Note: In spite of how quickly I'm writing this story, I admit that it's somewhat hard to write. As such, I apologize if certain chapters are unsatisfactory. Now that I've said what I needed to, it's time for chapter six.
Chapter 6: Storming Indiscipline
Fox was just sleeping in the room he was locked in. That was until Peppy entered the room. The door opening woke up the chained vulpine, who looked at the old hare and smiled.
"Peppy, you're free?" Fox asked.
"Yeah," Peppy answered before turning to the camera in the room, "let me take care of that."
He fired an auto-hack dart at the camera, destroying it. After that, the hare undid Fox's chains, freeing him from the wall. However, the two of them heard someone walking by. Luckily, whoever it was didn't come into the room. In fact, the person was joined by another. Despite not being able to make out who they were, Fox and Peppy could hear what they were saying.
"Man, that new team stomped the Zimmerman Brothers, now did they?" The first gangster asked.
"And those Cornerian Knight punks are coming after us next." The second gangster said.
"Mr. Mauricio's got to reschedule the execution so that it could happen sooner." The mobster told his comrade.
"Yeah," the other one stated, "I know that he's going to give the guys the old concrete shoes thing, but what's he going to do with the girls? Is he going to use liquid latex again?"
"What else would he use? Wax?"
"Good point, let's go talk to him."
"Wait, what's that thing on the ground?"
All of a sudden, the two mobsters were shot in the head by an unseen blaster. Opening the door, Fox and Peppy saw that what killed the mobsters was an attack droid with a recorder attached to it. The droid then flew out of the building, allowing the tod and the hare to look for where their comrades were being kept.
"Alright, let's look down there!" Peppy said as he pointed down the hallway.
"Before we do this," Fox spoke, "I want to know where you got that key from."
"Krystal gave it to me." The hare stated. "She told me to free everyone with it."
"Fara's handcuffed in that basement." The vulpine said as he pointed to a door on the opposite side of the hallway. "I saw Antonio take her down there."
"I'll go free her, you look for the others!" The older male told him.
Fox did as he was told, opening the door to each room and looking inside. After two doors, he opened another one. Inside this room were Falco, Slippy, Fay and Miyu. While Fay looked okay, Falco, Slippy and Miyu had various injuries. Slippy had a knife wound on his shoulder, but it was stitched up. As for Miyu, she had a scar on her cheek, meaning that she received a wound like Slippy's, albeit nowhere near as bad. Falco got arguably the worst of it. The pheasant's arm was broken and he was bruised up in other places.
"Fox!" Slippy smiled.
"Hey," Fox said, "I'm going to free you guys."
"About time you got freed." Falco moaned as he sat up, holding his arm.
"So have I!" Fara said as she came into the room with Peppy.
"Now that we're free," Peppy spoke, "let's get them untied!"
"Right!" The fennec said as she went to untie Slippy.
Before Fox, Peppy and Fara could free the others, Louis and Antonio walked into the room.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Antonio shouted.
Falco then ran at Antonio and Louis, distracting them. Despite his broken arm, the pheasant was able to put up a fight with the two gangsters.
"Fox," he said to him, "take Peppy and Fara and get out of here! I'll hold them off!"
"We can't just leave you here!" Peppy objected.
"We'll be fine!" Falco shouted. "Go meet up with the General and the Army! Chances are, Krystal might be working with them! That droid was definitely made by them!"
Fox, Peppy and Fara then ran away from the room as Falco fought against Antonio and Louis. While doing so, the three encountered an occasional gangster. Luckily, they managed to beat each gangster that challenged them. After that, the three got out of the Mauricio Family's domain, running up the sidewalk. Now that his arms were free, Fox spoke into his communicator.
"General, are you there?!" He asked.
"Fox, you're free!" General Pepper responded.
"Yeah, so is Peppy and Fara!" Fox stated. "We couldn't save everyone, as Falco, Slippy, Fay and Miyu are still at the building the Mauricio Family and the Zimmerman Brothers were keeping us at!"
"Don't worry, Fox, we've still got enough information to outsmart those gangsters!" The hound dog stated.
"And you can say that this is only part of a plan!" Krystal added, the cobalt vixen showing up.
"Krystal, what do you mean by that?" Fara asked.
"The plan I'm talking about includes freeing some of you while destroying the rest of the cameras in that building without being detected." The cobalt vixen stated. "Another part of it involves Bill, Art, Katt and Lucy going to a space station named Indiscipline with the Cornerian Knights. I'm staying behind on the mission, but I'll speak with the team as they go through the station. They might need to be careful around Crimson Unit #21, the individual who brought the Mauricio Family and the Zimmerman Brothers together."
"Cornerian Knights?" Fox was puzzled.
"General, you're putting an awful lot of faith in that group Steve got together." Fara said.
"They're doing good, though." Pepper stated.
"Indiscipline? Crimson Unit #21?" Peppy spoke. "Boy howdy, those ring bells!"
"General, we'll be there in a few minutes!" Fox said before hanging up. Once the call had ended, he looked at Peppy and Fara.
"Fox, I've heard those phrases before." Peppy said. "In fact, I think that one of the soldiers in the Cornerian Army had those ideas. I can't remember his name, or what he looked like, but he's definitely the guy who thought of Indiscipline. He even became Crimson Unit #21."
"Now isn't the time for remembering, Peppy, we need to regroup with our allies!" Fara said.
"Yeah," Fox said, "all we know is that Crimson Unit #21 is an enemy and that Indiscipline needs to be destroyed. Let's just hope that the rookies that Bill, Art, Katt and Lucy are with can take it down."
"Indeed, it might take Crimson Unit #21 down with it." Peppy said.
Meanwhile, the Cornerian Knights had made their way to Indiscipline, with Bill and Art flying around the space station. As for Katt and Lucy, they entered the place through the docking bay. The Cornerian Knights to enter Indiscipline with Katt and Lucy were Flora, Prowl and Collin. Pierre and Shelly were flying outside the space station with Bill and Art, aiming at turrets and droids that were also flying outside. Once inside, Flora contacted General Pepper.
"General," she spoke, "we've entered the station and we're going to fight our way through before we destroy it."
"Good idea, we'll keep track of your progress as you go through Indiscipline." Pepper said.
"And, in other news, we're back!" Peppy announced as he walked up to the General.
"Well, some of us." Fox said as he approached the two, Fara following him.
"One of our plans worked for the most part," the General said, "but we've got more in line to finally bring down the Mauricio Family and save the remaining members of Star Fox. We're even working with Officer Black and Giorno Mauricio's son, Charles."
"Tell us more later, General, we're proceeding on our mission!" Collin said.
"Alright, we'll contact you for any progress on the mission." Pepper said prior to hanging up.
Flora, Prowl and Collin then began to walk through Indiscipline, with Katt and Lucy walking beside them.
"Shouldn't you check on how the others are doing?" Katt asked.
"Right." Flora said before speaking into her communicator. "Miriam, are you guys okay out there?"
"We're fine!" Miriam spoke, the sound of blasts going off. "Bill and I are fighting off the turrets while Art, Pierre and Shelly are taking on the droids out here! Don't worry about us, just go through the place!"
Flora hung up her communicator. After that, she began to work out a plan with Prowl, Collin, Katt and Lucy.
"Alright," the red cat said, "I'll look around and check for security cameras so that I can destroy them. Prowl, go with Collin and take down any enemies that come your way. Katt and Lucy, look for the self-destruct button."
"You're really good at being a leader, hon." Katt said.
"Save the compliments for later, we need to get moving." Prowl said as he ran off, taking his blaster out.
"Prowl, wait up!" Collin went after the snow leopard.
"Alright, we're going!" Lucy said as she and Katt ran off.
Now that she was alone, Flora began to go through Indiscipline, starting out by shooting a security camera in the docking bay. After that, the red cat went through the first hallway of the space station, destroying the three cameras hanging on the wall. Moving onto the next hallway, the feline was in luck, as there were no cameras. However, she was perplexed when she moved on to the next area.
"This place is like a maze." She said to herself. "I hope that the others are doing better than I am."
Prowl and Collin walked through another area of Indiscipline, their blasters ready for battle.
"Do you think that the enemies will run in fear of us?" Collin asked.
"No," Prowl said, "they'll probably laugh at us."
"You know," the Border Collie said as he raised his fist, "you've got a smart mouth and it's been waiting for this!"
"Go ahead and try it," the snow leopard dared him, "I know my way around a rumble."
"You're lucky that I haven't had much fight training, otherwise I'd stomp you!" The canine growled.
Prowl and Collin began to fight, throwing punches at each other. For the most part, Prowl was winning. However, Collin kicked him in the side and began to pound him without much effort. The two continued to fight until a dozen of droids flew near them.
"Oh boy." Collin said.
"Great, we've got an audience." Prowl said out of sarcasm.
The droids fired at Prowl and Collin, causing the two to dodge.
"We'll finish this later!" Prowl shouted as he got out his blaster.
"Right!" Collin said as he began to shoot at the droids in front of him and Prowl. The snow leopard and the Border Collie shot at each droid that flew at them. The two didn't hesitate, as they destroyed the machines without much effort. When each droid was down, Prowl and Collin put their blasters back.
"Do you see more enemies coming?" Prowl asked.
"No," Collin answered, "but that was close."
"At least you managed to destroy more of the droids than I did." The snow leopard said. "You have wicked aiming."
"Well, my parents would often take me to a shooting gallery when I was little." The Border Collie said. "I grew up on Katina to a technician for a father and a nurse for a mother. By the time I was eighteen, I left for Corneria so that I could join the Cornerian Army. This was a month before the Aparoid invasion, so I wound up having to train at the Flight Academy."
"My father left when I was little and never came back after a battle." The spotted feline stated. "I often blamed the Cornerian Army for his death, despite my mother and uncle telling me otherwise, so I started getting into fights and wound up on the wrong side of the law. I figured that I would be a convict for the rest of my life, until the General gave me a chance to become a pilot. Now look at me, I'm starting to become the same member of the Army my father died in. Barring the fact that he would cheat on my mom, steal stuff and drink, he was ultimately a good soldier. Chances are, I'll become like him."
"Prowl," the canine said, "you're not like your father. In fact, you might become a better person that he was prior to his death."
Prowl couldn't help but smile.
"Thanks for the advice, I guess." He said.
"C'mon," Collin said, "let's go find Flora."
Katt and Lucy had taken the elevator down to the control room of Indiscipline. Once they got there, they saw an odd ship. The ship in question looked like an eagle, but it was colored red. In addition to that, it looked like it was put together with little effort. The control room was dimly lit, so it was hard to see anything else in it.
"How are we going to find the self-destruct button in here?" Lucy whispered.
"I'll look over that way," Katt whispered, gesturing to opposite ends of the room, "while you look over that way."
"Got it." The hare whispered as she went to the right side of the room.
Upon looking through the left side of the control room, Katt saw a glass covering protecting a button.
"Could this be the self-destruct button?" She asked herself.
Upon pressing the button, Katt waited for the results from doing so. All of a sudden, a robotic voice rang out.
"Self destruct sequence in fifteen minutes."
"There we go." Katt said. "Now all we need to do is meet up with the others and get out of here. Right, Lucy?"
When Katt turned her head, she saw that Lucy wasn't there. In fact, the hare was nowhere to be found in the room. Puzzled, the pink cat ran to the elevator, which took her up to a corridor. Once there, she contacted General Pepper.
"Katt, what's the situation?" Pepper asked.
"Well, I hit the self-destruct button, but I can't find Lucy!" Katt stated.
"What do you mean?" The hound dog asked.
"Well, one moment she was with me, the next moment she wasn't!" The pink cat said.
"Someone kidnapped Lucy?!" Peppy cried.
"Peppy, let me speak." Krystal calmly told him.
"Okay." The hare said as he let the cobalt vixen join in on the call.
"Katt," Krystal spoke, "while you were in the control room with Lucy, did you see an odd ship as well?"
"Yes, how did you know that?" Katt asked as she ran through the corridor, desperate to meet up with Flora, Prowl and Collin.
"There are files concerning Crimson Unit #21 and Indiscipline." The cobalt vixen stated. "In one of those files, it says that he had a project entitled Epitaph. That's the ship you just saw!"
"Well, it's a good thing that I hit the self-destruct button, now is it?" The pink cat said.
"Regroup with the others, find Lucy and get out of there!" Peppy shouted.
"On it!" The feline said.
After a minute of running, Katt found Flora, Prowl and Collin.
"There you guys are!" She said.
"Did you hit the self-destruct button?" Collin asked.
"Yes," Katt answered, "now we need to find Lucy and beat back Crimson Unit #21!"
"He got Lucy?!" Flora asked. "Where could he have taken her?!"
"I think I know where." Prowl said as he pointed to a door on the opposite end of the corridor. Upon seeing it, Katt, Flora and Collin approached the door, carefully opening it and letting themselves into the room. Inside was Lucy, who was knocked out on the floor. Apart from that, there was a massive surveillance screen with nothing but static on it. All except for a single screenshot showing Katt and Lucy entering the control room. Near the screen was someone wearing shadowy clothing, to the point where none of the actual parts of his body could be made out. This person was, no doubt, Crimson Unit #21.
"C'mon, let's get Lucy!" Collin said as he approached the unconscious hare.
"That's far enough, Cornerian Knights." Crimson Unit #21 spoke, which caused them to look at him.
"Look, we're just here to pick up our friend and get out of here, so let us leave!" Katt said.
"We don't want this encounter to end in violence!" Flora said.
"That's unfortunate, seeing as I cannot let any of you leave." Crimson Unit #21 said as he approached them. "You have made a mess in Indiscipline. Not to mention that you, Katt Monroe, have pressed the self-destruct button. As punishment, I must deal with all of you myself."
"Flora," Prowl whispered, "have you, Collin and Katt head down to the docks. I'll deal with Crimson Unit #21 and bring Lucy to you before this place blows."
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, my boy!" The mysterious being said as a bolt of plasma was launched from his hand, damaging the wall.
"Ten minutes until self-destruction." Indiscipline's AI said.
"Prowl, we're leaving!" Flora stated.
"Go with Katt and Collin!" Prowl told her. "I'm staying here and fighting the bastard before he kills us all! I'll meet you at the docks, and I'll bring Lucy with me! If you don't see us again, tell everyone that we died fighting!"
"Right." The red cat said as she ran out of the room with Katt and Collin following her.
Now that he was up against Crimson Unit #21, Prowl got his blaster ready. The mysterious being only walked up to him, as if pondering something.
"I figured from the eyes, but I was blind." He spoke. "You're him, alright, you're my son."
"And this is the daughter of Peppy Hare." Prowl said as he lifted Lucy, placing her arm around him.
"I'm well aware of that." Crimson Unit #21 stated. "As such, I'm hoping to eradicate her from the Lylat System. There's not much of a loss from her death. However, seeing as I was lucky enough for you and your comrades to not bring the Cerinian with you, I figure that I could go after her next. I'd like to see Fox McCloud overcome with grief and sorrow from watching me kill her."
Prowl fired his blaster at Crimson Unit #21, which knocked the cloaked figure back. After that, the snow leopard fired again. However, unlike the first attack, the next one had no effect. It was if the mysterious being was wearing armor that protected him from blasters. Dropping his blaster, Prowl then engaged Crimson Unit #21 in hand-to-hand combat.
"I take it that General Pepper has been training you in martial arts?" Crimson Unit #21 asked.
"Actually, the person who has been training me is a soldier in the Cornerian Army: Steven Russel Armstrong." Prowl retorted.
"The Cornerian Army." The mysterious figure said. "I have nothing positive to say about those bastards! They rejected my ideas and put machinery on me in order to keep me alive. I refused to work for them any longer, so I left for Zoness, working out my plans to take over Lylat. In the process, I had to bring together gangsters and hardened criminals in order for my plan to work, eventually having them kidnap some of the Army's allies. Then, because we could, we'd execute all of them, bringing Pepper to his knees."
"Well, that's a good plan, but it's going to fail!" The young man said as he threw a punch, only to be thrown to the side. Once Prowl was down, Crimson Unit #21 moved towards Lucy.
"I will kill anyone who gets in my way!" He said. "That, unfortunately, includes you, my son! When every threat to my rule is gone, I will reign supreme! And Lucy here will finally meet her maker! I might even add your team to my body count, Prowl!"
"Not if I have anything to say about it, you bastard!" Prowl growled as he got his blaster back.
"You won't have anything to say about it, seeing as you don't have a backup plan!" Crimson Unit #21 said as he put out his hand towards Prowl and Lucy, a blue light glowing in it. "Now, die!!"
"Five minutes until self-destruction." Indiscipline's AI stated.
Before Crimson Unit #21 could kill either of them, Prowl grabbed Lucy and made his way to the door.
"This was my backup plan!" Prowl stated. "I was just stalling you so that you couldn't fire your arm-mounted blaster at us! Well, it's been fun!"
Running out the door with Lucy, Prowl shot the door's lock, sealing Crimson Unit #21 inside. From inside the room, Crimson Unit #21 began to look around.
"Dammit, I need to find a way out of here!" He said to himself.
Looking around more, the mysterious figure found a hatch that led to the control room. Opening it, he began to climb down to the room. After that, he approached the infamous Epitaph.
"I just got lucky." Crimson Unit #21 said to himself as he got in Epitaph, starting the ship's engines. "I'm thankful that this thing has made it for so long. As long as I don't get chased, I can make it down to Corneria with little effort."
Making his way to the docks, Prowl met up with Flora, Collin and Katt. Once he got there, the snow leopard handed Lucy to them.
"Lucy, wake up!" Katt shook her.
Opening her eyes, Lucy looked at Prowl.
"You saved me." She said to him.
"It was Katt's idea to look for you, I just wanted to fight the guy who grabbed you." Prowl stated.
"Classic Prowl." Collin said.
"You know me well, friend." The snow leopard said as he smiled, blushing modestly.
"One minute until self-destruction." Indiscipline's AI said.
"Shit, we've got to get out of here!" Collin said.
"You guys go ahead!" Prowl told them. "I'm going to do something!"
"What?!" Lucy cried.
"Prowl, you'll die if you stay!" Collin protested.
"Trust me," he said, "I've got an idea."
"Let's hope that you're right about your plan." Katt said as she got into the Cat's Paw II.
Katt, Lucy, Flora and Collin flew out of Indiscipline's docks, which allowed Prowl to contact General Pepper.
"General, can you hear me?" He asked.
"Loud and clear." Pepper stated.
"Is Krystal there?" Prowl asked.
"Yes," Krystal spoke as she joined in on the call, "what do you need?"
"Is your telepathy able to detect anything on here?" The snow leopard asked.
"Crimson Unit #21 is going to escape in Epitaph, but you can't chase him!" The cobalt vixen stated.
"We'll see about that!" He said.
"Thirty seconds until self-destruction." Indiscipline's AI stated.
"Prowl, is it?" Fox joined in on the call. "You need to get out of there! We can fight Crimson Unit #21 after we save the others!"
Prowl got into his Zipper and flew out of the docks. However, he started to fly towards Epitaph when he saw it, firing at the ship.
"General," Prowl said, "tell the others that I'm not going to make it back to base."
"You shouldn't do this, you'll get killed!" Pepper argued.
"I might survive, did you consider that?" The snow leopard spoke. "You've got a telepath with you, so she'll tell you if I survived or not."
"You've got a point." The hound dog said.
Prowl then hung up, continuing on his path towards Epitaph.
"So, you're fighting me?" Crimson Unit #21 asked.
"That's right," Prowl said, "show me how powerful your ship is!"
Before they could fight, Indiscipline exploded. The explosion was so powerful, it threw both Prowl and Crimson Unit #21 back. Prowl screamed as it happened, closing his eyes and waiting for death to take him. The Zipper flew until something caught it.
"Don't worry," someone spoke, "I'll take you somewhere safe."
Prowl felt his eyes burn as he woke up. To his surprise, he was now in an empty room. The snow leopard looked around, puzzled by his surroundings.
"What is this place?" He asked.
All of a sudden, the door to the room opened, which got Prowl's attention. Despite no one stepping in the room, the snow leopard heard someone's voice.
"Are you alright, now?"
Note: I bet you thought that Prowl would die, didn't you? At least someone saved him. Who saved him, you might ask. I won't reveal it here, so we'll find out later. Until next time guys, this is Newcomer24, signing off. Peace!