The Battle of Secrets

Fox leaped over a building sticking to the shadows. It was night around the wee hours of the early morning. Most of her kind would be asleep in their homes, but she was constantly on the move. Ever since Comet beat her, she couldn’t bear to stay in her tribe. Serving under another was beneath her. So she had been living on her own for some time now, hoarding items, and gathering whatever information she could find. And it had finally paid off. She’d found another source for her stash.

KRAKOOM! The rain had started.

She put on her hyanna mask as she jumped onto a tree and swung on a vine towards her destination. A small remote lab located in a forgotten part of the rainforest. It was formerly a human lab, but had been repurposed by a scientist. Doctor Firefly. A self-proclaimed hero in the darkness. Despite his many scientific achievements in the orangutan community, most regarded Firefly as a crazy kook. The thing was that he had supplies that she needed. Anti-Aging pills. Despite their quality of life being upgraded, the orangutan community was not yet ready to deem such things going against the natural order as “moral” yet Firefly had his own. She was growing quite old but the pills kept her sharp and youthful. She didn’t have anything of value, so she’d have to steal them. Right from underneath the doctor’s fur.

She landed at the door and knocked, patiently waiting for a sign of life. Suddenly the metal doors opened on their own as the rain began to pour behind her. She walked inside and saw that there were very few lights on in the premises. A small circular done with a blue light flew in front of her as her guide. She followed it forward as they went into a room where she could see the Doctor using a blowtorch to create another drone. She let out a cry to him as he took off the mask and slowly turned around. The drone shined on his figure. Firefly had yellow fur but there was something completely off about him. It was as if something felt…fake about him. This wasn’t the mention of the fact that she had a deep feeling of resentment for him. She couldn’t tell you why, but she felt a familiar aura from him. A aura that she hated. This resentment made it easy to steal from him.

Firefly held out his arms like a charmer, Fox did not return the gesture as he dropped the act. “I know you better than you know yourself,” he said.

Speaking was not something many orangutans liked to do, as it was too human, but Firefly liked to hear the sound of his own voice. It annoyed her. She barked that he never met her before. Crazy old fool. Firefly smiled, his smile felt as fake as the rest of him. Fox explained that he had the supplies she needed and wanted to organize a “trade.” Firefly stroked his chin. “Now, what would you have that I want?” he asked.

Thinking on her feet, she quickly came up with a lie explaining that she had found pieces of a human spaceship. She had heard that Firefly had an interest in human technology, in fact, most of his achievements were repurposing it for orangutan society. Firefly chipped in glee and clapped his hands. She instructed that she would give him the location in exchange for her anti-aging pills and the doctor nodded.

“Let me go get them,” he said disappearing into another room.

She waited five minutes before realizing something was wrong. He was taking too long. She had to consider her options. Suddenly she heard footsteps as Firefly emerged carrying a crate, along with a group of six drones. Sitting the crate on the table, he punched his arm through the wood and grasped onto a container of the pills. This amount of strength was surprising. He threw the pill bottle towards her as she caught it. This bottle would last sometime, but she wanted more as she pointed at the crate. She barked that a single bottle would not be adequate payment for the information. Doctor Firefly began laughing.

“I know the area well, there is no spaceship there. Take what you have and leave while I still like you,” he said.

Fox stood there stunned, she didn’t anticipate this nor his pity. It made her feel disrespected. And that made her angry. Her eyes matched his as she dropped the pill bottle and leaped forward screeching.

WHANG!

A single punch had thrown her across the room into a wall. Before this would have knocked her out cold, but ever since losing to Comet she’d had been building up muscle. However, his amount of strength was staggering, she quickly realized she’d have to fight smarter not harder. A combination of force and smarts was made her lose to Comet, a mistake she wanted to prevent happening again.

The drones flew forward, their light turning a bright orange. She looked around and rolled to a piece of discarded pipe and swung forward. She could hear the sound of electrical equipment breaking as Firefly screamed. Seeing an opportunity she swung a drone sending it flying towards him.

KABOOM!

Fire erupted in the lab as Fox rushed towards the crate to make her escape. She didn’t expect such an explosion. She jumped on the desk as the flames grew closer and tried to grab a handful. However, a figure emerged from within the flame as a scalding hot hand grabbed her fur. She turned to see Doctor Firefly covered in metal. He was a cyborg..! He threw her out the window into the rain as she tried to clutch onto the pill bottles.

Landing in the mud she got up as the crate flew towards her landing beside her. It started to sink, apparently, they were near quicksand! She rushed trying to pull it out to safety as she heard the patter of something behind her. She backflipped as Doctor Firefly slammed his fists onto the crate making the pill bottles fly everywhere. She then charged into him grabbing and trying to push him into the quicksand. However, he would not budge. He smacked her aside as she fell on her side into the mud.

“You found out my secret, now I’ll have to break you and put you back together again,” Firefly said smiling.

She didn’t want to find out what that meant. She tried to crawl away as Firefly moved closer. His foot stood upon her back making her unable to escape. Doctor Firefly let out a laugh and crouched downward. Using her left arm she grabbed a stick and jammed it into his chest. Electricity spiraled across both of their bodies.

“Systems reconfiguring.” a robotic voice said.

He was stunned, Fox fought off the shocking pain as she pushed with all of her might. Adrenaline soared within her as she was finally able to make him tip over.

SPLAT!

Firefly fell into the quicksand. He tried to grasp for something to save him, but he soon stopped letting himself sink. He barked that he would eventually return in orangutan, but Fox didn’t care. She grabbed up what bottles of pills she could and made her leave. She felt pretty proud of herself, perhaps she should find Comet and challenge him again. That was assuming if he was even still alive. But then she decided perhaps she truly needed no one. She would take tonight’s win regardless.