FSE

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Sooo here it is. Another continuing series for Rei and his buddies. This one was actually done weeks ago but Clip, my wonderful friend and editor, recently moved with his mate and had little time to take a look at this before I decided to post it. Anyone who has complaints about it can go yell at him. =P No. Seriously, he's awesome.

Anyway, as usual Addison and Clip are copyright to their owner, Clipfox. Jeff is copyright to his own owner, Jeffkun. Everyone else is copyright to me, TiberiusRings. Enjoy!

Halloween. The best time of the year; the weather was nice and the leaves were changing. Kids were well into their school year and the first fun holiday of the year. People loved to decorate and dress up. Everywhere you looked there were buildings bathed in orange and black décor, witches hanging from trees and pumpkins being carved into jack-o-lanterns. This was Rei's favorite holiday.

It had been a few months since he had went on the mission for Mark to retrieve the data cube and run into someone from not only his past, but Duncan's. The whole theft of Mark's property had been a set up from the beginning. The Order Knights had used Mark in a very intricate gamble to draw Rei out of hiding and force him to take Duncan's place at their table. In their minds it was Rei's duty to take the place of a Knight who had fallen. When a Knight fell in actual combat, the man or woman who managed to bring them down instantly obtained the deceased's title and was obligated by some quirky British protocol to take up the name and rank of the Order Knights.

The problem was Rei did not want to kill. Rei had only killed once in his whole life directly. Oh, he was sure over his life that situations had been set off by his actions that could have potentially brought down someone and ended their life, but never did Rei injure fatally or go out of his way to try and take a life except for Duncan Dashford's. Duncan had been his old mentor and friend, a father, a brother and a lover all in one. Duncan had saved him from the cold streets of New York and taught him what it was to be a professional thief. Duncan had also taught Rei what love could feel like and what a sense of family really was.

It was these reasons that when Duncan ended up vanishing, only to reappear so many years later with a crazed idea that the country was doomed and should be purged of life so it may flourish did Rei have to actively try ending someone's life. He had barely managed to kill Duncan and the memory still haunted him. Death was something that Duncan dealt with and had actively forced Rei never to pursue when he was a young boy. Rei had the tools and the methods to easily end a life but it was the decision to not do it that left Rei feeling better about himself.

Rei knew his choice in life and profession were bad. He knew a thief was not something that, when he died and was judged on his life, he was probably on a fast track to some torture chamber surrounded by fire and ash. Rei didn't really care about that. He had a pretty bad life before Duncan came into it and now he had the best life he could possibly imagine. To Rei, if he got damnation it was worth it for the people who mattered in his life today.

Rei had a boyfriend whom he was actively considering popping the question to. Garrison, whose real name is Roland Garrison, was the lucky dog who managed to get his arms around Rei's neck and kiss him goodnight. Garrison had been introduced to Rei back when Duncan was still actively working as a hit man in New York. Garrison was one of Duncan's "go-to" guys for information in black market affairs, unique conspiracy theories, and all around quirky information you couldn't really get off of the internet. Garrison was a big believer in conspiracy theories. Rei made the unfortunate mistake of asking Garrison if the government knew about aliens visiting Earth. The answer Rei got was a near power point presentation on all the evidence that Garrison had collected.

What surprised Rei was that Garrison had quite a lot of information on all of his theories and the evidence wasn't the odd back alley evidence you could get in Roswell, New Mexico on the side of the highway. No, Garrison's evidence was documents he had hacked out from locations such as the Pentagon and various military installations all over the country. Rei hadn't been able to follow the string of information but he believed in aliens now merely because the man of his life believed in them. If Garrison wanted to think way outside the box then Rei would happily stand by him and support him.

There were also Ite and Drew. Drew had gotten hurt on a mission and was tortured by not only the military, but Duncan himself. Rei had felt profoundly guilty that the Fennec fox was hurt so badly and had gone out of his way to idly repay Drew in his own way. For one, he had pay rolled Drew into his own fictional company where all his monetary assets were flowing about. Drew was making a sizable fortune from Rei's bankroll. Ite was a red fox from Japan and the most normal out of their little ragtag group of law breakers. Ite worked at a hospital in New York and was actively looking to become a doctor at some point. Ite was also a well trained martial arts student in the use of a number of styles and weapons. Ite was a great archer and sportsman. Rei had felt a little bad about bringing in someone who was so normal but the fox never complained. Ite had been on the last mission and acted very professional. In Rei's mind Ite fit in.

Then there was Mark. He was, for all intents and purposes, a quirky red fox. Mark was the owner of various companies all over the country but ran them from a centralized office in the United States and Japan. The fox developed things from weaponry to washing machines and had his fingers into many pies. Mark was also designing for the future, developing technologies that a lot of modern scientists at big universities would call highly experimental and impossible at the current level of modern resources. Mark had actually managed to design a fusion reactor that functioned stably for longer than a split second. He had also managed to develop smaller variations of the reactor compact enough that they could be used in small weaponry if worn and integrated right. If, and when, Mark decided to go public with this information he would be considered a revolutionist in modern science and society. For now, however, the fox was merely keeping it to himself and using the very secret technology to expand his empire.

Mark was also developing a huge research station somewhere underground. Rei didn't know the exact location of the primary site but there was a prototype not far from Mark's Washington State mansion which Rei had been in. It used a maglev elevator to get down into and was an almost perfect dome when fully cut out. The fox and his minions of workers and scientists filled in the lower half of the dome with maintenance and storage facilities, turning the dome into a half-dome. He had built huge buildings, roads, parks, and other facilities on the ground level to make the interior of the dome perfectly livable. A large portion of Mark's proprietary mainframes were deep underground. Rei had gotten a good look at it when he spent nearly a whole day examining the technology.

Then there was his mate, Jeff. Jeff was one of the few otters Rei had ever spent any real time with. The man was a scientist by trade; designing chips and microprocessors and being head of various divisions within his mate's business empire. What had surprised Rei was not how smart the man was but how kind he was. When Rei dealt with Mark it was always a game of cat and mouse with moves and counter moves. Dealing with Jeff there was no attack, just a nice person who wanted to talk and be friendly with people. At least, Rei assumed that was how Jeff naturally was. It could have been an elaborate act to try and make the 'coon very much relaxed around him and openly volunteer information without the habit of prying like with Mark. Rei decided to not think on those lines, he wanted to assume there was at least one good person in the world.

Addison was also someone Rei was growing fond of and would miss terribly if the dog ever did wind up dead. A Belgian Tervuren, the man was not native to the United States. From what Rei had heard, Mark found Addison when he was a small boy and took him in. Of course as time went on Addison grew from a scrawny little pup into the hulking man-beast that had helped him out on the last mission. Addison also loved Mark and Jeff with a furious passion. When Rei had first met the man, he assumed the dog had some odd variation of Stockholm syndrome, that Mark had brainwashed him to the point where he couldn't function without the quirky rules that surrounded his life. Only after Addison got hurt did Rei really see that the dog truly loved Mark. Addison's affections for the only family he really knew ran deeper than simple lust. To Addison, his love transcended a lot of levels for the fox. Rei also knew that those feelings were generously returned by Mark in his own way.

The party was going very well. The main ball room that the fox rarely used was full of people and decoration. Mark had the large drapes changed from their usual gold and burgundy to black and orange. He had several prime artists come in and design intricate pumpkin carvings that ranged the whole gambit from his company logo to spooky images of bats, haunted mansions and other scary things for Halloween. There was a live band playing music who were dressed up as creatures of the macabre consisting of mummies and demons and things that were meant to look scary without actually being scary. There were children present.

The ball room had a section in the back, monitored by the ladies who ran the daycare for the vulpine's company, who were helping the kids have fun. They got oodles of candy and played a number of board and card games, pumpkin carving, a TV set up for them to watch movies and play video games. The ladies were supposed to take them out later to the homes around town and do a couple hours of trick-or-treating and then bring them back. Mark wanted to make sure that none of the parents who wanted to attend felt burdened with the need to take their kid's out to have fun.

Mark was having a good time, too. He had come in fashionably late but for a very good reason. Addison's costume had come in late and the big ol' mutt needed help getting into it. Addison, Mark knew, had never really gone out trick-or-treating so every year he threw a party like this mostly for the dog. This way, Addison could dress up in his costume of choice, mingle, have fun and get all the sweets he wanted and have a good time. This was Mark's unique way of trying to give Addison some of the childhood he'd lost over in his native country. If parties like this made his boy happy, who was he to complain? Addison and Jeff were his world and he would do anything to make them happy.

Mark had dressed up as Zorori, a children's cartoon character in Japan that Jeff was extremely fond of. The outfit consisted of something that resembled the old Zorro outfit. Red boots that came up to his knees edged in gold and a blue bodysuit, very form fitting and snug. The suit was tight and while Mark was not the thin little fox that was shown in Japan, the outfit was flattering on his body. The costume continued with a green belt around his waist with a golden fox head buckle on the front. On his chest was a double Z in green. Around his neck he wore a black cape with a red lining and on his face was a black mask and black hat with slits for his ears to poke through.

Mark felt silly dressed like the yellow fox from Japan but when he had stupidly agreed to let Jeff pick out his costume he was stuck. Jeff, the ever nice man whom he loved with all his heart, was also very set when he made up his mind. Besides, when he found out what he was going to dress up as he figured he'd have Jeff wear something equally as revealing, though a tad more cool.

Jeff came over carrying two glasses of punch and Mark couldn't help but let his eyes wander. While there was no true character assigned to Jeff's outfit the genre fit. The fox had decided that his otter would be dressed up as some freed soul within the Matrix. If Mark had to pick one of those cute Matrix nicknames for his mate he would have to call Circuit. His mate was dressed in tight leather pants that were actually tasteful. His torso was covered by a tight, sleeveless leather shirt with a high collar that molded itself quite nicely to his lean, thin frame. On Jeff's back he wore one of his prized and practiced katana swords, the strap running across his right shoulder and down to the left side of his waist. Mark had him change the usual red strap that the katana came with to a new black leather for the costume. To top the outfit off he had Jeff slip on a pair of black sunglasses that had reflective lenses. He wouldn't wear them all night, he knew Jeff didn't like wearing glasses at night, but they looked pretty nice.

"Thanks," Mark said as he took the glass from Jeff and sipped it. It was a combination of various fruit juices in a tasty blend. It met with his approval.

"You're welcome," Jeff said and moved to stand next to his mate, curling his arm around his fox's waist and leaning his head against his shoulder. He smiled then and sipped his own drink. "I think the party is going well this year. Allowing the parents to have supervised kids here was a smart idea."

"Yeah," Mark began as he looked down to the otter leaning against him. He curled an arm around Jeff's shoulders and hugged him tightly to his side. "I'm glad. Hopefully we won't have anyone so overly drunk they're trying to dance in the fountain this year."

"Psh, that was only once and you didn't tell me what I was drinking." Jeff said with a snicker and sipped his juice again, licking his lips lazily then as he looked around. "Where's Addy?"

"He's still getting ready. He said he had to 'prepare' for his role."

"Prepare? It's a costume party and his favorite holiday. What could he be preparing for?" Jeff asked.

"You know Addy," Mark began as he finished off his small glass of juice. "He thinks he has to get in character whenever he puts on a costume. If it makes him happy I don't see why he can't. I just hope he doesn't do anything violent."

"Well, you gave him a working rifle because you trust him. He's never done anything bad with live ammunition before."

"True," Mark admitted in a half thought. He did trust Addison with weapons and the responsibility that goes with them, why should he worry about a real working rifle for a simple party? On the worst case scenario, if something terrible was to happen, Addison could help do whatever he needed to do to protect the people at the party. The fox shook his head as he decided to move on. "So I hear you picked out the 'coons costume."

"Yeah," Jeff said with a whimsical sigh. "He was busy and he said I had good taste and asked me to pick a nice costume for him. Honestly though I think he was just lazy and didn't want to actually put forth the effort. Oh well, he'll learn to be lazy on my watch." Jeff said with a small laugh as he too finished his punch.

"Oh?" Mark asked, his ears flicking a bit more upwards as he pondered what his mate had done to Rei. Antagonizing Rei had become a small hobby for the fox, but was Jeff joining in on the fun?

Just as Jeff was about to open his mouth to respond he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Jeff's hand rose and poked his mate's shoulder gently and pointed in the direction of what he had seen. "Take a look for yourself. I dressed him up as someone from an anime I was recently introduced to."

Rei was dressed mostly in black. The laid back 'coon was dressed today in black dress shoes and fitted black dress pants that hugged the legs a bit tighter then Rei normally wore. His chest was covered by a long sleeve black tunic with gold speckles on it, mostly a gold lining along the front pleat and the rim of the high brow collar around the 'coon's neck. There was what looked to be some sort of British nobility crest on the front of the collars near the edges, as well as on the cuffs of the sleeves. Rei looked like some student in some fictional school in some Japanese fictional world. There was also something odd about Rei's left eye. As Rei approached the oddity with the 'coons eye became obvious. There was a contact lens in it with a glowing winged bird. How it was glowing was a mystery to all but Jeff.

"Jeff, am I am who I think I am?" Rei asked, sounding a bit surprised, if not defeated.

"Depends, who do you think you are?"

"I think I'm that kid from that new anime." Rei said with a tug on the black tunic, sighing some as he looked at his reflection in a silver bowl. "What's its name...Code Geis?"

"Gay-ass," Jeff said with a grin as let go of his mate and motioned to Rei's eye. "Code Gay-ass. Well, at least, that's what Mark calls it. And what he's gotten me to call it. I find it an amusing name. But it's really Code Geass. You're the main star. I thought the school uniform would look nice on you."

"I guess it does." Rei did a little turn and looked at his back. The outfit showed how lean Rei really was. He was not the bulky man that Mark, Addison and Harding were. This outfit wasn't even by far the tightest thing he'd ever worn but when he went to steal, he always had on backpacks, belts, items that detracted from how slender he really was. "I feel kind of silly though."

"That's the point of Halloween," Jeff said with an amused grin as he stood in front of Rei. "To dress up, be something you're not, and just have fun. Everyone feels a little silly here. Well, maybe not everyone. Addison may come away wanting to wear his costume everywhere." Jeff rubbed the back of his head, and then looked up at Rei's eye. "Do you like the contact lens? Had it specially made."

"It's like the lens I wear when I do my video meeting, but it's...different. The part that's glowing is the bird portion." Rei was wondering how it worked, but then nanotechnology was probably under Mark's and Jeff's control. He knew the tod had much more technology than simply fusion reactors.

"Yeah, that was the hardest part to design, but it works. The power cells in it are powered by your body heat. Don't ask me how we designed it to work since I'm not quite sure myself. The technology is getting smaller and smaller. And, I wasn't in the group that designed it."

"It's kind of a scary thing when a scientist can't explain how something works." Rei smirked and just moved to one of the tables with various snacks. He grabbed a cookie and came right back to Jeff and Mark. "Especially one as smart as you."

"Science is rarely right, Rei-kun. Science is merely our best guesses. Coming up with a hypothesis, collecting data, processing that data, and then interpreting that data to see if our guess could be replicated by a number of scientists before we classify it as a 'theory'. Nothing is absolute in this universe. Not even what we term 'the Laws of science.' are immutable."

That surprised Rei but he hid the expression well. "Never thought I'd hear a scientist say something like that."

Before Jeff could say something Mark spoke up, "Rei, where's everyone else? I haven't seen them and the party's been going on for nearly an hour."

"They were getting dressed last time I checked. I know Garr had to go find a gun that would fit for his costume." Rei said through a mouthful of cookie and licked his lips free of stray crumbs that stayed on his lips.

"Addison's here." Mark said as he pointed toward the doors.

It was hard to miss Addison. The man was at least four inches taller than most of the people in attendance that evening and his costume was probably the most intricate. Addison, being the avid video game lover, asked to go as Master Chief from his favorite video game, Halo. Mark had gotten it custom made and hired someone from the company to make sure everything was accurate. The helmet had to be designed around Addison's head so it could accommodate his muzzle, as well as the body suit and the green plated armor that resembled plastic. Addison looked like a green commando from the future. The armor was military green and the helmet's visor was a reflective gold. On the man's back was a heavy looking rifle, a make and caliber that Rei couldn't identify.

Rei turned to Mark. "Is that thing loaded?"

"Hm?" the fox said and shrugged, returning to look at Rei. "I don't know. Maybe."

"What if there's a misfire? What if someone gets hurt?"

Mark smiled then and crossed his arms over his chest. "Rei, Addison was covering your ass on your last mission and he should've earned your trust by now. There are also many people here who are armed. I'm sure you have a few of those cute throwing knives of yours."

"I've got a sharpened sword on my back, too." Jeff chimed in, smiling to Rei. "Worrying about safety is a commendable thing but everyone who is here armed knows how to control themselves. Relax, no one will get hurt."

"If someone fuckin' hurts the guests I'll smack 'em up."

Rei turned and smiled to see Garrison coming through the crowd to the group of three. Garrison was dressed in polished dress shoes. His legs were covered in black dress slacks and his torso by a white button up shirt, a black silk tie, and a leather trench coat to top it off. To Rei, he thought his husky looked pretty damn sexy dressed up like that. He had only seen Garrison dress up a few random times and thought the dog cleaned up very well. Rei moved over to him and curled his arms around Garrison's waist, tilting his head up to receive the kiss he knew Garrison was more than willing to offer.

Garr moved his arms around Rei and embraced the 'coon as they kissed briefly. Rei felt the husky's lips leaving his own and his eyes looked up to the man whom he loved and then turned to look at Mark and Jeff. Rei's arm was around Garrison's waist under his trench coat he had on, a mirror image of the fox and otter.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Mark asked with a bit of surprise. "You look like you own some kind of paper pusher or something."

Garrison reached into his coat and pulled out a brand new black wallet, the glossy surface gleaming as he opened it up. Inside was a really authentic looking FBI card and a gleaming gold badge. The name did not read Garrison though, it read Fox Mulder. The fox leaned in to look at the name and laughed, standing up.

"So, do you believe?" Mark asked in a mocking tone.

Rei piped up then. "It doesn't show since we've been busy, but Garrison loves looking into secret government files for information. He has a lot of theories about things from technology the government isn't making public to alien contact. I thought Fox would be a good costume for him."

"Plus it lets me carry a gun to this shin-dig." Garrison added, flicking his curled tail about behind him absently.

"What is it with everyone coming to our party with weapons?" Jeff asked with a mock sigh. "We haven't robbed a party in at least a decade."

"You jus' throw that kind of a shindig, Jeffy" Garrison said as he slipped an arm around Rei's shoulders, pulling the raccoon in for a sideway hug. "Where's our foxy-duo?"

"Looks like they're mingling with Addy." Mark said, pointing toward where Addison had a few adults and more than one kid gathering around him. No matter how you put it Addison had the best costume at the party. It did not matter if you liked or hated the game; the level of detail was incredible. Plus, he was dressing up as some of the kid's most favorite main characters.

Ite was dressed up as Robin Hood. How Drew managed to get Ite dressed like that was a miracle, considering the costume did not include pants. Ite's handsome figure was clad in a lime green tunic that came down to his knees and had no sleeves. The outfit was designed for a more slender, lithe fox, but Ite was hardly that. The outfit showed that Ite went to the gym quite regularly and worked on making his body a prime specimen. On his head rested an old fashioned tri-point hat with a red feather sticking out of it. Ite's feet were bare. Apparently Drew could not talk the red fox into wearing green booties. On Ite's back was a more modern quiver and compound bow, his favorite black bow to be precise. Another person who came to the party armed.

Drew had on a costume befitting his more nerdy lifestyle. Drew, being the kind of man that he was who put things like this off until the last minute, somehow managed to find a Jedi costume and wiggle into it before the party. He was dressed in black boots with a pair of cream colored pants and a long sleeved shirt over that. On top of that was a long brown robe with a low cut hood with the end touching the base of his tail. There was no sign of a prop light-saber hanging from his belt, but what Jedi was complete without one?

Rei walked over to the group, Addy having posed a bit in his armor and shooed the kids away. The children were eager to get some candy in their system anyway. When Addison saw Rei approach he smiled and lifted the face plate of his helmet, revealing his handsome face. "Rei!"

"Hey Addy. Nice armor. Is it real? It looks like plastic."

"Psh." Addison said, putting his rifle on his back and flexed his arms. The armor did make his figure look quite nice but he shook his head to Rei. "No, it's actually some space-age material or something. It can stop a low caliber bullet or a high caliber one that's not a straight shot."

"I see..." Rei said. He still thought the green body suit made the dog stand out a bit much, but he didn't tell that to Addison. After all, the big dog had a rifle on his back.

Ite and Drew approached, smiling. "Hey Rei!" Drew said, snickering a bit. "Who're you supposed to be?"

Rei rolled his eyes and motioned with his hand in the general direction of Jeff. "Ask the otter. I'm some anime character."

"The school-boy look looks good on you, Rei." Ite said. He had his arm around Drew's shoulder. "You'd have made a good Japanese student."

Rei rolled his eyes once more as he grinned to Ite. "Just what I wanted to do in my teenage years, go to school in Japan." He flicked his ringed tail and then looked himself over. "I do admit it makes my body look nice, but I don't think I could pull this look off every day of the week."

"You look British, actually." Drew said, motioning the emblem on Rei's collar. "Like some kind of academy student. Is the chess board part of your costume, too?"

"Chess board?"

"Yeah. Over there." Drew said, pointing to the center of the room. There, on a brown table was a chess set; the pieces of onyx and ivory. There was a velvet rope around the table, keeping people away from it. Rei blinked and tilted his head to the side and flicked his tail.

"That's not part of my costume. At least, not something Jeff mentioned." Rei said as he approached the table, pushing through people gently. For some reason he felt drawn to the table. He managed to get to the edge of the rope and looked at the board.

The chess set was a regular chess set; it was a regular set of chess pieces that looked expensive, but they were ordinary. Rei crouched close and examined the board as close as he could lean. He saw that the board looked a little thicker than usual but then again he was hardly an avid player.

"Taking your character to the extreme, Rei?" Jeff asked as he joined the 'coon looking at the board. "I didn't think you even knew a lot about Code Geass."

"Just the episodes that appeared on my laptop. But I didn't do this," Rei said with a sweeping motion to the board and table. "Someone else did."

At that time Mark came up to the table with another glass of punch. He saw the table and huffed gently. "Rei, I know you like games but you shouldn't bring a chess set and place it in the middle of the party floor."

"But I didn't do it!" He turned to the fox and growled gently. "Someone else did."

"Who would bring a chess set to a party?" Addison said as he was standing near by. He was looking into the crowd, as if he could see the owner of the chess set.

"I did." A voice said from behind them.

The group turned to see someone in a costume. The man, at least it appeared to be a man, stood in another Geass costume. This costume had black boots with royal blue pants and a long sleeved gold collar tunic, equally blue. There was a poof of a necktie around the man's neck. Around his shoulders was a long cape with a high collar. On his head was a very intricate helmet, conical nearly at the front, it was black and pointed, edged in gold. It also hid the face of the wearer very perfectly.

"And just who are you?" Mark asked while putting his punch down onto a nearby table. "I don't recognize your voice."

The man behind the helmet managed to laugh. The helmet gave it a twinge of an echo bouncing off metallic walls. The hand came up to the helmet and pushed a hidden button somewhere. There was a soft hiss as the back of the helmet began to slide up, revealing the back of the man's head. When the helmet was slowly pulled off the wearer was revealed.

Rei's eyes widened as he quickly reached behind him to his belt. His fingers curled into the loops on the ends of his blades, pulling three out quickly. Addison's combat rifle was drawn in a flash. Jeff's sword was grabbed at the hilt and Garrison began to draw his gun. The man who had removed his mask was someone they all knew.

It was Jack.

What happened next was a whirl of surprise and swiftness. Rei quickly drew the blades from their sheaths nestled against his back, holding each of the weapons through their ringlet holes at their base. He had three in each palm. Addison had dropped his punch glass and aimed his rifle, quickly opening a hidden clip compartment on the side of his thigh and grabbing a magazine. He slammed it right into the rifle's base, pulled back a lever and loaded the very real, functional weapon. Garrison managed to grab his sidearm, now worn against his chest, flicked the safety off and held it at Jack. Jeff had grabbed the sword on his back and unsheathed it the metal making an echoing 'shing' sound throughout the room, revealing to everyone around him that the blade was indeed sharp. Ite had quickly pulled the bow of his back, grabbed one of the arrows from the quiver against his spine and nocked it. Nearly everyone, save for Drew and Mark, were pointing a weapon at the unmasked lupine.

Of course people screamed. Weapons being drawn did that. The kids were being shoved back. It was at this time the security system's intrusion protocols activated. The thick sheet metal security shutters around the windows slammed downwards, clanking hard over the frames and with a final clack, the electronic locks engaged, anchoring them in place. The ventilation duct had narrow grates slid down over them, locked in place with magnets. The doors to the ballroom shut themselves forcefully and were held closed by with electromagnetic locks and the click of the automatic deadbolts made sure that in the event of a power failure, the doors weren't opening. Jack grinned as he stood there by the chess board, unmoving.

No one dared throwing a weapon or shooting Jack. The fact that Mark's security systems had somehow been activated was startling. The wolf, somehow, had managed to get control of the security subsystems and trigger it at the right moment. If Jack died something bad might happen. Last time his vital systems had been linked to a detonator that would explode if his heart stopped beating. Rei was sure the wolf had another scheme up his sleeve, perhaps like the other one or maybe something more. Jack was always one for theatrics, but this was one hell of a gamble. He was just glad no one had been trigger happy enough to shoot Jack in any way that would cause any potential bombs to go off.

"Monsieur Rei," Jack began, his hands up. He looked to everyone. "If everyone would be so kind as to lower your weapons, we can discuss the terms of this little game."

"Terms?" Mark said, growling. He had his cell phone in his hand but it was reading No Signal as the security shutters took care of that. This time Jack didn't seem to be pulling any punches.

"Oui," Jack said, motioning to the table in front of him. The chess set gleamed in the light of the ball room, each one jeweled with precious stones. "A challenge to Rei."

"What kind of challenge?" Rei asked, not knowing if he should or not.

"A simple one. For every piece of mine you take, mon ami, you will get to send one hostage free. Your choice of course. Every piece I win though, another few parts per million of a gas will fill this room. If I manage to take all but five of your pieces, it will be lethal. If I take your king before the gas becomes toxic you come with me, no questions asked."

"And if I refuse?"

"If you refuse," Jack said, chuckling and shaking his head. "This whole manor will explode. I will push the trigger myself. If you try and stop me, my vital signs will also trigger the bomb. I suggest you play my game, Rei. You take my king and you win fair and square. The Knights will no longer bother you. You have my word."

"Some word," Addison said. He didn't buy this BS. No one really did but then they had little choice.

"Fine," Rei said as he slipped his knives back into their sheaths. "I'll play." Rei shot a look to Drew and flicked his tail. He hoped the Fennec fox knew what to do. "Just release the kids."

"Non," Jack said, waving a finger to Rei. He sat down in one of the chairs, taking the white side of the board. "They are as much a pawn in this game as your beau. You will not get any favors."

"Damn it!" Rei said, slamming his palms onto the table top and glaring to Jack. "They're children; most of the people in this whole damn room are innocent! This is between you and me!"

"Non," Jack said again, smiling up to Rei. The wolf slipped his helmet back onto his face with a soft click. "They became pawns in your little game the moment Monsieur Clip and all your compatriots decided to defend you. If your fox friend wishes to defend you then he better be willing to pay the price, mon ami."

Mark looked passive, but he was angry. He didn't like it when people took the game out of his control. He looked to everyone in the room and sighed inwardly. These were men, women, some of their children. All of the people here worked for him, trusted him. He couldn't let them down. He did remain silent as he just watched the board. Any voice to Rei could have broken the raccoon's resolve.

"Do what needs to be done, Rei-kun." Jeff said, his hands still curled into the hilt of his sword.

"Let us begin," Jack said, and motioned to Rei to start. With the black pieces he would go first.

Just as Rei lifted a pawn Drew slipped back. He was moving backwards, hands at his sides as he looked around at everyone. Nearly everyone in the building had crowded around the table to watch Rei and Jack's game, creating a barrier of very tall people compared to the more petit Fennec fox. Good. He could use the visible defense.

Drew reached into his pocket and pulled out his handy iPhone. While Drew did not like buying the latest "status icon" items, it was functional for what he needed to do. His, of course, had been modified and upgraded long ago. He was also glad he brought the USB connector wherever he went. The thing, while functional, had a piss-poor battery life. He needed it charged quite often.

He bumped back against the wall and looked down, standing next to one of the ornate Victorian pillars. He let his eyes slide down along the edges of the wall looking for some port or something he could link into. He followed the wall, knowing the systems in Mark's home were intricate. Also, the ball room was a good meeting place and the fox's whole house was wired for network, there had to be some spot. Finally, he saw a faux panel on the side of one pillar. He glanced over to the crowd of people who were still watching the game intently. There was still no direct line of sight between him and Jack. He crouched down and grabbed his pocket knife from the interior pocket of his boot. He pulled the blade out and jimmied the faux panel off the side of the pillar. What was inside was nothing remarkable. It was just a small diagnostic interface, a couple USB ports, a tiny green screen, some Ethernet ports, a video input and some sound jacks. He also saw, of all things, a serial port. Who the hell used serial ports these days?

Drew slipped the USB connector into the port and pushed the other end of it into his iPhone. He turned the simple gadget on and hit a few application buttons in a sequence. Just in case he ever lost it, he didn't want some lucky person to get their hands on some of his unique programs, so he buried them within the OS. The only way to really bring the thing online was to rapidly hit a specific combination of app buttons. Of course the Fennec managed to do so, bringing up a whole new list of applications.

He pushed one, bringing up the system browser interface. His iPhone was instantly connected to Mark's network. He had been working closely with Mark's systems for a while now; he wanted backdoors into his work. He brought up the internet protocol and noticed that the systems were being blocked by something in the network admin room for the ball room. The house was wired fine; it was just this silly little room that wasn't getting a wireless signal. Hell, Drew's physical access was limited. The only way he managed to get into the system and see the problems was by fooling the computers. There must've been a virus within the mainframe that tried to instantly block out any system that tried to connect to the network within a certain radius of the ball room. Oh well, he could live with that. He typed a few commands and began to hack his way into Mark's internal security systems. If they were already compromised then it shouldn't be too hard.

Meanwhile, Rei had managed to take one of the wolf's pawns. The wolf, covered from head to toe in his costume, merely clapped his hands gently and laughed. "Very good mon ami. Who do you want to send to freedom?"

"The kids."

"One kid."

"Five."

"One."

"Five or I stop playing."

"If you stop playing everyone dies, mon ami. Now, I will be impartial and just have one of the keepers select a child for you." Jack pointed to one of the women, dressed up as the Good Witch, and spoke up. "Ten seconds and the door will open. Grab a child and push them through."

Just as Jack said, ten seconds happened and the doors to the ball room slid open. There were guards, but they did not enter. The day-care witch just gently nudged a crying girl out through the opened partition. The moment the child was through it slammed down hard, locking the metallic protector right back into place.

How did that work? Rei watched Jack the whole time. He didn't move the whole time the door opened and closed. There were only two possibilities in Rei's mind. One was that there was someone helping Jack but quickly dismissed that. Knights of the Order hardly work as a group, they were solitary creatures. The only other conclusion was that the board itself was some kind of elaborate remote control. The moment one of Jack's pieces left the board it must have triggered the system to unlock the door. Rei figured it was more intricate than that, but it was something to start on. He began to formulate a plan.

Jack's knight took one of Rei's pawns.

Rei blinked then and looked around. He couldn't see it but he could hear it. The dormant air conditioner kicked on, and there was a strange scent in the air. It was not foul by any means but it did make the air feel and taste artificial. So this was the toxin.

When someone screamed, Jack spoke up loudly. "Oh, be quiet would you? The gas is not toxic until enough of the pieces are taken. The worst you'll get even from one away is a headache." Jack did not seem to enjoy the audience, but a group of people around kept Rei playing.

Rei just leaned his head to one side onto a fist. He was looking bored but he hardly was. The board was indeed some kind of interface. A few moments after his knight had left the board the gas began to flow generously into the room, creating the hissing sound that everyone could hear. Rei contemplated knocking the board on its side but knew if he did that there was a chance the room would go up. Jack, like all Knights, was prepared to die on his mission. Rei was sure if he tried something too hastily he would pay for it.

"Your move, mon ami." Jack said with a quiet chuckle behind his mask.

The 'coon growled and picked up a bishop. He moved, and then Jack counter moved, putting his rook in the way of the bishop. Turns would pass with no one really losing a piece, both players on the defensive. Finally, Rei managed to take that pesky bishop he'd been after for so long.

"Garrison." Rei said, looking to the husky near him.

"Non," Jack said, shaking his head.

"You said I could send anyone out that I wished." Rei protested, growling in anger. His fur on his tail began to bristle. One thing about Jack was, when he was in complete control he was a different man. He hated that.

"Oui, I did say that, but your compatriots here, the ones who help you do your little games, they are not allowed to leave. I want them to witness you losing everything and sending innocent people to their graves. Another pick, quickly, or you forfeit your choice."

Rei picked another child. The mother, who had been standing there, thanked him. He looked to her and sighed. He was going to pick all children and Jack knew that. The problem was there were more children than game pieces on the board. If he lost there would be some deaths among the youth. When the child, this time a boy, was set free, Jack took one of Rei's pawns again.

The gas concentration began to rise in the room. Some people, having a psychosomatic response to the sensation of the gas entering the room, coughed. Some people held some piece of cloth over their mouth. Others, like Mark, stood still and calculating, watching everything.

Time would pass and the game would draw out. Rei would take pieces and set children free. Jack would take pieces and the gas concentration would rise. By now Rei had lost a good number of pieces, but so had Jack. Rei only had three pieces left to lose before the gas became toxic. Once that happened he would only have five to ten minutes at most to win and shut the gas off, or die. At least he'd been smart in chess. He had let Jack take his pawns, leaving a good majority of his back row pieces, but still, he was nervous.

Drew was working furiously, hunkered down, trying to find the new password. His neat little toy, while a wonderful little invention, was not the best for hacking. He was biting on a nail as he just pushed some commands, sending the program to fire up and come crashing back down. He wasn't sure if he could crack the code in time. Still, he had to try.

Rei had managed to corner Jack to the edge of the board. All Jack really had left were a few pawns, a knight and his king. Rei was armed with little else, his queen, king, two rooks and one pawn. He had Jack's king in the back row with a rook consistently bouncing up and down along the final rows, making the game take forever. Finally, Rei had moved his other rook down deep into Jack's territory. He had won. "Check mate."

There was a sigh of relief from everyone who had been watching. Jack, whose face was unable to be seen, sat there silently. "You cheated, mon ami."

"I did not. You're trying to cheat right now. I played your game with the lives of children, now let us go." Rei hated how noble he sounded. He was a THIEF. Being the hero was growing tiresome. He was going to put Addison as the hero next time. The big dog would love that.

"You cheated," Jack said with a sigh, rubbing the side of his helmet with his palm. "I saw you nudge your piece when I was looking around when that kid would not stop screaming. You lose, Rei."

Jack picked his king from the table, holding it in his hand. He pushed down on the small cross at its head. "Say hello to the devil for me, Rei." The piece itself was a trigger. The air then kicked into over drive, spewing out the toxic gas in droves.

"DAMN IT!" Rei said, quickly standing up and throwing the table to the side. He grabbed a knife from his belt, and began to cough. The concentration was too high. He looked around and saw a lot of people beginning to cough, hunker over, or just kneel on the ground. Rei took a deep breath and held it.

Drew was coughing. He had something, but it was taking its sweet time. He mashed buttons against the phone and found his chest, trying to expel the toxic air, was becoming distracting. He rubbed his throat and just held his breath, his eyes watering furiously as he worked.

Rei was on his feet but just barely. Jack was too. The wolf had pulled out a long dagger from his back. Jack always did favor a spine sheath. The weapon was long, narrow, and sharp on both ends. It was almost a sword by length. He spoke. "Ah, Rei. Watching you die will be so fun. I must take your head back to England. We will display it on our table until it rots, then burn it. Your skull will be a candy dish for centuries." The blade rose.

At that moment things happened at once. Garrison fired his gun right at Jack. The bullet tore through his thigh, sending a gush of blood pouring down his thigh. Jack whirled around, growling as he had the blade still raised. Drew hit the right sequence of keys and the systems all went on. The air shut off and the metallic window guards slid up into their holders, the windows flew open by a triggering command. The doors were still locked but the gas was losing concentration. Everyone was going to thank Mark for having a fully automated house.

Just as Jack was about to bring the blade around and behead the husky, another weapon flew through the air. An arrow pierced the other thigh of jack's leg. Ite had nocked an arrow in the few moments and fired. Jack roared with anger and dropped his knife. He yelled in a whiney temper tantrum, "God damn it! I hate you all! All of you! Rei, you will not be alone in hell!" Everyone saw Jack reach into his cloak, pulling out a black triggering device. It was not hard to guess what it was. It was the triggering device for the bomb.

Just as Jack was about to depress it, a whirl of metal sung through the air. Mark didn't miss it. He watched his mate unsheathe his sword and in a blur, launch himself forward, the blade coming on an upwards cut with Jeff's leg extended to act as a balance. The sharpened katana sliced through bone and flesh, Jack's hand being severed from his body with a soft spray of blood. Jeff brought his sword around in a swinging arc and pressed it against Jack's neck, blood dripping from the tip. Addison had moved in as well and put the barrel of the rifle right against Jack's neck. Mark, meanwhile, stood there with his arms crossed. A thin spray of blood from Jack's ruined limb had crossed his cheek. He rubbed it out with the back of a gloved hand and spoke up. "Fix him up enough so that I can kill him later. I'm going to enjoy this."

At that point the two double doors to the ball room had been opened, guards pouring in, children being looked at by the medical staff on duty. Rei was sitting at a chair, the black king in his hand as he twirled it around from finger to finger, lost in thought. He sat there with Garrison next to him, arm around his shoulder and just holding him loosely.

Mark moved out of earshot and spoke to one of his wolven guards, "Evacuate everyone from the premises, don't cause any more panic than there already is. Get all of my men to scour this residence from top to bottom for explosives and anything else that doesn't belong." He jerked his muzzle towards the door to get them moving and then returned his attention to the wolf.

Mark came up after an hour of letting Rei think, smiling down to him. "You did a good job tonight, Rei."

"Thanks." Rei managed to say. He sounded tired, weak.

"What's wrong?" Mark asked, honestly concerned.

"Nothing. I just came close to losing a lot today." Rei admitted. He looked up to Mark and smiled. "And you better pay me for it."

Mark smirked. A comment like that at any other time would have earned Rei a snide remark, but for now the 'coon needed some comfort. "A nice big check. I promise. Come on, let's get out of here, just in case."

Rei laughed. And as everyone was getting ready to head to safety, a moment later someone came in. It was Harding. Rei almost forgot the huge wolf. He had been working security these days for the fox. Harding had been completely broken a long time ago. Now he was everyone's bitch, so to speak. "Master Mark?"

"What is it?" Mark turned, arms crossed over his chest.

"There's a problem," Harding began, looking to the three men looking at him. "After you subdued the intruder..."

"What?" Garrison asked.

"Well...Thirty-one of Master Mark's buildings and industries were attacked. 17 buildings were gutted head to toe; the banks that Master Mark has a decent amount of money in were also hit. 121 people are injured across the board, 17 confirmed dead."

Rei stood up then. He looked to the stoic Mark and growled under his breath. "They're moving again."

"What do you mean?" Garrison asked, also standing up.

"They can't get to me directly, so they're going after the shield that protects me."

"Me," Mark said.

To be continued...