SC II: Volume 1

The first collection of stories set in SC II. An alternate universe which is darker than SC Land. Please don't make unnecessary changes (cough, Keemstar, cough).

Update: I'm almost done Volume 1. Will update soon. Volume 2 will also start soon.

## Fenris

SC City. Named after the android overlords who ruled this world around 4000 years ago. Many people tell me that the robots were benevolent rulers and that SC Land flourished under it. SC Land also collapsed under the rule of the robots by the way.

SC City is a breeding ground for crime. Behind the advanced industrial metropolis lies the dark underbelly of the city. Crime goes unpunished and crime lords take over businesses and public services. In SC City, either you’re rich or you work for the crime lords. Still, a small minority of us refuse to succumb to the obvious fate and rebel against the rotting society. I’m not part of that group.

It sounds great and all, but I’m not an idiot. It’s smarter to work in dissatisfaction than to die achieving my true ideals. At least, that was what I thought at first. I used to work for the Powerstar. The Powerstar was a nickname for the cat who basically ran the criminal underworld. I never understood why anyone would work for someone with such a stupid name but he was smarter than many gave him credit for. All he did was buy everything in the entire city. I had no choice but to help him smuggle weapons through the security.

It was a fairly normal life working for Powerstar but my brother Feral would bring an end to my life. That treacherous fox-hearted traitor quickly gained the trust of Powerstar while I was still unwelcome because my code of honor. Feral never liked me and when he got the chance, he decided to make me the enemy of Powerstar.

He came to my apartment on the last night that I worked for Powerstar. Feral looked tired and generally looked really bad. He looked concerned. He told me I had to flee. “You have to go. Powerstar wants your hide,” he told me. I wasn’t convinced and neither did I want to listen to my ignorant excuse for a brother.

“I’m not convinced. Prove it.” I responded. Feral looked outraged. He looked at me and growled.

Feral growled even more. “I told Powerstar that you planned on betraying his secrets to Stormcloud. He’ll never believe what you say now, even if it’s the truth.” Feral lunged out at me. He caught me off guard and managed to tear the flesh from the side of my face. I stopped as I realized what this meant. I could taste my blood trickling down my face.

“You’ll pay for this,” I silently cursed as Feral waited to make his next move. I beat him to it and clawed his snout. While Feral was distracted, I lunged to his side and scratched it too. Feral yowled in pain and proceeded to fight back to me. Without thinking, I pushed him down and brought my claws down on him.

What did it feel like to kill my brother? Honestly, I can’t remember. It just happened so fast. I didn’t mean to do it but once I started, I couldn’t stop. As I repeatedly dug my claws into Feral’s body, I could barely hear his cries of pain and agony. I ignored his pitiful sounds and bit into my brother’s neck until I felt the blood from his throat trickle down and gather on the floor. His face looked so deformed that I could barely recognize it. I scratched it one more time out of spite and looked upon the limp body that used to be my only family. I couldn’t even remember what he said last before his death.

I think he begged for his life.

## Stormcloud

“Damn it. This is bad. This is really bad.”

I could hear their sounds close by from just outside the warehouse. They were probably 30 feet away from me, maybe 40. My plan to take over Dragon Town was going badly. Most of my allies were dead and I was surrounded by enemies with no way of escape.

My little group controls the Docks and the Bowery. Meanwhile, Powerstar controls the Industry District and Eastern Downtown and the Dragon Clan controls Dragon Town. Western Downtown was the only area of SC City that is free from the turf wars.

I heard the door of the warehouse open. I could faintly detect the shadows of the members of Dragon Clan who had just entered the warehouse. I’m dead, I thought to myself. Maybe I should try and kill them before they bring reinforcements.

I quickly ran across to the crate on the other side while the enemy goons ware distracted. As I silently climbed the crate I recognized one the enemy goons: Stryke. That backstabber! Stryke had helped us smuggle weapons through the security of SC City before but she had betrayed us in the middle of the operation.

I braced myself for impact and I lunged towards Stryke from atop of a red crate. As the other goon turned around, I regretted coming out of hiding. No, he wasn’t a just a goon. I recognized him as Blizzard. Infamously known as the Bone Crusher because of his tendencies to break the bones of his opponents. As he saw me jump towards Stryke, he jumped out in front of her and tackled me.

That hurt a lot. Blizzard was bigger than me and he was an experienced fighter. He easily took me down and threw me across the room, sending me crashing into a few barrels. Shit. I ran towards Blizzard and sidestepped at the last moment, confusing Blizzard. I used my claws and ripped the side of his body.

Blizzard howled in pain but he wasn’t done yet. He managed to grab a hold of my front leg and he tried to break it. I clawed him on the snout and just managed to escape Blizzard. As I clawed his face again, I felt a pain on my shoulder. Stryke! I forgot about her. I grabbed onto Stryke’s body and I spun her around, getting her to stop biting my shoulder.

Blizzard ran towards me while I was struggling with Stryke and knocked me down. He clawed me several times and was prepared to kill me. I closed my eyes to brace for the impact. Except… it never came. I waited and waited, but Blizzard never struck me down and killed me. When I opened my eyes, he was already dead with a puddle of blood around his neck. Someone killed him, but who? Who would benefit from my survival?

As I looked around trying to answer my question, I spotted a tuft of fur lying on the ground, a few meters away from Blizzard’s body. It was definitely the fur of a wolf, with its gray colour and texture similar to that of mine. Yet, the scent was unrecognizable, I had never scented it before. “Are you still there?” I asked in a loud voice. I soon felt like an idiot for talking to nothing.

I tried to track the scent, and it led me to the back exit of the warehouse. As I pushed through the door, I found a well-built but rugged wolf whose scent seemed to match that of the fur. He looked at me and growled. “Are you going to wait until they found you and kill you? Follow me.” He turned around and started walking towards the docks.

He was a complete stranger to me and it could be a trap. So obviously, I followed him.

## Embers

I looked around. Powerstar was already 2 minutes late. I thought he was the one who called the meeting. Why is he the only one who is late?

I looked around to see Powerstar’s usual allies, no one special. I would describe them but there’s no point in it. There was Atermis, Petal, and a few others I never bothered to talk to. I never understood why Powerstar bothered to have so many allies. Really, the only ally he needs is me, the police commissioner of SC City.

As I looked to the door, Powerstar finally arrived at the meeting. To be honest, the recent years hadn’t been good to him. He looked tired as he acknowledged all of us. He put his paw down to get out attention and started the meeting.

“There’s a wolf. He did… things. I need everyone focused on catching him. I don’t know how much he knows about our operations. He could endanger our operation.”

I didn’t see how this wolf could do any damage to us. “With all due respect Powerstar, I’m the police commissioner of the city. What can he do? Who’s powerful enough to endanger all of us?”
“You, fool. Do you know how many other groups would want to see our downfall? That wolf escaped with all of Feral’s information. He could leak the information to Dragon Clan or that Stormcloud’s gang. Or even worse… Cipher.”

The Cipher. The name rang in my head. No. It isn’t real. It can’t be. While I was thinking, Atermis spoke up. “The Court of Cipher isn’t real! It’s just a story made to scare insolent animals.”

“It’s real alright. I’ve met them before.” Powerstar dismissed Atermis. “All of you better be careful. Also, keep your eye out for the rogue wolf. Kill him on sight.” On that note, the meeting was over.

As I left, I could faintly hear one of Powerstar’s henchman whisper to another. “Court of Cipher. Are the rumors true? That they control everything outside of SC City?”
Ridiculous. Cipher was destroyed long ago. That wolf is as good as dead.

## Fenris

Stormcloud led me through the Docks. It looked horrible. Everyone in the streets veered away from him. Maybe out of fear, maybe out of hate.

His base of operations was very far away from Powerstar’s territory which made sense. It was unreasonable to set up your most important building near your most powerful enemy. The base of operations was a mediocrely sized building. It wasn’t really a house but it wasn’t a warehouse either. Kind of like a dock building.

Two wolves came towards us with sharp knives. They turned away when Stormcloud nodded at them. Must have been his sentry. He led me through the building and opened a large door.
Behind the door was probably a strategy room. Several wolves and foxes were gathered around a rectangular table. At the head of the table was a small wolf. Probably younger than I was. He was addressing all of the other animals in the room, even though most of them were twice his size.

Stormcloud howled to grab everyone’s attention. It worked. Everyone in the room was now looking at Stormcloud and me. Stormcloud turned to the small wolf and spoke in a very low voice. “Mike, could you explain… why you are sitting at my seat when I am very certainly still alive?”

The little wolf… sorry. Mike. Mike looked surprised. He immediately left the spot and walked away to another spot. He looked at me and spoke up. “Brother, why did you bring a stranger into our base of operations?” He looked at Stormcloud with doubt.

Stormcloud looked slightly annoyed. “I brought this stranger here because he saved my life. Something none of you could, or was willing to do.” He looked around and I saw everyone in the room drop their head in shame. Everyone except for Mike. He looked at me as if he wanted to kill me and left the room.

“Don’t worry. Mike is just angry that I’m not dead.” He told me casually as if it was normal for a wolf to want his brother to die. Then, it dawned upon me. That’s exactly what I did to my brother. I killed him.

I made up an excuse to leave the room, telling Stormcloud that I had a headache. He told me to rest in one of the rooms and so I walked down a hallway. When I reached one of the doors, I could hear faint talking in the room. I opened the door and found... Feral.
Feral. I killed him, didn’t I? He looked at me and growled. “You caused me a great deal of trouble.”

I answer. “You deserved it.”

“Did I really? I really tried to save you. Your misunderstandings are your own opinion. Do you have any evidence that I turned Powerstar against you?”

I didn’t have anything to reply. He is true but I’m not going to just back down. “Do you have any proof that you’re innocent?”

Feral looked annoyed. “That’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to help you.”

“How?”

“You’re the only wolf to escape Powerstar’s empire and survive. You have information vital to many organizations. For example, a very powerful secret society like, say… The Court of Cipher.”

Court of Cipher. I haven’t heard that name in a long time. Ever since I entered the real world. “Cipher. It’s that made up story isn’t it? The fictional organization that punishes bad animals. It’s not real.”

Feral still continues. “It’s real. I’ve seen it. Many of Powerstar’s most important followers were assassinated by them. Didn’t you hear about the murders?”

I had heard of the murders but never associated it with anything suspicious. “Okay fine, if I were to meet Cipher, what would I do?”

“I’ll update you later. For now, you might want to deal with your new friend of yours. Don’t trust him. He can be dangerous to the operation later on.”

I was about to protest when I found that Feral was gone. He had left without a trace.

## Embers

He was here. I know it. It reeks of his scent.

I came to the warehouse where Fenris was last spotted. Although there were no eye witnesses, many of my agents were able track Fenris down to the location. I came here to find more evidence about SC City’s Most Wanted Wolf but instead I found the traces of someone else.

Of course, it wasn’t easy getting all of the information. The thugs in Dragon Clan were difficult to negotiate with. Especially their leader Rayquaza. Still, they knew a lot about what happened and I managed to learn about their turf war against a group of thugs living at the Docks. If there was a turf war, there is certainly reason for a hitman to be involved. That other dragon in Dragon Clan, his name was… Deadwing? Anyways, I overheard that dragon talking about a hitman whom he often hired.

Lionheart. Supposedly the best hitman in SC City. I certainly didn’t expect to find him involved in this, but now, I can take down two enemies at once. This day just couldn’t get any better.

And besides, my feud with Lionheart is personal.