Chapter 4: Questions

Miller steadies herself, remembering the psychological training—the Fox responds to emotion, not power. "We're trying to understand you," she says carefully, each word chosen like stepping stones across a river. "We didn't mean to threaten your... kits." The Fox tilts his head, tail flicking. As it lays down, and yawns lazily. "I see... reasonable. Your kind has seen many things, and yet you have never seen nothing like me." "You've taken people," she said slowly. "You've punished them. We don't fully understand why, we are worried about your... methods." Mr. Fox watches her on his side, lazy, with a ear flick from his perfectly animalistic form, animated with black fur, and living eyes. He sits up. "Well... they deserve it. You have not seen there minds. You don't understand what is needed. Your legal systems are horrible, your education systems worse, and the children are the future. Yet you allow private education to teach whatever the hell they wish, and make cultish slobs that corrupt the world." She then said, utterly nervous, and slightly scared. As she feels a shadow rub behind her back, as a shadow fox passes behind her. "W-With... all respect. There are Lines... Justice should not cross. Disappearing people from life, is one of them i feel."

Mr. Fox replies "Its a simple reality. I hate blindness. The refusal to see. I fix it. But i have limits. So i fix the children, the ones that would be given the worst blindness, i fix. Remove them from the wrong, and heal there blindness. That's why I'm there caretaker, father, fox. They are my kits. My cute little kits. I will not allow them to get hurt. They deserve a good world, a good life. I shall make it for them, one household at a time." "What happens to them?" she asked, suddenly, her voice cracking under the weight of what she might hear. "Where do they go?"

Mr. Fox says "Look around you..." She does, and sees the shadow foxes on the wall. "Those are there blindness. The blind ones are stuck in the horde... until they can accept there blindness, and heal. Then... i give them a chance at life once more." She is confused. "What do you mean You're saying they're alive?" she asked, her voice a whisper now, as though saying it too loud would wake them. "Very," Mr. Fox replied. "I keep them safe. Away from the world they broke. Those shadow foxes are not me... they are people turned inside out. Blindness visible, following my healings, and methods as a form... of retribution. Until they recover." She asks "Why... cartoons?" He replies cheerfully, with a cheeky smile. "Eh... marketing. Children like cartoons, i like cartoons, they are fun! Plus, I kind of am too committed now to change style."

She asks "How did you get here... why now?" Mr. Fox... stops. Quite. Serious for once. He says "Not by choice... they put me here. Dragged me here. So i am just making the best of it." She is... confused, and scared, as she says "Who?" Mr. Fox says "I should not say." She asks "I-I guess... what happens when... the parents do recover." Mr. Fox says cryptically "They get a choice." She asks "What choice?" Mr. Fox smiles... "Between joining me in the show, or protecting those outside." She asks "What... even are you?" Mr. Fox smiles and says "Your science works. But is weak, small, incomplete. Ask me when you discover how spacetime truly works. Furthermore, some better research on phycology, and standardizing the study would be useful. Its required even to truly understand reality. But... i will tell you... i was once human."

Her horror stricken face seems to amuse him. "You are a funny one. I will give you a gift. A blessing of mine. But beyond that, i will call that it for today... Hmm..." He turns, and looks at a shadow fox that forms. "You will get to be with her, Karlen." The shadow fox nods excitedly. Then exits the TV, and enters her shadow. She shakes as she sees the fox ears that are in her shadow. The glowing eyes, then *flash*, a flash of light. As the TV turns off, the shadows are normal. The lights turn on, and... that abuser of a father is gone. No longer standing with blank static eyes. Miller shook, as she bent down, and looked at her shadow, in horror. Nothing... her shadow was normal... but she still felt it... something was off, watching.

Fury sits... in his office. As natasha stands nearby. As he watches the recordings, and reads the reports. Natasha looks... unsure. She read the reports as well, recordings. Fury says "No sighs of anything wrong with Miller... don't trust it... that thing. Thou i can agree with its morals in some ways." Natasha is unsure. Fury decides after a long thought. "We are going to treat this Mr. Fox as a outside force we can not interfere with. A external force. Non-hostile. Non-containable. But we will continue monitoring, non-aggressively. Track the children he marks. Along with Miller. Keep Miller on the case." Natasha raised an eyebrow. "You sure? That fox trusts her. He gave her a... something." "Exactly," Fury said. "She's the closest thing to an ambassador we've got. She's in... whether she wants to be or not. For now, no more communication attempts unless needed. It wants to make the world a better place, and i can trust that. Thou i am unsure... about its methods, or... even who put it here on earth." Natasha said "If he turns," she said, "there's no fighting him." Fury nodded. "That's why we don't give him a reason to." It was the oldest rule in espionage: know when to step back. "You think we'll ever find out who sent him?" Natasha asked. Fury didn't answer at first. He stared at the screen—paused on Mr. Fox's smile, eyes glittering with secrets. "If we do," he said finally, "we'll wish we hadn't." Fury sighs "I wish for the days when Captain America was the weirdest dam thing out there."