Chapter 4: Depleted Souls

The blue glow of Corneria shined into the cockpit Of Wolf's WolfenIII, the lightes on his control panal flicking on and off like fairy lights, this automatically made him think of Christmas, which made him think back to the past. The world was peaceful, and war had yet to scar him. How he wished those days had stayed like that. As he and Leon flew side by side, neither of them could be dismayed of the beauty of the planet, once so hated by themselves and all Venomian forces. Wolf could not help but feel guilty that they had wished so much to destroy this place, it was wonderful, a far cry from the barren deserts of Titania, or the wasteland of Venom.

As the Wolfen ships flew over the northern polar cap, the greens turned to whites and Solar's waves reflected off the snow, making it twinkle. Wolf's peaceful thoughts were soon lost as Leon announced over the intercom,

"Wolf, how long do you wish to stay in orbit, we are over the polar cap, they wont detect our entry here, Shall we descend into the Cornerian atmosphere?"

"Huh?" Wolf, still in thought, "em'.. Yes Leon. Descending now."

The two fighters descended into the atmosphere, flying through the clouds. The sights were beautiful, however Wolf couldn't enjoy the spectacle since he was too busy checking the meter for he heat-shield gauge. Over time this shield gauge slowly fell as the resistance of entry began to dissipate. The fighters eventually made it down from altitude 5 miles to altitude 300ft. As both fighters levelled up from their long descent, Leon once again opened a com to his wingman,

"You still with me over there?" Leon asked in a cocky manner, knowing Wolf wouldn't say "no" , even if there was something major wrong.

"No. I'm dead!?" Wolf answered back the cocky remark.

"Baring 2-4-0" Wolf shouted over the co-ordinates.

Leon decided no to answer back but simply watched wolf pull ahead of him and bank his fighter right, Leon quickly did the same, always hugging the ground so not to be detected by radar systems.

As Corneria City came into view, it's bright lights shining the dark, star filled sky, Wolf noticed a open plain, near to the city. He opened a link to Leon.

"Leon, 2 o'clock low, a open plain, we're land here. The rest of the journey, we'll have to use our legs."

Leon, fed up of criticising and not getting anything from it, simply replied,

"Yes Wolf."

The two aircraft landed, their landing burners creating considerable noise, Leon now realised why landing closer to the city was unwise. Both their cockpit canopies opened, and both the wolf and lizard jumped out, Wolf drew out his laser and surveyed the land and dark horizon while Leon got out the necessary equipment needed for their task.

"The cover of darkness should prevent our presence here." Leon stated, trying to knock off Wolf's edginess.

"Yes, it should do" Wolf, answering, not even looking at his wingman in fear of not keeping watch of the surroundings.

Leon came up, towards Wolf, With his backpack on, holding Wolf's one in his hand. He quickly throws it to Wolf, who catches it in his chest.

"You ready sir?"

"Yep, lets get this done with and get back." Wolf, obviously anxious not to hang around too much.

The two walked towards the outskirts of the city, all the while trying to keep away from the main areas where they would be recognised, Starwolf were just as famous as Starfox, however, not for the right reasons.

As they reached the outskirts, Leon asked to be told the entire plan, Wolf agreed and dictated the entire plan to him from memory, Leon listened and asked questions.

"How exactly are we going to get this vixen back to the ships.?" Leon questioned.

Wolf answered, quickly and methodically, "There are underground contacts I know who live in Corneria City. I managed to contact one of them and get them to meet us in his vehicle at 1am. He'll take us and her back to where our ships, their we can escape back."

Leon was impressed, but simply said one word, "Good."

They reached the night-club that Fox and friends were at. Insiders had stated that this was McCloud's favourite club, he knew the owners and always thought that it was on of the better clubs, you wouldn't catch him in other, sleazy bars and clubs.

As both Wolf and Leon walked up to the club doors, they dived into a nearby bush. There was no way in hell they would get in to the club, their faces would be too well known. They figured they'd wait till McCloud and friends planned to leave, they would then track them and look for an opportunity to snatch Fara.

"This is illogical Wolf, why must we hide like this?" Leon complained, he didn't like the thought of hiding in a hedge, waiting for something that might never happen.

"Shut up or people will hear us!" Wolf whispered as two other animals, a male dog and a female kestrel walked by, in front of the hedge.

Meanwhile, the gang were all enjoying themselves. Fox was dancing with Fara, as was Katt with a reluctant Falco. Slippy was talking to some people about mechanics, while Bill was showing his best flirting skills to some vixens and felines at the bar.

At the end of the song, Fara told Fox she had to go to the bathroom, Fox kissed her one more time, under the shimmering and moving lights of the club, before leaving her to go over to Falco and Katty who were still dancing away. Fara actual didn't go the way of the bathrooms, but instead the way to the entrance door. She did'nt need to powder her nose, what she did need though was a cigarette. This was one of only a few things that fox didn't know about Fara. He hated smokers so she kept this secret to herself. She walked outside and round the corner, she opened her bag and brought out a packet of cigarettes. She popped it in her mouth, grabbed her lighter and lit its end. She took her first drag, she sighed as the nicotine craving was relieved. Yet she couldn't help but think the guilty feeling of having to hide this secret from her lover.

She went to leave and return back to the club, as she did a black figure jumped out of her, startling her somewhat. He came into the streetlight. She gasped,

"Starwo.."

A cloth covered her face. Muffled screams could be heard but soon the screams stopped and she collapsed lifeless on the floor. Her golden pendant that Fox gave her lie on the floor next to her body.

"Good work Leon." Stated wolf, while looking at the vixen on the floor.

A car pulled u[p next to where Leon was standing. The ape wound down the window.

"Starwolf?" the ape spoke in a dark husky voice.

"Yes, now get us the hell out of here!", Wolf demanded, holding the vixen in his arms.