Thanks to doskel for proofreading and summarizing this one!
Lir hops off the train, taking a few moments to stare at the massive seven-segment clock on the wall. Noting that he is incredibly late to work, he darts into the restroom.
He inspects his fluff in the mirror, re-poofing it with his hands after noticing how disastrous it looks. As he stands there, combing his hair with his fingers, he sees a fox step into the bathroom, breathless. Panting, the fox stumbles to a sink beside Lir. He appears to be wearing some sort of black naval commander uniform, with a golden three-striped hexagon badge. Lir also realizes that he's not a man.
"Hey, uh..." Lir says, nervously, as the stranger washes her gloved hands in the sink for some ungodly reason, "I think you have the wrong bathroom."
"What makes you say that?" she asks, flinging water quite literally everywhere in an attempt to dry her hands. "Well, it says 'boyses' on the sign outside, and... nevermind. Sorry to bother you." Lir says, stumbling over his own words in an anxious fit.
"Well, good talk." she says, walking towards the door. Lir watches in the mirror as she stops behind him, before grabbing his arms and twisting them behind his back.
"OW!" he shouts, almost falling to the ground. The stranger zip-ties his wrists together.
"Did I just dislocate your shoulder?" she asks, displaying real concern. "I THINK SO!" he screams, "NOW COULD YOU STOP?"
"Nup, sorry." she responds, before punching Lir square in the face.
Lir wakes up in a supply closet, his wrists still zip-tied together. He hears voices arguing with each other in the room outside the closet, and rolls over to investigate.
"THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME!" a familiar voice bellows, followed by another voice screaming incoherently back. "WHAT?" the fox screams, followed by the other one hollering "ARGIE, ARE YOU FUCKING BLIND!?"
Nervous about the raised voices, Lir tries to roll back, but accidentally bumps his elbow against the door. "Shit." Argie whispers.
The closet door flies open, and Lir rolls back to his safe little corner, cowering from the slightly-less-than-menacing fox.
"Are you okay? Do you have a headache? Need a drink?" she asks in quick succession.
"My head hurts... and I'm too scared to ask for water." Lir groans.
"Why?" Argie asks, confused. "I don't like thinking about how I'd drink, with my hands stuck together like this..." Lir replies. "We have these things called 'straws', you know." Argie says.
Lir nods. "Well, I'll be back then." she says, leaving the closet door open, albeit only slightly, as she leaves.
A badger leans in, peeking at Lir, who is now shivering slightly less. The badger steps into the closet and the two make eye contact. He's wearing the same uniform as the fox.
"Hey, you. How are you holding up?" he asks, kindly.
"I can't feel my arms, and my head hurts like fuck." the lamb groans. "Could you.. untie my hands, maybe? It's not like I can run."
"I'd have to talk to Argie, and she'd probably say no..." the badger says. Lir studies the badge on the badger's black denim jacket, which is silver and only has two stripes, with a red cross in the hexagon.
"Are... are you a medic?" Lir asks. "Yep." the badger replies.
"What's your name?"
"It's Tezro," the badger says, grabbing a pair of wire cutters from his toolbelt. "And the fox is Argie, and you'll probably meet Scoot later."
"How many of you are there?" Lir asks, concerned, as Tezro snips the zip-tie. "Just us three, and you now, I guess." Tezro answers, annoyed with Lir's constant questions.
"So are you guys like... military?" he inquires,
"State of Utah, yep." the badger says, proudly. "Special forces, too."
"Special forces? State of Utah? Why does Utah have special forces? Are you joking? What th-" Lir rambles, interrupted by Tezro sticking his hand over Lir's mouth. "I've already told you too much..." he whispers, somewhat terrified.
"Mmm!" Lir shouts, gesturing vaguely at the door. Tezro lets go of him and stands up.
Argie enters the room grasping a bottle of water with an absurdly long neon pink silly straw floating in it. She passes it to Lir, and quickly notices that his hands are no longer bound.
"Wha- TEZ!" she shouts. "What?" Tezro responds.
"Why'd you cut the tie?" she asks, frustrated. "He's not gonna cause any problems! We had a talk. Jus- just calm down..." he responds, anxiously.
She simply nods. She looks like she's about to say something, but before she can, a raccoon enters the closet, wearing the exact same uniform with a slightly different badge. The hexagon contains no pictograph, much like Argie's, but has only one stripe and is bronze in color. That must be Scoot, Lir thinks to himself.
Scoot adjusts his glasses and clears his throat. "We have 24 hours to either put one between his eyes or recruit him." he says.
"Why?" Tezro asks, slightly upset. "They don't want him going out and ratting." Scoot replies.
Tezro turns to face Lir, who is at this point sweating profusely. "Do you wanna join us?" Tezro asks. "I mean, either way, you'll never see your family again, but at least you'll have... us?" Tezro says, turning around to face his fellow officers (who look very unamused.)
Lir pauses for a moment, then frowns. "Well, I guess I don't have much of a choice..."
"Well, that's his vote." Argie says. "What about you, Tez?"
"I'm down." he says, unsure of himself.
"I just don't really care," Scoot says in a sort of tired voice.
"Hm. Neither do I." Argie says. "He can stay, I guess."
Lir perks up a little. "My family hates me anyways."
"Well, uhh, sheep-guy, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendsh- OW!" Tezro yelps, interrupted by Scoot elbowing him in the side.
"What's his name, anyways?" Scoot asks.
"Lirb," Lir responds, "but please call me Lir. That's ELL-EYE-ARR and pronounced like 'leer'.""
"So, Lirb it is!" Scoot says. "Alright, SCOOTIE." Tezro snickers. Scoot elbows him again.
"Something tells me I'm training him," Argie groans. Tezro and Scoot whistle as they leave the closet. She sighs and follows them, with Lir following shortly behind. As a courtesy, he flips the light switch on the way out.
(to be continued.)