.:Rising Sword:.
This storm was anything but heavy, it was torrential, and flying up so far into the clouds had never seemed like a worse idea. But it was now or never, and getting a little wet was well worth the reward if she could pull this off, provided that her information was correct about this barge.
Despite the visibility being next to nothing she could sense it nearby, and felt it to be the one she was looking for. After a few minutes of closing in on the approximate location she caught a glimpse of a red hull racing through the storm clouds, bearing the markings of just what she was out for.
Carefully she flew in closer to find a means on board, without being spotted by any crew. When finally a landing deck was revealed above; opting for a quick in and out the azure furred women leaped out onto the ship with a thud, she quickly surveyed the ship telepathically to check if anyone had been alerted to her presence. But none had, with what little time she had she signalling her transport to remain concealed but nearby.
The outside temperate was next to freezing with the wind howling and the rain shooting down like hail, it wasn't surprise there wasn't so much as a guard on patrol. However still she took her gold staff in hand in expectation of the worst as she stealthy searched the exposed main deck, looking high and low it seemed secure enough to start to going below deck and continue her search there.
With enough force she was able to override the door with her staff to wedge open enough room for her to slither through, where she found herself greeted to a wave of warm air and the mental presence of the handful of crew members on-board, some of which she had not picked up on before.
Taking silent steps down the flight of metal stairs; she co-ordinated her movements with occasional claps of thunder as she snuck down the starboard hallway past the crew quarters. Luckily their doors were closed and most of the crew seemed intent on staying in their bunks for the remainder of the turbulent trip.
"You can't do that! That's cheating!" A man's voice boomed from behind a closed off room, "You know what? Screw this game!"
The women's fur stood on end as the door in front of her slid open with an exhale of laughter and heavy footsteps exiting it; mustering up as much of her mental fortitude she could she clouded his mind with a migraine making a quick leap to grapple his throat with her free hand.
Pulling him down with as much force as possible she yanked out of the door's sensory range and bore into his nervous system, overwhelming it with a crippling burning sensation throughout. The canine did naught but struggle in silence as he succumbed to darkness and was all but unconscious on the metal hallway floor.
Mentally peering into the room the canine had just left, she picked up on his friend's thoughts, all coalescing to leaving the room as well. The women collapsed her staff and reattached it to her belt; waiting for the precise moment she readied herself for the next take down.
Milliseconds before the door opened from the inside she rushed in and spear tackled the feline down, using both hands to clamp shut his muzzle and pressed one knee into his chest. Like his friend she played havoc with his body forcing muscles to seize and tighten up while she probed his mind for information.
Unfortunately he was just a last minute hired hand, didn't know much other than what he was going to be paid, which explained the lack of security. When she was done she burnt out his nervous system to the point of exhaustion and left him be. She quickly peered back out into the corridor making sure the canine hadn't gone far and dragged him back into the room with the feline and locked the door.
Without any further incident she cleared the crew's quarters and descended further into the barge, following the signage into the cargo hold.
As she descended deeper into the bowels of the ship the air became heavier and seemingly flooded with static; she felt small whips of static shocks poke her body, something wasn't right.
But there was no time to be concerned with that, as time was of the essence. After a hurried search the azure furred women came to her goal; a sole medium sized shipping container with what looked like a life support system feeding air into it. Her heart sank as she studied it but with such little time to waste she drew out her staff and lunged the bladed edge into the door.
Twisting the grip the purple crystal began to glow a searing hot red as it fed energy into the gold golden blade; cutting a line straight down through the horizontal bar locks and the door itself.
With nothing to hold it closed the container doors slowly swung open, spewing out fowl smelling air revealing the dark interior of the container. Yet she could not sense anything or anyone inside, her heart sank further as she rushed inside to only affirm her fears: empty.
Falling to her knees her mind clouded up with confusion and anger, she had spent years in search for it finally to turn up nothing and what she now knows, what she lost was certainly irredeemable now.
No. There is still hope. Suffering here in silence is not the way to go.
Recollecting her thoughts she took back to her feet and stealthily made her way back out to the cargo hold. The occasional jolts of static gave her a fright but something about the thick air made her feel blind, she could no longer sense the crew members on the floor above, this air was intentional.
Moments before she could run up the flight of stairs she was garbed by the end of her jacket and yanked off balance; hitting the floor with audible impact. With her head in a painful spin she rushed back to her feet only seeing the silhouette of a lupine approach for another attack.
His fist flew right into her cheek; dazing her even further while knocked her off balance again, with a second screaming straight up into her side with enough force for her to be lifted off of the floor for a split second.
Taking a few steps back she quickly regained her bearings and raised her fists panting; with her telepathy being 'jammed' by the unnatural air she found it difficult to evade the lupines attacks when finally he made a mistake. He attempted kick at her ribs again but she took the opportunity and took the blow and grabbed onto his leg; sweeping the other one out from under him.
Using the precious seconds she attempted to work her way into his mind and nervous system burning it from the inside out.
Yet she couldn't, whether from the interference of statically charged air or this lupine was trained to resist telepathic attacks he was easily able to resist her influence and break free of her grip.
With her entire right hand side of her head and chest aching she knew this would not be a fight she could win, every breath she drew felt like something was stabbing into her side and she had to leave before the entire ship was alerted to her presence.
However still she stood her ground waiting for the lupine to make his move as she slowly backed up towards the flight of stairs. Somehow she needed to keep him down just long enough for her to use her staff.
Within that second of thought the lupine attacked once more but with a high kick to the left of her head; quickly raising her arm she used it to throw his momentum off course by allowing her arm to skew its direction over and away from her, allowing her to pull out her staff with her right.
In the split second it took to extend the staff, she launched the butt of it into his gut; twisting the grip and a blue light arced down the golden shaft; surging into the lupine's chest with a magnificent blue explosion that erupted out of his back sending her attacker stumbling over in pain.
Feeling the urgency of her situation she limped as fast as she could through the ship and back to the top deck.
Back outside the rain still continued as heavy as ever and being free of the cargo hold her telepathic abilities no longer felt suppressed and unsurprisingly the crew was now on full alert and searching for her.
Her heart thumped against her chest as the swarm of mental presences surged towards her, with her staff aimed at the door she charged it up, expecting the worst.
Instead of bursting through the partially opened door they stacked up against it, waiting for something to happen; which she intently awaited when an oddly shaped object was tossed through the door directly at her.
Before she realized what it was it burst giving off a light brighter than any lightning strike. Blinded by the blast and dazed by the noise of the explosion at such a short range she funneled all her energy into one large concussive blast at the closest mental presence.
The few that slipped through the door after the grenade had gone off were violently thrown back while another charged at her. He was unfortunate that the door was jammed and took some effort to fit though and by now she'd regained her senses and parried the lizard's ferocious swings.
With a quick duck to the left she brought the full weight of her staff down upon his head which was met with a sickening crack over his skull.
When the lupine returned.
Now in better lighting she could see the seemingly unstoppable force approach her, he bore alien tattoos on his muzzle that run all the way down his white furred neck, and by no measure were these marking of a Cornarian origin. Where she had blasted him was little more than a scorch mark on his armor and was unaffected by it, if anything it looked as if it had revitalized him somehow.
Charging at her with frightening speed she held her staff like a spear but was not expecting one of the lupine's crew members to fire a gun at her; utterly ruing her defense.
The bullet missed her by a fraction of a hair, just managing to tear a streak in her pants and burnt the fur and skin below. It also left her in a horrible position with the lupine barely missing punch to the gut.
Dodging backwards she collapsed her staff; quickly holstering it, twirling and swerving around him to evade his attacks. But she knew now he was simply toying with her.
Veering further back she was now ready to take him on, he approached her slowly with a sinister smile, arms raised.
The lupine quickly closed the distance, his fists flying. Dodging and blocking she waited for him to wear himself out before going in for a swift counter attack. With a fast, precise jab to the throat she sent him doubling over in pain. Seizing the opportunity she wrapped her hands around his head and brought her knee up into his muzzle with a sickening crunch.
With a satisfying crunch she released her grip and shoved him back to writhe in pain; feeling more confident with the fight she charged in for the finisher.
Digging her knee into his back she pulled on his neck and forced him down to the deck. Now on his knees and in a crooked position he was unable to breathe, he struggled to reach up; but when he did the speed in which he threw her caught her completely off guard.
The sheer force winded her and made her previous injuries scream with renewed pain. Another, sharper pain rippled like fire up and down her right arm.
So distraught with pain she mustered up all her energy to just get back on her feet when the lupine grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up.
Exhausted, aching with pain and suffocating she could do little but make feeble attempts to break free of his vice like grip as he dragged her to the starboard edge of the ship. Lifting her a good foot off of the ground, he shot her a menacing grin poised with delight as he coiled back and tossed his helpless victim overboard.
Consumed by the storm clouds below he was more than confident she was gone for good. Turning away and aiding the injured lizard he began to feel a peculiar vibration in the air, emanating from the starboard side of the hull.
Looking back over his shoulder he saw the very same feline rise back above the clouds on top of a sleekly designed ship.
"Freeze, zoom in on her face" Fox ordered the hologram projector. "Peppy how old is this?"
"Seven standard Cornerian days" The old hare replied more concerned by the sender of the recording, "Fox, this came straight from Phoenix's R&D division on Kew. All the jobs we've had are filtered through Pepper, never sent directly to us."
Fox sighed knowing this was going to be more than just a 'job' "Krystal… Do you know her?"
The sapphire vixen stared in shock, holding her hands very close to her chest. Fox had seen that expression before, but never on Krystal.
Krystal shook her head "It's impossible"
Trying to hold back tears she reiterated.
"Krystal, tell me do you know her? If she is a Cerinian, like you, we have to go and find her, we can't let anyone else get this contract" The vulpine advised, taking her hands into his.
"I knew her, yes." Krystal said with a emotionally confused smile.
Fox gave the teary vixen a reassuring smile as he gently rubbed her hands; Krystal took a deep breath in and freed her mind of emotion.
"Growing up on Cerinia there was more than one dominate race, much the same here. The Ceni, which would be myself, the Vi'xon, a feline race like you see on the recording and the Wolven" It was somewhat relieving to Krystal to finally be able to talk about her home, especially now that she knows she was no longer the sole survivor.
Fox shook his head sympathetically "Krys, it's fine"
Looking back over to the screen Fox ingrained the feline's face into his mind "Peppy, how quickly can we get to Kew?"
Peppy entered in the planet's co-ordinates, "We can be there in three days, maybe we'll finally be able to put the new Great Fox through her paces"
Fox nodded his head, now turning his attention to Falco and Slippy whom have stayed very quiet "Falco, what do you think?"
"I'm telling you Fox, Kew is suicide, remember it's where Andrew disappeared to after we smashed Andross? Who knows what else is there" Falco protested "But, I know you, if you got a feeling about this I say let's do this."
Krystal stayed quiet as she gazed at the hologram with woeful eyes, the loneliness she'd kept suppressed for so long was now being lifted but replaced with a dire sense of urgency.
"Fox, please excuse me" Krystal uttered to the vulpine as she dismissed herself.
The team watched on as the vixen calmly fled the room with tears forming in her eyes. It hurt Fox to see her in such a state, no doubts now they were going, as he looked over to Falco and Slippy he gave them a nod to begin preparations for Kew.
"A mess like this scares me. Not just because Kew is close to Solar but because we're going to search for a needle in a haystack which consists of Phoenix Crop." Peppy was right, it was rare a company would ever contact the team directly and if they did, it was an extremely urgent matter.
Fox rubbed his chin attempting to piece together the scenario and the best possible way to navigate it "I know Peppy, but for Krystal's sake we've got to do this. If she's not the last of her species or her culture then we don't have a choice."
"And you're right about it, your father would do the same but we can't go blind into this. It's unheard of for Phoenix to be so far away from Corneria and why they've sent a division out there scares me even more." Fox let his eyes wander after taking what the hare had to say, his mind touched on contacting an old friend but he knew by this point she'd divulge little to no information about it.
"I guess we better do out homework before we get there, see if we can get ROB search around for some answers then" As the pair began to make their way out of the room and into the hallway Fox let the hare take the lift first.
"Not coming?" Peppy asked with a slight tilt to his head.
Fox shook his head "Have to make sure Krystal is okay, I'll meet you in the bridge later."
"You better be careful with her, the poor girl has been through a lot these past few months" In the few months the azure vixen had been with the team she'd visited Corneria, and quickly adapted to Lylatian culture but still felt alien to it.
Fox whole heartily agreed "I will."