Chapter 5: Uncle With A Shotgun

“I didn’t do anything! Peter asked me to stay here!” Alopex growled at Jacob, who was still pointing his shotgun at the mutant.

Pete had to do something, if he didn’t then this would certainly end in disaster “Wait! Uncle Jack, please listen to me. I know how this looks but are you really going to shoot her like this?” The teenager appealed to the man. He knew that his uncle wanted to protect him, but he had to show that there was nothing that he needed to be protected from.

Jacob adjusted his position, taking a few steps toward the two, but still maintaining a safe distance “I don’t know what she’s capable of. Maybe if I drop my gun she’ll jump at me and tear my throat out!” He yelled, keeping his focus on the mutant.

Peter decided enough was enough and slowly stepped in front of the fox girl, who immediately lowered her guard. “I’m not going to let you hurt her, so drop the gun and let’s talk!” He was taking a stand against his own family now. Desperately hoping that this would prove that there was no danger here.

The shotgun wielder’s hand was almost shaking at this point, his finger no longer right on the trigger, afraid of accidentally shooting his nephew “Peter… please, don’t make this harder than it already is…”

He could see the hesitation in his uncle’s eyes, the situation had been defused for now “It’s not hard at all. Put the gun down… please”

Jacob looked at the fox, she merely stared back while keeping a stern expression. He didn’t like the idea of putting his gun down, but there was no longer any choice “...Fine”

“Thank you” The boy said, relieved that they could all have a proper conversation now, and hopefully realize how foolish the whole situation was. “Look guys we got off on the wrong foot, so why don’t we reintroduce ourselves. Alopex, this is my uncle, Mr. Jacob Manners, he owns the family gas stop with my dad and is basically my boss. Uncle Jack, this is my friend Alopex, she’s a Teenage Mutant Ninja Arctic Fox! Pretty cool right?”

The two simply looked at each other in silence for a few seconds “Peter, I don't think this is going to work…” The fox finally spoke, realizing that maybe this wasn’t the place for her.

Mr. Manners was keeping his shotgun steady at his side and ready to let loose until that point. But seeing the Mutant realize what he had been thinking himself helped him feel much more relieved “Well, there’s one thing we agree on! This is not happening Pete” 

This was bad, things were about to head back to square one. Alopex would leave forever and now there was an added bonus of disappointing his own uncle “Oh come on! Just because she looks different you’re going to judge her like this?”

Jacob couldn’t help but find this entire conversation absurd, why was he defending her so much anyway? “She’s not even human! You’re telling me a-”

“Careful what you call me…” Alopex quickly interrupted. She could tell he was ready to insult her, and she didn’t like it one bit.

“...Mutant shows up bloody and beaten and your first instinct is to patch her up and become friends with her? Peter, that's crazy!” The shotgun wielder realized antagonizing her would only escalate the situation further. So he pivoted towards his nephew in an attempt to make him realize the absurdity of his plan. 

Peter was frustrated, he saw someone in need and decided to do something about it, and now was being lectured about how that was actually the wrong decision to make. “She needed help, was I supposed to ignore her? Or try to scare her off? Or… Shoot her?”

“No… you… alright, I get it. How the hell were you even going to explain this to anyone?” Jacob asked. At this point he was starting to understand what drove Pete to help that Fox Girl, but it didn’t make him any more comfortable with the thought of letting her stay.

“I was planning on introducing her to my sister today and to my parents during dinner sunday night” The boy spoke, looking defeated.

For a moment he was about to ask his nephew if he had actually said that, he couldn’t believe his ears “Peter… ARE YOU INSANE!?” Peter jumped from his Uncle’s angry yell, while anger formed in Alopex’s eyes over his attitude.

“I thought you guys weren’t going to have a problem with her… she’s nice… don’t judge a book by its cover y'know?” Peter had completely deflated after recovering from his initial shock, he didn’t think things would be this hard. Maybe if his uncle actually understood the situation the mutant was in he wouldn’t act like this.

“She was ready to attack me!” Jacob was giving Pete a pretty bad lecture now, hoping that it would somehow magically solve his issues.

Alopex took a step towards the middle-aged man, who kept his hand tight on his gun, ready to point at her again. “Only because you pointed a gun at us! I had to protect your own nephew from your stubbornness” The vixen’s words made him question his actions. In the heat of the moment he endangered Peter out of fear, that’s not something he should’ve ever done.

Still, he wasn’t about to let someone tell him how to do things, his pride wouldn’t allow it. “Don’t tell me how I'm supposed to protect my family!”

Peter couldn’t take it anymore “BOTH OF YOU STOP!” he screamed out, instantly defusing the fight. “...Why don’t we find some common ground and keep going from there?” This was his last chance to make them see they didn’t have to be enemies.

“Fine…” Alopex and Jacob said, almost in unison. They both looked ashamed of going around in circles with passive aggressive fighting. 

This was his chance. The teenage boy attempted to find an easy question for them as a way of finally settling things “Alopex, what kinds of movies do you like?”

“Well, I… haven't really watched many movies. Mostly just overhearing others talking about them while training. But I saw a bit of a Gamera movie once, it was fun…” Al sounded sad, digging up her past again wasn’t exactly what she wanted to do but it was necessary now. 

“What do you mean by training?” Jacob asked, curious as to what exactly did someone like her even train for. Especially considering her existence wasn’t public knowledge.

She stared at her paws for a few moments while thinking of what to say next “It’s what I did, I trained and trained for when they needed someone like me to handle a problem. By any means necessary” 

Now the man was even more curious “Who’s they?”

“My… previous “associates”, a ninja clan I once called family. I left them once I realized how evil they truly were, and as Peter attested to, almost got killed in the process” There was a mix of determination and frustration in her voice. Alopex hoped she wouldn’t have to repeat this routine with the rest of Pete’s family.

“Wow… Are you really only a teenager?” She nodded in response to his question “You spent all your life fighting and training for these people?” Now the aging gas station clerk felt pity for her. She was used by others and left all alone, that wouldn’t be fair to anyone. Peter only wanted to do the right thing by helping her and he threatened to shoot her in response. “Earlier I overheard someone here talk about killing anyone that did… Well, something. I'm guessing that you were talking about these people that tried to kill you”.

She looked at him with sad eyes. He was misinterpreting her talk with Pete about killing people while working with the Foot Clan, but correcting him seemed like the wrong decision. Peter gave her a reassuring smile, maybe bending the truth wouldn’t hurt “Yes, I… can’t turn back time and change my past, but… Pete told me that maybe I could have a home here, and maybe help from people that see me as more than a tool”

Jacob couldn’t bear the dawning realization brought on by what he was hearing, this creature was some lost girl his nephew befriended. She was only trying to defend herself and he almost shot her, but now he was going to make things right “...there’s a spare room in my house, you can stay there until we decide what we’re doing next” 

Peter was relieved, it worked! Finally he had someone on his side “Thank you, so much Uncle Jack! You won’t regret this.” he said with a large grin on his face. Both his Uncle and Alopex now looked decently happy, maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all

The 3 headed out of the clearing trying to hide behind the trees so they wouldn’t get spotted by anyone looking out the main house. Making their way towards the one story home Jacob resided in. Fate was finally looking up for Al and Pete, unfortunately, this wasn’t meant to last.

“We’re going to talk more about this later, this is a temporary solution” The uncle whispered, Peter heard it loud and clear. Meanwhile the fox pretended that she didn’t understand his hushed tone to give the two a bit of privacy, hoping that they would solve their issues soon.

Suddenly a chill went through her spine, someone was watching her from afar. Yet the moment she scanned the area there was no observer to be seen, so she continued on her path. Still remaining on high alert as the trees around her rustled from the winds.

Though one of said trees was different, as in its branches stood an ethereal being, a projection of a powerful witch invisible to even Alopex’s trained mutant eyes. Planning her next step as the trio walked away, while the Shredder was busy dealing with mutant turtles and aliens, she would wait for the perfect time to strike and recover her old pawn. After all, Kitsune couldn’t risk losing such a valuable asset, and who knows, maybe one of these humans would prove to be useful as well.