FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This is my first serious story so go easy on me guys :D hopefully if its any good the first in a series

_________________________________________

Prologue

The year is 2011. In 2009, experts said in 2010 the world would be able to recover from the global recession, it didn't, in fact it grew worse, poverty shot up and with it so did crime. Global leaders harked on about the 'global problem' and the 'global solution' when in fact it was on the streets of the cities and towns were the recession hit hardest. With banks heading for collapse again, a loss of confidence in politicians and growing un-employment the situation across the United States is highly volatile.

Los Angeles suffered one of the hardest hits of any US city. Lack of money led to several blockbuster films being cancelled, the decline in world business also hit LA hard. This combined with rising unemployment and discontent drove the more docile furs to crime. The already above average homicide rate shot up, organized crime increased ten-fold, and LA truly earned its unofficial nickname of "Gang Capital of the Nation". Finally on-top of all this, an increasingly riotous and aggressive population was making the LAPDs job even harder.

If this isn't bad enough, the LAPD's and LAFD's personnel and monetary shortages of 2009 are now crippling. The increased crime combined with under-staffed police and fire departments has led to the outer areas of LA practically becoming a war zone. The rest of the city is living in perpetual fear. There is no Batman, Nightowl or another super hero coming to LA's rescue. Only the everyday fur in uniform, the furs of the LAPD and FD are the heroes of this story.

_________________________________________

Hollywood's Final Act, Part One

Like most of the police stations in Los Angeles nowadays, Station Six, the Hollywood Los Angeles Police Department Police Station looked more like a fortress than a police station. Its walls were fortified with sandbags and barbed wire, its main gate covered by visibly armed police officers carrying assault weapons and the entire building was pot marked with bullet holes and craters from the recent violence. The Hollywood station had it light , the downtown stations had taken a lot more damage in the past few weeks, the police in those areas were so badly hit they had to call in the national guard to restore order.

It was a sad indication of today's situation when the once peaceful and prosperous streets of Los Angeles were turned into a battleground people were more used to seeing on the TV rather than out their own windows.

The past two weeks had seen an unprecedented crime wave in which nearly every single officer from every law enforcement agency in and around LA had been called out. It had been two weeks of gang warfare, mass-homicide, rape and attacks on officers had all culminated in a full scale gang attack on the LAPDs 77th Street Police Station. In what had become one of the poorest areas of LA, the two weeks had left over ninety emergency service personnel dead, hundreds wounded and a civilian death count upwards of four hundred. Eventually the National Guard had to be mobilised to stop the gangs gaining any more ground, and now they were to be cut off alongside the LAPD. In the media LA was an area to which the federal government had lost control to the violent masses. This wasn't far from the truth.

Captain Marcus Cain was the officer in charge of Station Six. The grizzled old wolf was in his forties and had lived through the good and bad years of the LAPD. His once obviously well cared for grey fur was now tousled and matted a look some of his superiors interpreted this as un-becoming of the LAPDs once most prestigious command position; despite this, not a single officer looked better than him, not after the two weeks of almost constant call-outs.

The station itself had not been targeted.... yet.... but its officers had been called-out to incidents all over the city. Cain put the lack of attack down to the location of the station. Although, the recession was worsening, Hollywood remained fairly affluent in spite of the fact that most of the major film projects had been called off and evictions of the once rich and famous was on the rise.

Increasingly his officers were required to assist bailiffs in evictions from the mansions of Beverly Hills as the residents started to barricade themselves inside their houses in a futile attempt to stop the eviction.

The most recent and high profile of these was the eviction of an A-list movie star gone bust. Cain knew the tension in the city was still rising even after the past two weeks. This time Hollywood was at its centre. The poor-rich divide was growing bigger and the people didn't like it. Acting on his suspicions he had ordered the already overstretched and overtired police officers to double their patrols.

Two of the unlucky officers called out on double patrol were red fox Mike Castle and hyena Charlie Wood otherwise known as their patrol code 6A40. The two furs both sipped at their coffees as Castle brought the black and white Dodge Charger Police Interceptor around a corner, heading towards Hollywood Hills. "Dispatch this is 6A40, we are 10-28 in the area, beginning patrol" Wood spoke into the radio, only a hint of his South African accent slipping from his lips. Castle couldn't help but smile at his colleague's accent, to give Wood his due he did try to hide it but he never fully managed to. Noticing the half smirk on Castle's face, Wood gently punched him on the shoulder, Castle responding in turn by pretending to be hurt. Neither of them could keep up the act for long as they both broke out into a fit of giggles, the car slipping in and out of the morning traffic, and the sun lit streets of Hollywood radiating with glory.

After a few minutes of banter between the two they came up across another police patrol that was performing a routine traffic stop at a four way intersection, buildings surrounding it on all sides like a square with a few hot dog stalls, benches and other miscellaneous objects littering the area. It was the normal setup, the patrol car pulled up behind the civilian's vehicle with its lights on, one officer got out to speak to the driver whilst the other stayed in the patrol car and reported the details back to dispatch. In this particular case it was two rather beautiful vixens from the California Highway Patrol performing the stop. Wood couldn't help but notice Castle's quickened breathing and the low growl coming from his lips. "Down boy, she is probably way out of your league. CHP officers are hard asses you know that"

"Ohhhh, hard ass" Castle muttered as he pulled their vehicle up behind the CHP Cruiser.

Wood laughed loudly and rolled his eyes as he opened the Chargers door and began to climb out. "I can't believe you are doing this, it's only two female CHP vixens you horndog"

"Only? Only?!" Castle chuckled as he switched on the cruisers directional lights and walked around to Wood. "Sometimes I think you could be gay, seriously"

"How do you know I'm not" Giving Castle a cheeky wink, touching his paw gently. The fox stood their dumfounded, one of his eyebrows raised, Wood just rolled his eyes. "I'm joking you fool, come on let's see these two vixens"

Tragically neither Wood nor Castle would get to talk to the Vixen by the civilian car as a gunshot rang out, filling everyone's heart with dread. Both Wood and Castle stared on in horror as they saw the Vixen double over and collapse on the ground but still alive, then a second gunshot saw her life snuffed out. Almost in complete unison Wood, Castle and the other CHP officer took cover and drew their Glock 18 pistols, their keen eyes searching for the shooter. At the same time Castle practically screamed into his radio "10-00, 10-00! Officer down! Officer down! All patrols respond on my location, 54th street, Hollywood Hills. Shots fired! Sho..." Before he could complete his message bullets hit the wall behind him and the concrete basket he was hiding behind, causing him to crouch even lower, wildly looking around for Wood or for the remaining CHP vixen.

Meanwhile as Castle took fire, Wood was advancing down the other side of his police cruiser towards the CHP cruiser and the vixen taking cover inside it, popping his head up every so often to try and glimpse a sight of the shooter. Then as he sprinted between the two cars he saw the shooter or shooters as it turned out to be. Two rats were leaning out from behind a National Guard concrete road block which had been abandoned, both of them pumping rounds down the street. All control over his accent gone, his cool South African tones cutting through the air as he yelled above the shooting. "Shooters by the barricade, by the fookin' barricade" Then simultaneously with the CHP officer and Castle the three of them opened up, the collective hail of lead forcing the two rats to take cover. The break in incoming fire gave Wood time to reach the road side of the CHP cruiser, knocking on the window to attract the Vixen's attention.

Busy firing her sidearm out of the door of her cruiser, CHP officer Alex Munro didn't notice the knocking on the car's one remaining window, it wasn't until she heard a South African accent not far behind her say "Oi! For fooks sake, get out of the fookin' cruiser, I got ya' covered". Accompanying the voice came a large volley of bullets going over her car towards the rats, noticing both of them hide she dove forward from her open door, quickly sprinted around to the back of the car and her saviour, a rather handsome hyena in her opinion. Joining him, pressing her back against the cruiser as the incoming rounds resumed. Her ears pricking up as she heard another pistol firing in response to the rats.

"Who is that? Is there someone else out there?"

"Yeah, Officer Castle, now for fooks sake, return fire" Wood slammed a new magazine into his Glock and stood up, unleashing a torrent of fire towards the rats. Wood gave a growl of satisfaction as he saw one of the rats drop to the ground, dark red arterial blood pooling out and collecting on the road by the concrete barrier. A twitching paw the only visible part of the now dead rat. Pressing the send button on his radio, he spoke into it "Dispatch, one shooter down, ETA on ground cover?"

"Confirmed 6A40, ground cover arrival is imminent, hold out a bit longer" The cold voice of the Dispatcher providing more comfort then expected. It was then Wood heard the sirens getting closer and closer, help was arriving.

Castle was panting heavily as he placed the last pistol magazine into his sidearm, he glanced at the crimson stain on his dark blue uniform sleeve, it dawned on him that he had been hit, it looked like a graze but it was bleeding quite badly but he didn't have time to worry about that. Once again he leaned from around his cover and began firing on the last remaining rat, as his pistol clicked empty; he slumped down behind his cover.

The approaching sirens filling his ears as his vision went dark. He made out a few more gunshots and a screech of wheels and then his world went black, collapsing against a wall. He could still hear but that too was abandoning him, as he strained his ears to hear what he thought was someone yelling his name.

Just arriving on the scene was patrol code 6A43, another Hollywood patrol unit. Inside the cruiser were Officers Mark Reeds and Charlotte Evans, both of them relatively young otters in their twenties. The Crown Victoria Police Cruiser swung around another corner, dodging in and out of traffic that was desperately trying to swerve to the sides of the wide boulevards. Behind the car was a veritable convoy of LA Emergency Services, four more police cruisers, an unmarked interceptor, a police SUV, two ALS Paramedics and a LAFD Paramedic Fire engine.

Sirens wailing and lights on full, all of them desperately rushing to the scene of the 10-00 call. No more than two minutes away, Reeds and Evans heard the South African accent of their good friend Charlie Wood desperately asking for back up. Almost instinctively both of them reached for the radio handset, Reed's paw retracting at the last second to put both paws on the wheel as he pulled a sharp turn around the last but one corner. Evans pressing the transmit button, quickly keyed in Wood's frequency. "Hold out Wood, the cavalry is coming, just hold out. ETA one minute"

To all of the participants that minute passed like it was an hour. To Wood and Munro who were desperately trying to reach Castle who was bleeding out and at the same time trying to kill the rat, time had slowed to a crawl. The same went for the convoy rushing to their aid led by Reeds and Evans, all of them acting in what was commonly known as ‘bullet time'.

Luckily time can only pass so slowly and eventually, to the relief of all, the convoy tore around the final corner, the LAPD vehicles slamming into stops as their officers piled out, some holding Glocks, some with shotguns and one or two holding assault rifles; even the fire fighters and EMTs were armed. They only gave one warning, a collective shout of thirty furs yelling at the top of their voices "LAPD! Put down your weapon!" The rat gave one answer, to send a hail of bullets in their directions, one stray bullet hitting an officer in the shoulder, causing him to go down.

The LAPD response was in complete unison, every single armed officer, fire fighter and EMT returned fire as one, sending a continuous wall of bullets towards the barricade. It took no more then ten seconds for the Rat to try and pop up his head, meeting with several bullets causing a great cloud of red blood and viscera to spurt up into the air as the rat's head exploded.

It took another ten seconds for the officers to realise that both Rats were dead, the shooting eventually subsiding. All of them, fire fighters, EMTs and the odd civilian that had been taking cover wherever they could, taking in the situation, gun smoke and the smell of cordite thick in the air.

Now with the shooters dead there was a crime scene to police, casualties to tend to and bodies to recover. Wood and Munro were still taking cover behind the CHP cruiser when the firing stopped. Wood, without giving it a second thought, ran out from behind the car towards where Castle was lying in a pool of his own blood, yelling at the new arrivals. "I need a medic! I need a fookin' medic!" Skidding to a stop by his friend's unconscious body he saw that what Castle had dismissed as a graze was actually a bullet wound. Castle had been shot.

Kneeling in the blood as he cradled Castle, Wood yelled for a medic until a slightly dazed fox holstered the pistol he was holding and grabbed a medical bag from the ambulance he was standing by. He rushed over to Wood and Castle.

At the same time order was re-established, senior police officers bellowed out orders as they tried to maintain a perimeter, the fire fighters and EMT's moved quickly to the aid of any injured.

Munro just stood, leaning against her car, eyes wandering over to the car they had pulled over, its driver long gone but the body of her colleague still lying there, also in yet another pool of blood.

Almost as if she was in a trance she wandered over to her partners' body, squatting down next to it as she rubbed her paw against the once lively face of CHP Officer Catherine Munro, her sister. A tear dropped from her eyes as she slipped her jacket off and placed it over the top of the lifeless body, the dark blue jacket staining black. Unable to look at her sister she stood up and looked around for her two saviours, a brief moment of trying to pick them out in the midst of officers running about, then she spotted Wood and to her horror Castle in a similar position to her sister. She started to walk towards them but before she could reach them she just broke down, sitting down on a road side bench, her head in her paws as she sobbed softly.

Evans and Reed surveyed the scene from behind their police cruiser that was pulled across the middle of the street. Reed holding a matt black M-4 assault rifle across his chest and Evans restlessly flicking the safety on her Remington pump action shotgun, both of them looked on at the situation unfolding around Wood and Castle with the Paramedics desperately fighting to save Castle's life.

They wanted to run over and see how it was going but they knew they would do more harm then good. So they resigned themselves to manning the road block, making sure no one else tried to start something, Evans striking up conversation to keep her mind of the fact that one of her best friends was probably dying on the road behind her. "I can't keep this up Mark, I haven't been home in three weeks, I have had about three hours sleep over the past two days and this is the tenth fire fight this week. It's too much, how are meant to keep this up?"

With a heavy sigh, Reeds turned to face Evans, his face gaunt and obviously tired. The vivid red line going from his forehead to his jaw that marked where he had been slashed not two weeks ago stretched slightly as he smiled and made him wince. "Kat...look I know how you feel, we all feel the same, all of us. None of us have been home to see our loved ones...I mean I miss..." Reed stopped suddenly as he saw the murderous look Evans gave him, the reason for this dawning on him suddenly. "Kat...shit...I'm sorry"

"At least you have someone to go back to! The one guy I have ever felt safe with, the one guy I would trust with my heart, the one...the one..." Evans voice suddenly went very quiet as she whispered the last bit "... the one guy I ever loved is lying in the road behind me almost dead! It isn't fucking fair!"

"No It isn't Kat, it isn't" was all Reed could manage as an ambulance backed up to where Castle was, the paramedics quickly loading him onto it and sending it on its way, sirens wailing and with a police escort, none of them stopping for anything on their way to the nearest hospital. Castle would live thankfully but four others wouldn't, including the officer shot in the last rat's defiant final display. The shoot out had lasted no more then five minutes but it would be the first act in a series that would plunge LA further into the darkness.