Chapter Text
The next two days Wild couldn’t leave the house at all, the stress of knowing Glooms secret had made it harder for her to leave the house, his kits got taken….forcible removed from him and he couldn’t stop any of it. What if that…..happened to her family? What if somebody came in and took her siblings while she was away, she already had Unknown send her to jail with little effort, if whoever they were really wanted to do some damage then kidnapping was totally in the realm of possibility and that thought alone was crippling. She found herself awake with anxiety, she texted Caramel asking her to tell her when this whole thing was supposed to take place, it took a while but she got a message back from her.
[Caramel: its happening tonight]
That message alone caused a surge of panic within Wild, she didn’t expect it so soon.
[Storm: Tonight?!?
Caramel: Don’t worry, we got this, we aren’t going in blind we got a plan, calm down and go to bed. I’ll let you know when its over]
Wild didn’t want sleep, she couldn’t sleep and she felt stupid for doing this but she couldn’t take it. The bobcat got up and knocked on her parent’s door waking them up “Wild? Something wrong?” Coonluck meowed groggily, Juniper made a “mwah?” noise with squinted eyes “Can….I sleep in here tonight?” Wild was waaay too old for this but right now she couldn’t care less if her siblings judged her for it later, she didn’t want to be alone tonight “Oh uhm…yeah….” There bed wasn’t really big enough for another big cat….Wild wasn’t exactly a child anymore “Do you want to just, lay at the end of the bed?” Despite the lack of space he was trying to make it work, she just nodded and curled up at the end of the bed, her father got up and got her a blanket before he went back to bed. She placed her phone next to her, she would most likely stay awake the whole night but at least now she was with family.
She briefly looked at her phone seeing Caramels name flash on the screen briefly, the big she cat looked at her phone after she had finished sending her last text before everything went down. “Are you sure this is the right location?” Caramel looked at Gloom, he nodded his eyes determined. Breeze felt nervous and Piranha seemed to notice, he didn’t really want to be here but he practically got dragged out here by his sister, Burning and Aurora seemed to be focused on the guards around the building “Should we take them out or sneak in?” The bobcat wasn’t sure, Gloom signed ‘We sneak in’ but they were so in the dark that it was hard to see “Don’t worry we got a plan alright” everyone knew the plan but it sounded reckless and risky “I don’t like the plan” Burning meowed, others agreed with him but it was all they had. Gloom rummaged through the bag he brought, he took out many tasers out of his bag and passed them around, Breeze didn’t feel so confident with the device in his hands “Listen you got your thing right? Just use that” Piranha whispered real close to the blind cats ear so the others would have a hard time hearing him though Caramel managed to catch what he said anyways, she looked at him suspicious, had he given her brother something else to use? In this situation she didn’t mind it, just as long as her brother was as safe as possible. The dark grey tom nodded sticking the taser hesitantly in his pocket anyways, Gloom made the ‘it’s go time’ sign before he started making his way along the shrubbery line that hid there presence. The others followed until they could see the side door that was out of camera view, they would have to be stealthy due to the guard being kind of close.
Piranha boldly snuck out first, he was careful in his footing as he came to the door and started lock picking his way to victory, once he got it open he motioned for the others. He opened the door which was thankfully out of view once held open, Caramel looked at the guards position, she waited until he walked farther away before she guided Breeze across and through the door. The others came eventually they had to sync up there own timing but soon enough they all found themselves inside, they were in a side room that connected to a main one, to be honest there group was kid of too big to be doing a stealth mission but some of them refused to be left out of it, all in all it just made this more dangerous in Caramels mind.
Gloom looked at an image on the wall, he already knew the layout due to him gaining access to this places blueprints, the district didn’t mind giving him the layout of this place….after all its status is currently abandoned but it certainly didn’t look like this was the case. Gloom motioned for the others to pay attention ‘we split up, there’s two routes they could be hiding the kits in, it would be safer if we weren’t all together’ Caramel whispered to her brother what had been signed and the tom was automatically panicked, he didn’t like the thought of splitting up, this wasn’t Scooby doo, they could potentially be killed if they got caught.
“Me, Breeze, and Burning was it? will go one route, you guys go down the other” Piranha whispered, he wanted the large tom on his team if he was going to be split up anywhere. Caramel went to object but Aurora got in the way “Sounds good, if you find what we came for don’t hesitate, get out of this place and away to safety. We will meet up someplace or maybe we will just call eachother” Gloom nodded as if in agreement before he signed the directions on where the rooms the kits were possibly being held at were. Burning nodded and the directions, he would keep them in memory, afterwards the groups separated.
Burning, Breeze and Piranha went to the left. They ducked into random rooms to avoid the guards and camera’s view, they had a long was to go before they got to there destination, they kept eachother close during the whole situation, tension was high and this place looked like it was falling apart. There were holes in the walls and sharp pieces of metal sticking out of random places, yeah….this place defiantly gave abandoned vibes but the heavy foot traffic in such a place looked unnatural. Piranha dipped into a room, he was startled at the sight, several baby cribs were lined up in five rows “Okay this is seriously messed up” he whispered to the others once they were at his side, Breeze gave him a look but once the last guard past this room the group went about to searching each and every crib. All were empty except for one, a little tom with a burnt black pelt and Cheeto orange markings looking back at them “Is that one of the kids we are looking for?” Piranha whispered but Burning shook his head “No Glooms kits don’t look like this, he showed us a picture remember?” He whispered back, this whole place felt like an illegal operation, what were they doing with all these cribs? Were the kidnapping kits? Why? For what purpose? The tom looked at the clipboard attached to the crib, it had a money amount on it along with the name of the buyer, ah! A kit selling operation, they kidnap kits and then sell them to people who are desperate for children that are willing to buy one illegally. By the way this kit looked….he appeared to be well cared for “Well what we going to do with this one then?” The question hung in the air and Breeze….ended up not being able to help himself, he picked up the baby “We can’t just leave them here….i’m going to take them with us” Piranha gave him a look but gave no objections “Clipboard says its a boy but he’s got no name here” the black tom whispered which gave the blind one some pause “No name?….then I’m calling him Max” a simple name, he liked it “Max? More like Burnt Cheeto” Piranha said it rather playfully, something he was getting more comfortable doing. Breeze went to say something back but then Max smacked Breeze in the face with the rattle he had in his hand, he heard a “snrk” sound come from the black tom, he was trying not to laugh, Burning wasn’t really a fan of taking a random child but he smiled, he didn’t want to leave the little guy in this place either “We’ve been here too long, its obvious Glooms kits aren’t in our route so lets just take this little guy and make our escape, you know what Aurora said” Burning whispered carefully before the group went quiet, another guard passed by in the hallway, they haven’t gotten what they technically came for but if they stayed any longer then it was more likely a chance someone would come in here.
Breeze nodded in agreement “Yeah lets get out of here” he whispered before they all sneaked over to the door, the blind one listened carefully to the noises in the hallway, the footsteps were getting farther away “Now, lets go now” he whispered before he felt Piranha grip his arm, Breeze held onto the child as he was led out into the hallway, Burning was like there bodyguard…if this went south he would be the one to try to beat someone up. The black tom pulled Breeze into a side room, the group waited to see if the other guard would come walking down this hallway….they waited, they waited and waited a little more but then Breeze gave the all clear and they continued sneaking through this run down place.
Eventually they came to the outside, this felt like an equally tricky part, Burning kept an eye on the guard….he watched, waited, hearts pounded in there ears before the large tom ushered them forward and they ran to the safety of the bushes. Breeze paused to catch his breath but Piranha pulled him, forcing him to continue “Not here” he hissed sharply “We can’t rest here” he said it quietly. He was afraid the guard might hear them and go to check it out so he rushed his friend away, Burning followed closely until they were a few blocks away…only then would his friend allow him to rest “Geez….we nearly didn’t make it out of there! That place is crawling with guards!” Piranha paused before he looked at his friend “I thought we were honestly all going to be goners!” His relief was obvious, he looked at the kid “At least the twerp stayed quiet” Max looked at him grumpily “Max” Breeze said in a slightly scolding tone “And don’t call him twerp” his friends red eyes blinked before he sat up straight from where he sat “Woah your already attached to the little guy? Breeze come on you know you can’t keep it, this is someone’s missing baby!” Burning kept quiet but he agreed with Piranha’s statement “We don’t know that! I felt many cribs on the way in, somebody could have just sold him off to….whoever they are! And we can’t take him to an orphanage or these people might find him again and take him!” He argued as he held onto Max fur starting to spike “Those are all big if’s Breeze! If he’s someone missing baby then we could get in a lot of trouble!” The black tom was trying to make him see reason, the blind one growled “if thats the case then I will happily reunite him with his family but until then I’m keeping him got it?!” Nobody could change his mind about this, he had helped taken a life….he felt like he had to make up for it somehow but that wasn’t the only reason he wanted to keep Max.
Piranha was dumbfounded “I…..” he looked at Burning but the tom made a motion with his hands as if saying ‘I’m staying out of this’ he sighed, his red eyes took on a more gentle look “Alright, alright….just until we can find his parents” Breeze’s aggressive body language drastically changed, he relaxed putting his head on his friends shoulder “Thanks Piranha” he smiled softly while Max started playing with his rattle again “Yeah….whatever….don’t mention it” he was still trying to keep some of his tough guy attitude, he took notice of Burning’s expression though “What?” He said with a small hiss, was he judging them? “Ha….its nothing” he received a glare from the black tom “It doesn’t sound like nothing, spill it or I’ll make you” a growl, a not threatening one “Piranha don’t….” It was only a small ask but it was enough to make the tom settle down “Oh no really it’s nothing….its just that you two act like a married couple is all” Burnings words made both boys sit up fur spiked with surprise and embarrassment “NO WE DON’T!” Breeze squeaked loudly which earned him another smack on the head from Max’s rattle, the child looked at him all grumpy like. “YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW US ENOUGH TO SAY THAT!” Piranha’s claws were out and digging into the ground as he yelled at the bigger tom “Oh calm down, I don’t need to know you well enough to see it, I’m the kind of guy that gets those sort of things right” Burning gave a casual energy which only pissed off Piranha more “Yeah well YOUR’RE WRONG THIS TIME BUDDY!” All the yelling made Breeze’s ears ring, he whined catching the black toms attention “Ah geez sorry Breeze” he went quiet despite his hopping rage, he rather cuss Burning out right now but the dark grey tom was clearly distressed with his hearing and embarrassed taboot so he forced himself to be quiet.
After a while Breeze spoke back up “I want to go….” He didn’t want to be here anymore “Go where?” His friend asked “Home” the blind one replied but the black tom only shook his head “You think your family is going to be so welcoming of the new baby?” That gave great pause, Breeze’s family had enough mouths to feed and they had no spare cash to spend on a baby “It’s not that they wouldn’t be welcoming but…we can’t afford things” he whispered, he didn’t want to admit it “Then come over to my house” he looked at Burning “You know cause we’re FRIENDS” the bigger time rolled his eyes at the comment, geez he didn’t think his comment was that big of a deal. “I’m sure if I ask Mint for money she will most likely give it, shes just all for buying me things so its shouldn’t be a problem.” He didn’t know if Mint would be all for a baby being around but he could just lie and say it was his cousin or something “Your okay with me being there?” Neither boy has been to eachothers house, Breeze just wanted to be sure it was okay “Yeah I’m fine with it, lets just get going already, I want to get some sleep” he got up before he was suddenly handed the baby, he held him awkwardly while Breeze got up and realized how sore his arms were just from holding Max “carrying him for a bit okay? My arms are sore” Piranha looked at him like ‘you got to be kidding me’ with a big sigh he said “sure” before he readjusted how he was holding Max “follow me” he said it briefly before he just started walking, Breeze held onto Piranha’s jacket as they walked away from Burning.
The tom watched them leave before he looked the other way, his mind going back to Gloom and his group….they were still in there.
