Author's Note: Sorry for the extremely long wait, I've had a lot family things to do and room remodeling that needed to be done. I have been working on this chapter throughout that time, but in short bursts. Partly because of the things above and partly because this was a hard chapter to write. It's been a while since I've done any action lately, so I'm hoping this quenches your thirst for a chapter or two. Enjoy the chapter everyone, and remember to R&R.
To KryzKrn: The scene you mentioned is in the story, but in flashback form. I did think about having it in this chapter, but there really was no fitting place to put it. So, I plan on putting it in the next chapter. Oh, and want to know something I thought was both funny and sad. "Out of this World" got another review recently. It was a flame, and a particularly poor one at that. It was given by a newb with no stories or even a bio, and he claimed Light to be a horribly blatant "Gary Stu" when he himself didn't even know the definition of a "Gary Stu." Now I thought that was a little laughable.
Chapter 13
Blizzard's Edge
Almost as if on cue, as soon as Leonidas ordered everyone to get to their battle stations, albino-white aerial Voids started blasting red energy beams, from a jewel of the same color embedded in their chests at the Solomon and Great Fox. One of them flew past the Solomon's command bridge window and those who were already there got a vision of one of the many beasties out there amongst that destructive fleet. It resembled a hybrid between a falcon's head and a pterosaur's body, but without the feathers of the former. As soon as Light saw the creature in that moment, he could have sworn that it's glowing, red eyes, an attribute shared amongst most of the Void, fell on him specifically.
On the Great Fox, Fox and Krystal had separated to get to their different stations. Fox went to go join his friends in the Arwing hanger, and Krystal hurried back to the Solomon's engine room while trying to keep her and the kids intact from the enemies' first assault. Light's friends were right behind Krystal as well and were keeping watch over her and the children until they were surely safe.
Fox and his trio of pilot friends ran as fast as they could to get to their fighter crafts. The entrance to the hanger opened and there they were. The four most famous star fighter's in the Lylat system. Their sharp, triangular design struck fear into the hearts of their enemies. Ready and waiting for the fight ahead, Fox and the gang hopped into their ships, although Slippy hopped in a little clumsily. Whilst Falco briefly complained about how clumsy his little green friend was, Fox quickly checked his fighter's G-Diffuser system. Thankfully, It looked like Slippy had prepared the hyper lasers in preparation for an emergency like this. Once Rob gave them the green light to go, all four members launched themselves out of the hanger and into the fray with the enemy.
While Starfox went into the battlefield, the Solomon's turrets controls were filled by one gunner after another, and many of whom had been itching for some action.
From what any of the gunners could tell, there seemed to have been well over several thousand of the soaring beasties, not to mention that they were afraid of what the titanic general of the armada could do. It was easily five times the size of the Solomon, and resembled a black box with a pointed side on its front end. The titan wasn't doing anything currently, but the gunners were making sure to keep a close eye on it. With superb coordination, three aerial voids swooped down, blasting the top of the Solomon's outer shell. The ships shield absorbed most of the blasts but, given enough time, the damage would accumulate. After the three let loose their beam attacks, the middle void was struck down from a turret gunner. At the very least, the gunners knew that their weapons were effective against them.
Leonidas pressed down on the intercom to get Allistor's attention in the beam barrage. "Allistor, are you there? We need you on the command bridge, now!" He didn't have to wait long for an answer.
Allistor's voice vibrated through the speaker, "Sorry, Captain, but the hall to the bridge is blocked by debris from the last attack. Lindsey and a few of the others are with me, but it'll take us some time to clear enough of it out of the way."
Leonidas released the pressure his finger had on the button and called the engine room. "Krystal, can you read me?"
The engine room viewing screen popped up and Krystal appeared. "Yes, Captain. Loud and clear."
"Good, now listen closely, I want you to have the engine's main thrusters shut off and build up the pressure to one hundred and twenty percent."
Krystal thought she was momentarily deaf and asked, "one hundred and twenty percent, really!" The Captain nodded and she responded, "But that's crazy, the engines will overheat and might even explode."
"That's exactly what I'm counting on!" Krystal's reluctant face disappeared from the screen and Leonidas got out of his seat walked up to one of the bridge seats and sat down at the controls.
Light and Sabre had watched the exchange and the man asked, "What's building up the engine pressure going to do."
Without looking at who was asking him, Leonidas replied back, "Seeing as we three are the only ones here, there's not much we can do to fight them. Only Lindsey, Allistor, and several others have the keys to the Solomon's main cannons. I also have a key to one of the cannons as well, but just me and a few turrets alone won't help us. What we need right now is a fast getaway out of this tunnel. With any luck, we'll be able to do that and put a decent size dent into their forces." Now Light knew what was going on here.
Light stood up and asked, "Is there anything you need me to do, sir?" Light was determined to do just about anything he could do to help and be useful.
"There is, see those joy sticks over there." Light saw the mentioned station and nodded. "I need you manually steer the ship. Don't worry, just flip the manual control switch and treat the joy sticks like a video game. And remember, since we don't have the thrusters, you'll have to ride the tunnel's current. Be careful to dodge as much of the enemy fire as possible, and make sure you don't collide with the tunnel's edge. There's no way tell what could happen." The Captain was essentially putting their lives into Light's hands. With Sabre not knowing how to use the joy sticks, Light didn't really have a choice at all. He sat down at his newly appointed station and did as he was ordered while taking a deep breath.
Outside the ship, the battle raged. Not only were the aerial Voids tough, they were intelligent. The bulk of them had concentrated their energy barrages at the offending gunner turrets while a small group of thirty wrestled it out with the Starfox team.
Fox was pulling through this fight just as well as his comrades. Fox himself had three bogies on him. That still didn't stop him from boosting to Slippy's rescue and blasting down the two chasing him.
"Thanks, Fox."
"No problem, Slip." Fox's left wing got hit while he was momentarily distracted with his friend. "Alright, I can promise you that that'll be the last hit you get on me." The three behind him fired their beams at him again. He countered the beams by barrel-rolling and deflecting the blasts back at his pursuers. Two of them dodged their deflected attacks, but the one that hit Fox was brought down by it's own shot. Fox pulled his Arwing's brakes and the two that was left flew right past him, only to be shot down with laser fire. "Yes, that's three down!"
Falco's ship then flew to be beside Fox's. "And only a THOUSAND more to go!" cried out Falco's sarcastic voice through the communicator.
Peppy swooped down to the other side of Fox and added, "Falco's right, we can't fight all of them."
Although he was reluctant to agree, Fox had to admit that his friends were right. "I know, but we have to keep as many of them distracted as possible for the Solomon's crew to figure out a way to get us out of here."
Slippy flew up above Fox and the crew. "Um, guys. I'm beginning to pick up some weird readings from that giant Void." Sure enough, Slippy was right. The giant black Void began to open up in three divided sections from the tip. Once it was fully open, they saw in the center of the opened beast… was a giant red eye. Starfox wasn't the only ones to witness this new development. Aside from Light's parents, the King and Queen, and the twins, who were in a safe room and being forced wait out this emergency, everyone on the Solomon saw it happen before their very eyes. Fear of what this monstrosity might bring struck them all. They knew that they didn't have much time left before something terrible could happen.
Fox and his team pealed their eyes away long enough to see that the aerial Voids closest to the giant beast started flying fast toward the Solomon, and they were carrying a new surprise of theirs. Held between each of the aerial Voids' talons were gargoyle-like entities with curved axe-like blades jutting out of their forearms. These new stone-grey foot soldiers were being dropped down onto the Solomon's roof bed and started to use their powerful steel tip claws to dig through the ship's armor to gain entry. What turrets there were left quickly changed targets to these new foes and keep as many from getting in as possible. Starfox went to aid them and blasted as many as possible, but several broke through their defenses. Fox and the team started hoping and wishing that someone will be able to stop the invaders things started looking bleak.
Inside the ship's halls, the Void soldiers started erupting out from the hall's ceilings and tearing anyone unlucky enough to be found by them unarmed limb from limb. Solomon guards put up barricades in the blood stained halls and attacked from behind them with phaser weapons developed at Area 51. The creatures' skin was tough, like the serpent Void from before but, after taking in a numerous amount of shots, they either started to fall down dead or went into a blood thirsty rage and started severing the heads of those behind the barricades.
Other than the safety shelter and the engine room, both of which sporting extra thick titanium walls on all sides for added protection, every part of the ship was a battle zone. And unfortunately for Joel, he ended up getting locked out of the engine room before he could reach it in time. He had to carefully maneuver through halls that had already been cleared and avoided the ones where the battle still raged. Joel soon came upon the command bridge hall, but he found it to be blocked by debris with people and soldiers gathered to clean the path. Allistor turned to see Krystal's assistant enter the hall and called out. "Joel! What are you doing here?"
"I got locked out of the engine room! I thought the bridge would be the next safest choice."
"You'd be right if it wasn't for all of this junk. Do you think you can help us move this debris?" Joel nodded and started the others to clear the path. Little time passed after they got back to work when a Void found them and started heading in their direction. The crew members there spotted the gargoyle and started digging through the broken steel, plastic, and disheveled wires faster and more frantically. With all of the pushing and shoving, Joel didn't notice an elbow come flying at him.
The unexpected force sent him flying through the air and he hit the ground hard, on his shoulder. As soon as he hit the floor, a crimson gem shard fell out of his lab coat pocket. "No," cried Joel. He scrambled for the small jewel and snatched it off the ground. Before he knew it, the gargoyle was right in front of him.
Behind the Void, Light's friends crossed into the hall and saw that Joel was in deep trouble. Nat and the others didn't waste their time and started sprinted to the rescue. "Don't worry Joel, we gotcha.'" They ran down the hall as fast as they could, and they felt something. It was like a tingling sensation at first, but then the feeling seemed to spread like a weird burning sensation. It wasn't painful though, just weird. The three felt a new and familiar strength course through their beings.
The hall lit up, causing the gargoyle to react with a howl from the blindingly offensive light. It turned toward the blinding display and barely was able to see a blazing-red armored fist slam into the temple of it's skull. The punch stunned it long enough to allow an electric-yellow armored leg to round house kick it in the direction of the corridor they came from. While it was staggered, a concentrated blast of wind hurled the beast through the corridor and slammed it into the wall at the corridor's end, killing it from head trauma.
The blinding light soon subsided, and Allistor was finally able to see what had happened to their attacker. What had stolen his attention were the three armor clad individuals before him. Alex, Chris, and Nat stood before them, and in the same suits of armor as before in the Knossos ruins. Alex in his grey plated armor that had wing like furls protruding out from the back of his legs and arms, adding more agility for aerial manuevers. Chris in a bulky red suit of armor for the purpose of being a tank against enemies, as was his style in gaming. And Nat in the thin yellow armor that provided him great speed and more dexterity for quick frontal assaults. Each of these armors just about covered their bodies entirely. Was this what those shards were supposed to do? Allistor knew that the shards reaction to most of those exposed to the magic of the ruins meant something spectacular, but he honestly hadn't expected these results. Perhaps the restoration of some of their powers from ten years before, but not this. Others who saw this transformation was even more confused by this sudden turn of events, but decided not to think too much of it seeing as how they were still alive.
Nat and the guys just looked at each other in wonderment. Nat and Alex were the first ones to express what the three of them were thinking. They gave each other metal clanking high fives while exclaiming, "YES!"
"Were back," Nat yelled as he pumped his fist into the air.
"And we're better than ever," Alex added.
Chris looked down and saw Joel on the ground staring at them with wide eyes. Chris thought he could see great fear in the young man's eyes, but shook his thoughts clear of the idea and thought it was simply shock at what he was seeing. That would make more sense, although a little fear was understandable.
Joel was still on the ground, so Chris took the young assistant's hand, who hesitantly took it like he was afraid to get burned, and pulled him up to his feet. "You okay, kid?" Joel silently nodded. Alex, Chris, and Nat then went to help Allistor clean up all of the debris.
Joel kept staring at them as everyone in front of him worked with no gratitude in his eyes and a grim frown on his face. "So it's happened again. No matter, it shouldn't change anything," Joel whispered to himself and went off to disappear until the action died down.
On the other side of the debris, Light was handling the ship's manual controls well enough for his first time. He would sometimes jerk the controls on accident due to how nervous he was getting. Sabre was at Light's side encouraging him to just do his best. The Captain was at one of the main cannon's controls and was cluster blasting the enemy aerials every minute he could. The giant Void wasn't an immediate threat at the moment, but he kept an experienced eye on it. Light didn't know how much longer they had to wait, but he was hoping they would be ready at any minute. Then they heard something… up above them. They all stood and watched as a gargoyle burst through the ceiling and set its sight on Light. It ran at him with blinding speed and Light's bodily functions froze in fear. He closed his eyes expecting a blade to be embedded in his chest. It didn't come. Light peeked up with one eye and saw the creature's blade locked in a stalemate with Sabre and his staff.
Both were pushing at each other and trying to gain the upper hand over the other. Sabre addressed Light without breaking eye contact with the gargoyle. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah."
"Good," Sabre pushed hard and forced the creature to stumble backwards a couple of steps. "You just keep flying the ship, and just leave this thing to me." Sabre rushed forward and made contact with his staff against the monster's axe blade again. He muscled its arm above its head and swung the end of his staff into the bottom of the creature's jaw. The gargoyle regained its footing and used its other arm blade to make a sideways swipe at Sabre. The vulpine prince jumped high in the air to dodge the blade and came back down like lighting, plunging the spear head into the back of the gargoyles spine, severing the brain's connection.
While Sabre had his dance of death with the beast behind him, Krystal's image appeared on the viewing screen. "The power has reached one hundred and twenty percent, sir! Whatever it is you plan on doing, I suggest you do it QUICK!" Leonidas nodded and turned to Light.
"Light, listen to me. Do you see a green button on the right of the controls?" Light took a moment to explore the control panel with his eyes until he found what he was looking for. Light turned back and nodded. "Alright, I want you to slow down the ship until that cluster of beasties are at our heels. And then, when I give the signal, push it."
"Got it," Light responded back with a new display of confidence.
While he did that, Leonidas was patching a signal through to the Starfox team to make dock with the Great Fox, post haste. He looked at the monitor and saw that they apparently got the message and were racing toward their Arwing hanger. Once they were inside, and Light had the ship in position, Leonidas gave the signal. "NOW!" Light pressed the button and the engine's thrusters blasted like an erupting super volcano, scorching well over half of the Void creatures in the armada and launching the ship forward through the tunnel like a bullet. They had escaped and, more than that, they had finally found the exit.
All three on the bridge took a moment to breathe in a sigh of relief. They lost the Void and were safe… for the moment. After taking their little reprieve, they finally took notice of the world outside and stared into it. It was a world of ice and snow. They had come upon a seemingly endless blizzard when they exited the tunnel. The sky was covered by weaving black clouds, but it was light out instead of dark. It was darker behind them than it was in front, so there had to be a light source straight ahead.
Their attention was diverted when the bridge door opened. Brandon rushed in first and asked, "Is everybody okay in here?" Everyone behind him started pouring through the door to check up on the three as well. Nat, Alex, and Chris walked in with everyone else, still locked in their transformed states.
Sabre pointed his thumb toward the dead Void in the back while saying nonchalantly, "Were fine, and how are you guys…," Sabre then saw the three armored warriors behind them. "…What are those?"
Light looked over at the three multi-colored armor bearers and exclaimed with cheerful enthusiasm. "Guys! Is that really you, you know, like before?" Light was referring to the time when they had first taken those forms.
"You've got that right, Bulby." It was clearly them. No one ever referred to him with such nicknames other than them. Or Nat to be more specific.
"But… how did this happen?" Light was speechless for the most part, as were most of the people who first saw them transform.
Alex held up his hand. "I'd rather not talk about it right now. It's a long and painful story." As soon as that sentence ended, the forms faded away and they checked each other out again to see if it was completely dispelled.
When they were sure it was completely gone, Nat turned to Light. "Not to mention weird." The bridge door opened again and in walked Krystal, the twins, and Krystal and Light's parents.' The twins immediately perked up and ran into their father's arms.
"Daddy!" Dawn gripped her father's pants hard. "We were so scared!" Light pulled them into the hug more.
"Don't worry, I'm here. I would never let anything happen to you two." Krystal then shook her head.
"No, that's not it. They were worried about you." Light was touched. Suddenly, he wondered why he was worried anymore. His family hadn't forgotten him. Light had forgotten what it was he was worried about. The bridge door opened once more and Fox entered. Dusk turned to see Fox come in the room, only to have Marcus take over his body abruptly. Marcus let go of Light's leg and went to cling to Fox.
"Father! Did you beat the bad guys? How many did you beat up?" Light remembered now why he was worried. No matter how many times anyone saw this scene, it was always shocking. It was also heart wrenching for Light to see his child think of another as their father, even if Fox probably was Marcus's father in those ghost memories. Dusk retook his body and let go of Fox and stepped away slowly. With all of the room's eyes on him, he felt like a freak.
"I'd like to be excused now," he whispered with his head down, hoping his azure hair would cover his ashamed face.
Krystal didn't know what to do or say in this kind of situation. She looked over at Lindsey and asked, "Would you mind taking him to our room?" Lindsey shook her head and walked out of the room with Dusk. When they were gone, Krystal whispered to her self, "Poor Dusk." Dusk had been struggling with Marcus more and more lately.
The room was silent. No one knew what could be said right now, but Allistor tried to move away from what just happened and turned to the outside world. "What in the world…, what is this place?" All eyes turned to the viewing window and looked out at the dark and icy world they had come out to. All of the bridge bunnies got back in their seats, as did the Captain, to get a better grasp of where they were. Everyone else got into their seat except Brandon who wanted to stand since he was the Solomon's active CO.
Brandon turned to the one of the bridge bunnies on the farthest left and asked, "Status report?"
The bridge bunny checked for the status of where they were and the ship's stats. "The ship checks out alright. There is only some minor damage to the ship and it looks like the shields held up fine against the enemy fire. As for where we are, I don't know. These atmospheric readings are different than Earth's, but also similar. They aren't exactly like the Earth's, but it seems… cleaner, I guess I should say."
The Captain then spoke to the same bridge bunny on something more important to him, "And what about the crew."
She didn't know how she should say this, but she said it anyways. "I'm sorry say that we lost over a quarter of our crew members in the ambush." The Captain nodded, but with a heavy heart. Every crew member's life was important to Leonidas. He was sorry for their deaths, but he was also proud of them for their service in the face of such danger.
Leonidas then pointed outward to where the light on this world was coming from. "That way is our destination. That is the closest light source to us, and where we may find some answers, and hopefully a solution to our situation." The bridge bunny nodded and began charting the course.
The combined ship flew in the dark sky quietly. All the while, the ship's temperature kept dropping from the ongoing blizzard. It soon got cold enough to where they had to bring out the emergency heating blanket to keep everyone warm. The ship's cook even sent some people to give every crew member a mug of hot cocoa.
Allistor soon picked up something on his radar and looked down on the world's surface and discovered some metal sticking out of the snow. "Captain, I found something on the surface." Allistor zoomed in on the icy ruins and asked wide eyed, "Captain, is that…?"
"…Flight 19, yes, I believe so."
"But, how did they get here without going through the tunnel." All eyes turned to the captain to explain.
"They did go through the tunnel. The Bermuda Triangle's door is always opening and closing in random intervals. We merely forced it to open." Everyone turned back to the viewing window to watch the debris of the lost flight team pass them by.
Not too long after, the blizzard began to subside… a little too fast. Within a moment, the storm had ended and an abundance of light in front of them poured through the dark. The temperature rose rapidly until it was nice and warm. They soon came upon the edge of this icy world.
The Solomon passed the snow capped cliffs and dark clouds to a world that was the exact opposite. The sky was clear of any clouds and there was a bright, blue, and beautiful ocean below. In the center of it all was a large island in the middle of the shining waves. This was strange as there was no sun or star to be found. And on this breathtaking island was an equally amazing city of gold, marble, and stone. It seemed ancient, bit it shined nothing any one of them had ever seen. The Captain marveled at the overall magnificence. "Everyone, welcome to lost city of Atlantis."