“I will never love again. It’s just too emotional and heart-breaking to take.”

      Ed let out a big sigh. It had been a year now since Mary’s tragic death, and he wasn’t taking it well. He missed her warmth, her smell, her looks, and most of all, her love. He vowed on that day that he’d never love another animal again. He’d met a lot of friends in his life as a Mercinary. Vixette Fulvain and StarVixen were two of them. He looked out of his window and stared outside. It was a sunny day, and the sun was warm to the touch. Then he heard the a/v monitor. “Sigh.... another mission.”
      Ed turned on the a/v monitor. A red vixen showed up on the screen. “Hey Ed, I need some help here. The Venomians are too strong and I need some backup. Plz hurry. I’m on Zoness!. Hurry!” then the a/v went staticy and then black. Ed rushed to his arwing. It was a custom-made one. It was no better than the Corneria arwings, but better than the greenies. It was the color of brown, which matched his brownish, grey fur and there was a long streak of black in the middle. Ed opened the canopy and drove off.
      He was going at the fastest speed possible, but knew that the fastest he’d get there would be 10 mins. Suddenly, a purple jet zoomed right in front of Ed’s jet. “HEY! Watch it there will ya?”
      “Well sooorrrry! Ok?” It was StarVixen, a beautiful Red Fox, with orangy fur. She always did wear purple no matter what, and always put on her shades. She had some black streaks on her hair, and wore shirts that showed her furry, white belly. Ed smiled. “Are ya gonna help Vixxete or just stare at the violets when we get there?”
      “HEY!” StarVixen shot at Ed’s jet jokinly. “Watch what your sayin Puffy!” Ed smiled. He did have a puffy tail, but StarVixen had an even puffier one, but she didn’t mind at all, even if people called her Puffy. Ed liked to call her Fuzzy. “So Fuzzy, u gonna kid around or are ya gonna help Vix?” StarVixen laughed and then said, “Race ya!” and they sped off towards Zoness.

      “I just love the color purple. I can never survive without it! Put down the color purple, and I’ll surely beat ya up!”

       Ed and StarVixen made it to Zoness. They then saw Vixette’s ship flying around dodging lasers. Then Ed’s comlink rang. “Hey! What took you so long Puffy? I’m getting creamed here, help me out.” Ed came into the dogfight, but then heard a lock on sound. His ship was being locked on! He turned around to see who it was, and it was Vixette! “See ya!” and she shot a nova bomb at Ed. Everything was a blur after that. His ship went down, and he sank into the murkey waters of Zoness. And everything went dark.

      “wha- where am i?” Ed thought. He got up, and lift up his head. He couldn’t move, because his body was numb at the time, and he saw Vixette, smiling evily at him. “Where’s StarVixen? Where is she?” Vixette laughed at the question. “Stupid, look beside you!” She gave a evil laugh, as Ed turned to his side. StarVixen too was on the ground, pawcuffed too. Ed looked back at Vixette. “Why’d you do this? I thought you were my friend.” Vixette just laughed, and then a figure appeared. He was a grey cyote, no older than Ed, nor anymore smaller. He had a bushy tail, with a long pointy snout. He sneered at Ed and kissed Vixette. His tail puffed up a bit and he looked at Ed again. “So your the grey wolf that Vix has been talkin about.” He spat on Ed and kick him in the face. Ed grunted in pain, but just stared at him. “My, my, the tough sort eh. Well we’ll see how tough you are after your tortured.”
      Ed shivered at the word. He’d been tortured once by Leon, but that was enough. He’d had extremely bad dreams after that and never got rid of them. He looked at StarVixen. She was scared, and tears shed out of her eyes. Ed felt pity for her. “Take them away guards!” hollered Kenny. The prisoners were dragged down to the cells. They stopped in front of a familiar cell. Ed looked up at the number. ‘238 eh?’ he thought. A tear dropped out of his eye as he watched the numbers, as Mary got shot and died. He shook his head, and the wolf and fox were pushed in.

      “Why’d I join Venom? I did it for love, and Cornerians are fools that they think they can win against a stronger power. Venom.”

      StarVixen broke down into tears. Her purple shirt matched her sadness, and she just wept. Ed held her in embrace to calm her down. He put his head on her shoulder and soothed her. Then a memory came to him. It was a warm, and fuzzy feeling. A thought came to him, it was like if he was holding Mary in his arms. The smell, warmth, and softness of her fur, had triggered a memory, almost lost in the depth of his mind. He shed a tear, and fell asleep in her arms, smiling.

      “Hey! Wait up!” Ed was chasing Mary in an open field. Mary was running away from him crying. Ed managed to catch up and grabbed her arm. He turned her around and asked, “What? What is it?” Her face was pale and she was breaking up. “I thought you loved me Puffy, but I was wrong. You love StarVixen. You dumped me! I HATE YOU ED!” Ed’s world was shattered into a milllion pieces. He felt as if his heart had been stabed over and over again. And then he woke up.
       He woke up all sweaty. He was panting and looked down at his lap. It was StarVixen lying in his lap asleep. Her fur was extremely soft and she looked cute asleep. She was still crying from teh incident yesterday, but she was mostly over it now. Then a familiar chamelion came to his cell. “Well, well, well. You Two-timer. First a wolf, now a fox?! My! How we change in such sort notice.” Leon stepped into the room and pulled Ed and woke up StarVixen. She woke up drowsed. “Wha-? What happened?” She looked up at the chamelion. “Who are you?”
       “My name is Leon Polaski, but just call me Leon. I’m your offical torturer, but today I’ll make an exception. I’m letting Kenny and Vixette taking over today, though I’d love to torture you, but I feel a little quesy today.” He smiled and showed they two animals to Kenny. ‘Great,’ Ed thought. ‘Now I’m gonna be tortured by a friend, and some evil, stupid cyote.’ He grumbled as he was pushed in front of Kenny. “I see you enjoyed your stay,” he said. “But enough with that. I hear that you and the girl are good fighters, and I’m gonna give you a chance. Join us, and you will not be hurt. Refuse, and you will not make it out alive.” He laughed evily. Ed remained silent. He wasn’t gonna give over to Venom. He promised Mary, and he was gonna keep it. “I’ll let you think about it on our way to the dungeon. Think about it.” Ed looked at StarVixen. She looked scared. Ed knew that she was gonna give in, but Ed wasn’t gonna give in that easy.
       The two animals were brought down into the dungeon. Ed remembered the stale, damp air. He could see black spider crawling here and there, and a continuing dripping of water. He shuddered as they walked down the steps, reminising the last time he came down here. “Now get over to that wall, so I can clamp you there.” Ed unhesetentlly moved over to the wall and raised his arms. The clamps were put on, and Ed awaited the torture. “So have ya made a decision?” asked Kenny.
      “No. I’m not gonna join,” said Ed.
      “Fine, have it your way.” The cyote smiled evily, and took out the mini-table saw. “Remember this? A beaut ain’t it?” He handed the saw to Vixette. “I’ll let her do the honors.” Vixette walked up to Ed and whispered in his ear. “I’ve always wanted to do this.” and she sawed into Ed’s arm. Ed grimaced in pain, but made only a grunting sound. He was not going to give in. Vixette smiled. “Let’s get on to the next one.” She took out a long black pole. “This is a electicfier. It stuns the enemy with 1000 Volts of electricity. Pretty high huh.” She put the pole against Ed’s body and turned it on. Ed howled in pain and when it turned off, his body collapsed. “So I’m gonna ask you one more time. Are you gonna join Venom?” There was silence for a moment, then Ed lift up his head. He looked at StarVixen, then a Vixette. He was going to hate what he was going to do. “Y-y......”

      “Is the value of dignity greater, or the value of animal life greater? They all seem so vaulable, yet we must choose one...”

     “Y-y...” but before he could finish, a flashback occured in his mind. It was Mary standing in front of him. They were about 15 now, and Mary asked, “Will you ever subside to Venom?” Ed looked at her puzzled. “What makes you think that?” Mary looked at him seriously. “I need to know. There may be a time when you are forced to...” Ed smiled. “Are ya kidding. I’d never join Venom on my life.”
      “Then promise me that.” Mary looked up. “And never, ever forget it.”
      “Sure.” was Ed’s only response.
     Then Ed was back into reality. “So? What’s your answer? YES or NO?” It was Vixette. Ed smirked at her. “Never.” Vixette was shocked at this. She took out a phaser-like tool, with a needle pointing out where the laser should have come out from. ‘Brain-Mess’ Ed thought to himself. “You will now pay the ultimate pushiment. First torture, then a slow painful death tomorrow at dawn.” Vixette laughed evily, as she placed the phaser-like tool in front of Ed’s eye. A blue light came into Ed’s eye, and it sort of stung his brain. After a minute, she took it out. “Sweet Dreams. MWAHAHAHA! Take him away guards.” Guards came running in and took Ed back into cell 238. He knew in a hour or so, he’d start getting more nightmares, so he fell into a long, deep sleep.”

      As Ed turned the corner to get to cell 238, he saw Mary. She was running down the hallway. She seemed to be running from something, but she was smiling. “Mary!” Ed called out, but he didn’t see what Mary was doing. She took out her phaser and said, “Good bye, Idiot!” and shot Ed down. Ed was shot in the heart, and Mary came over. “Good Night! FOREVER!” and she shot Ed in the head.
      Then another flashback. They were in High School when Ed noticed Mary talkin to someone. He went up to Mary. “Who’s that your talkin to?” Mary didn’t notice him. She was busy talkin to the boy. Then the boy turned around. “Who are you puffy-face?” Mary turned around with him. “Yeah! You good for nothing Shaggy-wolf. I’m with Matt now, so just go away.” Ed felt as if his heart was being stabbed costantly. A sour feeling came over him. Was this true. Mary dumped him? Then a final flashback. It was when Vixette and Ed first met. “Hiya.” she said. “I hear that your a mercinary. Wanna become friends?” Ed lifted his paw. “Sure.” but just as he lifted his paw, Vixette did the most unexpected thing. She punched Ed in the face, and took out her phaser. “See you in hell,” and she shot him. Then everything faded in front of Ed. He knew he was betrayed by his best friend...

      Ed woke up about instantly when the door to his cell opened. Was it Leon? he thought, but luckily it was StarVixen. Ed sighed in relief, but that ended as soon as she saw StarVixen’s worried, sad face. “HEY! What’s wrong Fuzzy?”
      “I’m not sure if I should join Andross... i’m still thinking about it...”
      “WHAT?! JOIN ANDROSS?! ARE U CRAZZY?”
      StarVixen gave a long, sad look. Ed sighed and looked away. “Do what you have to do. Just don’t regret what you do.” StarVix gave Ed a smile and left. As she left, Ed’s furry eyes filled with tears. He had lost his last friend.

      A few hours had passed and Ed could smell the foul odor of the dungeon cell. ‘well it’s almost time to be excuted. wippee! wahoo! i just lost two friends and have been tortured almost insane. now i’m gonna get killed. hoorah!’ Then a lizard came in. “Prisoner #3846208 it’s time to be executed. Any resistance will make this execution more painful.” Just then a loud boom was heard and some fox and hare came in. The guard turned to face them, only to be shot in the chest. “Use your lasers wisely,” said the old hare.
      “Can’t u ever shut up Peppy?” asked the fox.
      “Don’t look at me. Look up ahead.”
      “EEERRRGGGG! Just shut up!”
      Then a girl’s voice rung out. “AHHH! I’m hit! Help me out Fox!”
       “ERRRGGGG!” Fox grumbled. Well the Fox, Toad, and Hare somehow managed to get to Ed’s cell and finally the Fox spoke out. “Hey. Are you mercinary, Edward Lee?” he asked.
       “Yup.” Ed faintly replied, still hurt from the tortures and mentally from his loss.
       “General Pepper has ordered us to help you escape.” A laser shot by, just missing Slippy’s head. “AHH! Fox!”
       “I’ll explain later, just follow us.” Ed quietly obeyed and followed them out of Venom. Leaving behind his two best friends who had just turned on him...

      Later on Corneria, Ed was brought forth to General Pepper’s office. It wasn’t a really big office, but big enough to be a storage room. All the walls were bright white with a fan and lighting in the middle of the ceiling, and a brown desk lay in the middle of the room with one old dog in the middle. “I hear your a skilled fighter and a good hacker. Am I correct, mercinary?” Ed nodded. He wasn’t one of the best hackers in the world, but it was enough to at least get into Venom files and hack into other personal files of Corneria. He had once hacked into Pepper’s files and found out his pants did fall off once while he was inspecting some military unit. Ed tried not to laugh. “I may need your help in the near future, but I’m not so sure right now. Andross is keeping a biological weapon in his base, and it’s big enough to wipe out the whole Lylat system. This is where you come in. I need you to infiltrate that base and deactivate that warhead. It may be risky, but the whole galaxy depends on this single mission. If we fail, we may never get another chance. Are you willing to do it?” Pepper looked up at Ed’s fuzzy face. Ed thought it over awhile. He’d already been tortured twice, and lost three friends he could probably never replace. ‘ I’ll probably regret this but...’ Ed looked up at the old hound and said his answer. “I’ll do it. Just let me get some rest, ok?” The hound nodded and Ed left the office.
        Outside, Ed took a stroll in the park. He had to relax and try to forget his lost friends now. He looked up ahead and saw a female wolf pass by. She seemed familiar, but he wasn’t sure. As the wolf passed by, Ed could smell her perfume, similiar to the perfume on... hey! Ed turned around as the wolf passed him. Ed was stunned for a moment and stood there dazed... did she just wink at Ed???

*Note* This ends my second fanfic. Ok. ok. So Vixette was never a mean fox and StarVix would never ever join Venom, but this is a story, and if you ever want to include them in your story, or Mary and I, plz ask for their permission ok? I’m going to add one more fanfic that ends all this nonsense, so read on is all I can say. Did ya like this story? Email me at edward_lee@geocities.com and tell me what ya thought ok? CYA ^-^