Chapter 10
2:30 P.M.
A few days had passed since the team had captured the enemy soldier after an attempted attack on the Great Fox II, Fox of course informed General Pepper about this and was told to interrogate the black panther for any information about the Doombringers that they didn't already know, the same went for the battered and bruised female wolf, despite her injuries.
"I'll ask you one more time," Fox was growing more impatient with the black panther sitting at the small table in the interrogation room, "What are the Doombringers up too and where is the main base located?"
"I piss on your ancestors' graves! Stupid Lylatian scum!" The panther exclaimed, it was somewhat difficult to understand what the panther was saying as it was clear that he was new to Lylatian speech.
"Look, either you can tell me what I need to know, or I can have my friend beat it out of you!" Fox yelled angrily as he slammed his fist onto the table, the panther resonded by spitting in the vulpine's face, Fox calmly stepped back, wiped off the saliva below his left eye, and turned around, "Just remember, I gave you a choice." Were his last words before exiting the room, leaving the panther to ponder the situation.
Falco and a fully recovered Cross were standing outside of the room, "Sounds like everything's goin' great." Falco said sarcastically.
"We have to go to plan B," Fox said, turning towards Cross who had his signature smirk on his face, once again showing his left fang as he had done so many times before, as the dark vulpine opened the door, a look of terror appeared on the panther's face, "Just try not to kill him." Fox told Cross.
"No promises," Cross said as he closed the door.
"Now, are you gonna talk?" The dark red vulpine asked, he received no answer, Cross walked over to the panther, grabbed him by the arm, and flipped him onto the ground, "This will be fun." Cross said as he cracked his knuckles.
A light grey wolf awoke in a bed, the light was bright as she opened her bright blue eyes, "Where am I?" She wondered as she sat up.
"I see that you're awake," A young voice said, startling the she-wolf, she looked at where the voice came from and spotted a dark blue fox, she grabbed her covers and looked as if she was going to scream as Ecks floated towards her, "Shh, it's okay, you're safe." He assured her as he put his paw in front of himself to quiet the scared she-wolf.
As he drew closer, "Who are you?" The female wolf asked, Ecks was surprised at how well she knew Lylatian speech .
"My name is Ecks, and you are?"
"Alexia Wolfenstell, now where am I?"
"Well Alexia, you're on the Great Fox II."
"Wait a minute, the Great Fox II? You're talking about team Star Fox?"
"You know them?" Ecks was even more surprised now.
"Of course I do, everyone in the Lylat System knows the great team Star Fox."
"Hold on a second, so you're not with the Doombringers?"
"No, I'm from Corneria."
"Then how did we find you on one of their ships?" Ecks was starting to become confused.
"I was a soldier in the military, they cornered me when we were attacked, took me away on one of their ships and..." She hesitated for a moment, "Th-they tortured me." She cringed at her own statement
"Here, let me help you," Ecks said as he stuck his paw out, a white aura emanating from it, Alexia's only reaction was fear as she flinched, "It's okay, I won't hurt you." He tried to comfort her the best that he could, the she-wolf decided to trust him as the tenseness in her body left, and Ecks placed his paw on her left arm.
She felt a warm surge move through-out her entire arm, it wasn't painful, it was actually soothing, "What are you doing?" She asked.
"I'm healing you." He answered.
"Well, you're just full of surprises." Alexia thought as she could already feel the pain start to wash away as the same warmth she felt before start to engulf her entire body.
"Yes, more than you know." Ecks said.
The light grey wolf was extremely shocked, "Wait, did you just--"
"Yes." He answered the question before it was asked, Ecks continued his concentration until the she-wolf was fully healed.
Cross had the panther lying face-down on the hard floor of the interrogation room, the red vulpine's knee was buried deep into the panther's shoulder, keeping him from making an attempt to escape, Cross also held the panther's left arm straight out in his left paw, "So, ready to talk?" Cross asked, the claws on his right paw were bared.
"I do not know anything!" The panther yelled.
"That's funny, 'cause I think you do," Cross said before he drove his claws into the panther's shoulder, resulting in a loud, agonizing scream of pain, "What if I ask nicely? Will you talk then?" Cross asked with his claws still lodged deep in the feline's flesh.
"I know nothing!" The panther said again.
"You know, it's not nice to lie to others." The red fox said as he pulled his right paw towards himself, ripping at the panther's arm as he did so, resulting in large amounts of blood spurting from the wound and making the panther scream even louder than before, Cross pulled his claws out of the feline's arm, "Do you know anything yet?" The dark vulpine questioned again.
"No! I swear!" He yelled.
"I wonder how easily an arm can break," Cross said, pulling his paw back and forming it into a fist, "Still don't know anything?" He asked with a smirk.
"I swear to you! I know nothing!" The black panther started to sob.
Cross sighed, "You just can't get good help these days." He said as he reared back his fist, and shot it into the back of the panther's elbow, a loud snap could be heard outside of the room, right before the panther's screams of pain, as Cross let the arm drop limply to the floor, a piece of the bone was sticking out of it, "Hmm, I wonder." Cross said as a sinister grin formed on his face, The red vulpine grabbed the arm and took hold of the forearm bone which was sticking three inches out of the panther's flesh.
"NO! PLEASE! ANYTHING BUT THAT!" The panther begged.
"Then tell me, where is the main base located, and what are the Doombringers planning?" Cross calmly asked.
"I...can't tell you!" The feline said as he sobbed.
"Ah, so you do know something," Cross started to pull lightly on the small piece of bone, making the panther panic, "Tell me."
"I can't or they will kill me!"
"What makes you think I won't?" Cross asked as he stopped pulling the bone, "One last chance, you gonna talk?"
"N-no."
"That's too bad." Cross said with no emotion as he snapped off the small piece of the forearm bone, making the panther scream even louder than before, he passed out seconds later from the pain.
Cross walked out of the interrogation room and saw Fox and Falco, each with the same horrified look on their faces, "What's up guys? You two look like you just a ghost." He said with a smirk, showing his left fang.
"I don't even want to know what happened in there." Falco stated.
"So, did you get any info?" Fox asked, shaking off his horrified expression.
"Well, he knows something, but tomorrow I'll just have to move to the other arm," He answered as he turned to walk to his room, he stopped before he passed Falco, "Here, take this as a souvenir." He said, handing Falco the bloody piece of bone, and walked away.
Falco looked at the small object in his feathered hand, and quickly knew that it used to be a part of their new guest, and quickly dropped it, "Man, what the hell did he do to him?" The avian asked, looking down the hall where Cross had went.
"I don't know, but I'm really glad he's on our side." Fox stated, kneeling and picking up the bloody piece of bone.
Ecks finished healing the battered she-wolf, "There, you should be okay now, you just need another day to fully recover.
"Thank you, I don't know how to repay you for this."
"No need to repay me, I'm just doing what I feel is right."
Just then, Cross walked through the door into the medical bay, "So, how's everything on your end?" He asked.
"Just fine Cross." Ecks answered, Alexia looked a bit confused as she looked from Ecks to Cross and back to Ecks.
"Who's our new friend here?" Cross asked as he approached the bed.
"Oh right, Cross this is Alexia, Alexia this is Cross, he is my brother." The blue vulpine introduced, Alexia's face shifted from confusion to surprise in an instant.
"Your b-brother?" She was completely shocked.
"Yes, he has a bit of a temper, and isn't as intelligent as I am, but yes, he is my brother." Ecks joked.
"Hey!" Cross exclaimed, grabbing at Ecks, but the blue vulpine simply teleported to the other side of the bed, making Alexia jump a bit out of surprise, "One of these days I'll get you." Cross said with a grin.
"Sure you will, now then, what information have you gathered from the one we captured?"
"Well, he hasn't said anything yet, but tomorrow I'm sure he'll talk." Cross answered.
"Why must we wait until tomorrow?" Ecks asked, but suddenly realized, "Cross, what did you do?"
The dark red vulpine nervously scratched the back of his head, "He...passed out."
"Why?"
"Uh...because I went a little too far." Cross took a step back.
"How so?"
"Well...I sort of..."
"Sort of...what?"
"I broke his arm."
Ecks let out a sigh, "Fine, we'll talk to Fox and handle it tomorrow."
Alexia didn't know what to think about all of this, "Um...exactly what is going on here?"
"Long story short, my brother and I were made like this because of our father, he experimented on us and we want revenge, but in order to do that we need to find out where the main base is located." Ecks explained.
"Oh...okay."
Ecks caught a glimpse of thoughts from Alexia, "Do you know anyone who goes by the name of 'Hax' by chance?" The blue vulpine asked.
"Yes, he's actually my fiance." She answered.
"What? You and Hax?" Cross blurted out suddenly as his jaw dropped.
"This is quite a coincidence." Ecks remained calm unlike his brother, even though he was surprised as well.
"You two know him?" The she-wolf asked.
"Know him? He's on this ship!" Cross was still stunned.
"Really?" Alexia tried to move out of the bed, but an unknown force kept her there.
"You need your rest, I'll inform him that your here," Ecks assured her, "Cross, we need to leave Alexia to rest." He said before turning towards the light grey she-wolf, "You stay here, and if you happen to get out of bed, don't leave the room, you don't know this ship and you could get lost." The two brothers then left the room, leaving Alexia to get some sleep, she had to think about that had happened.
The she-wolf was on Corneria, and the next thing she knew, the city was being attacked, and she was captured and taken aboard one of the enemy ships before their retreat, she remembered everything, the beatings she took, the torture she had to endure, she had passed out from the pain and the next thing she knew, she was lying on a bed on the Great Fox II, the only thing she could do know was sleep, hoping that the first thing she would see when she woke up was the face of her beloved, "Vaughn." She whispered as she was taken away into the depths of slumber.
Fox had went to find Krystal while Falco left for the docking bay to paint his Arwing, Fox arrived in the blue vixen's room only to realize that she wasn't there, so he decided to check the bridge where he found not only Krystal, but also found Zivia and Hax sitting on the large couch, "Have you found out where the base is?" Krystal asked, jumping from her spot on Fox's chair.
"No, but I did find out one of Cross' specialties." The light brown vulpine answered, showing the vixen the three-inch long piece of bone.
"What the hell is that?" Hax asked.
"Well, it used to be part of an arm," Fox answered, "We could re-attach it, but Cross would probably just rip it off again tomorrow."
"Cross did what?" Krystal was surprised, she never would've thought that Cross was capable of such extremes.
"The kid knows what he's doing," Zivia cut in, crossing her legs, "Think about it, torture is the best method of getting information out of someone, it's sad to say but it's true, cause enough pain, and soon they'll give, it's the oldest trick in the book, Cross simply took it to a higher level."
The room was silent for a few moments, "She's right, I think we should let Cross do this, it's barbaric, but it works." Fox said.
"Where's Falco and Slippy?" Hax asked, changing the subject.
"Slippy's asleep right now, he finished analyzing the data that we retrieved from Coluxine, but it wasn't anything important, Falco's at the docking bay putting a new paint job on his Arwing." Fox answered.
The doors to the bridge opened, and Ecks walked in, or rather he floated in, "Hax, just the guy I was looking for, do you by chance know anyone named 'Alexia Wolfensteel'? Ecks asked.
"Yeah, she's my girlfriend, why do you ask?"
"Because she's the one we found on when those Doombringers attacked us, she says that you're her fiance."
"What!?" Hax yelled as he jumped from the couch, "She's here? I have to see her!" The lupine exclaimed as he walked towards the exit of the bridge.
"She's sleeping right now."
"I don't care! I have to see if she's okay!" Hax yelled as he took his exit from the bridge.
"He's pretty stubborn." Ecks said.
"He reminds me of someone." Krystal added, looking at Fox.
"Oh yeah? Who?" Fox asked with a grin, making Krystal roll her eyes, "Anyway, where's Cross?" Fox became serious again.
"He went to the gym."
"Interesting, I'll have to check this out." Fox turned to exit the bridge.
Cross stood in front of a punching bag, examining it, this was yet another item that intrigued the vulpine, he had heard that others used these for training, "I wonder." He tapped the bag with the back of his paw, making it move slightly, he became more intrigued and tapped it a bit harder, the red vulpine kept repeating this process until taps turned to punches, and punches turned to kicks.
Fox walked into the gym and saw Cross hitting the punching bag with force, each blow harder than the one before, Cross heard Fox walk in and turned his attention towards the light brown vulpine for a moment, as soon as Cross looked back at the heavy bag however, it smacked him clean on his nose, he let out a slight yelp as he was knocked back a few steps, Cross' eyes turned from yellow to red as he reared back his arm, and connected with punch with bone-shattering force, knocking the bag backwards and breaking the chain that supported it. Cross eyes changed back to normal as he turned to a stunned Fox.
"What? It made me mad," Cross said, "So, wanna spar?" A smirk appeared on the dark vulpine's face.
"No thanks, maybe some other time, I don't want to end up like that." Fox said, still looking at the heavy bag on the floor.
"Okay, when do we start with the interrogation again?"
"Tomorrow, but until then, make sure you don't rip anyone else's bones out."
"Sorry, I guess I went a little overboard, but it's his fault for not telling me anything."
"Either way, it works, we need to get any info we can, and your way seems to be the best way."
There was a small pause, "I'm gonna go to bed, I need my rest so I can make sure he talks tomorrow." Cross ended as he turned to the exit of the gym.
Even though it was against what Fox stood for, it was the only way, Fox could only hope that the one they captured would give them details before Cross would eventually have enough and kill him, but that was all Fox could do.
1:45 AM
Alexia awoke, it felt like deja vu, squinting at the bright lights, she forgot where she was for a moment, but she soon remembered, her eyes opened, she looked to her left where a black wolf was sitting in a chair, his head propped on his right paw with his eyes closed, she knew eactly who it was, "Vaughn." The light grey she-wolf said, the lupine's eyes opened when he heard this, his bright blue eyes looking at her's.
"Alexia, you're okay." The lupine stood up, and walked to her bed side, a look of concern on his face for the she-wolf.
"Of course I am, you didn't think they could get rid of me, did you?" She asked, smiling.
"I didn't know what to think after I heard that you were captured by them." Hax was happy to see that his love wasn't hurt.
"So, what have you been up to?" Alexia asked, causing the lupine to chuckle.
"Well, the general sent us here to help Fox in dealing with these 'Doombringers', speaking of which, was anyone else taken when Corneria was attacked?"
"I didn't see anyone that I recognized, I guess I was the only one," Alexia looked down, it pained her to think that she was the only one captured during the attack, it made her feel somewhat helpless, "By the way, what did you mean by 'us'?"
"Oh, Zivia and I were sent here." Hax answered.
"What? Zivia's here too?" Alexia became over-joyed, "I can't believe it."
Just then, the entire ship jolted, and Hax fell to the ground, landing on his backside, "What the hell was that?" The lupine asked, surprised.
Krystal ran into the medical bay, "We've just been attacked!" She yelled, "Everyone to the bridge!" The blue vixen ran out of the room.
Alexia tried to stand, but Hax stopped her, "Don't stress yourself, I'll take you." He said, picking her up in his arms and leaving the medical bay.
When they finally arrived they noticed that everyone on the ship was at the bridge, all of them were looking outside to see who their attacker was, except for Cross, who was standing beside the door, frozen in fear, "Who attacked us?" Hax asked as he set Alexia down on a near-by couch.
"The Doombringers." Ecks calmly said.
"ROB! take us into hyper-space! I don't care where we go just make sure it's far away from these guys!" Fox ordered, "We can't fight them, our shields are down, but we need some time before we'll be ready to leave."
Their attacker was a large blood red ship, almost as large as the Great Fox II itself, it had a cannon extending from it's front, and it was charging up for another attack, "One more shot like that and were done for!" Fox yelled.
"I can stop it temporarily, how much time do we need?" Ecks asked, closing his eyes.
"Thirty seconds." Fox answered.
The cannon was fully charged, a large red laser left the barrel and was heading straight for the ship, a white aura emanated from Ecks' body as he opened his eyes, which were glowing pure white, he gritted his teeth as the huge laser slowed down, but was still approaching the Great Fox II at a slow speed.
"Everyone needs to sit down!" Fox yelled.
Everyone did so, except for Cross who was still frozen in fear, and Ecks who was concentrating, trying to stop the red beam that would surely destroy them if it were to hit the Great Fox II, Hax and Alexia held one another in their arms, Krystal held Fox's paw tightly, "I love you Fox." She said, looking into his emerald eyes.
"I love you too Krys." Fox returned, looking into her luscious blue gaze.
Zivia was sitting calmly in her seat, "This is gonna be close." The light orange vixen said, she was worried but wouldn't show it.
"Ten seconds!" Fox yelled, Ecks wasn't sure if he could keep this up for too much longer, his body was starting to weaken, his eyes felt heavy, he could feel his hold on the laser starting to loosen, and then everything went dark.
Author's Note: Well, that chapter took longer than I expected, but it's done so I'm happy now. I finally reached ten chapters! This is kind of a big deal for me, considering that this is my first story, I don't really know how many chapters this is gonna be, but I plan on it going to at least twenty, I thank everyone who has read this, and everyone who has reviewed, especially SkullFox and notfromearth7, you guys are awesome. R&R and I hope you enjoyed, until the next update, later.