Made for This

Cole appears wearing his charcoal jacket and black jeans, wearing black and white gloves as he glances around the room to see if anything has changed.

The room seems the same as when he left it. The bags of pretzels sit on the desk and the sun had just come up not too long ago. After a moment however he notices the sound of muffled breathing behind the locked closet door.

Cole spins around and walks over to the closest to listen closer. The breathing sounds somewhat heavy. He then tries to open the closet to find It's locked as the breathing suddenly gets quieter. Cole unlocks the door with the small silver key and quickly opens it.

Sitting in the metal folding chair is the nonferal brown fox. She has her hands behind her back and zipties keeping her legs to the chair. A black cloth bag is over her head and she jumps a bit to the sound of the door opening.

Cole grabs and yanks the cloth bag off of her head with a look concern, "Who the fuck put you here?!"

As soon as the bag is pulled off her head, one of her arms lunges forward, bringing a knife an inch away from Cole's neck.

Cole doesn't react as he looks down at the knife and raises an eyebrow, "Gonna slit my throat for setting you free?"

She narrows her eyes at him. As she speaks she has a very faint southern accent. On Top of that she also sounds extremely tired as her words slur together slightly, "Setting me free? You're one of them. You're probably the one that drugged me." The muscles in her hand that help hold up the knife start to shake.

Cole sighs and puts his hands up, "I'm not gonna hurt you, I don't even have any drugs on me... well aside from my medicine but that's hardly drugs."

She pauses to think as she looks at his face a bit more, "What the hell even are you anyways?"

Cole exhales heavily as he rolls his eyes, "Human, now how about you tell me your name and maybe take the knife away from my throat."

The knife lowers some as she looks confused, "What?"

Just then they hear the sound of several tires along the dirt path, headed towards them. Her ears perk up with a delayed reaction as she looks in the direction of the sound, "...You're being honest?" The knife lowers to her side, "Ok, I'm Lochlan."

Cole nods as his hand moves to the inside of his jacket, "I'm an honest man to honest people, nice to meet you Lochlan I'm Cole Genesone." Cole's head turns toward the sound of the tires, "I'm assuming that car isn't Wendell with more...pretzels."

"Probably here for me..." Lochlan sighs, "And you if they beleive you. We're fucked." The sound of the tires lead up to under the tower before they all stop. Multiple car doors open and the sound of boots hit the ground.

Cole draws his revolver out of his jacket as his wings unfurl, he points to the bed as he mutters, "Hide, now." Cole starts heading out the front door as his wings tuck to fit through the door.

Lochlan quickly reaches down and cuts the last two zip ties before getting up. After stumbling for a second she regains a bit of balance and goes to hide under the bed. The sound of boots hitting the dirt shift as they start heading up the wooden staircase.

Cole leaps off of the railing as his wings untuck allowing him to glide as he turns to look how many of them are heading up the stairs.

He sees five men in uniforms and bullet proof gear. Their oddly shaped helmets suggest they are nonferals underneath. A few of them turn their heads to see Cole as they draw their guns.

Cole smirks as he opens his mouth and plays the sound of an american robin tweeting as he takes a shot at one of them. The one he shoots is hit in the throat as they drop their gun and fall onto the stairs. The others begin to fire at Cole, their guns however have silencers attached.

Cole dives to avoid the gunfire as he swoops around the tower to reposition. With the support beams of the tower between them, the four left begin going back down the stairs. Cole pitches up as he glides over the tower and dives back down as he zips past anyone on the ground and into the surrounding trees.

The people reach the ground and are still continuing to fire at Cole. Cole lands as he ducks and dives between the trees using them as cover as he returns fire. One of the bullets hits another one of the men in their side as they kneel but try to continue firing. Another gets out a radio from their side

Cole starts scanning through frequencies as he hides as best as he can, leveling his gun to the person with the radio out. He catches the frequency as one of them manages to shoot part of his wing.

Cole lets out a pained scream as he fires at the one with the radio, quickly running through the forest as his wings tuck behind his back. The radio breaks in the man's hands as he stumbles back. The one shot in the side drops the gun as he collapses.

Cole fires again at the radio man as he continues running while reloading, the wing that's shot untucks as he checks how large the hole is. The man with the radio is shot in the throat as well as he collapses while coughing.

Cole sees the somewhat small hole in his wing as he tucks it behind his back and resumes returning fire. He hears a bullet wiz by his head before he takes out another one of the men, leaving the last one. The last man stops firing and begins backing away.

Cole pushes off with his back foot as he lifts off with a strong beat of his wings to catch the fleeing person. The man turns and starts running.

Cole gains some altitude then diving down onto the man as he holsters his revolver and attempts to grab him and pull up into the air

They struggle and kick as they try to pry Cole's hands off of him.

Cole continues pulling him into the air as he keeps a tight grip on him, "Who sent you? And why? And before you think of being a fucking hero I will drop you and leave you to die in these woods."

They look down as they breathe faster, "I was hired- they didn't tell me. J-Just wanted me to help move a criminal."

Cole asks again, "How were you paid? Wired? Checks? Keep talking."

"I-it was checks- I haven't been paid yet. Please- just don't hurt me."

Cole continues questioning, "Have you ever seen this person? Were you going to meet somewhere to get paid?"

"I-it was a contract. They called us and were going to meet us here."

Cole starts to pitch down towards the ground, "When are they arriving? And do you remember the phone number?"

"I have the number saved- they said to radio in and they will show up."

Cole nods as he starts to loosen his grip, "Amazing, thank you for telling me this information but unfortunately people can't know I have wings."

The man panics, "W-WAIT PLEASE NO-"

Cole's grip retightens, "What? Do you have more information?"

"I-I uhh- please, I won't tell anyone."

Cole pretends to think about it then drops them. They let out a scream before slamming onto the hard dirt below with a hefty thud.

Cole swoops back down and lands at the top of the stairs then tucks his wings and walks back inside, "You can stop hiding now, they're dead"

He hears a muffled response from under the bed, "Wh? Who? Who's there?"

Cole sighs, "Cole Genesone, come on out." Cole connects the radio frequency that he found and starts listening to find no one is talking.

Lochlan rolls out from under the bed and seems to struggle a bit to sit up with her back against a wall. She sounds a lot more out of it by now, "So where are they?"

Cole gestures outside with a sigh, "In Hell probably, they're dead as Hell now I suggest you get out of here so I can find out who was looking for you."

Lochlan nods, "Uhm. Thank you." She goes to stand up, using the side of the wall. She heads for the door as she mumbles, "This is a weird ass trip." She heads outside while heavily leaning on the railing.

Cole waits a bit to make sure she's fully gone then broadcasts on the frequency while mimicking the voice of the guy he interrogated, "We have her captured, what now?"

Over the line he hears a male voice respond, "Good. I will be there shortly for clearance."

Cole hops on the railing and perches on it while waiting, scanning the area for the person.

It seems to take awhile but sure enough he sees someone moving between the trees nearby. Cole continues watching, waiting for them to become visible. After seeing all of the dead bodies, they walk back further into the trees. Cole's wings untuck as he pushes off of the railing and starts gliding to see if he can spot the person. Between the trees they seem to wear a longer and much taller dark cloak. They continue forward further into the woods. Cole decreases in altitude to get a closer look, nearing the tops of the trees.

The moment he gets closer, they suddenly turn, drawing a revolver and firing up at Cole's arm with precise aim.

Cole's arm is hit causing it to leak blood as he quickly dives towards them as his wings sweep back to make them a smaller target. They quickly dart to one side to make a sharp turn. Cole barely pulls up in time to avoid hitting the ground as he glides around looking for them again with his wings still swept back.

They seemingly have disappeared between the trees. All Cole can see is the trunks mixed with heavy dense bushes and half grown saplings. Cole switches his eyes to thermal vision as he increases his altitude with a strong beat of his wings and continues searching for them.

He finds various warm beings. Most of them seem like birds, rabbits, racoons, or deer. The forest has a decent amount of animals hiding in it but after a bit he catches sight of them now heading towards town at a surprisingly quick pace for their size.

Cole smirks as he trails behind them, checking how close to the city he's getting. Eventually they reach the edge of town. Cole quickly notices how close he is to town and nose dives to hopefully avoid anyone recognizing him and lands as he looks around to spot the figure again.

They are headed along one of the sidewalks and go further into town. Cole switches off his thermal vision and furls his wings back into his jacket and starts sprinting after them. They turn into one of the alleyways. Cole follows them into the alleyway as he continues sprinting.

The moment he turns the corner he is standing right infront of them. They are very tall and look down at him with the face of a dark barn owl. His eyes are pitch black and his face is just as obscured with the shadowy coloring.They stare down at Cole without an expression. His voice is low, stern, and precise. Just his presence alone is intimidating and unwavering, "Why are you following me?"

Cole stares back for a couple seconds then gives a dry, "What did you want with Lochlan?"

They respond, "My business with her is personal matters. Whether you are affiliated with her in any way is of no value to me."

Cole continues staring to remember their face, "It starts mattering when you use a fire watch tower for it, I suggest that you stop whatever it is you're doing."

"I'll have you know that tower is supposed to be out of commission for safety reasons. I suggest you stay out of it or lose a tower to a health code violation."

Cole starts glaring as his bones crack and shift as he gets slightly taller, "I suggest you stay the HELL away from Lochlan."

They remain stern, "You have no place here. Now I thought you would be smart enough to not have me repeat myself. This is personal."

Cole's eyes flicker to pink as as he huffs, "Stay away from my tower and we won't have a problem."

His eyebrows raise, "Your tower? Let me guess. Appeared out of nowhere, maybe by the snap of your fingers." He leans in towards Cole's face as his voice is hushed, "Met a dashing man running a bakery? Got a mysterious offer by a Rosey Balakin to stay in an abandoned watch tower? Much like the one you found yourself in?"

Cole's eyes widen slightly as his eyes flicker for a moment, "Oh you're one of those, stalker motherfuckers aren't you?"

The owl returns to standing up right, "If that's what you call a researcher."

Cole rolls his eyes as his bones crack and shift as he returns to his normal height, "Even worse." Cole then starts walking away

The owl doesn't respond and watches him leave before heading their own direction.