Chapter II
"Uh, Fox?" Eric stammered. "You sure this is the place?"
"Positive, but what happened?" Fox mumbled.
"It's like… something, like it got in the way of a Blizzard spell or something…" Eclipse gasped.
"I'm investigating." Eric said, starting to walk down the slope.
Eclipse started to protest, but Fox could see there was absolutely no hope in arguing with him, so they proceeded to follow him down the grassy hill where it abruptly turned into barren, icy wasteland. Eric started to get goose bumps from the extreme wave of cold that seemed to blast as they crossed the border, while Fox and Eclipse's fur stood on end. Despite the extra warmth that Eric's Matrix-like vest brought, the nippy air around the entombed airport still got to him.
The airport was still a giant building, it just was covered in seemingly endless layers of cold H2O. There was a big door on they're side of the window, plus plenty of spaces for takeoffs and landings. It looked like it would have been a very successful business if the place hadn't been an arctic snow cavern.
The trio got up to the front door while Eclipse cast a small heating spell to melt the ice freezing the door's encoder lock. "Why don't you just cast a giant heating spell and melt this whole place?" Eric demanded.
"Because even that small spell took a lot of effort, something supernatural is going on here," Was Eclipse's retort.
Fox had cracked the code on the door and the door opened. He was about to walk inside when Eric put his hand on Fox's shoulder. "I've seen all these movies, the kid character's invulnerable. I'm going in. Eclipse, give me a light source.
Eclipse cast a flame spell on a stick on the ground and Eric cautiously walked into the dim darkness of the interior of the building. From behind a giant hunk of ice in the center of a barely lit room, there looked like a sword and a bow. Eric thought something… strange… about those weapons, but he took a few more steps forward and thought nothing of it. "Hey you guys, the coast is clear!" Eric called out as he turned around - and gasped in horror as the door slid shut.
"Aw, crap," Eric muttered, dashing to the door. His gut started clenching, half expecting his shades to do the cool thing which warned him of Evil Fox. Pounding on the glass window in the door, Fox was desperately trying to mash the button combination again while Eclipse stared through the glass, apparently conjuring up some incantation, when her iris nearly disappeared as her pupils dilated with fear, when his vision went black and white.
Viewpoint spinning around, oblivious to the sparse amount of light, he saw, all too clearly, the giant hunk of ice that had previously obscured the sword and bow on the wall was getting up, forming a gigantic giant creature, humanoid and with arms that, like giant ice hammers, that looked all to happy to squish Eric into a tiny pancake. Eyepoint snapping back to Eric's position, Eclipse seemed to be trying to scream through the soundproof glass to…
"Dodge?!?" Eric unconsciously muttered, but he needed no second heeding. Flying off to the side, he was only barely missed by the Cone of Cold coming from the crystalline behemoth's mouth.
Scrambling to get up, his booklet came flying out of his pocket and hovered there in front of his face as time halted to a crawl. It was flipping over to another page, hovering there in midair, of it's own accord! It landed on a crude sketch of the creature before him. "Elder Ice Wendigo," it read, in Eric's invented code. An arrow was pointing to the upper part of its head and a circle highlighted his eyes, when the book flew back into Eric's pocket as time flew to normal speed. Getting shakily to his feet, Eric hid behind a steel beam thick enough to conceal Eric's frame. Drawing his blaster, he turned around and fired a few shots at the things eyes.
Of the three shots he fired, one his it's lower chin, and it roared in pain, but still lumbered after Eric like Fat Bastard after babies. The second shot missed it entirely, and Eric knew he had to move quickly or have Eric soufflé smeared over the floor. Firing one last desperate shot he flung himself to the side.
A roar of pain shook the room, making the cold already present in the wintry hanger seem more profound. Turning back, the giant ice giant seemed to be holding its face in pain, and blundering on blindly. Taking the opportunity to run away from the thing, he fired off more shots over his shoulder, blinding panic threatening to take over, and it would have if Eric were more weak-willed.
Spinning around to face the thing, the Elder Ice Wendigo, Eric noticed Eclipse outside trying an incantation on the door, when it was absolutely no hope using the keypad with the door frozen solid. The shades' built-in alarm went off, first staring at the ice below, a droplet of water falling off a few centimeters of ice that threatened to melt in the northwest corner, and the spell Eclipse was about to cast…
"Lightwind… HOLY CRAP!"
In his desperation to put an insulator between him and the ice, he fell over backwards over a rock imbedded in the ground. Eclipse let loose the spell, blowing the door off its hinges and coursing electricity through the frozen water.
Eric would later bemoan Eclipse's stupidity, as it not only got rid of the hole in the ice giant's eye - causing extreme pain in the process, but it could see again - but the voltage coming from Eclipse's devastating area-effect attack ran through Eric's bones. Blinded by the pain, he scurried backwards and emptied his clip blindly at the monster, screaming in terror when, through the black mist, he could make out "0" as the number for how much ammo was in the clip. Standing up and looking to the side in a confused haze, Fox and Eclipse had nearly knocked down the door, too late to do Eric any good.
The wendigo punched Eric in the gut, cracking ribs and (what felt like to Eric, at least,) snapping his back on a metal beam about halfway in the colossal room, Eric felt the red death-haze trying to creep into his mind. As one desperate last-ditch, he flung his gun at the monster and tried to shield his eyes as the creature brought it's foot down onto Eric, who waited for the world to end.
Somehow, it never came. Eric remembered flinging his arm from the left wall towards the door, but he didn't see what happened as he lost consciousness.
Floating in Everspace, or what Eric called his dream world, Eric looked around. He only had the clothes on his back, not his watch, not even his sunglasses that had brought him into this cursed place. The chaotic swirling background flowed around the platform he was on, a surrounding he often likened to with the final boss fight against The Master Hand in SSB. He saw a figure cloaked in a black robe, calling his name.
Eeeeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiiiic…
The tone itself haunted him, not because it was hollow, like a ghost's, but because it sounded so much… like Fox's…
Eeeeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiiiic…
Fear gripping him, he stepped forward against his will towards the odd person when Eric remembered where he had seen someone in this exact garb.
Eeeeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiiiic…
The person who had given Eric his sunglasses…
Eeeeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiiiic…
Eric only could see his lower face, it definitely was that of a canine. His upper head was concealed by the hood of a dark brown cloak.
Eeeeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiiiic…
Unfortunately for Eric's persual of who had given Eric such a great curse and gift, Fox and Eclipse just then succeeded at reviving him from his induced slumber. Eric's eyes opened slowly and remembered nothing.
Waking up, Eric heard Fox and Eclipse arguing. "We wouldn't know if he's alive or dead!" Fox was complaining. "Those blasted shades, we tried to take them off and he started going from whence he came. He could die, and it's all because I let him come on this stupid adventure!" Fox complained.
"How do you know that's true? Anyway, we can check his pulse, see if he survived. That was a nasty blow he took, certainly not for such a young child…" Eclipse replied.
At this, Eric took yet another blow to his pride and stirred.
"Eric!" They said in unison. Eric tried to stand, but was greeted with an overwhelming pain in his chest and back. Also, Eric noted, Why do I smell like burned flesh?
"What happened?" Eric asked.
"After you succumbed to the giant ice giant, we got the door open. I saw you fling your hands before you passed out, and this sword nearly impaled me." He brought out a marvelous looking greatsword, the blade of which looked like it was crafted from pure diamond. A green gem was imbedded at the end of the handle, and the hilt itself was gnarled into a spiral. Eric remembered it as the one behind the disguised wendigo. "It seemed to fly, almost based on your hand movement," Eclipse continued for Fox. "It sliced off one of its hands, Fox nailed it with several shots to the eyes and a Flame Wave finally melted the thing." Eclipse looked very proud of herself at these last words as Fox set down the sword.
Eric attempted to stand and tried not to scream as his chest howled in agony, his back like molasses. About to fall, Fox helped him to sit down in a chair that looked as if it had gotten cold to the point where thawing it would cause the chair to melt. Eric doubted if he could walk, he had two broken ribs and his back felt like it was on fire.
"Holy crap, is my back broken?" Eric asked weakly.
"No, just dislocated," Was Eclipse's grim reply. "I don't have enough healing magic skills to reset your back…"
"So we'll have to do this the hard way." Fox said. He was about to reset the spine with physical force, but Eric cried out in protest and Fox relaxed. "You can barely walk," Fox complained, tensing up again. "How are you going to get anywhere?"
"I'll manage," Eric gasped, fighting the excruciating pain in his chest from the broken ribs. Trying to stand up, his back gave way and he collapsed.
Whether what happened next was pure luck or the act of a higher power will be left to you.
Upon falling, Eric's hand landed on the hilt of the sword Fox had shown. The blade instantly erupted into bright blue flame, an odd blue glow surrounding Eric. Fox pulled out his blaster, Eclipse readying her staff, but it was a turn for the better when Eric's back magically snapped into place, his crushed and broken ribs mending.
Amidst all this, a figure flashed before Eric, but a cloaked head, nothing more.
Eric stood up slowly to his feet. The foxes relaxed and Eric stood shakily, looking at the weapon Eric could feel had tremendous power.
"Whoa… That was weird." Fox lamented.
Eric tried out some practice swings. The sword was light as a feather, and upon closer investigation he noticed a very faint carving along the blade.
"Murasma," Eric said out loud. As the markings faded, Eric had decided. "That is what I shall call you."
"That… That is no ordinary blade, Eric," Eclipse warned. "I sense enough power there to make evil kings tremble."
"Nifty… Hey, where's my blaster? And the other stick… they got crushed, didn't they?" Fox responded with a nod and pointed to a squished piece of goo and several wooden splinters.
The rest of the group went ahead to explore, and Eric noticed his name being carved on the blade. The end of the name finished and Eric stopped cold, not noticed by Fox and Eclipse.
Fox turned around. "Come on, Eric, we have to figure out what happened here."
"Oh, it's nothing, see? My name is just on the hilt." Eric lied. Sure enough, in bright, fiery crimson letters, was carved Eric.
Continuing forward, Fox didn't see that Eric's hand was covering the other half of the name. Staring blankly at it, feet being dragged forwards, Eric gaped at the rest of the name.
"Eric J. McCloud."
They continued exploring, Murasma providing a much better light than Eclipse's torch had, but Eric couldn't get the name out of his head. …J. McCloud, Eric thought. Eric's middle name was Arthur, but that's part of why he figured that the J. McCloud part of the name was something shocking. His thoughts were interrupted by Eclipse's cry for investigation.
Bringing Murasma up to investigate for better lighting, a bow was off the side. The bow that Eric saw before the Ice Wendigo appeared. Figuring there was more to the bow than met the eye - hell, the diamond sword looked like it could carve through steel like rancid butter and was a useful light source to boot - Eric hoisted the bow, and found both a quiver full of arrows and what looked like Murasma's scabbard. Sure enough, the name Murasma was engraved in the scabbard. Eric slung it over his back, and steadied the quiver and aimed the bow.
"How come you get to have the bow, for all we know it could do what Murasma did when it touched you by being wielded," Eclipse said. The bow was very nice indeed, crafted of the finest darkwood, a lightweight material used by druids. Twanging the bowstring, it hummed pleasantly like a violin. Fox and Eclipse tested the bow and they all agreed this was a masterwork creation, if not quite up to Murasma's magical properties. Eric aimed the bow and tested his aim. His mind quickly did an hour's worth of physics lessons, and let the bow fly at a hole in an ice wall. The arrow slid in like a key to a lock.
"Thank you all, I'm here 'til Friday," Eric gloated. After a few minor squabblings, it was agreed that Eric should use the bow for now, as he had no projectile weapon and was a superior shot with it.
Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, the wall Eric shot the arrow at just crumbled; unbeknownst to the trio, the arrow knocked aside a key rock to the support of the wall. Fleeing to escape the landslide, dozens upon dozens of ice rocks formed an avalanche that blanketed half the room.
"Hey!" Eric had been the first to turn around and noticed that the ice wall had been concealing another corridor. Slinging his bow over his back and drawing Murasma to light the way, the trio advanced when Eric nearly sprained his ankle in a hole. "One for injuries, aren't I?" Eric complained. "First it's getting my hand eaten alive-" At this Eric shot Fox an angry glance, as if it was his fault. "-Then it was getting smacked and beaten to a crushed pulp, now I nearly sprained my ankle. Isn't this just - Falco!"
There, encased in an icy prison, was Falco Lombardi. Out cold from the freezing temperatures, but if heat was brought…
"Eclipse, heat, now!" Eric screamed. He tried to cut at the ice with Murasma, which (not really to Eric's surprise,) started to melt.
Eclipse launched a fireball at the ice while Eric carved gently, and soon a very soaked avian in shock was at their feet. Fox, meanwhile, was beginning to lose his professional exterior.
"Falco! What are you doing here!" Then, he turned to Eric. "And how did you know his name?"
Eric flashed his booklet in front of Fox's face. "Everything I learn, I put in here. You guys are famous where I come from, didn't you know that?" Eric didn't tell them they're entire lives were video games, he had watched Last Action Hero too many times to know that wouldn't have been a smart move.
Fox had no time to talk about this, as Falco was beginning to stir. Eric took off his jacket to elevate Falco's head, while Eclipse pulled out a blanket to keep him on a warm surface and lit small fires.
Taking Falco's pulse, things weren't very pretty, as Fox soon realized with his fingers at Falco's throat. Falco's heart was beating, but it was slow, as if some of his circulatory system was frozen. Eclipse kept lighting small fires to keep getting Falco's temperature up while Eric place the warm diamond blade of Murasma to Falco's forehead to get him out of the brainfreeze, and slowly but surely, Falco's pulse stabilized.
Falco's response to being revived was less than friendly, however, as Eric soon found out the hard way.
Eyes opening, mumbling, the first thing Falco did was firmly place his hand around Eric's throat. "Monkey!" He gasped. "You'll die!"
Turning blue in the face, and letting Murasma clank to the floor, Eric got the second major beating in twenty minutes as Eclipse attempted to pry Falco's hand loose from Eric's windpipe as Fox started to calm Falco down. "Relax, Falco, it's Fox!" Fox tried to explain before he crushed Eric's throat. "Let him go. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have found you."
It did what it was intended to; have Falco let Eric go. Releasing Eric's trachea before it would close off forever, Falco started to calm down while Eric fell to the floor choking. "That was nice welcome, Falco!" Eric coughed. "And last time I checked, monkeys had fur, you featherbrained avian!"
"So you admit you're related?" Falco said. Eric could tell he was absolutely itching to waltz over to him and rip his skeleton out through his back. "Only distantly. You see, I come from a planet, and a dimension, that I like to call EARTH," Eric emphasized. "I'm here, mainly for kicks, but you see, I'm not that hostile."
Falco looked at Fox. "I checked his record," Fox said simply.
"And what is EXACTLY in that record, Fox?" Eric questioned, still smarting from Falco's attempt to kill him not thirty seconds earlier. "I've been here, what, three days? How is there a record of accomplishments?"
"I don't know how it got there either, from what was there you are a renowned scientist and mechanic with a special interest in virtual reality. And that's just summing it up in a sentence, there were several major accomplishments."
"I see. In the future, I will be VERY interested in finding out just exactly who did put that up there. While the scientist and mechanic part are true, I have no idea how it got into the records. Traveling hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of trillions of miles, and yet, no distance at all, makes it revolutionary for a record to just, 'magically,' appear."
"I have no idea what you're talking about kid, what's your name?" Falco asked crossly.
"I am Eric Shroud."
"And how did you get here?"
"You see these sunglasses?" Eric whipped them off just long enough to begin to vanish from fantasy, then put them back on before he completely departed. "These are what brought me here. Seeing as I've been in more physical pain than I ever could have imagined, I'm wondering if these are more of a curse than a gift, despite a colossal desire to visit this universe."
"Thanks. Is this your sword?" Falco asked. He had been feeling good enough to sit up, as Eclipse kept casting Mend Minor Injuries on Falco, one of her few healing spells. Falco was sitting up now, and looked like he could stand on his feet, which gave Eric a crazy (and false) urge to take several steps back, which he resisted.
However, before Falco could come into contact with the sword, a beam of white light sparked from the blade, keeping Falco's hand at bay.
"Whoa… That's weird…" Eric though. He thought to himself, I don't have any problem with them handling it, and when Falco reached for it again, as well as let Fox run his hand along the blade ("This… is really amazing."), no more sparks. To test, Eric thought to himself, I don't want anyone to touch the sword. Sure enough, the white light lanced from the rapier, causing enough pain to get Falco to drop it.
"Hmm… my hypothesis was correct." Eric said out loud, getting a funny look from Fox and an I'm-going-to-crush-your-face-in-if-you-don't-tell-me-what-the-hell's-going-on-here look from Falco. "This truly is my sword, and it will only let itself be picked up by myself and those I silently specify. When the light lanced out, I tested it by thinking that only I would be able to wield the blade, and that's when the light started."
"This… Is really amazing." Fox lamented for the umpteenth time.
Either way, they had been sitting around doing nothing for a while as Falco got up and, while walking, explained the story of his icy entombment.
"I was watching the Great Fox's repairs, right? Suddenly, these ice goblins came along. The guards were panicked, but we've fought enough of them that they squish under my boot ("I've never understood why local authorities can't deal with things like Kobold attacks and Goblin sieges," Eric complained). There was no way how I could take on about eleventeen bazillion of the little buggers, and to make matters worse a giant ice creature ("Wendigo! Giant Ice Wendigo!" Eric indignantly corrected him) waltzed into the place. It had this ice breath, freezing everything in sight. For all I know I'm the only survivor, although Peppy and Slippy were in the Great Fox, maybe they survived. But the place was desecrated, and I have no doubt that the giant ice ("Wendigoooooo!") Wendigo ran into you." Falco described, pausing in frustration at all of Eric's interruptions. "And," Falco added. "Thanks for saving my life. I would have died from the entombment sooner or later, and you saved me."
Eric had a sudden urge to say, "What did you do with Falco!". Falco?!? Recognizing a live-saving attempt?!? He must have changed in those two and a half years… Eric thought.
The corridor ahead bustled with footsteps. Eric drew Murasma, Eclipse readied her staff, Fox unholstered his blaster and Falco looked hopelessly for a weapon to borrow. He settled on picking up a bunch of rocks to chuck at people.
At the end of the corridor, seven small, roughly 3' tall (counting a hunch in their stride) and blue skinned humanoids lumbered up to them. "Ice Goblins!" Eric heard Falco say. Fox was about to pull the trigger when Eric stopped him.
"I want to test out my new toys!" Fox rolled his eyes and agreed, whispering behind Eric's back that if there was any indication that Eric was losing the fight, move in and help him out.
He needn't have worried.
First things first, Eric thought. Sheathing Murasma and pulling out the bow, he fitted two arrows at once a la Legolas. Letting them fly, both found purchase in the cranium space ("Or rather, lack thereof," Eric said later) of the goblins, who slumped to the ground.
Quickly putting back his bow, he unsheathed Murasma and, in pulling it out, bisected a goblin through the middle, then added two swings, horizontal and vertical, lacerating two more. Sliding it through his belt loop, he impaled another one. For a moment, Eclipse thought Eric had forgotten about the seventh one and fired a firebolt at the sneaky devil trying to backstab Eric, who merely twirled the sword around, decapitating the alien creature and casually sliding it back into the scabbard. Before it got there, the firebolt hit the blade of the sword and Eric noticed that the blade's eternal flame grew slightly more intense as it went back into the scabbard. "Piece of cake. Let's move!" Eric called, giddy from the adrenaline rush.
After this, the meaning of why they were here was explained to Falco, and Eric came up with the aforementioned name The StarFox Fellowship. Falco muttered something about Eric spending too much time in Fantasyland, but agreed to join up seeing as he had nothing else to do. Kind of like why I am on this, thought Eric.
They proceeded through the icy caves, Eric wondering how such an airport could have gotten so… dead… like… and stuff. And so quickly. Much to Eric's silent thanks, they ran into no more Ice Goblins and came to a large white door, with another keypad.
"Well, Eric?" Fox asked.
"No way, man. I opened the LAST door, and I got my ass kicked by that giant wendigo thing! YOU open THIS door!"
"Eric?" Fox and Falco said in unison. "This is the Great Fox."
Eric looked up and to the left. Sure enough, complete with the tail at the end of the X, there was Great Fox written on the side. It was so close to the wall it seemed like a regular door.
"Oh. And so it is!" Eric exclaimed. "Uh… I don't know the code…"
"Easily remedied." Eclipse said, punching it in. As soon as the door opened, Eric walked through, and was greeted with a bruised head.
"AAAAAAAAAUGH! GOD… DAMMIT!" Eric cried, holding his head in pain. His eyes opened, or so it seemed, of it's own accord, in the darkness to his left there stood what looked like another frog with a wrench in hand, and a rabbit with a crowbar in one hand and a blaster in the other.
"OW!" Eric said, catching the wrench out of thin air and using his sword to parry the poorly-aimed shots from the rabbits blaster. Eric noted that the sword got even more fiery with each shot. "That really hurt! Honest to god, man, who throws a-" He looked at what was in his left hand. "-a wrench!"
At that moment Fox walked in, whose presence instantly pacified the two assailants. "Fox, where were you!" The hare cried.
"We didn't know when you would show up!" The frog said, with a notoriously high-pitched voice that (Eric noticed) Eclipse twitch her ears and wince slightly. "And who is he!" The toad said, pointing at Eric.
"Don't worry, Slippy, he's a friend." The story of what they had been up to so far was poured out.
"So he's from another dimension?" The hare said, who turned out to be Peppy ("I don't think I ever could have guessed that," Eric mumbled sarcastically, rubbing his skull).
"Yeah. Pretty weird, isn't it?" Fox said.
"Anyway, Fox, we got our shipment of the Essence Bottles!" Slippy said excitedly.
"Back up, Essence Bottles?" Eric asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah. Technology is getting to the point where we can raise the dead now." Peppy said. He sounded like he'd seen way too much, absent-minded to the point where he'd lose his head if it wasn't screwed on.
"Cooooooooool… wait… why couldn't you just raise Spike?" Eric suddenly realized.
"It costs a lot, the Essence Bottles are fragile, and all but the ones we don't have yet take off abilities the owner had," Slippy explained. "The general public doesn't even like it that much yet. Roughly 5% of the resurrection recipients attributes are reduced; enough resurrections and even their intelligence will be affected. Also, only three planets have even one set up. Corneria, Venom, and an outpost hovering over the surface of Solar."
Ugh… losing his smarts! Eric shuddered at the thought.
"Anyway, there aren't any Resurrection Alters on DP yet anyway." Fox said.
"And why don't you use other ones to raise your parents?" Eric blurted out. The words he instantly regretted, but Fox was more than happy to explain.
"The corpse needs to be recently fresh, and using Essence binoculars to see the dead Remains - another name for Essence - and an Essence Bottle to capture it, then place it in the Alter. A day goes by as the Alter constructs the recipients body, and then they're almost good as new, which is a lot better than being dead. Since that didn't really answer your question, the Remains also lose strength as time goes by before disappearing into nothingness"
"Cooooooooool…" Eric lamented for the second time in fifteen seconds.
"Anyway, we can take you to Venom, you guys," Peppy offered. "Just as soon as we get our ship up and running. You said you were a mechanic?" Peppy asked Eric.
"Yep."
"Good, you can help Slippy."
They started to get to work on repairing the Great Fox when Eric pulled Fox aside.
"Yeah?" Fox asked.
"You open the next door."