Disclaimer: Anything not Spencer belongs to Nintendo.

Theta could see the ruins just a few yards away from her. Ready for anything, she and Lazarus ran inside, only to be greeted by a huge pit in the entrance.

"I guess the only way is down." Theta said as she pulled out a coil of rope and proceeded to stake it into the ground. "Ladies first." She gestured to the hole.

Theta took hold of the rope and clipped it to the side of her suit. She quickly began to rappel into the dark abyss, Lazarus followed after her. The darkness gave Theta the strange feeling of floating, she couldn't see anything, but she could only feel the wall that was directly in front of her. Time didn't seem to pass at all as Theta descended lower and lower. Soon, she could feel her feet press into hard rock.

"Lazarus, I think I've hit the bottom." She shouted upwards.

"I'm right in front of you, you know." Said Lazarus, he was just a few feet away from Theta. "Get out a glow lanter and light it up, we need to find Falco and Clarke."

Theta heard the clicks of his belt while he pulled the rope off. She sifted around her pack searching for the cyndrilical object, thankfully she didn't have to dig for very long. She pulled one out and felt for the release pin on top. With a strong tug, the pin came loose and the chemicals within the lantern combined. In a few seconds, the lantern let off a huge light.

"Lets get going, they can't be too far from here." Said Lazarus. Theta began to walk forward, although the lantern lit the way, in a few hours the light would diminish, time was of the essence.

"What was that?" Whispered Theta , she could've sworn she heard foot steps.

"I don't know, but I heard it to. I suggest you draw your weapon." Lazarus responded.

Theta didn't need to ask twice, she pulled out her shock club and put her finger on the trigger. Cautiously, they proceeded, something was definently stalking them.


Iota woke first, Kursed was still sound asleep on her cot. He yawned and jumped out of the cot, as he stood up, something banged on the trap door. Cautiosly, he unlatched it and pushed it open. When he surfaced, he came face to face with six armed soldiers, all guns aimed at him.

"You are under arrest by order of Emperor Bowman, any resistance will be met with deadly force, are we clear." The head soldier barked at him.

"Clear." Iota said grabbing the soldier nearest to him, the rest fired mercilessly.

Iota held the soldier directly in front of him. He could feel the warm blood spray onto him as the soldiers shot their comrade. Iota grabbed the soldier's gun, and using the lifeless body as a shield, returned fire on the other soldiers. Most of them had taken cover, but he didn't miss the slowest ones. The green lights soared to their heads, two of the soldiers fell to the ground dead.

Iota jumped back into the safe house and immediately sealed the door. Kursed was already back into her gear and holding a spread gun.

"There's a weapon rack in the back, you might want to get suited up. I bet they have reinforcements on the way." She said to Iota, who was already back into his uniform.

He quickly made his way back, grabbing an assault machine gun off of the rack and loaded his pockets with ammo and grenades.

Kursed perked up her ears, she could hear rapid beeping. She grabbed Iota and pulled him farther back. A huge explosion blew off the trap door as bolts of energy filled the room. Iota threw a grenade into the smoke, an explosion followed by screams was heard.

Kursed could see the auras of the guards behind the smoke. She aimed her spread gun and fired at them, most of them died immediately.

"Iota, we need to get rid of this safe house, there should be a plasma charge behind the weapons rack. Set it to ten seconds, and arm it when I say." She shouted.

Iota ran to the rack and threw it aside, there lying under the rubble was a laptop sized box. He lifted it up and opened it up, inside was a timer and a large red button.

"Ready?" Kursed shouted.

"Yes." Iota replied.

"Alright…NOW!" She screamed after waiting for at least three agonizing seconds.

Iota punched the button and ran to the entrance with Kursed. He could hear soldiers shouting commands and guns firing, but he didn't care. Bullets were one thing, plasma explosions were something else. Iota tripped and fell to the ground and Kursed had no choice but to leave him. He didn't blame her, still he had to save his own skin. He got up and ran for what little time he had left. Iota ran harder than he ever had before, he estimated he only had two seconds before the bomb blew.

Iota's legs felt like they would fall off as a huge blue explosion erupted, it shook the ground so hard it sent Iota falling head first into the ground. The heat was so intense that the trees around Iota were burning up. He was swearing and sweating as he felt the fabric of his uniform begin to melt. Iota ripped out his father's sunglasses, tore the uniform off of him and then tried running farther. For an ungodly amount of time, the plasma continued to burn everything around it. The soldiers that hadn't been incinerated on contact began to morph into grotesque shapes. Their bodies slowy and painfully turning into a bubbling mess.

Finally, the blue explosion changed to white and began to shrink. Everything behind Iota was burnt away. The safe house was a crater, soldiers that hadn't made it as far as Iota were piles of bone and goop, while others had been partially burned, others had lost their limbs. Iota was lucky to escape, the last few yards ran saved him from serious injury.

"Kursed! Where are you?" He shouted.

"Over here! I'm over here!" She shouted back to him.

"Are you okay?" Iota said running to her.

"Am I okay? You were closer to the explosion, something could've happened to you, I can't believe I didn't come back and pick you up!" Kursed cried.

"Hey I'm fine, look I can walk, I can talk, and you're fine. You really don't need to worry about me like that" He said laughing, what happened to the Kursed back on Corneria?

"It's just that I can't let you die, I've just met you, and it seems like we've come from the same world." Kursed stressed.

"And let me guess, I complete you?" Iota said.

"No, you know my life, because you've lived it, I think that's what I mean." Kursed explained.

Iota was quiet for a minute, he was taking in everything. Kursed was turning out to be much more different than he expected. But this wasn't a bad thing.

"We can talk later, we need to find some way back to the ships." Iota finally said. Kursed nodded, this was for a different time.


Alex walked along the explostion site, around him were men moaning and crawling.

"What the hell happened here?" Jack said shaking his head.

"Some sort of explosion, a powerful one at that." Lucy answered.

"Yeah that's obvious. But everything around here is melted or melting, look at the guys on the ground." Jack said.

Alex looked down and could see that most of the guys were only torsos crawling to some lost destination. The ones who still had their legs were just limping forword in pursuit of no real objective. All of them were delusional, none of them seemed to take notice of the three people walking among their bodies. They really didn't know what to do, most of them were dead or dying. Everything was silent, the moans were the only things that could be heard.

"Wait a second, guys, I think I can see some one walking through, just over there." Alex said breaking the silence.

"Yeah, I think I see them too!" Lucy said running to them.

Alex literally disappeared when he went into super run, he reappeared over by a startled Kursed and Iota.

"Alex do you have to jump out of nowhere like that!?" Kursed shouted at him.

"Sorry, I saw you in the woods and I decided to check it out." Alex explained.

"Is it just you, or is there any others?" Iota asked.

"Yeah, Lucy, Jack, and I." Alex answered.

"Wait, you guys found Jack?" Kursed asked.

"Lucy found him, and even then she didn't really find him, he actually found her in a way." Alex replied.

"Where are they now?" Iota asked.

"Lucy's on her way, and Jack's over by the crater." Alex answered.

Sure enough, Lucy was huffing and puffing as she ran to them.

"Lucy!" Kursed shouted and ran over to her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, just my injury kind of makes it hard to breathe." Lucy coughed.

"Just rest for a moment, you really shouldn't press yourself so hard." Kursed said.

"You really sound like my dad right now." Lucy laughed.

Iota kept it to himself, but what was very surprising to him is that Kursed was showing her soft side to everyone around her.

"I'm sorry to break up such a touching reunion, but you're coming with me, it's your choice dead or alive." A new voice called to them.

Alex could could hear him just a few feet behind, and Iota and Kursed knew fully well that it was Leon Powalski.

"You think you can take on four armed and highly trained people with just a blaster Powalski?" Iota mocked.

"So you think you're smart, you don't look too armed to me." Leon laughed inching closer to Iota, his gun directly aimed at Iota's head. Right as Leon put the gun to Iota, Iota shifted his head out of the way and threw a punch at Leon's face. Leon grabbed the fist and threw Iota to the side. He aimed his blaster at him and fired, but Alex had already intervened. In less than a second, Alex popped in between Iota and the bullet. He absorbed the bullet without taking much harm at all. Alex grabbed the gun and snapped it in two, then delivered an uppercut, throwing Leon off balance. Leon now open to attack, was punched in the stomach by Alex. Leon flew back a few feet and curled up in pain, the wind had been knocked out of him.

"We better get Jack and get out of here." Alex said disappearing.


Alex could see Lazarus and Theta walking through the cave, it was only a matter of time before he would strike, not yet though.

"Lazarus look out!" Theta shouted, Alex thought that he had been found out again. To his relief she was pointing at something else.

They both shot at the "thing" but what ever it was didn't stop. Both of them were sprinting in the opposite direction, a living mound of dirt running them down. Lazarus stopped and whipped out his diamond blades and held them above his head. The mound of dirt went straight towards his legs, it was only inches away when Lazarus brought the blades crashing down into the ground. Lazarus wrenched it upwards and lifted the worm from the ground. The skewered creature writhed as it tried to bite Lazarus. He simply separated the blades and the creature fell into two lifeless pieces.

"What was that?" Theta panted.

"The Scourge of Fortuna, now we really need to move Theta." Lazarus was already running down the tunnel with the lantern.

Alex followed them further, he needed to take them all out, if others were down here, this would be the easiest way.


Wolf dragged Jack through the jungle, Leon made a perfect distraction and Panther was already back dealing with the rest of them with a sniper rifle. The hardest part was not killing Jack, he was a nuisance. Fighting and kicking endlessly, always trying to scream for help. Wolf saw a long purple line cut through the trees. A few screams, then nothing, Wolf smiled. Everything was working according to plan. Wolf kept dragging Jack, who now was starting to give in.

"Let him go Wolf." A voice sounded from the trees. A lone figure stepped in front of him.

"What, it can't be!" He shout shocked.

"What do you mean?" The figure took another step closer with, mocking him.

"You, you're dead." Wolf snarled.

"I don't think a dead man could fight you." The figure raised his arms.

"You've changed pup, had a taste of the other life didn't you?" Wolf said as he tied Jack to a tree.

"I'm still not as low as you." Iota wasn't fooling Wolf, he was still Fox McCloud in his eyes.

"That explains why you've been hiding for so long." Wolf got into attack position.

Fox threw a punch at Wolf, who quickly ducked and swiped under Fox. Fox jumped over the leg and kicked at Wolf's head. This time the strike connected and threw Wolf back. Fox ran to him and elbowed Wolf in the stomach, kicked him in the head, then unleashed a flurry of kicks striking from all positions. Fox finished by grabbing Wolf and throwing him into a tree.

Wolf quickly recovered and swiped at Fox three times. Fox nimbly dodged the first two, but the last one connected. Giving him a cut down his back. Wolf delivered a punch to Fox's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Fox tried to get up, but Wolf kicked him every time he tried to move. Finally Fox grabbed Wolf's leg and twisted it, forcing the rest of his body to twist. Wolf fell face down to the ground. Fox got back up and grabbed Wolf by the neck.

"You're lucky I'm still merciful." Fox said as he squeezed tight.

"Y…ou'll pay Mc..Cloud…" Wolf choked before blacking out.

Fox dropped the body and ran to Jack.

"Hmm, I knew Fox McCloud wasn't dead, I didn't expect him to be here though." Jack said.

"You best keep this little incident to yourself." Fox whispered.

"It's odd, your worst enemy could tell who you were almost on the spot, but none of your friends could." Jack said as Fox untied him. Fox winced.

"Tell me Fox, why did you become Iota." Jack asked.

"I don't remember you being a psychiatrist Jack." Fox snarled.

"No need to get hostile, I just wonder why, it confuses me why you left it all behind." Jack asked calmly.

"Everything left me behind." Was Fox's reply.

Jack just shrugged and followed him back to the rest of the team.


"I can see you! Now I can't, I see you again." Falco laughed as he clicked his little flash light on and off.

Clarke sighed, Falco was doped up so that he didn't have to endure the pain of his lost leg. But it was just the same as getting drunk, Falco had no idea where he was or what was going on.

"Hello!" A voice shouted.

"Over here! Over here damn it, we're over here!" Clarke shouted desperately.

" Oh man am I glad to see you guys, I've been walking down here for who knows how long." Epsilon said as he ran to the duo.

"You've been lost too?" Clarke asked.

"I've been running from those worms, I think they follow your sound. Have you found any yet?" Epsilon asked.

"Not for awhile, the last encounter was nasty, Falco lost his leg." Clarke replied.

"What!? Now we really need to get out of here." Epsilon whispered.

"Help's on the way I think, we contacted Slippy about twenty minutes ago." Clarke said.

"You have signal here?" Epsilon asked.
"Yeah, it's pretty weak though, the last message was pretty garbled." Clarke answered.

"It's better than what I had before, there is no radio whatsoever beyond this point." Epsilon said.

Clarke heard dirt moving just behind Epsilon.

"They're back!" Clarke shouted as he drew his blaster.

Epslion did the same while Falco just sat and watched. The living mounds of dirt came speeding towards them. Clarke shot the piles, they instantly exploded, revealing the nasty creatures and their razor sharp teeth.

"Keep shooting!" Clarke shouted, as he shot one of the exposed creatures.

Blood spurted from it's body as it writhed around until it lay dead on the ground. They kept this up, but more and more showed up. The situation changed to hopeless when they started coming out of the walls and celling. Suddenly a flare dropped in the cavern.

"Come on you guys, get out of there!" Theta said shooting at the worms.

Clarke and Epsilon lifted Falco together and ran through the mounds. The worms jumped out and greedily snapped at them. Theta and Lazarus kept them safe, shooting at any one of the worms that dare surface near them. They ran as fast as they could to Theta and Lazarus, finally they made it to them. But they didn't stop running, the worms turned their attention to all five of them.

"The rope's just up ahead!" Lazarus yelled.

They quickly tied Falco to Clarke and sent him up, then Theta and Epsilon went before Lazarus finally went.

The climb was hectic, Clarke could hear the worms drilling around in the walls, it wouldn't be long before they picked them off on the wall. He climbed even faster, as the creatures in the wall began to get closer. Eventually he could see light, his hands finally reached the top of the of the wall. Clarke pushed himself out with all his might and ran with Falco to the landing site. Soon the others climbed back up and ran with him, it was even more hectic than climbing, because as they left the ruins. They could hear the soil rumbling, they were coming to the surface. And that was the least of their problems, at the entrance of the ruins, the supramorph from before climbed out of the hole. It was already charging towards them like a bull seeing red.

"What the hell, we made it out?" Falco said as if he had just woken up, the drugs had worn off.

"Yeah now we're in hot pursuit, the worms and the supramorph are right on our tails." Clarke panted, he could see the arwings in the clearing up ahead. People were already there.

"Get in the arwings damn it! Get in there!" Epsilon yelled, it didn't take long for them to cooperate.

"Put me in mine Clarke, I don't need a leg to fly it." Falco yelled to him.

"On it." Clarke said as he ran to the arwing and dropped Falco in.

Clarke ran to his while Jack followed Alex into his. Theta watched in horror as the mounds erupted releasing thousands of ravenous worms that lunged at the arwings, she pounded her control faster than ever before and the arwing blasted off, leaving the worms behind.

Alex felt the arwing heat up as they pushed through the atmosphere of Fortuna. Finally they had escaped the nightmare from below and were headed straight up, The Sky Atlantis came into view within seconds.

"What were those things?" Lucy asked over the communicator.

"They are the Scourge, an under dwelling species that eat any animal that comes into sight. Sometimes it's so drastic they eat themselves. Those ruins were buit on a nest without them knowing about it, looks like Oinkonny wasn't the only one to run it down." Lazarus answered.

"Remind me when this is all over not to take a vacation to Fortuna, losing a leg wasn't on my list of things to do." Falco asked.

"We really need to take care of that when we get back, how much has it bled since it was lost?" Epsilon asked, it wasn't very well known, but at one point he was a doctor.

"Not very much, I patched it up with some makeshift bandages after I fell." Falco answered.

"You need to come with me on the ship, I'll need Slippy as well." Epsilon answered.

"Hey guys you're back, is everyone okay?" Slippy asked.

"We're all fine, except Falco, Epsilon wants you to come with him somewhere on the ship when we get back on." Lazarus replied.

"Okay, see you back on the ship." Slippy's face disappeared from the screen.

The nightmare was over for now, they could rest and get out of there, but they still needed to get back to planet Kew for more orders from the General. Alex really needed to get that wraith out of his head, when Jack got back he would ask.


Mission Complete: Notes: Jack's rescue was a success thanks to Lucy and Iota, in the future it is suggested to watch out for Star Wolf activity. They had plans of their own and their very own Supramorph to command. Extreme caution is advised on the next mission.

Casualties: 0

Hours: 36


A/N: Spencer here, sorry this chapter is a bit short, I wanted to finish this mission up and get on with the story, until next time, happy reading!

P.S. I'm going to have some different weapons other than the ones featured on assault, spice things up a bit.