AN: Hey everyone I'm back; so unfortunately the flash freeze here in Texas set me back in a major way. The piping under the house was all ruined, many electrical wires shorted out and had to be replaced, my computer blew a hard drive ... somehow ... and I had to start all my work here all over from scratch. On top of everything else, my car got wrecked LOL anyhoo. With all of that said I still managed to finish this chapter, apologies that it was so late in the making.
Anyhow remember to let me know how this thing is turning out; and hopefully i can get the neck chapter up in a lot less time.
The footsteps in the darkness ~ SkullFox
Xenass Falling
Maryk stood alone in the small kitchen in the high rise apartment; it all lay on the sixty-third floor of a rather large block near the northern section of the city. He actually loved the look of the place and it very much reminded him of the places she often set him up with when he was in this city or that back in the day. There was privacy this high up, it was difficult to get your business absorbed by the masses when you were nearly a hundred stories off the ground. The apartment was fairly minimalist in nature, something that he never really expected of Tanya, yet also seemed to suit her quite well. It almost seemed like a studio; one massive living room with several spaces like closets, a rather large bathroom to one side, and a single wall separating the kitchen from the living room while leaving a small opening which acted like a sort of bar counter between them. The living room was decorated only so much, with a single rather huge flatscreen on one wall, nearly opposite of that was a large, clearly specially designed computer centered around a large desk. Near the center of he wall opposite of the television, a perfectly round bed rested, it was a rather large thing, all read and covered in pillows. Resting at the center of the red was the golden brown feline whom set up, eyes still shut, on her forearms an arch trailing down her spine as she stretched in a very feline manner ending at the tip of her tail before she simply flopped back into place. Maryk had seen her do this several times before, and she seemed to even do this in her sleep from what he could tell. He turned his attention back to the sizzling pain in his hand; cooking had always been one of the little hobbies that he kept to himself in the days when he still had his popularity, now that he looked around it was easy to tell that Tanya had always been one of his biggest fans as well, several of his old posters sat around the room, one even hung just inside the doorway to the apartment not that far from where the kitchen was. It made him wonder just low long Tanya had felt this way about him, all the lost time sort of sucked. It all made him draw his mind back to the breakfast he was cooking, it had been a while since he had actually cooked anything for someone other than himself, and for a stretch he'd never done so in the buff before, however, in this particular situation, he was hungry and was certain Tanya would be and had failed to find his pants. As attractive as Tanya was, he found it hard to believe that she'd not satisfied her urges in some time, but she had been fairly insatiable the last few days he'd been there. They'd only really gone out twice and each of those times she hadn't exactly kept her hands to herself; it was later determined that they were both better off simply staying in her apartment. Maryk was finishing with the food he'd prepared, settling it equally on two plates before a pair of stealthy hands crept around his neck from over his shoulders, he could only smile and shake his head, man cats sure were sneaky. Her hands rolled over his body, taking time for her delicate fingers to trace the detailed lines in his muscular form. She rest her head on his shoulder as her hands moved along his thick abs before he jumped a bit as her hand very suddenly moved lower grabbing him intimately...
"Do you ever stop?" He chuckled turning to where her head lay on his shoulder.
Tanya made a sound he could only call a muffled giggle, "You had no real complaints last night."
"Yeah," Maryk chuckled a bit as he felt her grind her above average breasts into his back, "but, last night had build up. I'm just making breakfast."
The cougar murred in his ear, "I've always loved muscles, and you're covered in them. Helps that you're both smart and really good looking too. Hard to find a guy that has it all, or at least most of it all." She chuckled giving him a gentle tug.
Maryk smiled as he turned to face her, "Really? See I thought you just had a cat's libido and no outlet for several years."
Tanya rubbed her face against his cheek, "Really?" She asked, "is that what you think? Maybe I just really like you?'
Maryk chuckled as he continued his cooking, taking a moment before finally serving out two plates of the wonderfully aromatic mixture, "Well that is a much better outlook," He looked down for a moment before turning his gaze back to the feline handing from his body, "though your grip sort of leaves a little more to the question."
Tanya smiled impishly for a moment, "Well, I have no real tell of when I might have something like this to hold onto again."
"Well," Maryk replied managing to pull away from her grip and find a seat, which he'd found shockingly cold against his bare ass, "food's pretty important so, eat up. I heard your stomach while you were sleeping, so you can't tell me you're not hungry."
It was a rather long silence compared to all the time they'd spent together since he'd arrived at Xenass at least it was before Tanya set down her fork and took a moment to study the wolf's face, "You're worried about something."
Maryk sighed as he pushed a bit of sausage around on his plate, "Yeah, guess you could say that," He replied, "it's been a lot longer than I'd planned on staying, and yet...I don't know, I guess some part of me was hoping that Marcus would have come back by now, or at least called me. I've been trying to reach him but, I think he's pretty much determined to stay lost."
"What happened?" The young cougar asked.
Maryk nodded almost as if to answer some internal question to himself, "Fell pretty hard for a girl," He replied, "he's been chasing after her for a while from what I hear. Then he recently found her..." He smiled at Tanya, "...showing some young bo the business. I've always seen him as, you know, forward thinking and ready to handle any situation...but, I've never seen him loose complete confidence in himself so quickly as I do every time she's nearby."
Tanya chewed a small bit of the food in front of her; a medley of sausage and bacon chunks sauteed with vegetables and potatoes; she was amazed at how something so simple managed to call up so many flavors but, she also understood more of what Maryk was saying than he knew, "I know all too well..." She replied lowering her head toward her plate but managing to fix her eyes on him, "...what it's like to be ignored or shunned by someone you care so much about. I feel sorry for him. I hope he's alright."
Maryk nodded, "He's stronger than he looks. Hell he's stronger than even he thinks he is," He paused, "so...on that note. What stopped you from ever saying something before? You know, making a move or something?"
The feline set down her fork and rested her elbows on the table and her chin on her fists, "Well there was the obvious note that I'm no home wrecker and you were obviously in a serious relationship with HER," She replied, a heavy growl setting into the word 'her', "after that I was more concerned for you overall well-being than how I felt," She chuckled, "funny thing is I actually did pony up the courage to talk to you about it but...then I walked into your apartment and...you were..." A tear trailed through the fur on her face before she wiped a forearm across her eyes, "...just laying there, you were barely breathing. I guess after you recovered I just didn't want to make you remember anything that would bring back any memories of her," She finished, "so, when you seemed to be stable again. I figured it was a good time to start pestering you about it."
Maryk chuckled a bit, "Well, for all it's worth. I'm glad you showed up when you did," He sighed, "when I think back to it that was the single stupidest mistake I've ever made. I mean I can't blame Abby for anything that happened; after all, before they threw that money at her she was basically homeless. I still feel bad that she'd do something like that without any reserve but, I'm a lot angrier at all the people that pushed her into it really. If they could have just accepted things the way they were, maybe that shit with David wouldn't have happened; but considering how quickly he eighty-sixed my ass when shit got rough, maybe I was wrong regardless.."
Finished with her own plate the feline stood and pulled herself onto the table in as exotic a way as she could manage while taking Maryk's fork and spearing a lump of meat from his plate before gently placing it into his mouth, "Well, then I guess I'm gonna have to use all the time I have to make you forget alllllllll about it."
Maryk leaned forward surprising Tanya as he placed his hands on either side of her head before pulling her into a rather deep kiss before finally pulling away after a moment leaving the cougar chewing a bit of sausage she'd picked up from somewhere, "You are..." He paused with a smile, "...absolutely insatiable...you know that right?"
Tanya paused, set back a bit, "I thought you said kissing like that was only for certain cases."
"I think you may qualify as one of those cases," He replied smiling at her, "consider that a very late apology."
"And everything else?" The feline chuckled.
Maryk made certain to look her in the eyes as a hand playfully batted at her swaying breasts, "You working out some rather heavily pent up sexual frustrations toward me," He chuckled causing her to let out a surprised giggle as he swept her off the counter and into his arms carrying her across the room, "and now it's my turn."
He wasn't certain what woke him up, as he'd learned over the lost days of which he couldn't recall how many he'd spent with the young cougar, that anytime he woke in bed hours had been spent getting to that point. He woke with a start only to find that Tanya was laying face down into her pillow, the sight and her muffled snores caused him to chuckle to himself before a light shaking of the room caused him to become aware of the strange feeling he'd been getting before. As gently as he could Maryk slid out of the bed and stretched his back before making his way toward the massive window that overlooked the city below. The horror instantly washed over his face as he took in the sights below; several areas of the city billowed dark smoke as another tremor shot through the building, a far off explosion was muffled by distance as a far off building collapsed. Getting his clothing back on Maryk rushed over and gently shook Tanya who grabbed his wrist pulling him toward her...
"About time you learned your lesson." She purred at him.
Maryk shook her again this time a bit more violently, "Seriously get the D off your mind for one minute. There was an explosion in the city," He paused to turn on the television which displayed a news report of the incident, "I'll be right back, I have to find the rest of my stuff fill me in if I miss anything."
Maryk vanished into the back of the apartment; in the bathroom at the far end of the living space he found his communicator and quickly found that there was nothing that he could actually do; both Marcus and Sierra were simply unavailable to contact. He went through several other channels before finally reaching HQ where he was asked to hold while the person on the other line managed to reach someone a little higher up the chain. Upon returning to the living room however, he'd found that Tanya's attitude had returned to normal, she was fully dressed and had a headset on while holding a finger up to her lips to tell Maryk to keep quiet while she worked over her computer at a rather amazing speed...
"The fuck do you mean you don't know?" She demanded clearly into her headset, "I woke up to the damn apocalypse out there and I wanna know why," She paused shaking her head with exasperation, "real mature Katelyn; for your information yes I was, yes he is, and no you can't. Just get what info you can," She paused this time waving Maryk to make his way to her, "okay so it seems to be a random attack? That doesn't make any sense. Yeah, I'm turning this so we can all hear, he's a Viper so this might be need to know. Go ahead."
The feline pressed a button on her headset and an unfamiliar voice echoed through the room, "Hey there, you're with Viper, right?"
Maryk nodded to nobody in specific, "I am Sigma Zero, we're currently off duty. If you need it let HQ back on Corneria know something going on here. Just relay the phrase 'Sigma Zero. Tango Xenass. Twenty-one, fourteen, thirty-seven, twenty-eight, fifty. If you're still not trusted tell them you were told to relay a message to Angela Sanders from Maryk Steel and it is at the very least Code Red importance. Then fill them in on everything going on here," He sighed, "before that when did all this start?"
The loud sound of the unknown female 's fingers clattering across a keyboard was all he heard for a moment, "Well it started several hours ago. Some nutjobs apparently ran into a local office building and blew it up, since then there's been multiple buildings reporting the same shit. It doesn't make any sense at all."
Maryk nodded, "Have there been any live reports?"
"Just one," The stranger replied, "the local Enforcers caught one of the freaks alive and their report says something about him raving about the voices. Strange thing is that it's not just going on there, there was a similar situation on Katina, and I'll not get into what that's caused with all the other issues that are going around. Now Katina thinks that Corneira is enacting some sort of coup and they're talking about forming up an armada. I have no idea what's going on but the situation is falling to shit."
Maryk shook his head, "Doesn't make sense," He replied, "why would all of this go down and nothing seem to be at the cause of any of it? There has to be a reason for this attack...didn't just come out of nowhere," Suddenly the room went dark and bright red lights began flashing through the room while a blaring alarm causing Maryk to look to the ceiling, "...fuck me. That's not good."
The siren blared several long, shrill peel before a rather calm tone of three chimes rang out drawing everyone's attention, the room filled with a strange monotone voice, "Warning, this is a "Red Coded" alert. Geo-sync engines running at sixty-five percent capacity. This station is now entering a stable but decaying orbit around a large celestial body. All residents and visitors are heavily suggested to make way to the nearest possible escape craft. Orbit will fully decay in Tee minus three hours twenty six minutes."
Maryk shook his head again, "Not nearly enough time for everyone here," He said, "how can I get to that engine room. If nothing else I can power everything enough to get this station away from the planet. Derelict is better than screaming toward the surface of Papetoon."
There was a moment of loud keyboard typing from over the intercom before Tanya's friend spoke up, "Looks like it's located in an area that's been off limits for ages. Pretty much only one group of engineers goes down there once every year. The access elevator is near the center of the city, I'm sending a map."
"Good," Maryk sighed, quickly grabbing the young cougar by the shoulder and swinging her to face him before plating a heavy kiss on her lips, she seemed completely stunned as he pushed her back, "Just in case," He smiled, "look you know what my ship looks like. I want you to take whatever is most important with you and get down there as soon as possible..."
"But..."
The wolf placed a finger against her lips, "Just shut up and listen. If you don't see me in the next two hours, get the hell away and do it quickly. Go to Beltino's Gate Station, let them know I...I didn't make it," Another moment passed and the screen in front of them was replaced with a wireframe layout map of the station which could be manipulated at will, "good, send that to my communicator. I have to go."
Suddenly Tanya called out causing him to stop, one leg out her door, "Wait a second you don't have any weapons!"
Maryk gave her a spry smile as he held up his right hand, a serpentine crackle of blue electricity laced up his forearm crackling across his fingertips before trailing back down his arm and vanishing into his shoulder, "I am a weapon."
As Maryk made his way out and down the hallway, the voice from the other end of the line caused Tanya's eyes to narrow, "Seriously your friend sounds pretty hot. Maybe you can introduce us..."
Tanya practically growled, "What the fuck did I just finish telling you?"
Down on the street Maryk found that the entire city sounded like a war zone; gunfire of all verieties rang out in the distance, from the earshattering crack of archaic, powder fed shots to the humming whine of a blaster fire, the dull thump of explosives in the distance told him that the fighting was much worse than even he'd thought it might have been. Screams of panic echoed through the streets as well, with no vehicle to make use of, nearby however he made out a shape he was certain would take him anywhere he needed to go. The little motorcycle was a familiar model, dark gray, a quick glance about the area told Maryk that there was likely nobody around. With little care to what would happen if he was caught, the dark furred wolf lay his hand over the ignition, sending a course of electricity through the vehicle causing it to roar to life, hot-wiring has no meaning when you can directly impact the starting cylinders. It was a moment before he realized how long it had been since the last time he'd taken control of a bike and upon laying on the throttle the vehicle skid to one side before he wrestled it back in the other direction before, after a moment managing to catch his balance proper, he tore down the street while syncing his communicator with the navigator on the visor of the bike. The setup of all Viper units' communicators has always been jacked into a central network joined only by that individual's other teammates, though easily accessed by any other team or through command. Each system is run by a specified A.I with unlimited access to internal systems and a wealth of information. Tearing down the street, Maryk's ears perked up against the familiar sound of an affirming tone...
"Shadow," He called to the unseen A.I, "link into this map and get me to the stabilizer engines for the Geo-sync system."
The voice was programmed as that of a rather smooth spoken fellow, "I understand and was well aware as the download was commencing. I have mapped out six direct routes from your current heading. Two which are heavily blocked by unknown damage and vehicular collisions."
The visor of a windshield in front of him was the same as any other vehicle's, allowing the AI to upload an overlaying image of the city streets as well as paths it was showing him, "Gimme this path of west and fifth. Can you get me a feed on any cameras in the area where this trouble is popping up?"
As Maryk expertly tore through the streets dodging oncoming traffic and panicking pedestrians, several small images appeared before his face allowing him a view of what havoc was going on. In one several individuals with guns were raiding buildings, throwing what looked like homemade firebombs, in another numerous explosions tore into local buildings, yet another and individuals were gunning each other down in the streets. So far as he could tell everything was the norm in the area, just escalated to a massive scale. What stood out to him most was that the attackers all seemed to be from Undercity. Originally the station known as Xenass, was nothing more than a roaming resort colony considerably the largest resort ever made under it's own atmospheric dome. Unfortunately, this paradise in the sky turned out to be far too inviting and many resort goers refused to leave, because of this the facilities continued to grow until a city formed, and more and more goers became stayers until the facilities began pushing individuals of so called "lower class" to areas where maintenance tunnels and support structures were kept. This seeded underbelly of Xenass slowly developed into it's own city as people there were forced to build upon the area for protection from whatever elements there were. This place eventually labeled "Sector 5" after the law by the same name claiming that any structure of an unhealthy or otherwise unclean living condition was not considered livable, was well known for attracting the poor or malicious, they'd never gone to these lengths though. He shook his head, none of it made any sense...
"Shadow, these attacks don't make any sense," He pointed out veering violently out of the way of a passing vehicle, "it's like they're unprovoked angry outbursts."
The smooth voice in his headset shot back, "Similar reports are beginning to surface as far into the system as Fichina. Upheaval, general crime rates, murder, kidnappings, arson, the numbers are climbing faster than ever reported in the past fifty years of Lylatian history."
"What about the interior of the engine rooms here?" Maryk asked, "we can worry about other places later."
Shadow's familiar voice seemed to pause for a moment, "The engine rooms are currently empty. Whomever sabotaged the engines has clearly departed, all likely possibility points to a hasty escape of the colony."
Maryk veered violently past another car, this time jumping the curb to a local walkway, several onlookers dove out of his path as he finally broke back onto the streets, "These people are out of their fucking minds," He shouted over the outside racket, "we'll work on everything else later, hopefully the others are doing better about all this than I am. My god I wish Marcus was here he'd have already thought this all through and come up with a theory. All I can do is try to get these engines back online and buy us all a little more time, this decaying orbit isn't gonna last forever and if this station collided with Papetoon...well you're a computer i'm sure you can figure the damages better than I can."
"Two hundred seventy-four, point three two five six tons," Shadow chimed back in, "the facility will not fall at a rate formulaic of a comet or meteor but, the impact will still be severe," The disembodied voice reported, "should we land upon an ocean, which would become the best case scenario, the ensuing tidal surge would be sufficient enough to cause the loss of hundreds, if not thousands of lives. Worst case scenario however, would be that we collided with any sort of heavily populated metropolitan area..." There was a very life like pause in the AI's voice, "...the damages would be...absolute. It would be the equivalent of dropping a city into another city at rather high velocity...there would more than likely no survivors."
Maryk shook his head as he finally saw the sights he was looking for, it looked like any normal sewer cover. Thanks to his own musculature, removing the heavy metal cover was not much of a problem before he haphazardly dropped into the open tunnel below, being rewarded with a sharp sting that shot up through his legs from his feet as he landed on a solid catwalk rather than the wet dank sludge one would have expected. Never really finding much of a need for the shoulder mounted lights he often saw Marcus carrying, instead he always had something on his person that would allow him a similar boon. Reaching into his pocket, he came out with a small coil about his finger, which he then twisted into a braid with a loop at each end before placing one loop over his thumb and the other over his forefinger, a touch of electricity and the filament cord soon glowed brightly, illuminating the entirety of the area around him, it would burn out in about an hour but he planned on being out of the place by then. Outside of the lit areas the tunnel was oppressively dark; it all caused him to think back to the last time he'd required Shadow's help with anything; sure the AI was helpful with most things but, he rarely saw situations that were this dire or severe, whatever the case he was happy to have his disembodied companion when he did need it's help. The trip through the underground was another such moment; the tunnel seemed to turn and wind in on itself as it led further and further toward Undercity. The facility led from what felt like maintenance tunnels toward something more akin to the inner sections of a large ship of some kind. Huge pipes lined the corridors, the uncomfortably low ceiling hung ever lower as he advanced, and the more he continued along his path the more he felt he'd never reach the engine rooms that lay far beneath him.
Maryk found more twits and turns that he simply could not fathom the corridors felt like they went on forever until finally he found it let out into a massive chamber. It resembled the engine room of a larger space craft of most sorts; there were pipes and leads everywhere running to the simply enormous engine housings that both reached high over his head and far below the floor. Each housing contained it's own system panel but, the one he sought lay near the very rear of this monstrous room. The panel was old, far older than he'd thought it would be; how long had the colony been out there? The interface was crude and old, something he'd never seen even when he was a child. Forking through everything he could and as rapidly as he could. A long time seemed to pass before he finally shook his head angrily...
"Shadow," Maryk growled, "what's the situation here? I can't make hide or hair of it. Are the engines recoverable?"
There was a long moment before a response, "Systems have been drained; primary engines are completley offline and have presumably been in disrepair for quite some time. The station was never meant to land or lift off."
"What about stabilizers? Can we at least steer this thing?"
Another moment passed, "Affirmative. Port side Dynamic Orbital Engines are fully functional. Unfortunately due to gross drainage of renewable fuel reserves, both power and longevity will be heavily limited."
Maryk shook his head with a sigh, "Fuck it!" He half shouted throwing up his hands, "in that case you know what to do. Best case scenario this piece of crap."
Another moment of pause passed and a slight tone affirmed that the order had been taken, "Firing all port side stabilizers to full, and calculating orbital rotation of nearby celestial body," A brief moment caused the voice to come back, "current orbital rotation will allow for maximum efficiency. Impact will take place precisely two thousand four hundred twenty miles from the nearest body of inhabited land. Upon entering atmosphere the colony should pitch to port side allowing the stabilizers to act as temporary thrusters, with this data I can possibly lessen the impact considerably."
"Good," Maryk sighed heavily, "at least that's a lesser problem. Now I just have to get the hell off this thing before I become a statistic."
There was a minor vibration all throughout the colony beas the engines fired, rattling in protest against the ever increasing hold the gravity of Papetoon forced onto it. The vibrations would only increase as the now impotent ship entered a lower orbit; as the fires of atmospheric entry would burn across the face of the place, Maryk doubted that the dome's ability to hold up, likewise the interior of the facilities was going to get hotter than life would permit. He had not knowledge of how long it took him to reach the same hatch through which he'd gained access to the corridors, however, he knew it had been over an hour when his filament sparked, popped, and finally burned out. It was not much longer before he finally found he was at the hatch and as he pulled himself to the top rung he heard the sound of his escape tearing off through the alleyway, he pulled himself up and through the manhole cover just in time to see the tail end of the red motorcycle leave a spread of rubber as the driver swung it violently to one side and disappeared behind a building. The black wolf sighed heavily as he swore under his breath as he felt a violent rumble rock through the resort causing him to loose his footing for a moment; his third hour was up, the colony had broken orbit and was now on it's final descent. Rushing out into the street it was not difficult to procure a new vehicle before rushing toward the ports of the city, he was happy to find no trace of his own ship, which meant that Tanya had clearly followed his instructions. With a heavy sigh of relief he began to search the area for a means of escape until he noticed what appeared to be a large, muscular figure standing and staring out of the docks...
"Hey buddy gimme a hand over here and we could...es...cape?" His last two word broke into two parts as the individual turned to face him, of course he'd never recognize him from behind, "What the fuck?...Um...Shadow?"
Maryk was stunned, as standing not a hundred yards from him was...him. How was he standing near the docks and beside a half destroyed ship at the same time? Despite the obvious similarities there was something, off about his double; his muscles looked as though they could burst at any moment, here and there he noticed what almost looked like veins of dark red light running through his body, and more than anything his eyes were pitch black and lifeless with a plume of black smoke ebbing from the unseen orbs beneath the thick black coat of fur...
"Shadow?" Maryk half whispered taking a gingerly step back, "the fuck am I looking at?"
There was an unusual static as the voice crackled in, "Error..." He paused, "...both digital and biological scans show nothing, presently there is only one bio-signature standing within the docking area. Diagnosis: Unknown."
As he stood by the figure across the way began to flash a sadistic smile filled with pearl daggers as it's face curled into a hateful snarl as what started as a hulking step forward quickly broke into a stampeding charge. Standing his ground Maryk prepared himself, maybe this was a hallucination, after all there was no way that he could be physically charging himself. His mind was snapped back to reality as the strange thing collided with him like a runaway freight train. He felt the ripple tear through his sinew, rattling his bones, lifting him violently from his purchase and hurling him violently across the hard metal floor rolling side over side until Maryk managed to get his footing back and rolled back to a solid stance. Whatever it was, it had closed a gap of a hundred or more yards in a short number of seconds, and he feared to think about the impact itself. His ribs felt as though something was either broken, or heavily strained, he wiped a bit of blood from his lip from his unprompted tumble. He spit a bit of blood while taking a moment study his strange opponent...
"You wanna run that scan again?" Maryk scoffed, "because unknown hits pretty fucking hard."
The figure did not seem natural, not only did it look like something out of a twisted nightmare of himself, it simply stood there, still smiling, glaring at him as it cocked it's head to one side almost as if to say; Your turn. Maryk grimaced as he rolled his neck resulting in a loud, painful pop. Breathing deep through his nose, he refused to let such a thing last longer than it needed to. Dropping low Maryk charged in raising his head as he covered the distance they stood at in an instant; whatever it was quickly proved how little it was actually like him however; as a thick deadly punch swung wide over Maryk's head as he dropped low, sliding on one outstretched foot, the other curled beneath him as he sat on his heel. Catching a grip at the stranger's side, he pulled himself in close sliding into a full grip about it's waist before whipping himself into a violent suplex, aching his back with all the force his body had to offer. The result was likely the single most violent, jarring, and instantly lethal throw he'd ever performed, the German suplex driving the stranger tightly onto the top of his head rather than his shoulders. The crack of the creature's skull impacting the metal surface of the port's floor caused Maryk to physically shudder, it was possibly the most horrifying sound he'd ever encountered, as what was left of the freak's head vanished up into what was left of it's massively thick neck. He released his grip and rolled away leaving his doppelganger laying there, who did not quite fall over, rather it's legs simply slumped in such a way that it stayed in the position the throw had left it in. He stood there for a moment studying the thing as he gently tapped the toe of his boot against it's back...
"Shadow, you get all of that?"
The voice was still full of static as it came back, "Affirmative, full sensor relay shows no lifeform, yet all video and audio record clear presence of another form matching that of one Maryk Steel."
"Forget about him," Maryk replied, "is there any way out of here?"
Shadow still hissed and popped as if through some sort of interference, "Nearby drop pod in full functionality. Reintegration of systems seem to fall within ten minutes..."
Maryk suddenly heard the body fall and turned to see that, to his horror the nearly headless figure was slowly working it's way to it's feet, "I think we may need you to speed that up a bit."
"Foregoing certain non-vital components could reduce times by up to eight minutes."
Maryk nodded as he watched in shocked horror as the now standing creature's head seemed to reappear from a blank plume of black smog, "Do it...quickly..."
The strange thing once again assumed it's previous state of smiling at him evilly before dashing again in at him; this time not only did the same massive right hook fly high overhead, as Maryk dropped to dodge the blow, a knee rocketed up into his chin, followed by a left uppercut that drove the wind from his lungs and is compressed his stomach violently. Again the right shot in, clearly aimed for the tip of his muzzle but, catching a sudden hold of his faculties; Maryk tilted his head to the right and reached up locking his massive arms around the equally thick limb before twisting on his heel. As he did this Maryk thrust his left arm up and under the creature's armpit before swinging him over his shoulder in an incredibly violent version of a Hip Toss. He cried out in rage as his exertion drove the familiar body back first into the metal floor creating a very Maryk sized imprint, had the creature not earlier managed to heal so quickly from having it's head exploded, he would have been certain he'd shattered it's spine. Instead of releasing, Maryk drove his foot down into the fake's shoulder before wrenching it sickeningly to the left and again to the right, a series of horrific snaps sounding off before finally he growled as he tore the limb fully from the socket and body and discarded it into a nearby pile of rubble. As expected, the phantom wolf stood slowly, as it's broken body slowly knitted itself back to whole again, this time the attack came quick, hard, and without rest. The series of thrown blows came hard and fast, each one carried a wind with it that rested fear in Maryk's mind, if any strike before hadn't intended to kill him each of these had. The wind from each blow was like a pulse of air from a passing vehicle and as deft as he'd always been, the damage he'd already taken was enough to slow him and finally he tasted the impact of a kick that swung up into his chest; the strike lifted him into the air and much in Maryk's own manner of fighting, as the black wolf crested in a six foot arch, the stranger rushed in catching the airborne wolf by the thighs in a way that rested Maryk's knees over it's shoulders. It hoisted him into the familiar, and deadly position of a Power Bomb, and as if in slow motion Maryk felt the snap of force suddenly shoot him toward the ground, however, rather than to have his back shattered. In the instant before he reached the ground Maryk locked his ankles behind the aggressor's head and swung his upper body in between his attacker's legs. The shifted momentum turned the entire attack around and about and Maryk's grip on the stranger's neck robbed him of gravity's hold as the flip continued driving the creature once more headfirst into the metal floor, this time however, Maryk was not finished. The black wolf leaped to his feet and rushed to the enemy wrapping his thick arms around the fake's waist, lifting him until his double lay waist down over his shoulder and brought him down onto his head once more as if he were a giant fleshy sledgehammer. The resounding impact shook Maryk to his core, and the sickening crunch of multiple bones powdering under the force made his stomach churn, again he lifted and drive the creature down, and again, and again. He lost count of the number of slams he'd delivered before noticing that the creature's tall bulk had been diminished by nearly one half it's original size before he finally and very violently threw the worthless heap to the side.
Taking a step Maryk found that his knees refused to carry him further, the final assault he'd launched had taken every bit of fight he had left in him. Whatever there was left he'd have to use to get into the pod; following direction he found that it was a drop pod, most likely part of some mechanic's collection of some sort as Hell Pods, as they were affectionately called, were just not used anymore. The concept was solid back in the day; a single manned pod that used an onboard G-diffuser unit to save the individual inside from the impact of colliding with the ground after reentry. The only real problem was the inefficiency of the older G-diffuser systems which had a habit of seizing up, add that to near ridiculous entry speeds, and a person could easily be flattened. He figured there would be no real issue if he could get Shadow to aim it for the ocean. He managed to reach the pod and open the small chamber's top side lid before finding enough purchase to very slowly push it along the ground until it was perched just over the still buzzing doors of the dock far below now as the colony had tilted during it's descent. Stepping up and toward the opening, Maryk suddenly felt a thick set of claws dig terribly into his shoulder causing him to scream out in pain before he was hurled through the air and as he impacted the ground he found the creature again menacing toward him, though it seemed to be healing much slower this time. Whatever he could muster it was now or never, just below the buzzing blue screen of light that was the launch doors to the dock, Maryk could already make out the surface. Forcing himself to take a solid, heavy breath; Maryk drove himself forward, this time with no real plan of attack, rather he waited until the very last moment, and just as the creature reared back to deliver maximum killing force with it's punch, Maryk leaped forward driving his shoulder into it's middle. The two hit the floor and the impact caused the fake's legs to swing up, in that moment Maryk released his hold on the creature's waist and rolled forward snatching the creature up by it's right ankle. As he found his way to his feet with the fake's leg bent over his shoulder, Maryk drove the creature down onto it's back before pivoting on his heel and whipping the evil thing about in a dizzying spin before finally releasing the thing and watching it hurl out of sight vanishing into the reentry fires as it flashed through the buzzing light screen below. He wasn't sure if he'd make it to the pod in time to shove it over and dive in but, at the moment at the very least most of the people seemed to have gotten free. All he could do was find his way into the pod, strap himself into the harness inside and pull the lid shut before rocking the pod a few times and bracing himself as it finally pitched and tumbled over the edge flashing through the buzzing blue screen as he was hurled toward the rapidly approaching planet below...
AN: Well this is not good. Stay tuned.
