Hey guys! Sorry about the temporary haitus that AWOL has taken. I'll try to get the next chapter up ASAP. I just needed a rest from it because, frankly, I'm running low on fuel and need to replenish myself ^^

Anyway, this is my next fanfic, Devil After Dark, or more commonly known as D.A.D ^^ It, like AWOL, is classified as an HTF fanfiction, but, unlike AWOL, only a few of the actual HTF characters will make an appearance, mostly as cameos, food, and just all around pointless, yet oh so amusing, blood and gore ^^

This story originally aired on my Deviantart account (which I frequent, I may add). All of the chapters will first make their appearance on dA, then they'll be posted here.

A massive clap of thunder shook the area as lightning flashed through the sky, lighting up a sea of boiling clouds. Hazardously, a figure flew, on a pair of dark feathered wings, through the sky, his head twisting this way and that as he tried to catch sight of the one pursuing him.

Suddenly, from his right, came a dark shape. A shudder of pain passed through him as the shape crashed into him, sending him spiraling. The shape clung to him, shoving the blade of a katana deep into his stomach.

With a snarl, he lashed out, feeling his claws slash through the flesh of the face of the shape. An enraged snarl greeted his actions and he felt the katana get twisted around, sending a fiery jolt through him. He yelled out in pain, gasping as the blade was yanked forcefully out of his stomach. A voice cut through the air, crashing harshly against his ears.

"Time to d-!" The voice was suddenly drowned out as thunder clapped nearby and a bolt of lightning streaked out of a cloud, illuminating the two figures, one being blue green and the other a dark midnight blue.

The bolt streaked at the darker colored figure, striking the katana blade with a crash. The fur of the darker creature stood on end as his eyes went wide. The teal creature flapped away quickly, but soon realized he was loosing altitude quickly. Finally, after his long, strenuous flight, his energy had finally slipped away as the wound on his stomach refused to heal itself.

Before he lost consciousness, he felt himself pitch downward sharply and freefall, darkness clouding his vision as he blacked out.

The second figure recovered flight and sight quickly. He cast his eyes about, looking for his target, but soon realized, as lightning flashed by him, that it was too dangerous to continue searching and, with a flick of a wing, turned and quickly vanished.

The sun rose slowly into the sky, casting it's pale rays over a large city. Sho looked to the east and shielded his grayish blue eyes against the light, flinching slightly. His stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn't eaten anything since the morning before.

The Akita rubbed his stomach ruefully. For all seven years of his short life, Sho could always remember being hungry...at least for as far as he could remember. He sighed and looked around, hoping to find something, anything, to eat. Seeing nothing, he continued, his curled tail straight and almost dragging the ground.

"Z and Razor'll be worried 'bout me if I don't get back soon..." He muttered to himself as he continued walking, his legs weary from his wanderings.

He walked past the front of a shop and looked at the window. His reflection stared back at him. His white fur, with it's grayish Tora-ge markings, was now dirty from crawling into spaces, either in search of something, or as a way of escape. His clothing, a tattered green t-shirt and ripped light blue shorts, were no better.

"Hey you!" Sho jerked his head up and saw a light blue badger standing in front of the door, his arms crossed. "Go on, get out of here, you're bad for business!" He said, an annoyed note in his voice, as he pointed in the direction Sho was originally headed.

Sho frowned and growled, his paws clenching angrily. "I wasn't even doing anything..." Sho muttered angrily, glaring at the badger

The badger sniffed airily and replied. "You'll scare away all my customers! That's all that riff-raff like you are good for."

Sho sank his fangs into his bottom lip, his ears almost pressed flat to his head. "I'm not riff-raff..." He replied quietly, a snarl nearly spicing his words.

"What else could you possibly be? Tattered clothing, no shoes, covered in dirt and grim, and wandering the streets when you should be sleeping. You have no parents too! You're just riff-raff through and through!" The badger growled, shaking a claw at Sho. "You'll never amount to anything!" Again he pointed away from the shop. "Now get the hell away from here!"

The Akita growled, but continued on his way, glaring all the while at the badger, who nodded and headed back in, slamming the door shut. Sho gritted his fangs and faced forward, storming angrily away with his arms crossed.

"Stupid badger..." He growled to himself as he started to pass an alleyway. "One day I'll..." He suddenly blinked and turned his head, sniffing the air. "Blood..." He whispered as he slowly turned, facing the alley, and stared hard.

Sticking out from the side of a large green trash container, was a dark furred tail. Sho stared at it, then cautiously walked forward, keeping his eyes on the tail. Soon, with each step, the whole creature came into view.

He was a blue green Varg ferret with teal paws, tail tip, and mask. He wore a black trench coat, with a navy blue inside, over top of a red shirt and black jeans, and dark brown boots. There was a tear on his shirt, around his stomach region and the fabric around it seemed to be of a darker red than the rest of the shirt. Suddenly, Sho's eyes locked on to a large gold watch, which hung around the ferret's neck on a sky blue lanyard.

Sho gulped and looked from the watch to the ferret's face, which appeared to be frozen in a closed-mouth grimace of pain. Slowly, the Akita extended a paw, reaching for the watch.

No sooner did he touch a claw to the watch, did the ferret come to. His eyes, a strange blue/green/yellow tricolor, snapped open and turned aggressively towards Sho while a hand wrapped around his wrist, squeezing in a vice-like grip.

Sho's eyes went wide as the ferret bared his fangs, two of which were unusually long, and snarled, but seemed to suddenly lose strength and, with a groan, flopped back limply against a garbage bag, his breathing hoarse and shallow. Sho backed up as the ferret's eyes landed on him, looking slightly under his own...at his neck, with a strange hunger flaring in them.

A sudden ray of sunlight flashed into the alley, casting it's light over the ferret's paw. He flinched, his mouth working strangely, letting out several hisses in pain, as his paw started smoking and blackening slowly. The ferret turned his eyes, glazing in pain, to the direction the ray was coming from. Within the next thirty minutes, the sun's light about be fully on him. He tried to lift himself up, but flopped back limply with a pain filled groan.

Sho licked his lips nervously and stepped forward, carefully approaching the ferret.

"H-hey, are you okay, mister?" He asked shakily.

The ferret turned his eyes back to Sho. A low hiss rose from his throat. "Leave me alone..."

Sho took a nervous breath and extended a hand. "Are you oka-?"

Angrily, the ferret lashed out, smacking Sho's hand away with the back of his own. "I said leave me alone!" He snarled nastily, but he groaned and flopped back limply again, exhausted from the outburst. He closed his eyes and bared his fangs in pain as his hand continued burning.

Sho looked around the alley, then back to the ferret, then around the alley again. Suddenly, he locked his eyes on a tarp that laid discarded in the way back. Quickly, he ran over to it, feeling the ferret's gaze burning into the back of his neck.

Clumsily, Sho snatched up the tarp and drug it over to the pained ferret, laying it over him. As soon as the hand of the ferret was out of the light, it stopped smoking, but kept a slightly blackened look.

"Okay..." Sho spoke to himself "all I need to do is get him back..." Again, he looked around the alley, casting about for something to help him get the strange ferret back to where he lived with his brother, Z, and their friend, Razor.

The Akita breathed out a sigh of relief as he found just what he was looking for. Next to a door, filled to the brim with trash, was a wheeled garbage can, just big enough for the ferret to fit in. Sho ran over to it, then hesitated, looking around cautiously. Then, he rushed at it and threw his body against it, knocking it on it's side and causing the garbage to spill out.

Sho grimaced as he crawled inside, clawing at the foul mess until the container was free of garbage, even though the scent still clung to it. As quick as he could, Sho drug the can over to the ferret. The Akita scratched his head in confusion.

"Now what...?" He asked himself as he looked between the covered ferret and the container. With a shrug of his thin shoulder, Sho approached the ferret and started tugging at him. Surprisingly, Sho found the Varg relatively light and easily to move.

Finally, after a few minutes of tugging, Sho succeeded in getting the ferret into the can. Sho looked in at the ferret, only to be met by his eyes staring agitatedly back at him. Sho gave a nervous smile and gripped the lid.

"Just until I get you to my brother, alright?" Before the ferret could even attempt to reply, Sho shut the lid and started wheeling the can out of the alley and back to where he stayed.

"No, you can't get it open with wire!" Razor, a dark green dog with orange eyes, said to Z, a white Akita with a black 'z' shaped mark on his face under his right eye.

Z looked up from his work, an annoyed look in his eyes. "Well what do you suggest I do?" Several minutes ago, Razor and himself has just returned from searching for food. For several days, they had only been able to gather a few things: an apple, a buck and a half, a half filled bottle of water, but today, their luck had finally changed.

Razor was ecstatic at their haul. Z had been able to grab a suitcase from a Varg while Razor distracted him. Of course, they had to get out of there the second they did, for the Varg had come running after them, screaming his head off.

Z turned and looked at his brother. "Hey Sho, come and-" He cut himself off when he saw Sho trying, once again, to feed the strange ferret a spoonful of oatmeal, which Z had been able to steal that morning.

The ferret kept this head turned, ignoring Sho as his eyes stared blankly at nothing in particular. Sho held the spoon close to his mouth encouragingly, but was blatantly ignored.

Z sighed and looked down just in time. Razor had come out of nowhere with a large rock in both hands, slamming it down on the suitcase locks, barely giving Z any time to pull his claws away.

"Oi! Be carefu-!" His shout was cut off by the shout of joy that Razor gave out.

"YES!!! Look at it all!" He yelled happily as he reached down and grabbed a handful of money and looked at it in wonder, his eyes flashing.

Z felt his mouth drop open at the sight of all the cash that was before him. He shook his head, dumbfounded.

"This is just...wow..." He looked up and smiled as he watched Razor toss a large handful into the air and dance around as the money fluttered to the ground around him.

"We could even get a house with this!" Razor yelped happily as his tail wagged in joy.

"Or you could put it back and save your life." Came a dangerous voice and the sound of a gun being cocked. Z and Razor slowly turned, staring in horror at the owner of the suitcase. He glared at them. "But it all back in, you filthy punks..."

Razor gulped, then reached down but, instead of cash, he grabbed a rock.

"Take this!" He yelled as he threw the rock at the Varg, striking him in the gut. The Varg doubled over with an 'oof'.

"Run Razor!" Z yelled as he stood up and bolted.

Sho watched in horror as the Varg recovered and aimed at Z, firing. Z gave a cry and toppled forward, skidding to a halt and laid still, groaning in pain. Sho's eyes widened as the gun was turned to him.

"You. Go and get the other one, or I'll kill you," He jerked his head at Z "him, and then I'll hunt the other one down and kill him too."

Sho gulped, frozen. The Varg glared at him.

"Well, get going!!!" He cocked his gun to show he meant business.

Sho ran, fear aiding to his flight, as he rushed after Razor.

The Varg glared after him, then stooped and started collecting his money, placing it back into the suitcase.

"Damned kids..." He muttered darkly as he concentrated on his work...completely oblivious to the fact that he had just become the hunted as a pair of tricolor eyes locked onto him.

Sho had only made it about 10 yards when a straggled cry came from behind him. The Akita skidded to a halt and whipped around, ears straining to pick up any sounds. The sound of dragging greeted his ears and, the next second, Z appeared, limping and dragging his leg, then collapsed against the side of a wall.

Sho ran over to him. "Z, are you okay?!" The Akita nodded, a painful grimace on his face. Sho crouched down beside him. "What happened?!"

Z nodded his head towards where he'd come from. "Your friend..." His face flinched in pain, then he continued, his voice lower. "He's a monster..."

Sho felt the fur on the back of his neck rise up, almost at the same time that he did, standing straight and staring. Slowly, he moved forward.

"No Sho!" Z yelled hoarsely as he made a grab for his brother, but Sho moved out of the way of his brother's hand, continuing on his way.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity of creeping, Sho was finally back in the area where the shooting had happened. He turned his head, seeing neither the Varg with the gun, or the ferret.

Sho perked his ears suddenly, having picked up a noise. It was strange, but it resembled the noise of feeding...of some sorts. Slowly, the Akita inched his way forward, looking around cautiously as his ears locked onto the source of the noise.

When he turned the corner, he was greeted by a sight that seemed to be straight out of a horror movie.

The ferret was poised over the Varg, one claw on the Varg's head and the other on the Varg's shoulder, while he had his fangs buried in the neck, sucking down blood with greedy abandonment. Sho's eyes went wide as he continued inching his way forward, accidentally kicking a rock in his path.

The ferret suddenly perked his ears and looked sharply over, blood smeared around his mouth, locking his eyes onto Sho.

Sho gulped and froze for a second, then started walking forward again. The ferret seemed to have a confused look in his eyes.

"You're...not afraid?" He asked softly.

Sho stopped moving and stared back at him. Slowly, he smiled and shook his head. This caused the confused look in his eyes to seemingly evaporate, replaced by genuine curiosity.

"What is you're name?" The ferret asked quietly.

"Sho" The Akita replied happily. "And you?"

The ferret stared at him. Then smiled, fangs bloody, yet friendly. "Just call me Kei..."

Kei, Sho, Z, Razor (c) ZotzServant99 (or just Zs)