The F.O.X. Project

Chapter 18: Real Food!

Trent, Max and Crystal arrived at the Japanese cafe. It had a small wooden shopfront made of bamboo planks and intricate carvings laced the structure.
'After you.' Trent said to the others, gesturing to the restaurant.
Crystal walked in first and asked the waitress at the counter (a blue and orange Species 4 dragon Anthro) for a table for three. She showed them to their table and they sat down.

'So many choices!' Exclaimed Max, looking at the menu.
'Hi, can I take your order?' Asked the waiter.
'Uh yea, I'll just have some mochi and saké please.' Crystal said.
'I'll just have a green leaf tea.' Said Trent.
Max was still frantically scanning the menu.
'I'll have some Nigrizushi, some saké, and a small bowel of ramen please.'
'You act like you haven't eaten for days.' Mentions Trent.
'That's because I've been chasing you around!'
'Just don't get too drunk from the saké.'

Their food arrived in record time and they started eating while browsing the latest news on their Mobiglasses.
'So why do you think Ash wants to meet us at the dining room tomorrow morning?' Max asked, not looking up.
'My guess is that he needs us for a mission.' Answered Crystal between mouthfuls of mochi.
Trent stared into his cup of green leaf tea, still too hot to drink.
'Gees this stuff's like lava.' He says trying to take a sip.
'Max, can I just ask, If you were alive before the Light Wars, how old are you?' Asked Crystal.
'Old...'
'How old?'
'50 this year.'
'Wow. You look a lot younger.'
'Yeah...'
Max searched for a way to change the subject. The last thing he wanted to be thinking about was his age.

'Who is Freddy Deare?' Asked Trent, looking through the news on his Mobiglass still.
'Oh, he's the director of DCC. The guy who runs everything.' Explained Max.
'Aaaah. Ok.'
Trent tried his green leaf tea again. Still too hot. It was getting ridiculous how it could stay so hot for so long.
'According to this he has just discovered strange matter up in the Dark North.' He said.
'Anything can be found in the Dark North. It's way to hostile for any Anthro to go up there. Let alone any human.' Max stated.

The dark north is an extremely hostile continent made up of steep hills, gorges and miles upon miles of dense forest. It snows up there 24/7 and it's dark almost all year round. Nobody actually knows what's out there and likely never will.

Finally! Trent gulped his green leaf tea as Max slurped up his last ramen noodle.
'Well that was amazing.' Max said, full of ramen and Nigrizushi.
A waiter walked by and Trent called them over.
'Hi, can we have the bill please?'
'Certainly.'

While they waited for the bill to arrive Trent walked out of the cafe to the nearest cash point, happy that his bank account was up and running again.
He took about 10,000 USC (about £35) from the cash point and walked back into the cafe. A few seconds later the waiter arrived with the bill.
'Eight thousand USC, not bad.' Said Crystal as Trent put the money in the tray. He also put a little bit extra in as a tip for the delicious food.

'We should probably head back home now.' Said Crystal, getting up from her chair.
'Yea, we probably need the sleep.' Trent said as they all walked out of the cafe and (with Max on Trent's back this time) ran back to the mansion.

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Arriving back at their room Max went off to have a shower while Trent and Crystal sat on their bunk beds, brushing their fur.
'So how did you end up in that shop back in Torrenholm?' Trent asked.
'that it a very long story involving a damaged dark drive, interdemensional portals and a certain rhombic dodecahedron that I can't really tell you about because I was on a private mission at the time.'
'Ok, well, I know that much now.' Trent lay down on his bunk and promptly fell asleep. Crystal lay down and stayed awake for a little longer until finally giving in to tiredness and fatigue.

Max walked into the bedroom and sat on his bed. He admired the two sleeping Anthros in the bunk bed next to him thoughtfully before laying down and falling asleep too.

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Max woke up, it was still dark outside but the bunk bed was empty. He wandered around the apartment in search of any sign of where Crystal and Trent had gone.
After giving up, getting dressed and brushing his teeth he went to look around the mansion.
All of a sudden, a loud bang echoed through the halls, startling him. He followed the sound to a shooting range, where he found Crystal and Trent, along with a few other Anthros, shooting snipers at targets at the end of a long tunnel.
'Morning.' Trent greeted Max.
'I thought we were meeting at the dining hall.' Said Max.
'Yea, Ash decided it would probably be better if we got some target practice first, to see how good we are.' Crystal explained as she fired a direct hit on a target dummy a few hundred meters away with a sighted rifle.
'Hey hey guys, watch this trick shot.' Announced another Anthro, he did a perfect quadruple twist, firing his sniper with no scope mid backflip, scoring a bullseye on one of the smallest targets in the range, three hundred meters away...
'Alright show off, I have a few tricks too.' Crystal announced as she grabbed her rifle and did a breathtaking layout triple double, firing her rifle at one quarter intervals all the way around, scoring direct hits on all four target dummies in the range.

'Jesus Christ! Where did you learn that?!' Exclaimed Max over the awe of all the other Anthros.
'I used to be a stealth operative.' She explained.
Just then Ash walked into the room, in his shadow form, a pitch black form with white, scowling eyes. All of the troops immediately stood at attention.
'When you're done showing off, I have your assignment. Follow me.'
All of the troops followed Ash down the corridor single file, with Trent, Crystal and Max at the rear.
'Head towards the hangar.' Ash said to the other troops, 'we need to get these three suited up.'

He lead them to a large room filled with weapons and armour.
'Suit up.' He said.