A sudden splash of hot, brown liquid streamed and filled into what seemed like a lonely white porcelain mug, patiently waiting for the substance that quickly filled it to the brim. A couple of drops lingered from the source shortly after it had ceased, splashing gently onto the surface, only to be absorbed by the rest of the drink in a rippling pattern. The sides of the now-warm vessel were met, quite gently, by a pair of small, white paws; its fingers and thumbs had a sudden fade to black at the extremities. The mug was then rotated a bit as a couple of the fingers curled and nestled within the handle, pulling it up to its owners mouth. A white wolf-like muzzle greeted the rim as the creature carefully took a sip of the hot brew for a few seconds. The canine then opened its eyes as it lowered the mug back to its place on the table. There was a clear mark of heterochromia in this one as its left eye was blue and right eye was green. A pair of goggles rested atop the wolf's head between its ears, sporting black nuclear hazard symbols against a magenta backdrop. White bangs of its head fluff came between the goggles and ran up along the top of the head, creating a sort of pseudo mohawk. A white fluffy tail idly swayed from one direction to the next, having the same sudden change to black near its tip much like its paws. The canine's frame and figure overall suggested it was a male, as was rightly the case for this creature. His remaining attire was simple: black t-shirt, blue pants and footwear, and a black leather collar adorned with silver spikes. He didn't particularly wear blue much, but he happened to not have anything else clean.

The wolf took a moment, staring down into his steamy beverage for a long while; he always did enjoy his coffee. This was probably one of the few times he could find peace from the chaos that seemed to follow him with every step. Even so, a small smirk came over his face as he briefly came across a realization; a thought that he always held onto that helped him remember how fortunate he was as of late.

“Shiro?” a distorted, electronic voice called from the far side of the room.

One of the wolf's ears perked at the sound of his own name, promptly turning his head to the source. Looking over now, Shiro could make out a droid of sorts that had a simple humanoid shape. It was mostly made of a red metallic shell and had a single optic “eye” that stared on coldly with a bright green hue. The droid's limbs had a primitive coiled appearance and its hands and feet were blocky, but functional. The torso had some minute details to it, an occasional round port here, a short series of lights there, but otherwise maintained the same uniform red color as the rest of it. The droid stood idly at the doorway to the place, a small diner of sorts with no current occupancy other than the two at the given moment.

After taking in the appearance of the droid and not recognizing it nor understanding what it could possible want, Shiro quirked a brow in question. “Can I help you...?” his soft, silvery voice asked.

The droid's eye flickered for a moment, then he gestured off to his side as a holograph of Shiro's own profile came up with several lines of descriptor text accompanying it, proceeding to explain, “You have been identified as being associated with the Shards of Fire. A rebel group who has been known for their notoriety among several galaxies.”

Shiro sighed as he replied with a hint of contempt, “Look, it's true that I was once associated with them, but not anymore. I didn't have much of a choice in the matter when I was young. But, I'm trying to break free of that past life now--”

“You are to be taken into custody until further decision can be made as to your fate.” the droid interrupted rather suddenly and with complete disregard to the wolf's statement.

Shiro lowered his head to the table, his muzzle protruding past its edge. “Are you kidding me?” he asked in annoyed disbelief. “Look, I'm telling you, I have nothing more to do with them. I just want to be left alone and lead a new life away from that bullshit.”

The droid still insisted as it walked over to Shiro, demanding still, “You will come with me immediately. Failure to comply will result in necessary force and restraint.”

Shiro peered an eye out at the bot with sharp intent. He suddenly stood up and quickly approached the droid, landing his paws upon its shoulders, then hurled himself into the air, up and over the droid in a flip-jump, landing on the opposite side of him before glancing back right afterwards, “Like hell I am...” Without delay, he immediately put his front paws to the floor and thrusted both of his feet right into the droids back, sending it flying into the opposite end of the room, causing it to crash right into a wall. The droid spoke out with garbled gibber for a moment before sliding down to the floor. Shiro quickly stood up, beginning to run off, glancing back at the droid for a few seconds to ensure his safety, then peered on ahead as he dashed into a blaze from the diner.

The droid struggled for a moment, shaking about violently as it managed to stand back up and regain itself. “Alert! Target has escaped! Moving out to intercept target! Must not escape! High threat!”

Shiro panted gently as he ran along down the sidewalk of the street the diner was on, already being several feet away from it. He looked around quickly, trying to find alleys, streets, something that he could turn off of to try to lose this droid. He perked his ears as he found such an alley, stopping quickly to head into it. The droid suddenly rushes out of the diner and quickly runs the same direction Shiro was headed. Its eye scanned about wildly, trying to track down the white wolf.

“Detecting trace signatures of target. Following!” the droid called out as it turned also in the same alley Shiro went down.

Shiro glanced back, noticing the bot had just entered the area he was in. “Fuck!” he exclaimed in panic as he turned down a corner. He tried to keep out of site of the droid, continuing along as fast as his feet could carry him.

A moment later, the droid turned the corner to continue the pursuit, “Attempting to detect further heat signatures...” The droid suddenly stopped in its tracks, confused as it glanced about, “Error...heat signatures have...suddenly st--” Its words were suddenly cut off as it glanced up, just catching the last second of Shiro jumping down towards it from on high.

The droid suddenly falls forward from the impact as Shiro quickly slapped a small device onto its back and quickly tapped at some wrist display on his arm. “Time to target and detain yourself, ass!” With that, he quickly jumped off of it and continued running along.

The droid reached an arm out from its helpless position on the ground, shrieking out almost seemingly in pain, “EEERRRIIIIIEEE!!” The droid then suddenly explodes as sparks and parts of its body fly in several directions, leaving nothing left but a scattered heap of metallic scrap.

Shiro glanced behind himself with a panted grin, chuckling out at his accomplishment before returning his focus back ahead.

The blaring klaxon of alarms could be heard now around the area. Shiro quickly became alert as he heard this and found himself entering a clearing back to the streets. He paused in shock, stopping in his tracks as he saw the sight of a dozen or so droids circling him. He peered behind and saw a couple come from the alley he was just in as well. He was completely surrounded.

“Surrender immediately!” one of the droids exclaimed. “You have been charged for association with The Shards of Fire, resisting arrest, and the assault and destruction of a police droid. You have one chance to give yourself up, or we will be forced to use extreme measures!”

Shiro splayed his ears as his brows narrowed. He didn't like this at all, but he realized he had no choice at this point, “Dammit...fine...I surrender.”

The evident “leader” droid stepped forward towards Shiro, “Good, your cooperation is appreciated. It's too bad you didn't do so initially. Now your charges against you will be multiplied for what you did here today.”

“Enough!” cried out a low and guttural voice from the distance.

Shiro and all the droids turned heads as they looked for the source of the shout. A tall dark figure slowly approached the circle of droids. It was leonine in nature with thick, black fur covering most of its visible body, with the exception of some gray details on its muzzle and around the eyes. Further more, a bright red mane and tail tuft accentuated against the creature's dark fur. Bright, glowing, deep blue irides made up its eyes that could catch one's attention especially as they seemed to suspend themselves in a void against a black tapestry. This odd-looking male lion's body was covered in fairly modern attire, wearing a dark blue shirt with glowing red outlines and a pair of fingerless gloves to match. He also wore a pair of gray shorts that complimented the gray parts of his fur and claws. Finally, strapped to his back was an ornate staff that seemed just as modern in appearance as the rest of him.

“Who are you?” the leader droid asked. “What right do you have interrupting this engagement?”

Shiro's eyes lit up as he smiled a bit with comfort, whispering out to himself, “Master...”

The dark feline pushed a couple of the droids aside as he entered the circle, approaching the leader. “I am Arctacia Zol, and this is my pet, Shiro. Any problem you have with him, you bring up to me. I would like to know what exactly is transpiring here.” he stated as he came to a pause before the droid.

The droid proceeded to explain, “Shiro has been charged with having association to The Shards of Fire, a rogue--”

“I am aware of his past associations with that group.” Arctacia interrupted. “Such circumstances at the time were beyond his control. He has severed his relations with them a long time ago. Yet, here you are demanding his arrest over what? He has done nothing wrong here. All you're doing is over-zealously upholding your own laws over nothing of circumstance to your own planet.”

“Even if what you say is true,” the droid replied. “The resistance of arrest followed by assault and destruction of a droid is not something to be ignored.”

“What...?” Arctacia asked in disbelief, then glanced back at Shiro for answers.

Shiro shamefully glanced down, “It's true, sir.” He then lifted his head as he tried to explain further, “But that damn thing wouldn't leave me the hell alone. I tried to explain much like you did about how I left The Shards of Fire and no longer wanted to associate myself with them. I didn't think it was fair how I was treated.”

Arctacia sighed, “I wish you would have cooperated with them a bit, but I can understand where you're coming from.” He then turned his attention back to the leader droid, “Especially since you obviously lack a little thing called social tact. Maybe you should have been programmed with that from the start. It might actually help in more diplomatic situations such as this.”

“We have heard enough,” the droid replied. “You will let us take Shiro into custody or you will share his fate for associating with this culprit.”

Arctacia shook his head, “No, I want you to bring your superior here this moment so I can have this sorted out right away. This has gone too far.”

“Negative,” the droid replied. “Shiro will be taken into custody and now you will share his fate as well. Surrender immediately or force will be taken upon you.”

Arctacia stepped forward and held his paw up towards the droid leader, “I don't think you heard me. I asked you to bring your superior here so we can sort this out.” As he spoke, the droid began to shake as its voice began to become garbled, as if some invisible force was affecting it.

“Y-y....I...th-th-this is...viIIIioolllaaAAttion... P-p-please s-s-stoooOOOOoop...” the droid leader struggled to respond as Arctacia was clearly affecting it somehow.

The other droids stood forward in demand, “Stop! You are violating government property! You have five seconds to comply or we will have you disabled!”

Arctacia glanced about as he lowered his paw and backed away a little, then reached back with his other paw as he pulled his staff into it. He quickly gripped onto it with the other paw as he slammed the end of it down into the ground, causing a strange shock-wave of sorts to surge from it, “RRRAAUGH!!” All of the droids immediately flew back a couple feet as they all became disabled. Arcs of electricity and spark generated from their helpless bodies as they quivered about where they lay.

Shiro ran over to Arctacia as he looked at the disabled droids, “Master!” He quickly hugged at Arctacia's side and closed his eyes in relief.

“Come on, puppy.” Arctacia said softly. “Let's get the hell out of here.” He rested an arm tightly around Shiro as he began to levitate softly off the ground, then took to their air as they headed towards the roof tops.

A moment later, the two landed on top of a roof of a really tall building, overlooking a sunset that was taking place. Arctacia gently let Shiro go as he landed softly on his feet and smiled as he gazed upon the sunset, shielding his eyes from it with his hand like a visor at his brow, “That's quite beautiful, isn't it?”

Shiro looked on and smiled as he nodded, “It is, sir.” He then sighed out and lowered his head, “I'm sorry I caused so much trouble today.”

Arctacia took a seat near the ledge of the roof and motioned Shiro over to sit nearby, “It's fine, my pet. I'll try to get this whole thing sorted out with them later. They really need to work on their law enforcement here. Using emotionless bots may seem like a good idea in some cases. But, it doesn't work for all.”

Shiro sat beside the leonine creature, looking down below at the activity of vehicles and people, seeming so small from this distance, “I hope so.” He then peered over from where they came in thought, “I wish I never got involved with that damn group...but they were all I had. But, it's been coming back and haunting me even though I'm trying so hard to start a new life.”

Arctacia smiled softly and rested a paw at Shiro's back in comfort, “Hey, I know you're doing what you can, and I'm certainly helping where I can as well. You're my puppy. I wouldn't want you to feel like you're going nowhere. I'm here for you; we're here for each other, in fact.”

Shiro smiled as he nodded a bit, glancing down in thought still, “You know...I was thinking that just before this whole thing got started. I'm really lucky to have you in my life. I wouldn't want that to ever change.” He then glanced up at Arctacia softly and grinned, but then suddenly looked a mix of annoyed and amused, “I never did finish that coffee...”

Arctacia chuckled out as he held Shiro close, “I'm sure we'll get you a new one. And I can certainly say the same for you for how important you are to me. I don't want you to ever forget that.”

“Rurr! Thank you, sir.” Shiro replied. “I definitely won't forget.”

The two gently leaned against one another as they watched the sunset for awhile. Today was just one adventure of many the two and their group of friends would go on. But what other places and encounters would they would find? Well, that's for another tale.