Author Notes: Sorry this took longer than I'd hoped. I've had a bit of conflict withe my new place and have been giving a lot of thought on moving back home to Cali. Anyhow, enough about my tidious, boring, and pathetic life. Here's chapter 11, don't forget to R&R and I'll see you next time. Thanks for the tons of supprot all...
The Footsteps in the Darkness ~ SkullFox
……Chapter 11……
Silver wiped a bit of blood from his left eye as he helped Jordan carry her avian friend though the area, hopefully to safety. It was as they ran that finally the avian's eyes fluttered open. She wasn't sure where she was anymore, but she was quick to realize that the one on her right was one of her own crewmates…
"Wh-what's going on?" she mumbled turning to Silver. "Who the fuck are you?"
Silver didn't say a word. "They were beating you to death in there Red, god only knows what else. This guy saved both our asses, his name's Silver."
It was only after a short while that they ducked into a small room that looked like a mass bedroom. It was a massive room, longer than it was high, with bunks that reached far down both walls. Silver took a moment to look around before he sighed with relief and returned to their sides. He looked at Red only for a moment before turning his head away…
"Are there any clothes you can get for your friend?" he asked. "I feel……uncomfortable looking at her like this."
The red feathered avian smiled. "What's the matter kid?" she asked hiking up her breasts. "Never seen a pair before?"
"Yes I have…" Silver replied a bit offensively.
"Oh I see…" Red replied. "Our savior here is tied down."
Silver gave the avian a strange look. "I've never been tied up."
"Figure of speech kid," Jordan replied. "You aren't much for sarcasm, are you little guy?"
Silver sighed, all this time and he still had so much to learn about common life. "I'm still learning…"
Red chuckled holding her ribs. "What? Were you born yesterday?"
Silver kept his ear on the door. "Seems that way sometimes. Every time I think I've learned all there is that I need to know, I learn something new."
Jordan passed Red a shirt of some kind which she slipped on. "Welcome to life kid…" Red replied. "That's just something that you're gonna have to get used to. Ya learn someth'n new every day…even old people," she said. "Now…we have the fucker's key. Where are they holding the others?"
Jordan lowered her head. "A lot of our mates didn't make it…"
"Mates?" Silver asked raising one eyebrow.
Jordan nearly laughed. "It's just a term of endearment, kid…like calling someone your friend."
Silver nodded clearly gathering their point. "Can you walk?"
Red tried to stand for a moment before sitting back down. "Knees are still a bit wobbly, but I'll manage."
Silver thought for a moment as he stood there. "What did they do to ya Red?" Jordan asked.
Red placed a wing on the side of her head. "What I can remember……you don't wanna know."
Silver finally noticed that the avian hadn't opened her left eye the whole time she'd been awake. "Did they hurt your eye?"
Red chuckled. "You're a bit sweet for a vicious killer, kid," she said. "Don't lose yer head over it though…I lost that eye over ten years ago."
"Why not have it replaced?" Silver asked.
"What with bionics?" Red scoffed. "I'll just say that people don't exactly like me or my mates much."
Silver thought for a moment. If Red and her crew weren't liked, maybe there was a reason behind it. So far their mannerisms were so much different than those of all the animals that he'd met before. For females, they were kind of ill mannered and loud. He wondered why it was they seemed so different, or were they just misunderstood like he was? It was as he thought on this that he realized that they were wasting far too much time sitting and waiting…
"I have to check on my friend…" Silver suddenly said. "Can you two make it to your friends and get them out of here?"
Red smiled. "Count on it…we may just be a couple of girls…" she said winking her good eye at the silver furred vulpine. "But we're tougher than we look."
Admitting that she was probably right and with the activation of his cloaking device, Silver vanished from sight…then from the room. It was as he moved about the caverns that he realized something. He'd never really thought about it, but he felt an unnatural need to remain unseen. Being in any kind of public eye seemed to unnerve him on multiple levels. He didn't really understand it, or care to…though there was something nagging at the far corner of his mind. The animal that held Red captive said something about others…others like himself. Was it true? Could there really be others? Others that understood what it was like being an outcast…a freak? No matter what he tried he could not shake the thoughts that Syler had done this to more than just him and the unknown number of animals he'd seen in that mass graveyard so long ago. It still felt like it was only yesterday when he'd finally found that he was unlike them in the fact that he had a mother. As the thought of her entered his mind he could feel an unusual pressure in his chest. It weighed down on his heart and made him feel as though he was utterly alone in the world. He wiped a tear from his eyes as he managed to force the thoughts from his mind. He wondered how it was that Krystal dealt with such emotions on a daily basis. He knew that what he felt was sorrow for his mother, who'd died and believed that it was for the best that she suffered in restitution for what she'd done to her own child in the name of science. Sorrow was something he knew that Krystal was forced to deal with constantly, as he was certain that he would feel it again were he to be separated from Roxy the way Krystal was from Fox. Silver stepped into the open sun, when a gunshot sounded off, followed by the ricochet of a bullet meeting the metal wall beside him that led to the entrance of the place. He quickly moved away from the area…
"What the fuck are you doing!?!" a voice yelled dragging Silver's attention to two heavily armed guards atop a small rise in the hills.
The animal that had fired the shot held a long-barreled, powerful looking rifle. "I know I fucking saw something man!" he shouted. "I'm not sure what it was…but it was there for a second!"
The other animal slapped the sniper in the head again. "Lay off the HYPE you fuck'n retard. It's making you see shit!"
Silver had forgotten the one flaw to the cloaking devices that the crew carried on the ship. There was a small transitional difference when moving from shadows to light in which the device made the user visible for a brief moment…it simply went to show that these animals were nothing like the one's they'd dealt with before. They were skilled and highly trained, especially for this sniper to notice an object only visible for a fraction of a moment. Silver recalled what it was like to be shot, and it wasn't something that he wanted to remember, or feel again…he had no thirst or caring for pain whatsoever. At one point he recalled what Creed has said to him. "Pain lets you know that you're alive." He was certain that he understood what it meant, but it didn't mean he liked it. Silver finally found himself outside near the ship where he'd left Sia, however something bothered him about everything that he was seeing so far. The footprints told him everything that he needed to know. Two animals found her and dragged her away, not long after she'd hurt one of them, or possibly both, as he was certain by the smell that it was not her blood he'd found on the side of the small ship's hull…
Silver rushed off in the direction of the footsteps, only to find that they vanished. More appropriately, one of the footprints was only half there. Silver cocked his head to one side for a moment before reaching out in front of him…his invisible paw met with something that tingled a bit, but passed through as if it had traveled through a screen of warm light. He wiggled is fingers about a bit before simply stepping forward allowing his entire body to pass through the strange screen of warmth. In front of him now was a massive battleship, possibly even larger than the Nemesis. Its entire structure seemed to be covered with guns of all sorts of shapes and sizes, and seemed to be made in the likeness of the Nemesis itself, though of slightly differing in style, as it had wings that came only a short way out from its rear angling toward the nose of the ship. Again the confused fox rushed off following the prints of whoever had taken Sia. The interior of the ship looked even more like the Nemesis than the outside, though in much larger scale. His instincts told him to head for the ship's brig, which meant if this one was as much like the Nemesis as it seemed, the brig was on the bottom deck of the ship. His small trip there was slightly long, though equally annoying as several times the elevators he'd rode nearly had him discovered as an animal almost brushed against him several times. It was after he got off the elevator and it was headed back that he looked to the doors…
"I still hate these things," he whispered to himself.
The young vulpine slowly made his way though the halls, making certain he stayed out of the eye of everyone he managed to pass. He wasn't certain how long his cloaking device was going to work. He was sure that it was loosing power, after all, it had remained active for over an hour without resting. Eventually its power source was going to give out. His trek eventually led him to a familiar looking area. There were only four large cells in the brig, each with a similar light green screen of light that covered their openings, spare one who's screen of light was red, stating that it's power level was much higher and more violent that the others should someone touch it. Inside that one cell he wasn't surprised to find a young husky lying on the floor. She was clearly not that injured, or even unconscious. Silver was certain that she was only playing possum for some unlucky animal that decided to check on her and would not soon wake afterward. However it was as he stepped near the screen of light that Sia's nose twitched a bit…
"Silver?" she whispered.
Silver scouted the room to make certain nobody was watching or within earshot. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"
"Not much…" Sia replied refusing to move her head. "One of them already paid for it."
"Either way, let's get you out of here."
Silver quickly went to work pulling away the wall panel that set the screen in place, as he'd remembered seeing something before about how to short circuit these devices. He reached into the device and grasped two wires only to have an intense surge of electricity shoot through his body making his fingers go numb. It hadn't worked the way he'd hoped, but as he looked on the screen of light flickered out of existence. He wasn't sure how clean their getaway would be, but he was certain that they would make it out of this alive. However, as he helped the canine to her feet the ship rumbled beneath their feet…the ship was taking off…
Sauria……
The snows didn't stop falling. It seemed as though the small planet was experiencing a second ice age. Mika couldn't believe that the human she was with could manage to stand there in the snow without shivering, especially since he seemed to have no fur at all. It was as she stood there freezing in the snow that Randy handed her a small pill of some kind. It was no larger than a cough drop, and a bright red color. The snowy furred Minx placed it in her mouth as he signaled…
"Don't swallow it…" Randy said keeping his eyes on the base. "You'll literally be sick for weeks."
It was as she sucked on the odd thing that her body began to feel oddly warm. "What the hell is this thing?"
Randy chuckled. "One of Jeff's more distinguished inventions…" he pointed out. "Forces the hypothalamus into overdrive and keeps the body at a certain temperature. The chemicals it's made of aren't harmful unless they're swallowed in a large dose, so a simple candy coating and they make a pretty useful cough drop."
"Your friend is very smart…" Mika said.
"Well to be truthful it was Jay's invention…Jeff just finished it," he replied. "He had to."
"What happened?" Mika asked.
"When Victor first turned on us…" Randy replied. "Jay went after him in his Keizer. He's blind now."
"You have a lot of reasons to hate this guy don't you?"
Randy sighed a bit. "This team is full of the only friends I have…my old job didn't give me a whole lot of room to trust people."
"What job?" Mika asked.
"Forget it…" Randy replied walking toward the fence. "Stay here. Don't get in the way," he said using a single powerful leap to scale the fence landing on the far side. "He isn't trying too hard either…he wants me to find him."
Mika hesitated. "Just remember the Cerinians."
Randy looked about the small area. "No promises…." he said pausing for a moment. "But I'll try."
Mika frowned a bit as the human rushed off. She didn't exactly take lightly of being treated like a weakling. She huffed in the human's direction before wandering off. Randy moved about the base until he found himself a nice little perch in a tree at one end of the compound. There were three hanger style buildings, clearly not made by any of the known inhabitants of the planet except of course perhaps for the Sharpclaw, as they seemed relatively knowledgeable with technology. The entire compound was fenced in and there were five three-story guard towers placed about the perimeter. He scouted out the five towers, looking into any patterns that might get him spotted. After making clear note of all this however, he turned his attention to the three buildings that formed a triangle in the center of the compound. He watched as several animals ranging in all sorts of species exited and entered the buildings. He had determined by the way they were entering it that the building closest to his left was a barracks of some kind. He still however wasn't sure about the other two buildings, so he determined that they were the two that he'd search first. The first one was the one on the far north side of the small compound. It unsettled him a bit, how quiet it was, as if the entire universe had fallen silent enough to hear its own end. This made the human a bit happy however. No sounds set his senses on pins and needles. He could hear the crunch of the soft snow under his feet as he crept along the side of the metal structure, narrowly avoiding the sights of the animal in the closest guard tower. It was however as he made it around the corner of the building that he noticed something about it…there was no way inside, at least not for him there wasn't. The door was a large, thick, blast door like the ones used to separate a docking bay from the remainder of a ship. He whipped back around the corner flattening himself against the wall…
"There has to be some sort of venting system…"
It was as he assured himself of this that he noticed a small rise in the snow not far from his location. He waited until he was clear and rushed over, brushing the snow off of the mound. It was a small cement base, with a round metal vent at its center…
"Bingo…underground facility," he whispered to himself. "That means Omni's been here longer than we thought," he said pulling the vent cover loose. "Oh well…let's see just how long. Here I come Vic…ready or not."
Placing the cover back over its place, it was covered with the snow again before any of the tower guards had the chance to notice it had been moved. The narrow metal tunnel that he entered was barely large enough to allow him to slide comfortably down the far too long vent…or at lest he was pretty sure it was a vent of some kind. The human felt as though the entire world was bearing down on him from all sides, the tunnel feeling much smaller than it actually was. Though he had a control on it, his fear of enclosed spaces sometimes overpowered his will. He closed his eyes and looked down to see how much further it was to the bottom. Randy only opened his eyes for a few fleeting moments, but it was enough to see that the bottom wasn't even in sight. He started to move again only to feel his right hand slip causing him to begin a rapid fall down the shaft. He quickly thrust his hands out to either side in an attempt to stop his rapid decent, only to feel the bite of the small shards of ice that broke away from the metal walls dig painfully into his palms. When he finally ground to a halt he could feel the soft, warm trickle of blood from his palms as it threatened to make him lose his grip again. The enclosed place was now the furthest thing from his mind. He took a moment to look down again. He could see a slightly dull light now, which only made him wonder how far he'd actually just fallen. He wasn't sure what he expected when he inclined his head to look up only to see the darkness of the vent shaft…
He looked down again. "Only about 50 more feet," he whispered to himself.
Randy winced a bit as he began to descend again, nearly slipping several times until he was only a few short feet from the bottom when his hand gave way again. His landing on the metal structure of the vent below him was as soft as snowfall. He'd learned a long time ago how to allow his legs to absorb the shock of a fall, making his landing nearly completely silent. He was forced again to steady his breathing as once again his small confines were beginning to make him feel more and more uncomfortable. It felt as though it was becoming constricting even to his breathing. He waited until he managed to slow his breathing. He kept his eyes closed inhaling deeply through his nose. Randy hated the fact that something as minor as a small space could get to him so easily. He exhaled deeply before starting into the ducts on his hands and knees, slowly taking a moment to look through one of the vents he happened across. The interior of the place was composed of all metal walls that looked a lot like the metals he saw aboard the Nemesis. Several animals moved by, never more than two or three at a time. Some wore lab coats while other seemed dressed however they saw fit, some were dressed for war, while others seemed to be dressed like civilians…he was certain that the ones in civilian attire were most likely mercenaries as the Lylat system seemed to be rife with them. It wasn't however until he'd been down in the vents for a bit more than an hour that a voice echoed through the narrow network of ducts finding its way to Randy, who recognized the sound and lowly growled to himself. The human followed the voice until he found himself near a vent that looked into a small room. Unfortunately the three occupants of the room were hidden from his sight, but that didn't stop him from knowing that one was the person he was here for…
"So…General?" Victor's voice asked.
Randy could see a massive shadow stand up, one that he recognized as the General Scales he'd seen outside. However, the hook that replaced his arm was instead replaced on the wall by the shadow of some large gun. The beast smiled as he clearly admired his new augmentation…
"I like it very much," he replied.
"This is Omni's way of thanking you for your cooperation," Victor said. "Your soldiers will be a great help to our plans…and the weapons you wanted will be on the way once your people find what it is my boss is looking for…understand?"
The large Sharpclaw General chuckled. "Yes. This strange…crystal or shard, whatever it is you call it. My soldiers have found a lead in some ancient text. However, they are proving difficult for even your men to translate."
Victor waved his had about. "Whatever…have one of the blue girls look it over…if she fights kill her or something…but do so sparingly. There are only five of them here. The others were torn to shreds."
"It is still hard for me to believe that the very same Fox McCloud that came to Sauria did this to so may innocents…" Scales said. "With him involved do you really think there is time to search for some little trinket?"
Victor sighed. "He will be no problem to us. At the moment he's a much bigger problem for the Lylatians than for us. Without him, these people have no hopes at all. They're completely dependant on a single person to keep them out of trouble…it's incredibly pathetic." Victor sighed stepping into Randy's view. "Well I'm tired of standing around this boring room, and you have your new arm. I have some things to do, then I'm going to the galley for a bit."
Scales snarled. "You can have your strange excuse for food. I'll be in the woods…eating a real meal. One I've hunted and killed myself."
Victor slowly strode toward the exit of the room, however he stopped for a brief moment, and with a hand behind his back used his thumb to prop his stolen weapon slightly from its scabbard. If Randy hadn't known any better he'd swear the creep was taunting him with his own weapon. Randy growled a bit under his breath, there was no way he could attack Victor knowing that Scales with his new arm was there with him. He was so angry that he nearly didn't notice another voice that echoed from down the shaft. This one however seemed distressed. The human made his way along the ducts until he came to another vent where the voice was its loudest. He peeked in to see many young vixen, some rather beaten and all of them with fur nearly identical to Krystal's, one in particular screaming for help in a language that seemed like nothing but jibberish to the young human. Though with the large Sharpclaw male that pulled at her legs as she held onto the bars, he was certain he could ascertain as to what it was she was yelling about. Unfortunately it was as he stood by that he realized jumping in on this little scene could cause him no end of trouble as then he'd have a number of foxes to deal with. Randy sighed a bit as he watched the reptile finally pry the screaming animal's paws away from the bars that she held onto and slowly drag her out of the room. He decided to follow the reptile and vixen from overhead as the poor blue-furred animal was forced to walk in front of the Sharpclaw soldier until they vanished into a large elevator. There went his chance at realizing where the hell he was headed…
"Ah shit…" He sighed. "I wanna get the hell out of this vent."
As he said this Randy noticed a soldier walking by. His chest was rather large in proportion to the rest of his body, however something unusual caught his eye about the way the animal walked before entering the elevator that had since returned to the floor. He quickly made his way to the elevator shaft, accessing it from the vents and slowly sliding down the cables. The human slid away the access panel that lay in the roof of the lift, and slowly lowered himself in behind the animal. The soldier was completely oblivious until Randy took the creature by the back of the shirt swinging it into the wall of the elevator and quickly placing a paw over the creature's muzzle…
"What the hell are you doing in here?" he demanded.
The animal wore a mask that hid its face from the biting cold snow, as well as the view of all others. The human's paw was quickly forced away. "How the fuck did you know it was me?" Mika asked pulling the mask up over her muzzle.
"If you're gonna blend in with male soldiers…" he said. "Stop swinging your hips when you walk. You're lucky nobody else noticed you before I did," he added as the elevator began to descend. "How'd you get in here so fast anyhow?"
"You'd be surprised what a guy will do for you when you have tits," she smiled pulling the mask down again. "Even turn his back long enough for you to slit his throat."
The human nodded to himself a bit. Apparently being a female did have some useful advantages. "You find anything out?"
"Something about a tablet," Mika replied. "You?"
"Not much different…" Randy replied. "Just something about a shard of some kind hidden on this planet. Apparently it's pretty fucking important, cuz that tablet you're talking about is written in a language that they're trying to force one of those…Cerinian people to translate."
"If it's in a language nobody here can read…maybe it's like that for a reason," she replied. "I mean why put something down here that can't be read by anyone here unless you're trying to hide something?"
"Then why leave the tablet here at all?" Randy asked looking up. "Wow…" he said realizing that his breathing was getting a bit erratic. "How far down does this thing go?"
Mika chuckled. "You're claustrophobic," she pointed out. "All this tough guy bullshit and it turns you that you're afraid of a little tight space," she said. "What happens if I do this?" she said beginning to jump up and down. Before she could make her third jump Randy's sword was at her throat pinning her to the wall. "Okay I get your point. No more jumping," she said rubbing her neck as he let go. "But you do have a good point. Maybe it was left here in case that shard they're looking for was needed."
"Victor was also saying something about that shard having something to do with why this McCloud person killed a bunch of people on Corneria."
Mika thought for a moment. "Now that you mention it," she replied. "Fox had this accident a while back…he got this black shard or crystal, or something stuck in his chest. You think that may have something to do with it?"
"Hmm…" Randy thought to himself. "Maybe…I think we need to look into this a bit more before we jump to any conclusions. Is that shard really that bad?"
"Before it happened Fox was the nicest person you'd met," Mika replied. "He'd never actually hurt anyone like that, not if the person we're talking about is already injured."
"Hmmm…" he thought. "What if these shards are like mind control or something? Lot of that going around these days."
"I don't know…but…you'd best get back up there before we get to the bottom," the minx said. "I'll try to find out what I can."
"Good…" Randy replied climbing back on top of the lift. "Just make sure you stop walking like a girl," he said pulling the cover of the access hatch into place.
"I am a girl you asshole," Mika half shouted.
The pale-furred minx snorted angrily before the doors opened again. A shorter than average Sharpclaw soldiers eyed her for a moment before snorting at her…
"You…help watch blue one," he said pointing down the hall. "Wait for General…he be here soon. She not want to read for us…that change for General," he said. "She in back room at end of hall. You go now."
Mika simply grunted at the reptile in reply before heading down the hall toward the room where there was apparently a Cerinian female being held against her will, possibly the one that Randy had mentioned. Mika looked at the ducts overhead, and wondered where the human could possibly be at this time.
Randy simply cursed his luck as he kept moving through the ducts. He wasn't sure what he'd find first, the device that could set the Cerinians free, or Victor. He kept whatever thoughts he possibly could to keep his mind from his childish paranoia of this confined space. His mind traveled back and forth over several different things, one of which was why Omni would be after the strange crystal Mika spoke of. Something was definitely special about the crystal shard if it was set so closely into Omni's sights. He sighed as he finally found a bit of comfort, a small storeroom that allowed him a small reprieve from the constant tightness of the ducts that ran through the building. It was as he stood there in the frosty room that the door swung open revealing a rather young looking wolf, who walked into the room and into the human's grip, which swung him into the wall while his hand wrapped around his muzzle…
"Listen closely…" Randy warned him. "I'm tired of skulking around without a clue about where I'm going. I'm irritated as hell…and you don't want to know what I'm like when I'm irritated," he pointed out placing and emphasis on the weapon at the animal's throat. "So if you plan on leaving this room alive…you're gonna tell me what I wanna hear right?"
The wolf only nodded…
"Is there anything stopping me from taking those Cerinians out of this place?"
"Only about a hundred and fifty soldiers and a helluva lot of ammo," the wolf replied.
"Why is Omni after this…shard thing?" Randy demanded.
"I-I-I don't know wh-what you're talking about," the frightened lupine stuttered. "I'm just a artillery gunman, I don't even get to carry a weapon, I just maintain the armory."
"Fine then…" Randy said accepting the fact that he'd pinned a low ranking soldier. "Where can I find Victor Ramirez?"
The wolf looked at him questioningly…
"The one carrying a weapon like mine," Randy growled. "The only human on this base."
"But…there are two humans on this base," the wolf replied. "One never really says much, except to the General of the Sharpclaw. Other than him there's another named Amber Grheen. The guy with the sword should be in the galley by now. He's pretty routine."
"Where's the galley?" Randy asked.
"Two floors up near the maintenance hall…" the wolf replied. "If you're traveling through the ducts it should be west past the elevator, in sector E-26."
"And I can tell what sector I'm in how?" Randy asked lowing his sword.
"In the vents each sector is marked with a letter and number for the maintenance teams," the wolf said with a sigh of relief at the fact that the human had lowered his weapon.
Randy sighed. He was always amazed at how loose a pair of lips would become in a life-threatening situation. However, he couldn't have the animal alerting anyone that he was there. The poor wolf never even saw the attack that knocked him out. And his obedience had bought him his life, as Randy placed him out of the way where he was certain nobody would find him…and sighed heavily before heading back into the ducts that he was climbing through. He'd of course prefer to travel in another manner, but however he was underground, in a facility full of empty hallways where there'd be no form of cover and no places for him to hide. He hated the act of slithering around like some sort of snake. However, as he slid along the horribly tight tunnels he came across a small marking along a large panel in the wall beside him. A set of numbers marked this area as Sector K-9. The human scoffed at the number for a moment before continuing along his path. He was amazed at how long it seemed to take him to get to the elevator shaft again, and then finally two floors up. By the time he reached the area he was looking for, he'd all but given up on finding it. His claustrophobia had all but convinced him that he'd be stuck in the airtight tunnels forever. He peered in over a table where several animal's sat, and sure enough several tables away, sitting and eating alone with his sword settled in front of him was the single person he'd been waiting to get his hand on…
The attack seemed to come out of nowhere, as Randy's rage finally boiled over fueling his anger and his actions as he suddenly shot from the vent. His exit of the ducts caused the entire table he landed on to panic, most of them falling from their seats in surprise. He shot across the room in what seemed like one stride before he found himself standing on a table, only one away from the one Victor, as the table he'd been sitting at fell in half, his blade had even diced the plate he'd been eating off of in half. Victor was wearing what appeared to be a small coat missing its sleeves…as he stood there the human drew his sword with a cocky grin…
"I was waiting for you," he said holding the weapon up to his face. "Still looking for this? It's your father's so I imagine you want it back pretty badly. You really think you're ready for it?"
Randy gritted his teeth at his old friend. "I'm not the one that needs to be ready," he said. "I taught you everything you fuck'n know! And now I'm gonna use it to cut that cocky ass smile off your face."
Victor chuckled. "Oh, scary," he chimed sarcastically.
Randy shot across the broken table and collided with Victor. The clash of their blades nearly masked the kick that was driven into Victor's chest sending him several tables away, landing against one that snapped in two under the force of his fall. As Randy stood by several animals came at her from random sides, but in what seemed like one motion, four of them fell to the ground stone dead, with gaping wounds, two of which had been hefted in twain. This caused the remaining lot to back away slowly as Victor stood up laughing…
"You haven't gotten any slower at all," Victor smiled.
Randy didn't spare time in lunging at his cocky opponent. The collision of their weapons rang even out into the hallways. Their clash seemed to cause the room to quickly begin to empty. As their colliding weapons continued to ring through the room, a sound caught Randy's attention. He quickly spun away from one of Victor's attacks, and as he watched on, Victor noticed that Randy's motion had left a small chrome spike jutting from the access panel of the galley door, where several arches of electricity rose from the spike. Victor chuckled…
"Never miss a mark do you?" he asked. "I guess this means you want to keep this a private meeting?"
Randy glared at Victor before pointing his weapon at him. "More like a private funeral."
Again the two collided. Blow after staggering blow struck, causing a spray of red and orange sparks to shower from their weapons. As they fought, dodging and blocking each other's strikes, there was a blaring alarm as the lights went out for a brief moment, causing their strikes to light up their faces before a red flashing light began to pulsate through the room. As they clashed Victor sent a string of powerful strikes at Randy's head, one after another was blocked before a spray of sparks struck Randy's eyes, causing him to painfully drop his guard for a brief moment. Victor suddenly raised his weapon in an attempt to cleave his opponent in half. However, their blades met once again. The power of the strike was immense as it caused the table beneath Randy and Victor's feet to completely give in, collapsing to the ground. The shift in their balance caused the two to lose their balance for a brief moment in which Randy took the opportunity to swipe his weapon at Victor's exposed chest, drawing out a short stream of blood, before Randy leaped forward driving his feet both into Victor's chest. The impact of his kick sent the large human several feet away into a steel wall. Oddly however, Victor kicked back off the wall using the momentum to slam his shoulder into Randy's knees, causing him to flip several times through the air before landing firmly on his feet while Victor rolled off his shoulders to his feet. He took the moment to spit out a bit of blood, while Randy examined a slash across his right quadriceps…
"You always were faster than me," Victor said spitting out a bit of blood. "I guess master saw that didn't he? Mr. Assassin…"
Randy snarled. "Shut up. Killing for money is nothing compared to what you did."
"And what was it I did?" Victor asked taking a moment to breath the fire from his lungs. "Murder? You're condemning me for doing the same job that you try so hard to defend. I was just doing my job…" he said. "Your entire family was the hit actually. You, Master, your girl, your kid…" he chuckled. "But it was like I told my client, there wasn't much of a chance of you going down so easily." A wicked grin spread across Victor's face. "How would you take it? If you learned that it was Carlos that put the hit on you?"
"You really think you can justify killing a child and a woman?" Randy asked. "YOU KNOW THE FUCKING CODE!!! NO WOMEN!!! NO CHILDREN!!! THAT'S THE RULE!!! EVERYTHING I EVER TAUGHT YOU ABOUT KILLING WAS BASED ON THOSE FUCKING RULES!!!" he shouted.
Victor shrugged his shoulders. "That was how it started…but you know what I learned while I was taking you and the Master's little lessons? Nobody gives a flying FUCK ABOUT YOUR RULES!!!" he shouted. "You think your little code of honor actually matters in the real world? You're just as stupid as that old fuck was for turning his back on me."
"He didn't know he was turning his back on a coward."
At the sound of the word "coward" it seemed Victor's attitude turned, causing his face to burn a bright red. He practically flew across the wide gap between them slamming his sword into Randy's with enough force to bring his opponent to one knee. Randy could hardly believe what was going on, it was like Victor had opened up a part of himself that he'd never even seen before. He'd been toying with him the whole time. As they collided again and again it seemed as if each of Victor's strikes threatened to rob Randy's hands of his weapon. Twice already he'd noticed the sting of an open gash across his chest, before a kick from the slightly shorter, darker skinned human slammed Randy's back into the door of the galley, the shot leaving a small dent, before Randy ducked out of the way of another head hunting strike which proved the sword's edge as it cleanly glided through the steel of the blast door until the friction ground it to a halt, where a spinning kick from Randy's right foot drove the weapon from Victor's grip. He knew he shouldn't have, but his instincts instantly told him to take the sword, which he attempted, but it wouldn't budge. Before Randy could realize what was happening a powerful hand slammed into the side of his head driving his skull against the door before flinging him helplessly to the ground several feet away. Victor ripped the weapon from its place noting that the blade was now coated in thick blood, a bit of which ran under the door…
"Whoops…" He chuckled turning to Randy. "Looks like someone was listening in on us."
Before Victor could realize what was happening, Randy shot from his place slamming his shoulder into Victor's gut, crashing him into the same door with a nearly unbridled force. The former blow from Victor's weapon had weakened the structure just enough however to allow the two to topple through it and into the hallway. Their toppling blades injuring several animals as they fell into a small pile up. The two however quickly rose to their feet and continued fighting. Their fighting seeming to pull them down the paths of the red-lit halls…
***
Mika finally stepped into the room where she found the young blue-furred vixen that looked amazingly similar to Krystal. She sat alone in the corner of the room, one of her eyes was slightly swollen, and there was a short stream of blood trailing from the corner of her mouth. She hid her face under both her arms before she felt a soft paw on the side of her head. Her silent sobs stopped when she lifted her head only to see the minx's kind face. Mika looked about for a moment. There were no cameras or one-way mirrors, just a stone tablet and a voice recorder sitting on a table. Mika helped the vixen to her feet and had her sit at the table…
"Can you read this?"
The vixen simply nodded her head.
"Listen. Whatever is on this tablet could be very important…I need this translated."
The vixen looked it over for a few minutes. "It…it is nothing but numbers. 152652x, 288642y, 380897z. I-It makes no sense."
Mika sighed. "Yes it does…" she said. "They're coordinates. It's nowhere near this planet. Can you defend yourself? Krystal told me that your people are all psychic or something."
The vixen held up her wrist showing a metal shackle. "No. Whatever this is…I cannot use my abilities at all."
Mika took the vixen by the arm and looked the device over for a moment before laying her arm on the table and placing the blast rifle strapped to her back against the edge of it so that the blast, even if it penetrated the device wouldn't hurt the Cerinian's arm, "Look away," she said, causing the vixen to do just that.
The blast was all but silent, spare the hard metal ping of the short pulse of plasma tearing into the metal table, and a moment later of fiddling with the small device, the Cerinian was finally free. However as soon as the object impacted the floor the room went dark blaring with the sound of a loud alarm, while the room pulsated with a deep red light. Suddenly two guards burst through the door of the room, however as they both fired their weapons at Mika who recoiled in fear, the bursts of plasma from their weapons rebounded off an invisible wall in front of her, one of the bolts striking one of the Sharpclaw in the head. Mika quickly aimed her weapon and after another shot rebounded off the shield, a blast from her own weapon tore through the animal's skull sending him into the hall with a power unlike any rifle she'd ever held. She turned to the blue-furred vixen kissing her on the forehead.
"I really like you," she said picking up the tablet. "Come on, let's go get the others. If you can all do something like this I can't wait to see what happens when I'm surrounded by you people."
Mika picked up a spare weapon before heading down the halls. She tossed her mask aside after realizing that she would no longer need it. She was happy enough that there was such a panic about the place since the facility's alarm had been sounded. Her only question was, why was it they weren't headed toward her location if she was the one that had caused the alarm? It didn't even dawn on her that for a moment that it may have actually been her human accomplice that had tripped the alarm. All she knew was that for the most part, she was pretty much bulletproof…and the thought of it sent chills down her spine. Any animal unlucky enough to get in her way met with the same fate as the two that had entered the room where she'd saved the blue vixen that trailed behind her. The Cerinian girl however, did lead her toward the room where the other vixens were being held. It was as they rode the elevator up toward the floor where she'd run into Randy that the white-furred minx noted a small spatter of blood on the controls of the lift. In what seemed like no time Mika found herself and the young vixen both standing near the cell that the Cerinians were being held in…
"Alright tell them to line up and to listen closely…" Mika said to her guide. "I'll get those things off them and we can get the fuck out of here."
Following her instructions, the Cerinians began to line up one by one, being there were only four more of them made it a quick enough process. They vixen stayed with her as they all headed out into the hall. They rushed down the hall toward the elevator again. As they did so a large group of soldiers rushed out into the hall pointing their weapons at Mika's group. An older vixen pulled ahead of the group and thrust her palms toward the group. Several of the animals seemed to burst as if they'd swallowed a live charge of C-4, while the others were thrown into the walls with crippling force. As they strode by, Mika noticed that several of the animals that lay there were broken and contorted lying in a pool of what was once their companions. Mika had never known that Krystal's abilities could be so deadly, and secretly vowed never to piss the vixen off. It wasn't much of a trip until her small group made it to the elevator. Mika still wondered why it was that she still hadn't seen Randy since the alarm sounded. She figured he was most likely trying to keep his own ass alive…she didn't blame him, though it did piss her off that he'd bail on the whole operation just to save his own furless ass. Her mind was slightly changed however, as the elevator made its way to the top floor, revealing that the entire building on the surface was just a cover for the bunker that lay beneath the planet's crust. Here there were several bodies, most of which were missing a limb or two. It looked like they'd gotten involved in a fight they shouldn't have. A loud metallic bang caught Mika's attention that turned out to be the large doors to the large building slamming shut. Standing there was another human, clearly a female as her tight fitting uniform was all too revealing. The top was cropped short coming just short of her naval, while her tight shorts reached just above her knees. She pushed her long, wavy, blonde hair away from her face sliding on a familiar style of gloves…
"So can you use anything other than that gun?" she asked. "Your little friend outside had done a lot of damage. I've never really seen anyone kill so many people in the middle of a fight without dropping his guard."
Mika smiled as the human woman took a strange looking fighting stance. "Here…" she said handing her weapon to one of the Cerinians before removing her disguise. "I was a bit tired of this thing anyhow, I don't like smelling like a man," she said removing a pair of gloves from her back pocket and sliding them onto her paws.
The human woman smiled. "Well…looks like I do know a fighter when I see one," she said. "So what's your name cutie?"
Mika rolled her neck from side to side. "Cutie? The name's Mika…it's not one you're gonna forget any time soon."
The human chuckled. "My name's Amber," she replied. "You know you remind me a lot of a stuffed animal I used to have when I was little. Maybe I'll take you home instead of killing you."
Mika chuckled. "Sorry chick, I'm not into girls," she said. "If this gets out of hand you all get the hell out of here okay?" she asked over her shoulder.
"What about you?" one of the younger vixens asked.
"I can handle this bitch…" the minx replied. "As soon as you have a clear shot for the door, get out of here."
The blonde human took a light step forward. "You ready, cutie?"
"Ready to make you STOP CALLING ME THAT!!!" Mika shouted rushing at the human.
The minx's stride showed her skill and strength to the human as well as the Cerinians that stood behind her. Her opponent rushed in as well. Mika suddenly leaped slightly into the air, clearing the rest of the distance in with a sliding leg sweep, which the human leaped over her. However, before Amber managed to land, Mika shot back across the area driving her fist into the human's gut causing her to double over in pain. The punch was followed up with a sweep that pulled the woman off her feet. Mika followed through the sweep spinning and driving her knee into the human's spine. While her knee held the human in air for a moment, Mika spun about driving the point of her elbow into the human's chest, which drove her painfully into the floor. Before realizing what was happening the human woman grabbed Mika by the leg tossing her into the air, before leaping up beside her with a nauseating spin and driving her foot into the minx's chest with a force that shot her a distance away. As she landed, Amber wiped a bit of blood from her lip. She looked to the bit of blood that smeared across her glove before looking to Mika whom was having trouble getting back to her feet. Mika couldn't seem to make it off her paws and knees. The kick she'd received felt like it had nearly broken her in half. However, before she could get up the human woman rushed across the room driving her foot painfully into the minx's ribs, sending her spinning across the hard metal floor, where she slid to a stop spitting up a large amount of blood…
"Probably should have warned you about my leg…" Amber said brushing her hair away from her eyes. "Advanced Omni cybernetics program. Stepped on a landmine some time back…doctors at Omni patched me up better than new. If it makes you feel any better about losing, I've never been hit that hard before." She chuckled. "In fact I think you may have broken one or two of my ribs. But you know how that feels right now, don't you?"
The human might as well have been talking to the floor itself. The pain that shot through Mika's body was so much that it shut her off from the outside world around her. She could hardly breath, and it felt like her insides were on fire. She'd suffered broken ribs before, but she'd never been kicked so hard in her entire life. Amber froze in place as she saw the minx slowly climb to her feet. However as she rushed in at Mika, the minx quickly rolled onto her back taking the human by the shoulders and using her legs to toss the human several feet away. As she fell Mika could hear her scream seem to grow further and further away. She rolled over only to realize that she'd tossed the human into the open elevator shaft. Two of the young Cerinians rushed over to help the injured minx to her feet. As they stumbled outside, a familiar white-furred vixen rushed over to Mika's side. She was carrying a rather large sniper rifle over her shoulder…
"I heard the alarm from the camp…" she said taking Mika onto her shoulder. "Thought you might need the help. Looked like I was right too," she said looking out onto the snow where Randy and Victor were continuing their fight. "If he would have come out here before I showed up, the snipers in the towers would have taken him out."
"I'll stay here…" Mika said. "Get these five out of here and take this with you," she added handing the pale-furred vixen the tablet she'd taken.
"Mika you can't stay here in your condition."
"I'll be fine." Mika retorted pushing Vixy's paws away from her. "Just get them out of here now. I'll be here when you get back."
"That's not a choice, you're coming with me like it or not." Vixy demanded.
Mika sighed. "Fine."
As the small group moved toward the gate of the compound, Randy continued his fight. The snow had no chill against the heat that built up in his lungs. Multiple cuts over each participant's body painted small patches of snow red. Randy couldn't believe what was happening, the Victor that he'd know was a lazy little prick and had no real skill. This was an entirely new person, at least a different person than the one he'd known. A brief exchange of attacks proved that the two had hardly enough energy left to even lift their weapons…
"You were hired long before I found your sorry ass in that alley," Randy pointed out.
"Finally catching on are we?" Victor asked. "It was the only weakness I could find to exploit…your constant and effortless need to pass on your skills to another. I must admit though, I did pick up a few nice tricks while I was staking you out," he said frowning a bit. "That lady friend of yours did suspect me, but that smoothed over nicely when she had her little accident."
The two made a final rush at each other. Three loud clashes of steel rang out, before Randy fell to the snow held up by one knee, as his opponent's weapon was jabbed through his thigh. Randy screamed in pain as the weapon was pulled free with a metallic chime. He couldn't even hear the voice of the white-furred animal that stumbled toward him before she fell to the snow. Mika had at some point fought away from the others. If they left the human there, he'd eventually be overpowered and killed. As Victor raised his weapon, something stuck him between the eyes causing a bit of blood to run down his face. He looked to Rand, before finally walking toward the minx. Still however reeling from her fight inside the large building, Mika found it impossible to fight. She simply closed her eyes waiting for her fate. She owed Randy her life, he'd saved her life on Macbeth, and she'd always been taught to pay her debts. However even after hearing the sound of a blade tearing through flesh and bone, there was no pain, and when she opened her eyes she realized why. Randy stood prone in front of her. For a moment she swore she could hear him say something before he fell…
"No women…" Victor replied. "Sanctimonious bullshit," he huffed at the downed human. "Thanks to you I lost everything I was supposed to protect here. I'll be lucky if the boss doesn't kill me himself," he said kicking Randy a bit before looking to Mika. "I've changed my mind about you though. I'll let General Ugly think about what we do with you once he gets back," he said turning back to Randy. "As for you though, I'm fucking tired of having to watch my back thinking you're gonna pop out of my god damned bed every time I go to sleep."
Victor raised his weapon in an effort to impale the downed human only to find that he couldn't move his arms. His gaze wandered off into the distance, where a familiar white furred vixen stood, a deep blue light engulfing her eyes. With a wave of her paw the human shot through the air, planting firmly against the wall of one of the buildings…
"Come on…" she said helping Randy to his feet as several of the young Cerinians followed behind her. "We need to get the hell out of here before this place is overrun with reinforcements, off the planet altogether. We need to get him back to the Nemesis now."
Several of the Cerinians helped carry the young human away, while Mika trailed behind them with one of the Cerinians helping her as well. When they finally reached the camp, Lia examined the human that was laid down in front of the fireplace. A huge gash in his chest went deep enough to expose bone, while the other wounds on his body were nowhere nearly as deep, though still bleeding. She grimaced as she peeled away his shirt from his chest…
"This is really bad…" she said checking his pulse. "He's cold and he's got a really faint pulse."
It was as they all stood there that Terya found her way to the human's side and instantly began to inspect his injuries. No matter how many times Lia pushed her away however, the little vixen seemed dead set on being at the human's side. She seemed to sit there for a moment before Vixy pulled Lia away from Randy's side, and pointed to Terya…
"Look…" she pointed out.
Lia turned to look at Terya only to see her paws engulfed in a familiar blue light that she'd seen over Krystal's paws before. "Lia did you know she was a healer?" Vixy asked.
"No…" Lia replied. "I don't think anyone knew. She's never done this before."
Mika found a seat next to the fire. "I guess she really does like him," she said lying his sword down beside him. "Let her finish this, then we're getting the hell out of here."
"What about them?" Lia asked looking to the Cerinian survivors. "I didn't even know there were any survivors."
"We'll have to take them with us," Vixy replied. "It'll be a tight fit, but…I'm sure we can manage."
While Terya continued her work with the horribly injured human, Vixy and Lia helped the Cerinians to the ship before returning for the human and Terya. As their ship pulled away from the planet, Mika looked to the stone tablet that she'd stolen. Whatever Omni was after…the writing on the tablet was the only thing that could tell her where to find it. And once again she blamed herself, and owed the human her life…
***
Undisclosed Location……
***
A large figure sat behind his desk while a small hologram of a familiar looking blonde human woman standing there held her injured left arm…
"You're sure?" he asked keeping his back to the hologram.
"Yes sir. He and Victor tore the place up pretty bad…" the woman said. "And an animal, fox, ferret, I don't know what the fuck she was, ran off with the tablet…"
The figure behind the desk sighed angrily. "And the translation? How is that going Miss Grheen?"
The woman sighed. "About…fifty-eight percent. The men are working on it day in and day out. They're certain that they'll get it finished in the next forty-eight hours."
"At least something came out of all this…" the person behind the desk replied. "Good bye Miss Grheen," he said cutting their transmission and holding down a button on his desk. "Mrs. Ross, get X on the line. Time he did something useful."
The figure pulled a fresh cigar from a drawer in his desk. He moved the flame of a wooden match to it before waving the fire out…
"These morons are more trouble than they're worth." He sighed. "What does it take to hire someone with a brain in this day and age?"
As the small image came up on his desk, he laid his paw on the desk as he sighed deeply. He didn't care to think of how often these animals had ruined everything he'd planned all these years. He simply wanted them dead and gone, and X was the one that he was certain could get it done…
