Cronus scuffled across the floor to where Princess was slumped. Although hesitant to touch her, he pressed his hands into her shoulder to roll her on to her back.
Hot. That was the only way to describe how she felt to the touch right now. There was no snapping energy, no little electric shock, but she was hot. He coaxed her into consciousness by calling her name and gently shaking her.
"Come on, Swan." He pulled her up into a seated position and let her head lean heavily on his shoulder. "Come on, girl. Wake up. We've got to get out of here."
She groaned in response to his gentle order. "I think I need to work on that a little more."
Cronus hauled her to her feet and began to drag her to the hangars. "No, hon. I think you need to back off the supernatural shit…"
Her consciousness was finally returning, and she gently attempted to separate from him as they ran over littered bodies for escape. "Supernatural my ass, Sir. That's all Science."
He made sure she was stable on her feet, and then let her pull away from him. "Science fiction, yeah. Star Trek, Harry Potter, wizardry shit."
She stepped ahead of him to unhitch and open a large steel door. "Physics more like it," she retorted as she took a quick look around. "I actually think we're okay right now."
He smirked at the absolute lack of goons and agreed. "Yeah." He looked at the Harrier jet she had suggested he fly, and groaned. "I hate that damn plane."
"T.S., Sir. It's your only option unless you want to ride on the back of my bike."
He narrowed his eyes at her and walked up the small ladder to board the jet. "I've seen the way you kids drive. I'll take my chances with the plane most likely to fall out of the sky."
She chuckled and pulled the ladder away from the jet. She quickly did a run around to ensure all necessary ports and intakes were free of obstruction and gave him a thumbs-up sign. "You'd better hurry, Sir. I don't know how long we're going to be free of Spectrans here."
He shook his head, yet fires the engines of the small jet. "What about you?"
"I'll be fine. I'll grab my bike and make sure this place goes up with a bang as I leave."
He frowned. "I'm not leaving you here, Princess."
"Yes you are. Now go, please." She hurriedly looked around and backed away from the jet. "I'll see you on the outside."
"Not until I know you're going to get out of here in one piece."
Princess looked flustered. She looked from side to side in search of the enemy. Finally she climbed on to her bike and flicked a switch on the fuel tank. The bike asked for a voice code and she gave it, letting the bike roar to life. "See, I'm fine. Now go!"
Satisfied, finally, Cronus threw the controls of the jet to allow it to perform its vertical take-off. He gave her a thumbs up and a salute, then turned the plane in the air to take off out of the base.
She sighed when she saw him safely in the air. "It's all up to you now, Sir."
"Bravo, bravo," Zoltar's voice droned from behind her as he clapped his hands in a slow, sarcastic manner.
She twisted her body to look over her shoulder at him and let out a small peep. "Oh, no."
Zoltar's lip curled in disgust and he rushed her. He took hold of her helmet with his fingers and roughly tugged her off the bike. He laughed when she stumbled in shock. "Not so much fight left in you, now. Is there?"
She tried to look through the spray spots of saliva on her visor from his laugh. In response, mainly with the knowledge that after all this, after her fight, she was going to be killed by probably a single bullet, she laughed. The laugh started small, insignificant, but soon became loud and very insulting the Spectra's reigning monarch. "No. Not really, Zoltar."
His fist curled around the turtle-neck collar of her wings. "You laugh, little girl?" He shook her. He shook her like a frustrated parent would shake their child. "What is it about this situation you find so funny?"
"I won," she laughed as her head rolled backward and forward with the shake. "I completed my mission, defeated your men and freed the prisoner."
"But you're going to die."
She calmed her laugh and looked at him with her most innocent stare. "I don't care. I knew this was a kamikaze mission when I took it. You're just making sure my mission is finished as it should be."
His lip curled in disgust and he roughly threw her backward against her bike. "I should put a bullet in your brain, Swan," he spat more in frustration than anything else.
She nodded as her body tried to reclaim its energy. "Yes, you should."
He rushed her again, this time clamping his hand around her throat. She snarled as he squeezed tightly in an attempt to shut out her life. "I won't let you get away with this, Swan. You will die by my hand."
"And G-Force will become so much stronger against you."
He gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on her. "Die. Why don't you all just die?"
She gasped painfully, her eyes rolled up and back as her face began to turn blue. "I'll see you in Hell," she choked.
He squeezed at her throat even harder. "Keep the fires down there warm for me."
There was a loud whiz through the air and then a loud cough of splintering concrete as a missile from a small military jet smashed its way through the complex. Within a moment, the missile exploded in a room just beyond the hangars.
Zoltar looked up quickly and released his hold on Princess' throat. "G-Force," he hissed low as he turned tail and began to run.
Princess flopped down against her bike and gasped gulps of air. "Mark?" she called in hope as she weakly mounted her vehicle. And revved it a couple of times.
Zoltar paused at the doorway and curled a lip as he saw the swan, now his new greatest enemy, maneouvre her bike toward the exit. She revved it hard and then lifted her feet to ride the Hell out of there. He raised his gun to aim at her back and squeezed off a single round before the sound of a second missile whizzed over his head.
He made sure to watch the body lurch as the bullet struck its target.
"See you in Hell, Swan."
3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3G3
It burned like a bitch.
That was the only way Princess could describe the impact and penetration of a bullet into her shoulder.
Much like her first sexual experience. Even with the kind gentle touch of the man she loved, the burn was at times too hard to handle.
Right now, however, that painful first time experience, with her tears and silent begs for him to stop, would be a welcome sensation over this.
At least Mark would stop, kiss away her tears and assure her it would all get better, and the pain would stop.
This, she knew, wouldn't.
First time sex with Mark didn't kill her.
This could very well do so.
She clutched at her shoulder and gritted her teeth as she tried to look through blurred vision toward the exit. She softly spoke his name and raised her communicator to her lips as her injured shoulder worked hard to control her steering and squeeze of the bike's throttle.
"Base, detonate."
Behind her, in a perfectly synchronized set of explosions, the base began its self destruction.
She dropped her hand to the center of the fuel tank, where the fire-mode button had been installed on her bike. She punched it hard and kicked hard on the gear shift pedal to put the bike into overdrive.
As a protective dome flipped over her and her bike, the base behind and around her lit up with a deafening and massive explosion.