Not Alone - Foxy's Return

Chapter Eight

༻Lost and Found ༺

"Foxy...!"

"Don't let them take me!"

Thumps on the glass tore him from his troubling thoughts, and Foxy opened his eyes slowly. He was leaned against the door of the protective cylinder, where he'd apparently fallen into a broken and restless doze. Niki's pleading cries still echoed in his ears, and he felt a pang of regret.

Poor lassie... I'm sorry, Niki...

Another thump on the glass made him look up, and he finally realized what it was.
Standing on the other side of the cylinder were the entire Glamrock band. At that same moment, the door to the cylinder slid open.

"Foxy, are you alright?" Freddy was the first to ask, kneeling beside the fox, concern in his blue eyes.
Foxy gave a halfhearted nod.
"Aye. But Niki's in trouble."

Chica stepped forward now, her friendly purplish eyes conveying a look of awe. "I can't believe you're alright!" She exclaimed. "We thought they'd scrapped you and just told us you ran away to make us feel better. But you're really here! I'm so glad you're back!"
Again he nodded, knowing his old friends, especially Freddy and Chica, would likely be thrilled at his reappearance. But he couldn't focus on that.

"I won't be fer long," he muttered softly. "Not when the technicians come in."
But Freddy shook his head. "That's why we came to help you. You do not deserve to be scrapped. That child... That incident was an accident, you had never meant to hurt him. Just like the others never wanted to hurt Gregory. We are here to help convince the other staff of that."

Roxy stepped forward now, eyeing down at Foxy. The two had a similar build, the only difference being Roxy's long hair and her tail was slightly bushier.
"That girl... Niki. Who was she?" Roxy asked as Freddy gently helped pull Foxy to his feet.
"She was..." Foxy hesitated a second before continuing. "Me friend. She wandered down to the dump I was hidin' out in, and that's how we met. After that she kept wantin' to come back, and told me her mother wasn't exactly the nicest to her. Poor lassie was adopted by a cruel person... She wanted to stay with me. So we hid out in Kids' Cove until we were caught. I'd given meself up to keep her safe but... That obviously didn't work out as well as we'd hoped."

Freddy's ears drooped sympathetically. "How unfortunate. She is being held in Lost and Found until the morning. It is almost 6AM, we should hurry if we want to get to her before her mother arrives."
Now the fourth and final band member stepped forward.
"Even if we do that," Montgomery Gator put in. "What'll we do afterwards? If the girl was adopted by this 'mean' person, there's nothing we can do."

Freddy raised a finger, ears perked in an idea. "On the contrary. If we can help prove that she is not kind enough to Niki, there may be a chance she won't be allowed near her again. You know? The laws are very protective of children."

Monty nodded slowly, raising his glasses off his deep red eyes with a claw.
"But then what will we do? Won't she be sent back in the system or something?"
Chica suddenly gave a squawk, and when the group looked at her, her eyes were bright.
"She can stay with us, like Gregory! Freddy, you've helped take care of Gregory this whole time. And now he helps out around the place. Niki could stay with us too!"

The others were giving nods of agreement. "Yes! That is true. I am sure when this is all cleared up, Niki would love to stay with us!"
Foxy glanced between the four of them, ears slowly going down as they talked. Freddy finally noticed, placing a comforting paw on his shoulder.
"Correction. I believe Niki would love to stay with you, Foxy. If you wanted."