AN: Hey there everyone, I'd like to apologize and though I know this seems to happen often it is literally because my life if a trainwreck ^^ anywho so as not to delay a point or anything for the near future. I'm working on a lot of different things right now including this story and several others. I'm working in a few different places right now and recently took up a secondary major in school for Criminal Psychology. I have a computer for my new place at work now, so this will be hopefully updated a bit more often. Hope you enjoy the chapter and I'll do my best to have the next up a little quicker...

~ The Footsteps in the Darkness

SkullFox


Lamont rolled beneath the strange robotic panther as it soared overhead, it's claws tearing at the heavy armor plating of the young fox's metal arms before he sent the creature flying by a quick grip on it's rear ankle. The strange robot spun it's body in mid air grinding to a stop as it sunk it's claws into the metal ground. His thoughts went to the others, to Tilly; he had his arms but, as far as he'd been aware she was unarmed. It wasn't hard to see from it's four passes at him that the creature was learning, it was studying him, and this was the very reason he refused to make the first move; however, as Lamont gritted his teeth and drove one fist into the ground the panther once again tore a streak across the hanger, unfortunately this time it's maw clamped down on the incredibly durable Borillium plating of Lamont's Neura Links as a straight punch buried the appendage up to the young fox's shoulder into it's open gullet before his free arm griped the creature's spine; his two mechanical arms instantly sending a separate half of the cat sliding across the floor in separate direction with a deafening war cry. Looking to the semi-opaque substance that had spattered his hands and face, Lamont could not tell whether his violent trembling was out of fear or rage. Whatever the case as the familiar sight of a tall snow leopard running into the room caused him to exhale a sigh of relief. As Tilly approached the still heavily panting fox, she shrieked in surprise as the deceptively powerful Lament took her wrist sliding her across the floor to one side before his fist brought another of the strange cats to a stop in mid-pounce, drilling it into the floor before Tilly found the young fox raining a mealstrom of crushing, double fisted blows across the creature's chest and head, until only it's lashing tail and mangled lower half lay covered in a thick viscus red and black fluid. After taking a moment to catch his breath Lamont brushed the fluid from his face before flicking it from his hands...

"We have to get back to the ship," He warned the still shocked leopard before pausing at the sound of several more of the creatures growling, "Now!"

With Tilly in tow Lamont rushed through the door of the hanger toward the small ship they'd been left with. As they ran Tilly took note of the drones moving about the city all of a sudden, "Lamont, this place is starting to come to life."

"I know," He replied still running, "something's going on here, we need to warn the others. If another ship approaches orbit and notices the Colletta in orbit, it'll become a warzone."

As the two rushed toward their retreat from Titania one thing became clear as Lamont looked over his shoulder; Tilly's larger frame was weighing her down and as he continued to watch the strange mechanical felines close in on his crewmate the little vulpine oddity dug his heels into the paved surface of the strange facility several button presses of a small wrist mounted computer brought their lander to life. As Tilly finally began to move by however, she felt the young fox's grip latch onto her wrist before he spun, and with impressive force sent the large Hadian careening through the small ship's open bay door. Still shocked and a bit stunned at what had happened, Tilly shot to her feet at the sight of a red light near the door, it was the emergency locks engaging as the ship was being set to auto-pilot. Before Tilly could reach the door, the electrical hiss of it sliding shut locked her away, her only view of her savior a small port window. A short distance away, Lamont stood still smiling as he found himself surrounded but a handful of the strange creatures while more encroached from all around him, for a brief moment Tilly managed to meet his gaze before he finally closed his eyes as the creatches erased him from Tilly's sight leaving her to watch on in silent horror as the small ship lifted away from the moving base. Over and over again, wiping tears from her eyes the young snow leopard rushed her hands over the console at the pilot's seat of the ship, but, despite every failsafe and every work around she knew to get around the ship's auto-pilot, she knew that if Lamont had set this up there was no way she could stop it. Finally giving up as she felt the ship rattle into the planet's upper atmosphere, and loosing herself in her own distress as he buried her face in her hands. Over the course of the months that had passed he'd become one of her closest friends, and now in the span of a single moment that friend was gone and it would be up to her to explain what had happened upon reaching the Colletta...


-Vinna Coletta-

-Titania Orbit-

Skye rushed through the halls of the large ship, several alarms had sounded all at once and the situation was getting fairly severe. So far very little made much sense, until she finally broke into the docking bay where the familiar ship that had been left down on the surface lay waiting. It had taken some time for the teams working together to get the door open only to find a distraught Tilly still working out the fact that she'd just witnessed the horrible scene that she'd left behind. Finally breaking into the docking bay however, Skye found a young tigre dressed in white coverall, one of the ship's mechanics whom she'd not seen often enough to remember his name...

"We found Tilly on board," He informed her quickly, "there's no sign of Lamont, and she won't stop crying and keeps mumbling something about not being fast enough. It took six of us to hold her back before she broke free only to find out that she couldn't start any of the ships in here without clearance. She eventually gave up and she's been crying over there in the corner ever since."

Looking in the distance of the docking bay, Skye noticed the young leopard sat near a stack of large crates her face buried in her hands, "Wait," She shook her head rushing to Tilly's side before pulling her hands away from her face, "Tilly what happened?"

It took a moment for the distraught leopard to compose herself, finally she took a cleansing breath before wiping her eyes, "It all happened so fast, he threw me into the pod and accessed it remotely. I don't know how he did it but, he locked me out of the system in seconds," She replied grabbing at Skye's pant legs and shaking her slightly, "we have to go back for him."

It was at that moment that a blaring voice echoed into the docking bay, "Ummm...Captain?"

Skye had not heard this voice very often but, it was unique enough to know that it was one of the navigators from the bridge, "What is it now?" She called back.

"We have an issue here," The navigator replied, "we're getting a lot of White Noise on our scanners but, there's nothing in the vicinity. I've run a number of scans since we got our engines running again, and there's something you have to see for yourself. I'm sending it to your perso-com now."

Skye took a moment to produce a small communicator sized computer from her pocket, upon flipping it open the small green screen sprung to life causing the canine's jaw to drop. The video that played was an image of the atmosphere of the planet clearly taken from one of their own probes. The Colletta continued to hover there in orbit, yet in the shadow of a massive ship so many times the size of the Colletta itself that ti's shadow upon the planet was visible even in the video, "If you take into account the size of the Colletta itself. This thing is bigger than any ship I have ever heard of, it's more than ten miles long and several stories high, I've never seen an Invader class ship so big, it's bigger than any Arc even."

Skye shook her head, "How did something that massive get up this close without us knowing it?" She asked, "better yet why? That station down there couldn't possibly refuel something like that. I mean it should have it's own power cores, quite a few at that."

"Well," The navigator replied, "so far it seems to be ignoring us, as soon as we noticed it Artimus managed to hide our location from any kind of scanners. We can assure you that this ship has the top stealth tech something this size can have."

Skye shook her head, "Good, keep me posted on that," She replied closing the link, "Art, can you hear me?"

Art's voice echoed back, Inary clealry talking about something in the distance, "We can hear you. I take it you received the call from the bridge then?"

"Yeah," Skye scoffed, "you could say that. I want you to get a message to Mister McCloud ASAP; make sure he sees this video too. I need some help figuring this situation out and something tells me that he might have an answer," She sighed heavily, "and get Mick to the docking bay as soon as you can. Apparently we have a bit of an issue here as well."

"What kind of issue?" The toad asked.

"It's complicated," Skye replied, "but, Tilly is back and Lamont is still down on Titania. I need more information about this whole situation. Tell him I need him to bring some others he can trust in a fight, something tells me there might be one down there."

Little more than twenty minutes later, the young Argon presented himself in the docking bay surrounded by five fully armed . The gear they all carried Skye found interesting, she'd not thought that the armory would contain such tools; as they assmebled Skye stood in front of them all only to see quite a surprise, a familiar looking timberwolf among them...

"Dax?" She half chuckled, "what are you doing?"

Dax sighed pulling the visor of his helmet over his eyes, "Believe it or not, I like the kid."

"Also ain't half bad at find'n 'is way 'round." Mick added, "either way this 'ere's ma team. They're all experienced. Jess what I need. On top o' that, they're decent shots."

It was as tilly stood that the lot looked to the feline, "I'm going too," She said wiping her nose on her forearm, "If not for me he wouldn't be down there anyhow," She said looking to one of the men Mick had gathered, "You give me that..." She motioned toward the shotgun straspped to his back, "you too..." She added pointing to another, receiving the weapons she pulled their straps over her shoulders, "and any spare ammo you might have for them."

Skye shook her head as she looked to Tilly, who now stood by with a rather large shotgun in each hand, "Tilly are you...sure about this?"

Mick patted Tilly's shoulder as he walked by, "Sheila, you know much 'bout Hadians?" Skye simply stared in silence, "didn't think so. Jess leave her be, like it or not...she ain't stay'n on this ship. An' there ain't a thing be done 'bout it, ya wanna get in 'er way? That's yer arse, c'mon boys. S'go get this kid outta there. Jess prep the ship, sheila'll be along in a sec."

As the small crew boarded the waiting transport, Skye barred Tilly's path making certain to look the tall feline in the eyes, "Tilly, if you insist on going please be careful."

Tilly dawned a sweet smile as she knelt down to meet Skye at eye-level, "Captain..." She paused resting a hand on the canine's shoulder, "...Skye. Believe me when I say, that there is no man, woman, or sentient machine out there right now that had better get in my way; because there are few traditions from my home that I hold to, but, he saved my life, that makes it only right that it belongs to him now. And when I get back, I intend to make certain nobody has to sacrifice themselves for me ever again."

Skye chuckled a bit, "Those are very old customs."

"You're right," Tilly chuckled patting Skye's shoulder before heading toward the transport, "just between the two of us girls though, I already liked him. Owing him my life just makes it all much less comploicated."

Skye couldn't believe what she'd just heard but, Hadians were known for having strange traditions, "I guess that's a good enough sign that I have to do something myself," She sighed looking toward the ceiling, "computer get me a line to the bridge, I'm headed there now..."

A short tone caused a somewhat familiar voice to come through as she walked through the halls, "Something I can do for you captain?" It asked.

"Absolutely," She replied, "I'm headed to the bridge now, get me a direct line to the McCloud residence on Corneria, I have a lot of things to go over with Mister McCloud. We're going to need some sort of backup."


-Oribital Gate Station-

-10 minutes later-

Krystal had not been able to hold back all of her thoughts about what was going on around her; Marcus's mind was in a constant state of confusion, poor little Sierra was simply trying to understand her own emotions better, and Fox was currently worrying himself for Marcus's wellbeing. The vixen didn't dare inform Fox of what she'd seen in Marcus's mind, she knew that such a time for a young Cerinian was a difficult one; she didn't care to speculate what he was going through for his own ascension but, she'd never expected it to happen so early in his life either. After a short time however, the vixen stepped into Beltino's old office, now Slippy's only to find Fox finishing with a call he'd received...

"...don't worry," He assured the other person on the line, "I have some news, I need you to get your crewmen off of Titania immediately, the military somehow caught wind of that ship and you don't want the military poking around the Colletta. Fall back to Sauria's orbit, keep there and I'll contact you again as soon as I can."

Watching Fox cut contact with the Colletta, the vixen made her way into the room before finding a place to sit, "Fox, luv..." She sighed, "...there is something about all of this that is troubling me a bit," She began scratching her forearm, "there was a familiar face inside of Marcus's mind from their mission on Fichina. Someone that I have not seen in some good number of years, someone I had all but believed to be dead."

Fox paused for a moment, "This wouldn't have anything to do with that blue fox that Sierra told me about last night while she was taking care of Marcus would it?"

"It would," She sighed a bit heavier this time, "if I am to believe correctly that male Cerinian was somehow connected to my younger sister. I apologize for not having mentioned this before but, like the rest of my family I was under the impression that she was very dead."

"So there were more survivors?"

Krystal nodded, "It would seem so," She replied, "Fox...this is not the biggest concern that I have with her being out here in the Lylat system. Anaya is...well cut from a different cloth. You see this is also regarding that mark you asked about on my shoulder the time we first..."

"You mean that walking A on your shoulder blade?"

Once more his still mysterious wife nodded, "Let me explain further on that question you asked all those years ago before I distracted you by..."

"Tackling me to the bed and doing things of an explicit sexual nature illegal in most parts of the Accord?" He asked with a coy smile.

Krystal rest her cheek in her hand as she shook her head, "To think back on it, it is a bit embarrassing to realize that yes...part of that was to distract you from asking any further questions," She sighed, "but, this could be important, my sister is not someone to take lightly. You see, Cerinia works on a society where certain privilege can be based on your birth and certain aspects of you as a unique individual. Especially with females of a tribe you find that there are some … mild but varying differences. In my case," She said raising her hand a bit causing a light blue glow to surround her hand, "you learned early on about my ability. To accelerate the healing of others by touch alone. Sometimes individuals are gifted at birth with very unique abilities. If my sister is somehow involved in all of this, we have reason to be very concerned. Mother was not certain about my abilities; healers are incredibly rare. My sister did not very much like the attention that such a thing took from her. Father seemed more frighted, and interested with her ability to dominate her enemies minds."

Fox narrowed his eyes in confusion, "You've explained how powerful your dad was," He replied, "what would he have to be afraid of?"

Krystal finally sighed, "Anaya was born with a gift of mental domination. She is very cunning in getting into one's head as well. Her abilities have a bit of a staple in that she requires your willing consent, unfortunately we learned that people can consent to it without knowing it. She … has a flare for smooth talking her victims into compliance. My only real uncertainty is the male that Sierra said was there..." She shook her head, "Fox the males of my species are incredibly dangerous, and I only say that because of their unpredictability and the scope of their mental ability. If you think about it, Marcus is quickly becoming more Telepathically powerful than I am and, I am … not very young."

Fox paused for a moment, "Now that you mention it..."

"Don't ask..." Krystal replied holding a hand up in defense, "...the point is, there is no telling how old this male is and age would only make him that much more dangerous to deal with. On top of that I have no idea whether or not he is like my sister and I; he could very much have just as unique an ability as the two of us. Macrus could very well be the same, but, again there is little to no way of telling because a hybrid like him has never happened before, we were sort of forbidden from leaving Cerinia. There were some that believed that mixing Cerinian blood with anyone outside of our own would lead to horrible things."

"What exactly are you afraid she might be trying to do here?" Fox responded.

Krystal simply shook her head, "I honestly don't know Fox, but, if she reaches out to Marcus it would be for no other reason than to make an attempt at taking hold of his mind. We parted on bitter terms, she claimed that I'd never be happy another day of my life so long as she could help it. Sadly, I believe that she would happily make an attempt at that if she finds the opportunity; both you and Marcus are the weakness that she would be looking for. This just all doesn't seem like her usual style; she was always so ruthless and straightforward, not the individual that thinks things through. But, enough of that for now, what about the Colletta's situation?"

Fox sighed shaking his head, "I gave them a heads up but, something's gone pretty wrong regarding Lamont down on Titania. They've sent a team down to recover him, "

"Well I hope he is alright," Krystal replied, "and more than anything I hope that Anaya is nowhere near them. I am going to have to think hard about what is going on here," She sighed placing a hand on Fox's, "Luv. I would be put at much greater ease about all this however, if you pulled some strings with Marcus's group. A team of Vipers on the Colletta would be a help."

"Well," Fox shook his head, "I'll do what I can, but, I can't make any promises. Rules with those units are flexible but strict."

Though neither of them liked the idea of is all, the only recourse was to find some way to support Skye and the Colletta; they worried about Lamont and on top of that Krystal had given Fox more reason to worry with the thought that her sister might be after their son. For now they could only sit and wait for news from the Colletta and her crew...


-Titania -

- Mobile Refueling Station-

As the small team landed Mick nodded to two of his men pointing off to the east side of the station before guiding the other two to the west. Tilly was not familiar with these kinds of military situations but, she did know how to survive a fight and for the time being that was all she needed to know; she'd guided the team to land where she had taken off from the first time which was where they now stood. Looking about the area, the young Argon at her side seemed to ignore the very active drones now scurrying about the area, what did attract him however was a small pool of blood not very far from their current location. As Tilly noticed the blood she quickly rushed over only to have one of the croc's large arms bar her path...

"Don't rush off sheila," He replied, "nowhere near 'nuff ta kill someone. Also take a look o'er there..." He said tilting his head toward a trail of blood leading away from them, "...whoever took the kid, they're call'n us out ta play."

Tilly shook her head, "I have no intentions of disappointing them."

"Me neither," Mick replied, "but, no sense loose'n yer 'ead 'bout it. Art says these blokes are, bio..." He paused, "...bio..." Exhaling angrily he simply sighed, "...Ah hell! The fucker's are live'n robots; but, they're sloppy. This ain't done by a pro, obviously not their primary function. Either that, or this were all done on the fly..."

"If that was the case," Tilly replied, "why take Lamont?" The feline's face froze in a moment of revelation, "unless...they were ordered not to kill, but, why?"

Mick shook his head, "Not fer us ta know," He replied leading on, "right now we just gotta get the boy back before we have ta head out. Trust me we don't wanna be 'round 'ere when someone starts investigate'n that ship. Ah sure don't. Sides that, Skye wants this done quick, so less get go'n. I'm take'n point looks like they went this way. Stay quiet."

Keeping her borrowed weapons ready, Tilly followed after the large reptilian as they entered a large complex located at the furthest end of the facility. Like the rest of the place, it was all metal and pipes littered about with seemingly archaic machinery. The tiny trail of blood continued to lead them further along while the young leopard continuously observed the many drones shuffling about, performing some mundane task or other to which she was certain was all in preparation for something. The massive ship in orbit was however stricken from her thoughts, it was far too large to land in such a place, the major point to the whole place was still clear but, now there was the question of; if not the ship currently in orbit why was it there? Did it have a connection? There only seemed to gather so many more questions without answers, now however the very last thing she found she needed to worry about no matter her thoughts it all simply continued to come back around to Lamont and what he'd done to keep her safe. A strange sound from far behind them caused Tilly to whip about, one of her shotguns cracking to attention before quickly turning back to now face an empty hallway. The sudden disappearance of her guide, added one more thing that made no sense. How could someone so large and massive with muscle, with such heavy footsteps suddenly vanish without a trace or sound? Regardless of all matters at the time, the leopard quickly rushed off with her weapons at a constant ready;, she was never much of a marksman but, with her weapons of choice there was no need for marksmanship, a close enough blast from a eight gauge shell even at a medium distance would ruin just about anyone's day even a robot's. As she headed toward the main complex, fallowing a scent was simple enough once she found a trace of it. It had already been months since meeting Lamont for the first time, working in the hangers of the Colletta together in such heat and hard work, she was more than familiar with his unique scent. It led her down halls much more torn and shabby than the rest of the place. Even to someone as weakly studied as she was such a situation was clear, it was all a trap if she'd ever seen one; everything was so blatant and out in the open, no normal person would leave such clear clues of a person's trail.

Leading through the halls of the once, seemingly abandoned, facility Tilly found that the majority of space was fairly empty still. It was not long before finally the young leopard sighed with partial relief at the sight of Lamont, though beaten and bloody still unconscious but clearly breathing inside of what looked to be a large cage, most likely built specifically for holding prisoners. Her only problem now became the act of getting close enough without being noticed, though there were no signs of his attackers. Making certain that she stayed out of sight, hidden behind a corner in the hall, a sudden twitch of her ear caused the feline to swing about the barrel of her shotgun pressed violently against the underside of a large reptile's snout, not surprisingly with nothing more than a smile on his face...

"Take it easy there Sheila," He chuckled using two fingers to push the barrel away from his face, "didn't find much. Circled 'round a bit, six of 'em in there."

Tilly shook her head, "How do you do that?"

"Lil' trick I picked up on Nexus," Mick replied, "walk'n patterns, n breath'n n such. Call it Shadowstep'n."

Readying her weapons, Tilly looked back to Mick, "I don't like the way he's laying there. Just cover me for now. I can handle anything that gets too close."

Without waiting for his acknowledgment of the situation, Tilly rushed off toward the cage at the back of the room where Lamont still lay, breathing but motionless. Uncertain of the dangers that might yet lurk in the room, she quickly rushed toward the cage with the two shotguns at the ready. It was clear enough to Mick that anything unfortunate enough to get directly within her line of sight would have to weather a storm they'd be ill prepared for. It didn't take long for the unseen predators of the room to move on their new targets either; the first Mick had only just noted the sight of, a thunderbolt of fire and sound roared from his canon sending the strange cat-like creature spiraling from the top of the cage, electricity from it's shorting cloaking coursing through it's form as it skipped off of the far side of the cage before thudding onto the ground below. A similar sounding gunshot drew his attention partially to the young Hedian, who's grip on the shotgun in her left hand climbed upward while the head and front shoulders of one of the strange robots burst into a spray of thick fragments and organic fluids; it what seemed like an act of precognition, she then swung the weapon in her off hand over the crook of her opposite elbow the following shot catching a partially unseen attacker just below it's neck. The impact of this shot dragged the creature from the air, the massive hole in it's neck all but severing it's head completely. Several more times the predatory robots seemed to come from nowhere, but, every one of them seemed to be met with another blast from the angered feline's weapons, as she moved about in a strange dance of gunshots and clubbing blows from the weapons' barrels. After finally discarding one of the two weapons due to it's reserves being spent, she finally found herself at the door of the cage, another blast from the weapon tearing away the mechanism used to lock the door. Finally seated beside Lamont, his labored breathing and the state of his eyes were obvious signs that he'd been drugged, most likely with a rather powerful tranquilizer; while there she looked back to Mick's position only to partially reject what she saw there. The reptile was barely recognizable in the state he was in; all about him lay the bodies of others which had attempted to get through the main door, leaving him covered from head to toe in the same thick, nearly black fluid they seemed to bleed. From the body that lay the closest to him the Argon tore the thick heft of a massive blade from it's side, wiping it on the leg of his pants before reaching behind his back and placing it back into an unseen scabbard; it seemed impossible to count the number that lay in his wake, amidst all the fractured bodies and pieces, from her distance she could not tell where one ended and the next began. Not bothering with any formalities, of to the fact that Lamont was clearly attempting to speak out; Tilly threw the young vulpine up and over the shoulder of her free hand with menial effort. On their way out, the two stopped as Mick checked with the small communicator he carried…

"Tanner, Morres,"He called into the device, "we've got 'em, pull out now."

The voice that came back was shaky at best, "Rodger. Tanner here, Morres is down and out. We returned to the ship after we heard the commotion, but the ship was surrounded. We gunned our way through most of them but, Morres went down they tore him appart sir."

Mick grimaced for a moment before looking away, "Alright , you 'ave the body?"

"Of course," Tanner replied, "no man left behind no matter what condition he's in."

Mick sighed as he wiped a bit of the fluid from his face, flicking the thick substance from his fingertips as the two headed out, "Good, get the ship ready. We'll get 'is affairs in order once we get back."

Back over the same line another familiar voice echoed between them, "Look guys I don't wanna push you or anything and there's no pressure but…" They paused, "…you might wanna shake your asses into gear!" The individual half shouted, "I'm picking up four different ships coming out of Hyperspace not far from here, and we don't have much of a window, they're all sporting Cornerian military coding."

"Give us five." Mick responded.

The voice scoffed back over the line, "You've got three."

"Beauty," Mick replied with a half laugh, "jess get that thing ready ta move."

Rushing through the shoddy looking streets of the massive complex, Mick seemed to stop here and there placing something along the walls of the facility as they traveled. Finally however, he stopped near one of the massive silos clearly meant for the harvested gases where he placed one final small device. To Tilly it was adamantly clear what it was he was up to; placing small devices along the building on their way out, she only wondered how big the blast would be considering the amount of combustible gases there were aboard a station so large. A short distance later, the snow leopard handed Lamont's body off to one of the three waiting for them aboard the drop ship, which was instantly airborne and high into the atmosphere when Mick looked back through one of the small ports, the small stick he held displaying a red light until the trigger on the side was depressed. Tilly managed to look out her own small port window in time to see the second explosion practically cut the roaming facility in half, nothing more than an enormous fireball becoming visible as the explosions each chimed in one after another the final one clearly the device he'd placed near the storage container. The sheer size of the last explosion was like a massive firework, shrapnel spraying off in every direction as the facility was dashed to splinters and cast into the wind; a satisfying display if no more satisfying than the idea of how angry it would inevitably make the individuals who'd managed the facility. The trip back to the Colletta was a silent one, clearly the pilot had known their fallen comrade for some time. The moment the drop ship made it back to dock however, the Colletta tore away at it's safest possible speed. The derelict craft that had jumped into the planet's orbit would clearly be recovered by the military, There was now no solid direction in view, and all they could do was sit and wait…uncertain what was waiting around the corner…