Author Notes:Yay!! Here's chapter four, sorry if it's a bit on the slow side but, it'll pick up soon. Anyhow thanks for the support and thanks again to Crafty Lefty for the huge helps ^_^
The Footsteps in the Darkness ~ SkullFox
……Chapter 4……
The Next Morning…
Krystal found that the ship's human guests were up and about before she ever woke up. She was certain that they were the first to wake up on the entire ship. Normally Creed would have been awake first, but as his condition seemed to worsen, he seemed to sleep longer and longer. It saddened her to think that sooner or later he wouldn't wake up. She took note as she sat down for breakfast of all the faces in the room. At the far end of the room, Jeff sat with Alex talking about some matter or another. A ways away from them, Silver sat with Roxy, the two still carrying on like they were the only people in the world. Another table was occupied by Creed, Jane, Mika, and Vixy. How small the team was now. Lastrad had taken Gwen home after Kaleb's death, Jared and Shera left in search of a place where they could escape the constant fighting…but most of all, she missed the one animal that should have been there……
~//~
Fox woke in a place he could hardly understand. He was surrounded by green forestry, a soft wind blew through his fur, and his head hurt. He looked about to see that the forest floor was covered with dead leaves. Was all of that just a dream? It was funny - he didn't recall falling asleep. He reached a paw up to wipe his forehead in relief only to feel something wet and sticky smear across his brow, which caused him to look at his paws. He was instantly shocked as he noticed that his normally chestnut fur was painted a deep red, thick with blood. But not only his paws; though he was devoid of all clothing, not one inch of his body was not covered in the red liquid that had long ago dried to his fur. He could hardly believe it…
"What the fuck did I do?" he asked himself shakily.
As he placed a paw on his chest, it met something hard and cold. He looked down to see the small black shard sticking slightly from his chest. He thought back…
"Wait a minute…" he said to himself. "The shard…did I?" It hurt his head trying to remember what had happened. Reaching to the dark crystal Fox pulled with all the might he could possibly muster, but the shard only caused a surge of horribly pain to shoot through his body, dropping him to his knees. "Won't come out…"
The agonized vulpine slowly climbed to his feet and looked around for a moment. Once he recognized the Saurian environment around him, he slowly made his way out toward Thorntail Hollow where he planned on washing himself off before finding a means in which to get himself home. He found that his body was worn out for some reason despite the fact that he'd only just woken up from some sort of sleep or other. His head was pounding like nothing he'd ever experienced before. It felt as if his skull could burst at any moment.
A short walk later, the blurry visions of the foliage around him gave way to the open land of Thorntail Hollow, where he quickly made his way to the stream to wash himself off. He was happy to remove all the caked on blood from his fur, but much more so one he recalled the Cerinians that now lived in the area…funny, he hadn't seen any yet. Curious, the confused vulpine walked off into the small village that the small tribe had set up, but he was sickened at what he'd found…the village was a bloodbath. Men, women, children…all brutally slaughtered. How could anyone do such a thing? He desperately searched for any sign of survivors, but he only found mangled bodies and torn corpses. It was as if they'd all been ravaged by some sort of wild animal; something many times worse than anything he'd ever known. He searched from tent to tent hoping and praying that there was a survivor somewhere that could tell him what had happened. It was as he cleared a tent that something caught his eye. It moved incredibly quickly, but he noticed instantly what and who it was…
"LIA!! LIA WAIT IT'S ME FOX!!" he shouted rushing off after her.
The young vixen moved through the forest like a Cerinian, ducking low branches, and moving through narrow passages without loosing any of her speed or footing. Fox continuously called out to her, but the creature simply kept running until Fox broke out into a small, open glade where the vixen had her back to a small cave in the large wall of stone behind her. A primitive spear was clenched tightly in her paws…
"STAY BACK!!!" she yelled. "How could you do that to us?!"
Fox paused for a moment. "Lia, calm down. I have no idea what you're talking about."
"DON'T PLAY INNOCENT WITH ME!!!" the vixen screamed. "YOU KILLED THEM ALL!!! YOU KILLED HER PARENTS RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER!!!"
Fox's eyes went wide as he looked to the small hole in the stone at the vixen's feet where a small ball of blue fur curled up hiding her face, as if some sort of monster was after her, shivering and helplessly trying to hold back her own crying…
"No…." Fox lightly said to himself. "You must have seen things wrong…I'd never…"
"SHUT UP!!!" Lia shouted. "I'm not blind, Fox. I watched it all happen. I don't know what's happened to you, or what's going on inside that head of yours, but don't you dare take another step toward me or this kit," she said.
"Lia…" Fox said calmly. "This is me. You know I'd never do anything like that."
Lia hesitated for a moment. "I saw you at the stream…washing the blood out of your fur." She pointed out, "If you didn't kill them all, why were you wearing their blood?"
Fox stopped. He hadn't thought about the blood…only getting it off of him. He thought about the vixen's words. How could he explain the blood? Or the fact that he recalled nothing about ever being on Sauria again? The last thought and memory he had was of fighting Arlex. He shivered at the thought of not having control of his own body, and as the thoughts of killing all the Cerinians he'd helped protect worked through his mind, he faltered.
"Could I really have done this?" he asked himself.
Fox stepped toward Lia. "Lia you have to…." He was however cut off by the point of her spear piercing the left side of his chest. Fox stopped in disbelief that she'd actually do something like that, but worst of all, he realized that he felt no pain. "Lia……why…." He cut himself off. "What's going on here?" he asked pulling the weapon from his flesh.
The wound seeped a small amount of blood, only to seal up, leaving only a small trail of red as any sure sign of the wound itself. Fox stared at the spot that had previously been occupied by the point of Lia's spear. "You see?" Lia asked. "You're not one of us anymore. You're something else."
Fox's chest rapidly fell with his heavy breathing, while tears trailed down his face. "I need a ship…The Sharpclaw have ships." he said to himself. "I-I–I have to get out of here!" he shouted rushing off into the woods.
Lia couldn't understand what was going on. Fox seemed as though he truly had no clue what was going on. However, as far as she was concerned, none of that mattered. She'd sworn to protect the young one still cowering behind her. She knelt down stroking the little vixen's hair causing the child to look up to her…
"Come on little one," she said. "We have to find a transmitter somewhere. Krystal has to know."
The Nemesis……
3 hours later……
Creed looked around the docking bay, eyeing what Jeff, Alex, and Nick were up to as they worked with their odd ships. They were much less like any ship he'd ever really seen, a lot like the Prototype armor suits used in the Lylat Wars, but they were very streamlined and much smaller, only standing at about seven or eight feet tall. As he stood by, he wondered why he'd never really seen their fourth team member. After all, he had to eat at some point, didn't he? A violent fit of coughing caused the humans across the room to look over to the terminally ill vulpine, who simply signaled for them to ignore him. As Creed recovered, he placed his paw on the Arwing beside him, not realizing that the paw that had covered his mouth was now covered in blood, and as he walked out of the room, his paw left a long smear across the nose of his fighter. After the vulpine left the docking bay, Jeff looked back to Alex…
"You think these mods are really gonna work?" Alex asked.
"Never know…" Jeff replied. "Beltino said they would make our Keizers that much better…so why fight it?"
The large human stopped on his way out of the docking bay to examine the trail of blood on the nose of Creed's small ship. He wiped his fingers across the red smear and smelled his fingers…
"Hmm…probably cut himself," he said to himself. "You two finish up with your units, I need to talk with Krystal about something."
~//~
Mika walked down the halls of the ship dressed for her normal training, tight, thigh-length shorts, and a sports top, both of a dark red, with black sneakers and a pair of red punching gloves. She was tying her long white hair into a ponytail as she entered the room only to notice that the air about the room had changed from the last time she was there. She walked over to her normal heavy bag only to take notice to something new; there was a human laying on a long resting bench just to her left. He wasn't very noticeable at first because his face was covered by a small towel, possibly to hide the constant light from his eyes. She could tell that he was much shorter than the other humans she'd seen on the ship. His build however was rather sleek and athletic while retaining quite a bit of muscular bulk. He was also slightly differently dressed. He wore a white tank top with a pair of jean shorts and a thick black belt., which matched the fingerless leather gloves on his hands. As she examined the human, she noticed something leaning against his resting spot; a long curved sword who's blade was hidden in a dark, almost bloody red scabbard which matched the color of its handle. She'd seen swords of its kind before, but the ones she had seen weren't quite so……simple. Its hilt was simply a round disk of whatever light blue tinted metal the weapon was made of, with a long ribbon tied to its pommel. Curiously, she approached the weapon and slowly reached for it…
"Paws off…" A light voice made the towel on the man's face jump.
Mika quickly stepped back. She was certain that he was asleep. "You always try to scare people like that?" she asked.
"That depends…" he replied. "You always go messing with people's things without their permission?"
Mika had to admit that he was right. "I'm……sorry okay? I've just never held one before."
The man sighed a bit before picking up the weapon and holding it out to her. "If you cut yourself, it's your own fault."
As Mika took the sword, she noticed that it was incredibly light. If she had to guess, she'd have sworn it was less than five pounds. It was a long weapon, nearly as tall as she was, roughly five feet in length, if not a bit shorter. She only pulled it a short way from its scabbard, taking note of very intricate inlays about the base of the blade that almost resembled small, rolling clouds. After fully pulling the weapon from its sheath, she looked it over again. Its tip was tapered into a small angle, but it was curved like a saber…
"It's called a katana…an Odachi to be more specific," the human said pulling the towel away from his face.
He had very little of what could be called hair on his head, more like short, fine stubble, and a small bit of thin hair circling his mouth. He also had deep-set hazel eyes that almost looked green in the light, and a jagged scar crossed over the very corner of his left eyebrow. Whatever had caused it had scarcely missed his eye.
"They were used a long time ago…on Earth."
Mika looked over the weapon again. "Earth…it was destroyed wasn't it?"
"Yeah…" he replied.
Mika slid the strangely beautiful weapon back into its scabbard before handing it to the human. "I heard you the other day talking to that Jeff person. You really think Omni is planning something?"
"Omni would never do something like this…not unless they were planning something," he said. "It's not like them to just sit and wait…"
Mika really didn't want to talk about Omni even though she had asked the question. "So…you any good with that thing?" she asked pointing to the human's sword.
Before Mika could realize that he'd moved, she could hear the sound of the weapon's blade resonating in her ear. The edge of the weapon had stopped less than an inch away from her skin, sending several fine hairs of fur to the floor. The human found it odd that she didn't seem afraid of what had just happened…
"Good enough?" the human asked keeping a straight face.
"Hmph…" Mika huffed. "I've seen better."
The human scoffed. She was testing his tolerance. "Right…"
Mika thought for a moment. "You train often?"
The human gave her a questioning look…
"Whadda you think?" he asked.
Mika stepped toward the ring. "I think……you should spar with me," she replied. "Everyone else seems to be too busy…so?"
The human shook his head. "I don't wanna hurt anyone."
"You're not gonna hurt me…" Mika chuckled. "You'd be lucky enough if you could hit me."
The human shrugged his broad shoulders. At least this could prove entertaining. The white minx seemed confident in her own skills, but he could see that she was trying still to test him…he wasn't sure what she was testing him for, but for some reason she seemed to want to see him fight. As he walked into the ring, Mika took an extra notice that he wasn't bulky with muscle like a lot of males she'd seen before…maybe it was just something with humans. However, she had seen his brand of musculature before; her uncle, who had taught her to fight all those years ago, was built much like this human was. Her uncle had told her that it came from intense training, opposed to intense weight lifting, tightening and compounding muscles rather than making them larger and more bulky.
As the human stood there, he removed his belt, which seemed more for its decorative purposes than to hold up his shorts, and tossed it aside. Mika smiled when he took a defensive stance, taking an offensive one in response. She hadn't even noticed the shift in his step before the human lunged forward. The attack took her completely by surprise. She'd never heard of any martial artist attacking from a defensive stance before. The roundhouse kick that soared over her head just as she managed to duck quite possibly could have knocked her unconscious. She had, however, dodged it by such a thin margin that she slipped and fell to the mat. Mika's opponent took a step back to allow her to get up, and after standing, Mika readjusted her stance and regained her composure. She fell for it once, and she wasn't about to fall for it again…without warning of any kind, the pale furred minx shot across the ring with impressive speed, driving a strong right toward the human's ribs, which was stopped by his left. Expecting that he'd block her strike, her second went low, tearing the human's legs out from under him. As he fell to his side however, his right leg swung about striking Mika in the side of the head. Mika's vision instantly blurred. If she would believe such a thing, she'd say his kick was almost like one of Fox's . The attack she'd received stunned her for a moment, causing her to loose her footing. But as she felt herself falling back, she dropped all her weight into her legs as she thrust them both into the human's chest, causing him to hit the mat, then roll out of the ring and onto the floor…
"Hah. Ring out…" Mika scoffed. "I win."
In an instant, the human was back on his feet, leaping from the ring's turnbuckle. Mika attempted to move, but the kick to the side of her head had kept her from doing anything. He landed crouched over her midsection with his fist mere inches from her face…
"Ring outs don't count in the real world," he said with a slightly heavy breath.
A pain filled look suddenly caused the human's eyes to double in size as he fell back against the ropes of the ring. "No…but low blows do," Mika replied still refusing to stand up.
After a short while of lying there in pain, the human managed to sit up. "Nice……punch," he huffed. "And I was beginning to think you were afraid to hurt someone."
"Thanks…" Mika replied. "But how about we play by the rules next time."
The human thought for a moment. "Any time…umm…"
"Mika…" the Minx replied. "You?"
"Randy…" the human said. "And don't ever hit me there again."
~//~
Krystal sat in the captain's seat of the bridge silently hoping that Omni would simply leave without trying anything stupid. It seemed like the only thing she was capable of doing without Fox there. She wondered if this was how he felt when she'd left him alone all those years ago. Not having him here was turning out to be one of the hardest things she'd ever had to deal with. Every day she found less and less reason to get out of bed in the morning, but the hope of finding him pulled her back to her feet every time. Today was nothing different. She had her doubts about even climbing out of bed, but once again her thoughts of finding Fox alive and well were enough to get her onto her feet. It was, however, as she sat there in Fox's seat that MIA sounded off…
"Emergency transmission incoming…Source: Unregistered transmitter located on planet Sauria."
"Hmmm…that's odd…" Krystal said looking over to Vixy who sat across the room.
"Emergency transmission incoming…Source: TI-600 class transmitter, military coding present," the ship's computer sounded off again.
"Sounds like it's from Rose…" the blue-furred captain said. "The other'll have to wait. Open up the military transmission MIA."
The holographic imaging system in the room, though unseen, painted an almost tangible image of Vanity standing in the middle of the room. "Krystal, we have a problem," the image of the black feline said. "Seems Omni has made their first move. There was a satellite report of unregistered single unit ships entering Macbeth's atmosphere. They were reported landing at an old munitions site there. It was shut down after the Lylat Wars, but it wouldn't take much for anyone to learn about the munitions dump that place turned into."
"What would Omni want with an old munitions dump?" Krystal asked.
"Possibly a place to put up a temporary HQ…we're not sure. But we need your team down there. We're still recovering from that fight with Katina. You are the only ones still mobile at the moment. We need what forces we have down here," Vanity said.
Krystal sighed. She really didn't want to do any of this without Fox. "Alright, we'll head there right now." The blue vixen froze up for a moment. "Any word from Teresa?" she asked hoping that the lone survivor of the hospital massacre had woken up.
Vanity lowered her head with a sigh. "No……we aren't going to hear anything from her," The black feline said. "She was so torn up from what she saw…broke her own drinking glass and cut her wrists with the shards. The nurses say she kept spouting nonsense about him coming back for her. The poor thing was delirious."
Krystal sighed. "I guess all I can do now is wait…and hope…"
"Seems praying is all any of us can do these days," Vanity replied. "Good luck on Macbeth, Krystal."
"Thank you, Rose," Krystal replied. "Take care of yourself…" she said ending the transmission. "MIA…get us to Macbeth."
"Course set for destination: Macbeth. Current time: 2:48pm. ETA: 12:26am."
Krystal looked to the space beyond the bridge, into the darkness that separated her from what she loved. "Wherever you are…stay safe."
"Krystal…what about the other message?" Vixy asked from across the room.
"It'll have to wait for a bit…I need some rest."
