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[color=red][h1]Outside the MON Safehouse[/h1][/color][/center]

[color=red]Kyosuke couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't even [i]blink[/i]. Because he knew this was how he was going to die. With this terrifying extraspecies criminal staring him in the face, trapping him in place with the gaze from his cold, slit eyes. Like a medusa. 

Some part of Kyosuke's brain far separated from all this nonsense and violence rationed, very counterintuitively I might add, that such an anology didn't work anymore. Medusas were a scientifically documented extraspecies now, and the myths of their petrifying gaze were largely unsubstantiated by facts.

[i]Gee thanks, brain. Let's tell him that right before he rips my throat out and uses my ribs to pick his teeth,[/i] Kyosuke thought. [i]Or maybe he uses poison or a septic bite to subdue his prey. Does he even have teeth? What kind of lizard even is he?[/i]

These questions and many other pointless ones raced through Kyosuke's head as his body gradually became cold and numb to the world, his mind retreating ever farther into itself in the face of danger. But the question that he kept thinking the most (besides "oh dear god why") was this:

[i]How pathetic am I?[/i]

Kyosuke didn't have high expectations of himself. He didn't fancy himself some sort of badass who went all "crouching tiger hidden dragon" on people who pissed himself. He was just a weak victim. A prey animal. He knew that. That was his place on the food chain. He didn't expect himself to fight. 

But dammit, even prey animals had the common sense and wherewithal to run! What was he doing here, locked up like a deer in the headlights? Was he so pathetic he wouldn't even fight for his own life? Was this all that he was good for? Standing there and taking other people's abuse? 

Of course it was. He'd never stood up from himself. Not to run, not to fight, not to do anything. Not against this guy, not against Boss Kairou...

[i]Not against nii-san...[/i] he thought. 

Swallowing a hard lump, Kyosuke made a tough decision. The chances it'd save his life were slim. The chances the struggle would only prolong his death and make it more drawn out and way more painful were, to be frank, disconcertingly high. But he had to do something. If he was going to die, if such an outcome was an inevitability, he wanted to go to the void, the afterlife, nirvana or wherever dead people ended up, he wanted to do it saying he tried. 

Willing his muscles to move, Kyosuke summoned up all his strength and... found he literally could not move. Huh. So it wasn't just fear. 

Vaguely aware of the bright pink dart sticking out of his shoulder and the fact that it was shot by one of their own people as he blacked out and toppled to the ground, Kyosuke wondered what they'd write about him. "Boy left for dead by moron caretakers", perhaps?

With that, he lost consciousness.[/color]

[hr]

[color=red]Saul bared his fangs... and was immediately kicked into a washing machine by a divekicking rabbit jujitsu master and pummeled with his own tail. How humiliating. As if today could get any worse. 

Then the dragonewt showed up. 

[i]Oh good, it got worse,[/i] Saul thought sarcastically inbetween intermittent thoughts of "ow... ow... ow". [i]Guess I can look forward to being lectured about how inferior my wingless species is before they haul me off to jail and Boss Kairou...[/i] omelettes [i]me. I wonder what I'll taste like, pork or chicken?[/i]

Then the dragonewt pointed a gun at his head and offered up some cheesy one-liner about how many bullets she fired. At first Saul was confused, but then he got the joke and he just groaned instead. 

"Great, whatever. Let's call it 19 so you can put me out of my misery. I'm warning you though, I've got a pretty thick skull."

Smith walked up to the broken door of the faux laundromat, holding her own gun and checking to make sure everything was clear. 

"Alright, awesome job girls!" she said, giving them the thumbs up. "Usami-chan, good work on the save. Ryūko-chan, feisty as always I see. Misa-chan? You miiiiight wanna work on your aim. Y'know, so you don't hit our own guys next time. And where the hell is that monkey, Mao? That damn chimp Roshi..."

Smith sighed. 

"Well, whatever. So this is our guy, huh?"

She immediately pointed her gun at him in direct violation of the Interspecies Exchange Bill, but before she could spark an international incident, she put down her gun and said, "Tch. That's right, Doppel-chan isn't here right now. Ryūko, mind giving this guy the traditional MON 'hello'?"

She was of course referring to a round of rubber bullets to the privates. After the dirty deed was done, Smith crouched so she could better look Saul in the eye. 

"Okay, [i]talk.[/i] Who sent you? Was it Boss Kairou, or just one of his flunkies? Keep in mind that you're already under arrest for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, destruction of private property, attempted murder, disrupting the peace and..."

Smith picked up the half-broken submachine gun with Saul's blood all over it.

"... illegal firearm and ammunition ownership as well as illegally discharging said weapon in a public space."

[i]Still though, I'm surprised they managed to acquire enough submachine guns to even equip a small hit squad like this. The Interspecies Exchange Bill has been wreaking havoc with imports, and organizations like Hyakki Yagyō are only making it worse...[/i]

Smith stood up, adjusting her sunglasses.

"Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law, but conversely anything you say that can help [i]us[/i] will only help [i]you[/i]. So spill it. What do you know about Boss Kairou?"

Saul laughed, wheezing. 

"Oh give me a break. You think you can scare me with that cop talk? I am already so, [i]so[/i] dead. Once Boss Kairou finds out I failed, I'm not gonna have a pot to piss in, so whatever threats you're selling to me, I ain't buyin'."

"I see," Smith said, the light shining off her glasses. "Ryūko-chan, I don't think he heard our 'hello' the first time. Mind saying it again?"

Saul visibly winced. "I-I-I said I'm not gonna be intimidated by you! B-Bitch!"

Smith sighed. "Alright, alright. We get it. Well, I suppose since I'm not officially allowed to torture you-"

"How cruel!"

"-we'll just have to resume this conversation another time, once you've gotten used to your new cell. Take 'em away, boys."

Some faceless lower-ranking MON officers materialized almost as soon as Smith said the word, dragging Saul and his compatriots away to be placed in secure, padded prison cells separated from each other with a foot of solid reinforced concrete. She turned to face Kyosuke's unconscious body, slumped up against a washing machine

"Now then. What do we do with poor little Kyo-chan..."[/color]

[hr]

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[color=red][h1]MON Safehouse[/h1][/color][/center]

[color=red]Kyosuke awake in bed groggily, a thin dribble of drool running down the side of his mouth and onto his pillow, which was soft and fluffy and smelled oddly like fur. Rubbing his eyes, he looked around in a daze, surveying the strange scenery. For some reason he smelled bacon and eggs.

"Hello?" he asked, unsure. "Anyone here? Smith-san?"[/color]