Wolf's Weakness

Chapter 13

"Hey," a distant voice shouted out. It was gruff and commanded attention, but the world was too dizzy to focus in on it. "HEY." The voice repeated, more sternly this time. It didn't rouse much of a reaction either. "WAKE UP." Third time's the charm. A bucket of ice water was sloshed all over, immediately shocking Leon into attention. The battered chameleon jolted upright in his chair, causing it to rattle against the floor. "You're not dead yet, snake."
As the ice water chilled his already cold blood he came back to reality, it seemed that he had somehow fallen asleep again. Leon was quickly reminded of his captivity as he found himself in the same concrete room that he had been in for what already felt like an eternity; hands cuffed behind his back and seated in a wooden chair. In front of him was a polished oak table with two in-uniform mutts standing on the other side, one of them dropped the water bucket to the floor. He was snickering a bit at the chameleon's reaction.
"Rise 'n' shine, sweetcheeks." The shorter of the two mocked, Leon glared at him and flicked his tongue angrily. "Hope you hadda nice little nap cause nothin' else you get from us will be nice."
The Cornerians had been holding Leon for a little over 24 hours at this point and while they were hospitable enough to remove the bullets from his body and suture up his wounds, keeping him alive was about the extent of what they were willing to provide. It didn't help that they seemed to only have a rudimentary understanding of reptile anatomy. While he was fairly hardy for his size and knew how to take a punishment, Leon was finding it harder to stay awake and focused when they were failing to provide any kind of warmth. His blood was quite a few degrees colder than he normally allowed, he could tell from how much his body was quivering.
"You ready to start talking?"
"...When my Boss gets here, you'll regret having treated me this way." Leon said. He pulled at his handcuffs for a moment, re-measuring their length behind his back. The Cornerians had left him too much slack, their ignorance clearly showing that they had no idea how flexible a chameleon could be.
"You talk a big game for someone in the jaws of the beast." The taller mutt responded, he was pacing around the table over to Leon, looking confident. He had a more decorated uniform and appeared to be of higher rank than the lackey that accompanied. With a quick look over Leon noted that they were both unarmed, carrying only knives strapped to their waists. "Some interesting news about your Boss." Leon jerked his head, looking the dog right in the eyes. "Pepper just got off the line with him. He wanted to cut a deal for Andrew, not you." Was that a lie? It had to be, the Boss wouldn't leave him, that wasn't his modus operandi. "It sounds like you're not going to be getting the 'Get Out of Jail Free' card you were hoping for."
"Just wait and see, mutt."
"See nothin', you ain't goin' nowhere." the shorter dog followed up from across the table, "Wolf isn't coming for ya, period. He only wanted to trade for the monkey, which Pepper so generously agreed to. You're out of the picture, buddy." The canine grinned devilishly. No, no that couldn't be the case. Leon gritted his sharp little teeth. Wolf was coming for him for sure, the dogs couldn't be trusted.
"Like all Cornerian dogs, you lie."
"I'd watch your tongue around us, punk." The larger dog bent over, pushing his head intimidatingly close into Leon's face. "Things aren't looking too great for you, I'd recommend staying on whatever good side we have left." His rancid breath smelled of whiskey
"Is that so?" Leon asked, they didn't know how close he and the Boss truly were. He was fully aware that Wolf would never leave him behind. "What do you hope to get out of me then?"
"You're lucky that you have information, because if you didn't you'd be in a much different place."
"Information? Is that all?" Leon played along, "Fine, if you promise to let me go I'll answer anything you want."
"You really think we'd let you go?" The soldier spoke directly into his face before leaning back with a chuckle. "You can be assured that that won't be happening. But... Maybe you and I can cut a little deal. You're an interplanetary terrorist, Powalski. You should understand how fortunate you are to even be presented with a deal. But given who you're friends with..." Leon's focus started to drift off of his words, he stared down at the ground and brainstormed his next course of action while the Cornerian was distracted with talking. He was clearly easily enamored by his own voice. The Boss was coming for him, but it was unlikely that it would be as obvious as a simple trade. He didn't even know what Wolf could offer that would be valuable enough to trade for him. Maybe they were being truthful about some kind of exchange, however, and he was going to use Oikonny's men to attack the base and retrieve him afterwards? No... It would be a bloodbath for those undisciplined apes. Wolf was smart enough to know that. But if he could sneak out of the base himself, steal a communicator and get in touch with Wolf... Yes, that would easily be the best way out of this mess. The dogs are simple and weak, he'd killed dozens of Cornerians in his life, what was a few more?
"You even listening to me? Do I need to get more ice?" The mutt commander spoke up, interrupting his train of thought.
"...I'm listening." Leon replied, his body temperature was close to reaching dangerous levels and he knew that any more ice could cause him to start losing consciousness entirely.
"Then look me in the eyes when I'm talking to you." the dog in charge commanded. Leon hesitated, he didn't like being commanded around by anyone except his teammates, not even in bed. "I said LOOK AT ME." The dog aggressively grabbed his face, that's when Leon snapped.
In a quick motion the flexible reptile bent his arms up around past the back of the chair and over his head, a motion that wouldn't be possible for most mammals. Hands in front of him, Leon lept out of the chair and pushed the chain connecting the cuffs into the larger dog's throat, wrapping his fists around the back of his neck and mustering up all of his remaining strength to attempt to choke him out. The victim wasn't sure how to respond, momentarily stunned by the unexpected attack.
"Hey, HEY!" the smaller dog shouted, he drew his knife off of his belt and scrambled over. Falling directly into Leon's plan.
Before he was intervened Leon pushed the mutt by the neck backwards over the table and lunged for the other one. The smaller soldier made a deft attempt to defend himself with his weapon but clearly wasn't as conditioned in hand-to-hand combat as his opponent. In a quick motion Leon caught the knife in his cuff's chain links, wrapping them around the blade and twisting the soldier's hands in a painful way to make him weaken his grip. Leon followed it up with a heavy shoulder check, using all of his limited body weight to force the dog backwards, making him release his weapon into the chameleon's palms.

Now-reunited with an old friend, Leon knew that he wasn't in peak physical condition for this kind of fight and had to press every dirty angle he could.

In all of the chaos the dog on the table had regained his senses, pulling himself up off his back and onto his feet again. Quickly assessing the threats, Leon dashed close and lashed out at him wielding the knife with both hands- scoring a large gash across his upper chest. With all of the adrenalin that had begun pumping, however, it hardly slowed the larger canine down. Stumbling a bit, he drew his own knife off of his belt and immediately swung out in a desperate slash. Despite his mental state, Leon was still fast enough to recognize this and dodge backwards out of the way- unexpectedly bumping into the smaller one who had caught up behind him. The dog took no hesitation in restraining the wild reptile, wrapping his forearms under Leon's armpits and across his ribcage.
"You PUNK!" he yelled through gritted muzzle as Leon squirmed in his grasp, "You don't know when to give up, do ya?!" That was an understatement. The chameleon didn't even know the definition of the phrase. He turned his head and firmly chomped down into the dog's left flexor. His little teeth were sharp and designed to crunch insects, more than suitable for causing pain in an emergency. The arm was retracted with a loud yelp, releasing Leon from the hold just in time for him to get out of the way of another wide, sweeping attack from the larger mutt. This time, Leon was able to dodge low and to the side, allowing him to quickly follow up with an up-close forward lunge. He made a firm connection. The military knife sunk deep into the canine's uniform, entire blade disappearing into his gut.
The dog in charge shouted in pain and stumbled sideways into the concrete wall. He clutched at the hilt that was protruding from his gut and slumped over, whimpering incessantly like a little pup. No amount of adrenaline would help you ignore something like that. Satisfied with his work, Leon turned to face his other opponent, who stared back at him wide-eyed and terrified, clutching his arm.
"W-we should'a killed you while we had the chance." The scared dog muttered. He knew that he was firmly outmatched, even with Leon in handcuffs. "Y-y-you're a monster!" The chameleon grinned, those were the kinds of words he liked to hear. He opened his mouth to respond, to rub it in before finishing everything off... But nothing came out, something was wrong.
Suddenly, the heavy adrenaline started wearing off and Leon realized what he had done. The extra strain on his body after the recent injuries was too much, he had popped his stitches with the activity and re-opened his gunshots. Blood was pouring out of the reformed wounds, and it might have been for the entire fight. Leon was frozen in place, looking down at his body and clutching his hands over his injuries. He had never been this hurt before and didn't know what to do about it. The cowardly dog quickly recognized what was going on and made no hesitation in trying to escape. He dug around in his pocket for his keycard. It took a him a moment of fumbling in his shaky paws, but he finally pulled it out and swiped it on the door, running out and shouting that he needed help.
The desperate chameleon wanted to take advantage of the moment, he wanted to escape. But all of the wants and desires in the world wouldn't help him now. His body betrayed him, slumping over to his knees as his vision started to fade. His longing to be reunited with his Boss burned bright, but he lacked the ability to make it happen. All he could do now was submit and hope for the best.

"...I've failed you again, Boss."