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Chapter three:

Misty dropped off her paper and I caught a glance of it. It was hardly a paper, it was just a few lines. But I caught the title of it and realized it was one of her stories. The Runner was it's name. It must have been the writing class she was taking that had her do that. Well.. We were both taking it I guess, but I never cared for classes of any sort. Even combat didn't interest me. Training on the other hand, did.

There was something about the challenge of being given an objective and having the odds stacked against me. It was good.. Very good. It was hard, but I very rarely lost. When me and Misty did it together, we never lost. Not once. We were pinned once. Backs against a cliff, twenty soldiers coming for us. It was a hand to hand test, otherwise we'd have just been shot. But since it wasn't, we held out ground. We took out the first few waves together. It was hardcore mode, so one hit from their glowing knives would have meant we lost. And we didn't start with knives because that would be too easy. It was still easy enough to disarm one of them and steal theirs.

The soldiers kept coming though till there were too many to fight off. At that point Misty kicked one of the soldiers into the rest causing them to stumble then she started climbing down the cliff. I followed her, not quite sure it was a good idea. Seeing as how this world was sort of like a video game, and I knew the world ended partway down the cliff. If we went too far down we'd just vanish as if we were knifed. As soon as I found a perch just under the lip of the cliff and looked over at Misty I knew she was a genius. They couldn't get to us, and if they tried we could simply grab them and throw them off. Misty winked at me and, silently telling me what to do. I nodded and stayed where I was as she started climbing further along the cliff. I grabbed two of the idiots and tossed them off. I figured there were about twelve still alive up their and grumbled. That was a high number.

I heard a yell from the cliff and poked my head out in time to see two soldiers fly off the cliff and two more vanish from a knife in the back. I smiled and quickly climbed back up the cliff to help my sister. She was backing away slowly as the eight remaining soldiers advanced on her. She looked scared, and that pissed me off to no end. I jumped forward and grabbed a knife from the ground, throwing it at a soldier that lunged towards Misty. He vanished and they turned to look at me. I could see in their eyes that they had forgotten about me somehow and knew they were screwed. Misty took her que and took out three more as I darted forward and took out the rest. I giggled and hugged my sister. We purred happily as the world dissolved around us and we were standing in the victory room. Which was like the death room, but without the people we killed. Honestly the death room was more fun, since we got to brag about stuff, but this room meant we won. Also there was less pain. Though nether of us really minded pain anymore. It was annoying but it was sort of part of our lives now.

I had gotten a bit lost in my thoughts and blinked as Misty started pulling me by the tail to the cafetiere. I made a loud noise in protest and pulled my tail away, glaring at her. She was smirking at me.

"You were doing it again." She said with an innocent smile.

"Doing what again? Minding my own business?" I replied a bit crossly.

"We both know you never do that. And you were phasing out again. You need to stop doing that in public. It makes me look bad." She said, sticking out her tongue before running into the cafeteria.

The cafeteria at least was one room here I didn't hate. It wasn't like you might expect it to be. Fox has insisted, or so I've heard, that it would not be some stupid military room. It was carpeted for the most part, sept around the buffet line. I assumed that was for cleaning reasons. The walls were lined with couches and chairs with coffee table centerpieces. So it was like little sectioned off places with a table, seats and such. This is where most everyone was when they weren't being forced to do something else. I had heard the military people weren't suppose to be here and that they ate in the mythical other cafeteria. Which everyone know didn't actually exist. Mister Lich just liked to keep the idea that they were by the book or something. Which this place was anything but. It was like a big living room. Everyone would hang out here. Military guys would go eat at the buffet line.

Sadly though, the food was military grade for the most part. Nothing horribly interesting or that you'd want to eat. Nothing sweet. I blame that for Misty not eating. She liked sweet. They did however have a coffee maker. Which I knew was the only reason Misty could still stand. I choked down the rather bland food they had here for the most part.

I saw Misty talking with some people around a coffee table. She had managed to procure a mocha, which I was relieved at. Yeah Coffee doesn't replace a meal, but it was something. I, however, went to the line and looked at the food there. It looked like mashed potatoes, or what they passed as potatoes here, veggies, which held no interest to me. I'm a fox, not a deer. And yes, I have told the workers that, loudly and consistently. They also had bread, weird protein bars, which I didn't understand why they kept under a heating lamp, and some sort of meat in a revolting looking gravy. I gave in though, mostly for Misty's sake, and got a plate of potatoes and the weird meat. I was relatively sure it was horse. Though Mister Lich told me once that he paid extra for fox meat. Which I was ninety percent sure wasn't true. He's the cheapest bastard I've ever met. Well I actually don't know that, but I assume he is.

I went over and sat next to Misty. She was talking with Triss and Storm. I'm not sure what about, but they seemed fairly interested. I didn't bother asking what it was about, as Misty would tell me when she wanted me to know. Which would likely by next chance she got. I started eating and rested my footpaws on the coffee table, my tail possessively around my sister as I listened to them talk.

"Fox is thinking about changing the name protocol." Storm was saying. "Apparently some idiot John turned actually asked for his name to have the word "legit" in it. And he just snapped."

"How young does an idiot have to be to actually think that's a good idea?" Triss said, near in disbelief. "I think it's a good idea, letting us choose our own names after we've changed. And I don't want stupid kids ruining it for the rest of us."

"Well they cant ruin it for us. We already have our names." Misty chimed in.

I understood now why she seemed so interested. Anything remotely to do with Fox she was horribly interested in. He had saved us, and was the closest thing to family we had outside of each other. Like an older brother. I would say dad almost. But he looked no older than we did. He didn't age, which was an old side affect of the serum. Simon had apparently fixed it after the first round of trials.

"How would you have liked it if we were assigned names, or had to keep our old ones? All because some immature prick decided to abuse the system." Storm murmured. He wasn't generally one to get into conversations in some sort of meaningful way. And tried to keep everything lighthearted. So it was kind of interesting that he cared about this. To me at least.

"I'd slap the little bastard and say he was called Bob for the rest of his life. I really don't think Fox would change it for everyone. Just assign names to the stupid ones." I added in idly, my plate of food now on the spot next to me, half eaten. "Put an age on it. You get to choose when you're fifteen or something."

"I agree with Shadow." Misty said in agreement, her head having laid on my shoulder without me noticing.

"Oh, I'm sure you do. Misty and Shadow." Storm said sarcastically.

Triss elbowed him. "You do realize that those were the names given to them at birth, don't you? They weren't turned like us."

Storm elbowed her right back and they glared at each other for a moment before smiling and starting to laugh. I looked over at Misty. She had a bit of a pained look in her eyes and I wrapped an arm around her to comfort her a bit. It wasn't true, that we were born with these names. We had chosen them. Our real names are lost to us now. I'm sure Fox knows them, but past that I don't think anyone knows who we really are. Misty knew this, and wished horribly to remember. As did I really. But I didn't fret about it.

"Me and Misty are going back to our room. Don't break anything you two." I said, standing and pulling Misty up beside me.

Storm and Triss said their goodbyes and left their own way. Me and Misty started back to our room, the mocha being left behind, sadly. Misty had a letter clutched in her paw, I assumed from Fox. I was sure she'd read it to me when we got to our room, and I was suddenly very curious. I thought it was odd that Storm would know recent events concerning Fox. Despite everyone knowing who Fox was, almost no one outside of me and my sister actually knew him past the one who brought them here. He was a mystery to most everyone here. A guardian or sorts. And he'd only ever send a letting to Misty. Not even me, just her. Not that I'm resentful or anything. Which I actually kind of am.