Chapter 11: The Forest Bandits

About one week after Marcus and Leon's camping trip, something happened that would change everyone in the McCloud family forever.

The two boys were at their little fighting arena and had just finished another duel. Marcus won this time, but as always, it was a close fight. Leon looked around the arena and noticed something about the layout of the circle. Although it did serve as a good place to practice fighting, it hardly had the look of a real arena.

"Can you go get some rocks from the side of the river?" Leon asked his brother.

"What for?" Marcus asked.

"For the arena," Leon answered him, "we need to make this look more like a real fighting circle. If we put rocks on the outer edge, we can have more of a boundary line."

"Does it really matter how it looks?" Marcus asked his brother.

"Well yeah, I mean don't you want this to look more like a battleground and less like a random forest clearing?" Leon replied.

Marcus shrugged

"I don't really care," he answered, "but I guess it could look a little cooler."

"Then can you go get some rocks from the lake?" Leon asked Marcus once more, "The ones there are much smoother."

Marcus nodded and was about to head off until he remembered something else.

"Oh, oh! Can I see the radio transponder?" he asked Leon, holding his hands out and smiling.

"Why?" Leon asked, feeling frustrated that his brother was taking forever, "You have your telepathy, and I need the transponder in case something bad happens."

"C'mon, Please?" Marcus begged his brother, "I just want to hold it, and nothing bad will happen. This is the most boring forest ever."

"Yeah tell me about it." Leon replied closing his eyes. He then looked at Marcus, who had his ears down and was doing the best begging act he could perform. Leon sighed and gave in.

"Alright," he said, taking the radio out, "but just this once, and don't drop and/or loose it okay?"

"Okay!" Marcus replied, his tail wagging as he grabbed the radio transponder. As soon as he had it, he set off for the lake.

As Marcus walked to the lake, which was about a five minute walk away from the arena, he starred at the transponder, looking at is design. It looked like a small headpiece with a mic on it, similar to one a pilot would use, but its color and overall size was different. Unlike the typical white transponder that pilots would use, this one was camouflaged, and its size was much bulkier in order to keep it from getting damaged. Marcus studied the device like an archeologist would study a fossil. He smiled. His father's old military devices were some of the best toys that Leon had (but of course, Fox never let him use his old blaster).

When Leon reached the lake, he put the transponder in his pocket and went to work collecting rocks. He didn't know how many he needed, so he just started to grab as many as he could. There were some on the shore, but Leon had to reach into the shallowest parts of the lake to get the others. While he was collecting them, Marcus heard a twig break from one of the trees. His ears perked up and he looked over at the tree, wondering what it was. Seeing that there was nobody there, he decided to go back to work until he heard another twig snap from another tree. This time Marcus stood up and looked at the trees, beginning to feel nervous.

"Leon, is that you?" Marcus softly asked.

He used his telepathic powers to see if he could sense his brother. When he couldn't sense Leon, or anyone else for that matter, Marcus decided that it was nothing, and went back to work. Before Leon knew it, a rat man landed from a tree branch right above him and quickly restrained Marcus before he could get away. A lizard man stepped out from behind one of the trees and helped the rat with his hostage, gagging Marcus with a white cloth.

"Quickly," the rat squealed, "put it on his head!"

A puma man then stepped out from behind another tree with a metal circle in his hand. As Marcus squirmed, trying to get away, he realized that all three of the bandits had a similar device on their own head. The puma ran over to Marcus, jamming the device on top of his head.

"Are you sure it will work?" the lizard hissed.

"Of course," the puma said, sounding much calmer than the other two, "it worked for us didn't it? These dampening rings kept him from sensing us, and the one on his head will keep him from using his power to communicate with anyone else."

"It better work," the lizard hissed again, walking over to the puma, "these weren't cheap you know, and they're rare to buy on the black market. Do you have any idea how much we spent on these?!"

"Patience," the puma said, "money won't be a problem for us anymore. His father is an old mercenary who has a ginormous fortune saved up. He'll pay a fair price to get his son back."

"That's right," the rat squealed again, "We'll be rich!"

Marcus stopped squirming. His eyes shot open. He understood what was going on now. These bandits were kidnapping him to make his father pay a ransom.

"And what about his mother?" the lizard hissed once more, "Isn't she a telepath too? What if she already knows about this?!

"Would you shut up already?" the puma said, beginning to lose his patient, "I already told you, all telepathic communication is blocked off. She can't sense anything from him right now."

"Then she'll start to get suspicious wont she?" the lizard said.

"Precisely," the puma answered, "which is why we must go now."

"Fine," the lizard responded, and turned to address the rat "get the kid and let's get out of here."

The rat obeyed, and lifted up Marcus, who had just heard about the whole plan. When the rat had him in the air, Marcus quickly head butted him, causing him to let go and scream in agony, blood pouring from his now broken nose. When Marcus landed on the ground, he stood up and tried to run.

"You're not going anywhere you brat!" the lizard said, pulling a stunner from his pocket.

"No, don't!" the puma yelled at the lizard, but it was too late. He already pulled the trigger and Marcus fell on the forest floor unconscious.

While Marcus was gone, Leon decided to practice some more with his attacks. He decided to work more on the attacks that involved speed rather than strength, knowing that Marcus was much faster than himself.

Leon paused his training. His ear perked up. Something felt…wrong. Although Leon couldn't really explain it, something did not feel right. Leon's eyes than widened and he looked into the direction that Marcus walked. Something was happening to him. Marcus was in trouble. Leon's protective instinct kicked right in and Leon began running the same direction that Marcus went.

"Somethings wrong," Leon thought to himself, "I can't explain it, but something feels incredibly wrong. Marcus is in danger."

Leon ran faster, that weird feeling in him started to get larger, almost like he could feel Marcus crying out for help, even though he couldn't hear anything.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," Leon thought to himself, "Marcus hang on!"

And then Leon smelt them. There were three of them. His lupine scent could easily pick them up. A rat, a lizard, and a puma. Leon knew that this wasn't normal. Nobody ever came out into the woods except for himself and Marcus.

"It has to be them," Leon thought to himself, "They must be the ones hurting Marcus."

Leon began sprinting as fast as he could, worrying about his little brother.

Leon finally arrived at the scene were his brother was. He took cover behind a tree, hiding from the bandits. When he peeked from behind it to see what had happened, Leon was stunned. He couldn't believe what he was watching. His little brother was lying on the forest floor and a lizard was pointing his weapon at him. This bandit, this monster, had just shot his little brother. Leon felt a flat note play in his head, and then he snapped.

"What are you doing you stupid amphibian!?" the puma yelled at the lizard, "That was set to the highest frequency! It probably killed him!"

"Whatever," this lizard said as he walked over to Marcus and put a hand on his pulse, "he's still alive, but his pulse is weak."

The rat got up, holding his nose and whimpering.

"Watch over him you moron." The lizard said to the rat as he walked over to the puma, "Look, I had no other choice alright? Now let's get out of here before-

"Wait a minute," the puma interrupted him, "I smell something."

The lizard pointed his weapon in the direction that the puma was now looking.

"What is it?" he asked, aggravated that they still couldn't leave.

"Someone's here." the puma said, unsheathing his claws.

The rat looked over to his two companions.

"What?" he asked nervously, "Who is it?"

The puma and the lizard both turned from the direction were the scent was coming from and looked at the rat.

"Shut up you idiot," the lizard said, sounding more agitated, "and keep your eyes on the-

Before the lizard could finish his sentence, Leon had taken the opportunity to exploit their distraction and pounced at the lizard, biting his neck and crushing his windpipe. The lizard went tumbling down and both the puma and the rat where completely caught off guard by the surprise attack. Leon quickly grabbed the stunner from the downed lizard's hands and fired three shots at the rat, taking him out of the battle with a small scream of pain. He then turned to the puma to fire, but his advantage of surprise had worn of and the puma was right on top of him. He brought one of his claws down, scratching Leon's hand and making him drop the pistol. The puma quickly kicked it away and brought both claws down onto Leon, however this time Leon managed to catch his arms.

Leon and the puma were snarling at each other. The puma was a full foot taller than Leon, but Leon's lupine strength matched the puma's bigger size and age. Both fighters were evenly matched in power, but Leon could slowly begin to feel his strength starting to waver. He had to do something fast, otherwise the puma would simply overwhelm him with sheer force and power, not to mention the pain from his hand. After almost being brought to his knees, Leon decided he couldn't wait anymore with his brother being down and took a large gamble.

He let go of the puma's hands and quickly leaned into him. The puma brought both of his claws down on Leon, digging them into his back. Filled with adrenaline, and knowing his brother's life was at stake, Leon didn't even scream. Instead, he used the opportunity to make three large claw marks across the puma's torso, cutting his chest and nearly ripping open his stomach. The puma screamed in unbearable agony on his new critical injuries and pulled his claws out of Leon's back, holding his own injuries and trying to back away. He was too slow, and Leon quickly ended the battle by delivering a jump kick to the puma's head, knocking the bandit out cold.

As soon as he won, Leon quickly ran over to Marcus, getting on his knees and putting a hand underneath the unconscious vulpine's head. He took of his gag and the strange device he had on his head.

"Marcus," Leon said, desperately, "Marcus wake up! C'mon, please! I need you to wake up!"

Nothing.

"Marcus," Leon said, know beginning to choke up, "please. Wake up. It's me! It's your brother Leon! C'mon you stupid idiot, wake up. Wake up!"

Still nothing. Marcus was out cold.

Leon put a hand on the vulpine's chest and felt his heartbeat. It was faint. Marcus was hurt. Badly hurt. Leon knew he had to get him back to their parents' house. He softly cradled the vulpine in his arms and lifted him up. Leon grunted with pain and fell back on his knees. His back injury was starting to take its toll.

Leon reached into Marcus's pocket to get the transponder, deciding to call his parents for help. It was dead. Short circuited from the stunner that hit Marcus. Leon swore and put it back into his pocket. He lifted Marcus up, thinking only about his little brother. Protecting his little brother. He screamed in pain, trying to avoid the back injury, thinking only about Marcus. He slowly walked back to their house, an agonizing 3 mile journey.

"Just hang in there Marcus," Leon said, now crying, "hang in there brother."

Back at the McCloud residence, Krystal was pacing back in fourth. She knew something had gone terribly wrong. When Fox got back from work, Krystal told him that their sons hadn't come back yet. She also told him that's she couldn't sense either one of them and that the transponder wasn't answering.

"It's getting dark," Krystal said, looking like she was about to faint from her nervousness, "Fox this isn't right. I can't sense either one of them."

"I know," Fox said as he got his blaster belt on, "I'll go out and look for them. I'm sure their fine."

"If they were fine, I should have sensed them." Krystal said, beginning to sound hysteric.

Fox holstered his pistol and walked over to his wife, resting a hand on her shoulder and putting another one under her chin, turning her eyes up to meet his own.

"Don't worry," he said, "I'll find them. They're both tough kids. I'm sure they're okay."

Krystal closed her eyes and softly nodded, letting her anxiety drop a little. Fox smiled at her, but it quickly disappeared when she quickly opened her eyes with a gasp and turned to the door. Acting on instinct, Fox pulled his pistol out and pointed it at the door which was now opening. Leon walked in, crying and holding an unconscious Marcus in his arms.

"LEON! MARCUS!" Fox screamed as he and his wife ran over to their sons.

"Marcus!" Krystal screamed as she saw her son unconscious, "Oh gosh, Leon, what happened to him?! What happened to you two!?"

"Bandits," Leon choked out, "I'm sorry. I couldn't protect him. He was stunned, and I don't know why but he's barely breathing."

Fox walked over to Marcus and lifted him out of Leon's arms. While he did so, he noticed blood dripping from Leon's back.

"Leon, what happened to you?" Fox asked, and the way he sounded reminded Krystal of their time back in Starfox. He sounded like a soldier.

"I-it's nothing." Leon said, still crying and sniffling, "I-I'm okay, buy you need to help Marcus. He's barely breathing."

Fox put his head down on Marcus's chest to listen for a heartbeat.

"He's alive," Fox said, "but there's no telling what the stunner did to him. Krystal, I need you to stay here and patch up Leon's wound. I'm going to run Marcus over to the hospital okay?"

Krystal nodded, realizing her husband had quickly transformed back into the leader that he used to be. Fox exited the house and ran as fast as he could to the hospital. Krystal walked over to Leon, putting both of her hands on the sides of his shoulders, trying to calm down the hysteric lupine.

"Honey," Krystal said softly to him, "I need you to come over here and sit down on the chair okay sweetie?"

Leon nodded and obeyed, still crying. Krystal came back with some alcohol and a first aid kit. She pulled out some scissors and started to cut the back of Leon's blood stained shirt.

"It's all my fault." Leon cried, burying his face inside of his hands.

"It's okay honey." Krystal whispered to him.