FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Creed

Chapter 3: Truth Is Deceptive

When Avitus agreed to go with that vixen Carmelita, this was not what he had in mind.

The Assassin sighed as he leaned back into the stiff-backed and extremely uncomfortable metal chair he had been handcuffed to. "Yep, great plan." He muttered self-deprecatingly. "I should have just busted my way out." As he quietly grumbled he looked around the room they had locked him up in.

It was pretty much like every other police interrogation cell he had ever seen, and he had been on both sides. It had the blank and soul-sucking walls, where he was sure one was a one-way window. A single reinforced-steel door led into the room, no doubt guarded by two to three officers, and a camera watching him at all times. There was a single grey metal table and a chair on the opposite side, facing him. He also spied a glass of cold refreshing water with exactly two glorious looking ice cubes; the cup even had condensation on it, trickling down the sides to form a water ring on the metallic table. Yep, the perfect picture of a thirst quencher laid out for him. He was pretty freaking thirsty as he had not had a drink in three days, and they had given him water.

If only he could grab the damn thing.

In their infinite wisdom, they had not thought to let his arms have enough slack to pick up the damn cup, so it sat there taunting his parched throat with its liquid splendor. "You goddamn bastard!" He growled at the villainous cup after failing once more to retrieve the aquatic deviant. "I will get you; bet your sweet refreshing watery ass!" You vowed as he locked gazes with the infernal water receptacle.

After glaring heatedly for a few minutes he exhaled heavily and looked at the ground, already bored with fighting an inanimate object. He had been sitting alone in the room for around four hours and was confident they must have forgotten about him. He could not understand why, no doubt he was the most interesting person they had locked up.

Avitus frowned; he just had to follow that vixen didn't he?

He could have easily broken out of the hospital and would not be facing this crisis at the moment. With a snarl he thought back to the instance that led up to his current confinement.

The Assassin and vixen had entered the precinct without incident, but soon he had been veritably swarmed by the staff on hand and most rudely shoved to the ground and handcuffed. That certainly did not help his injuries heal. Carmelita had been shocked and quickly informed them that he was under her supervision, and therefore did not need to be treated so harshly. But the chief, a very irritable badger, refuted that and had him locked up. He learned the fellows name as a knee had been pressed to his cheek roughly. Chief Inspector Barkley.

He decided that he didn't like Chief Inspector Barkley.

Avitus in fact, decided that he didn't like the station at all, perhaps his opinion was biased. In any case, here he was now, locked up in some police building, populated by a force of animals with guns and badges. Uhuh, he was doing just fine.

The Assassin looked to the cuffs that were holding him and gauged their quality. The cuffs were pretty standard, solid steel and chains; he had escaped manacles like this a few times in his troubled youth.

The trick was you had to do a little maneuvering; it was all in the wrist really. He twisted his arm and pulled back, almost slipping a hand out before he stopped himself. He would wait for now. Just like in the hospital, find out a little bit more about this new and familiar world.

With nothing to occupy him, thoughts of his past began to resurface. Needless to say that did not improve his already deplorable mood. Sighing, he flipped his palm and looked at the mark that would forever be reminder of that terrible day, four years ago. If only he had been faster, she would still be alive.

As he brooded, the door to the interrogation cell opened and a small fellow stumbled in. Avitus turned to observe the new arrival. It was a short purple otter, a strange coloring indeed. The otter was wearing a black and blue police uniform that covered his vaguely out of shape body, and Avitus spotted his hands, or rather paws, twitching nervously. That was odd, considering that the Assassin was the one chained up. Th Assassin took note of the gun at is waist and locked it down in his mind.

The nervous otter scurried to the opposite chair and sat down on it. He cleared his throat and fiddled with his uniform for a few while before finally looking at Avitus. He stared for a while, making the Assassin uncomfortable. Eventually he cleared his throat a few more times and tried to speak.

"H-hello." He squeaked before leaning his short muzzle up and clearing his throat for what must have been the hundredth time since he entered. He tried again, trying to make his voice more masculine. "Hello, my name is detective Winthrop. And I will be interrogating you today."

Avitus almost chuckled at that. It was a rather odd way to begin an interrogation. Usually you did not come right out and say it....that tended to spoil the mood.

The Assassin looked at the otter and nodded, flexing his hands and replying in an almost bored tone. "Sure thing bud, but you might want to hurry up. I have stuff to do and I'm on a tight schedule."

The otter leaned his head back in confusion, not expecting the man to act so casual. Shaking his head, Winthrop pushed past that. "Okay then....what were you doing at the museum?"

Avitus sighed and rolled his eyes....really, again with this stich? "Look bud, I don't know how I got there."

"How can you not know?" The detective inquired.

"I don't know." The Assassin replied with a smirk, watching as the otter became flustered and a little upset.

The detective gave a disapproving glare and pressed on. "How did you get hurt?"

"I got shot." Avitus deadpanned. "....A lot."

The otter rolled his eyes. "I mean, what caused that to happen."

"You see, there are these things called guns, and they are bad." Avitus sounded like he was lecturing a stubborn child.

Detective Winthrop became incensed at that point, slamming a closed paw onto the table and shaking it. He gave the kid props for that, it might have worked if he wasn't a hardened killer. He had faced old men far more menacing then him. "Stop playing games with me! You aren't doing yourself any favors."

"Yeah well I haven't done anything wrong either!" Avitus suddenly growled back, straining against his bonds and giving the otter a small fright. It wasn't necessarily true; he had killed several people not too long ago. But that wasn't here and they didn't need to know that. "What are you charging me with, surviving an attempted murder?" Avitus grunted sardonically.

"Well, you are looking at some hard time for breaking into a museum." The otter retorted with a smirk.

The Assassin chuckled openly at that. "Breaking into a museum? That's the best you can nail me with?"

Winthrop withered under the mocking laughter. "Yes, and we will be taking your stuff as well. After all, that's all highly illegal." He grinned maliciously at that, watching as the man's face went blank.

Avitus stared at the little otter. He thought that they could just take his stuff? Not only did they not have the right to touch his Assassin's garb, they had no right to keep him from it. "Is that so?" The Assassin asked darkly.

"Damn right, we have your stuff in evidence right now. Soon it will be categorized and filed away, never to see the light of day again." The otter smiled victoriously.

The Assassin nodded his head a few times and shrugged. "This can go two ways." He began; looking to the window he suspected was behind the otter. "Either, we can discuss this like civilized people, and you can give me my stuff back. Or we do not....and I take my stuff."

"I don't think either of those is going to happen." The otter said smugly.

Avitus looked to the otter and gave an almost friendly smile.

The hands that were supposed to be shackled...were not, and he leaned over the table and grabbed the back of the detective's head, smashing his muzzle into the table. As the dazed otter recovered from the sudden disorientation, the assassin vaulted over the table and grabbed him in a choke hold, slamming his body down onto the table. The cup of water flew into the air and the Assassin caught it, chugging the liquid and tossing the glass.

As it shattered against the wall he maneuvered the otter to his front as a shield and ripped the pistol from his holster to aim at his captives head as several officers rushed into the room. As he stared down the barrels of several guns, he smiled. "Now...." He began. "This can go two ways...."

*********

An hour or so later, the Assassin sat on one end of a long board room table. The opposite end had that very pouty badger, Carmelita, a female skunk, and the Winthrop fellow. The otter was clutching his muzzle and giving Avitus a rather mean look. The Assassin grinned; he had warned the poor guy.

Carmelita was giving him an unimpressed look, and he returned it. He had trusted her after all. The skunk that sat beside the vixen was staring at him openly. She looked to be young, probably in her early twenties...but then again, he wasn't exactly a veterinarian expert.

Behind him, three officers stood at what they perceived to be a safe distance. All three were heavy hitters, a bear and two burly wolves. Avitus knew he could take them.

He had just finished giving a truthful explanation for his arrival, how the strange cane he had was responsible for placing him in this odd parallel world. He had also spun a short account of humanity. And as he finished, he realized that it was all sounded somewhere far off in the realm of insanity.

"Let me get this straight." The grumpy badger began. "You are from a world that is almost an exact replica of this one. You were some sort of soldier or police officer, protecting your people from another group. And this stick you found, just happened to send you here, to our world."

Avitus smiled and nodded. "See, you got it!"

"Bah, take him to the loony bin." Chief Inspector grumpy pants muttered, waiving a paw.

Avitus frowned and prepared to fight his way out when Carmelita piped in. "Wait, Chief!"

The officers behind him halted and the Assassin leaned back in his seat. The badger turned to Carmelita and grunted. "What?"

"I think he's telling the truth, sir." She answered quickly.

The caterpillar like bushy eyebrows that covered the chief's eyes rose and he regarded her curiously. "Is that so, Inspector Fox?"

She nodded, a little less confident of her defense. Avitus gave her a thankful look and that bolstered her resolve a small bit. "There are certain facts that support his story sir. No animal species of his has ever been seen."

The badger grunted at that.

"There is also the fact that the museum had no break-in, no entrances were breached and the security system reported no infiltration. Add that to the absence of shell casings and weapons discharge at the scene and he has a pretty solid, if hard to believe, case." The vixen listed off a few things and smirked confidently.

Chief Barkley gave her a long and hard look, switching between her and the man in question.

The Assassin smiled and waved at him.

The badger grunted before sighing heavily, retrieving an uncut cigar from his little pocket protector. "Very well Inspector Fox, until such as a time as I deem, he will be free of charges. But he's your responsibility now, if anything untoward happens, it will hang on your head!" He warned crossly, wagging the cigar at her before placing it in his maw. It was more than likely that he just didn't care all that much about where the human ended up.

Carmelita nodded emphatically. "Of course Chief, I wouldn't expect anything less!"

The old badger gave her and the man one more look before grumbling and leaving the office. The officers around him slowly filed out, Winthrop giving him a very unhappy look. The only people that remained were Carmelita, himself, and that small skunk girl.

Sighing in relief he stood up and walked over to her. "Thanks, I thought I would have to do something drastic."

The vixen flipped to him, grunted and gave him a piercing glare. "I put my neck out for you! If you screw this up, you'll wish that you were locked up in an asylum." She prodded his chest with a claw and he felt it through his thin shirt as she made sure the message got across.

The Assassin nodded seriously. "Sure, I won't be any trouble, I promise." He backed up slightly, wary of the irate woman.

As Carmelita thought about her brash decision and all that it entailed, Avitus looked to the other person in the room, which had been staring at him all this time. "Uh...hello there?" He asked, unsure as how to address the short skunk.

The female skunk was wearing the same attire that all the officers seemed to wear, and her tail was almost as tall as he was. The large white strip that ran down it was thick and he was sure that it ran up her back. The female smiled timidly and waived a black and pink padded paw at him shyly. "Hi, my name is Rosy."

Avitus gave a short bow. "Hello there Rosy, my name is Avitus."

Rosy kept her smile as she nodded in greeting, and did not say anything more. He pegged her as a shy type and so let her be. He had more pressing things to concern himself with at the moment, like what would he do now?

It was all fine and well that he no longer had to worry about police prosecution, but what would he do now? There was no order to link up with, no assassin contracts to accept, targets, nothing that he usually did to occupy and motivate himself. He would just have to worry about that later, for now he should see about getting his stuff back.

"Hey...Carmelita," He said, making her turn to face him. "Can I get my things?"

The vixen gave an apologetic shake of her muzzle. "Sorry, but even though you may not be from here, you have to abide by our rules. And civilians cannot have access to such dangerous equipment. But I can manage to pull some strings and let you keep one of your handguns, if you register for it."

Avitus frowned deeply, but he guessed that what she said made sense that they would be hesitant to hand it over, factoring his strange arrival and story. Besides, he didn't really need his stuff at the moment, and when he did he could see if the staff could in fact take him back. That also brought up a dilemma for the Assassin, Where would he be staying? And how would he function in this world? No staff meant to way back, if it would even let him go back.

Carmelita was thinking along the same lines at that moment. Considering the...unbelievable circumstances of his arrival, he had no place to call home and indeed, no money or even an ID. She decided that first things first, she would have to get that squared away.

Suddenly an idea struck her. She hated all that tedious stuff, registration and the like, but Rosy was always good at that. The skunk had a knack for all the paperwork and forms that the vixen dreaded with a passion.

"Rosy." She said, turning to the skunk.

"Yes, Carmelita?" She asked, looking to her friend.

"Can you help Avitus here get registered? If he is going to be staying here for a while, he needs to have all that stuff set up." The female fox explained as the trio walked out of the board room.

The larger expanse outside of it was an office space where officers who were not on patrol sat in cubicles and handled their paperwork. The collection of individuals was a mix of cats, dogs, a few wolves, the bear from before, and a few other animals. Mostly though, they were predatory species, probably more suited for their job.

The walls of the station were colored dark blue and there were many closed off offices for the more advanced officers. The Assassin took this all in and read a few names of the doors, Inspector Bjorn, Inspector Miles, Inspector Ray, and Inspector Fox.

"Sure thing Carmelita, it should only take an hour or so." The skunk replied to the vixen's earlier asked question.

"Thanks Rosy, I have to file some reports. I am already on the Chief's radar and I want to keep it from getting any worse. Also, I need to get some living arrangements set up for our friend here." The vixen turned to Avitus. "Come see me when she's done and I will hopefully have something for you."

The Assassin nodded thankfully and did a quick bow. "Thank you, I'm sorry that I am such trouble."

The vixen shrugged. "Don't worry about it. You actually helped distract me from a personal problem."

Avitus was curious but he let it be for now. The vixen made a quick goodbye and swiveled to walk over to her office. The man watched her as her long legged gait consumed the distance, eyes fixated on the fox's tail. He was still coming to terms with the oddity of this place he found himself in.

There was a slight pressure on his shoulder and he turned to see Rosy, retracting a claw. "Follow me, and I'll help get you accustomed."

He nodded, motioning for her to lead. The female skunk smiled shyly and the duo headed deeper into the precinct.

*********

It actually took an hour and a half to take care of all the little details that citizens usually dealt with only occasionally. Since he had no records of anything previous to go off, he they had to do a lot of guesswork and some of the questions were not relative to him, concerning about fur and other things he did not have.

They also had to add human as a species to his ID, and had to change it up from standard practices. For example, he had hair and not fur, so that had to be changed. In addition, he didn't have a similar dental structure and so it had to be adapted as well. But it was similar to apes and they used that as a template.

But Rosy was actually pretty good at the little steps needed in the bureaucratic process. If she had not been there to help he was certain that it would have taken far longer. They finished with the ID and gave him a fake background. It didn't take much thought to accept that for now, his real origins should be concealed. So he was a human from a distant country in the far reaches of the globe.

The human walked out of the room he had been stuck in for an hour and a half and looked at the small plastic card that held all of his information. It had a picture of his face, information, and other things. It was pretty standard stuff, like a driver's license.

He turned to the skunk and thanked her for helping him.

The girl looked down timidly and mumbled with frown. "It wasn't that big of a deal."

Avitus thought that it made her rather cute. "Nonetheless, you have my gratitude." He pressed firmly but softly.

She tilted her head up to him and nodded softly with a smile. "Okay."

He smiled warmly at her. "Good, that's better. You are much prettier when you smile." The Assassin inclined his head and turned to walk away, heading to Carmelita's office. Rosy blushed a she watched him leave.

**********

Carmelita sat at the office chair behind her desk as she finished her reports. As usual they had been a chore, but this was the less glamorous side of the job. She shuffled the stack of papers and smacked them against the desk a few times to even them out before placing them in a metal bin.

The vixen clicker her pen and returned it to its brothers and sisters in the mug she used as a container. The female vulpine sighed and leaned back in her chair, stretching her sore paws. After shifting around in the chair for a bit, she opened a draw in her desk and pulled out a few papers.

They were off houses and apartments that had been seized by the police in drug busts and raids on local gangs. She perused the documents, looking for a suitable place for the human to live. After several minutes of study, she selected one that was only a few miles from the station; it was a small apartment and would be a good place for him to have.

It used to be a gang hideout, but after a raid it was taken and had sat in disuse for a few months. The condition was good and should be an alright home. Since she had the location selected she picked up her wired phone and dialed another number in the precinct.

It rang a few seconds before a male voice answered. "This is Bruce."

"Hey Bruce," She greeted over the line. "I wanted to get the apartment by 23rd and 5thopen for use." She pivoted her chair to look out the window, twirling the black phone cord in her paw.

"Carmelita, what do you need that place for?" The male asked curiously.

She filled him in on why and he paused for a moment. "....I suppose I could have it open back up, just need to take care of some paperwork. You know how it is."

"Thanks Bruce, you would be doing me a big favor." Carmelita said with a sigh.

"Of course no problem, it was just going to rot there anyways." He replied.

They said their goodbyes and she placed the phone back on its plinth. That left everything taken care of...for now. At least until something else happened, as it usually did.

A short while later there was a knock on her door.

"Come in." She called out.

The door opened and Avitus walked in. He looked a little haggard, having finished the meticulous and draining legal process. The man flopped onto the opposite chair and groaned. "I hate paper."

Carmelita held back a giggle, hiding it by clearing her throat. "I think we all hate paper."

He grumbled and sat up in his seat. "Only when it seeks to suck ones soul out, or at least that's what it feels like anyways." Avitus yawned. "But that's not important right now."

"Correct," Carmelita agreed. "I managed to get you somewhere to live, a small apartment a few miles from the station. It is a little small but you don't have to pay rent or anything along those lines. But this is not a free ride. Since it seems like you are stuck here, you will need to be able to support yourself. You will need to find an avenue of employment. But before that you will have to have an account with a bank."

The vixen explained this and the Assassin grunted in annoyance. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck here, and have to do all this petty junk. But a small part of him was interested in the opportunity this represented. He would be able to live a normal life. There was no Templar threat, no need to fight. But then again he was not back in his world, he was here.

Yet the Assassin loved challenged, and this would be a big one.

"Fine, I can do all that crap." Avitus relented. "But I don't have to like it."

Carmelita smiled. "Excellent, you can get started now."