A Zusi's Path

Chapter 16: A Fateful Encounter

After the encounter with 5k01L, Re3x0 was now hostile. His yellow eyes narrowed to slits and his claws unsheathed as he growled with every step. "That piece of scat!" he snarled.

"Thinking he knows everything. He is just a mindless clump of fur." he continued on, glaring around he picked up a rock and threw it at full force at an unsuspecting three. Breaking the rock into many pieces along the snowy ground.

"That's no way to talk about your friends"

Suddenly lifted his gaze from the rock fragments he looked around for the source of the voice.

"Alright, very funny. Now come out." Re3x0 said with a demanding tone of hostility. Then the voice sounded out again, the voice of a female. Her tone very sly and casual, as she didn't have a care in the world.

"That's not the way you talk to a lady~ But don't get your tail in a twist my friend" the voice said with an amusing purr to it.

Suddenly the snowy bushes rattled and the dark pelted Zusi looked over towards the movement. His yellow gaze firmly on the shrubbery.

A silver female Zusi emerged from her hiding spot. Her piercing blue eyes were filled with confidence as she walked up to Re3x0.

With a growl of warning, Re3x0 glared at the stranger. "Who are you?" he questioned.

With a small grin she playfully brushed past the aggressive male, "Trying to get my Serial Number already? Aren't you going to take me to dinner first?" she said with a very playful hint in her voice.

Pushing the stranger away, he kept his gaze firm and hostile. "What do you want?" he growled between gritted teeth, his tail lashing side to side in annoyance.

"I saw that little scuffle with your friend there, I can't believe you let him walk all over you like that." She said with a somewhat serious tone, leaning down to pick up a broken piece of the rock and fiddled with it between her paws.

Suddenly Re3x0 glared at the strange silver female, "What do you mean by that?" he demanded.

"Can't you do anything but ask questions?" she suddenly returned his hostile tone to him before going back to a sly one. "You were out here minding your own business and then he came and told you off and you let him." She began to explain to him.

Flicking his ear in aggravation, he raised a brown at the stranger, "What would you have done?" He asked. She just gave a slight scoff to his question, "Well for one, no one ever talks to me like that and gets away unschathed." She started, "I would have taught him a lesson and forced him to respect me."

Now it was his turn to laugh, he let out a chuckle not believing this strange female. "Oh yeah, like you could even compete with a male. You don't have horns to-" he started to speak.

Suddenly the female ran at him and shoved him back, this taking Re3x0 by surprise and knocking him to the ground onto his back. Staring wide eyed in shock.

"Just because I am a female doesn't mean I can't put someone in their place", she said with a sense of confidence, her blue gaze shown her pride.

"Alright, I'll keep in mind not to get on your bad side." Re3x0 said as he started to get back to his feet, brushing the snow off of himself and clothes. He looked at the stranger and began to wonder who she was and why he had never seen her before.

"To answer your first question, I'm V41L3 but my friends call me Val." She answered.

He looked at Val in confusion, "You don't go by your serial number?" he asked slightly bewildered. Every Zusi went by the number they were given at birth, it was unheard of by him for a Zusi to call themself other than their number.

"Nah, I don't see the point in it. Just makes things difficult to remember, letters and numbers. It is just easier to call me something, bet you will remember my name now huh?" she said with a smirk, now that he got a look at her he could see how well groomed she was and her attire was not cheap. Wearing a silken purple dress, and a white scarf around her neck.

"Yeah, I guess you're right about that. I'm Re3x0" he said without even being asked.

"Hello there letters and numbers, nice to meet you." She said with a playful hint to her tone, "Enough with all these formalities. What was all that about with your friend there? It wasn't just respect in a friend group hm?" She seemed very interested in the drama involving the dark furred Zusi infront of her.

After a few moments Re3x0 decided it wouldn't hurt telling this stranger some of what was going on. He explained the drama in his group, leaving out the details of them causing this major jewel theft, but the disrespect he gets after working harder than the rest.

Val intently listened in on the story he was telling her. Her blue eyes full of interest, and she was taking in every word he was saying. "That is a total load of scat!" She suddenly exclaimed once he was done explaining.

"It is." Re3x0 growled, his past anger now filling back within him and his claws unsheathed. A smirk forming on Val's soft features, her blue eyes suddenly full of trouble.

Re3x0 noticed the expression and narrowed his eyes at her slightly, "What's that face for?" He asked skeptically.

"If you had a way to earn respect or have them all fear you, would you take it despite the risk?" She asked him, suddenly taking a few steps closer to him, a sly grin now on her face and her eyes narrowed a bit.

Raising a brow in suspicion, "Depends on what it is.."

"There's this factory a little bit away from here, it is used to create the weapons for the capital's defenders. If you steal weapons from there, you will be unstoppable and the others will be forced to listen to you then." She spoke with a calm sense of mischief in her tone, her white teeth slightly visible from her grin. "They are just waiting there, yours for the taking." She continued on.

For a moment he thought this female was insane, but he thought on her words a little bit longer and he started to see it as a good idea too. If he got those weapons the others would easily do as he said. He could even take on Di3m8 and win with ease if he had those weapons.

He looked at his feet for a moment and just as he was about to open his mouth to ask Val a question, he looked up to see the female gone without a trace. His eyes widened for a moment as he looked around, and didn't see any footprints in the snow but his own, he never even caught the scent of her.

"Val?" he called the silver Zusi's name before walking around for a few moments but he came up with nothing.

He shook his head and took a deep breath and exhaled. He was going insane, seeing and talking to things that weren't there. Turning around he decided it was starting to get late and he was going to start heading home.