All Up in the Fur

Chapter 8

A/N - Here's chapter 8! This one was rather inspired by Combat Engineer's review on FFNet. Thanks again! =D It gave me a bit more plot direction since I hadn't got much to begin with. Just a vague A to B. Things feel a little more realistic from here on out!  

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8

The margay groaned and stirred on the wooden chair, then looked up with a jolt.

"Where am I?"

He spoke with a thick accent that Judy couldn't place, and twisted against his ties. It hadn't taken long for him to come around. She was relieved they'd managed to get him back to Finnick's van and cuff his hands and feet to a wooden, foldaway chair – the feet of which were bouncing on the floor and making the van sway while the cat demanded to be released.

"Okay, enough." Judy grabbed the back of the chair and tried to hold it down, failing somewhat miserably. "You're in police custody now."

"What? This the police?" The margay laughed. "A rabbit, fox and sloth? Don't make me laugh!"

Flash lowered his can of apple soda and looked up at the margay. "I... could... be a... police... officer."

"Yeah?! And I could be a champion swimmer!"

"You really aren't helping your accusation here, Mister..." Judy leant over the chair so she could see his face. "What's your name?"

"I ain't tellin' you! You tased me!"

"I didn't taser you," she said.

"Then who..." He looked over at Finnick and a look of realisation crossed his delicate face. "Wait... you ain't no kid, fox!"

"No, I ain't," said Finnick. "Now, you're gonna tell us everythin' we wanna know..." He thumped his baseball bat into his open paw. "Or you're gonna meet Mister Bat."

Judy rounded on him, letting the chair sway backwards and fall to the floor while the margay yowled with surprise. "We are not using violence!"

"You do things your way, I do things mine," said Finnick. "I ain't a cop like you, fuzz. When someone wrongs me, I clobber 'em."

"And that's wrong! Flash, restrain him."

Finnick watched Flash slowly rise from the sofa and looked back at Judy with a raised eyebrow. "You seriously think I can't outrun Speedy here?"

The margay was now lying on his back in the chair, laughing hysterically. "You... you a cop, seriously?! I seen beetles do a better job than yous!"

Finnick flicked his bat around at Flash. "Get back! I mean it!"

Flash raised his paws. "Calm... down."

"Finnick," Judy said calmly. "We're not going to find Nick if you knock out this wildcat."

"Nah, ain't tellin' you anythin'!" said the margay. "Conscious or unconscious!"

Finnick pointed his bat at him. "Oh, you'll talk."

"You lookin' for a Nick, right?" The cat tried to shrug his shoulders. "Can't tell you what I don't know."

"You're sayin' you're innocent?" Finnick narrowed his eyes.

"I'm sayin' I ain't no clue why yous three gone and dumped me in a van and... tied me to a lawn chair!"

Judy scurried behind the chair and strained to lift it back up under the margay's weight. "That's because... you happened to be... armed!"

The chair lifted smoothly and slowly, bewildering her for a moment. She looked up to see Flash stood beside her, righting the chair into its upright position.