Fox Life

"Did you get hit by a car? Where have you been?" Kyro asked Gale when his friend actually called back a whole day late.     

"I wish. And I thought I made it clear that I don't want to interact with you anymore?"     

Kyro looked to the side, noticing that Iris was pretending to play with Lucy while listening in on him. He turned away to not give away that he knew her bad habits. "Don't tell me you went manic again and dropped somewhere in the corner. Who found you?"     

"Clearly not you," Gale answered with only a little venom in his voice, but Kyro still felt the jab. It was his task to make sure Gale didn't overwork himself to death when he went into one of his moods. "So how's your honeymoon going?"     

"If that's your attempt at changing the subject, it's horrible. What happened?"     

There was a moment of silence, and Kyro knew he was going to be rebuffed even before Gale said anything. "None of your business. Go explore your secret lab."     

"I will… Take care."     

"Just hurry up."     

When Kyro finished the call, he saw Iris staring at him without any pretense that she hadn't been listening. There was nervous excitement on her face, but her eyes were shining bright.     

Their light died, however, when they met up with Calvin, Gale's assistant. The man nodded to Kyro and led them into a building nearby. There was a large knight sculpture in its yard. It had been weathered by years, but could still be recognized for what it was.     

"Why do we have a guide into the place?" Iris asked quietly as they followed the man inside.     

Kyro could barely hold back his laugh. He had an idea what she had probably expected, but it was just too silly. "Did you really think we'd storm it ourselves?"     

She gave him a look that said he was being insensitive. Her cheeks colored a little then and she looked away. "How was I supposed to know… Who are these people anyway?"     

At the end of the hallway, there was an elevator guarded by a man in a black suit. He nodded at them and let them through.     

"Gale's men," Kyro answered. "They're his hands and ears. He sent them here to watch over you when I went back to the states."     

Which showed just what a bad friend Kyro was being. Gale had sent his most trusted force away from himself and received nothing but excuses in return. 'But I can't let Iris face everything alone. If I don't have time to be by her side when it matters, how could I call upon her when everything's over?'     

He squeezed her hand, and she looked over at him with a question, but since he said nothing, she turned around to examine their surroundings again. They had went down to the basement and were walking through stacks of boxes and package hospital machinery. They seemed to have reached a warehouse.     

"Why does he trust them? I thought he doesn't believe in anyone?"     

"He was in a gang once…" It was before the two of them had met, and Kyro didn't know all the details, but he knew enough to have a good picture of it. "He joined it around high school. It was fine at first, but his inborn ability to attract people to his side scared the leader and he called Gale out for a fight. They dueled and Gale used some underhanded method to win.     

"The gang was furious and called for his blood, but he talked his way out of it. I don't know how, but he ended up as their leader and that's why he's got so many contacts underground. The gang members aren't his friends, but they've sworn an oath to never betray him."     

Calvin slowed then and turned his head to smile at them. "That's not why Mr. Mosley trusts us. Oaths mean nothing to him. The reason we could never betray him is because he has our families."     

"What?" Iris asked in horror. "He's keeping them hostage?"     

"He could, if he wanted, but that's not how we see it. He raised us from the debts and thievery to respectable cogs in the society machine. Our parents are cared for, our siblings have found respectable jobs as did we, and my daughter just got accepted into a prestigious university. All of it was arranged by Mr. Mosley."     

"Is there anything he doesn't do?" Iris wondered aloud, looking quite amazed.     

"Have a life," Kyro said in an offhand manner.     

He had never considered it before, but he really paled when compared to his friend. Although he had achieved a lot and risen high, Gale left him in the dust in almost every aspect. There was a vast divide between their achievements and experiences.     

Iris looked over at him, a sparkle in her eyes. "Someone's jealous?" she asked with a tilt of her head.     

He rolled his eyes at her, but was glad to know that she hadn't gotten enticed by Gale's image. Kyro had never competed for women with him, but he didn't have good expectations for the outcome if he'd tried.     

They went down with another elevator and met with a woman armed to the teeth. Her brown hair was tied into a tight ponytail, which reminded Kyro of someone. "Sophie?"     

She grinned at him like a schoolgirl, and her image of professionalism shattered like a dropped glass. "Took you long enough," she said, motioning for them to follow her. "Long time no see. How did you manage to lure this girl in? I thought leader always stole all girls before they could even take a good look at you?"     

"Ignore her," Kyro told Iris, who was starting to look at him with mock pity. He then turned back to the armed woman. "And that's why it's been so long."     

"Touche."     

Sophie laughed again, and Kyro was reminded of how surprised he'd been years ago when he learned she was second-in-command in a gang. One could never tell from her cheerful personality and easy-going nature that she was anything but a normal girl with too much free time on her hands.     

They soon reached a computer and Sophie woke it up. "When we came to the place, it was already empty. They had cleaned everything, destroying what they couldn't take, but we've managed to recover some data. Take a look."     

While Kyro was listening to her, he heard Iris' sharp intake of air. He glanced at her, then at the screen, and understood her reaction.     

Old video footage ran before their eyes. It was in black and white, but it didn't mean that Kyro had any trouble recognizing the person he was seeing. It was a carbon copy of Iris, just male, and, he was screaming soundlessly behind bars. He thrashed around, hitting the bars, throwing himself against them, then the bed frame.     

In a few more seconds, however, a person in a white lab coat came with two beefy men also dressed in white. They opened the door to the youth's cell and grabbed him by the shoulders. He was thin as a reed and couldn't pose the slightest challenge, but they didn't seem to catch his attention. It was focused on the third person.     

The youth's expression morphed into a mask of animal terror upon seeing the man in the lab coat, but he couldn't get away. Locked in place, he screamed instead. Soon though, the man came to his side with a syringe and inserted it into his shoulder held still by one of the guards.     

The young man's eyes instantly began to droop. His struggle lessened, his body going slack. When he was fully knocked out, the two guards let go of him, and he crumbled to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.     

The group then turned to leave, but one of the guards didn't feel like it was quite enough. With spitefulness, he stopped and kicked the lying young man in the stomach, sending him skidding on the ground. The man in the lab coat looked back, but didn't say anything. All of them then filed out, and the other guard locked the cell behind them.