The next few days of recovery were terribly dull for Luna. She’d been kicked off of Miguel’s comfortable bed and sent to the couch in the living room, the computer was off limits while he was ‘working’ (which was all the time), and television was as boring as it ever was. Even the pleasure of Miguel’s company was missed, because anytime he seemed to be coming in, he was grabbing something and immediately departing again.

The night’s hours were in the double digits as Luna sprawls out on the couch, her head turned towards the razor thin television. It wasn’t as nice as the one back at home, but it was plenty big enough and was made of a material that wouldn’t likely shatter on impact. All of the lights were off, letting the glow of the entertainment screen illuminate the apartment’s living room. Luna had it set to a local channel as there didn’t seem to be any extended programming available. Just before the next show started, Luna heard the telltale signs of Miguel returning home, the sound of his cybernetics and his shoes being easy to pick up on.

The door opens as Miguel steps into his home, Luna instantly improving her posture and turning to look back at him, her tail wagging subconsciously. Miguel seems quite pleased with himself, a grin forming over his mouth as he seems to be muttering in tones too quiet for Luna to hear. A small silver briefcase dangles from one of his hands, one that she’s never seen before and looked expensive. Luna starts to speak up as he approaches but Miguel passes right on past her, seemingly not even recognizing that she was there. He heads into the kitchen table and clicks on the light, opening up the briefcase with two clicks from the latches.

“Kenneth Dragon, you wonderful, wonderful man. Oooh-ho-ho-ho look at these…they’re perfect!”

Her curiosity piqued, Luna rises from the couch and starts to creep up behind Miguel, turning her head around him to look at the contents of the case. Soft black foam lines the contents of the case but she couldn’t determine anymore than that before Miguel slams the case shut. He turns to look towards the werewolf with suspicion.

“Is there something I can help you with?”

Luna’s ears lower a little bit as she looks upon her friend. “Uhm...well I was wondering what you were so happy about. What’s in the briefcase? Can I see?”

Miguel’s pleased mood vanishes entirely, replaced by a grim expression and a reigned in tone.

“It...it doesn’t concern you. They’re...they’re tools. For tonight.”

Luna’s ears heighten. “What’s going on tonight?”

Miguel tenses up and leans backwards a little bit from the werewolf, seemingly unwilling to answer.

Luna speaks again in a flat voice. “Mr. Morales...what’s going on tonight that’s so important that you won’t tell me or show me the ‘tools’ you picked up?”

More silence.

“You’ve been gone in and out all the time and you won’t tell me where you are going and the three seconds you are home, you just go onto the computer. I mean, I did that too all the time at...the other place but I was just playing video games. What are you doing?”

Miguel squeezes his eyes shut to avoid looking into Luna’s inquisitive ones, but eventually he takes a deep breath and exhales.

“I finally...finally have a lead. After all of these years.”

“Wh-what? Lead? On what?”

“On the bastard that killed my family.”

Luna goes quiet, lowering her eyes in sympathy. Miguel steps to the side and opens the briefcase, letting the werewolf see inside. Inside of the case was a multitude of gear, each one neatly arranged within it. The bulletproof vest was the most noticeable thing, with it taking up the most room. There were also four spheres Luna guessed were grenades of some variety, judging by the size. She turns to look up at him raised ears.

“So...what, are you planning on going to go...get him?”

Miguel takes out the vest and a pulls off his coat, laying it on the table next to the briefcase. He starts sliding the vest on over his head.

“Eventually, when I force him out of hiding. The reason why I’ve been in and out of the house so much is because, unlike the movies, good detective work is from putting in the time and putting your feet to the ground. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.”

He takes out the grenades and holds them split between both hands before gesturing that she follow him, which she does. The two head back into Miguel’s bedroom, which looked quite neat as compared to when she woke up in it. He goes to his closet and pulls out another, much larger briefcase and opens it up, looking over the contents.

“I’ve had a contact from a long, long time ago. Mick the Rat. Little fat son of a gun. More now than he had been before in those days. Managed to help him out of a sticky situation that would have had him dead.”

Miguel slips on two shoulder-strapped gun holsters, one over each arm and tightening them down. A closer eye proved that they were very similar in design, but one was larger than the other.

“Point of the story is, I helped him out but at the cost of becoming an informant. He helps oversee the books down at the docks. You know, who’s coming and who’s going? That kind of deal. Real handy in case some trash starts flowing in, people or otherwise.”

Miguel pulls out his magnum and inspects it for a moment before sliding it into the larger holster.

“I sent him a picture of the man I’m looking for. One Benny Scardino. Big time gangster in this town for years, decades even. Always one step ahead of the law with an alibi in his pocket and good lawyers at his back.”

Luna recognizes the name from the conversation they had when she woke up.

“Scardino? That’s the guy you asked me about right? Why would you ask me about him?”

Miguel sighs and slips his 9mm pistol into the smaller holster.

“Because...those guys..Scar...he’s not human. I don’t know what the hell he is, but him and his cronies move faster than humans and can eat bullets like candy. I figured one freak might know another...no offense.”

Luna rolls her eyes. “Right.”

Miguel shrugs in self defense. “Hey, I’m just telling you what I thought when I asked you that. It’s not how I feel about it anymore.”

He reaches back over towards his closet and grabs a dark blue jacket that looked fairly inconspicuous. Miguel slides it on with ease but upon opening the inside of the garment revealed a number of pockets and loops made for concealing weapons. He starts sliding the grenades in first, using the little clip on each one to secure them.

“Mick’s been keeping his eyes on the lookout for Scar and after a few years, he finally found his ass. He makes appearances only at night and near the warehouse owned by Vyers Shipping Company. Funny thing is that no matter how hard I look, nobody seems to know anything about this company. They don’t have a website, a physical address, a phone number, nothin. It’s like it doesn’t exist.”

Miguel graduates to sliding in a clip of ammunition for both guns in either side of his jacket. Luna speaks up now, holding up a questioning finger.

“So..uh...what...are you going to go down there and do exactly? Blow everyone up?”

Miguel puts on a belt that has a knife holster in it and turns shrugs lightly.

“If I have to I guess. I plan on going down and finding out what it is they do and what it is they ship. If I find contraband...well, it’s why I brought explosives. So in short?”

Miguel pulls out a rather large combat knife from the case and shuts it. He sheathes it in the side holster.

“Detective work.”

Luna blinks as the entire conversation seemed to have been properly downloaded and she shakes her head profusely. “Wai-wai-wait what!? H-hang on, that sounds super risky! Won’t those places have like, cameras or something?”

“Weirdly…” Miguel says, closing up his jacket. “...that one doesn’t have any cameras in it. Didn’t want them.”

“What about innocents?”

Miguel frowns as the werewolf doubts him. “Nobody at that warehouse is innocent.”

“What about calling the police or something? There has to be people to take care of this!”

Miguel’s voice grows cold. “Don’t you get it kid? I quit the force because they covered up the whole damn thing. Apparently getting grazed by a few bullets in the arm requires getting Cybernetics in my legs, according to them. They’re corrupt. I tried doing this the right way. And now I’m doing this my way.”

Luna panics as Miguel pushes past her and starts to leave. Looking down at her fuzzy self, she gathers her wits and calls out after him.

“Let me come! I can help!”

Miguel turns a side long glance towards her and speaks very firmly.

“No.”

“But why? It really sounds like you could use it!”

Miguel enters the living room and steps towards the door.

“This is my fight kid. Just mine. Not yours.”

Luna enters the living room after him, her voice growing increasingly more worried. “That’s just the thing though, I don’t want you getting hurt either. You helped me. You...saved me. What happens if you die down there?”

Miguel reaches the door, grasping the knob. “...Then I die.”

Luna stops a few feet behind Miguel, still talking to his back and standing straight up.

“Why are you being so stupid about this? Why won’t you let me help you?” Luna pleads. “From what it sounds like, these guys aren’t normal. I don’t know what I’ll do if you don’t come back.”

Miguel’s back trembles as his emotions get the better of him, turning his back against the door and running a hand through his hair in grief.

“Because I don’t want someone else getting hurt because of me. Look I...I lost everything due to my job. Everything! I lost my family, the house I saved for years for...I even lost half of my damn body. Every day I wake up alone, it reminds me of what I used to have. Every morning I’d wake up and Maria would already be making breakfast. I’d go and get my little Sophia and get her ready for school. Then we’d all get together and eat as a family.”

Tears start to flow down his face, his voice wavering. “I miss them so much.”

Luna watches him and goes quiet, her ears and tail going limp in empathy.

“And there are days...there are days where I would just sit in bed and wonder why I survived that night. How much simpler it would have been if they just put a bullet straight between my eyes and called it done. Just another mess for the city to clean up. But I’m still here. Patched back together like some modern day Frankenstein. Still living. Still breathing. And missing my family every single second of every single day.”

Miguel’s resolve strengthens and he looks directly at Luna, stepping towards her and grabbing her by the shoulders.

“But those assholes...wanted to see me suffer. Nobody needed to see what I saw that night. And all because I was just doing my JOB. The entire time I was recovering, I was planning. When I got my arm first, I started making phone calls and using the computer, following the tiniest shred of a lead I had. When I got my legs and learned how to walk, I started visiting people. I walked the beat. Cyberization is supposed to take eight years calibrate properly. Eight, long, excruciating years as they attach nerve endings to the synapses in the limbs, Luna. I did it in five.”

Luna gulps at the intensity of the conversation, nodding a few times in understanding. Miguel drops her shoulders, taking a few steps away and seemingly calming himself.

“So when I say that this is my fight, this is why. When I say that I will do what I have to, that is why. And when you ask me if I’m worried about dying, I tell you that I don’t care.”

Luna awkwardly raises a hand to grasp at her shoulder, scratching the fur on it. She searches for the right words to say and eventually lands on a conversation she had very recently.

“...I care.”

Miguel looks up towards the werewolf in surprise.

“I do care if you die. I know it’s going to be dangerous and you might get hurt...or worse, but I’m coming with you. How am I supposed to feel if you walk down there and get killed, knowing full well that I could have done...something! Anything! Hell, how would I even know? You’d just never come back and I’d just be stuck wondering and then I’d have to try to find some place else to live.” Luna chuckles towards herself, shaking her head.

“And I don’t know if you’ve looked at me recently but the chances of me going off and renting an apartment on my own are pretty slim...”

The beginnings of a warm smile tug themselves into existence on Miguel’s face.

Luna’s tone lightens. “So don’t worry about me getting hurt. I’ve got like, crazy healing powers or something. We’ll figure something out, okay?”

Luna walks forward and scoops Miguel up into a soft hug, which finally warms Miguel up enough to smile earnestly. He returns the hug and just holds her for a moment before pushing a finger up to her soft black nose.

“Alright then La Loba, I’ll let you go with me if you promise me three things.”

Luna looks up at him with wide crossed eyes.

“One…”

Miguel holds up a single finger. “You follow my command without exception. Two…”

He holds up another finger. “That I can trust you...and three…”

The final finger goes up. “That you are in this for the long haul. I don’t know how long it’ll take to get this jackass out in the open but we’ll have to keep hitting him in his pocketbook until he shows. Do you promise? If you break any of these, your butt stays home. Permanently. No begging or pleading. Got it?”

Luna’s eyes look down for a moment before she nods, her tail wagging softly.

Miguel nods back and breaks the hug, holding up a finger again. “Then let me get you something that will help.”

He walks around the werewolf and heads back into his bedroom, disappearing around the corner. From there Luna could hear the shuffling of boxes as Miguel searches. Finally, he returns with a small black rectangular device with a speaker on it. Miguel hands it to Luna while pulling out a correspondingly colored ear piece for himself.

Luna inspects it, finding an off switch and a small red button. “What the heck is this thing?”

“A secure band walkie talkie. When the force switched off of these, they had an auction. I bought a set. I’d explain how to use it but it’s kind of self explanatory.”

Luna sniffs at it for a moment before sliding it into her sweat pants pocket.

Miguel walks around Luna again and leans on the door. “Now, go get dressed. We’re going to smoke us out a criminal.”

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Unlike the rest of the city, which slows down at night and is most active during the day, the docks were always a hive of activity. The sounds of night owls taking up the graveyard shift is common, as flood lights kept the bay well lit and the shipping cranes kept the cargo going. As a result, the western part of the city is quite noisy. The surrounding neighborhoods were tone-deaf by now but it would still be jarring for any visitor who dared subject their ears to it.

Luna very rarely if ever came to this side of the city, so when her and Miguel pull into an alleyway adjacent to the docks, her fingers were shoved into her ears to lessen the noise. It wasn’t reaching nerve wracking levels for her hearing, but trying to pick up on distant conversations would be impossible. Miguel steps out of his SUV and motions for Luna to follow him. Luna steps out of the car when prompted, but while Miguel almost blended into the shadows, Luna’s large, pale pink hoodie weren’t going to make this any easier.

The alleyway itself isn’t unlike others of it’s type; cramped, dim and filled with dumpsters or other things nobody desired. The snowfall had also eased up, giving the pair a clear night with wet clingy snow on the ground to work with. The two walk a short distance to the back of the apartment building nearest to the storage warehouses of the docks, Miguel grunting in annoyance as the fire escape seemed to be pulled up this evening. He gestures towards Luna and speaks quietly.

“Hey. You think you can get that down?”

Luna looks up and judges the distance visually. To be legitimately honest, she had no idea. She could suplex a bear but how high she could jump was beyond her. Luna crouches to gain strength and then pushes off of the ground in a mighty leap, accidentally flying about dozen feet into the air. She easily gets enough height to grab onto the side of the fire escape grating and severely rattles it while steadying herself. Luna freezes in place as the sound eventually passes and no windows adjacent to the escape lit up. She slowly slides into the metal stairs and heads down a few flights to get to the lowest one. The werewolf then starts pressing a foot down on the stairway to the ground, but the sudden shift in gravity sends her down the stairs instead. She sliding over the tops of each one until she hits the snow-covered alley, head first. She passes a playful grin towards Miguel, her tail wagging in sheer embarrassment.

Miguel sighs and facepalms hard enough to smear his facial features, shaking his head.

“Hey now,” Luna says, picking herself off of the ground and keeping a foot pressed on the stairs to keep low enough to access. “Let’s see you try to get used to a brand new body in a short period of time.”

Miguel slowly raises a brow in response to that, the male crossing his arms over his chest.

Luna takes a moment to realize the ramifications of what she just said, the werewolf curling her muzzle into a sheepish smile. She gestures towards the ladder in a fashion similar to a girl showing off a car. “Hehehe...after you. Heh.”

Miguel rolls his eyes and sneaks in a good natured pat on Luna’s head before he heads up the fire escape with Luna heading up behind him. After carefully letting the stairs back up, the two shimmy quietly up to the roof, which, outside of a few chugging air conditioning units and a ton of snow, seemed quite barren. The pair slink over towards the corner facing the warehouses and Miguel pulls out a pair of binoculars, crouching next to the brick parapet. Luna looks between him and the warehouse he appeared to be looking at with a curious expression.

Miguel points his finger out towards a specific warehouse after a small search. “There’s the one. You see the one with the ‘V’ insignia on it?”

Miguel passes the binoculars to the side to let Luna take a look for herself. It takes a few adjustments, but she eventually spots the target: On the sides of several trucks and on the warehouse itself was the symbol of a V, offset to the side and having a circle painted around it. There were a few workers there who were hauling big wooden containers that looked like they might be a little awkwardly large for a regular dockhand to be hauling alone. The warehouse also had a small parking lot next to it and a chain link fence around the perimeter, preventing intruders from sneaking in easily.

“Yeah...I see it. It just looks like a regular warehouse to me. Bunch of people moving stuff...Hold on…”

Pulling up at the vehicular entrance for the warehouse is a figure riding a sports motorcycle. They’re wearing black riding leathers and blue jeans, boots and a sleek motorcycle helmet, but oddly seemed to be sporting a katana on their hip. They roll in through the sliding chain link fence and park in the parking lot.

“Somebody with a sword just showed up. Like a katana or something.” Luna says, passing the binoculars back to Miguel.

Miguel takes a look for himself and nods and then looks around towards the exterior of the building, making mental notes. “I’ll need to grab some tools from the back of my car, but I think I see an entry way. Luna?”

Miguel passes the binoculars back over towards her before pushing himself up and sliding his ear piece in. Luna looks up towards him as he stands, seeming attentive.

“You are going to be my eyes and ears kid. Tell me what you see out here. The idea is for me to find the office, find out some shipping info and if it’s clean, then...damn, I guess we leave. But...if it’s contraband…I guess we’ve got some fireworks for that.”

Luna blinks a few times and nods quickly. “That...sounds easy enough. But what if you get in trouble?”

Miguel doesn’t answer, deciding to walk off the roof and make his way down the fire escape.

Luna sighs and brings the binoculars back up to her eyes, watching the warehouse like a hawk.