7 
 
Rico's town was home to many other foxes, squirrels, and even a tiger, called Himster. One of the foxes was a roaming white fox named Bune. Among the squirrels was a fairly young squirrel named Beatrix. They did morning rounds to see to it that the ones less skilled in the art of war were safe from the wildcats. 
 
Doing his sentry duty, Bune was guarding the secret passage to the town. No one except the people from the town knew about it, but the passage could be found, though not easily. You can imagine how surprised the white fox was when he saw the top to the passag move! Sensing the slight movement, Bune instinctively and skillfully turned toward the passage. He had forgotten, however, that Rico had gone out searching for Jucx, who had skillfully pulled off a robbery of ammunition. 
 
The door of the passage knocked open. At that instant, Bune readied his sword, stretched out near whomever would exit. And, at the same moment that Bune did that, a flash of orange suddenly stood in front of Bune, pointing his handgun at him. Bune suddenly placed the face when he recognized the fox. 
 
"Rick!" Bune said, lowering his 5' sword. "Oh, yeah! I forgot you went out for Jucx..." 
 
"Bune, I told you to remember that I was going out to get out ammo so this wouldn't happen!" Rico chuckled. 
 
"What the hell is going on up there!?" a familiar voice to Bune asked impatiently. Rico moved out of the way as the huge 6' 3" squirrel got out of the hole. Bune looked up at him, and recognized him. 
 
"Hector? What are you doing here?" Bune asked. 
 
"Long story," a  very familiar voice to Bune said. "...Bune!?" 
 
"Mura!" Bune yelled. Mura ran swiftly to Bune and they embraced.  
 
Rico, however, was confused. "...you people know Bune?" 
 
Hector nodded. "He came to Station Square a little while ago. He said that he was from Knothole going on a mission by the order of King Acorn. Mura is... well, they're in a relationship of sorts." 
 
"King Acorn... now that you mention it, you look... exactly like him..." Rico told Hector. 
 
"I do? Could I be... related to him?" 
 
"Another long-lost brother for Sally?" Rico laughed. "I guess we'll have to set the digital comm unit up again and see..." 
 
"Damn! Lookit that dude!" a tiger said, walking up and pointing to Hector.  
 
"Aw, Himmy, don't get intimidated by ol' Hector. Hector, this guy's name is Christer, otherwise known as Himster," Rico explained. 
 
Himster looked at Hector and laughed. "Intimidated? I could take this guy down." 
 
"Really?" Rico said, rubbing the bruise from the fight with Hector. "That'd something to really watch!" 
 
"Want me to take you up on that offer? Or, should I say, bring you down with that offer?" Hector asked, almost mockingly. Himster got into a battle position, obviously wanting the battle. Bune and Mura, looking at the battle, still in embrace, obviously wondering who would win, looked on. The area cleared as the battle took presidence over what anyone was doing. Rico backed off as he saw Hector's game face cross over his countenance. He looked over and saw Himster's game face on. He knew it would be tough to decide who would win... 
 
The battle started, unexpected by most onlookers, as they saw the blur of orange and black colliding with the blue of Hector's gloves and the brown of his fur. In the middle of the makeshift ring they stopped running. Himster was instantly on the offensive. He hammered away at Hector, but nothing seemed to actually hit the swift squirrel. Fast as Hector was, he couldn't keep it up forever. Hector suddenly shifted over to the offensive, where Himster showed him how swift a tiger can be. He flipped backwards, avoiding the barrage of 16 punches that could have hit him. Hector followed with a somersault, jumping with his hands and lashing out with his feet. Himster snarled and rolled out of the way just in time. 
 
They seemed to be getting nowhere as himster jumped into the hair and punched, but only to hit gound. Hector whirled in from the side, which Himster skillfully pushed himself forward, to the other side of the ring, to avoid. Hector did the same and went to the opposite side. They stopped, breathing hard, but not bruised or hit. 
 
"Enough of this." Himster said. 
 
"Agreed. I'm ending this now." Hector replied. 
 
At that, Hector started in a swift run to go forward. At the same instant, Himster started, in the same speed, running forward. Thus, they reached the center at the same instant. they both lashed out with their right arm, not defensive in the least, and hit their targets. Both hit their targets. Both Hector and Himster fell away, both unconscious from the blow of their enemy, to the ground. 
 
"Hector!" Mura cried, running forward to him. She suddenly was engulfed in white light. The white light touched Himster and Hector, and suddenly subsided. "They're okay. They've used up all their energy..." 
 
"Damn! They used up all their energy with that one punch!" Rico exclaimed. "Both of them must be really strong. By the way, Mura, you probably shouldn't use any magic on Himmy when he's conscious because he'll get really pissed off..." 
 
"I'll... keep that in mind." 

8 
 
It had been a dark and stormy day. It was also another day of training. Hector had found that he and Himster were of roughly the same strength and speed. Hector, for the past 5 days that he was training, struggled to do better. He never seemed to get any more powerful, however. He only learned most of Himster's moves, as Himster learned his. 
 
Mura, on this dark day, was practicing her magic in Bune's company. He had gone out to the town's library and found a few books on White Magic. Mura felt that she, too, was not getting any more powerful. 
 
"Bune... why don't I have any offensive attacks?" She asked. 
 
"There's a chapter on that soon. You're only on curative magic now..." Bune said. 
 
Mura sighed. "This is all just going nowhere..." 
 
Bune put a hand on her shoulder. "You know that isn't true. You'll get better." 
 
The door opened. "Don't get mushy, Bune." 
 
Bune looked, and saw Paws standing in the doorway. "What do you want, Paws!?"  
 
Paws looked at him in the eye. "First, shut the hell up. Second, Ryu has something he wants to tell everyone in the meeting house." 
 
"What's up with her?" Mura asked Bune, who was rolling his eyes. 
 
"Don't ask. She's always like that," he replied, getting up off of his chair. 
 
The pouring rain stung at Hector, but he still continued. Himster had long since gone, so Hector was training alone as he had for the past few days. Punch, kick, punch punch, roundhouse, high jump kick. He flipped backwards, covering a slip in the mud, as Bune called him. 
 
"We need you in the meeting house!" Bune was yelling. As Hector turned around to see who was yelling, he saw Beatrix.  
 
Beatrix Aurr could be called Hector's girlfriend. They had gotten to know each other ever since Hector had come to the town. They loved each other, though no one knew why. Neither of them had ever thought about having a relationship with anyone else, but it came so readily with each other.  
 
He snapped from his daze and ran straight past Bune. "What's up with him?" Bune asked as Hector sped away.  
 
It was warm in the meeting house for the residents, weary from such hard weather and hard work. It had been Ryu who called the meeting, and he, along with everyone else, was soaking wet from going through the awful weather. Drenched, Beatrix and Hector opened the door to the house and closed it swiftly. They took some chairs sitting at a separate table. Mura and Bune then came in, engulfed with a glowing yellow shield.  
 
"Grr... why do they get a shield?" Paws growled.  
 
"Because I just learned how to make one, that's why," Mura replied smugly as Paws gave her a mean look. 
 
"I didn't want everyone gathered here to talk about that," Ryu said, leaning his spear against the wall. 
 
"Why the hell did you want us here, then!?" Rico asked impatiently. 
 
Ryu's facial expression did not falter as he uttered 7 words, "There has been a SHADOW-bot sighting."  
 
"What?!!" Hector yelled. 
 
"When I was out on my scouting duty, the scanner that Booker and Bune made for me picked up their special metal..."  
 
He was cut off by Mura. "How many are there? 
 
Ryu looked to the ground. "A thousand. Maybe more." 
 
This caused more of a commotion than the original statement. They knew that if they stayed, they would simply be committing suicide. If they went away, the bots could easily find their next hideout. 
 
"How far away were they?" Booker asked, standing up from her chair in the front. 
 
"When I was there, they were about 3 miles away. It's been 15 minutes since then..." 
 
Booker took this into her memory as she contemplated when they would be here. "'bots move at about... so then... They'll be here in about 2 hours!" 
 
"I have an idea." Hector said, getting up from his seat. "All those able to fight and who will volunteer can hold them off while everyone else gets away!" 
 
"That's suicide. We won't even stand a fighting chance. We won't stop them," Rico said pessimistically. 
 
"We don't know until we try, Rick," Bune told him. 
 
"Taking this s*** in faith? You nuts, Bune?" Himster asked. 
 
"Just try it... Don't you guys have any righteous quests or anything?" 
 
Hector had long since left the house. The rain had subsided long ago while he was standing outside the house. He suddenly saw a black thing flying through the trees. It advanced on him, and he recognized it as Umbra, Sash's Chao. 
 
"Umbra? What are you doing here?"  
 
Umbra started writing on the mud with her arm, as she couldn't communicate in English. "Sash captured Jucx traitor bots coming" 
 
"How far ahead is she?" He asked. The answer came as, "3 miles". 
 
Hector burst into the house and yelled, "Jucx is with them! Sash is up ahead! I need to get her back!" 
 
"I'll do it, man," Bune said coolly. 
 
"Why the hell you!?" Hector yelled. 
 
"I can fly over there, that's why." 
 
"I'm coming too!" Mura told him. 
 
"We need you here, Hec," Himster told him. 
 
"Alright, Bune. Just don't get yourself, Sash or Mura killed..." 
 

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