Escape from Antarctica
"Keep running!" The four ran breathlessly down the hall. Their lab coats flap like capes as they ran. "Come on. In here, hurry." A woman in her early forties continued to urge the three teenagers on. Just as the door opened, several solders greet them at the door.
"Trying to help our new weapons escape again are you?"
"I won't let you do it Dekim! I won't let you do anymore experiments on these children anymore!"
"I'm afraid, Robin, that's not your choice to make, and also this is the last time you'll see them alive. Get rid of her and collect the experiments. They are very valuable to our cause."
"You will not touch them!" Robin screamed before she changed into a filose rapture. Her violent scream echoed through the facility. The guards took out their guns and started to shoot the dinosaur when she drew closer.
"ROBIN!" the teenagers screamed in unison. The youngest of the group raised her hand to help. It changed into a giant claw made from what looked like pure metal. She extended it quickly to the first soldier she saw. She watched calm eyed as the fear grew in the eyes of the young solder not much older then the oldest teenager in the group. Robin stopped the giant claw with her jaws. The shooting stopped and she changed back.
"Fox," She said weakly getting the youngest attention. "You mustn't hurt people."
"But they were—"
"I know, but you mustn't do anything so coldhearted." Fox gasps hearing a gunshot ring out. She sits up in bed drenched in sweat.
"It must have been a dream," she said to herself, but instead of going back to bed, she gets up and quickly changes her wet clothes before exiting her room. She sniffs the air as she slowly goes down the hall. She stops hearing the running of feet coming toward her down the hall. Terrified, she opens the nearest door and unknowingly slams it shut. She leans on the door trying not to cry.
"Fox? Fox is that you?" asks a curious voice. She gasps seeing the glow of two tiger eyes looming over her. "It's ok, Fox. It's just me, Samantha. I won't hurt you," she says turning on a lamp." Samantha wears animal print pajamas to match her brown hair.
"They're coming for us," Fox cries shaking terribly in her black pajamas. A warm smile greets her face somewhat pale Chinese face. Her black eyes watch Samantha.
"It's ok. I'll go check it out and then I'll find Jeff," Samantha says playing with her long black hair a moment before going to the door. "Stay here."
"But—"
"Shh, I'll be ok. Remember what I am." She opens the door and leaves the room leaving the girl alone and frightened. She moves to the beds and is about to sit on it until she hears a tiger roar which sends a chill down her spin. She finds herself frozen after hearing voices she didn't recognize. She quickly ducks under the bed hearing the door open. She hears them enter the room. She tries to calm her terrified breathing as they come closer.
"This old cell looks like a child's room," says a female voice. "But why would they have children here and a tiger guarding the entrance to the rooms."
"We'll just have to keep looking," says a male voice. "The transmission said there were people in distress and needed help. Something's not right here."
"They're probably just afraid to come out because they see we have guns like the guards outside." The woman moves closer to the beds and stops hearing a gasp. "It's ok. We're here to help you." She kneels beside the bed.
"You're lying! You're here to get rid of us like they did with the others," Fox says in a shaky voice as the woman looks under the bed. "Go, go away. You already hurt my friend Samantha!" For a moment, she's speechless because of the eerie bright blue glow from the girl's eyes.
"…Samantha, is she your friend?" she asks going somewhat under the bed to get a closer look at the girl.
"Yes, she's my best friend in the whole universe."
"The whole universe, huh. That's some friend." She's taken aback by the vicious growl that escapes from the girl's lips.
"Go away, so I can help my friend!"
"Just calm down you're friend is perfectly fine," she says keeping calm. Before she could say another word, the woman feels something wrap around her arm pulling her towards Fox.
"You better not be lying to me," Fox says coldly. "I can easily rip you to shreds, woman." Another growl sends a chill down the woman's spine seeing Fox face to face. Fox releases the frightened woman. Just a she tries to move from under the bed, Fox attacks, but the woman's partner stops the attack.
"Calm down! We're not here to hurt you." Terrified, she struggles in his powerful grip. "Are you ok, Fire," he asks seeing the look on her face.
"Yes, but barely. It seems our little friend here is more then just a little girl who doesn't trust us."
"I will never trust another human because of what they've done to me and my family besides I know you just came here to get rid of the last of us."
"You have us all wrong. We're here to get you three out of here," Fire says. "And to, shut this place down."
"I doubt you can do that. They have more then one operation's base some of which are in the colonies."
"What did you say?" Fire didn't receive her answer because the alarm went off surprising everyone. Fox gets loose from Fire's partner and runs to the window. "Wait, come back!" she yells as Fox jumps through the window. "I'll go get the kid, Wind. You go get that tiger loaded." She didn't give her partner a chance to answer before going after her.
"Fire wait!" He runs to the window. "FIRE! What is she thinking going after that kid?" A tiger roar freezes him. He turns around as the tiger leaps on him. The power of the leap sends the two flying through the window. Gunshots ring though the snow as they roll continually into a giant snowball. The snowball finally stops among other large snowballs and a giant truck.
"Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, we're not done with you yet!" says one of the guards coldly. "I need a new fur coat!" He starts shooting seeing something white move in the snow. Samantha leaps on a tree, but he shoots one of her legs making it impossible for her to get away. "Say goodbye little Kitty!" he says raising his gun.
"I don't think so."
"What?" He turns around to see Wind behind him. "AH!" Wind knocks him out.
"I though we were rescuing three kids not three kids and a tiger," says a new woman with eyes of Chinese decent but speaks English very well.
"I am one of the kids you're looking for," Samantha says changing to her human self now shaking from the cold more than he bullet wound. They look at her stunned. "I just wish I knew where my cousin is. He should be able to get Fox to believe that you're here to help us."
"Who's this cousin of yours?" the woman asks as Wind picks her up and quickly gets her in the van. Inside she sees the woman clearly. She has twisted blonde hair in pigtails from the back and blue Chinese eyes.
"It's Jeff, he's the one who most likely called you to come get us," Samantha says getting a good look at Wind. He has long white hair and serious blue eyes.
"So Jeff is his name. He told us your exact location though I wasn't expecting this."
"Nobody was expecting this…" Samantha says softly. "Please hurry and get Fox back before she does something drastic."
"Drastic? What do you mean, drastic?"
"She might try and blow herself up with this base again."
"AGAIN!" the two say in unison. Without another word, Wind leaves the van in a hurry. His heart beats drastically as he runs down a hill of snow. He finds himself looking down at many fallen men. He goes to the first one to get a better look. He goes to the first one and feels for a pulse. He immediately goes to another and gets the same result.
"They're all unconscious," he says to himself. He reaches for the guard's gun but to his astonishment it falls apart in his hand. "That's impossible. Only something sharpened with a lazar or a lazar itself could cut through guns of this caliber." The sound of shooting in the distance stops his assessment of the situation. He runs and soon finds his partner. He quickly makes his way down to where she is and finds her talking to what looks like an exact replica of him.
"I'll handle this. The last thing we need is you getting hurt." He digs deeper in the hole Fox dug. "Calm down, we're not going to hurt you," the Wind replica says. Before he could dig anymore, Fox leaps on him pinning him to the ground. She raises her claw shaped hand ready to puncture his scalp.
"ZECHS!" She watches in amazement as his hair stops Fox's claw.
"I'm right here, Noin," Zechs says stopping her before she could shoot her gun.
"Then who's."
"Jeff…? You idiot!" Fox screams getting their attention. "I could have killed you!"
"Now I see." Noin looks at him. "He's the one who called us."
"Even if you wanted to, you know my tail can out do your claws any day," he says in Winds voice before laughing. His laughter is shortened as she claws Jeff in the face. "AH! What the hell was that for?"
"That's for being cocky, jerk besides how else am I going to tell you two apart." She sits up after getting off him. He feels his face as he sits up and realizes his face is bleeding.
"What's the matter with you? How am I going to trick the guards if I have a large scratch across my face?"
"Like I said, to tell you apart."
"This better not leave a scar," Jeff says annoyed standing. A gunshot rings though the air hitting Jeff in the shoulder knocking him over.
"JEFFREY!" Fox screams as she runs to him. A helicopter comes into view stopping Wind and Fire from getting any closer to the two. "Jeffery, are you ok." The helicopter's propellers drown out the sound of Jeff's hollers of pain.
"You might as well give up Fox, Jeffery. We told you already that there's no way out even if you did call for help." The voice emanates from the helicopter speaker. Several people jump down from the sides of the hill to where they are while two come from the helicopter. Most of which have guns of their own. "Put down your weapons, and we'll spare your lives." They do as their told. "Bring the experiments back to their holding tanks."
"NO, I can't go back!" Jeff says extending his hair knocking three guards of the little ridge they are all standing on. "AH!" Another shot is fired only this time it hits his neck. Again, large volumes of pain run through his body. He reaches for his neck and pulls out the second tranquilizer dart as the helicopter lands nearby. "AH!"
"Change back Chameleon," says the guard that kicks him in the stomach.
"Leave him alone," Zechs calls but the others stop his advance. The guard looks at her.
"You wouldn't be saying that once you see what he looks like," the guard says coldly. "Right Chameleon? How about you show him your true colors?"
"How about you don't and say you did," Fox says stopping his foot with her own before making him fall on his butt. She picks up his tranquilizer gun off the ground sending fear through the young guards. "I'm going to give you one chance to get out of here before I start firing." Just as she cocks the gun they all bolt up the hill. She starts shooting each one and as she does they fall back down. They all cry out in extreme pain. She turns to the guard she tripped earlier.
"No, no please don't shoot me!" he says terrified scooting away from her.
"It doesn't matter anyways," she says coldly. "You're all cowards for praying on the weak. You're not worth my time." She throws down the gun.
"Actually you should have kept the gun, Fox," he says with a confident smile. She turns to see two giant men behind her in lab coats. She backs up some as they advance closer to her.
"Dr. Salamander… and Dr. Conner." She looks at the two men uneasy. "This just became a lot harder."
"You should have behaved yourself young lady," says the man who is also the voice from the helicopter. "As always I have to be the one to put you back in confinement."
"Run NOW and take Jeff with you!" she says seeing Zechs and Noin come to Jeff's aid.
"What? We can't leave without you," Noin says shocked.
"Go Now!" she screams before running forward for a head on attack but she's only slapped away like a fly. She recovers quickly from the roll after hitting the ground. "HA!" She sidekicks the doctor, but he grabs her leg and holds her upside down. Jeff now only somewhat mobile now uses his hair still to trip the scientist still in disguise as Zechs.
"Ah! You rotten boy! Is that anyway to treat your uncle?" he asks coldly dropping Sophia.
"You're no uncle of mine," he says coldly. "An uncle wouldn't use his nephew and niece as a Ginny pig for his experiments." The second scientist that didn't do anything but watch now starts to move toward Jeff and the others. With the last of his strength, he pushes himself up. "You two… have to get away… for Samantha's sake."
"We're not going to leave you two," Fire says grabbing a gun.
"You… don't understand. They're… genetically enhanced with animals. You're no match for them. Please… do as I say," he begs as the scientist makes it to them.
"AAHHH!" The scream from the scientist resembles an elephant's scream which seems to shake the ice. "YOU filthy human! I'll kill you!" he yelled going for Noin as her gun finally ran out of darts.
"NO Leave her alone!" Jeff screams pushing her away with his hair right before he grabs Jeff's hair. Jeff grits his teeth as the scientist has him by the hair.
"Jeffrey!" Fox screams running to him. "Put him down, now Dr. Conner!"
"Fox no! We promised Robin we wouldn't kill anyone," he says with a weak smile as the scientist squeezes his hair. His Zechs disguise slowly melts off of him. "You have to promise you won't—" He passes out before he could finish, and the rest of his disguise finally fades. He looks to be about nineteen-years-old with no hair on his head because it's replaced by long tail protruding from the back of this head about the size of this own body of almost six feet tall.
"I SAID PUT HIM DOWN!" she howls sending a mild shockwave making the man drop Jeff. The two scientists cover their ears in pain as well as anyone who was awake and too close for ear cover. Jeff's uncle falls to one knee while the other scientist takes a step back. He trips over the edge of the ridge and falls backwards.
"HAH! AAH!" Fox stands breathing heavily a moment before going to Jeffery. She goes on her knees and carefully lays his head and tail in her lap.
"Thank you, Jeffery for giving us this chance of escape, and I make this promise. I will never let them put you or Samantha in another vat again as long as I live," she says softly as Fire and Wind come over to help with Jeff. She helps them carry Jeff to the area where Samantha is being taken care of. Fox watches as they load Jeff into the van, but doesn't go in. She moves away from the van while the others are preoccupied with Jeff. She turns to see Jeff's uncle behind her.
"You're not getting away from me that easily Fox," Dr. Salamander says coldly. Instead of answering, she turns and runs. He quickly follows suit. They soon reach a high cliff and the two stop. "Now tell me where my nephew is, and I promise to make sure the rest of the tests are painless." He continues to advance towards her. She gives him a dirty look before closing her eyes and falls backwards off the cliff. "Sorry Fox," he says coldly grabbing her arm before she fell. "You're not dying that easily."
"Who said anything about dying?" she says smugly as her wings begin to grow surprising him. Blood trickles down her back as they reach their large black crow color size. She flaps her giant wings trying to pull away from him, but his grip holds firm. He climbs her like a mountain as the flies further from the cliff.
"You don't look very happy now do you, Fox," he says squeezing her tighter.
"If you keep squeezing me, we're both going to fall to our deaths."
"Only when you tell me where my beloved niece and nephew are?"
"UH, no way am I going to give you that information," she says sternly as the flap of her wings become stronger. They soon find themselves over thin ice right next to the Pacific Ocean. Polar bears line the shores made of ice.
"Planning to drop me in the ocean among the killer whales and polar bears?" Dr. Salamander asks.
"You're not worth killing," she says coldly. Instead of getting an angry glare, she receives a sad smile. "I'm just going to drop you hear to by us enough time to get away."
"I thought you'd say that, Fox," he says now face to face with her. He looks into her sympathy giving eyes though her stern face says otherwise. "You could always tell when something was wrong with me even when we kidnapped you. Tell Jeffery and Samantha that I'm sorry for what I've done to them. I just couldn't stand by while they were murdered. I just had to…"
"Wait. What, what are you talking about? I, I was kidnapped? I wasn't made like this."
"Of course not you were kept in confinement so long you started to believe those lies we told you."
"How could you?" she growls coldly. "I have the right of mind to feed you to those polar bears."
"Then do so, Mei. It would be a fitting death for a cowardly man who never fought for anything in his life.
"What? Why, why are you telling me this now?"
"I couldn't tell you while Dr. Conner was still around. He was to make sure I couldn't talk. You see he can change into anything he wants."
"Anything he wants, but I still don't understand why you're telling me this?" she asks.
"You're the only one who can get rid of him before he gets stronger."
"What do you mean I'm the only one?"
"Unless you can find others like yourself who can manipulate their body you can't win." Before Mei could object, she feels something shot into her back. "I'm sorry Mei but you must make sure Jeffery and Samantha find a place they can call home," he says as he lets go of her.
"What are you doing, Dr. Salamander?" she asks grabbing his hands. "Are you trying to kill yourself?"
"Yes, Mei, I am. I don't want to live anymore knowing what I've done to so many people many of which my own family."
"I'm not going to let you take the coward's way out of this!" she yells boldly.
"I'm sorry Mei but I'm not as strong as you," Dr. Salamander says softly. "You don't want to waste your strength on me Mei. I know you can't fly back to the base while holding me, so do me a favor and just drop me."
"No! I told you. I'm not going to let you take the easy way out of this!" she says stubbornly. "I know if you talk to Jeffery and Samantha they'll give you another chance that's why I'm not going to let you give up now."
"You have a big heart that you hide under the mask of yours. You should let it out more often so people can see that beautiful smile of yours." He watches as she stops on the ice because of the slow response tranquilizer. "Mei go now and look for your brother."
"…Brother? I, I have a brother."
"You had several actually but I'm not sure where they are. That will be your mission in life. Mei find your family and live a good life if Cobra never finds you."
"Who's Cobra?"
"Cobra is Dr. Conner's real identity." Mei gasps seeing a mother and her cubs running their way. She grabs Dr. Salamander's hand, but he doesn't budge. "Do as I say, Mei and just leave me. You're going to die here with me if you stay because of the tranquilizer I gave you.
"But that was hardly painful."
"I know… that's what tranquilizers are supposed to be like." Just as the mother reaches them, he pushes Mei away as the mother starts to rip off pieces of his body.
"DR. SALAMANDER! AH!" She's slapped to the ground by one of the year old cubs. As the cub comes after her again, she kicks it away. She manages to get in the air, but as she looks down she sees that Dr. Salamander is already dead. She flies off remembering what Dr. Salamander said to her. "…Brother? I… have a brother." She digs in her mind to try to remember her family. She finds herself next to the fox hole she dug earlier, but her mind is focused on the one face that comes in focus. "His name… Why can't I remember his name?" She starts to stumble as the tranquiller take hold of her body like a Venus fly trap catching it's next victim..
"Fox!" The voice is familiar. She turns to see someone running towards her. She sees her brother running towards her. She tries to run but she trips. The medicine finally starts to make her lose consciousness.
"I promise to find you, brother," she whispers to herself before she's out cold.
7
Gundam Wing 1: Escape from Antartica