Into the Wolf's Den, Part III
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Things weren't doing so well up on the Great Fox right about now.
"Gosh darnit, Fox, answer me!" Peppy demanded, leaned over the console by the communicator.
Fox, down on Myyphos, paid no attention to his elder's demands. His blaster was in his hands, and that was all he needed right now. The entrance to the base stared at him from a distance, beckoning his entry.
No Fox, don't act crazy now. You've come so far.
Agitatedly, Fox holstered his blaster and opened up his com link. "I'm here, Peppy, I'm here!"
"Just what the hell is going on down there?" the hare retorted. "What happened? What did you do?"
"The Alias was discovered," Fox growled. "I'm going to get it back."
"Fo-"
Fox hastily shut down the com link and poked his head from around his hovel. He contemplated running in, shooting everything, then epicly running out with the Alias and getting beamed up to the Great Fox.
His leg reminded him otherwise.
There was an audible alarm ringing very loudly, echoing throughout the jungle and sending all sorts of wildlife scattering. There were probably guards and personell all over the place.
"God dammit, what am I supposed to do?" Fox said to himself. "It's gonna take some kinda miracle for these alarms to shut off..."
The alarms stopped blaring. Fox's ears perked up in surprise.
"What the?"
Little did Fox know...
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Inside the Base, Current Time
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A door flew open somewhere in the base, a large boot imprint cracking it's surface. Covering his ears and grimacing in discomfort, the Lylat System's most wanted lupine charged out of his room.
"What the shit is going on in here?!" Wolf screamed over the sound of the alarm towards a guard in the hallway.
"Sir! There's been an intrusion!" The guard yelped. "All alerts have been set to high-"
Wolf roared. "I don't give a damn! I can't even hear myself think! Turn it off, NOW!"
"But sir!"
"NOW!"
Hesitating, the guard looked around for a deactivation switch, soon finding it on one of the metallic walls and flipping the blaring alarms off.
"Christ, that's better," Wolf gruffed, shaking his head. "Hey, I ain't done with you yet." He grabbed the leaving guard by the collar.
"Uh, y-yes sir?"
Wolf's bionic eye took a moment to scan him. "Show me where you found our 'little intruder.'"
"Right away sir."
The canine guard took Wolf outside and down through the landing pad-elevator to the laboratories and construction site. Immediately Wolf noticed the few stains of blood near the large, incomplete weapon where some struggle had apparently taken place. Wolf scoffed as the guard led him into the lab doors, where a few scientists were inspecting a small orange-sized mechanical unit. Strangely, there was a dead purple lizard on one of the surrounding tables.
"What's going on in here?!"
The scientists looked up startled to see their commander, and quickly saluted him. "Uh, sir! While we were working on our eh...'project', this litte device fell out of one of the part cases and started analyzying our weapon!"
Wolf stared at him. "Uh-huh. And, uh, what is that?" Wolf pointed a claw at the dead lizard on the desk.
A feline scientist adjusted his glasses and shrugged. "Uh, I dunno. It was in the case as well. It leapt up and bit George pretty bad, and-"
"Yeah yeah, I don't give a shit. Gimme that device."
Wolf snatched the device out of one of the scientist's hands and studied it carefully, twirling it around in his paws.
A canine scientist spoke up. "Pardon me, sir, but we were just about to extract the data from-"
"Shut yer trap," Wolf told him. "You passed."
"...Sir?"
Wolf laughed. "You passed! I sent down this little bugger here to see if you halfwits would notice it and take emergency procedures like ordered. And you did. So congratulations."
The scientists let out nervous chuckles. "Very funny, sir...uh, good one."
"Yeah, I know. GET BACK TO WORK!"
With quick yelps, the scientists all scrambled back to their work stations as Wolf left the labs. Seeing the guard that escorted him there, he stopped for a moment.
"Hey, kid. What's yer name?" O'Donnell asked.
The guard looked at him. "Uh, Corporal Gnecco, sir. Why?"
"Get on the intercom and tell everyone it was a false alarm, and to get straight back to work. You hear me?"
"Yes sir. Right away, sir."
The guard scrambled off, and Wolf took to walking back to his quarters, studying the small device as he went.
"Alias:3, huh?" Wolf smirked, pulling a tiny orange hair off of it's front lens.
"Real smooth, Fox."
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Fox's Hovel, Current Time
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"Peppy, it looks like the alarms have shut off. I don't know why, but I'm seeing an opportunity here," Fox breathed over the com link, his back to a rigid tree.
"Well Fox..." Fox heard a gruff grunt from the hare. "I suppose there really is no choice. But please, if at all possible..."
"Yeah Peppy, I know."
"Stay low, son."
The com link clicked off and the hero of Lylat took a moment to regain his composure. He tried to sit, but he didn't want to have to deal with the pain of getting up again. He shifted his backpack to his front side, opened it, and searched the contents of the medical kit to see if there was anything to help stabilize his pain. He found more antiseptic, more gauze wrap, a few sharp tools, the empty syringe from earlier, and a small baggie of Oreos with a little note signed from Slippy on the inside.
The vulpine shook his head. Gotta love 'em.
"Ugh." Fox very slowly sat down on the dirt and prepared to change his bandages once more. He tried rolling up his pants, but once it reached his wound it hurt way too much to continue. With a shrug, Fox unsheathed his knife and cut the portion of pants just below the knee clean off, and stuffed the remains in his backpack. Chomping into an Oreo, he unraveled his bandages and saw that his ugly wound wasn't doing too bad. The ugly portion of missing fur and charred skin complimented the disgusting sear scar. The skin underneath and around the scar was a gross mixture of red and purple.
"Oh, internal bleeding. Fabulous."
Fox globbed some more antiseptic on the scar for good measure, since the burn from his blaster was starting to hurt as well. He tightly wrapped it in the last of the bandages, and then tried moving his leg.
"Oof! Ouch! Grr.."
Fox was completely grossed out by his leg's movement. When he lifted it up, the portion below the knee wobbled and bent in extraordinarily painful ways. This was not going to help his walking any, especially the amount of snooping he was about to be doing.
Tapping into his resourceful vulpine nature, or "McCloud mode," as Fox liked to call it, he scavenged his hovel for a few sturdy sticks. Brandishing his knife, he carved them into long shafts that supported his leg and stuck into various places in his boot where his foot couldn't reach. Carefully, he tied all of the shafts together in various places and secured the makeshift brace securely onto his leg.
Now, he had to try it out.
Painstakingly reaching his feet once more, Fox carefully put weight on his foot. It still hurt, but the brace took a lot of pressure off each step, enough to walk around with only a mildly bad limp.
He flipped another Oreo into his mouth. Fox was pleased with himself.
Get your game face on, Fox. You can't mess this up.
Fox's expression changed into a solemn one in the blink of an eye.
Now that the alarms were down, Fox didn't have any use for his blaster. It would make way too much noise and draw too much attention for Fox to handle. Maybe if his leg wasn't broken, he might've been able to pull off a Rambo, but this was still a recon mission anyway.
His knife was going to be his best friend.
The vulpine shuddered. No, I'm not killing anybody. That would put this whole mission in jeopardy.
But what if he needed to? Fox imagined what Falco would say.
Well sheesh Foxie, I know I certainly wouldn't want some sweaty dumbass tryin' to show me the ol' one-two and get away wit' it. Do whatcha need to, buddy. We're mercenaries, remember?
Fox chuckled lightly. He had known Falco long enough to know that was exactly what he would've said.
Fox mentally listed his obscurities. Avoiding detection, finding the Alias, and escaping to the Great Fox.
"Oh, brother."
What if they had taken the Alias somewhere else, somewhere where Fox wouldn't find it? Or maybe the destroyed it!
No. It wouldn't matter. Fox would find it either way. He always had a knack to come out on top of predicaments like these.
He took one last peek around the corner of his hovel, to make sure no one would see him when he went for the door.
No one in sight.
Carefully, Fox treaded across the grass towards the base's many doors. Fox had been lucky to find this one, as this door seemed to be a side exit of some sort. His stomach fluttering, he limped a bit faster until he was standing right in front of the door. He played out what he was going to do first in his mind.
You got this.
The door made virtually no noise as Fox pushed it open. He saw the same sight he did with the Alias; a long, tiled hallway with metallic walls that stopped abruptly and split into two more hallways. About 4 doors lined this hallway, and Fox knew what was in each one.
Fox put his ear to the glass window on the first door to the right. The door's personal blinds were shut, and the door was locked, as Fox had left it. He could hear the sounds of light snoring coming from inside.
There's one down...
The vulpine checked the status of all the rooms in the hall, and found them exactly as he left them. He needed to find a way safely outside and down the elevator. Which now, seemed very unlikely. Fox shook his head. His best hope now is that someone actually moved the Alias and left it where Fox could find it.
It was time to advance before someone came walking around the corner. Trying his best to be silent, Fox crept down to the end of the hallway and peeked around both corners, his leg aching him the whole way.
To the right, more hallways and an exit all the way down. To the left, a more complicated network of doors and hallways.
Hard to believe there's a huge evil taking place here, Fox thought. He took the fork right to see if he could find anything helpful before he continued.
Instead, he found everything the exact same as it was. Tiny rooms with nothing but two bookcases, a desk, a chair, and occasionally a computer.
Perhaps Wolf's fleet was made up of secretaries? Nah.
Fox was very surprised he hadn't had an encounter yet. Just then, his com link rang and scared the wits out of him. Furiously, he scrambled to shut it off.
"What...is it...Slippy..." Fox whispered through gritted teeth. He crept his way to the farthest room down the hallway for safety.
"Fox, I have an idea," Slippy said as Fox locked the office door behind him. "If you can get on to one of those computers' mainframes, I can send you a bypass code and we can try to track the location of the Alias from there!"
"That's brilliant Slippy!" Fox said excitedly, but quietly. "Why didn't you just tell me this before?"
"Heh, you know me, Fox. It's just happens sometimes."
"Alright, I'm gonna have to do this quick though, I don't know how much time I have," Fox mentioned before shutting off the link. He sat down in the desk chair with a wince, glancing at the computer. The desktop had the standard rolling green hills picture as it's background. Fox began going through the computer settings, trying to access the mainframe.
Getting to the core of a computer was one particularly interesting skill they taught at the Academy back when Fox was enlisted. It was intended for computer workers in the army to have a way to seek and transfer intelligence and help. Fox remembered when he had skipped a lecture to go with Slippy once, and they ended up in the computer class, thus learning how to do this. Slippy had mentioned he had picked it up pretty fast, and then commented that it probably 'ran in his blood', being a resourceful thinker and all.
Thoughts of Fox's childhood and his father suddenly filled his mind.
Fox imagined what his dad would say if he saw him right now. Sitting in the middle of an enemy base with a broken leg, hacking a computer. James would've thought Fox must've been crazy.
Or maybe brave.
"Bah, there it is," Fox murmured as he accessed the computer's guts. "Slippy, I'm in. Mind sending me whatever you have?"
"10-4, good buddy," he heard the toad say. Fox recieved data on his wrist com a few moments later.
"Wow, long code," Fox commented to himself as he read the code and typed it in. "Got it."
A structural map appeared on the screen, showing Fox a scan of the enitre base. Anything electrical was highlighted, and when Fox would scroll over a highlighted item, it's general information would show up along with model dates.
As far as he could see, the general electrical component was the mass amounts of seemingly unused computers in this place, save a few lamps and powercords. Something did catch his interest, though.
Not too far from Fox's location was a different kind of room. It was a bit larger, and there were a few electrical devices in it. Fox scrolled over the first two devices, which he noticed to be a TV and a stereo system.
"Maybe it's the lounge."
He disregarded the idea when he noticed the room was much too small. It seemed to be more of a personal bedroom. The computer model was different, too.
Fox went to go check the last device, when it suddenly shifted its location in the room. It went from next to the computer to somewhere in the middle of the room. Accompanying it was a new, but very tiny device. Fox scrolled over both of them.
"Amino4 Visual Stabilizer, Enhancer, and Computing System. Slippy, any idea what this is?"
Fox practically heard the toad thinking. "Visual stabilizer, huh? Must be some kind of fancy sunglasses. Not quite sure, Fox. Find the Alias yet?"
"Uh, one second." Scrolling over the last, round device, Fox found another cryptic name such as the first one.
"Awesomely Little Inisightful Advanced Scouter? What the hell?" Fox said in disbelief.
"Oh, oh! Fox, that's the Alias!"
"Wha...Are...are you kidding me?!" Fox grumbled. "Slippy, why was it programmed with that kind of name?"
"Heh heh, sorry Fox. I'm a sucker for acronyms."
Fox rubbed his eyes with two fingers and shook off the irritation. "Well, I've located it. I'm going to try to make an attempt at seizing it. I want you and the team ready, in case I need to make a break for it."
"Not a problem, Fox. We've got the Great Fox pretty close to the surface, and the tractor beam is ready to bring you up whenever."
"Good, good. Hey uh, Slip? It's probably not the right time or place right now, but uh..." Fox faltered.
"What is it, buddy?"
"H-How's uh, everyone...doing?"
"Oh. Well, um..." the toad took a moment to check. "Falco's still getting treated for his cuts, but he's doin' alright. Peppy went to lie down for a bit, he seems to be a nervous wreck, I wonder why..."
Fox coughed in dispostion.
"And I haven't seen Krystal too much lately...she's doing okay, I think she's lying down. Want me to get go get her?"
Fox jumped a bit in his seat. "Oh, no no, not now Slippy. I'm in the middle of a mission, sheesh."
"Well you aske-"
"I'll call you in a bit. Fox out."
Hastily, the vulpine shut off the com link and studied the map a bit more. The Alias was still in the same spot, although it was fidgeting a bit.
The worst of Fox's fears was over. He didn't have to go underground and ultimately risk his life with all of those guards hanging around there. According to the map, the Alias was just a few halls down. If Fox was careful enough...
"Ha! That's a good one.' What are ya, some kinda brown noser?"
Laughter erupted from the hallway. Fox's stomach leaped up to his throat.
He had to hide, and quick. Madly, Fox looked around for a good hiding spot, but there was literally no cover in this room. He could hide underneath the desk, but he'd be cornered, surely.
Then, something caught his eye. There was small space behind the bookshelf next to the computer, just enough for Fox to wedge himself behind. Quickly and painfully, he jumped from his chair and slid behind the bookshelf, hitting his snout hard while doing so. He was breathless in seconds.
"Yeah, well somebody's gotta kiss his ass, otherwise he'll kick all of ours," a guard said from outside. the voices were getting closer.
"Well, ya got a point..." Judging by the amount of voices, Fox guessed there were two guards in the hallway. There was a brief silence, and then a small rattle was heard.
"Man, who the hell is locking all of these doors?" One of the guards asked in frustration as he pulled out a set of keys.
"Maybe the alert locked all of the doors," the other guard said. The door opened, and Fox nearly lost his lunch.
He heard one of the guards sit down in the office chair, and then was greeted with a blunt bump to the face when the guard rolled into the bookcase Fox was behind. Fox tried to keep his yelp in.
"Well, I'll guess I'll see ya later tonight Ricky," one of the guards said. "Apparently, they're finishing the project and shipping it out tonight."
Fox almost gasped. What?! Tonight?!
"'Bout damn time. See you later," the guard in the chair said.
The door closed, and the guard sighed. Fox winced uncomfortably. Being jammed in that tiny space was hell for his body.
What am I supopsed to do now, wait? Fox asked himself, knowing full well that was exactly what he was going to be doing. All he had to do was stay quiet and wait until the time was right. Fox didn't know how long he could last though, being cramped up and forced to breathe quietly. He just hoped he could get this over with soon.
Way to go, Fox.
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"Really? He infiltrated this place with that thing?"
The dark-colored feline observed the Alias, twsiting it around with his paws. "I've got to give the fool some credit, only a madman would do such a thing." He snorted a laugh and tossed the recon unit to Wolf.
Wolf caught it with one hand. "Yeah, well, without me he'd be a dead madman right now," he muttered with a growl. "I had to pull that lame story out of my ass down there. I'm surprised those ding-dongs believed me."
"Ding-dongs, Wolf?" Leon asked humorously. "I haven't heard such a word since I was in grade school. Tell me, when did you graduate? 4th grade?"
Leon chuckled at his own joke, but Wolf wasn't smiling in the least. "Shut up you dope, this is serious. We can't let Fox on, but we have to make sure he lives, too. That orange bastard is lucky that I grabbed this from down there, or he would've been deader then a doorknob trying to get to the underground facility."
"I know Wolf, you've-"
Before Leon could continue, a small chime emanated from the computer in the room. Quickly, Wolf pushed Leon out of the computer chair and answered the call.
"You rang?" Wolf answered, flipping on the audio communicator.
"What's going on down there?" the low voice asked. "I'm getting reports that a red alert went on not too long ago. What are you doing, Wolf?"
Wolf scoffed. "Nothin', it was a false alarm. I was testing out the brain capacity of your assholes down here. Everything's peachy."
The voice growled a bit. "Don't play games with me, Wolf. That weapon needs to be finished tonight. It's already been scheduled for shipping, so I don't want to have to bribe the Cornerian Galaxy Shipping Service AGAIN. You know how much that cost me?"
"You honestly think I care?"
The voice laughed. "You're right, it doesn't matter. But, either way, if the plan doesn't follow through even in the tiniest way, you and your team are dead. Are we clear?"
Wolf's face began to creep into a snarl, but he held it in. "Yeah. Clear."
"Good. I call back later tonight, before the shipping company arrives."
The computer chimed again, and the transmission closed. Wolf pushed himself away from the desk and looked at his teammates.
"I really hate that bastard."
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It had been about half an hour. Fox's fists were clenched so hard, his hands were bleeding.
The anticipation was killing him, almost literally. The armored canine was just in front of the bookcase, and it didn't seem like he was moving anytime soon. Fox held his breath in a cold sweat as he contemplated his next move. He couldn't sit here forever.
The guard was leaned back in his chair, talking to someone on the office phone. "Nah, I don't got anything else to do. We had a red alert going on earlier, but it just turned out to be a false alarm. Damn people have no idea what they're doing down there.
Only slightly relieved, the vulpine remained behind the bookcase and listened more.
"What? Oh, no. Haven't seen O'Donnell in days. Gillreath's been making a couple of calls down here lately, though, and security's gettin' boosted...yeah I know, I hate the job too."
Fox's eyes went wide. Gillreath? What?
"Ah, alright, see you on the night shift." There was an audible click from the phone getting hung up, and the guard sighed and leaned back in his chair.
This was too good to pass up. Fox had to get ahold of Slippy, and as soon as possible. But there was still the trouble of this guard. Fox just couldn't make the call.
He had to do something.
Fox hadn't noticed the considerable amount of blood he had been losing; there was a stain running down his pants that was beginning to leak onto the floor, trickling past the corner of the bookcase.
Oh no.
"What the...somebody dyin' back there?" the guard said aloud.
Fox held his breath, and then heard the chair squeak.
That was it.
"GRAHHH!"
The bookcase slammed down on top of the guard, destroying the computer, snapping the desk in two, causing a bloodcurdling scream and a horrible crunch as it roared to the floor.
Fox cried out in pain and his leg spasmed and he fell to the ground, writhing in agony. A thick pool of blood along with the guard's arm was leaking out from the fallen bookcase. Fox had landed in an uncomfortable pile of books, and glass from the computer screen was everyhwere.
Fox squirmed on the ground, his leg making him want to die. To make things worse, there was a shout coming from down the hallway.
The door flew open and another guard burst in and fell forward, tripping on the debris. "What the fuck is- OH HELL!"
Fox's eyes shot open, his vulpine relfexes seizing his brain and body. In half a second, he swiped his knife from his side and held it on top of his chest.
The weight of the body slammed against Fox and pained him more, but the satisfying chunk and death moan assured him he was safe....for the moment.
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," Fox gasped, witnessing the destruction before him. He pushed the dead guard off of him and pulled the knife from the center of his chest. As he wiped the blood from his blade, he began to panic.
They'll be here in seconds, Fox thought. They'll walk in, see these two dead jerks, and then they're going to shoot me. I'm screwed, I'm done for.
Fox waited, but nobody came.
I gotta get out of here.
Torment erupting from his leg, Fox climbed to his feet and limped towards the exit. Before he left, he took one last look at what he had just done.
A broken mug of coffee was strewn across the right wall, having flown from the dead guard's hands as he fell onto Fox's blade just moments before. Fox hoped that nobody had heard him, and that no one would come down this way. He took the same safety precautions as before; he closed the door's personal blinds so no one could see in, locked the door, closed it, and promptly left the scene.
Fox's heart was racing. He needed to call Slippy.
The vulpine scurried into the room across the slim hall, locking the door behind him. When he felt he was safe, Fox opened the com link.
"Slippy, this if Fox. I just heard some disturbing news," Fox panted.
"Eek! What Fox? What?"
"They're finishing the weapon and transporting it away from here tonight. Gillreath has been in charge of this whole operation." Fox said his sentence so fast it could've won a marathon.
"Oh, CRAP." Slippy groaned. "Fox, what are we supposed to do?! It doesn't matter if you have the Alias or not now, we're doomed!"
Fox shook his head, even though he knew Slippy couldn't see him. "No. I need to get the Alias, or else they know that I've been here. Plus, I scanned that damn weapon, maybe we can do something with it...I don't know!" Fox yelled, defeated. "I...I don't know."
The vulpine slumped against the wall, his hopes shattered. He had been on a wild goose chase this whole time. He had doomed his whole planet. What was General Pepper going to say when he found out that the Star Fox team had failed?
A new sensation of fury began to build in Fox's abdomen. Failure was not an option.
"Slippy, I'll call you back soon. Be ready."
Fox shut off the transmission and stood erect. The Star Fox team never quit. Fox was not going to admit defeat.
"Not on my watch."
He left the room he was in, and brought back the images from the computer to his mind. He was getting the Alias back, and nothing was going to stop him.
The vulpine crept along the cold halls, using his photographic memory to retrace his steps and find his way towards the room where the Alias was located. The hallways were empty, which was saving Fox a lot of trouble. He probably wouldn't be able to deal with an encounter right now, despite how cocky he was feeling.
According to his memory, the room where Fox was headed was just around the corner. He took a left, his boot steps making dull clattering noises as he prowled along. The room was just ahead of him now.
Suddenly, the door opened. Fox threw himself behind an adjacent hall's edge and listened carefully.
He could hear gruff, low voices, too low to be heard. He judged that there were 3 guards this time, and they were going the opposite direction of Fox. He sighed in relief, very quietly. Waiting a few moments, he poked his head around the corner and saw that the 3 were gone.
"Bingo."
Fox seized the moment of opportunity and sped-stealthed his way towards the room. Victory was within his grasp.
Very swiftly, he opened the room's door and shut himself inside. Backed up against the door after closing it, he saw something new, for once.
This room was very different from all the others. It was a just a bit larger, and had a TV on the far side of it, propped up on an end table. To the left was a wooden desk with a different model computer then all of the other cubicles in this base. Sitting on the desk next to the computer, however, was-
"The Alias! Ha!"
Fox grabbed the Alias off of the desk with eager paws, and stuffed it deep into his backpack. I'm not losing you this time, he thought.
Fox was overjoyed, and well ready to leave. He opened up his com link. "Slippy, I've retrieved the Alias. I...OOF!"
A dull blow to the back of Fox's head rudely interrupted him. Fox fell to the ground with a groan, and looked up with half-closed eyes to see his attacker. A guard stood at the entrance of the door, the butt of his pistol still in the air.
"An intruder, eh? Wolf's gonna promote for for killing you! Ahaha!" The guard lowered his pistol down at the injured vulpine.
"EUURRAHHH!!" Fox bounded forward and tackled the guard at the knees, sending them both to the ground in a furious tumble. Fox's eyes were full of rage, his snout twisted into an ugly snarl as he and the canine guard wrestled on the floor.
"Urk..get off me, you...!" The guard struggled for a position as Fox whaled on his exposed face. The guard sat there for a moment, taking a few blows before kicking Fox to the side and releasing the same treatment upon him.
The two exchanged more and more hits to the face. Each time Fox got hit, his rage swelled into an unfathomable fury. The guard had pinned him to the ground with both knees, punching Fox in the face several times. Fox put a fist in front of his own snout in retaliation, and then used his good leg to swing his foot upwards and crack the guard in the back of the head. With a groan the guard fell forward, right into Fox's fist. With a snarl, the vulpine tackled the guard and drew his blade, holding it to his attacker's neck.
"Nice try, asshole," Fox growled, pressing the knife against the guard's throat. He grabbed the guard's free hand and shoved it behind his own back, making the canine yelp in pain.
"I'm...gonna get you...Argh!"
Blood trickled onto Fox's hand, seeping from the throat of the captured unit.
"You're not going anywhere," Fox murmured, pressing his weight down on the guard's back. The guard struggled, but to no avail.
His eyes glazed over in some compulsive rage, Fox growled into the guard's ear. The captured soldier was struggling, but Fox's weight kept him down.
"Urk...get...off me, you..."
Fox pulled the blade closer to the guard's neck. "You what? Huh?! Don't make me do this."
"You...don't have the...guts..."
Fox's growl faded as the searing pain arose in his bleeding leg. "Actually..." he snarled, his eyes fully glazing over, "...I don't think you do."
SLICE!
The orginial trickle of blood turned into a river as the deed was done. The guard fell limp to the ground, and the vulpine rolled off of him and laid on a warm puddle of blood that was gathering on the tiles. He was panting in a cold sweat, the primal fury emanating out of his body in flashes.
He slowly turned his head towards the slain guard. Blood was pooling all around him like a crimson coffin. Fox's eyes were wide and distraught as he looked upon the very sin he had just committed.
What have I done?
A sudden pain shot through Fox's temples, and he threw his hand to his forehead to try and subside it. He had just ruthlessly killed someone.
But I'm a mercenary, the vulpine thought. I've killed people before...why...is this different?
Fox groaned, his eyes welling up from the pain that shot over his body. He didn't have time to think, just time to act.
He struggled to his knees, removing the armor from the guard and tearing off the undershirt he was wearing. Carefully, Fox crammed the body underneath the desk and out of sight, mopped up the blood on the floor with the undershirt, and then cleaned the blood off himself and the bottoms of his boots. He asked himself why he was being so careful, and then recalled:
Because I'm a fox, dammit.
He painfully arose to his feet, and grabbed the Alias off the floor. "Slippy...a-are you still there?"
"10-4 Fox. Are you okay?"
"I hope you have the engine running."
And then, Fox bolted out of the room. His leg was screaming in utter agony, but Fox didn't have time to care. He didn't have the time to feel pain.
He only had time to run.
Fox tore through the base, knocking things down and shouting orders to Slippy. As he turned one of the hallways, Fox plowed right through 3 guards, sending them all to the ground as he ran. With a few confused shouts, the guards quickly reached their feet and began chasing the escaping hero.
"Oh shit, they're on me...Slippy! Listen to me!" Fox shouted, tearing through more hallways. "We don't have ONE SECOND to lose. I'm running dead south, and I'm not going to stop. You understand me?! You need to beam me up as soon as I hit the dirt!"
"I hear you Fox, I hear you!" the jumbled toad yelled over the com link. "I've got a tracking system following you now. Just keep running, we'll pick you up! Please Fox, don't give up now!" Slippy was obviously scared. Fox continued to bolt through the halls, knocking down end tables that were in the halls to try and stall the guards. They weren't far behind him now.
Fox almost tripped rounding the next corner. Straight down the hall, Fox saw the exit.
"DON'T LET THAT BASTARD GET AWAY!"
Fox turned his head to see the guards directly behind him, their pistols drawn. Laser shots began to pepper the air around Fox.
Time began to slow down for the vulpine. He saw everything around him collapse into slow motion. The laser fire was filling the air. Fox shifted left and watched a flurry of energy erupt past him.
He was in full McCloud mode now.
Left, right, duck. Fox was no longer in control of his own body. He watched himself dodge and escape lasers that would've surely killed him. His legs were completely numb, but were still speeding him forward. He felt each foot hit the ground and powerfully push away in every stride.
"DON'T LET HIM GO! GET A FRAG OUT THERE!"
Fox turned his head in horror to see the guard in the middle pulling the pin from the explosive that was just about to end the vulpine's life.
Fox didn't feel his hand swipe out his knife. Fox didn't feel his back arch as he turned his upper body around. Fox didn't feel his arm cocking itself back, and then snapping forward, the knife flying from his hand on a course set straight for destruction.
Every whirl, every turn, every gleam...Fox watched in silent observance as he watched his knife twirl through the air flawlessly and cut the air around it as it went. The guard had his arm cocked, ready to hurl the grenade as his comrades desperately tried to swipe it from his hands. Fox's knife, however, had found it's mark.
Before the explosive left the guard's hand, the knife of fate ripped through it's flesh, tendons, and bone, and then met it's resting place on the back wall. A horrific scream of terror filled the corridor as the guard's severed hand dropped to the ground, the grenade clutched firmly in its dead fingers.
Click.
BOOOOOM!!!
The hallway erupted in an explosion of fire, blowing the unlucky guards into chunks and crashing Fox through the door and out into the open once more. The battered and charred vulpine rolled through the grass a few times, and miraculously rolled straight back on to his feet and kept running. As Fox continued into the jungle, he saw the destruction he had left in his wake.
He wasn't going to get much sleep tonight.
"Oh Christ...Slippy, come in. Do you read me? Ugh." Fox was out of breath, cramps forming in his side and pain returning his body once more. The adrenaline was slowly leaving his body.
"Ha! I knew you'd make it! There's a clearing up ahead of you, we'll beam you up from there. I'm so glad you made it Fox!"
The hero of Lylat let a small smile creep on to his snout. "Me too, buddy."
Fox's legs allowed him the strength to come into the clearing, and then they gave out completely and let Fox fall onto his side on the ground. He was so tired. So very, very tired.
As he laid there, panting and aching, he felt a rumble shake the ground and heard a whirring fill the air. Above him was the invisible Great Fox.
"Initiating tractor beam. Welcome back Fox."
Fox felt a slight tug on his body as he began lifting up towards the heavens. Above him, a chute cranked open, revealing a section the inside of the Great Fox. He was drifting up rather slowly, so he pulled out the bag of Oreos from his backpack.
As he opened the bag, he got one final look at Wolf's base. The end he had came out of was slightly destroyed, and the alarms were blaring once again. Fox told himself he could care less right now, and that his mission was complete. He took a chomp out of one of the cookies, and closed his eyes.
"I hate chocolate."
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