[attr="class","samknox2"]

[attr="class","samknoxw"]Fox rolled his eyes, let some of the tension bleed out of his body. He stood up, back sliding against grimy brick.

“Yes, mammy, I can throw a punch,” he said, feeling the grind in his neck as he really leaned into the drama of the eye roll, his tone scathing. “Can you kick that horrible oral fixation?”

His nostrils flared as he exhaled, collecting himself.

“You’re my lead,” he said, in answer to the second question. It would, admittedly, be hard, to subject himself to the whims of the Head Ranger. But this wasn’t about pride, or a stupid pissing contest. “I’ll do what you say.”

[attr="class","samknoxt"]
boxing bouncers
Laurence Anderson

[attr="class","samknoxc"]☉

[attr="class","samknox2"]

[attr="class","samknoxw"]“Here’s an option for you,” Fox shot back, in a rushed whisper-shout that was coupled with him rising up off the wall a few inches. “just don’t fuckin’ smoke!”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “For fucks’ sake.”

Lars gave him a lecture about bringing people in alive. Fox sighed, a measured exhale.

“Fine. I get it. Just-- what’s the plan?”

[attr="class","samknoxt"]
boxing bouncers
Laurence Anderson

[attr="class","samknoxc"]☉

[attr="class","samknox2"]

[attr="class","samknoxw"]Fox opens his mouth to say something to the tune of I’m not asking you to quit cold turkey I’m just suggesting you don’t smoke during every goddamn mission but he closes it again because arguing with Lars was like arguing with a brick wall: a waste of breath and twice as brainless.

Instead, he rustled through the pouches at his belt and pulled out a collection of small, square glass cuvettes, roughly an inch and a half in length, with a clear liquid within. He passed them over.

“Florfenicol and hogweed,” he said, “causes blindness. Wear safety glasses. Can we go now?”

[attr="class","samknoxt"]
boxing bouncers
Laurence Anderson

[attr="class","samknoxc"]☉

[attr="class","samknox2"]

[attr="class","samknoxw"]Fox’s grin is predator sharp in the dark alley, the scent of the faraway sea mixing with the smell of cement and humanity to make something heavy settling down on top of them.

“I’m never unarmed.”

And he reaches over to turn the doorhandle.

[attr="class","samknoxt"]
boxing bouncers
Laurence Anderson

[attr="class","samknoxc"]☉

[attr="class","samknox2"]

[attr="class","samknoxw"]The door is thrown open and Lars is over the threshold, Fox close on his heels. Lars throws a punch into the nose of the first person to turn to them; Fox drops to a crouch and kicks his legs out, hooking the ankle of a brute who is stumbling to his feet and pulling it out from beneath him, sending him falling forward, face busting against the edge of a table.

He’s up on his feet in a beat, pulling something from his pouches: a small flashbang of sulfur and Gogoat’s rue, which he launches into a nearby crowd. The minute explosion had a foul smell and would knock out those in a very controlled area. Then he ducked to the other side, bringing down another brute with a well-targeted throat chop, and more small knockout grenades to their right.

There’s the sound of a Pokeball bursting, and a noise like bones knocking together as a Kingler runs at them, giant claw outstretched.

[attr="class","samknoxt"]
boxing bouncers
Laurence Anderson

[attr="class","samknoxc"]☉

[attr="class","samknox2"]

[attr="class","samknoxw"]Lars goes low and Fox goes high, vaulting over him and hurling Olera’s ball. The Gloom explodes out of her containment sphere and launches a deep purple toxic across the area directly in front of them, sending people screaming, clawing at their eyes, and gagging.

Another Pokeball reveals his Bayleef. “Guard the back door,” Fox orders, and the sauropod is off to do so, bringing people down with well-aimed magical leaf daggers stuck into thighs and ankles.

[attr="class","samknoxt"]
boxing bouncers
Laurence Anderson

[attr="class","samknoxc"]☉