view. "You are now in my good book."

"Hey, but I mean something bad has gone on, hasn't it!" Ash cut in. "The ZPD, all those mammals there, they…" The fox shook his paws around. "We've got to stop them!"

"Ash, you didn't even see what was going on," his mother pointed out.

"That's because you non-verbally approved of Master Tigress stopping us from seeing it, so it's got to be bad, hasn't it!?"

"You don't know that?"

"He wouldn't have shown it if he hadn't expected to get a reaction."

"So maybe a reaction is what he's trying to get out of it," she pointed out.

Ash looked at her for a second before shaking his whole body this way and that for another. "Cuss yeah, maybe that's a good thing!"

"Language around the baby."

"I…" He growled a little.

"I mean," Mr Fox began, "I can understand your point of view in its entirety…"

"See."

"But…"

"-You just had to, didn't you?"

"Indeed, naturally," Mr Fox agreed, walking in front of his irritated son. "But, I have a sneaky foxy sense that this, here, is an example of a hustle."

"I mean, if it is one, it's a real good one," Haida said. "I'm guessing he got an actor to play Chief Bogo or something…"

"Guessing?" Kris asked, quietly.

"Well, I mean there was a tiger in front of the screen, so I can't know for sure."

"The important thing," Mrs Fox cut in, "is that after all this fuss, even if it is true, you two aren't going out and joining the riot."

Kris crossed his paws, giving an unreadable look back at her. Ash just kicked the floor. "Not fair."

"On a more ethical line," Tigress cut in, Mrs Fox looking to her and nodded, gesturing for her kits to listen. "-That is a worrying set of arguments to be instilling in young minds, Mrs Fox. For sure, they need to think things through, not believe everything they see at face value. But to bar them and discourage them from fighting a great evil that is known to be out there, when so few are willing to fight yet they are… Surely, if no one is willing to fight evil, evil will triumph."

The tigress twitched ever so slightly at the extremely disappointed gaze she was smothered with, bracing herself for whatever terrible rebuke might follow. "You are no longer in my good book."

"I understand that. At the same time, may I enquire about…"

"No," she said.

"-Regardless," Tigress began.

"I said no."

"I said regardless," Tigress continued. "I can't help but notice that whenever displeased, you seem to wish to find some way to assert your dominance over the source, I… -Why are you doing that with your arms?"

Ash folded his arms back down to his side. "You wouldn't get it."

"No, I wouldn't," the tiger said, looking back at Mrs Fox. "Either way, while I can understand why you want to do this to any individual that has caused you such distress, it can't work when the cause of your issue is fate, destiny, or…"

"-The machinations of a cruel universe?" the vixen asked, raising an eyebrow.

The tiger nodded. "Yet you have set yourself up so that that is your only way of dealing with your issues, which means it is only harder when it cannot work, such as now. When this square peg meets a round hole. You're left listless, distressed, seeking a scapegoat and, for lack of such, letting yourself hold on to your anger and rage. Claws bared, desiring someone to lay your aggression on, if only passively in your case."

The vixen nodded. "Yes, and?"

"Don't you…" Tigress began before pausing, taking a breath in and out. "As someone who for many years suffered, and felt she was thrown in a dark hole by the cruel machinations of an unforgiving universe, and sought to hate back the world that hated me, all I can say is that all it does is dig you into a deeper hole. Letting go, pursuing peace and mindfulness, letting the tides of life flow in and out and being at peace, is a far better way of dealing with whatever has come up. At the end of the day, with the right perspective, these stresses and obstacles are so very small and temporary, and only as large and terrible as you make out in your mind."

Mrs Fox just looked at her. "My husband ended up meeting an evil doppelganger and two big cat enforcers and fighting with them with the help of an asthmatic skunk live on the morning news. Enforcers who then interrupted my call with a radio psychologist to discuss the issue. Meanwhile, my son and nephew were having martial arts lessons and got caught in a fraught battle between kung fu warriors and mafia polar bears that put them at risk of death multiple times. On returning they also informed me that our house has been bugged for the last few months by some major criminals, eavesdropping on whatever we've been saying, ever since the slight incident involving my nephew being imprisoned in a miscarriage of justice. And finally, my kit's breastfeeding has made my middle left nipple quite sore. None of this has been due to anyone's stupidity, bravado and most of all failure to listen to me. It is just a set of seemingly random ludicrous events that we have been subjected to. I think I'll spend the next few days being justifiably irritable."

"If that is your wish…" Tigress said.

"No, my wish is that there's some idiot I can chastise for it all to make me feel better."

The room was quiet for a bit, before Mr Fox leant in. "You know darling, I could offer something…"

She paused, looking at him, a slight smile growing on her muzzle. "Something you failed to disclose to me about what went on at the ZNN building dear, that partially places the blame on you?"

"Maybe," he said, waving a paw. "Maybe not. -And Ash, the fact that some very bad guys attacked the ZNN building with me inside, briefly contemplating killing me in the process, and now that rat is calling up the revolution using the emergency broadcast system which I do believe is located in the ZNN building and was likely what they were there to mess with in the first place, is what I think is a very good reason to assume said rat isn't necessarily truthful about corruption in the ZPD."

The red fox blinked, nodding. "I, that makes a lot of sense," he said, looking down. "I, I was just angry. Imagining that Kris was one of those that they got their paws on, and that was why they… -Even though I know it wasn't them, it was just Beavis being stupid."

Mr Fox nodded, walking over and leaning down, paw on Ash's shoulder. "Son, your feelings are understandable. You just want immediate emotional validation, you take after your mother, I find that beautiful." He glanced back, seeing Mrs Fox smile.

"I like it when you're a good father. Even if it means I can be less mad at you for whatever stupid thing you did."

"Ah, but what if it's a needless complication," he smiled, cosying up to her. "Pushed on by my ego, turned around completely on your whim, so I get to try and partially blame you for this too."

She nuzzled up to him. "I'm looking forward to getting angry about this."

"-And I'm a little weirded out here," Haida said, shuffling back to the door. "I'll just… -patrol the grounds." He gave a quick salute and ducked outside, the door closing behind him.

"I," Tigress began, shuffling back the same way. She gave a look at the adult foxes, still busy talking to each other and then at the teenage kits. "Is this normal?"

"Seems normal to me," Ash said, as Kris nodded.

"Unorthodox at first, but you get used to it."

"-Right," the tiger said, glancing back at Mr Fox, now laying it on thick.

"-I assure you," he said, standing up and walking around. "This isn't just a small secret, it is a big one. The biggest still remaining. The great unresolved secret or mystery as to why things have turned out the way they are. The one that should be gnawing wide and restless at the back of everyone's minds. The one that many might have thought they worked out before, only, I presume, to be bluntly told it was wrong. The one which, without its subtle seemingly deus-ex machina intervention, the great chain of dominoes leading to this event, that you my dear are so mad about, would have never gotten so far. Indeed, you can blame me for all of this and scold and and glare at me to your distaste mollifying pleasure. For you see, my dear, I am Danny the Champion!"

"Who?" she asked, blinking.

"Ah," he said, smiling. "I am the one who dropped an anonymous tip to the ZPD, leading them on to the case they have right now."

Felicity looked at him for a second or two before sighing. "Dear, thank you so much for your effort, but that doesn't seem too big in the grand scheme of things."

"Too big?" he asked, paws coming out. "Let me recap the whole tale you did not see." And with that, he began wooshing his paws around in front of him.

"What's he?" Tigress began, as Felicity calmly explained.

"He's visually signalling the start of a flashback dear."

"Flash…"

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Flashback:

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"It started back when I had a heart to heart over my issues with a mammal I knew I could trust!"

"And with that, I think we're onto something!" the red fox said, standing up and looking down. "I said I could trust you Kylie, and what do you know, I was right and you were confidence-ially misplaced. We're making progress."

"Why thanks," the opossum smiled, as Mr Fox sat back down on the pull out seat in his underground office. Kylie, requested to run through some of Mr Fox's highly secret and deeply worrying issues of self confidence, had been more than happy to oblige, even if lacking in some himself. A failed degree in ethics, as he'd argued (due to the ethical implications of not making it clear), was not a psychology degree, or a substitution for such. In any case, it seemed like he had some measure of success in this, and so carried on. "So… About the important issues that any mammals can suffer from but that you are discussing as you are a male with utmost confidence in your masculinity…"

"Anyway, moving on a bit."

"I'd like a second opinion," Mr Fox huffed. "You said you weren't alone because of a young member of the Fox family, so, young member of the Fox family, what do you think?"

Next to Kylie, lying on a blanket, Rowan burbled a little before, limbs straining, he rolled over onto his stomach, a surprised babble coming out of his mouth.

"Did he just roll?" Mr Fox asked.

"I… don't think that's a confirmation either way or…"

"That was your first roll of many, little fox," he said, slinking out from his chair and lying next to his youngest son. "And, you'll be happy to know…" He rolled him onto his front, producing a surprised little squeal. "That many of those…" Onto his back again, a burble that sounded a lot like an attempted laugh coming out. "Are going to happen…" He picked up Rowan's feet and began spinning him around, his stubby face widening with joy. "Right now!"

The tiny kit was left squealing and giggling, especially as Mr Fox lent in, pulled up his clothes, and blew a raspberry on his stomach. A wet one was returned from the mouth of his son, tongue remaining part stuck out as he finished his contribution to the discussion.

"Not strictly necessary for this grand reveal. Just exceedingly cute. Isn't that right little one, isn't that right. Pfffbfbfbfbfbfb…"

High pitched baby laughter.

"-I mean," Mr Fox carried on. "If I'm just someone who life has skipped over to focus on those it deems more interesting, now deeming that I'm not even worthy of the occasional obligatory scrap, then what does that make you? My sidekick, my trusty companion, he who follows me as a loyal and brave partner in arms. If I am now but an individual tied to this ongoing process like a ball and chain, then what are you? A ball on chain of the ball on chain, or dare I say an unchained ball that rolls along as if you had a chain because you have never considered anything more, and are thus consigned to this fate forever? I mean, how does that make you feel?"

Kylie just stood straight, stared blankly ahead, and tilted off his chair, landing on the ground with a rigid thud.

"Kylie!"

"As you could see, this was an important issue. The mental health of my best friend was at stake!"

Rowan, watching on, made a happy gurgling sound before bending his spine back, throwing his paws out, and jerking himself into an opossum like position to lie in.

"Again, not necessary, but cute."

"As suspected," Mr Fox surmised, writing it down. "So, what next? Where do you feel that you're lacking or held back?"

"That your… and therefore my… antics, schemes, and other adventures have dried up into an often token goose or present hunt?" He shrugged. "I don't know. I feel small, lost, confused, issues of self doubt and confusion howling at my mind…"

"Metaphorical wolves, this is serious!" Mr Fox jotted down. "But… the thing you said before. Our careers, our adventures. All these other mammals, striking out, aiming to do what they do best to improve the world in the most fantastic and cool way possible. Maybe that's our solution!"

"Okay…? Where do we start."

"Hmmmm," he mused. "Well, I'm a writer who's dabbled in reporting. That's journalism. Of which investigative journalism is a part. And the one most open to wild antics, potential big news and surprises. So, to surmise, how about we go out and grab ourselves the biggest scoop possible! Never forgetting our families and loved ones of course."

"And I assist you in finding the biggest scoop possible, never forgetting your families and loved ones. Of course!"

"Kylie," Mr Fox said, paw out. "We're back in business."

The opossum shook it, smiling. Said smile then fading… "So… when do we start?"

"Right now!"

"Where do we start… What will the scoop be…"

"Hmmm," he mused. "Somewhere is some juicy information, within lots of non-juicy that we need to sort through in order to find it. So we need someone with lots of info and ideally a higher than normal chance of having some juicy stuff in there!" He crossed his paws and smiled. "Kylie, I have a cunning plan."

"And the source of such an information trove was obvious! We knew her. Honey Badger!"

Mr Fox and Kylie pulled up at the rainforest home of the ratel, knocking on the door and waiting for a second or two until it was answered. "Hello again?" She asked. "What are you here for?"

"Ah, Miss Badger, is it okay if I call you Miss Badger? Or do you prefer Honey? I'm flexible."

Kylie nodded. "I can confirm that."

"I don't care," she shrugged.

"And I'm not necessarily here for anything," he smiled.

She blinked a few times. "Okay, then why would you turn up?"

"You know, interesting point," he nodded. "Regardless, I'm just interested in carrying on any investigations or anything that we were doing before. We had such fun, remember the time in the restaurant with the hippo…"

"Yeah," she said, nodding, before shaking her head. "And sorry, I'm hella out of that stuff. I start digging, I get in a bad headspace. Best to keep out, y'hear?"

Mr Fox nodded and smiled. "Absolutely. In fact, I can facilitate that further by removing any remaining temptations for you to dive in that you may possess. Free of charge, a nice token of gratitude for your help around my nephew and his unwitting involvement in that conspiracy."

"Nah, thanks a bunch," she said, pointing a thumb back at herself. "But I already sorted that out. Thanks."

"Excellent progress, I'm proud of you," Mr Fox smiled, shaking her paw. "Have a nice day."

"You too!"

And with that, she moved back into her house, Mr Fox and Kylie standing outside, smiling.

After a few seconds, Mr Fox glanced down at the opossum. "Well, time to replan everything!" And with that he walked back down the path, pausing as he reached the end. Stroking his chin, looking around, he thought through everything she'd said. And what she hadn't… And what important stuff might have gotten through… And as he did so his eyes wandered. Around. At the scenery, the local community, at the otter in glasses hurrying out and placing her trash out for collection, before getting out her electric scooter and racing off for her job.

One of many, full, trash cans. Which meant…

"-I found her notes."

He looked over to see Kylie, the bin lid in his paws and lifted off Honey's trash can to reveal a bunch of scrunched up notes, files, string and pins…

"Excellent job, I was there myself."

"You mean almost there…"

"No, and I can assure you that those with a view of my internal monologue can confirm it. Now let's grab up all that stuff and take off."

Which they did, returning home.

"I also saw Skye and a few others driving to Honey's on our way out. I thought some people might find that information relevant or interesting, in a time placing fashion or something. You can never give too little detail in these kinds of things can you. Regardless, we returned home and, if you want to look in my office to confirm, set out all of her conspiracy notes in their full glory, to search for anything with investigative potential."

Kylie and Mr Fox slowly looked through the notes and papers, putting them out, pins going onto pins and other notes being put on.

"We've got a slight issue here," Kylie muttered, pointing at a set of papers.

"I see, they've been quite thoroughly jammed."

The opossum nodded, looking in and sniffing. "Raspberry or strawberry, I'm going to have to resolve that."

"That you are," Mr Fox agreed. "As now, I have to pick up my son and nephew and return the latter to his uncle." And with that, he left.

"Unfortunately, that whole operation was slightly hindered by the fact that an incredibly skilled and threatening wolf also chose that time to attack a certain Dr William Silverfox and managed to get away despite my best laid efforts to run interference against him. Regardless, we went home and had a discussion about what I was required to do."

"-After which," Mr Fox explained to his wife. "Judy gave a fairly reasonable argument in favour of stepping back and staying out of trouble, before the vixen cop gave me a very rude lecture about being a 'quote-unquote' liability and not at all sly as Sly, the second one somehow having a capital letter for some as yet unknown to me but probably very subtextually important reason."

"I understand," Felicity said, nodding.

"You do?" he asked.

"I know this is hard," she said, looking at him. "But listen to the vixen. And listen as in do exactly what she says, no questions."

He folded his arms. "But what if I don't want to listen to the vixen."

"If you feel she's hurt your feelings…"

"-Which I don't. I just think she was being very emotionally callous towards me."

"Then listen to this vixen instead," Felicity said, pointing at herself.

"...Okay?"

"Good, now listen closely," she said. "Listen to that vixen."

.

"Ah, but I did not. Especially as, returning to our horde of newfound intelligence, we found an important vein of potential."

"Hmmmm," the fox mused, looking at the reconstructed conspiracy board with Kylie. "The wolf mentioned squirrels. Try looking for squirrels."

Kylie threw down the papers in his paws and stared back up. "You're going to cuss with squirrels!?"

The red fox pulled back. "One, not in front of the baby. Two, what's this about squirrels?"

"You don't want to know."

"On the contrary…"

"I'm not going to tell you anyway," he said, returning back to the papers.

"And, after a slight intermediate discussion involving a perfectly good tin of squab someone had thrown away, we got back to work!"

"Squirrels," Kylie said.

"Where!?"

"There," he said, pointing at a small picture, two of them in the process of talking to a very familiar lion and tiger.

"Talking to the mammals who tried to stop us repatriating Duke Weaslton in an ill-fated attempt of proving my nephew's innocence! Kylie, grab the string, we're linking these little sciuridae up to any other sciuridae around the board!"

Mr Fox was cut off by a slam of papers on the desk, turning to look at the opossum. "Don't use that word in front of the baby."

"...What word?"

"The…" Kylie looked away, twiddling his fingers. "S-word."

"You mean sciu…"

"-Ah-ah-ah-ah!" the opossum cut in, waving his paws in front of Mr Fox.

The vulpine looked back, blinking. "That's not a bad word."

"...Oh. Right. -Anyway, we'll…" He gestured back to the board, and soon he and Mr Fox were busy at work, linking up any other cases of the squirrels to each other, along with any other examples of the lion and tiger. Eventually, after a brief interruption to remove the smallest mammal in the room's fully used mammalian waste absorbing undergarments and replace them with a new set, Mr Fox, Kylie and Rowan were ready to summarise up everything.

"So," the elder vulpine said. "These squirrels, named DPRK and Agents respectively, were in repeated communications with these two big cats, and the Bugburga corporation."

"-That's just an old wrapper," Kylie said, leaning in and peeling it off.

"And so the plot thinnens. -Regardless, these squirrels who, we know for a fact, are working with the mysterious bad guys operating in the background and causing chaos for everyone. Mostly us."

"Got that," Kylie said.

"Right, and while communicating with them, along with passing along important information to 'their boss'." He tapped on the little paw-written note pinned underneath. "They also mentioned 'the counterrevolutionary' and whether or not he required dealing with. A counterrevolutionary potentially linked to this address." He tapped on another paw-written transcript. "20-08 Sedova street. -Note, if terminating, use icepick. Reason: because."

"And so," Mr Fox recollected to the small crowd, "with that I had just one duty to do. Assuming the nom-de-guerre of 'Danny the Champion' I wrote an anonymous letter to the ZPD using bits of cut out newspaper and handed it in. Knowing full well that my lack of bragging or glory seeking from such a brilliant bit of investigative journalism fully completed my quote-unquote character arc!"

"Ta-da!"

They all looked on, Mr Fox standing there and waiting for the reaction. "-Ah, right." He began swishing his paws. "Flashback over."

"I mean," Kris said. "We kind of…"

.

Flashback over.

.

Mrs Fox stood up, glaring at Mr Fox for a second before shrugging. "Sorry honey, I know you wanted to give me something stupid you did for me to be mad about, but I can't…"

"Huh?" he asked, as she stepped forward, swishing her paws to the side.

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Flashback.

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Mr Fox folded his paws. "Do you really think that little of me?"

"Yes dear."

"Well, okay then, maybe I won't help. Maybe I'll just stand by and let the literal wolves at the door bark and fight and be a menace. That'll show them!"

"Freddy," she said, looking up. "That sounds good."

"I beg to differ."

"Well, let's ask a third opinion," she said, looking down at the kit in her arms. "What do you think?"

Rowan looked around a bit, flapped his arms, and then pulled them up into a vague approximation of a shrug.

Felicity shook her head. "I'll take that as an I don't know then."

"So?" Mr Fox asked. "Even Stevens on this highly complex issue."

She narrowed her eyes. "You know what? Sure, you can help out…"

"Ah, good to see you've seen reason."

"-If," she clarified, "you do it in a way that means no one will ever know what you did, and you'll have no chance of seeking glory or success from it, your contribution forever silent. To the world, you'll just be an ordinary fox, like any other."

"...Are you and that vixen cop biologically connected, or…?"

"We're vixens," she said, folding her paws. "Which means we know how to manage tod's like you."

"Like… me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "As in, you believe the only reason I do these things is to quote-unquote prove ourselves as fantastic, awesome, and dare I say it 'cool' to you and others. And without that motivation, we'd do nothing?"

Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.

"Excuse me, please," he said, turning and walking down his stairs.

Felicity just sat there and looked at her young son. "I'd tell him to do nothing, but then he'd take that literally to prove a point."

"Guuuhhhh uhhhh…"

The door opened up again and Mr Fox walked back in, leaning over Rowan. "Uppies?"

"Uh! Uh! Uh!" he burbled, paws up in the air.

"Your supportiveness is appreciated," Mr Fox said, picking him up and spinning him through the air, before running off making airplane noises, all to the squeals of laughter from the baby kit.

Felicity watched them go, before leaning over and picking up a book, licking her pad before using a claw to open it up to a particular page.

.

Reading down, she turned it over.

"Traitor."

.

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Flashback over:

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Finishing her paw waving, Mrs Fox looked down, an eye raised as Rowan began sniffing and breaking into tears. She looked down at her distressed son and spoke. "You made your cot, you get to sleep in it now."

Mr Fox leant in and picked him up, cradling him close as he glanced at his wife. "You mean, you're not…"

"Despite being highly aloof and proud and what most mammals would say is unreasonable," she began, before smiling. "You followed my request and did the sensible thing upon finding a potential lead." She shook her head. "I'm sorry Freddy, you failed to make me irritated at you. In fact, I think I'm a little proud."

His jaw dropped open a little. "-I mean, I wasted resources and time making a cut-out-newspaper letter…"

She shrugged. "I'm sorry Freddy, it seems such a small failure on your part."

"But I did act very self satisfied after…"

"And it was all internal, a proud sense of self satisfaction," she sniffed. "I'm sorry, I know you mean best here, but you acted relatively sensibly and non-infuriating."

"But, I…" He closed his eyes, trying to focus. "Come on, think of a way you irritated and frustrated your wife to help de-frustrate her. Come on, you're a good husband, you can do that."

Off to the side, an oversized feline looked on. "Is this your family?" Tigress asked, looking at Ash. "I mean, are they normally like this?"

The young vulpine nodded, a big smile on his face.

"I'm sorry."

Ash opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off as the door slammed open, Haida running in, chest heaving, and shutting it closed behind him.

All eyes turned to him, the hyena shaking his head and beginning to speak out, the words tripping over his tongue. "B-ba… -BAT!" His arm shot forwards, finger raised up and pointing, the mammals in the room turning to the mantlepiece where the small necklace had been left by Mrs Fox, a bat grabbing it in his one good talon and flying off.

"No you don't!" Kris charged forward, leaping, an open paw sweeping around to try and catch the bat, only for him to fly off and away, darting around the ceiling in a circle, blowing a raspberry as he went.

Tigress ducked down, pulling herself forward on all fours before swinging out, trying to catch the spinning blur, only for it to pull away from her. "Everyone, corner him!"

The smaller mammals raced in front of her, arms up to try and snag the tiny thief, only for him to dodge and weave, turning down and swooping out to get past Tigress. She cut down with an arm to try and snag him, clipping his wing and sending him spinning, straight into the line of sight of Haida. The hyena pounced forward, arms swinging out and clipping the flying mammal again as he dodged once more, turning around and laughing as his pursuer skidded into a wall.

"He-he BYE BYES!"

Tigress turned and gave another lunge out to get him, only for him to pull back, a recovering Haida blocking Tigress from moving in closer. Kris and the three members of the fox family swept in through the gaps, chasing after the bat even as he turned and squeezed through the door to the stairs, ever so slightly ajar. Mr Fox followed him in fast pursuit, his wife and son quickly following up.

Tigress meanwhile pulled up Haida and began making towards the front door. "There'll be a window up there he broke into," she said. "You make sure he doesn't double back, I'll try and get up and catch…"

"-You do realise there's bad guys out there!" the hyena cut in, holding her back. She froze, turning to him. "-That was what I was trying to say before I saw…"

They were cut off by a smash from up above, Tigress hissing. "Dammit, I could have interce…"

A sudden bang and a shocked yip cut through the air, her ears going back and a look of horror morphing on her face as it was followed a slam out the back and a pair of screams.

"Cuss," she hissed, a paw coming up to her face and wiping down. "Cuss, what can we…"

She was cut off as Haida reached down, grabbed a nearby vacuum cleaner and raced over to a nearby window. Pulling it up over his shoulders, he froze for a second, eyes fixed on a familiar lion staring in, radio held up to his ears.

The lion snarled, the scar on his muzzle catching the light as he tossed the radio away and went to grab for his weapon. "Time to finish this yee…"

Haida smashed the vacuum cleaner straight through the glass, into his nose and sent him tumbling down and away, landing with a heavy thud on the ground. "WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!"

A yell from outside caught his attention, followed by a smash from behind, Tigress throwing something else through one of the windows, the action quickly followed by a blast of gunfire at the motion.

Haida nodded, looking forward, eyes suddenly fixing on a struggling figure, crawling down and trying to find some shelter. All as something small was approaching him, the gleam of a gun barrel caught in the sunset light. The hyena gave the appliance he was holding a sudden parry forward, shattering the remains of the pane. Half a second later, another bang ripped through the air, the hyena flinching back as a cloud of splinters flecked at his face. He then stepped back, out of sight. "That was two," he yelled, winking as he threw the vacuum cleaner outside, leaping out the moment a second blast tore it apart. Paws on the sill he pulled himself out through the window, wincing as he caught shards of glass still left in, cutting himself.

He then saw that there was a whole other floor to the ground on this side, he saw Mr Fox sneaking his way back to it, and he saw the hunter making his way in to stop him, gun cocked open. Focusing himself, he extended his paws as they came down and crashed into the lion, gritting his teeth through the pain as the feline barely seemed to absorb the shock of the impact. No time to think, his claws dug in and pulled him forwards, pulling himself into an all fours charge up the bank and pouncing down on the shotgun just as it was pulling back up to meet him.

His eyes met with those of a feline. A pallas cat. Female, brown fur and tabby markings and eyes that widened with horror or excitement or he didn't know what.

One shot of the gun went off, the shells passing underneath him as his eyes clocked the figure of a rat on her shoulder, holding on tight and bracing himself.

Haida started to lift up an arm to grab Rattigan even as his momentum pulled him away and over, the cat letting go of her gun and diving out to the side.

The hyena stumbled as his arms, gun in paw, hit the ground for the next stride, almost losing it as his fingers were squeezed. He held on, giving him enough of a push up to get back on two feet, even as they stumbled and shook as they tried to keep up with his pace.

His momentum died down, he managed to turn around, gun up at wherever the two had been only for there to be a rustle in the undergrowth as they darted off into the long grass. He raised the gun only to struggle, the trigger far too small for his paws. In the few seconds it took him to figure how to squeeze his claw in his breath had subsided, his ears were raised. He could hear shouts and angry words, mammals coming around on either side of the house. The same ones he'd seen advancing on it in the first place.

A flash of red out the corner of his eye and he turned to see the figure he'd jumped out to save in the first place at the open door on the ground floor, waving him in, and the lion getting up and stumbling towards him, ready to pounce.

Saving his shot, he ran forward, pointing the gun at the big cat and letting out a rattling cackle as he raced past, the feline holding up his paws and trying to negotiate or plead of all things.

Haida still kept the gun pointed on him as he ducked his head and raced inside, the door slamming shut behind him just as another shot rang out.

Glass on the door shattered, splinters were thrown out of the wood, Tigress, squeezing down the steps to the bottom floor, yelled, pointing at the nearby table. Haida grabbed it and pushed it over, sliding it against the door before bracing it with spare chairs, quickly joined by Tigress.

"That should hold them for a while," she hissed, freezing, her ears perked. She grabbed Haida and yanked him to the side as another shot blasted through the window, going wide but enough to force the two back.

"This way," she said, leading him out the back of the kitchen and into the underground cellars, the carved wooden walls replaced with the slight damp feel of earth.

They stepped into Mr Fox's office to see the whole family there, crowded around him. He was lying flat on his chest on his desk, his clothes scuffed, his face bruised and in pain.

He seemed fine, at first, only something seemed wrong.

It took a shaken Mrs Fox walking around to his back, a bottle of antiseptic in her paws, for it to clock.

"They…" Tigress said.

"Shot off my tail, no actually…." he hissed, as his wife dabbed the stump. "They half shot it off, and I think the fall did the rest. Still, the point remains the same. In particular the fact I didn't even do anything to deserve it this time! How Original."

"This time?" Haida asked.

"Original?" Tigress added.

"Figure of speech and meta joke," Mr Fox said, pulling himself back onto his feet. "Unless this is karmic revenge for the Danny the Champion thing, in which case I'd like to register a complaint."

Felicity blinked. "With who?"

"The universe. I understand how you feel now darling."

"I'm glad you do, I just wish it was under better circumstances."

"In terms of things never being enough, I'm happy enough to let that small impediment pass. Still, in lieu of this relationship development I believe we have a slight issue right now." He paused for a second, eyes lingering on the gun before a smile grew on his face. "This though is a welcome change." He pulled it from Haida's paw, snapping it open to see the one shell left. His head tilted slightly. "Well, I suppose they won't be able to tell the difference between this and my air rifles. We can use that to pull some extra foxy trickiness into this situation. Ash, Kris, you go get them."

The two kits looked at each other, running off to do such as Mrs Fox raced over. "Freddy, I know these are extenuating circumstances but I don't think a live gunfight is what the kits need right now."

"Don't worry," he said, "we're just holding the bad guys off until the cops get here."

"The cops?"

"Yes," he said, "the cops you are going to call right now."

"I…" She frowned, grabbing Rowan and picking up the phone on Mr Fox's desk, dialling into it as Ash and Kris arrived, air rifles in paw.

"Right," he began, "get behind me, pot shots at interlopers are encouraged. Now, if we…"

He froze, eyes meeting with Felicity. She'd frozen in place, a look of horror on her face as she held it up. "He… He's asking for you."

"Who is?"

"Rattigan."

Mr Fox paused for a second, looking around before marching to the phone, exchanging his gun for Rowan as he did so. He gestured at his wife to join the kits, though she was already with them as he did so.

A sigh, a scowl, he picked up the phone and brought the receiver to his mouth. Time slowled. Even the pain where his tail had been seemed to subside somewhat. Just a distant, slow, repeated ember burning away. All as the mammal whose machinations, whose plans, whose minions and webs of lies and conspiracies had caught the ones he loved as nothing more than collateral damage and smashed them apart none the less spoke.

"Mr Fox," he said, the vulpine imagining him resting back, fingers steepling together. "So marvellous to finally speak to you. I do apologise that your call to the police has failed to go through, we, uh… Well, a spliced wire here, a nice mobile phone jammer there. Oooh, and I do believe they'll be quite exceedingly busy tonight." A low rumbling chuckle made its way over the wire. "Anyway, it seems that, despite a few hitches, I have retrieved something that I have sought for a long, long time. One of many things to retrieve, hopefully. Ah, this night is certainly going to be a highlight! Alas, it could always be improved some more. And what better than a nice heart to heart, with the fox who by chance or bad fortune, chose to be such a perennial! Pest! In my side throughout all of this. Or, at least, one of them haha."

Mr Fox scowled, baring his teeth. "Well, I must say it's a pleasure to meet the mammal who tried to keep my nephew in prison to blackmail his father, who bugged our house and sent dangerous mammals after my friends, who is obviously so envious of my own magnificence he created a copy of me to try and steal my new TV job. Not that it could match my own fantasticness. I presume you saw the news report, correct?"

"Ah, so you're the wannabe fox journalist who made quite the… -ah, surprise TV report, isn't that right?"

"Oh yeah," he snarled. "And you're the rat…"

He was cut off by a round of yells and screams, flinching back for a second before leaning back in. "I mean, by the look of things you're quite clearly a rat…"

He was cut off again, glancing at his kits. "Just to let you know, the rat wants to be called a mouse." A few seconds later, he turned back to the phone and gave a mirthful smile.

"Sorry about that, so you're the rat…"

He pulled the phone away, giving two whistles and a double click… Only to pause as he saw the shocked look on Ash and Kris' faces. "What?"

"-Did you just mis-species him?" Ash asked.

"No, I called him a rat as he is one," Mr Fox explained, smiling as he heard the new round of yells from the other side. "If anything he mis-speciesed himself."

"Mr Fox, to be very sincere," Kris began, "while I understand your position, you can't go around calling him a rat when he identifies as a mouse. We're better than that."

The adult fox paused for a second. "Considering my missing tail, I think I'm not."

"-DAD!" Ash yelled.

"What! He's a jerk…"

"Yes," Kris said calmly. "But that's entirely beside the point."

"Then what is the point?" Mr Fox asked, frowning as his son facepawled.

"The point is," Kris said. "That extinct-speciesing is discriminatory, invalidating and never justified."

"-So you're siding with the mammal who tried to keep you in prison over this…"

"We have the moral high ground here," Kris calmly explained. "So I don't see why you should throw it away over something so petty."

Mr Fox looked to Ash. "And you."

"Okay, in Rattigan's case I'd want to make an exception," the red fox kit hissed. "But there's enough mammals out there who get as wound up as me, and as serious about it as him," he gestured over at Kris. "That they could cuss up your life over it even before you try to get a TV job."

Kris nodded. "And that's not even getting into the ones my cousin would refer to as the crazy ones."

"Just… Don't do this one thing, okay," Ash asked. "Or do you want mammals siding with him and calling you mean things on the internet."

"But he just shot my tail off!"

"Do you think they care," the kits said in unison.

"Fine," he groaned, turning back to the phone. "-So, you're the assigned rat at birth who…" He paused, smiling as another set of yells came out, his eyes lingering on his kits.

They looked at each other and shrugged. "I think that treads the line enough," Ash said, Kris waving an unsure paw in front of him.

"Just don't push it."

"Right," Mr Fox agreed. "-So you're the assigned rat at birth who did a whole bunch of other nasty stuff, but I can't remember what exactly because of an unplanned inter-generational standards difference discussion distracting me. The point is that you, good sir, shot off my tail, and according to my wife I didn't even do anything bad this time!"

After a brief pause, Rattigan spoke back. "How… Original."

"I don't know how or why other than that I generally agree with you on that point," Mr Fox said.

"Ah, trying to curry favour are we? Well, that's not going to work."

"Ah, the 'that's not going to work trick'. I can say for certain that that is not going to work!"

"Hmmm, do you want to know what will work?" Rattigan pondered. "Let me just dial through and… -You'll want to put this on speaker Mr Fox."

The vulpine frowned. "It doesn't have a speaker."

"Shame, it means that… -Hang on, can I speak to Kristofferson Silverfox?"

"No," Mr Fox snarled. "You may not talk to my nephew after all you've done to him!"

"-But I'm going to say sorry… -Sorry…"

Mr Fox lowered the phone and looked to Kris. "He says he's sorry."

The platinum furred fox nodded. "Tell him it's not accepted."

Mr Fox turned back. "It's not…" -Only for the phone to be snapped from his paws, his wife holding it up.

"You call that an apology? For all the hell you've put our family through, I'd expect a ten-thousand word essay minimum. Double spaced. Paw-written."

"Well, sure, but surely if I could just speak to him in person I could get across my apology with the level of sincerity that is required. I mean, come on, hear the sincerity dripping in my voice at the moment."

The vixen slowed down, her tail giving a long sweeping swish behind her. "You do sound relatively sincere."

"Please, from the bottom of my heart… -Wait, what? Oh, perfect. Never mind the apology, hang on a sec."

She pushed the phone away from her, just as Kris' phone began to ring. He fished it out of his pocket, ears going back. "That's… That's dad's phone calling."

His paw hovered over the answer button but held itself there as the phone rang and rang until, finally, it switched over to take a message. The voice of Kris' father didn't ring out, instead it was a voice that sent Mr Fox's and Haida's ears shooting up. "Hello," it purred. "If you hadn't worked it out by now, I am the tiger some of you have met a few times before, and in the back of my car I hold one Dr William Silverfox. -Excuse me while I just prod him a few times."

Kris winced, eyes welded shut and ears pinning back as a bunch of grunts and mutters came out, all from a very familiar source. One paw pulled itself back, then a second, the fox in a shaking retreat until he shuddered up, a scruffy red paw on his back.

He glanced to his side and saw Ash there, muzzle riven up in anger. The older tod reached forward and grabbed his younger cousin's paw, holding it tight and nodding.

Kris took a breath in, gripped back tight, and then turned to the phone, pressing the answer button. "Dad. Stay strong. We're going to get through this… And then we're going to get you. -We're going to get you back, and we're going to be together again."

He pressed the button to hang up and thrust his phone down into a pocket, standing there hunched over and panting in and out, muzzle pointed forward. One or two tears trickled down from one eye, he gave a small smile and glance at Ash as his cousin held him tight, and turned up to his aunt as she came over. "We're… -We're going to get him back," he said again, voice hitching. "We're going to get him back."

Mrs Fox nodded before pulling him into a hug, a whimper coming out as he buried his face into her chest. "And we'll be there for you until we rescue him, and when we rescue him."

Though his fur buried muzzle, a whimpered 'uh-hu' came out, Kris nodding up and down as she patted him on the back.

Mr Fox watched on, turning to help them only to freeze as he heard some yelling coming from the downed landline. He turned, picked it up and winced back as he got an ear-full.

"-EVEN THERE YOU USELESS…"

"-Yes Mr Assigned rat at Birthington?"

He pulled it back as another snarl came out, only to pull it back to his ears, smiling as the mammal on the other end calmed down. "I'm sure you enjoyed that, a little jab back at me for the acquisition of some of the scholarly talent I have long been deserving of in my greatest plan."

"Given what you've done to my family, yes."

"Well, I am happy to say that there is a very simple method for reuniting the tragic, tragic, tragic re-seperation of your brother in law and his son."

"Which would be?"

"Give yourself up."

Mr Fox let out a laugh, shaking his head. "Mr Rattigan, I understand your confidence in your plans, but you must agree that that one will not work."

"Mr Fox," the rat said, ever more quietly and calmly. "The entire ZPD is under siege at the moment thanks to the riots I have set off and will thus be unable to come to your aid. You, meanwhile, are trapped underground with but a hyena and a single shotgun shell for your defence."

"Well, that is where you're wrong. We have more than just a hyena and a shotgun shell. And we have the trust and power of friendship on our side…" He was cut off by a sudden laugh from the other side.

"Really? Really, really, really… Ha-Ha. Surely even you can understand that 'power of friendship' is just fluff talk mammals use when they have nothing, nothing…" There was a loud snort and the brushing of a finger being pulled across the base of his whiskers. "Really, you think that some 'friends' are just going to come and save you any minute now."

"On the contrary, no," Mr Fox said. "Not any minute now, but eventually. On the side of soonish. And sooner than you can claw and infiltrate your way into our home. Mark my words."

A chuckle grew from the other side of the line, Rattigan getting excited for something. "Ah, part of me is so glad you said that. You see, I didn't want to let down the gang. I've got my two lesser partners here and all, both of the big mammals. Napoleon, Foxy Loxy and Dr Padriach Rattigan, here for some good old fashioned boys fun! Chin-Chin!"

"Nap… -Oh, that was a connection I made," Mr Fox smiled, before shaking his head. "But you lot could be called Boggis, Bunce and Bean for all I care. What are you going to do, dig us out."

"...YES!"

Mr Fox blinked, leaning back, forming a few words in his mouth only for Rattigan to speak over.

"-With the Diggers. -Good question, THESE DIGGERS!"

The line went dead, Mr Fox's head tilting as he pulled the phone away and tapped it. Only to slow down and pause as the bits of stationery and collectables on his shelves began to rattle, shaking and trembling as a deep rumbling began to fill the underground room, bits of sand and earth starting to trickle in from the newly growing cracks in the ceiling.

"D-dad…" Ash began, as ran up close to him. Mrs Fox pulled in too, Kris under an arm and Rowan in the other. Even Haida and Tigress moved in, looking around, ears going down and trembling as bangs and shakes began to fill the room.

They all looked at him.

His head darted around at all of them, bending down as he pinched his muzzle, shook his head, started to pace about before throwing down his paws. "Idea, Idea!"

"We give ourselves up?" Mrs Fox asked.

"No," he said, "over our dead bodies."

"Exactly. It will be if we don't…"

"Dig ourselves down faster! DIG!"

They all looked at him, slacked jawed. Before Mrs Fox slapped her forehead. "I understand you are under a lot of pressure, but that is not a workable plan and if you go through with it we'll be under far more…"

She was cut off as a massive crash rang out, the room shaking. A crack ripped across the ceiling and a chunk of the wall pushed itself in, splinters of damp root pushing themselves into the space before being covered with clouds of falling earth. A thousand bangs and smashes rang out as everything on the shelves fell down and broke, the lights flickered and died, the emergency lights flickering on. Rowan screamed and howled, Haida let out a panicked cackle, Tigress slammed up her paws to try and hold the breaking roof up until she could get out from under it, chunks and pieces raining down.

"FREDDY!?" Mr Fox turned to see his wife, tears in her eyes as she pulled her three children in close. "PLAN!? -That ISN'T DIGGING OURSELVES OUT!"

"But we have help!" He said, turning and pushing the desk out of the way.

"WHAT HELP!?"

He turned on his heel, kicking away a rug and pointing down at a wooden hatch on the floor. "Help of past generations who dug this alcohol smuggling tunnel down to the nocturnal district that I've certainly mentioned a few times past, so I'm not just making this up! It's an established foreshadowed thing we're finally getting to use right now!" He looked down, grabbed it, threw it open and pointed down. "It's still kinda of blocked at a few sections, I mentioned that too, but we can dig through! Now go, go GO!"

Looking at each other, they all began to move forward, only for a bark from Ash to cut them off. "Kris first!"

They turned to him, his cousin holding his paws up. "You don't…"

"You've got the most endurance and are the fastest. Lead. Dad, you next, then me, then Mum, then Haida and Tigress."

They glanced at each other, then saw Kris going down the hatch. Mr Fox followed, then Ash, then Mrs Fox and then, with a squeeze, Haida. The hyena froze as he entered, glancing up at Tigress before starting to claw at a chunk of rock sticking into their path.

Seeing it, Tigress raced forwards just as another shake rattled the room. The light flickered and dimmed as another chunk of ceiling fell, carrying the emergency lights with them. Clouds of dust kicked up sent them coughing as Tigress worked with him, trying to clear the most troublesome parts of the path in the pitch black.

Feeling that it seemed to be clear, the hyena began making his way down, managing to get his phone out and the light on to guide him. Parts of the shaft were used for storage shelves, he paused, focussed, raised his leg and smashed down, sending the debris falling down the pit. Barks and whimpers of shock cut up from below him, and he froze, looking up in fear as another pair came from above, followed by a rain of rocks and stones pummeling down.

Paw up to shield his gaze he started to move up only to freeze, squeezing his eyes shut before forcing himself down. Down through the narrow path, squeezing his way past obstacles before digging at them with his paws, trying to widen it up for Tigress in case she could get in.

Even as more rocks and debris fell down, even as the light up above went dark, even as the yells and screams of Tigress rang out and more and more rocks began falling down, hitting his head, causing yells and screams below as…

-A slam rang out up above and the rain of rocks stopped, replaced by the occasional trickle.

"I'm okay," she said, gasping.

"She's okay," Haida yelled down, the piece of ladder he was on shaking.

Down he carried on, light shining down and guiding him. Step after step, rung after rung. He reached a small platform, the ladder path shifting to the side. Through a narrow gap that seemed too small for Haida to get through, despite the many claw marks and attempts to clear a way through.

Haida reached down and began digging, pushing his claws in, shoving dirt to one side before pausing and just slamming his foot down, teeth grit as the wood beneath him splintered. He leant down, ripping apart the wooden platform and revealing the lump of solid rock beneath.

Still, he'd given himself some more space, turning to the passageway and starting to heave at it, tear out as much as he could, even as the shaking of the ladder signalled Tigress reaching him.

"Get to the other side, we'll have a go at it together," she said, as he wiggled and squeezed himself through.

"-R-right…" He muttered, glancing down and groaning. The path carried on, but there were more and more tight twists and turns, weaving their way down.

All as a crash rang out, splinters of wood rattling down and hitting Tigress on the head. She hissed, Haida grabbing the earth and clawing it out as fast as he could with her. More and more bits of debris began falling down, followed by rocks, stones, the tiger yowling and hissing before turning around and starting to wiggle her way through.

Haida dropped down, giving one last pull down with his claws and then starting to work on the next set of pinch points.

More hisses, screams, Haida reached up and pulled down, before he fell back, slamming his tail onto the ground and almost biting his tongue from the pain.

The shaft shook, a deafening bang ringing out and a blast of stone filled dust filling the space and pouring down around him.

Haida coughed and hissed, waving the dust away from his face and slowly standing up, only to freeze as the top of his head touched a tail above him. "You…" He broke out coughing. "You okay, Master?"

With a sigh, she nodded. "Yeah. Yes, student. Well done."

Another fall of earth fell down the first shaft, a few stones rattling against the pair.

Haida glanced over at the next way down. "Right, looks like Kris gave it a good go…"

"We keep going," Tigress agreed. "We should be safe now, but…"

Another rattle of dirt came out from above them.

Haida gave the next narrow point a few digs, smiling as a chunk of rock fell out. He shimmied his way though, digging out beneath him as Tigress began clawing a path through.

"-You okay up there!"

He turned down and yelled back. "Just about. Carry on, get help!"

Far below, Ash turned back and carried on down the path. It had levelled out from a ladder shaft to a steep set of stairs, ones that he figured Haida could get down on all fours. Tigress… He wasn't sure. Either way, Haida was right, if they could get help, capture the the bad guys and rescue his friends from the top…

"-Hold it…"

They all paused, turning to the front where Mr Fox was standing up, facing a large blank wall.

Mrs Fox stepped up next to him. "I hope this is where you say you've been down this thing before and know the end hasn't been concreted over."

He turned and smiled, leaning up and fingering along the wall with one of his claws. Leaning in, running it along a seam, a bit of dust fell down from it. With a push, the block was pushed back, falling out. And with that, another was moved out, then some more. The gap widening, Kris and Ash went up to the front and began pulling the blocks back, opening a hole before stepping out into a blast of cool air.

A whimper came out of Mrs Fox as they looked down to see the nocturnal district laid out in front of them. Half the usual lights, usually a collage of neon reds and blues, were dimmed, glows of fire and trails of smoke seemed to be coming up from some areas. But the small subterranean suburban subdivision they were in, lit a soft blue by the glowing fungus on the cavern roof above, seemed safe, and secure, and they weren't at risk.

They, and fingers crossed, Haida and Tigress were okay.

"It's gone…"

Mr Fox turned to his wife.

She looked back at him. "Our home…" She wiped her eyes, holding Rowan tight. "Everything, they tore it up, they ripped it down. It's gone… It's…" She pulled in a sob, cradling her son in her arms. "It's all gone."

"I know," he said, before pulling her in tight. "But we're not. We're not. And we'll take back everything they've taken."

They held themselves there, composing themselves for a moment or two, taking the time to recover.

Slowly walking out, stepping through the moss garden, Ash pulled his attention away from them and turned to his cousin. Walking up to Kris, he held up a paw and held it around his back. "We'll get your father back. I promise you."

Kris turned to look at him. "Thanks."

"And I'll be there for you."

"Does it need to be said that I'll reciprocate?"

Ash just smiled, shaking his head, the two holding each other tight before turning as a surprised yell rang out from in front of them.

They turned to see Mr Badger stepping out of the back of the house in front of them, paws up in disbelief at the sight and mouth sputtering out, unable to form any words.

Mr Fox just sauntered up next to him and smiled. "Friend, we have just escaped from a life and death experience. First, let's call any friends, family, police, etcetera we can to save two mammals still potentially stuck in the smuggling tunnel and catch the bad guys who bulldozed my house. Two, get a lot of pain killers as the area my tail used to be is very painful. And three…" He guided the confused mustelid down to a waiting garden seat. "Friend, let us discuss that very generous home insurance policy you laughed at and said 'sure, right, if you reeeaaaaalllllly insist' when I insisted on it."