Me: Here's another Rewrite chapter to this series and more to come.
Fox: Say I've been meaning to ask, where did Mecha Fox go anyway i haven't heard from him in awhile?
Sly: Mecha Fox? who's that?
Adam: Sounds like a cool name!
Me: Oh he's an Au of Fox i made, and i sent him back to his universe.
Sonic: you can do that?
Me: DO NOT QUESTION MY ABILITIES! NOW ON WITH THE STORY!
Griff: GAH! MY FUCKING EARS!
Chapter 10: demons of the dark night
Krystal was waiting in the lobby of Star-Tech Industries Head Quarters with Star Falco. The lobby's entrance consisted of two pairs of sliding glass doors. Against the back wall was the pristine white reception desk, the desk curved towards the wall, leaving gaps between the wall and the desk. On the wall behind the desk, in neon blue writing, was Star-Tech Industries. On both sides of the room, were two rows navy blue chairs each. In the two corners nearest the door, were small black stands with two potted plants on top.
There was very uncomfortable atmosphere for Krystal, it wasn't her first time in the since she lost Fox, nor the intimidating security guards, but the presence of the Star Wolf team, of him was driving her mad. When she saw the team she was shocked to discover she would be working with them. Upon their meeting, Leon had wasted no time in mocking the team over Fox's loss; however it had been mostly aimed at Falco, instead of her, but was just as painful to listen. Panther was worse, immediately he approached her, attempting to flirt and achieve a date with her, expressing sorrow for her loss.
Krystal knew better however, not only was that his character, but her telepathy revealed that he was fantasying about her spread naked across his bed, begging like a horny bimbo. It took all her strength to stop herself from lashing out at him. Back when they had a 'relationship', all Panther got was a look, not a touch and demanded her privacy from him with promises of false rewards. She might have done it to spite Fox, but even she wasn't willing to go that far.
Fortunately, and surprisingly, Wolf stepped in and pulled Panther away from her, sending him to far side of the room as if he was a misbehaving child. She was even more surprised when he apologized for his behavior, and was sorry for her loss. At first, Krystal struggled to believe him, but when she scanned his mind, he was being honest and sincere, though there was a slight old memory of young female Lupine saying words she couldn't make out, but still shinning a new light on Wolf.
Katt had kept close by to help protect her from the perverted monster and the psychopath. Her presence assured Krystal that she would be there to help. Krystal had met Miyu and Fay before, and got on really well with them, and was looking forward to working with them. But the great white however, was slightly intimidating. Despite Lylat being only just aware of aquatic life since the Angular attack, she had seen their kind before, on Cerneria there had been a few aquatic species. But even then they were rare.
"So where you get that loser, Lamebardi from a cosplay convention or a really cheap Halloween party." Leon asked trying to get on the Avian nerve's.
However, he got wasn't what he expected, a grin on the avian's lips. Falco then whistle to Jack, even with his headphones speakers were loud he could still hear the avian call him. His head started to rotate at 180 degrees with his scarf still covering his mouth until he was facing Falco and Leon and raised his eyebrow, wondering what he want. The merc's, guards and even Leon were terrified when Jack rotated his head, and it didn't help when he did it rather horrifically. Falco waved his arms indicating that he just wanted to call him for fun. Jack just shrugged his shoulders, rotated his head back to normal and continued to read his book.
Krystal found the skeleton, nice, intelligent if he was to be compared with Slippy, and quite, in a disturbing and horrific way. She watched as a lavender cat walked up to said skeleton and began trash talking him. "What are you supposed to be? A freak that what you are, you're an abomination, you shouldn't even exist you or your kind." The feline said, however the last comment visibly angered him. Krystal saw jack closed his book, got up from his seat and then punched the avian's face, causing him to land on his rear end. But what she didn't expect was Jack's right eye started glowing brighter while his left eye dimmed down, he then raised his right hand, she saw that it started to glow in a mix of green and blue aura, then the feline's body too was surrounded with the same aura.
"What the f-!" he said before the feline was sent skyrocketing up wards until he almost slammed his head onto the ceiling. The feline looked down to see that Jack had raised his right arm upwards; he then pulled out a pocket knife out of his pocket, then the feline felt his body being moved so that he was in belly flop like position and descending at an accelerating speed. Then he stopped suddenly, he felt a cold, sharp point of Jack's knife on his neck, he looked up to see Jack's cold dark stare, Jack pulled his knife away, is eye turned back to normal and the green blue aura dispersed, causing the feline to drop to the floor on his stomach. The feline looked up in horror as Jack looked down menacingly at him, then the skeleton just sat back down to is seat and continued reading his book.
Krystal had a shock expression like everyone else besides members of Star Falco but not for the reason that he had powers no she was shocked because it was similar to her people's power who have a lifetime of practice and meditation to accomplish.
-x-x-x-
Falco's glare was constantly switching between the charcoal grey feline sitting behind the exotic white desk in front of him, and the mercenary lupine standing beside him. When he took the job, the last thing he was expecting was to see Star Wolf, only to discover, he would be working with them. Resulting in this argument:
"Gentlemen," Pierce attempting to reason with the mercenaries, "I am fully aware of your rivalry, but you see, I don't give a damn or care. My life is at stake, and I have hired you both and a vast number of mercenaries because I want these assassins dead."
"if you actually valued your life, you wouldn't have hired us both," Wolf stated, almost in a mocking tone. "My team would actually prefer to fight this bird's team than work with them."
"Feelings mutual," replied Falco.
"I'm not paying you both to fight each other, either you both put your shit aside or you can fuck off!" yelled Pierce. He was taking a gamble; Fox and his team were out there, possibly stalking the streets right now looking for him, and he needed these two team for defence. Though it was impossible for them to kill him, he would wipe both teams out within an instant. But their rivalry was destroying his plan, yet they were still mercenaries, desperate mercenaries.
"Fine," spat Wolf, before storming out of the office door. Falco cast a glance at Pierce; he still wanted to make a deal with the feline.
"Alright if I'm going to work with those dickheads, then I want to get a better deal," announced Falco, the charcoal felines green eyes just stared at him with a blank expression.
"In what way?" queried the cat.
"A ship. Specifically a carrier ship." bartered Falco.
"Well then, if that what I need to pay you to work with Star Wolf, so be it," said the feline; Falco was completely surprised by Pierces sudden agreement.
"I will add that to your payment, you will receive it when I feel safe, agreed?" asked Pierce.
Falco nodded in agreement. The feline was now grinning from ear to ear, the grin was unnerving for Falco, and it was the grin of a madman, a madman he hope to never be reminded of again. Common sense quickly told the avian to just leave and not ask.
As soon as the avian stepped out of the office, he was stopped by Wolf O'Donnell who was leaning beside the door, with his arms crossed and his left foot against the wall. The Lupine gave Falco a fierce glare, his one good eye refusing to blink. Despite the threatening look, Falco felt that Wolf was judging him. Falco calmly turned away from Wolf to leave.
"How you aren't dead is a bloody miracle," Falco heard Wolf comment. The offended Avian spun around to face the Lupine.
"What?" Falco said in reply.
"I said it's a surprise you're still breathing." Spat Wolf in a much louder tone than before. "You and Your team, except that bone guy I think he's already dead."
"And yet we've defeated you in the past," countered Falco, feeling smug. "FYI Jack is alive even if he looks like he was brought back from the grave."
"Star Fox defeated us, not Star Falco," Wolf corrected. "You don't see it."
"What does that mean?"
"Just think for once in your fucking life!" growled an impatient Wolf. "Why would a multi-millionaire CEO of one of Lylat's most successful businesses hire a load of mercenaries for security? Most of the mercs here don't have a reputation and there will be rivalries that need to be dealt with."
"If something is off, why are you still here?" sated Falco, highlighting Wolf's presence.
"Simple, even though I don't trust him, the payment is too good to turn down," said Wolf, spoken like a true mercenary.
-x-x-x-
When confident that he was alone in the safety of his office, Pierce activated the secret communications program in his terminal. Within seconds, the image of Colonel Arachnid' eight eyed head appeared on a screen.
"Ah, greetings Pierce," said the spider, as his pincers clicked, "To what I owe the pleasure?"
"Well Colonel, not only did I get two rival teams of merc to operate together, but ensure that our enemies are in Fox's and his team's line of attack." The feline chuckled at his victory guaranteed scheme.
"Don't let your confidence be your downfall Pierce, how can you be positive that they will strike down our enemies?" inquired Arachnid.
"You have seen the recordings of his escape and subject 191 first outrage, they are monster especially in battle, only capable of slaughter and destruction, some of Greaser's creations were ineffective, no wander Eden's wants that power."
"But remember, Nova wasted nearly all of his thugs against him and that was Fox alone, and Vander was struck down with an entire regiments of marines at his side with both of them together. They aren't exactly push over. Even if your plan works, you will share their fate if something fails."
"True, but I still have a few aces up my sleeve."
-x-x-x-
Fox was crouched next to one of the building sir vents on the highest roof of the building with the help of Vi carrying him, Raiden and Mirage all the way up. The wind howling around him and Raiden, except for Mirage as she now stayed in her father's shadow, as they set the fourth and final bomb to distract and devastate security. Heavy rain continued to poor, soaking the Vulpine, Beetle through their cloths, as thunder roared and lighting flashed. Before he places the final explosion, he faced his team before the operation begins.
"Does everyone know the plan?" he asked.
"Yes master," Vi answered, "I am to hack into Star-Tech main system and extract any fails useful that could help us in destroying Ghost Lagoon or any info about the other Founders."
"I am to accompany you and strike down any that get in or try to stop our way." Raiden replied, he then looked down at his shadow. "And to keep Mirage out of the conflict as much as possible."
"Oh, oH, I gEt To pLAy bReAk sOMe BoNeS wIth evERy mERc anD StAR-tEcH sEcUriTy gUArds," Savage said, as his transparent form appeared beside Raiden, his lips formed a devilish grin, "AnD wHeN wE GeT PiErcE, I gEt tO pLaY toTUreR wiTH hiM."
Fox nods at them and ignore what Savage said, he then places the final explosive in place, everyone except Savage, who wanted to see the blast up close and he can't really be hurt by it, backed away to the duffle bag by the corner nearest to the bomb. Fox pulled out a makeshift detonator, the vulpine silently thanked Slippy for teaching him how to make his own explosives, Fox originally had no interest in learning such skills, he only learnt it because Peppy forced him and 'tested' him to make sure he wouldn't slack off.
'When you're trapped against the enemy, you will be glad when you realize you can make your own bombs' Fox didn't believe him. Oh the irony.
'WeLl wHo kNeW, tHe gEEzeR waS rIgHt.' Savage commented telepathically.
-x-x-x-
Krystal walked down another bland corridor, with only a long window to view the on-going storm, as part of her patrol, laser carbine in her hand. That as ridicules, they were protecting a business man, yet the level of security he had was similar to that of a politician, maybe even beyond that. To Krystal, there was something wrong, and the security guards and mercenaries around her weren't helping.
They were difficult to read, the most she could get with her powers were basic emotions, like a dark aura. Never before she had experienced something like this before, they were to block her telepathy, all of them, one person who could was rare, two was a coincidence, but this many altogether was impossible, something was going on, and she needed to know.
"Well hello, Miss Krystal," purred a horrid voice. Krystal spun around in shock to see Panther right behind her. She was caught up in her thoughts she didn't sense him.
"What do you want Panther?" Krystal spat in a harsh tone.
"Can't Panther just talk to something as beautiful as you?" Panther asked innocently, creepy smirk.
"I've got a job to do, and so do you."
"Panther has a better idea, why don't we go out and have fun by ourselves."
Krystal knew what he meant. She could feel his eyes resting on her cleavage.
"Hey! You two!" Krystal was thankful to have this moment interrupted.
Approaching them were two security guards, although from a glance, their equipment would say otherwise. Both wore silvery-white combat armour with black underlay and blue lining. The Star-Tech logo was placed on the left breast, with 'security' written underneath in blue letters. On their hips, were holstered pistols each and in their hands were laser rifles. The tallest was a golden jaguar, and the other was a light brown weasel.
"Do you mind?" hissed Panther, "We are having a lovely conversation."
"You're getting paid for security, not flirting with each other," the jaguar pointed at Panther in a threatening manner. Krystal felt sick at the idea.
"What we do together is none of your business!" Krystal wanted to slap Panther so much.
"It is when…"
BOOM!
Everyone dropped to the floor as the corridor behind the guards was consumed by a bright orange, scorching hot fireball. Glass from the window and light bulbs shattered and scattered everywhere in tiny and large fragments, Krystal shielded her face with her arms. The explosion was ringing in her ears, drowning out any other sound. Soon the ringing subsided, and was instead replaced by howling wind, rain falling, the slight of flame and the wail of an emergency siren.
Krystal moved her arms away to see what was before her. The only light came flashing red lights as sirens wailed. To her right, a hole interrupted the wall, the windows completely shattered. Panther was slowly ascending to his feet, while the security guards remained still. The shaken vixen crawled towards the weasel; the back of the pristine white armour was now smoky grey with red specks. She moved closer to see a large shard of glass buried in the back of his neck, blood leaking heavily from the wound.
Krystal stood up and moved away from the dead weasel to the jaguar. Like the weasel, the back of his armour was smoky grey. No visible injuries could be seen. Gently, Krystal lifted the guards head and placed her finger on his neck. His pulse was rapidly pounding.
"What are you doing?" asked Panther greatly annoyed.
"He's alive, but he needs help," Krystal stated.
"Leave him, he's fucked anyway!"
The horrified vixen glared at the heartless feline. She decided to pull the jaguar to the side, away from the opening, Panther let out a snarl but he reluctantly help Krystal pull the wounded jaguar away.
-x-x-x-
A dark brown lizard, a pale grey crocodile and a silver gorilla, wearing Star-Tech security armour and armed with laser rifles, analyzed the scene before them. The ceiling had been blown apart, bits of scrap metal, shattered glass and burning fragments littered the floor, and the pristine walls scorched a horrid brown from the heat.
The group spied the hole in the ceiling, thick black smoke obstructing much of their view, but shattered edges of the air vent were visible if one looked hard enough. Rain droplets fell through the ceiling as if it was bleeding. Suddenly, three shadows engulfed figures emerged from the smoke. One had a sword in his left hand and electricity coming out of his right hand, another had activated what appears to a red visor which was in the shape of an X with pointed edges, and the last figure arms was replaced a claws and the figure had a pair of two handed weapons on its back.
The figure with the sword stabbed the gorilla through the chest; the visor figure fired three shots out its hand at the crocodile. As the crocodile stumbled backwards, the figure with the clawed arms charged up to the lizard, the lizard tried to fire a single shot at the figure. The figure growled in pain but continued on his path. The lizard tried to fire again but couldn't as if his body couldn't move after that one shot.
"TsK,tSk. NoW that's nOT vERy nIcE. ThIS deSREve DEatH." said a voice in a cold, cruel manner in the lizard's ear.
The figured then jumped on the lizard and forced him to the ground, before thrusting his left claw through his throat, bringing the guards life to an abrupt painful end.
Fox slowly stood off the corpse of his newest victim. He turned his claws back to their normal form. Carefully, Fox brought his hand to his chest, before instantly removing it upon contact. Pain erupted from his chest at the slightest touch, his jacket and charcoal grey shirt had burn marks decorating the fabric.
The pain from the lasers burns were beyond unbearable, worse than his detainment in the facility, worse than the unethical experiments that made him what he was. Fox grit his teeth as he forced his body to ignore the pain as he moved. Then Raiden walked up to the lizard's corpse and grabbed the rifle that was used against Fox and presented to him. Its design shared some features from the blaster rifle, but heavily modified into something nearly unrecognizable.
"All security personal," they spun around to see the downed croc wheezing into a wrist communicator. Fox reached for the carbine on his back to shoot the weak guard but was stopped when Vi stood in front of the guard, with her left foot raised and spikes protract out from her sole. "Hostile intrusion. Repeat hostile in…AHH!"
-x-x-x-
Falco readied his rifle, his breathing steady, his mind focused. He didn't expect the assassins would strike on his first shift, and the explosions had caught him by complete surprise. But then again, Pierce had been receiving death threats for a while, so the last thing they would be expecting was encounter was Star Falco, and Star Wolf. Falco grabbed the communicator on his belt and brought it to his mouth.
"Star Falco, assemble at my coordinates."
-x-x-x-
Demonic Revengers sprinted down the short corridor to five man team taken shots at them, Fox's own rifle in his right hand returned a wild spread of fire, his hood flapped lightly as he ran, Vi also fired lasers at the group. Fox would be lucky that their shots hit one of these grunts, but then again their shooting was more of a distraction. Three of the guards began slowly step away as they closed in.
"FOR ANDROSS!" one of the guards yelled. Fox snapped as those words reached his ears, if they were willing to die for the big ape head, he and his team would gladly answer their wishes.
As the distance between them and the guards was now roughly a meter. With a clear as possible aim of a guards head, a red-orange monkey, Fox signaled Vi to shoot him. Vi aimed her right hand at the guards head and a continuous stream of laser fire brought the monkey down. Immediately after, the guard on her left felt the sharp edge of Raiden's blade tearing through their armour and ripping the flesh underneath. Blood flew from the wound as the guard was sent flying to the floor.
Fox ran past his teammates and resumed fire on the other three; the guards broke apart to avoid it. Fox was able to close the distance between them instantly. The center guard was severed in two by Fox's claw as he tore across the guard's top of his hip. The guard wailed and cried in pain as the top half flew backwards, while his legs fell to the floor. The horrified guards were barely able to comprehend what was happening, allowing Fox to impale the guard on his right through his chest with his blades, imbedding it in the wall behind him. Before turning his head to fire his laser rifle at the final guard.
Fox watched ass the guard fell back against the wall, he could feel the blood of the other guard trickling down his arm. The vulpine looked to see blood leaking out of his wound, staining the pristine white armour. With a swift trust, Fox ripped his blade hand from the wall and guard, Vi and Raiden rushed up to his side. Suddenly, Fox felt a burning pain in his left hand forcing him to drop his rifle and Raiden deflect two other shots with his katana. Fox looked to see the back of his hand had a large burnt patch, emitting a thin trail of smoke.
They looked to see roughly ten guards standing in front of pair of large doors, all were aiming their weapons at them. Fox noticed a lack of consistency amongst their equipment; four of them were wearing standard armour, while the rest lacked any form of uniformity. A dirty brown rabbit, wearing Star-Tech security armour, stepped from the crowd.
"Well, look at what we've have here boys," the rabbit boldly stated, "Fox McCloud and his band of freaks."
Fox just snarled in response.
"We're gonna be famous in Ghost Lagoon boys," hissed the rabbit in glee.
"I'm sure you will," Fox responded with a wicked and insane grin, "You'll be known as the worst soldier for threatening your greatest enemies, rather than shooting them when you had the chance."
"Correction, we disarmed you, and our kit has been overhaul," the rabbit replied. Fox laughed.
"I'm guessing no-one's told you," Fox said closing , raising his hands changing them into their claw forms, his fur became grey, Vi activating her plasma blades, Raiden creating electricity from his hands and Mirage made herself present as shadow like tentacles spurt out from Raiden's shadow and there were four glowing red eyes staring at them., "We're walking killing machines." Savage spoke with a demonic grin on his face.
-x-x-x-
Peppy sat in his office, watching the security recording from Kew. The orange blur at the end, tearing apart it victims in the most brutal of way terrified him. Worse, it matched the description of what had been witnessed on the destroyed warship, and the wrecked escape pod that had been found, caused him even more worried. Fierce banging on his office door startled him, derailing his train of thought.
"Enter."
Colonel Silvers entered, slightly out of breath, saluting towards his superior, Peppy returned the gesture. The old hare was clearly expecting even more bad news, because it seems that Silvers is an expert in giving that to him.
"General, explosions have been reported from Star-Tech Industries Head-Quarters, and there have been reports of gunfire and casualties. Terrorist attack I fear." Said the Colonel, slightly panting.
Peppy instantly stood up from his desk. "Have whatever security forces in that area surrounding the building and secure the area! Assemble support forces and have them deployed, nothing leaves that Facility! I will be overseeing this myself!"
Silvers opened his mouth to object. "Don't waste your breath, Colonel. I will not let this go to someone else until I am satisfied with the situation." Colonel Silver just watch as Peppy stormed out of his office, he let out a sigh and soon followed.
-x-x-x-
After killing the arrogant Ghost Lagoon soldiers, Savage, Raiden, Mirage and Vi continued their rampage of destruction. Vi's scanners then suddenly picked up a strange reading. She slowed down into a jogging pace before she eventually stopped, Savage and Raiden noticed this as they too stopped and turned around to face their cyborg companion.
"Vi, What's the hold up?" Savage asked, with a slightly annoyed tone.
"My apologies Master Savage, My scanners has pick up something," she then walked exactly four steps forward and kneel down on her right knee, she placed her right hand on the floor "Underneath this floor, judging from the type of readings I'm receiving, I conclude that it is Ghost Lagoon tech base and judging by my scanners a laboratory worth."
Savage's fur suddenly reverted back to dark orange, "Are you certain Vi?" Fox said now taken back control of his body. Vi nodded once, Fox then thought for a moment allowing the info to sink in.
'A Ghost Lagoon laboratory? This could useful to us.'
'ExPlAin tO mE FoX, cause I ain'T gEtTinG It?' Savage asked, Fox just sigh at his other half.
'It means you retard, we could find more info about them, take their tech and weapons to use against them. 'Savage made a humming sound as if he understood what Fox said. Back in reality, Fox had a curious grin on his face. "Vi can you break through?"
"Is that a request Master?"
"No, that was an order." Vi nodded again, she pulled back both of arms, she tightening her fist, Her hands started glowing a bright red, and then she trusted both fist forwards on the floor before an explosion to accrue on impact. Fox and Raiden used their arms to shield their faces from the blast, once the dust subsided, they lowered their arms and saw a now gapping whole in the floor and through it they saw what appears to be a laboratory, there were various laboratory equipment and some experimental weapons and armour in the room.
Vi soon stood up and jump down into the room, Raiden sheeted his Katana into its sheet, his hands reaching into his coat, he then pulled out a pair of shotguns, Fox grabbed his rifle readied. The pair followed after her, Mirage had a made a small doll construct on her father's left shoulder so she could see the lab more clearly. Fox, Raiden and Mirage kept looking around at the various weapons, Fox noticed a few modified Ghost Lagoon rifle he seemed to like, he latched his current rifle to his back and grabbed a Ghost Lagoon rifle, it appeared to be a modified Nonlinear Rifle with the base of a MA5D ICWS with a modified energy unit, he noticed something written on it, it read out 'MA6D Liner Rifle', he held in on hand, it wasn't as heavy as he thought it would be but then again he did remembered he now had super human strength. He then held it with both hands and it felt very secure and firm in his hands.
"Yeah, I'm keeping this one." He said to himself with a slight grin on his face.
Raiden and Mirage kept looking around at the various guns that were built there, Mirage's doll kept turning its head from left to right, eyeing each weapon she could see. Raiden kept walking by several weapons racks; he sights were more focus on a certain weapons aura he saw earlier, as he got closer the aura of the weapon grew bigger as if it was calling out to him. Then he stopped in front of a glass case, inside the case was what appeared to be a weaponized blade in its futuristic sheet. Without a second thought Raiden raised one of his shotguns and slammed down on the glass case shattering it to pieces.
"Mirage, my dear could you please hold these for me?" he said to the doll, his arms on his sides and his shot guns hanging loosely from his hands. The doll turns to face him, tilting its head a bit in confusion but nodded, and then two black arms emerged from Raiden's shadow and took the guns from his hands and pointed them upwards. With his now free hands, he then grabbed the sheet and pulled the blade out, as he gripped the handle of the blade, it felt familiar to him as if…as if he had used this blade before.
'It can't be…can it?' the beetle thought to himself, he then had his fingers rub the blunt smooth side of the blade when he felt something, like something engrave on the blade. This made the beetle's glowing blue eye open up even wider. He then let out a small chuckle 'It seems fate favored me today.' he thought to himself. As he held the blade in the air in his left hand and attached the sheet to his right hip above the first sheet.
" ✌❄ 💧 ✋❄ ✋❄ 👎✌👎👎✡✍" Mirage asked in her native language. (What's it it daddy?)
"Well my youngling, I would like to introduce you to my old friend, the Murasame." He said showing the doll the blade.
Vi on the other hand completely ignored most of the weapons as she was more focus on another task, she walked up to one of the terminals, she pulled out a black cable with USB adapter and plugged it into the terminals, within seconds of plugging in, the terminals screen suddenly had various file being open at once, one file lead to another, she even found one about project 'Variant'.
"Master Fox, I believe I have found valuable information about Ghost Lagoon." Fox quickly ran up to her too see what she had uncovered. When his eyes took a glance at a file a large dark smile crept its way onto Fox's face. He quickly scanned through the already open files until one caught his interest. The file was title 'Project S.S.E' beneath the file was the file's full name, 'Project Super Soldier Enhancement', as Fox was about to order Vi to open it, Vi suddenly spoke up.
"Master, I'm detecting hostile targets inbound." Fox growled at the sudden interruption, Raiden ran up to them with his new blade in hand and Mirage's shadow arms still holding the shotguns. Fox saw a large carrier ship like door not too far away from them slowly being open and Star-Tech security in heavy body armour and weapons meant for vehicles, he let out a deeper growl.
"Vi, download everything now and don't stop for anything! We will cover you." He said pointing his new riffle at the security guards direction; Vi nodded and began downloading said file into her database. Fox and Raiden then started walked towards the Star-Tech guards with killer intents radiating from their bodies, Fox aimed his riffle at them, he pressed his finger on the trigger and soon a bright dark crimson red beam fired out from the barrel of the gun, the beam shot through a large black gorilla chest who wore a thick layer of body armour and melted three unfortunate guards behind him. For Fox, the blast was a bit more powerful then he originally expected as when he fired the beam, the force of the blast pushed him back by a few centimeters from his original position.
"Okay now that was something." Fox said, slightly looking down at his new gun, he had grin of his face. Then after seconds of the blast from Fox's gun, the Star-Tech guards' open fired, Fox ducked to a nearby table for cover but for Raiden, he instead of heading for cover, he walked forward instead, tilting his body a bit to avoid some of the oncoming laser fire. Some guards noticed Raiden walking towards them and thought he would be an easy target; they diverted their fire to Raiden. Raiden noticed some for guards had aimed their weapons at him and started firing at him, he slowly raised his blade forwards and when the first barrage of lasers was about to hit him, he deflected every shot towards him with his sword with very little effort and grace.
Then Raiden's pace grew faster and then he started sprinting forward while deflecting the guards shots, Mirage, who was still in her father's shadow, aimed the shotguns that she held beside her father at the guards and fired. A red humming bird guard was shot in the chest twice killing him, while another guard, a dark grey rhino was hit in his right knee and his left hand was blown to bits. When Raiden was just a few meters away from the guards, his body emitted electricity and suddenly he vanished from his former position and appeared behind the same rhino with the disfigured hand and stab him from the back, his blade cutting through his body armour and chest with no problem, as if his body was made of paper, then Raiden twisted his blade until it pointed upwards, he grabbed the handle with both hands and swung upwards slicing the rhino's chest, neck and face in half with a spray of blood spewing out from the fresh wound covering any nearby guards with blood.
Fox was busy adjusting his new rifle's energy levels, he altered the energy core to able to fire rapid shot in exchange of reducing the power of the beams. Once he shut the panel back in place, he jumped over the desk he hide behind, just in time to see Raiden swing his blade at three guards slicing their upper torso off their hips and spew blood out, Mirage created several shadow spikes and shot them at three more guards impaling them in their chest. 'Fox, gET iN tHEre, wE'rE mIsSIng ThE ACtiOn!' Savage yelled not wanting to lose a chance of killing, Fox noticed the door open again and more guards rush in, this made Fox grin a bit. 'Well Savage, guess there is plenty to go around.'
As the fighting continued, Vi was continuing her download of the files but she did not expect them to be this many but she was about done so it didn't really matter to her. One guard, a grey dog, was able to slip pass Fox and Raiden's massacre, he noticed that Vi was preoccupied and thought that he was an easy target, he aimed his riffle at her and was about to pull the trigger when suddenly Vi's free hand grabbed his face, covering most of his face, he was about to scream when suddenly a long thin beam saber emitted out rom Vi's palm, the beam went through the canine's skull killing him, Vi let go of the dog's head, allowing the lifeless body to drop to the floor with a thud, she pull her USB wire out of the terminal, on the screen was written 'All file transferred complete 100%' with that she turned to face the direction where Fox and Raiden were fighting, her masked covered her face and she was about to charge straight in but she caught something from the corner of her visor that seemed to intrest her.
-x-x-x-
Pierce nervously paced up and down his office, McCloud and his team had arrived. It was lucky he had both Star Falco and Star Wolf under the same roof, ready to be struck down, but he was caught unaware, believing he had more time when none existed.
The door of his office hissed open to allow five security guards in. Pierce could clearly see they were anxious about something. A bright red fox, Pierce assumed to be the team leader, stepped forward.
"Sir, we've lost contact with the teams securing the laboratories," the vulpine voice trembled slightly.
"What was in the labs?" Pierce dared to ask, most of the laboratories in the building didn't officially exist. The few that did were of the top secret 'experimental development' for Corneria.
"Weapons Development, Sir, from 'those' labs," the vulpine replied. Pierce's heart froze with fear, if contact with teams guarding some experimental weapons for Ghost Lagoon had been lost, then I probably meant that McCloud and his team had got to them, and worse, the weapons they had been developing had fallen into their enemies hands.
"Sir, we need to get you out here."
"Hold on, McCloud and his monsters wouldn't know what they have come across, try to contain him. I'll leave once they're secure, and if not, then we can use 'them' to buy us sometime."
-x-x-x-
Star Falco were ascending a stairwell, trying to intercept the hostile. Whoever these hostiles were, they were moving through the building at an alarming rate, all security teams that were reported encountering the hostile lost contact. Falco was almost certain they were here for Pierce, but their actions lead him to think otherwise. Instead of being sneaking, they had blown several holes into the building, openly attacked security and were moving seemingly without any thought of where they going, as if they were only here to cause chaos.
Falco's train of thought came to an abrupt end; Katt was shaking him lightly, while pointing down a corridor. Falco stared wide eyed at the scene before his eyes, illuminating by red flashing warning lights. The severed remains of five bodies littered the passage, large puddles of crimson blood surrounding them. The walls bore the marks of laser burns, all of it painted a very familiar scene for the whole team, one they have hoped to never see again.
"It can't be," Fay whispered, "It can't be."
Jaws seemed to be the least phased by the sight and Jack didn't seem to bother but he was comforting Fay. Slowly the Great white walked towards the nearest corpse of a pale grey warthog, whose right arm had been cut off half way between his shoulder and elbow. The Great white grabbed the hogs severed arm and examined the cut.
"Relatively clean cut along the flesh and through the bone," muttered the sea creature as he dabbed two fingers against the blood oozing from the arm, before bringing them to his nose to sniff the substance, "Fresh, yet a foul scent. Unnatural for such a kill." Jack nodded in agreement.
"You know we have encountered these kills before, or did you forget the warship," spat Katt in annoyance.
"Exactly my point, feline," Jaws replied in his cold stoic voice. Before he could explain, the corridor was filled with a voice on the speakers.
"Attention! Lockdown Procedures have begun in Research and Development! All security are to secure the area."
-x-x-x-
Krystal and Panther were following a security team to the Research and Development. The guards had been rather short and blunt in their explanation for why a lockdown had been called. Apparently, the hostiles had navigated their way through the building, from the top of the Research and Development, at the back of the facility. How they managed it, the guards didn't know, or more likely, didn't share.
Krystal had become even more suspicious of the guards; she could sense they were hiding something, something important. However, all of her efforts to probe their minds had been futile, like it had been before, even in a stressful situation such as this.
The sound of laser fire and shouting through the wailing sirens caught Krystal nearly unprepared. The guards in front broke into a sprint, with them following close behind. The group arrived at one of the lockdown gates, to see security shooting down a passage to the right, where Krystal assumed, was the hostiles. She watched as a guard was hit in the chest by a bright red laser spark, orange sparks flew away as a small explosion erupted from the guard as he flew back into the ground. Then she saw a flash of blue electricity striking another guard, and that guard fell to the floor with his body twitching rapidly.
The deafening shriek of metal rubbing against metal, and loud hiss of hydraulic, prevented Krystal from comprehending her surroundings. Once it silenced Krystal scanned her location. She was no longer in another corridor; instead it appeared to be some type of administrative block. Solid metal walls that came up above her eyes, divided the room into roughly two dozen cubicles.
Opposite the cubicles, was large bright grey metal door, pristine yellow and black hazard markings could be easily identified around the edges and what appeared to be some form of locking mechanism in the center. Krystal stared at the door in disbelief; it looked like something that was used on star ships to protect the crew in case of a breach in the hull.
A pair of guards were carrying away the guard, a skunk, that she saw get shot. A small hole in his armour right upon his chest, glowing bright orange as if the armour has melted, if it wasn't for the wounds entry glowing, she could almost see certain through the guard.
"Don't worry, Miss Krystal," oozed a slimy voice, "Panther will protect you from these assassins."
"How can you be so ignorant?" she responded with a low growl. Panther raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Look around, doesn't anything seem off to you?" muttering in a quite tone.
"Explain by off?" Krystal was tempted to lash out at the feline for his stupidity.
"Guards and mercenaries armed with equipment that would put Cornerian Military to shame, a security door that looks like it is from a warship, over the top security for a CEP, and hostiles that are tearing this place apart," Krystal hissed in a quite yet spiteful tone, "Is that what you can consider normal?"
Panther just rolled his eyes at her and walked down the passage between the cubicles. "You're hot when you think. But don't worry, if you think something's wrong, Panther will protect you."
Krystal tensed up at the repulsing idea, the sooner this job was done, the better. Ignoring the guards who were scurrying about, she searched for the guard that got shot. She found the corpse lying on a desk in a cubical on her right, halfway across the room. Brown lifeless eyes staring back at her. The vixen approached the corpse, before gently closing the raccoon's eyes. Her gaze flew towards the chest wound, the deformed metal ring surrounded where the shot had entered.
BOOM
Krystal jumped away from the body and fell to the floor, her mind trying to comprehend what had happened. The vixen picked up her laser carbine that had landed beside her and scrambled to her feet. She looked towards the security hatch. The orange glow of fire could be seen from where part of the locking mechanism had been, now replaced with partially exposed interior workings. The edge of the door and part of the wall had dislodged or broken completely. Wisps of black smoke poured from the exposed mechanics.
Security guards shouted back and forth in a panic. "WHAT THE…?"
"WHAT FUCK WAS IN THERE, WARSHIP MUNITIONS?"
"DEFENSIVE POSIST…"
BOOM
Another explosion wrecked the already damage security door, ripping it from its position. Krystal's ears were ringing from the explosion, the vixen nearly jumped as a hand grabbed her shoulder. The vixens stomach immediately became queasy when she realized it belonged to Panther. The passage way behind it was consumed with flames, thick smoke started to fill the room. Guards quickly attempted to secure the entrance. Panther charged forward, as Krystal deactivated the safety on her weapon, following to join the fray.
Then, she saw them. Three shadows's emerging from the flames and she could see a glowing X among them. The guards didn't hesitate when they saw them, they just fired. Their shots did no harm, and if they did, it had no effect, because two of the three shadow figures leaped through the flames, on impaling one of the guards with its left hand and the other figure impaled a guard with a blade. She saw, in the first figure held in its right hand what appeared to be an oversize pistol and on its back heavily modified riffle ; Krystal guessed that it was meant to be a short two-handed assault rifle. Yet this thing was wielding it single handily. The X figure walked through the flames to reveal what she could tell a female in high-tech full battle armour with a strange stored device on her back.
The terrified Vixen froze with fear as she watched the figure that impaled a guard with its hand uses the corpse's body as a shield. Lasers and bullets fire stuck the corpse, while the figure with the sword deflects the barrage with its sword by spin it and the armoured figure just did nothing. Then the armoured raised her hands and the first figure aimed its firearms at the guards. The tips of her finger and the barrel of the weapon flashed, Krystal glimpsed the shots left trails of distorted air before making contact with the guards. The armour shattered a small explosion s from the shots as it made contact with its targets, then through the body to strike the guards behind them.
With a strong swing of the figures left arms, the corpse impaled with its hand flung off and landed in front of Krystal, dead eyes staring at her. The figure with the sword took a swing at another guard, its head cut clean off, while the previous two fired their finger and pistol wielded rifle in furry.
The voice in Krystal's mind told her to shoot, those things that were killing these people and would most likely kill her the moment they saw her, but she couldn't. Instead she ducked inside the cubical on her right, standing above cover fire a volley of shots at the creature. She could see Panther slowly backing away from the creatures, while firing at them in an attempt to do damage. Again Krystal's mind told her to fire on one of her targets, and this time, she complied. Her view of her selected hostile focused, it was easier to notice some details. Its face was shielded by a hood, rendering it nearly impossible to see in the dark, with the exception for what appeared to be bright red eyes.
Whatever it was by luck or by skill, she assumed the former, it seems that her target had dropped its firearm, losing it amongst the chaos and it companies have stopped attacking. What little joy have brought the vixen vanished upon witnessing the creatures next action. She could see the figures right hand swell up, molding itself into what appeared to be claws. She watched in horror as the monster jumped on a guard's abdominal, his armour shredded and blood poured through the remains. The figure with the sword was no different, but instead of changing it hands form, electricity came out of it an struck a guard, the guards mouth stared to release black smoke as he fell to the floor twitching madly. Worse was the figure's shadow suddenly grabs a guard by the leg with a tentacle like appendage and toss him at some other guards.
Realization hit Krystal hard upon noticing that most of the guards had been slaughtered, and yet they still continued to fight with such devotion, it could be considered fanatical. However, no matter how hard they fought, those things struck them down as if they were nothing, until only Krystal and Panther remained.
Panther backed away further away, the claw figured pushed forward until it was in-between her and Panther, and swung the back of its right claw into the feline. Panther flew over the top of the cubicles, screaming and limbs failing about, before coming into contact with the wall. Krystal attempted to run, but a sudden bump forced her to the ground. Krystal stared up at the creature, its terrifying red eyes glaring down at her underneath its hood. It raised its claw arm to its chest. The frighten vixen shut her eyes tight, her time had come, and she prayed it would be swift.
Nothing happened.
Cautiously, the vixen opened her eyes to look up at the creature. It continued to stand over her, gasping. Slowly, it lowered its claw arm, Krystal flinched slightly, until it rest by its side. It stumbled backwards until it was against the cubical wall. Its companies walked a bit to it but stop as if they were told to.
Fox stared in horror at what was before him. She was here. She was lying on the floor in front of him, and he nearly killed her. He could taste vile in his mouth.
The Cerinian vixen refused to take her eyes away from the creature that stood opposite could and should have killed her, but there it was, keeping its distance. Carefully, she attempted to probe its mind. Krystal nearly winched upon connecting with the creatures mind; she felt a sudden rush of emotions that made her head fell like it was about to implode. The strongest of these emotions were anger, hatred and… fear, this thing was afraid of something. She attempted to probe further, but immediately pain erupted throughout her body, as if she was dying and being reborn constantly. She even saw a pair of black eyes with dark purple pupils with a wicked smile appear in her mid.
"I'M iMPreSs, yOu hAVe tELepaTHic PoWErs. NiCE trY though BuT You aREn't aLLoweD iN hERe." It said in a cold, twisted, monsters voice.
She quickly cut her telepathic connection, what was this thing?
Fox remained frozen in place.
"Why was she here? Why was she here? Why was she here?" he thought to himself.
"WhAT dO YoU tHInk GeNius?" Savage yelled at the vulpine.
Fox eyes widen at the most obvious answer. It was a threat, to tell him what they were possible of, he had attempted to keep her out of this, but they had brought her in without her knowing. The vulpine debated with himself and Savage, who wasn't really part of it, of his options, he could flee and forget about everything, but that would leave her in Ghost Lagoon's clutches, allow one of his torturers to escape and go back on his word to his teammates. Or he could reveal himself… NO! That was not an option as well, he nearly killed her and how would he explain what happened. She had good memories of him, not perfect, but good, he wasn't going to spoil them for her.
"HOSTILE DETECTED! OPEN FIRE!" yelled a voice. Two dozen guards swarmed the room from all sides, a mix of security and mercenaries. Krystal crawled into the boundaries of the cubicle as lasers and bullets bombarded the creature that spared her and its companions, who fired back with lasers and electricity.
Fox and his team charged through the thick firepower back towards the smaller force of guards by the destroyed hatch. Krystal watched as the large group slowly followed them, constant firing in an attempt to push them back.
Krystal's mind was crying out to her to leave and find Katt or Falco, somebody. Never had she been so scared. The security guards ignored her presence, pushing past her and attempting to drive the creatures back. Several bright lights blinded the vixen; she could hear the creature roar in pain. Tears were building up in her eyes, the vixen was reaching her emotionally limit. She needed to get away; she quickly reclaimed her weapon and began to leave. She stopped when she saw Panther crawl out of the cubicles.
As much as she wanted to abandon him, she would never be able to live with the guilt. She helped raise the feline to his feet and the pair limped away from the slaughter that raged on behind them.
-x-x-x-
Pierce waited anxiously in his office, he heard that the lockdown had been completed and Fox and his team was caught; now all he needed was confirmation whether it had been successful or not. His guards showed no signs of agitation, clearly unnerved by the idea of putting everything on luck. Cornerian forces had surrounded the building, but Pierce had advised them to avoid charging in and risk friendly fire.
The red fox's communicator beeped. Everyone held their breath. The vulpine activated the device.
"Report."
"Containment of Hostiles has failed! Currently, attempting to hold…" the line broke into static. The guards stared at Pierce, a blank look across his face.
"Contact all units who aren't engaged with those monsters to evacuate the building." The arms-dealing CEO ordered.
"Sir, what about Star-Wolf and Star-Falco?"
"We cannot afford to trick Fox and his team into killing off them if it cost us everything we have! He's our biggest problem, not them."
Peirce returned to his desk, opened the top draw on the left and pulling out a small rectangle plastic card and a small pistol. With his needed items in hand, the feline stormed out of his office, his bodyguards following like a shadow. They travelled at a brisk pace through the winding corridors and down a stairwell to the ground floor, but instead of heading towards the lobby, Pierce headed deeper into the building that have become a death trap for the his soldiers. But there he still had one last trick up his sleeve.
-x-x-x-
Fox and his team stood amongst the remains of the destroyed and dead bodies. He cast his eyes over every body. There was no sign of Krystal he thought back to her, the look of fear in her eyes as he was on the verge of killing her. It was enough to make his stomach churn.
"Master," Vi called the vulpine, "Incoming three more targets."
The sound of footsteps that made Fox's ears to twitch confirmed her alert. He snarled and readied his claws, Raiden drew his blade and Vi readied her weapons. Three robots appeared opposite of them, the plates that made up their body were dark grey, their optics glowed green, and each one carried a weapon.
Fox charged towards them and took a swing at the closest one with his right claw. However, the robot side stepped the vulpine and shot his back. Fox yelled as pain screamed across his nervous system. Another robot was about to shot him in the gut but was punched by Vi and Raiden swung his blade at it as well slicing its right arm off. Fox stumbled backwards.
The robots backed away slight in their positions to get another clear shot away from Fox's reach. They seemed to be only targeting him not his teammates. Though slightly disorientated, Fox lunged towards the nearest robot and pushed it into the wall. However, the robot punched Fox in the right side of his face. The vulpine once again stumbles away from the robot, before letting out a roar and lunging himself at the robot again and started to bite its left arms off. As Fox was decapitating the robot, the robot that lost its right arm aimed its weapons at him, but was stopped when Raiden swung his blade, amplified with electricity, slice it left arm of. The robot stumbled back a bit as its arms were gone, Vi took the chance to that the device on her back that she took at the Research facility earlier and aimed it at the robot. The device unfolded to form what appeared to be a large riffle as its barrel extended. Vi fired the gun when it said that the power was at 5%, the barrel started to glow and a bright red beam fired from it, the dazed robot turn to face the beam and was struck by in the upper half of its body. Once the beam died down, only the waist and below of the robot remained as it fell to the floor.
With the robot now shredded in pieces, Fox turns to face the last robot, however something had changed. Fox teeth were now sharper and looked more like fangs, it was visible as he bared it at the robot. He then lunged again, at the last robot, his mind anticipating it to dodge his attack. He forced the firearm away and was about to strike the robots head. Suddenly, fox gasped as he felt something pierce his side. He back away to see a six inched blade jutting out of the robots left wrist, dripping with blood. He paced his hand on his side. Immediately, his fingers became sticky with fresh blood. Then it grabbed Fox's head and slammed his back on the floor and placed its right leg on the vulpine's chest. Fox forced all of his remaining strength against the robot and knocked it off him, then Raiden kicked the robot's back sending it into Vi's direction, who launched her left fist at it sending it back to Fox. Fox swung his blade fingers at its left shoulder and ripped it off. Fox growled at the robot as it tried to aim at him, before it could even move it weapon to face him, Fox grabbed it head and crushed it between his hands. Shards of scrap scattered everywhere while they could hear the sound of metal and circuitry being crushed.
Raiden and Vi rushed to the vulpine's side, Raiden helping him to his feet. His wounds were healing as he panted. It had been a long and tiring night, he and his team were feeling the strain. Then a panel on Vi's left arms started to flashed, she checked and once she did she face her master and her teammate.
"Master Fox," Vi spoke, "It seems that Pierce is currently being evacuated and he is heading towards the entrance were the Cornerian Military is currently deployed."
Fox processed the information. Pierce was now on the run. All his guards would be there to ensure he got away, Krystal would be there. Fox felt trapped, he could risk exposing them and himself to Krystal, and possibly, Lylat itself.
"SaY Fox, DoN't yOu ThINk iT'S tIMe tO sTEp ouT oF tHE sHAdows aNd iNTo tHe BLooDy lIGHt?" said Savage in their mind.
Fox remained silent for a moment before he faced Vi.
"Vi, have download every file from Star-Tech's system correct?" the cyborg lupine nodded. This made Fox smile wickedly.
"Well then, with that said here the plan."
-x-x-x-
Krystal watched as what remained of security escorted Pierce out of the office and into the hands of the Cornerian Defence Force. All that was left of his security team was her, Star Falco, Star Wolf, and roughly thirty guards remained. Panther returned to his team, and was now waiting on a medical assistance to reach him. Cornerian soldiers had closed off both sides of the street, and where awaiting orders to deal with the hostile.
"CONTACT!" screamed a voice from the buildings entrance.
BANG
The sound of grenade would have definitely brought all attention towards the office entrance. Within the now dimly lit remains of the lobby, everyone watched as three silhouettes of the hostiles that had terrorized everyone through the night struck down four guards in the lobby. Within a minute, all guards had fallen, at the hostiles now casually walking towards them, one with a sword in one hand, another with a huge rifle in both hands and the one between them a rifle in hand.
Everyone aimed towards the hostiles. This was possibly their last stand, even with the Cornerian Defence Force against them, the hostiles wasn't intimidated. Half a dozen spotlights illuminated the entrance, exposing the targets.
Krystal aimed, all of her focus on the target in the center. She could clearly see… She gasped. She blinked. She could not believe her eyes.
"Fox…" she said and lowered her weapon. She must be seeing things.
"DROP YOU'RE…My God!" One soldier was shouting into a megaphone in front of Peppy, who was supervising the operation gasp, and forgot when Fox McCloud stood before him.
Krystal glanced around, one-by-one, the soldiers lowered their weapons, Star Falco lowered their weapons, and even Star Wolf lowered theirs. The look on their faces confirmed it, Krystal wasn't seeing things. The only people who continued to target Fox, were Star-Tech security and other mercenaries.
Fox stared at the crowd before him. Ghost lagoon had left him and his team a choice, let one of them go, or expose themselves. But the choice had been a double edge sword. If they exposed themselves, he would expose Ghost Lagoon, something they clearly didn't want. Ghost Lagoon thought they could intimidate them, and they were gonna prove them wrong.
"Guess it's show time." Said Fox with a dark grin on his face.
Me: well that it for now and another cliffhanger hooray*said lazily*
Fox: you've got to tell me
Me: what?
Fox: these other versions of my self. like what are their worlds like and stuff.
Me: well that a secret for now Fox, but I have made a few of them but they aren't as cool as you Syxx version and Krieger Aurelius version as they are badass in my book .
Sonic: Well it's not as bad as mine, I had a batman version of me, heck even a hulk version me.
Sly: Yeah…I've seen that version before…I rather not talk about it.