Fend darted down the dark corridor, lit only by work lights, and looked around from the shadows. He darted back to Johnson, who was standing at the maintenance tunnel’s entrance, and said “It’s clear. It’s still clear. Is this really needed?”
“Yes.”

…

“Ok John, care to elaborate?” his tail twitched with annoyance. Mice could control the movement of their tails, but the effect was ignored by Johnson.

“I’m not going down a dark deserted sewage pipe-“

“It’s a work tunnel, to repair the power grid for the subway. Not a ‘sewage pipe’”

“Great! Work tunnel then. I’m not going down some dark god forsaken work pipe to meet with some crime syndicate full of god forsaken beasts that are probably crazier than you, without someone to make sure they aren’t just waiting to jump me when we get in there! They won’t be jumping you of course, because you are smaller than these disgusting feral rats, but I can’t crawl behind a pipe and hide, now can I? So if it’s not too much trouble, could you ‘please’ go ahead and check?”

[Oh hello there! This is an introduction! I hope you are enjoying this story so far, you deserve to have a nice read I think. Anyway this is actually part two of a series I am currently writing about an anthro society and the unlikely pair of Fend and Johnson who have hopes for revolution. Part one can be found here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11976069/ well enjoy the rest! All comments or critique welcome (and loved!)]

“Ok fine! But this isn’t some street gang, these guys are legit, we can trust them. Maybe they can help us.” Fend said, going on the defensive.

“And why would they care about our cause. The only thing they want is money”

“How do we know? All we know is that they are just as illegal as us and they are at least a million times bigger. They have people in prison, surely taking down the government could help them too,” but Johnson only nodded, not looking quite convinced. Fend sighed and headed back down the hall, looking for, and finding no, traps.

Eventually they came upon the door that the contact had told them about, door number three zero eight. It led into the control center of a long abandoned subway. There was a table set up somewhere near the center of the dusty room with its dusty terminals. Sitting at the table was a black-furred panther, exotic. Must have emigrated, the pair supposed. The panther smiled and looked friendly, though his very, very sharp teeth could easily be seen. He said “Ah, I was beginning to think you got lost. Welcome to the Meeting Place, my name is Rathshar.”

Johnson greeted him and walked forward, taking a seat across from the large cat. Fend came to Johnson’s side and was picked up and placed on the table. “Thank you Rathshar” Fend said “hopefully this won’t take too long of your time. I assume you know our cause and our intent for asking for this meeting?”

Rathshar looked at Fend, easily hiding how bemused (and interested) he was to talk a mouse, but it was his job, after all, to talk and bluff and keep his own thoughts in his mind, not displayed for all to see. He nodded and yawned, regally, before replying. “So you two plan on bringing down the animal government, yes? A mouse and a human with no power beyond your power of will, yes? And you want us to stand with you?”

Johnson spoke up, to Fend’s dismay, and said “Well yes, but-“

Rathshar waved a paw dismissively “It’s crazy, we both know it. But that doesn’t matter, we won’t give you anything, but we can assist you. It’s free of charge to us and at best, you succeed and then we benefit from the chaos. At worst, you fail and take the public eye off us for a little while... Or perhaps you try and double cross us and the cause you say you stand for, but we deal with that every few days. We couldn’t really lose, yes?”

Rathshar looks between them, as if waiting for a sign of agreement, then
continued. “Here is how we will assist you. You are not the first to come to us for help with a rebellion, and, of those who came before, we have kept a list. A list we will show to you, so that you can find recruits and stir up a little rebellion, yes?”

There were a few moments when no one spoke; both were too captivated by the panther, whose voice was like a purr and a growl all at once. Johnson blinked a few times then said hastily “Yes, definitely! Th-thank you Rathshar, it is all we could ask of you,” and the panther looked away from Fend, who he had been watching through most of his speech, just glancing up at Johnson here or there.

“Good then, but don’t thank me, it is no trouble to me to tell you what my group thinks, and it is no trouble to my group to assist you in this little way. Here” he slid the list (a small text book which was seen to be, when Fend opened and looked inside it, filled with names and contact information to the first 18 pages) over to the pair “take this as a gift. Good fortune with your endeavor.”

The panther slipped away into a dark doorway opposite the one they had come in and was gone, his last little glance over directed at Fend.

Fend shuddered and closed the textbook. He sat down with such relief as though he had been standing for hours.

Johnson looked up from the book and at his little companion “What is it? Hey, Fend, you alright? What was that?” but Fend just shook his head and stared down at the plastic of the table. After a while he stood up and spoke.

“Ok, we have a lot of work to do. Let’s get to it.”

“Fend, what was-“

“Please, let’s… let’s just get to finding these names.”

Johnson wasn’t sure what that was back there, but Fend was right, they had better get recruiting.