"You'd rather let him drown than surrender him to me?" Silvia asked, "I realize you want to keep him away from me, but hat seems a bit extreme if you ask me."
"I didn't ask," Luna replied.
Silvia looked back down into the river once more, "He doesn't have to die! Just let me save him!"
Tanya scoffed at Silvia's plea, "If you really were worried for his welfare then you'd stand aside and let us save him." With Annika able to stand on her own feet, both Luna and Tanya each moved around Silvia in a semicircle pattern until both were on either side of her. Annika was worried about you and confused by the seeming lack of concern for your welfare. But given how protective Luna was of you combined with her oddly calm composure at the mention of your death told her there must have been a plan.
"Malcolm?" Silvia asked, "Are you really okay with this?"
Malcolm merely nodded at his sister before crossing his arms, "I trust their judgement."
Seeing that her initial tactic of appealing to their concern for your welfare wasn't working, Silvia shifted gears, "Do you really think you can stop me?" She asked, "I'm stronger than either one of you."
"But not all of us combined," Malcolm stated.
Silvia raised an eyebrow, "You can't be serious," She chuckled, "Don't you remember what happened the last time we spared."
"I don't claim to be a match for you," Malcolm replied, "But I can render your tails useless," He continued as he fanned his tails out.
"Do you think you can stop both of us at the same time without the use of your tails?" Luna asked. Silvia clenched her fangs as she glared at Luna.
Meanwhile, you had finally stopped sinking as you came to a rest on the riverbed. You tried to move your arms and legs hoping that being submerged in water would make it easier to move along the riverbed. Unfortunately, you very quickly discovered that the riverbed was mostly mud, which made it impossible to do much more than flounder around on the bottom of the river. You struggled for a minute or two before the silt and mud around you clouded you vision. By that time, you were too tired to move anyway. "Well," you thought to yourself, "On the plus side; Silvia didn't get me and I'm not going to drown. On the downside... I'm definitely going to suffocate." Before you could even begin to imagine what terrible death that would be, a silhouette shot between you and the surface of the water briefly blocking out the sunlight. You only able to get a brief glimpse of it as it disappeared from your view. You tried to turn your head to follow its movement. But without power, even the hydraulic joints and pistons that allowed your neck to move your head freely and cushioned the jolts of combat were frozen in place. Without being able to get a clear view of the silhouette you were left to speculate on what it might have been. "It was big," You mused, "Fast and sleek. Seemed powerful too. Definitely had a tail..." You felt chills run down your body as your eyes widened. "Oh my god, Silvia can swim.... That nine tailed witch CAN SWIM!" Less than half a second later, you felt a vibration near your head. Something had touched down on the riverbed near you. Two seconds after that, you felt your arms moving of their own accord as an outside influence lifted you. You felt a slight pressure around your rib cages as your body was lifted upright. Whatever was holding you would have had to been pretty strong to be able to cause the armor to flex with just its hands alone. You first thought that the outside force was trying to crush the armor and pull you out of it like you would crack the shell of a crab to get at the meat. However, this proved to be untrue as you felt your captor kick off of the riverbed before remaining submerged and swimming upstream. Because you couldn't move your head, you couldn't lift it to see where you were going or who had you. All you could see was the river bed moving by at an incredible speed. "I'm sure Silvia is an excellent swimmer, but I doubt that even she could swim this fast," You thought to yourself, "But that still leaves the question, who has me? And an even better question, am I being rescued or captured?"
On the rooftop, the standoff continued between the two Delumas while the younger Deluma's backup held their ground.
"Are you sure this is what you really want?" Silvia asked, "If you fight me here and now there's a good chance that one of you could wind up dead. I won't be pulling any punches just because it's your city."
"What makes you think we won't kill you?" Luna asked.
Silvia smirked, "Because of your high and mighty morals. I'm a businesswoman, I do whatever I have to so that I can achieve my goals. All of you, on the other hand are good people. That means that you try to refrain from acts of violence and inflicting harm on others because of..." Silvia paused as she gestured her hand in the air while arching a brow as if she were waiting for a word to come to her, but at length she shrugged and continued, "Because whatever it is that you people believe."
"And what makes you think we won't kill you in self-defense?" Tanya questioned.
"Oh I sincerely doubt my goody two shoes brother would ever allow that," Silvia laughed,
"You are in his city on the end of his leash aren't you? He wouldn't allow you to kill his only sister. Besides, could you really be responsible for the death of a family member, cousin?"
Tanya frowned, "This goes beyond family ties. You and I were never all that close to begin with anyway."
"I guess that's what you call tough love," Silvia grinned, "But you are hardly capable of stopping me, let alone killing me. And the two that are won't resort to lethal methods, will they?" The vixen asked as she glanced between Malcolm and Luna."
"They will if I order them too," A powerful voice thundered from above. Surprise and fear flashed across Silvia's face as she looked up into the sky to find a green dragon anthro descending from above in a business suit. His wings silently carrying him towards the rooftop, acting as a sort of parachute. He touched down in front of Malcolm, putting himself between the two multi tailed foxes. He was just as tall as Silvia, with a pair of black horns protruding form either side out of the top of his skull. Powerful talons sat on the ends of his fingers and toes, while a regal green tail swayed behind him. He wore a black business suit with a white button up shirt and red tie. His piercing red eyes and slit like pupils cut into Silvia's own gaze as he regarded her with disapproval, "It's been awhile Silvia."
"G-governor?" Silvia stammered, "What are you doing here?" She didn't think it was possible. She could barely believe her eyes. The one thing that could have stopped her, the only obstacle that she had so painstakingly worked to remove, was now right in front of her. What was the board doing?! She wondered. They had one job! She was going to supply them with virtually unlimited power and wealth in return for one, simple task! And they failed!
"Surprised to see me?" The reptile asked, "I suppose I would be too, given that the board did everything in their power to keep me away. And I admit... It took quite a bit of work for me to get here. But I'm here now."
"Governor Kaln, I-I was merely here on business to reclaim a runaway captive who illegally entered m-my city. I simply-"
"Close. Your. Mouth," The Governor ordered.
"B-but sir!"
"Enough! I'm talking now!"
"Yes sir..." The mayor begrudgingly replied.
"I'm going to make this as clear as I possibly can," Kaln continued, "You, Silvia Deluma will leave this city. You will do so immediately. You will not come back without my exclusive permission. If you do I promise that I will strip you of all of your resources and put you to work scrubbing ships at the harbor. If you send another mercenary, dirty cop, or agent of any kind to this city ever again and I hear about it; and trust me, I will hear about it. I'll make sure you spend the rest of your life in the Aquatraz."
Shock ran across Silvia's face, "You can't do that! You don't have the authority!"
"No," The governor confessed, "But I know a few people who do. And they owe me a couple of favors, and none of them like you." The governor replied. Silvia scowled at the Governor with skepticism. In response to her challenge, the governor marched up to Silvia until they were snout to snout. "Don't believe me? Try me." Silvia and the governor held their gaze for a few tense moments before the governor added one last statement to his threat, "Just so that there's no confusion or misinterpretation I will offer this warning. If you resist I will give he order to capture with any means necessary, and while I don't expect Malcolm to kill you I don't think he'll have a problem restraining you. But make no mistake, if you endanger the lives of Commander Barker or your cousin, they are both authorized to neutralize you and if they won't or can't... I will. Do you understand and will you comply?" As the governor finished his sentence four snow leopards came up the stairs wearing black masks, tactical vests and gray cargo pants. They held their position on the far corner of the rooftop as they awaited the governor's orders. "That wasn't a rhetorical question, Ms. Deluma. I need an answer."