Here is the final chapter of Jax Denek for now. I plan on returning to this universe, but it’ll be awhile. For now, enjoy it! Be sure to check out the Patreon for the current stories that I am working on as well as the print and play board games!
***
Scattered streetlights illuminated the empty road that led into the large warehouse district. A worn-down tool shop sat on the outskirts, its white sign blinking, beads of water covering its surface from the storm earlier. The moon glistening through passing clouds.
Walking along the sidewalk with his trench coat pulled tightly around him, his paws hidden in pockets he approached the lonely car on the street, its windshields reflecting the tool sign, hiding the black interior inside. Coming to the passenger side he watched the window roll down slowly and leaned forward to see a muscled tiger relaxing in the leather chair. “Get in, Denek,” he said, his voice gruff and hoarse from exhaustion.
Jax flipped the handle and entered the car settling into the leather chair kept warm to the touch, a reassurance after being outside in the chilly air.
“Been waiting for how long, you turned off your receiver again didn’t you Denek?” The tiger looked away with a growl, gripping the steering wheel tightly. “Always going solo, damn maniac… Tom’s waiting, you got a report for him?”
“Yes, I have a lead.” Jax said dryly, running a paw along his ears, brushing the brownish red fur.
Nodding in understanding the tiger reached a paw over and tapped on the screen in the car’s console, tapping several more follow up buttons until the screen was replaced by the face of Tom leaning back in his smoke-filled room.
“Jax! My tanner, you got any good news for me?”
Exhaling slowly Jax looked along the street, no one in sight, “Got a lead in a warehouse in district six, a transmitter broadcasting the location of one of the crates carrying the illegal weapons.”
“Well done! How many perks are involved? Any names?”
“I still don’t have a definitive on the exact number of perks, however I have the name on the bear, goes by Raxid.”
“We’ll get some people digging on the name, anything else to report?” He asked, sticking a cigar between his lips.
“No, nothing to report.” Jax replied, crossing his arms.
“Good, get to it Jax! I expect you to report back before the end of the night with your results!” Tom chuckled and took a final puff of his cigar before closing the signal.
“Going solo again? Best be careful Jax,” The tiger said tapping on the screen until it came back to the menu displaying basic info.
“I’m always careful,” Jax replied, opening the car door and re-entering the street, the cold air assaulting him once more. Shutting the door, he pushed his paws into the trench coat and moved along the sidewalk. Eventually the car’s engine turned on, moving off onto a side street and vanishing from view. Jax’s ears perked at the silence that took over the street, listening for any change.
Coming to the closed gate of the warehouse district he walked along the chained fence, finding a section overshadowed by a building blocking the moon’s lights. Kneeling he pushed off with his haunches, his claws digging into the spaces in the chain-linked fence landing halfway up its height. Reaching up he quickly scaled the rest of the way to the top and climbed over, landing with a soft thud his legs easily taking the fall.
Keeping low he pounced over to the side of a warehouse and pushed up against it and stood up straight relaxing for a moment as he listened for any change in sound. Reaching into a pocket, Jax pulled free the orb from Viktor along with a small visor. Placing the visor over his right eye, he slipped its grips around his ear to keep in place. Flicking a switch, the visor lit up obscuring his vision briefly before clearing to show indicators in the corner of his eye. Pushing the orb into the side of the device the indicators lit a soft glow as they read the orb’s information. Blinking he found the indicators change to create a line of green arrows along the ground going in the direction of the tracking beacon. Hearing nothing different in his surroundings he moved around the corner and walked into the depths of the warehouse following the green arrows.
Reaching the end of the building, he peaked out to see the main roadway through the district, massive warehouses sitting to either side of him and on the opposite of the road. Large construction vehicles and trucks sitting scattered along the path leading towards development deeper into the district. Scanning the buildings on the opposite side of the road the green arrows went along the ground pointing towards one of the warehouses.
Moving to his right he stayed on the opposite road of the targeted warehouse. Moving along the path he kept close to the walls of the buildings to his right, the overhangs hiding his form from the moonlight. The distant echo of the city filled the district’s silence, the sounds of ships flying overhead leaving and entering the atmosphere of the planet. His tail flicking and ears twitching at that distant drown of noise he was used to living in.
Moving into a pocket of space behind a bulldozer parked along his path, he stared through a gap in its machinery to the warehouse sitting across the roadway, the green arrows running along the wall towards the back of the warehouse. Scanning its structure, he saw rust and cracks along the wall, windows shattered.
Kneeling low behind one of the massive tires of the bulldozer, Jax loosened his trench coat and reached into the holster on his side pulling free the pistol. His paw gripping the handle, the weapon came to life, the indicator lightning up and blinking briefly as the visor read its information. The three ammunition types blinked across his vision reminding him of what he had, 7.65 plasma, fat carrot, and piercer along with their respective remaining ammunition count, twenty, three, and eight.
Twisting a switch on the side of the pistol the barrels turned slightly, the plasma rounds number ‘twenty’ became bold over the other two ammunitions’ appearing across the small screen above the pistol’s handle. Keeping the pistol held secured in his paws he stood up again to peek through the gap in the machinery towards the warehouse scanning its premise again.
Seeing nothing he inched to the side of the bulldozer and quickly dashed across the roadway, the trench coat billowing behind him, his tail flicking. His feet landed and left the concrete without a sound, coming to the side of the warehouse he moved down a tight path between different crates and materials being used by construction to repair the building. Shifting through the materials he made his way to the back of the warehouse.
A flicker of sound caused his ears to twitch, stopping he listened carefully, the earpiece picking up voices. “More than one voice, I need to get closer.” He resumed down the green path displayed in the visor, coming to the end of the building he turned down the corner to reach a closed doorway. Twisting the handle slowly he entered an empty room left untouched by construction.
The green path vanished briefly at his feet before updating to reveal a new path moving into another room with part of its walls ripped, tools laying around. Through the holes in the wall sat large piles of cinder blocks and other building materials. The voices from before became clearer, but were still too difficult to understand individual words. Moving towards the stack of blocks he looked in either direction, unable to squeeze past to the rest of the warehouse. Crouching low, he twisted a knob along the visor, his ears perking as the hushed voices echoing beyond became clear.
“You tired at all?” A voice piped.
“No, you gotta ask questions every few minutes?” Another voice replied gruffly.
“Well…”
“We’re all tired, boss will be here soon…” A third voice groaned.
“Can’t get to them through these stacks without ruining the element of surprise, I’ll have to find a different route.” He thought to himself before moving away from the cinder blocks.
Moving back to the room he had been in before he turned down a different way. The green arrows began to update to show a new path before he pulled the orb out of the visor and put it back into one of his pockets for safekeeping. Entering a small room, he looked up a set of stairs, “Might get a view”. He ascended the stairs slowly, pistol raised, and his eyes scanning his path. Reaching the second floor he moved into a thin hall towards a room filled with old equipment serving as a surveying space overlooking the entire main floor of the warehouse.
“Figures,” He muttered under his breath at all the windows in the room being covered over by large plastic sheets, the sound of a light drizzle starting to fill the air. “They’re doing a poor job remodeling this warehouse when half the plastic from the roof is hanging down.” Continuing to another door he moved into a different hall towards another stairway.
Reaching the bottom of the staircase he went down a hall to reach a room littered with cracks in its foundation and walls, still left untouched by the ongoing reconstruction of this building. To his left were two double doors exiting to the outside and to his right a pair of doors leading deeper into the warehouse. Kneeling close to the doorway going deeper his ears twitched as he listened closely.
“But boss we moved the boxes, everything is there!” The first voice said before yelping, a sound of someone hitting the ground hard echoed.
“And none of you noticed the tracker!” The boss gave a throaty roar.
The words ‘Psychic Anomaly Detected’ scrolled across the visor over his eye. He listened to the sudden silence in the room, his heart starting to beat faster at the sight of those words.
“With that I suggest all of you get to work, we either reach the federation or end up in body bags!” the Boss yelled.
‘Psychic Anom-’ Jax tabbed the side of the visor ending the message abruptly and stood up. Taking several steps back he took a deep breath readying himself. Taking two steps forward he raised his right haunch up and extended outward slamming the two doors open loudly cutting off any further discussion in the room and drawing the full attention of the seven individuals standing in the center. The room was massive in scale, large plastic sheets hanging from the ceiling littered the space. The outside air and falling rain caused the sheets to drift side to side against the variety of crates and scaffolding littering the room. In the center three timber wolves stood to the side wearing worn out coats and looking dirty, a dark brown leather vested bear with bristling muscle, a slim red fox his shirt covered by belts holding weapons, an ocelot standing erect and smooth furred and dressed in sleek armor, and finally a great-horned owl sitting atop a pedestal, its piercing yellow-black eyes bearing down on Jax.
The visor quickly targeted the owl with a yellow outline to emphasize it, the wording ‘psychic’ appearing above the owl’s head. No sooner than the outline formed in that second did Jax’s pistol already rise, a bullet leaving the chamber and flying towards the owl’s gaze. Everything seemed to freeze in that instant, the owl’s eyes concentrating on the bullet racing towards it. A shock-wave blasted in front of the owl, causing the fur on the nearby animals to become brushed, pushing the closer fox and ocelot to the ground. Even with the response the owl was caught by surprise and fell back landing heavily on the concrete.
“Tanner!” One of the timber wolves yelled, panic in his voice.
Everything once frozen in shock began a series of actions. All the animals scattering in every direction, pistols, rifles, shotguns blasting a wave of destruction towards Jax who returned several rounds as he dodged and rolled to find cover among some scaffolding. A large banner of plastic covered up the blocks of wood that Jax now knelt behind. Glancing down to the pistol’s screen he spotted the number now reading ‘sixteen’ lit up.
“You won’t be leaving here Tanner!”
Creeping to the corner of the stack of wood, Jax peeked out, spotting the wolf who had yelled, his leg poking out from his cover behind a column unaware of the danger and distracted with reloading.
Firing off a quick salvo of rounds Jax caught the wolf in the leg causing the wolf to crumble to the floor with a cry of anguish. Firing off another two rounds he finished the wolf off.
A clicking sound to his right caught Jax’s attention, jumping back a blast of a shotgun ate away at his cover. Moving to the other side of the stack he kept his head low, flinching as more wood was splintered by bullets, the sound of the gunfire echoing in the room. Dashing out from the cover he used the giant sheets of plastic to hide his path. Sliding through a puddle he found protection behind a large wooden crate.
Peering around the corner he spotted the fox kneeling by the downed owl, a plasma shield in paw. The fox’s attention was to the owl, checking his pulse with a concerned look. The fox’s ears twitched and he turned to spot Jax. Raising the shield, the fox aimed his pistol and unleashed several rounds.
Pulling back into his cover Jax flinched at the rounds hitting against the crate. “Plasma shield, of course they’d have that,” he said with a shake of his head. Turning a switch, the barrel on the pistol twisted to the ‘piercer’ rounds as the number changed to eight on the screen. Taking a deep breath Jax prepared to look out and spotted movement in the corner of his eye. He looked to his left to see from the stack of wood he had been behind before was one of the wolves, shotgun in paw, his other paw throwing something towards Jax.
Spotting the grenade land and roll towards him, Jax sprinted from the crate’s cover. Running along he looked to his right, from behind a giant sheet of plastic he spotted the fox’s silhouette taking aim with his pistol.
A loud explosion sounded behind Jax as he kept running, aiming his own pistol he fired twice towards the fox. The plastic sheet between Jax and the fox was littered with bullet holes. He grit his teeth as he felt something hit his right arm. The momentum of his sprint kept him moving beyond the plastic sheet to spot the fox lying on the ground, his shield’s plasma still evaporating in the air where one of the piercer bullets had flown through into the fox’s heart.
Reaching the side of a stack of piping and metal beams he crouched low. Turning the switch again, he watched the barrel in the pistol twist to plasma rounds, a ‘thirteen’ lighting up on the display. Extending his left paw, he placed it gently on his right arm before bringing it to his face to grimace at the sight of blood. The sound of two sets of slow footsteps in a puddle brought him back to focus.
Peering above his cover he quickly ducked as a spray of fire peppered the steel beams. Under the noise of the gunfire he began to run, staying low to the ground.
Taking several steps, he stood up, his pistol aiming towards a second wolf behind. Firing off several rounds.
The wolf crumbled to the floor, his shotgun discharging a blast of rounds harmlessly into the air.
Spotting the third and final wolf to his right, Jax quickly ducked as the sub-machine gun fire pierced the air. The wolf cursing in a rage, firing off the rest of his gun’s clip, peppering the steel beam.
Standing up to aim, Jax was caught off guard at the wolf baring down on him. His pistol knocked from his paws, the feeling of the wolf’s teeth latching onto his right shoulder. Crumbling to the floor he cried in agony, his left paw reaching for his pistol nearby.
The wolf let go and looked down at Jax preparing to bite down on Jax’s neck. Lurching forward the wolf froze up at the sight of a pistol in his face.
The blast of the pistol echoed in the now quiet warehouse, the only sound coming from the light drizzle of rain that came through the roof.
Breathing heavily Jax pushed the timber wolf to the side and laid there for the moment. Taking a deep breath, he stood, one hand on the steel beams to steady himself. He looked around spotting no immediate danger.
Finding the fox, he sighed, “Guess the bear and ocelot escaped with the owl.” He reached for a small device in one of the pockets of his trench coat. Pulling out a silvery rectangle box he pushed it against his neck. The two needles of the device piercing the skin, injecting fluid. The aching pain that shook him in his right shoulder from the teeth and the bullet wound eased away into numbness. Exhaling he tossed the device to the side and sat down, his paw reaching for his receiver.
***
“You know you were a maniac going in solo, right?”
Jax looked up from his spot on the floor to see the otter, his black eyes focused on Jax, a visible scar across his left cheek. “You would have done the same, Fenrik,” Jax chuckled.
“Maybe,” Fenrik reached into a pocket inside his leather jacket. “Tom’s busy, but he asked for me to give you the report on Raxid.” He said, handing a thin bar of metal to Jax. Without waiting for a response, he headed back towards the entrance of the warehouse.
Looking past Fenrik, Jax spotted the armored car parked inside the warehouse. He spotted past the warehouse doors two vehicles sitting in the light rain that had begun to fall. Several individuals walked about the entrance, talking and carrying over supplies. “They can’t even wait for me to leave before looking at all the evidence.” Jax sighed, resting his head against the large crate he sat against, closing his eyes briefly. “Though I suppose they might have questions for me.”
Hearing the steps of hoofed feet approaching, he lifted his head and opened his eyes to see the goat carrying a small pack with the first aid symbol over the side.
“They mentioned I’d find you over here, Jax, with a wound, didn’t expect such a severe bite mark,” She stated, kneeling by Jax’s side and began to rummage through her pack. “Did you forget you had a gun?”
“The gun got boring so decided getting up close to the action would be fun,” Jax shrugged. “Are you the new medic for the agency?”
She turned to him, capsule in hand. “Yes, I am Sheila, though you can call me nanny, seeing how I’m the one who will be taking care of all you tanners when you screw up from now on. Now remove your coat.”
“Yes ma’am,” Jax leaned forward, slowly peeling the trench coat off, the aching pain causing him to grit his teeth, the device’s numbness from earlier beginning to dissipate.
Not waiting, Sheila grabbed the edges of Jax’s shirt around the wound and ripped them further apart. Moving the capsule over Jax’s arm, a thin spray of liquid coated the wound. Reaching back into her pack she pulled out several other instruments, “Do you need an anesthetic?”
“No, I am fine,” Jax replied looking away from Sheila’s work, clenching his left paw to ignore the growing pain. He spotted several agents and field workers investigating the scene, lights getting set up to give clear images for pictures, bullets and other debris getting bagged, the bodies that Jax had killed getting looked over.
Grabbing the bar that still sat in his lap, he tapped a button on the side, a transparent display revealing itself from the bar. He spotted ‘Raxid’ at the top and began to scan the rest of the document. “Quite the criminal history, smuggling is nothing new for this guy, shame for him he finally drew a tanner’s interest.”
“I don’t see any early signs of infection, your body is taking the healing agents, you should be back to a hundred percent by this evening.”
“Evening?” Jax said looking over to see Sheila beginning to pack her bag. He glanced over the wound, the beige thick bandage creating a perfect seal, the feeling of liquids beneath moving as they continued to heal him.
“Yea, its past midnight, you’ve been sitting here for a while,” She replied, standing and walked away.
“Right…” Jax sighed and stood, picking his coat back up, he pulled it back over his shoulders. Shaking his head at the holes littering across the coat’s right shoulder.
Spotting Fenrik by the entrance to the warehouse, he walked past the other investigators. “Taking up smoking again?”
Fenrik flicked his smooth tail, agitated. “I never quit, you just don’t see me enough.”
“Well, I am sorry about that. Though us tanner’s are solitary animals are we not?” Jax stated, standing at the edge of the entrance, watching the rain fall before his eyes.
“Yea well, we are still on the same team.” Fenrik replied. Taking a deep breath of the cigarette, he tossed the remaining bud into a nearby puddle. “Did you look over the document yet?”
“Yes, Raxid is definitely a problem. I am hoping though we have more on him besides his history?” Jax asked turning to look at Fenrik.
Fenrik shook his head, leaning against the door frame of the warehouse, arms crossed. “You were the last to see him.”
“So, he escapes for now?” Jax asked with a raised brow.
“Tom still has the researchers looking over Raxid’s history, they’ll turn up more information soon, they just need more time.”
“Understandable.”
“Head home Jax, get some rest, there is nothing else here for you,” Fenrik said, turning to head back into the depths of the warehouse.
Card Forge 