11:00 pm Benaria Royal Palace
Crouched in the shadows under a large sculptured gargoyle, he waited for the right moment to move. He was dressed in black head to toe; his golden eyes the only offset of black on his entire being. He was waiting for his moment to strike, waiting for the moment best to avoid being seen. He was the master of stealth, no one could be more than he, and he was Panther Caroso.
Two hours earlier
Panther and Wolf landed a couple miles away from the royal palace in the dense forest. They had to move quick and sneaky to avoid from being detected as they moved into the airspace and broke through the atmosphere. They were literally breaking all the rules they learned in their flight classes to get on to the planet.
"Panther are you ready to go?" Wolf's voice sounded over the radio on a low channel.
"Almost I just need to get focused. So I am to go in and get the Queen out, anything else?" Panther was trying to relax before the mission clear his mind and get it focused only on the mission.
"No, the Queen should be the only one. We have reports that the princess is at her school. And that is on one of the Silver Moons of Nia" Wolf grumbled a bit not liking that they were going to have to make a second possibly very dangerous stop.
"Ok then lets go." Panther barked as he jumped out of his Arwing "Give me three hours before you come and shake things up." He quickly darted off in to the woods.
Panther planned one hour to the palace, even if he could run straight there in about 30 minutes. He was planning traps and guards in the woods. Then he gave himself two hours to get in to the palace find the queen and get her ready to escape before Wolf came to cover their escape back to his Arwing. The plan was set and ready to go. This was a one time only mission, it was succeed or die.
Present time
Panther has got to the royal palace rather quickly with little to no difficulty. His biggest slow down were the trees and it surprised him that there were not more guards patrolling the woods. He had scaled the wall effortlessly and when he looked over he then realized why the outside was so easy. There had to be an easy 30 soldiers just on this side of the palace yard. He needed to hide and hide quick and that's when he found the large gargoyle that sat perched on the wall and sat under it to hide in its shadow.
Waiting for the right chance he watched and watched before dropping to the ground in to a few large shrubs before sneaking by. The black clothes and fur worked well to hide him in the shadows but his biggest challenge was going to be getting across the yard to the building itself. All he could do now was move quickly and silently around the perimeter trying to get closer. He was at least one football field away from the building and there was no way he could run 100 yards without being seen. Where was his opening he needed and where could he go next?
Just when he was about to send a signal to Wolf for backup he saw his next move. The rear of the palace the wall was a bit closer to the Palace about 70 yards away. It was still quite a distance to go uncovered, but it was better then the 100 yards. He quickly moved there hiding behind the bushes and shrubs against the wall being extra careful to not move them to much. Once at the back of the building he looked about for maybe another bit of luck.
Fortune smiled once more on him showing an open window on a higher floor and a rose vine that crawled up the palace wall to the roof. That was his way up but now to not be seen in his 70 yard sprint. What was his next move? He had to think quickly what was his next move what could he do to get closer then it hit him. Well more or less felt it against the back of his head.
A guard had spotted him. When he wasn't sure but he was still spotted. The guard placed a plasma gun to the side of his head. Panther closed his eyes and put his hands up quickly showing his hands were empty and hopefully it would help him live just a little longer. The guard stepped back jerking the gun slightly.
"Stand up." The voice growled deeply at Panther, but he did as he was told. "Turn around hands behind your head."
Panther followed every command to the dot, which was until the other puts his gun away and grabbed his arm. Panther quickly snatched the guys arm with his other and spun quickly bring his hands over his head and down twisting the arm of the guard then flipping him over onto his back. In that same motion Panther pulled his own gun and placed it to the top of the guys head and dropped onto the man's stomach legs pinning the others.
"Ok now my turn. Answer me wrong and well you can guess. Who do you work for?" Panther hissed
"General Birch." The guard spoke back with a bit of a panicked tone.
"Alright, who gave you the order to Patrol out here?"
"General Birch ordered higher patrol."
"Good, now tell me where your loyalties lay?" Panther glared down at him almost daring him to say the wrong thing.
"My loyalties are to the crowned king of Beneria"
"Ah I see, but last time I remember the crowned king was dead and the queen never remarried" Panther smiled darkly and pulled the trigger on his plasma gun and dragged the body into the shrubs.
About ten minutes or so later Panther came out of the bushes dressed in the man's uniform and casually walked across the yard to the side of the palace. He looked around and waited a bit before making sure the coast was clear and started up the rose vine. It didn't take him long to scale the roses to the window. With a look down and a tested reach Panther threw himself from the rose vine and grabbed onto the windowsill. Hanging a bit he pulled himself up slowly and peeked into the room to make sure it was safe to climb in.
He saw nothing and climbed in quickly and without a second thought remove the guard uniform so he was back to wearing just his stealth suit. One he was stripped down he looked around the room once more and noticed it was a little girl's room. Stuffed animals lay scattered around the room along with a few other things. He stopped stunned when his eyes lay on a large pile of stuff animals.
There was a small young blue black feline about seven or eight lying in the stuffed animals. Some laid on her other under and around. When he first saw her he thought she was just another stuffed toy until he saw her move. He had to think quickly so he didn't linger too long or have her wake up and scream, screaming is very bad right now. What made things worse was he was nervous around kids they made him very uncomfortable.
Panther took a deep breath and crouched down near the girl and reached a hand out shaking her lightly. He shook her a little harder when she didn't wake up for him. When she woke he quickly put a finger to his mouth and was ready to grab hers to keep her from screaming. She stared at him with a groggy look before yawning and rubbing her eyes.
"Who…are you?" her voice was small and soft just as one would expect from a sleepy girl.
"My name is Panther. What is your name little one?" He spoke in a whisper so if anyone was at the door he wouldn't be heard.
"I am Emalia. Princes Emalia, but mommy calls be Ema." The girl was rather sweet and Panther would have to admit it.
"Well your highness, I am here to save you and your mommy. Do you understand?" Panther tried to tell her in the most simplest of ways possible in hopes to not alarm her.
"You're here to save mommy and me from that mean men that were yelling at her?" The little girl smiled a bit.
"Yes I am." He stood up looked around the room before thinking and grabbed a scarf from her night stand and walked over to her and blindfolding her with it. "Whatever you do, do not remove this, no matter what you hear."
"Ok. Mr. Panther Why are those mean men here?" She spoke softly.
"They are mean and are trying to hurt many people but I will stop them." He picked her up as he spoke and slung her over his back so she was piggy back.
He pulled the door open slowly and peaked out and pulled a gun from his holster his other hand wrapped behind him holding the girl up on his back. He slipped out of the room and started down the hall very slowly. Making sure to keep silent as he moved, he looked back to her before whispering to her once more.
"Where would your mom be right now?" Panther stopped peaking around a corner,
"Those men said they were taking her to the throne room." Emalia clung to him a bit more. "They had guns…"
Panther nods and frowns before growling when he saw a few guards heading his way. He placed the girl down. He moved quickly and leapt out in front of the two coming grabbing one and twisted forcing them to slam in to the other. He flipped his gun to his other hand knocks out one then while the other started to get up he brought his knee up into the back of his head knocking them out as well.
Panther dragged the two guards around the corner and laid them down before picking the girl up once more. He headed down the hall once more looking and listening for the queen or any guards that could lead him to her. He stopped periodically and put Emalia down to check around corners and in rooms making sure to clear out areas before he continued. Last thing he wanted was to get into a fight with the girl on his back, and or being caught and unable to get away with her on his back.
Panther moved in to a room quietly and looked around before stopping when heard a woman speaking. He couldn't make out what she was saying but she was obviously very close. He quickly put a girl down and made sure she was in a safe hiding place. He gave one last look around before placing a hand on the girls head speaking very softly.
"Stay here; do not move from this spot no matter what you hear or what happens." Panther had a bit of a stern tone to his voice before he walked away from her.
He slipped from the room and went down the hall stopping very quickly and hiding behind the corner. He saw two Guards standing at the door to the room next. He took a deep breath and readied his gun. He turned the corner quickly firing two shots taking the two guards out. The noise of them landing on the ground was a bit louder then he wished for.
He slipped up to the room door and slowly pushed it open looking inside. He saw the queen standing in the middle of the room her hands behind her bound as a lieutenant General at her side holding a gun to her as she spoke to a hologram of Birch demanding she step down. With a quick check to his gun he stood and kicked the door open firing on the one holding the queen at gunpoint and then looked to the hologram with another smile and shooting the computer then looking to the queen.
"Greetings, Your Majesty!" Panther walked searching the soldier for keys.
"Panther!" the queen looked at him surprised to have seen him. "Why are you here? What is the meaning of all this?"
"That my lady will be explained but here is not a good place to be doing so." He pulled a set of keys out and un-cuffed her hands. "Put simply Birch betrayed you and is trying to destroy Corneria."
"Well I figured the first but why?" The queen stood and quickly went to leave the room Panther following very quickly. "First things first, we need to get to my daughter."
"Already done my lady." Panther spoke quickly moving quickly past her and opening the door to the room he left the princess in before removing her from the room and handing her to the queen. "Shall we get while the getting is good?"
"My little girl. Yes, let's go quickly" The queen held Emalia tightly and walk quickly following panther as fast as she could they needed to get out of there and quick. "How do you plan to get out of here?"
"I have a way in mind. Just trust me." He grabbed her hand pulling her quickly down the hall and into a room. It was a bed room that looked as though it had not been touched in years. "Wow I guess there is still such a thing as too many rooms." Panther sounded as though he was upset.
"This was my son's room before he died." She looked sad then to her daughter. He was only 15. "She looked very upset. "But how did you know there is a way out of the building in here?"
"Well there are a few things I know that you would be shocked to hear." Panther walked over to the fire place in the far side of the room and pushed on the back wall of it pushing it out till it made a large bang. "Hurry someone had to of heard that."
"Tell me who you are." The queen frowned at him. "I will not go with you until you tell me what's going on. How do I know your not working for Birch?"
"I am just a Pilot working with the Cornerian military, and I am way too good looking to be working for that man. Now please come quickly!" He looked to her with pleading eyes.
The queen blinked as a sudden realization hit her she stepped forward reaching out to him then stopped as her ears twitched when she heard footsteps just outside the door. She looked back to him and walked over to the fire place handing Emalia over to him. She looked back to the door then looked to him and pushed him to go.
"Please go, I will not stand down they will not get the throne." She smiled back at him and nods "Besides Panther, I know who you really are and I am proud to have been saved by you now go." She walked to the door just as it was kicked in and a guard fired at her hitting her in the chest.
"MOMMY!" Emalia started to scream hearing the gun shot and ripped the blind fold off.
Panther went wide eyed and quickly took off running not stopping. He held Emalia tightly as she started kicking violently. He ran through the dark halls before he shouldered a door at the end tumbling though just outside the wall. He stood up and picked Emalia up and kept running.
"NO MOMMY, MOMMY NO!" Emalia reached back before punching and kicking Panther to put her down.
"Emalia knock it off, those men will kill you as well. We have to escape now!" He kept running to his Arwing not stopping even as he heard the sirens going off and the sound of others chasing.
Almost on cue he heard an Arwing over head firing quickly into the palace yard and into the woods. Panther snarled and ran faster knowing Wolf could not see him and they needed to run and make sure they were not hit. Emalia was clinging to Panther now that she heard the fire shot from the Arwing over them. Running quickly he made the long walk back in only 20 minutes.
"Go to the ship, climb in and stay out of sight." Panther put her down pushing her ahead to the Arwing. "Please GO!" He pulled his gun and spun quickly firing into the wood to force off the oncoming guards.
As he fired into the wood shots came back and he had to clear away those coming after him before he would be able to take off. He fired quickly and stepped back to his Arwing not taking his eyes off the tree line as men started to run out. With a clearer shot he managed to take down a couple before he was shot through the leg making him drop to the ground in pain. He hissed and looked up to him and frowns as the men closed in quickly
"Come on panther move it! " Wolf had flow over and fired at the men scattering them from attacking him and kept going.
Panther got up and quickly stumbled to his Arwing before climbing up into the seat. He held his leg tightly as the hatch closed. He hissed again before he went looking for his first aid kit. He quickly bandaged his leg quickly and looked back to her.
"Put those seat belts on we are leaving now." Panther barked out quickly and pulled his own harness on firing his engine up and readied to leave.
Once they were both belted in he took off quickly and flew straight up to get out of orbit away from any other ships that might attack and any land guns. They were quickly followed by Wolf and they were moving quick until they were far enough away it was safe to relax. When they could relax Panther check on Emalia and she was fast asleep which made him smile. He opened communications with Wolf.
"Hey Wolf you there?" Panther spoke softly.
"Yea I am here. What's up?" Wolf grumbled a bit.
"We have a really bad problem." Panther glanced back to Emalia again.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Wolf growled a bit.
"The queen was killed. They shot her before we could escape."
"WHAT!" Wolf yelled.
"Will you quiet" Panther snapped still trying to keep his voice down. "I saved the princess. She is sleeping right now!
"Great we have a kid, as the ruler of Benaria." Wolf growled quieting down. "What do we do now? She can not take the throne."
"I know that. She isn't old enough and the only one that is would be her older brother" Panther looked up to the sky and relaxed back in his seat.
"Yeah, let's go find a dead 15 year old kid." Wolf snorted and sighed trying to figure out what to do next. "This is going to make this war a little bit harder now."
"Tell me about it." Panther grumbled having to think himself. What the queen said really bothered him. No one had ever said they were proud of him. At least no time he could ever remember. "I am gonna get some sleep while sleeping beauty sleeps. Can you keep watch?"
"Yea I will this is gonna be a long trip back considering we have to go around everything to the moon." Wolf looked around once more before flipping his communications to low and flipped his music on so he had something to listen to for the long trip ahead.
Wolf looked around and set a message to the Cornerian base that the others were at telling them what was going on and what happened. He didn't want to be there face to face when they found out the queen was dead, and they only had the princess who was too young to take the throne. With the message sent he closed his eyes picturing Fox's face contorting in rage getting ready to lose his mind. He just chuckled and went back to keeping watch.
2:30 AM Cornerian Air space
Fox woke up hearing a buzzing on his wrist computer. He groped around the side table before finding his wrist computer and rolls onto his back and looks to the screen before turning it on. He groaned and sat up as the screen lit up and he opened the messages. With a yawn he looked to the message.
"WHAT!" He jumped up and pulled his boots on and running out of the room down to hall being joined by General Pepper, on the way to the meeting hall.
They all joined in the room and were already arguing with what to do. Fox kept quiet for a bit trying to plan out everything in his head. While General Pepper yelled to get order in his meeting hall. After a moment James walked in and frowned upon hearing the yelling and arguing before quieting everyone with an ear piercing whistle. They all stopped and looked at him with disgruntled looks.
"We are missing a queen. We got a princess and a prince. The prince is old enough to take the throne." James snapped out.
"Wait the prince. He is dead how do we have a prince unless the queen or king was not faithful." Another shouted out making James smirk.
"The Prince is on his way here now. Do not worry. You will be very relieved to see that the throne of Benaria is not going to Birch, at least not without a fight now." James crossed his arms and smiled once more. He glanced to Fox with that same smirk he had when he knew something others didn't.
