Rogue Fox Armageddon Soul

Chapter XXXVII

Separator

"Have you come down,
From all the peeling?
'Cause I remember holy,
And only God can save me,

Still I'm falling,
Still I'm Falling,

This is the last time I'll speak of holding you,"

36 CRAZYFISTS – "Ceramic"


"This is unacceptable… this is intolerable Lieutenant."

"Four Slayers have gone rogue Sir, will all due what the hell do you want me to do about it?" Paul Ramirez stood in front of Colonel Harper's desk. It was as if it was his entire fault. It had been over a week since the four Slayers had taken their leave from the program. Not that there was much stopping them. The Slayers had seniority of fear over any other personnel on the base. This escape proved their true power and ruthlessness to kill even their own allies of Marines and Infantrymen on the base. They even took down a Landmaster Tank.

"You're lucky I don't bump you down to Corporal for this."

"Permission to speak freely Sir?"

"Denied."

The Lieutenant shook his head and did so anyway. "As if this is my fault Sir! I agreed to train the Slayers I will not be held responsible for them deserting the military! I'm sure if the public found out about this, they would be all over you, not me."

The orange feline leaned back into his desk. "No such thing will happen. I need a team to overtake the rogue Slayers."

"Sir! These are the most advanced warriors that the system has ever known. Let alone Syxx is rogue enough as it is to resort to any tactics to grant him victory. Syxx doesn't lose."

"I don't think you understand the severity of this matter Lieutenant."

"Sir?"

"Any AWOL troops are tough to deal with. Commandos are hard to find, Marines are tough to catch. But Slayers…" Colonel Harper paused and lifted the cup of coffee to his muzzle. "A Slayer can smell a trap from a hundred clicks away, and instead of running, they'll hit it full force with a solo counter attack. If we fail to silence these Slayers, it could cause them to turn on us."

The raccoon scratched the back of his head. "So…"

"Damn it Ramirez, we could be talking about destruction on a mass scale. The leave of troops like this could be the equivalent to losing track of hundreds of Photonic weapons. Weapons on a mass scale. Weapons that could obliterate nearly every planet in the system." The cat set the cup down. "Assemble a Strike Force. Anything you need Lieutenant is yours."

"Understood Sir. But how are we going to find them?"

Kole Harper scratched his chin. "The F1's have tracking devices in them. Perhaps they over looked that aspect. Assemble your Force. Special Ops, Marines, Commandos, anything you need. I want you off the record and off base in forty-eight hours. This attack never happened."

"Yes, Sir." The raccoon turned around and headed for the door. "I'll use Slayers to-"

"No!!!" The feline jumped up from his desk. "When the other Slayers find out of this, it could cause them to think the same way. The last thing we need is more AWOL Slayers."

"Ok Sir. I got it."

"And Lieutenant."

Paul turned around to see the orange fur. "Exterminate the rogue Slayers at all costs."

"What of Syxx?"

"Dead."

"Or alive?"

The Colonel paused and glared at him. "No."

X

Krystal opened her eyes. She was cold. The fire had died long ago. She wouldn't ever forget what happened last night. Her fearful encounter with a legendary warrior, the one she had at one time called Fox, and her hero, and was proud to do so. She could feel her soul wounded from within the fox's mind. She had watched Fox from within the beast. This terror still held a sliver of Fox within him. Fox wasn't dead, she saw him and he needed her to help him to escape.

She shivered. The sun had not yet broken the horizon, and the trees and grasses around her remained moist with a film of morning dew, including her fur. She was freezing. Krystal brought herself to her feat. She felt a few new bruises from her encounter. She made her way to her small shelter, and crawled into the sleeping bag. She shivered profusely, until the cold sleeping bag slowly warmed her up. She smiled as the warmth came flowing back to her, and she snuggled herself in the bag. Wishing there was someone there to hold her back. Wishing for Fox. Her Fox.

It was now she had time to reflect on the events; the terror that was Fox, and the dying vulpine that still lived within. The blue fox had a hard time overcoming the black fur's mind. She had troubles finding it and fighting it, even in a calm environment. She couldn't read it most the time or even sense it. It made him extremely difficult to track.

Then there was the other side of it though. When Syxx left the door to his mind open, sometimes she couldn't find her way out, and soon found herself lost in a dark and tormenting world. This was a world that she once knew well. And with the dissipation of this mind the fear went with it. His only fear, the fear of being found had now come true, meaning that he had nothing else to be afraid of and nothing else to lose… which worried her even more. There was no limit to what he could do now.

She wanted to call for help. But now, she feared that her own life was in danger. And with Syxx having nothing else to lose, what was stopping him from putting silence to her? Perhaps the survival of Fox in his mind kept him from putting an end to her life, but she wasn't going to count on it. Fox was dependable, but there wasn't much left of him.

Never the less, she saw Fox again, and he was still alive. But he needed her help to overcome Syxx and she intended to aid in so.

Yes, Fox was still alive… but for how much longer? How much more time did she have?

She murmured to herself, holding back the ever last of tears. "I'm going to help you Fox. I'm going to save you."

X

Up at the crack of dawn… as usual; it was the way he had been his whole life ever since his father had rounded him. Syxx stared at the horizon. He awaited Sol to peek over the bay.

Two days ago he had faced Krystal. He could still taste her fear and is what propelled him. Syxx still had a problem though. He didn't know what to do with her. She knew of his secret. Kyla too knew of his secret, but that was different. He trusted Kyla, but the same could no longer be said about the blue fox. She had deceived him and betrayed him. He could still, after all this time feel that gaping hole in his heart… the hole of dishonesty and the hole of betrayal. The hole that unfortunately no matter how hard he wanted it to be could never be filled by Kyla… or even Krystal. The hole could only be filled with the pain of others. The kill. Kyla was a big help though. She was someone to talk to. Kyla understood; and still he wondered what the story was behind her.

He whispered into the air. "This is the last time I speak of holding you."

Sharp eyes dashed through the forest. The all knowing… the all seeing… the Slayer. Dawn was the best time to hunt. The black fur's eyes watched and stalked its prey. The knife silently left the sheath, wielded and ready for the kill. All was silent, but his prey knew and was spooked away, into the forest. Syxx knew not by his presence. There was another force acting out there, this one different from any he recognized, but there was still a familiarity to it.

Syxx stood still. His enhanced senses focused on a new prey. He peeked around the corner of the tree he set his back to. His ear twitched before he jumped aside, his paw slammed backward toward the tree that he had just jumped away from. The Night Knife sparked it slashed something else metallic. Before Syxx knew it, he was in a fight with a stranger. Syxx yelled and ripped the knife downward, but it was caught by another metallic blade, of the same stature. The two blades sparked as the forces met each other.

The black fox growled. The opposing force pulled upward on their locked knives, tossing Syxx back a few steps. Syxx dodge the slashing razor, and grasped the paw that held the attacking razor edge. He tucked the paw under his arm and wailed a few aggressive punches to the attacker's muzzle, making carful attention to make sure, that the knife, in that same paw was doing no damage to himself or the assailant. He wanted to know who it was. He wanted them alive.

Syxx rumbled. He kicked the assailant backward. He heard the thump of his back hitting a tree. The back fox slammed the knife into the tree right next to the attackers head. Syxx raised one eye and took a step back. "What the-?"

"Go ahead! Slice me! It'll be the last thing you'll ever do."

"What are you doing here you waste of fur?" Syxx lessened his grip on the dagger. He lifted up the sleeve of his attacker, looking onto his left shoulder. Over his grey and brown fur a white star stood; the spec of a legendarily elite Cornerian warrior. Syxx laughed viciously. "You're a Slayer."

"You're d-mn rights I am!"

Syxx's face became more serious. "How did you find me here?"

"I'm not the only one who knows."

Syxx pulled the knife from the tree. He let the other Slayer go. He found himself standing in front of a coyote. His height was a little shy of Syxx's, but essentially they were about the same size. He wore a white T-shirt, and what had once been the training tunic, now had been turned into a vest when the arms of the jacket had been cut off. His brown hair flowed past his tall pointed ears, into a small pony tail at the back of his head. The coyote reached a paw into the pocket of his vest. He pulled out a white cigarette, and with the other paw he lit it with a lighter. He took a long and much needed drag. He let the smoke escape through his nose as he exhaled.

"That's not what I asked Mykll." Syxx put his knife back in its place. He tossed the other knife through the air. The edges cut the air as the blade spun.

Mykll caught it in his paw and rolled it back into its sheath on his belt. "Well that's what I'm saying. The top ranks know where you are; and they're not happy about it." He took a seat on a long. "They got all kinds of forces heading here. Snipers… Special Ops teams. The whole sh-tt-ry."

Syxx leaned up against the tree. His back slid down until he was sitting. "How did they know?"

He took another my puff. "My best guess; tracking devices in the F1's. High tech machines, they must have some sweet security. There might have been a beacon from the planet too, just sent back a few days ago. We didn't hear much on that though. We can't say for sure."

Syxx stared at the ground in front of his boots he growled deeply.

"You got someone in mind?"

Syxx closed his eyes. "A couple someones actually."

"Never the less, they know you're here. They know that you are all here. I don't think they're taking too kindly to the AWOL. Especially to the AWOL Slayers. They don't care about us. They're just trying to save their own tails, and kill us rather then release the info of Slayer."

"Assassins en route?"

"I'd guess. You guys would make pretty little targets for snipers in that bay. Anything they can send to silently kill you all."

"Any idea when they're sending squads to neutralize us."

"Naturally, they want you silenced as quickly as possible."

"How much time?"

Mykll took another deep drag. "You don't have much time. The plan to insert teams covertly… If I heard right. You have a day. If you keep an eye out, you should see Savages over the horizon at 0600."

Syxx's heart jumped. "How about the best thing to kill us? Are they sending Slayers?"

"Well." The coyote looked up and smiled. He tapped the end of his smoke, letting the ashes fall toward the moist ground, and soon burning out. "That's where things kinda' get funny. After you guys deserted Slayer the rest of us got to thinking. We began doing our own research. After we learned the fundamentals of Slayer, we began to think the same way. You won't be fighting any of your own kind in this battle."

Syxx looked from his boots upward. "What of the rest of the Slayers?"

"I speak the word of all the Slayers when I say, Syxx… we wish to join you."

The black fox's eyes lit up. He was speechless for a moment. "When are they sending teams to neutralize us?" He had repeated himself from earlier, slightly in shock.

"I bet you got twenty-four from now. If you're lucky."

"I wouldn't expect betrayal from the Slayers would I? You wouldn't be leading me into a trap would you?"

Mykll coughed. "By your own kind? That'd be pretty low."

Syxx growled, thinking back to his past. "Wouldn't be first time."

Mykll offered the smoke to Syxx. "Think about it. You, Kyla, Cobalt, and Pyro; how far can you get holding off the whole Cornerian Military? Add thirty-eight more Slayers to your team and we become a small army; an army that can hold off the entire Cornerian Military. The reason we were trained was to silence rebellious forces. Who better to become rebels? We will follow under your command."

Syxx rejected the smoke. "How long until you can have the Slayers assembled?"

"I bet I could have them on this planet in twelve hours."

"Yeah? Well you've got ten. Before dark not after. Get some more intel on the attack."

The coyote raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like a plan."

Syxx turned his back to the other Slayer. "Oh, and I can't find my leather jacket."

Mykll smilled. "I'll take care of it."