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    THUD!!



    Vanessa wakes up to this sound, sleepily looking to the side of the bed where her husband should be. But instead of seeing the orange and white fluff of his head, she saw the white of a pillow and the beige of the sheets. Her maw’s smile turns to a frown as she blinks thrice, making sure she was not imagining her mate’s absence. Concerned, she scrambles out of the bed and walks around to the other side. The orange and white humanoid fox, known as Ulti, is lying there, sprawled on the floor, a thick red liquid coming out of his forehead.



    “U-Ulti!” yells Vanessa as she rushes to him, realizing what has happened. She takes some of the sheets off of the bed and applies them to his wound. She leaves him like that, unconscious, while she rushes to the First-Aid kit and brings it back. She unwraps the sheets from the wound and applies the disinfectant with a cotton ball before wrapping it in bandages, saying to him, “You’d better be glad my mother taught me nursing stuff.”



    After tightening the bandages and giving him a sweet kiss on the wound, she uses her extra adrenaline to lift him back up onto the bed. She gently strokes his hair a bit. In his not-so-peaceful slumber, he mumbles, “Connect capacitor to main valve. Pour atomic mixture B in slot C and turn secondary valve four cycles counterclockwise. Put matter A into glass canister and insert into master mixture…”



    This murmuring keeps on the rest of the night. Vanessa keeps by Ulti’s side, until his chattering stops and he springs into a sitting position on the bed, yelling out, “I’ve got it!” Vanessa shushes her love and she gently pushes him back down into the bed. “You don’t want to wake Autumn, do you?” she asks with a smirk on her face.



    Ulti’s ears droop as he lies back on his pillow, remembering to keep quiet. “Sorry, love, “ he whispers, “I just had an idea…” Soon, there was a light knock on the bedroom door. Vanessa gets up from her seat on the bed next to Ulti and opens the door a crack. After peeking through, she opens the door all the way. A little grey wolf girl with red and white stripes flowing vertically on her arms was standing there in H2O molecule pajamas, rubbing her eye with her right hand and holding a plushie fox in her other. “Mommy? I heard yelling,” she says, sleepily.



    Vanessa smiles and picks her up with a bit of a grunt, her adrenaline now gone, and says, “Don’t worry, Autumn. Daddy just fell out of bed.” Autumn giggles and snuggles her plushie, saying, “Silly daddy.”



    “Yeah, silly me,” Ulti says, rubbing his forehead a little. He bites his lip to keep from groaning since the touch sent pain through his nerves. He wanted to remain strong for the two women in his life that he couldn’t live without. His wife and his daughter. As Vanessa notices a bit of a pained expression on her mate’s face, she looks at Autumn, saying, “Come on, let’s get you back to bed. It’s still dark out.”



    “Okay, mommy,” the wolf cub says as she is carried back to her room by her mother. ‘She is getting to be such a big girl. She’s gonna grow up to do great things, I just know it.’ Ulti thinks to himself as he watches them walk out. He happily sighs as his ears pick up the faint humming of a lullaby coming from just down the hall of the house. It isn’t long before the red and brown wolf he loved came back into the room and sat next to him on the bed. “Such a lovely little girl we’ve made…” she says, “Don’t go getting yourself killed over one of your crazy experiments. You’ve come close to it, before, and I worry about you.”



    Ulti frowns a little and rubs his head, again, saying, “I know, love. But it’s what got us the money to raise our daughter. I don’t like to take risks. You know that. I take every safety precaution I can.” He sits up, slower this time, looking into Vanessa’s eyes as he says, “Besides, I think this is the one. This is my grandest one yet, if it works. It-“



    “And what if it doesn’t work, Ulti?” Vanessa asks sternly, a frown upon her face, “What if you die? How am I supposed to explain that to Autumn? She’s only seven. She’s going into the Second grade, next Fall. Do you want to run the risk of her not being able to hug her father when she gets an award or not have you there to teach her how to drive? Think, Ulti. Use your heart, not your brain.”



    All while he listens to this, Ulti’s ears droop and his face shows his obvious sadness. “You’re right,” he says, “My duties as father come first. You two are the world to me.” He moves forward a little pressing a soft kiss onto his wife’s lips. Vanessa murrs and leans into it a little until Ulti breaks the kiss, holding his head in slight pain. “Ugh… Maybe not now, love,” he says.



    Vanessa smirks and nods. “You should have some rest, too. The opening of that bar and grill of yours is at Noon,” she says, resting her head on his chest, where it didn’t hurt him. With this, Ulti smiles and leans back onto his pillow, stroking Vanessa’s hair until he drifts into his dreams, again.



    It doesn’t seem long before the alarm clock blares it’s ugly sound and Ulti finds himself smacking it off of the nightstand, only to have it land on the floor, still beeping. “Geez…” he groans as he’s forced to get out of the bed to shut it off. As he walks halfway across the room to pick it up, Vanessa sits up and yawns, saying, “Good morning, my clever fox. Ready for your grand opening?”



    Ulti groans a little and replies, “Error four-oh-four. Coffee not found…” After placing the silenced alarm clock back on the nightstand, he slips a fresh pair of jeans over his briefs and walks out the door and down the hall, going to the kitchen. He moves quite sluggishly as he puts some coffee grounds and water into the coffee maker and sets it to brew. While it does so, he opens the refrigerator and brings out the milk jug.



    By the time he’s filled his bowl with milk and some Cheerios from the pantry, the coffee is done brewing and Ulti pours two cups, one with cream and sugar and the other one straight black. Leaving the cream and sugar one on the opposite side of the table as him, he sits down to have his basic breakfast. His brain was still cranking up, as he certainly wasn’t a morning person. He didn’t even feel the lump on his head from his fall.



    Vanessa calmly walks in wearing a nice dress, smiling at her husband. She sits down across from him and takes the second cup of coffee. “So?” she asks her mate, “Do I look presentable for the ceremony?”



    Ulti, having just gained higher brain function due to the morning miracle brew known as coffee, smiles at his lovely wife. “You look beautiful, love, as always. But you may be overdressing for this. You know I’m going in my favorite t-shirt and these jeans. It’s not that special.”



    Vanessa smirks as she takes a sip of her coffee, and then says, “Well it’s special to me. You’ll be making a living off of something not as dangerous.” She slowly sets her cup down and stares into his azure eyes. “I love you, Ulti. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”



    The fox looks right back at her, swallowing a mouthful of cereal. “I promise, dear,” he says reassuringly, “I’m not gonna do anything stupid. I’ll be around.” He leans forward over the table to give her a peck on the cheek before going on with his morning routine. Take a shower, brush teeth, forget to comb his hair, et cetera. Meanwhile, Vanessa was busy waking up Autumn. The sleepy wolf cub was eating a breakfast of cheesy grits and a glass of orange juice by the time he was done.



    Ulti smiles at her and scratches her on the head before she looks up at him with her cute blue eyes and says, “Big day, daddy?” The fox chuckles and kisses his daughter lightly on her forehead before saying, “Yes, sweetheart. Today is a big day.”



    The cub giggles as she watches her father strap his satchel over his shoulder and head for the door. Vanessa meets him at the door, putting her hands on his shoulders and pressuring a sweet kiss onto his lips that was meant to keep him from leaving for a while. It worked. At least until they heard Autumn whine, “Mooom! Daaad! Do you have to do that in front of me?!” Both fox and wolf break the kiss, smiling at Autumn. Ulti smirks at her, saying, “You’ll be doing the same thing when you get older.”



    Autumn pouts and mumbles something to herself as she goes back to her room. Back by the door, Vanessa looks back to her fox and says, “Good luck, darling. I’ll be there with Autumn at around eleven so we can be ready for the opening.”



    Ulti nods and gives her a peck on the nose. “And I’ll see you then. It’ll be ready,” he says before he opens the door and walks out. He stands on the porch and takes a breath of fresh air before getting into his truck. He cranks up the truck and heads off, smiling as he looks at Vanessa waving to him in his rearview mirror.



    He was headed to the old bar he’d purchased with his patent money two years prior. It was a fixer-upper, for sure. But with a main bar, a second story for whatever use, and a basement. He’d spent a lot of time in the past two years fixing up that old bar.



    As he rode through the countryside, he has an idea. ‘I know! Why not give the place a signature drink? Something one could only be found at my bar and grill?’ he thinks to himself. And why not? He had Master’s Degrees in most science and engineering courses offered at his college. Plus, he’d studied up on brewery techniques while fixing up the bar.



    He had planned to make a few stops on the way there. Collecting things like streamers and balloons. Something to make it’s opening nice. But now he had a couple more stops to make to get what he needed. The farmer’s market, the hardware store, and the machinery shop were added to his stops.



    The hardware store was up first, since it was on the way to the market. A quick stop, though. He only needed to pick up some copper piping and such. Then it was off to the farmer’s market. If he was going to brew his own drink, he was going to need some grain, some hops, and a few other ingredients.



    ‘May as well get some fresh meats and all for the opening, while I’m here.’ He thinks as he pulls into the parking lot near the market. After locking his truck, he heads out into the somewhat busy market. There were humans and anthros, alike. All people going about their business, some selling things, others buying, most were just browsing through. As he looks closely at a produce stand, he hears a familiar female voice coming from behind him, saying, “Fancy meeting you here, Stripes.”



    Ulti chuckles as he turns around to face the fox behind him. The vixen was wearing a shirt that showed her midriff and a pair of skinny jeans. Some cyan swirls and spirals are seen on her orange and white belly and waist. As he sees her, he smiles. “I didn’t expect to see you today until the opening ceremony, Spirals,” he says, then asks, “What brings you here, Sam? Business?”



    Sam nods, smirking at the fox in front of her. “You are correct. The cops have a suspect in their theft case. You know, the one on the news about the guy who keeps stealing from here. But they don’t have enough evidence for an arrest, so that’s why I’m here.”



    Ulti lightly chuckles and looks around. “Well then. Are you going to be there for the ceremony, later?” he asks her. She laughs and replies, “Of course I am. Even though we’ve messed with each other all our lives, you’re still my brother. This is a big thing for you. Plus, you did tell me that first round was going to be free to celebrate, so you know I’m not gonna miss that.”



    “That’s the Samantha I know. Always willing to take advantage of someone,” says Ulti towards his sister. “Oh, you know me. I take what I can,” she replies before looking towards one of the stands and raising a brow. She looks back at Ulti real quick and says, “Sorry to cut this reunion short, but I have a job to do. Seeya at the celebrations!” She then rushes off towards where she was looking, leaving Ulti to finish his shopping.



    After he finishes buying what he needs, Ulti heads over to the party store to pick up the celebration supplies, then goes to his last stop, the machinery shop. At the machinery shop, he purchased several different machines, such as a winch, a boiler, a generator, and a few tanks. Once it was all loaded onto the truck, to the surprise of the workers there, he was off, again, and soon arrived at the old bar.



    The real trick was getting those machines down to the basement, but due to some clever ideas and a strong back, they went down in just fine. The basement looked like a cross between a storage closet and a mad scientist lab. Machine parts and chemical cabinets were all set up along with crates of different things. It was where he had conducted some of his science experiments and built some of his inventions.



    Ulti chuckles, looking at the place, before he starts working on building a makeshift brewery. As he starts taking apart some of the machines and improvising, his head wound starts to hurt him. It was still wrapped in bandages. He’s surprised nobody had asked him about it. Though he did work a dangerous job. As soon as he touches the wound, he goes into a kind of trance state.



    During this, the words he was mumbling in his unconscious state flow through his head and jumble together with the procedures for making a brewery. This causes him to use some of his machine parts and his brewery parts to make some kind of large machine. It had a fermenter, a heat exchanger, a mash tun, and a copper, but it also had glass canisters, various slots, lots of piping and wiring, and a spare supercomputer he had lying around.



    He puts various chemical mixtures in with the barley and hops and sugars, all through either the mash tun or the slots and canisters. It wasn’t until he flipped the I/O switch to the “ON” position and the low hum of the machine sounded that he snapped out of his trance state and heard Wipeout by Noisestorm coming from his pants. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone so he can answer it, saying, “Hello?”



    Vanessa’s voice moves out of the phone and into his ear, saying, “Where are you?! It’s quarter ‘til one, the door is locked, a lot of people are waiting, and I’m getting worried!”



    “Quarter ‘til one! Jeez! I’ll be right up!” he says just before hanging up and rushing up the stairs, not paying any attention to what he just created. He runs to the door and unlocks it before heading outside, only to see a lot of people out there; his wife, his daughter, and his sister stand there in front. As he sees them, he says, “I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you waiting.”



    Sam slaps him across the face, and then says, “You had us worried! I was about to break in there and find out where you were!” As Ulti rubs his cheek, Vanessa hugs him. “Alright, alright… Let’s all just get inside. I had something big planned with balloons and flowers and streamers. I even had a banner printed…”



    With this, Vanessa lets him go, giving him a little peck, and he opens the door up so people can come in. It wasn’t as full as he was expecting, as some of the people that had originally arrived for the Noon opening had already left. This wasn’t so bad, though, as he could deal with a smaller amount of customers, easier. Though all the while, something was bothering him. His ears were twitching, picking up faint sounds; steam, a screw imbedding itself in the basement wall, bubbling liquids, creaking metal.



    He knew something was wrong, but people kept him busy enough that he couldn’t go check it out. It was only until he heard a crackle and a pin drop over the crowd that he couldn’t take it, anymore. He passed by several people wanting service like they weren’t there, but he was so focused on one thing that they didn’t bother. He was on a mission to find the problem.



    By the time he reaches the basement, the crackles are louder, but also drowned out by the sound of pressure escaping. He opens the door only to find the basement on fire, the machine giving off a cranky noise as it releases pressure built up from something inside. Ulti jumps through the flames to reach the machine, trying to shut it off by way of the I/O switch. Nothing was happening. The fermenting tank seems to pulse as a couple of pipes release some kind of gas other than steam and the bluish liquid inside one of the glass canisters drains into the tank. The super computer seems like it’s having a hard time processing whatever it is trying to process and just gives out entirely, catching fire as well from overheating.



    Just as soon as the supercomputer dies, the fermenting tank groans and the metal bends outwards. It lets out a large, blue pulse that sends Ulti flying and crashing against the far wall, screaming. As he gets back up, holding his shoulder where it hit the wall, the fermenting tank sends some smaller pulses through the air that knock over chemical bottles and break beakers and glasses. Ulti makes his way along the wall, away from the fire, going towards the stairway.



    He could hear a lot of screaming and panicking coming from up the stairs. The people had seen the smoke coming from the basement and were evacuating. Some people were on the second floor, checking it out, including Vanessa and Autumn. They hid in a room, not knowing what was going on.



    As Ulti nears the stairway, he could hear footsteps, along with the voice of his sister screaming, “Ulti! Ulti, were are you?!” Following the voice he starts up the stairs, only to have both him and his sister knocked over by a stronger pulse than before. This one ripped the metal right off the fermenting tank, revealing a large sphere of strange, blue matter inside, pulsing slowly. “U-Ulti… W-what is that?” Sam asks, quite scared, as she points to it while standing back up.



    “Nothing good! Get out of here!” Ulti yells, looking between the pulsating orb and his sister. Sam doesn’t have to be told twice as she stumbles up the stairs, followed by Ulti, himself.



    They both make it outside quickly and catch their breath. As he does, he looks around to the crowd of people outside, looking for someone in particular. Sam can tell who he was looking for and does a scan of the people, as well. “I don’t see Vanessa or Autumn!” yells Ulti. Sam, looking around and shaking her head, says, “I don’t see them, either! They must still be inside! We’ll have to wait for the fi-“



    “Screw that!” Ulti shouts as he busts the door open and heads inside, again. Sam tries to stop him, attempting to go in after him, but onlookers hold her back. The pulses from the orb are strong enough to shake the building now and the fire has spread up the stairs and to the bar counter. Ulti stumbles across the floor, trying not to get knocked over again, as he bumps into toppled chairs and tables on fire.



    He makes it to the stairway just as another large pulse sends him up and into a wall, flopping about like a ragdoll. This barely hinders him, as he takes the moment of stability after a pulse like that to get back up and go up the stairs. He begins searching the rooms, finding a man and a woman picking themselves up from the last blast in one of them. “Get out of here! It’s not safe!” Ulti yells over the crackle of fire down below as he motions them out, “Evacuate the building!”



    As they do so, managing to get out safely, Ulti moves to the next room. Before he has a chance to search it, another large pulse pushes him into the air a little. He immediately hears the sound of wood breaking and crashing to the floor below, followed by the scream of a little girl. The fox, quick and agile, rushes towards where he hears the sound, jumping over a rather large gap in the floor that was caused by the damaging pulses.



    “Autumn! Vanessa!” he yells at the top of his lungs, hoping to get a response to tell him where they were. He didn’t need one, though. In one of the larger rooms, there was a huge hole in the floor, leaving almost no room to stand. Below was not only the fiery pit of the lower floors, but the blue orb itself. Autumn was right behind Vanessa’s legs, back against the wall, on one of the only remaining pieces of the floor. She was crying and holding onto her mother’s legs.



    “Thank God, you’re alright!” Ulti yells over to Vanessa and Autumn, “We’ll find a way out of this! Erm… All we have to do is-“ He’s cut off by another pulse from the orb. While he manages to catch himself on the doorframe, Vanessa has nothing to hold on to and falls. She is only saved by a part of her dress getting caught on a metal pipe that was protruding from where the floor used to be. This gave her enough time to react quickly from adrenaline and grab the pipe before the dress ripped much more. This gave her some time, but she was still holding on for her life. Autumn manages to stay on the piece of floor since she is smaller.



    Ulti’s face turns fearful when he sees his wife dangling right above the orb. His fear is only worsened when a smaller pulse rolls a stool off of the floor below and into the basement. The stool lands on the orb and is instantly disintegrated. But upon hearing screams of the two wolves he loved, he steps back a few steps and his adrenaline kicks in.



    With a running start, he jumps off into the hole, landing on the edge of the floor below with a tuck and roll in a portion where the fire hadn’t spread. He jumps over the bar counter, not minding the flames, and grabs the fire extinguisher. It wasn’t going to put the whole thing out, that’s obvious to him. But he could improvise. He pulls the pin and aims the nozzle at the base of the flames on the counter before squeezing the trigger. The fire dies down a bit. Long enough for him to use his extra strength from a dire situation to rip the top of the counter up and move it over the hole in the ground like a plank.



    He walks onto it and manages to grab Vanessa and set her down on it. After the wolf lady is safely away from the hole, Ulti looks up to the little wolf on the floor piece above and holds his arms up. “Don’t be afraid, sweetie! Jump! I promise I’ll catch you!” Ulti says in an attempt to reassure her. As Autumn looks down at her dad, crying, she shakes her head. The orb makes another pulse and Autumn falls down towards it, screaming in fear.



    Ulti jumps off of the makeshift plank and catches the cub by the collar of her shirt, holding onto the floor with one hand as they dangle just above the blue ball of death. “I told you I’d catch you!” he yells a bit painfully, trying to hold himself and his kid up. Vanessa runs over and kneels down in front of them, trying to grab Ulti’s arm and pull him up. “No!” he protests, “Take Autumn!” He starts swinging her with his arm, building enough momentum to fling her up to Vanessa.



    After doing this, he’s able to get up, himself, and shouts, “Run! Now!” Vanessa and Autumn begin to run as another pulse happens, breaking off bits of burning wood and metal. A large splinter embeds itself in Ulti’s leg as he’s knocked down. He doesn’t feel it, though. He hasn’t felt the falls he’s taken, nor the splitting headache, nor the scratches and other splinters that have stuck into him. He just gets up and keeps going.



    A smaller pulse knocks Autumn down as they’re halfway to the exit, but only stumbles Vanessa. The mamma wolf makes it out the door, first, but her cub is still at the halfway point, her pants stuck on a protruding piece of wood. Ulti rushes and grabs her, going to the exit. When close to the door, he stumbles and drops Autumn, who is caught be her mother and taken outside, but before he can get out, the biggest pulse of them all happens and all goes black.



    Ulti wakes up groggily to the gentle touch of a wet sponge on his forehead and an unfamiliar ambiance of what sounds like birds chirping. As he opens his eyes, he sees a rather wrinkly old human man in tribal cloth applying some odd-smelling liquid to his wounds and they heal in matters of seconds. The bloodied splinters that were had been in his flesh were now sitting in a clay bowl next to the mat he was lying on.



    As Ulti sits up, the old man looks at him. “Ugh… What kind of strange dream am I in, now?” asks the fox. To which, the old man replies, “No dream, Fox Man. This real. You come flying out of Sleepy Hut. Big boom. Many flames. We go in. Put out flame. See magic ball. Run away. Place look like big city food place.”



    The old man offers Ulti a bowl of what looks and smells like coffee, saying, “Drink brew. Help you heal.” Upon smelling the liquid, Ulti takes the bowl and drinks it all down, chugging it. After wiping his maw off, he hands the bowl back to the man and lets the gears in his mind be lubricated by the drink so they’ll start turning.



    After a few minutes of silence, Ulti’s thoughts gather and he stands up and rushes out, unaware that he isn’t clothed, and looks around. He only finds bamboo huts, like the one he just came out of, and other people in tribal cloth. As the people start staring at him, some laughing, the old man walks out with Ulti’s jeans, bloodied and ripped, and says, “You no cloth. Put pants on.”



    As Ulti hears this, he covers himself and grabs his pants from the old man before going into the hut, again. In there, he also finds his shirt, briefs, and satchel, all of which he puts back on before heading back out of the hut. Looking closer at the huts, he sees one with a scorch mark near the doorway. He runs over to it and opens the door to walk inside.



    First thing he notices is that it’s the interior is very much larger than the exterior. The huts looked like they ‘might’ have around one hundred square feet of space to them and they only had one story. The inside he was looking at was the entire two floors, basement, and kitchen of the bar he tried to open. Or at least, what remained of it. It was all charred black because of the fire. Various holes and splinters were everywhere. It didn’t look safe, at all.



    Ulti steps forward into the building and shuts the door behind him. It was dark, not only because of the charring, but because of no lights. There was, however, a faint green and orange glow coming from the large hole in the floor where the blue orb was. The fox reaches into his satchel and pulls out an emergency flashlight, the kind you just wind up to power, and flips it on.



    Using the light to make sure he didn’t step into and holes or on a splinter, he walks carefully towards the glow. Once at the hole, he looks down. No longer as there a blue, pulsing orb of death, but a green and orange one that seemed to be perfectly stable. It was just floating there, existing. He stares at it for a while before making his way back to the door and opening it. He didn’t find himself in the bamboo hut village. Instead, he found himself inside his own house.


    Very confused, he turns around and looks at the door he had come out of. It was the door that formerly went to the broom closet. He closes the door and opens it, again. Still the charred interior of the bar. After several tries, all having the same result, he hears the front door opening and some dragging little footsteps followed by larger steps.



    Autumn was slouched down a little bit in a shirt and jeans, as she walked into the room. As soon as she sees Ulti, she runs to him, yelling, “Mommy! Mommy! Daddy’s back!”



    As Vanessa walks in, she starts to speak in a sad tone, saying, “Sweetie, daddy isn’t coming ba-“ She stops as she looks up and sees her husband standing there and her jaw drops. Ulti smiles a little bit and walks over to her, pushing it back up. “I know you’re gonna ask, so don’t. I have no idea how I’m alive or even here. I’ll have to think about it.”



    Vanessa shakes her head quick and rubs her eyes to make sure she wasn’t just seeing things, then says, “You’ve been gone for a week. They never found your body among the wreckage of the building when it burned down. We went to your funeral, yesterday.”



    Ulti blinks a couple of times as he hears this. “A week… Geez, I was unconscious for a long time,” he says before hugging his love, “Well. I’m back, now. And going through that made me realize, I need to spend more time with you two.” Autumn joins in on the hug, just hugging their legs, and Ulti thinks to himself, ‘I’ve got my theories, but if I’m right, this is how I’ll protect them. This is only the beginning…’

Description
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    THUD!!



    Vanessa wakes up to this sound, sleepily looking to the side of the bed where her husband should be. But instead of seeing the orange and white fluff of his head, she saw the white of a pillow and the beige of the sheets. Her maw’s smile turns to a frown as she blinks thrice, making sure she was not imagining her mate’s absence. Concerned, she scrambles out of the bed and walks around to the other side. The orange and white humanoid fox, known as Ulti, is lying there, sprawled on the floor, a thick red liquid coming out of his forehead.



    “U-Ulti!” yells Vanessa as she rushes to him, realizing what has happened. She takes some of the sheets off of the bed and applies them to his wound. She leaves him like that, unconscious, while she rushes to the First-Aid kit and brings it back. She unwraps the sheets from the wound and applies the disinfectant with a cotton ball before wrapping it in bandages, saying to him, “You’d better be glad my mother taught me nursing stuff.”



    After tightening the bandages and giving him a sweet kiss on the wound, she uses her extra adrenaline to lift him back up onto the bed. She gently strokes his hair a bit. In his not-so-peaceful slumber, he mumbles, “Connect capacitor to main valve. Pour atomic mixture B in slot C and turn secondary valve four cycles counterclockwise. Put matter A into glass canister and insert into master mixture…”



    This murmuring keeps on the rest of the night. Vanessa keeps by Ulti’s side, until his chattering stops and he springs into a sitting position on the bed, yelling out, “I’ve got it!” Vanessa shushes her love and she gently pushes him back down into the bed. “You don’t want to wake Autumn, do you?” she asks with a smirk on her face.



    Ulti’s ears droop as he lies back on his pillow, remembering to keep quiet. “Sorry, love, “ he whispers, “I just had an idea…” Soon, there was a light knock on the bedroom door. Vanessa gets up from her seat on the bed next to Ulti and opens the door a crack. After peeking through, she opens the door all the way. A little grey wolf girl with red and white stripes flowing vertically on her arms was standing there in H2O molecule pajamas, rubbing her eye with her right hand and holding a plushie fox in her other. “Mommy? I heard yelling,” she says, sleepily.



    Vanessa smiles and picks her up with a bit of a grunt, her adrenaline now gone, and says, “Don’t worry, Autumn. Daddy just fell out of bed.” Autumn giggles and snuggles her plushie, saying, “Silly daddy.”



    “Yeah, silly me,” Ulti says, rubbing his forehead a little. He bites his lip to keep from groaning since the touch sent pain through his nerves. He wanted to remain strong for the two women in his life that he couldn’t live without. His wife and his daughter. As Vanessa notices a bit of a pained expression on her mate’s face, she looks at Autumn, saying, “Come on, let’s get you back to bed. It’s still dark out.”



    “Okay, mommy,” the wolf cub says as she is carried back to her room by her mother. ‘She is getting to be such a big girl. She’s gonna grow up to do great things, I just know it.’ Ulti thinks to himself as he watches them walk out. He happily sighs as his ears pick up the faint humming of a lullaby coming from just down the hall of the house. It isn’t long before the red and brown wolf he loved came back into the room and sat next to him on the bed. “Such a lovely little girl we’ve made…” she says, “Don’t go getting yourself killed over one of your crazy experiments. You’ve come close to it, before, and I worry about you.”



    Ulti frowns a little and rubs his head, again, saying, “I know, love. But it’s what got us the money to raise our daughter. I don’t like to take risks. You know that. I take every safety precaution I can.” He sits up, slower this time, looking into Vanessa’s eyes as he says, “Besides, I think this is the one. This is my grandest one yet, if it works. It-“



    “And what if it doesn’t work, Ulti?” Vanessa asks sternly, a frown upon her face, “What if you die? How am I supposed to explain that to Autumn? She’s only seven. She’s going into the Second grade, next Fall. Do you want to run the risk of her not being able to hug her father when she gets an award or not have you there to teach her how to drive? Think, Ulti. Use your heart, not your brain.”



    All while he listens to this, Ulti’s ears droop and his face shows his obvious sadness. “You’re right,” he says, “My duties as father come first. You two are the world to me.” He moves forward a little pressing a soft kiss onto his wife’s lips. Vanessa murrs and leans into it a little until Ulti breaks the kiss, holding his head in slight pain. “Ugh… Maybe not now, love,” he says.



    Vanessa smirks and nods. “You should have some rest, too. The opening of that bar and grill of yours is at Noon,” she says, resting her head on his chest, where it didn’t hurt him. With this, Ulti smiles and leans back onto his pillow, stroking Vanessa’s hair until he drifts into his dreams, again.



    It doesn’t seem long before the alarm clock blares it’s ugly sound and Ulti finds himself smacking it off of the nightstand, only to have it land on the floor, still beeping. “Geez…” he groans as he’s forced to get out of the bed to shut it off. As he walks halfway across the room to pick it up, Vanessa sits up and yawns, saying, “Good morning, my clever fox. Ready for your grand opening?”



    Ulti groans a little and replies, “Error four-oh-four. Coffee not found…” After placing the silenced alarm clock back on the nightstand, he slips a fresh pair of jeans over his briefs and walks out the door and down the hall, going to the kitchen. He moves quite sluggishly as he puts some coffee grounds and water into the coffee maker and sets it to brew. While it does so, he opens the refrigerator and brings out the milk jug.



    By the time he’s filled his bowl with milk and some Cheerios from the pantry, the coffee is done brewing and Ulti pours two cups, one with cream and sugar and the other one straight black. Leaving the cream and sugar one on the opposite side of the table as him, he sits down to have his basic breakfast. His brain was still cranking up, as he certainly wasn’t a morning person. He didn’t even feel the lump on his head from his fall.



    Vanessa calmly walks in wearing a nice dress, smiling at her husband. She sits down across from him and takes the second cup of coffee. “So?” she asks her mate, “Do I look presentable for the ceremony?”



    Ulti, having just gained higher brain function due to the morning miracle brew known as coffee, smiles at his lovely wife. “You look beautiful, love, as always. But you may be overdressing for this. You know I’m going in my favorite t-shirt and these jeans. It’s not that special.”



    Vanessa smirks as she takes a sip of her coffee, and then says, “Well it’s special to me. You’ll be making a living off of something not as dangerous.” She slowly sets her cup down and stares into his azure eyes. “I love you, Ulti. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”



    The fox looks right back at her, swallowing a mouthful of cereal. “I promise, dear,” he says reassuringly, “I’m not gonna do anything stupid. I’ll be around.” He leans forward over the table to give her a peck on the cheek before going on with his morning routine. Take a shower, brush teeth, forget to comb his hair, et cetera. Meanwhile, Vanessa was busy waking up Autumn. The sleepy wolf cub was eating a breakfast of cheesy grits and a glass of orange juice by the time he was done.



    Ulti smiles at her and scratches her on the head before she looks up at him with her cute blue eyes and says, “Big day, daddy?” The fox chuckles and kisses his daughter lightly on her forehead before saying, “Yes, sweetheart. Today is a big day.”



    The cub giggles as she watches her father strap his satchel over his shoulder and head for the door. Vanessa meets him at the door, putting her hands on his shoulders and pressuring a sweet kiss onto his lips that was meant to keep him from leaving for a while. It worked. At least until they heard Autumn whine, “Mooom! Daaad! Do you have to do that in front of me?!” Both fox and wolf break the kiss, smiling at Autumn. Ulti smirks at her, saying, “You’ll be doing the same thing when you get older.”



    Autumn pouts and mumbles something to herself as she goes back to her room. Back by the door, Vanessa looks back to her fox and says, “Good luck, darling. I’ll be there with Autumn at around eleven so we can be ready for the opening.”



    Ulti nods and gives her a peck on the nose. “And I’ll see you then. It’ll be ready,” he says before he opens the door and walks out. He stands on the porch and takes a breath of fresh air before getting into his truck. He cranks up the truck and heads off, smiling as he looks at Vanessa waving to him in his rearview mirror.



    He was headed to the old bar he’d purchased with his patent money two years prior. It was a fixer-upper, for sure. But with a main bar, a second story for whatever use, and a basement. He’d spent a lot of time in the past two years fixing up that old bar.



    As he rode through the countryside, he has an idea. ‘I know! Why not give the place a signature drink? Something one could only be found at my bar and grill?’ he thinks to himself. And why not? He had Master’s Degrees in most science and engineering courses offered at his college. Plus, he’d studied up on brewery techniques while fixing up the bar.



    He had planned to make a few stops on the way there. Collecting things like streamers and balloons. Something to make it’s opening nice. But now he had a couple more stops to make to get what he needed. The farmer’s market, the hardware store, and the machinery shop were added to his stops.



    The hardware store was up first, since it was on the way to the market. A quick stop, though. He only needed to pick up some copper piping and such. Then it was off to the farmer’s market. If he was going to brew his own drink, he was going to need some grain, some hops, and a few other ingredients.



    ‘May as well get some fresh meats and all for the opening, while I’m here.’ He thinks as he pulls into the parking lot near the market. After locking his truck, he heads out into the somewhat busy market. There were humans and anthros, alike. All people going about their business, some selling things, others buying, most were just browsing through. As he looks closely at a produce stand, he hears a familiar female voice coming from behind him, saying, “Fancy meeting you here, Stripes.”



    Ulti chuckles as he turns around to face the fox behind him. The vixen was wearing a shirt that showed her midriff and a pair of skinny jeans. Some cyan swirls and spirals are seen on her orange and white belly and waist. As he sees her, he smiles. “I didn’t expect to see you today until the opening ceremony, Spirals,” he says, then asks, “What brings you here, Sam? Business?”



    Sam nods, smirking at the fox in front of her. “You are correct. The cops have a suspect in their theft case. You know, the one on the news about the guy who keeps stealing from here. But they don’t have enough evidence for an arrest, so that’s why I’m here.”



    Ulti lightly chuckles and looks around. “Well then. Are you going to be there for the ceremony, later?” he asks her. She laughs and replies, “Of course I am. Even though we’ve messed with each other all our lives, you’re still my brother. This is a big thing for you. Plus, you did tell me that first round was going to be free to celebrate, so you know I’m not gonna miss that.”



    “That’s the Samantha I know. Always willing to take advantage of someone,” says Ulti towards his sister. “Oh, you know me. I take what I can,” she replies before looking towards one of the stands and raising a brow. She looks back at Ulti real quick and says, “Sorry to cut this reunion short, but I have a job to do. Seeya at the celebrations!” She then rushes off towards where she was looking, leaving Ulti to finish his shopping.



    After he finishes buying what he needs, Ulti heads over to the party store to pick up the celebration supplies, then goes to his last stop, the machinery shop. At the machinery shop, he purchased several different machines, such as a winch, a boiler, a generator, and a few tanks. Once it was all loaded onto the truck, to the surprise of the workers there, he was off, again, and soon arrived at the old bar.



    The real trick was getting those machines down to the basement, but due to some clever ideas and a strong back, they went down in just fine. The basement looked like a cross between a storage closet and a mad scientist lab. Machine parts and chemical cabinets were all set up along with crates of different things. It was where he had conducted some of his science experiments and built some of his inventions.



    Ulti chuckles, looking at the place, before he starts working on building a makeshift brewery. As he starts taking apart some of the machines and improvising, his head wound starts to hurt him. It was still wrapped in bandages. He’s surprised nobody had asked him about it. Though he did work a dangerous job. As soon as he touches the wound, he goes into a kind of trance state.



    During this, the words he was mumbling in his unconscious state flow through his head and jumble together with the procedures for making a brewery. This causes him to use some of his machine parts and his brewery parts to make some kind of large machine. It had a fermenter, a heat exchanger, a mash tun, and a copper, but it also had glass canisters, various slots, lots of piping and wiring, and a spare supercomputer he had lying around.



    He puts various chemical mixtures in with the barley and hops and sugars, all through either the mash tun or the slots and canisters. It wasn’t until he flipped the I/O switch to the “ON” position and the low hum of the machine sounded that he snapped out of his trance state and heard Wipeout by Noisestorm coming from his pants. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone so he can answer it, saying, “Hello?”



    Vanessa’s voice moves out of the phone and into his ear, saying, “Where are you?! It’s quarter ‘til one, the door is locked, a lot of people are waiting, and I’m getting worried!”



    “Quarter ‘til one! Jeez! I’ll be right up!” he says just before hanging up and rushing up the stairs, not paying any attention to what he just created. He runs to the door and unlocks it before heading outside, only to see a lot of people out there; his wife, his daughter, and his sister stand there in front. As he sees them, he says, “I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you waiting.”



    Sam slaps him across the face, and then says, “You had us worried! I was about to break in there and find out where you were!” As Ulti rubs his cheek, Vanessa hugs him. “Alright, alright… Let’s all just get inside. I had something big planned with balloons and flowers and streamers. I even had a banner printed…”



    With this, Vanessa lets him go, giving him a little peck, and he opens the door up so people can come in. It wasn’t as full as he was expecting, as some of the people that had originally arrived for the Noon opening had already left. This wasn’t so bad, though, as he could deal with a smaller amount of customers, easier. Though all the while, something was bothering him. His ears were twitching, picking up faint sounds; steam, a screw imbedding itself in the basement wall, bubbling liquids, creaking metal.



    He knew something was wrong, but people kept him busy enough that he couldn’t go check it out. It was only until he heard a crackle and a pin drop over the crowd that he couldn’t take it, anymore. He passed by several people wanting service like they weren’t there, but he was so focused on one thing that they didn’t bother. He was on a mission to find the problem.



    By the time he reaches the basement, the crackles are louder, but also drowned out by the sound of pressure escaping. He opens the door only to find the basement on fire, the machine giving off a cranky noise as it releases pressure built up from something inside. Ulti jumps through the flames to reach the machine, trying to shut it off by way of the I/O switch. Nothing was happening. The fermenting tank seems to pulse as a couple of pipes release some kind of gas other than steam and the bluish liquid inside one of the glass canisters drains into the tank. The super computer seems like it’s having a hard time processing whatever it is trying to process and just gives out entirely, catching fire as well from overheating.



    Just as soon as the supercomputer dies, the fermenting tank groans and the metal bends outwards. It lets out a large, blue pulse that sends Ulti flying and crashing against the far wall, screaming. As he gets back up, holding his shoulder where it hit the wall, the fermenting tank sends some smaller pulses through the air that knock over chemical bottles and break beakers and glasses. Ulti makes his way along the wall, away from the fire, going towards the stairway.



    He could hear a lot of screaming and panicking coming from up the stairs. The people had seen the smoke coming from the basement and were evacuating. Some people were on the second floor, checking it out, including Vanessa and Autumn. They hid in a room, not knowing what was going on.



    As Ulti nears the stairway, he could hear footsteps, along with the voice of his sister screaming, “Ulti! Ulti, were are you?!” Following the voice he starts up the stairs, only to have both him and his sister knocked over by a stronger pulse than before. This one ripped the metal right off the fermenting tank, revealing a large sphere of strange, blue matter inside, pulsing slowly. “U-Ulti… W-what is that?” Sam asks, quite scared, as she points to it while standing back up.



    “Nothing good! Get out of here!” Ulti yells, looking between the pulsating orb and his sister. Sam doesn’t have to be told twice as she stumbles up the stairs, followed by Ulti, himself.



    They both make it outside quickly and catch their breath. As he does, he looks around to the crowd of people outside, looking for someone in particular. Sam can tell who he was looking for and does a scan of the people, as well. “I don’t see Vanessa or Autumn!” yells Ulti. Sam, looking around and shaking her head, says, “I don’t see them, either! They must still be inside! We’ll have to wait for the fi-“



    “Screw that!” Ulti shouts as he busts the door open and heads inside, again. Sam tries to stop him, attempting to go in after him, but onlookers hold her back. The pulses from the orb are strong enough to shake the building now and the fire has spread up the stairs and to the bar counter. Ulti stumbles across the floor, trying not to get knocked over again, as he bumps into toppled chairs and tables on fire.



    He makes it to the stairway just as another large pulse sends him up and into a wall, flopping about like a ragdoll. This barely hinders him, as he takes the moment of stability after a pulse like that to get back up and go up the stairs. He begins searching the rooms, finding a man and a woman picking themselves up from the last blast in one of them. “Get out of here! It’s not safe!” Ulti yells over the crackle of fire down below as he motions them out, “Evacuate the building!”



    As they do so, managing to get out safely, Ulti moves to the next room. Before he has a chance to search it, another large pulse pushes him into the air a little. He immediately hears the sound of wood breaking and crashing to the floor below, followed by the scream of a little girl. The fox, quick and agile, rushes towards where he hears the sound, jumping over a rather large gap in the floor that was caused by the damaging pulses.



    “Autumn! Vanessa!” he yells at the top of his lungs, hoping to get a response to tell him where they were. He didn’t need one, though. In one of the larger rooms, there was a huge hole in the floor, leaving almost no room to stand. Below was not only the fiery pit of the lower floors, but the blue orb itself. Autumn was right behind Vanessa’s legs, back against the wall, on one of the only remaining pieces of the floor. She was crying and holding onto her mother’s legs.



    “Thank God, you’re alright!” Ulti yells over to Vanessa and Autumn, “We’ll find a way out of this! Erm… All we have to do is-“ He’s cut off by another pulse from the orb. While he manages to catch himself on the doorframe, Vanessa has nothing to hold on to and falls. She is only saved by a part of her dress getting caught on a metal pipe that was protruding from where the floor used to be. This gave her enough time to react quickly from adrenaline and grab the pipe before the dress ripped much more. This gave her some time, but she was still holding on for her life. Autumn manages to stay on the piece of floor since she is smaller.



    Ulti’s face turns fearful when he sees his wife dangling right above the orb. His fear is only worsened when a smaller pulse rolls a stool off of the floor below and into the basement. The stool lands on the orb and is instantly disintegrated. But upon hearing screams of the two wolves he loved, he steps back a few steps and his adrenaline kicks in.



    With a running start, he jumps off into the hole, landing on the edge of the floor below with a tuck and roll in a portion where the fire hadn’t spread. He jumps over the bar counter, not minding the flames, and grabs the fire extinguisher. It wasn’t going to put the whole thing out, that’s obvious to him. But he could improvise. He pulls the pin and aims the nozzle at the base of the flames on the counter before squeezing the trigger. The fire dies down a bit. Long enough for him to use his extra strength from a dire situation to rip the top of the counter up and move it over the hole in the ground like a plank.



    He walks onto it and manages to grab Vanessa and set her down on it. After the wolf lady is safely away from the hole, Ulti looks up to the little wolf on the floor piece above and holds his arms up. “Don’t be afraid, sweetie! Jump! I promise I’ll catch you!” Ulti says in an attempt to reassure her. As Autumn looks down at her dad, crying, she shakes her head. The orb makes another pulse and Autumn falls down towards it, screaming in fear.



    Ulti jumps off of the makeshift plank and catches the cub by the collar of her shirt, holding onto the floor with one hand as they dangle just above the blue ball of death. “I told you I’d catch you!” he yells a bit painfully, trying to hold himself and his kid up. Vanessa runs over and kneels down in front of them, trying to grab Ulti’s arm and pull him up. “No!” he protests, “Take Autumn!” He starts swinging her with his arm, building enough momentum to fling her up to Vanessa.



    After doing this, he’s able to get up, himself, and shouts, “Run! Now!” Vanessa and Autumn begin to run as another pulse happens, breaking off bits of burning wood and metal. A large splinter embeds itself in Ulti’s leg as he’s knocked down. He doesn’t feel it, though. He hasn’t felt the falls he’s taken, nor the splitting headache, nor the scratches and other splinters that have stuck into him. He just gets up and keeps going.



    A smaller pulse knocks Autumn down as they’re halfway to the exit, but only stumbles Vanessa. The mamma wolf makes it out the door, first, but her cub is still at the halfway point, her pants stuck on a protruding piece of wood. Ulti rushes and grabs her, going to the exit. When close to the door, he stumbles and drops Autumn, who is caught be her mother and taken outside, but before he can get out, the biggest pulse of them all happens and all goes black.



    Ulti wakes up groggily to the gentle touch of a wet sponge on his forehead and an unfamiliar ambiance of what sounds like birds chirping. As he opens his eyes, he sees a rather wrinkly old human man in tribal cloth applying some odd-smelling liquid to his wounds and they heal in matters of seconds. The bloodied splinters that were had been in his flesh were now sitting in a clay bowl next to the mat he was lying on.



    As Ulti sits up, the old man looks at him. “Ugh… What kind of strange dream am I in, now?” asks the fox. To which, the old man replies, “No dream, Fox Man. This real. You come flying out of Sleepy Hut. Big boom. Many flames. We go in. Put out flame. See magic ball. Run away. Place look like big city food place.”



    The old man offers Ulti a bowl of what looks and smells like coffee, saying, “Drink brew. Help you heal.” Upon smelling the liquid, Ulti takes the bowl and drinks it all down, chugging it. After wiping his maw off, he hands the bowl back to the man and lets the gears in his mind be lubricated by the drink so they’ll start turning.



    After a few minutes of silence, Ulti’s thoughts gather and he stands up and rushes out, unaware that he isn’t clothed, and looks around. He only finds bamboo huts, like the one he just came out of, and other people in tribal cloth. As the people start staring at him, some laughing, the old man walks out with Ulti’s jeans, bloodied and ripped, and says, “You no cloth. Put pants on.”



    As Ulti hears this, he covers himself and grabs his pants from the old man before going into the hut, again. In there, he also finds his shirt, briefs, and satchel, all of which he puts back on before heading back out of the hut. Looking closer at the huts, he sees one with a scorch mark near the doorway. He runs over to it and opens the door to walk inside.



    First thing he notices is that it’s the interior is very much larger than the exterior. The huts looked like they ‘might’ have around one hundred square feet of space to them and they only had one story. The inside he was looking at was the entire two floors, basement, and kitchen of the bar he tried to open. Or at least, what remained of it. It was all charred black because of the fire. Various holes and splinters were everywhere. It didn’t look safe, at all.



    Ulti steps forward into the building and shuts the door behind him. It was dark, not only because of the charring, but because of no lights. There was, however, a faint green and orange glow coming from the large hole in the floor where the blue orb was. The fox reaches into his satchel and pulls out an emergency flashlight, the kind you just wind up to power, and flips it on.



    Using the light to make sure he didn’t step into and holes or on a splinter, he walks carefully towards the glow. Once at the hole, he looks down. No longer as there a blue, pulsing orb of death, but a green and orange one that seemed to be perfectly stable. It was just floating there, existing. He stares at it for a while before making his way back to the door and opening it. He didn’t find himself in the bamboo hut village. Instead, he found himself inside his own house.


    Very confused, he turns around and looks at the door he had come out of. It was the door that formerly went to the broom closet. He closes the door and opens it, again. Still the charred interior of the bar. After several tries, all having the same result, he hears the front door opening and some dragging little footsteps followed by larger steps.



    Autumn was slouched down a little bit in a shirt and jeans, as she walked into the room. As soon as she sees Ulti, she runs to him, yelling, “Mommy! Mommy! Daddy’s back!”



    As Vanessa walks in, she starts to speak in a sad tone, saying, “Sweetie, daddy isn’t coming ba-“ She stops as she looks up and sees her husband standing there and her jaw drops. Ulti smiles a little bit and walks over to her, pushing it back up. “I know you’re gonna ask, so don’t. I have no idea how I’m alive or even here. I’ll have to think about it.”



    Vanessa shakes her head quick and rubs her eyes to make sure she wasn’t just seeing things, then says, “You’ve been gone for a week. They never found your body among the wreckage of the building when it burned down. We went to your funeral, yesterday.”



    Ulti blinks a couple of times as he hears this. “A week… Geez, I was unconscious for a long time,” he says before hugging his love, “Well. I’m back, now. And going through that made me realize, I need to spend more time with you two.” Autumn joins in on the hug, just hugging their legs, and Ulti thinks to himself, ‘I’ve got my theories, but if I’m right, this is how I’ll protect them. This is only the beginning…’