The Adventures of Fox Tayle

Chasing gang members in San Francisco.

The Adventures of Fox Tayle is a 34-chapter story that can be found on Deviant ART. It was written by wannabemustangjockey, also known as Jay. The basic premise of the story (which hasn't even been finished yet) is that Fox Tayle was just an ordinary fox. This company that was working for the U.S. government took him in under "Project Plume". Fox, along with a German Shepherd and a wolf, are put through tests and experiments designed to turn them into tough soldiers that can be used in combat. The rationale being that animals don't have families you have to write home to when they die. At the peak of the project's success, The Government ordered Project Plume cancelled, and guards came in guns blazing to the (relatively nice) cells where Fox, Shep, and Wolf were being kept. Shep and Wolf are killed instantly, but the sound of the shots that killed them warns Fox with enough time to escape.

He escapes in a truck stolen from the BioCon parking lot, with a guy holding a BFG firing after him. He escapes, and after driving for a short time, his truck breaks down. An animal activist named Wanda Meyers takes him in and shelters him in her trailer (in southern California) for a few months. The government later discovers where he is, though, and they send a missile for her trailer. Fox hears it coming, runs in the house, and runs out the other side with Wanda, but when the missile hits, he gets injured and a piece of Wanda's trailer hits her in the back of the head. After mourning the loss and burying her, Fox heads closer to the Los Angeles area. He takes a Chevy El Camino from a used car lot and drives it up to the Wal-Mart in San Bernadino. After taking a rifle, ammunition, and some food (he'd pay if he had time and if cops and store security weren't after him), he heads north for the San Francisco ASPCA. There, he meets Diana Foxworthy. He stays at the SF ASPCA for a few weeks, but the FBI somehow finds him again. In short, his next two stays include a really environmentally-minded couple, and an Extended stay at a Motel 6 in Oakland. It is there that he learns about a group known as furries which will be meeting at a certain hotel in San José in January 2006. Initially, he thinks he'll find refuge with "others like [him] out there," and finally escape the FBI chasing him.

Unfortunately, at the convention, he is caught and tranquilized by the FBI. He wakes up with a breathing tube inside a circular glass tank filled with water. It is there he meets the antagonist: Dr. Theodore Cardiff. One other important character that is introduced later is Carlos Padrino. Later on in the story, Fox also travels (with Diana and Carlos, but he leaves sooner than she does) to many other locations in North America during the course of the story, including Las Vegas, Nevada; Denver, Colorado; Bonnyville, Alberta, Canada; Dearborn, Michigan; Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Most of this time spent traveling is due to being pursued relentlessly by FBI agents or local police. Put another way, it's The Jason Bourne trilogy meets Shadow the Hedgehog plus a whole bunch of other stuff (like a tiny bit of G-Force, for example).

The entire story (as it exists so far), plus other related things, can be found here: http://wannabemustangjockey.deviantart.com/gallery/28972763 (Remember: There Is No Such Thing as Notability.)

For the record, Fox Tayle is a borderline Funny Animal / Petting Zoo Person.

Tropes used in The Adventures of Fox Tayle include:
  • AKA-47: Averted, since every gun that Fox uses in the story is specifically referenced to what it is (and all the guns are real-world guns).
  • All There in the Manual: Wanda's last name, Meyers.
  • Art Evolution: The story illustrations from the first chapter to the twenty-eighth one. (After that, there are no illustrations.)
  • Author Appeal: There are many different cars in the story, all real makes and models (and sometimes years, too). For example: The four main cars Fox drives during the story are the previously mentioned red Toyota truck and the yellow Chevy El Camino. Later on, he also gets a Ford F-150 SuperCrew truck and then a green Subaru Legacy.
  • Ax Crazy: Agent Pynebox, who breaks away from the rest of his FBI team to personally go after Fox - with a gun, a knife, his fists, and even a switchblade.
  • Badass Normal: Fox doesn't have any super powers. He's just really well-trained for Army combat, possibly even Navy SEAL level.
  • Banana In the Tailpipe - Except that it's a juice box and it only prevents the engine from starting, making this Truth in Television.
  • Canon Discontinuity - the poem the author wrote for an English class that is about Fox Tayle.
  • Disney Theme Parks: Fox finds himself running through Disneyland after being chased there by Anaheim police and Disneyland Resort security guards. There's a small chase with Main Street vehicles and a equally slow chase inside the Splash Mountain ride.
  • Does Not Like Shoes: He can't wear shoes because his feet are too large. He can't wear long pants (specifically jeans), either.
  • Every Car Is a Pinto: Used at least more than once, but the most memorable example is when Fox is driving a sea-foam green Honda Accord, is chased by the FBI, and the car tips over. With gas leaking out of the tank, an FBI guy fires at the car and it explodes in a "vivid fireball".
  • Five-Bad Band: It's kinda vague and they're not really evil, but if you had to put them into groups, it'd go like this...
  • Government Agency of Fiction: BioCon Corporation, the place that "made" Fox.
  • Government Conspiracy: Someone high up in the government wants Fox dead. (But it's not the President.)
  • Hassle-Free Hotwire: Fox attempts this once or twice.
  • Inhumanable Alien Rights: In chapter 26, Fox quotes the "We hold these truths..." section of the Declaration of Independence to Bob Farley, stating he wants his freedom. Bob responds "That text only applies to humans, which you are not." Fox basically retorts with "What difference does that make?"
  • Interspecies Romance: Either between Fox and Wanda, or Fox and Diana. However, Fox seriously questions (at both instances) his involvement with them and how far he should go.
  • Invisible President: So far, George Bush has only been mentioned twice, and one of Fox's main goals is traveling to Washington, D.C. to talk with him and get the FBI to stop chasing him.
  • Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!: Fox (after Shep and Wolf were killed) is the only anthropomorphic animal on the planet. Here, though, he isn't an Unusually Uninteresting Sight - people take notice.
  • Lemming Cops: Kinda. The FBI persues Fox relentlessly for most of the story, but they're not extremely stupid about ruining their Chevy Tahoes. Police officers across the country are reasonably smart when chasing Fox, too, but they usually don't know exactly who it is they're dealing with.
  • New Age Retro Hippie: Randy and Carly, except they're only just super environmentalists. Randy converted his VW Vanagon Westfalia camper to run on French Fry frier grease.
  • Nobody Poops: Averted once, very briefly, when Fox goes out of his way on a cold Feburary morning to do his business in the bushes.
  • Our Presidents Are Different: Averted when it's mentioned twice that the current president is plain old George W. Bush (this story takes place in late 2005/early 2006.) See Invisible President, above.
  • Precision F-Strike: If Fox swears (which happens so often you can count the occasions on your hand(s)), there's always a good reason for it.
  • Shrug of God: Ask the author any question about his story, and he's likely to not see a need for coming up with an answer.
  • Slow Doors: During his first escape from BioCon, Fox sets off a lot of alarms. He slides under a slowly-lowering door as the guards shoot at him, and he shoots back with a gun he stole from another guard he knocked out. Of course, the guards are stuck on the other side after he escapes.
  • Species Surname: It's not really made clear how Fox got his name, but he was obviously never intentially given a less generic name. The same goes for the two he trained with: Shep the German Shepherd and Wolf the wolf.
  • Talking with Signs: When Dr. Cardiff has Fox floating in a water-filled container and a breathing mask (Chapter 15), he gives Fox a waterproof writing pad and grease pencil to talk with.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human? - Fox used to be a regular normal fox, but then he underwent experiments to turn him into a lethal soldier. He escaped, and now the FBI and BioCon are trying to kill him. Mind you, he's very intelligent, sapient, and pissed.
  1. ↑ There is actually a higher-up Big Bad above Cardiff, but he has only been mentioned and hinted at.
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