Chapter VII
Looking frantically about, Eric couldn't see Sarah. There were a bunch of trees and a bunch of bushes, but they were too far away for Sarah to just vanish to in record time. Left with no other options, Eric dashed off to pursue the thief.
(Sarah)
"Mmmmf! Mmf mf!" Sarah said, trying to get some words through of the weasel that had grabbed her from behind Eric, and right under Eric's nose, dragged her behind the trees and bushes.
"You just keep reeeaaaaal still, missy," a gorilla said while the weasel kept a dagger to her throat. "And yer not going to get hurt." The gorilla then started making noises that one might liken to the rapists of New York City streets.
"Big, mistake," Sarah said. Eric had seen her in her martial arts classes, "A whirlwind of fury," was Eric's description. The people she fought usually found that an understatement.
Bringing her foot up, not to step on the weasel's foot but with enough leverage and movement to kick him in the groin with the heel of her foot. He began to fall back and make choking noises. "Get her!" He squeaked. He sounded like someone had taken his vocal cords, take a screwdriver to them, and then turn the pitch to eleven.
Still going on the force of bringing her foot back, she then swung at the gorilla, snapping her knee at the last possible second. A sickening crunch and eight seconds later, he was holding his ribs and at every move screamed in pain.
Cracking her neck bones in a sign of badass-ish movement, Sarah looked at her vanquished foes and continued to proceed to hunt down Eric when the sound of a gun hastily being cocked behind her halted her in her tracks.
Roughly seven feet away, far too far for Sarah to kick the gun out of his hands, the weasel, still holding his balls, had a blaster aimed squarely between her eyes. Armed with a murderous look, he barked evilly, "You're going to strip and let us do whatever the hell we-" He was immediately silenced by a fireball to the throat. Two blaster bolts hit the other in the chest. He fell back, injured.
Falco and Krystal jumped in to view the handiwork, each with their respective weapons. "You know, you have an annoying habit of showing up as a deux ex machina." Sarah said, miffed. "I could have handled them."
"Prove it!" Falco said as way of habit. Sarah grumbled. "See? You can't," Falco said with his air of superiority. "By the way, we brought this along," He said, tossing her Beamstriker. "Figured you'd need it."
Sarah nodded. "Thanks," she said.
"Where's Eric?" Krystal interjected.
"I'm not sure. I saw him go tearing off after this one guy who stole his cloak, his guns, and his sword…"
"Wow, he puts an emphasis on his weapons even more than I do!" Falco joked.
"Then why didn't he come after you if you were about to get killed by-" Falco nodded to the lifeless bodies of Sarah's assailants. Falco and Krystal had both used stun power, but they'd be out for hours. Long enough for the authorities to find them. "Them?"
"They dragged me out from behind Eric, right under his nose. His hearing has somewhat suffered… But let's go find him!" She added hastily, before they could ask about Eric's hearing impediment, which happened to be caused by one-to-many weeks right next to the speaker on full blast.
"Finally, some action. Let's rock!" Falco, of course.
(Eric)
Dashing through the streets proved to be a bit more daunting than was anticipated. Seemed everywhere you went, a pedestrian was just asking for a head-on collision.
Left! Right! Jump off wall! There seemed to be no opening to wherever the hell they were.
Making a giant leap Eric didn't even know he had in him and ricocheting off a building, he held onto a street lamp for a better view of the situation Someone wearing a trenchcoat and holding onto a cloak… that's him! Too bad he was in the middle of a giant crowd, getting to him would be murder and there were suspicious looking guys in black overcoats that he was running to.
Kicking and swinging to gain some momentum from the pole he was hanging on, he made a great leap to the next lamppost. Surprised by this, he almost lost his grip and would have surely been trampled. I'm capable of this?!? He thought. I'm in better physical shape than I thought! Of course, dragging around rulebooks, entire PCs, errata sheets, and dice must have helped his arm strength, then the fact he spent more time running from gangs than walking calmly might have had something to do with it.
He kept this up for another three swings until a searing pain hit his right hand, from the building! Falling maybe seven feet (There are advantages to being tall), it wasn't enough to hurt him, but getting trampled by pedestrians and suddenly noticing a burning hole in your right hand has a tendency to tax your physical endurance.
Staunching the trickling flow of blood that had not gotten cauterized, he slid under a confused fruit-venders stand and made a dash where he saw the rat. He'd get him, alright.
(Sarah)
Sarah, Krystal and Falco were taking a back route to where Sarah had said Eric was dashing off to. The alleys were far less crowded than the streets Eric was sloshing through, but Sarah couldn't help but notice that some of the homeless creatures in them seemed to be talking into their baggy sleeves when they came by, like there was something concealed there.
Cries of confusion crept into the alleyway like a stray strand of wind with cries along the lines of, "What the… that's a Venomian monkey!"
Sarah looked at Falco, exasperated. "His trademark. Drawing too much attention to himself."
"We'd better step in before he gets arrested. Remind me again why we're doing this?"
"Because he's saved your lives twice already?" Krystal put in.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Falco grumbled.
Falco, Sarah and Krystal continued dashing through the crowd. Krystal, being the tallest member of the group, managed to squeeze out an extra inch of viewpoint.
"I see him!" Krystal said, on her toes. "He's just grabbed this one rat and is trying to grab what looks like a cloak… oh great…"
(Eric)
"GIVE IT BACK!" Eric yelled in the face of the weasel, which spat in his face. Stunned for a few seconds, Eric let go. Wiping the spit from his face, he took two steps and felt the harsh sting of a fist to the face.
Falling back, mostly from stun, a large, burly pig stood there, wiping the blood from Eric's now-bloody nose from his fist. Eric thought about two seconds of running when he remembered - hey. No parental supervision to get me in trouble for fights, and I'm sick and tired of handing these guys their fun!
Cracking his knuckles and his neck, Eric assumed a crude brawling pose. The pig looked like it was about to just die from laughter, while the rat assumed a hiding pose next to a pair of what looked like wolves.
Realizing he couldn't just get to the rat until he was through with the pig, Eric feinted to catch him off his guard. The pig put up defenses to the face when Eric swept him off his feet. On his back, Eric jumped into the air was about to bring his knee onto the pig when he rolled out of the way at the last possible second. A crunching sound could be heard as Eric's kneecap came into contact with the concrete. Needless to say, Eric walked funny for a while afterwards as soon as he had time to think of the pain.
But in the meantime, Eric had more to think of than his knee right now, he wouldn't notice until later. Dodging a foot to his left, he missed a ham-sized fist that would probably have knocked his face in. Taking another punch to the gut, Eric stumbled back, wind knocked out of him.
"You… rat…" Eric wheezed. Gaining his bearings, he spun around, attempting to roundhouse across the face and succeeding. Stumbling back with a bloody nostril, the pig turned to Eric with hatred spelled all over his face. Almost immediately afterwards, Eric jumped into the air for a jump kick at the pig's chest, expecting the creature to fall on contact.
Unfortunately, the pig was faster than that. Grabbing hold of Eric's leg, the pig gave a mighty tug and twist and Eric found himself on his back a moment later. Opening his eyes (Eric had closed them from the shock) Eric realized: the pig wasn't there anymore! Scrambling to his feet in record time, he had another millisecond before his shoulder was grabbed, spinning him around, and a fist on his neck threatened to choke the life out of him.
"Cornarian traitor…" The pig whispered into Eric's ear, quiet enough that only he could hear.
"Missed something." Eric wheezed.
"What?" The pig replied murderously. He was given an answer by a knee to the balls. Loosening his grip, he slunk to the ground on two knees and began muttering some nonsense like, "Sky flows through concrete veins!" as the pain began the sensory deprivation. As he sat there writhing in pain, Eric went over to confront the rat to find he was hopelessly overpowered. The two wolves had gotten out blasters and the rat (finding he couldn't wield the sword) had pulled out Eric's guns.
"Goodbye, defector," The one on the right said as all hell broke loose in the square they were in. Spectators had long since gathered to see the fight; why the hell were two Venomian creatures fighting each other?
Cart-wheeling behind a tall building, shrapnel exploded most of the wall between him when Eric realized two really terrible things.
Number 1: The spectators in the way. Last thing he needed were civilian casualties because he was clumsy enough to let Venom forces notice them.
Number 2: Bullet shots were going through the wall!
(Sarah)
"That's gunfire!" Sarah said as the explosive noise rocked the world.
"Cripes, this guy gets in more trouble than Fox does!" Falco grumbled.
As the rat continued to fire at the wall where Eric ducked behind (surprised by the recoil for a few seconds, but he was over it) the two wolves started firing at the bystanders. This was going to get ugly reeeaaaaal quick…
Falco drew his blaster while Krystal muttered some incantation while Sarah watched bluish circles fly around her arms, while at the same time, the strain of hoisting her bow behind her back seemed to fade.
"Let the arrows fly with increased strength, Sarah." Krystal said. "Falco and I have the two wolves, you get the rat." Not feeling entirely content with her choice of foe, Sarah drew her bow and notched an arrow as Krystal sent forth several fireballs as Falco dove in, blaster ablaze.
The arrow flew with god speed as it speared the hands of the rat, forming a makeshift kind of painful handcuffs. Dropping the guns, the rat fell back, trying to break the arrow. Falco had gotten in several shots into the side of his wolf, and Krystal had taken to staff-fighting with the last one. They were gaining the upper hand!
Diving out from the hiding place behind the wall now that the gunfire stopped, it was time for Eric to exact revenge upon the rat. How dare he steal some free time on a hellish adventure? High-kicking it in the face, it stumbled back uncertainly. Sarah let loose two arrows in rapid succession, concentrating on subdual damage rather than normal. To her surprise (not really to Eric's since he had already guessed the bow's nature) the arrows turned yellow in mid-flight and caused the wolf they targeted to stumble with weakness. To the wolf it was like a giant club beaned him in the head, snaring the senses in a blind array of trapping pain. Falco had already succumbed his wolf, and Eric had his rat in a headlock, yelling at it in indescribable profanities (And in his invented language, no less). Krystal, on the other hand, wasn't as lucky.
Spinning her staff around in a helicopter pattern, she got in several good hits as the wolf grabbed the end of it. Striking Krystal in the chest with surprising force, drew his blaster and capped Krystal in the shoulder as she rolled with the punch. Springing back up, Krystal made an attempt to put up a shield but was struck halfway through the incantation. Against a wall, the wolf levered his blaster at Krystal's face. And this time, he would not miss the coup de grace. Sarah was busy with the other wolf, Falco was subduing the pig (his wolf was unconscious…) and would not be able to make it in time… Struggling to get into a position to strike the wolf, she raised her staff…
…And stared at the flaming blade point protruding from the wolf's gut. The wolf looked down. Fury engraved on its face like permanent writing on a tombstone. Feeling his lifeblood slip, he only got out three words. "Tremble… General… An…" before collapsing.
Eric's triumph was short lived as the rat (Whom he had ignored to save Krystal) plugged what was left of a clip into Eric's back. Krystal didn't want to use Eric as a human shield, but as there were only eight bullets in the chamber Eric would (hopefully) survive.
As soon as the shots stopped, Eric slumped unceremoniously down while Falco let loose his blaster into the rats head. Sarah dashed to get the cloak to help bind the bloody holes that Eric had in his back as several local authorities came up. Falco hastily explained that Sarah and Eric (who Krystal carried with the help of a bull's strength
spell) were ok. Eric was out cold and bleeding profusely. Krystal prepared to let loose some serious healing magic to save Eric's life, but Sarah's quick thinking stopped what probably would be the biggest mistake in career.
"The lead stays in his body, sealing the holes will only hurt him more in the long run."
While Sarah and Krystal dashed back to the Great Fox to get Eric patched up (and surgery to remove the bullets) Falco stayed behind for a second. A small notepad was poking out of the rat's vest…
Scooping down and picking it up out of the rat's pocket before the police found it, Falco quickly discovered the futility of trying to read it; it was in DPese. He'd have to show it to Krystal.
One look back at the scene, as well as some murderous looks from the shadows, Falco fled.
Back at the Husky HQ where the rest of the group was staying, Falco caught up with them there. Waltzing through the door (Eric mumbling something about fluffy anthropomorphic vixens, getting a strange look from Sarah in the process and a disturbed look from Krystal)
"What the bloody hell happened!" Fox exclaimed, noticing Eric's less-than-healthy condition and how the rest were at least bruised.
"Next time, you take the kids." Falco barked angrily. Krystal was already taking Eric to the hospital wing, Sarah and Eclipse on her heels. Falco proceeded to get into an argument with Fox while Katt and Bill went to check on Eric for lack of something better to do.
"What the hell happened?!" Fox yelled. As Katt left the room, she anticipated coming back and having to get Krystal to patch up them too. Falco gave his half-assed description. Fox did NOT seem satisfied.
"The humans and Krystal got into trouble with some dregs and you had to save them? Hmm, that's a new one." Fox said sarcastically. "I think I'm going to take Krystal's and Sarah's view, and Eric's when he's conscious.
"Come on, man," Falco pursued. "I mean, look at you, you barely know them and you're acting like you're responsible."
"Last time I checked, you'd be interested too of some strange beings from another world came into ours. And besides, you know how much Katt has been getting on us on Jack's whereabouts."
"See? Now that's what I'm talking about. Use him for something other than being a sacrificial gopher."
Fox swung. Use him for something? That was going a bit far for someone with 13 life debts owed to him.
Catching his friends fist, Falco stared at Fox. "Lay off, man," He said. "Come on, let's check on Eric, he was in awful shape when we left the scene." Calming down, Fox agreed.
However, in the hospital wing, Eric wasn't exactly in the greatest of conditions. The shattered kneecap was nearly instantly healed (although the ache continued for about a week) but there was the problem of getting eight metal slugs out of Eric's back, which was losing blood profusely. Sarah stood there, praying for Eric's well-being, Katt was worried, despite the previous encounter while Krystal was readying the surgery tools. Bill turned his head at Fox and Falco when they walked in.
"Wow… ouch. Why don't we use those weapons rather than our blasters, Fox? I mean… Ow! That's firepower!"
"They're messy, they make a lot of noise and hurt like crap." Sarah put in. "These kinds of gunpowder weapons are some of the things we have where Eric and I are from, we don't have the technology for lasers yet."
"Than how the hell was Eric able to help Slippy so well?" Falco demanded.
"Eric… doesn't reside on our same plane of reality, if you get my drift. He has taken a chosen exile to pursue things that would otherwise be impossible with peers breathing down your neck."
"How would it be impossible?" Fox asked calmly while Krystal was taking out a pair of pliers and scissors in an attempt to cut out the bullets while Eric stared ahead catatonically.
"When you figure it out, let me know, ok?" Sarah said, looking at the rather painful procedure that Krystal was doing. After cutting open what should have been more than was necessary, the lead slug protruded from the wound. Krystal picked it up and chucked it into an incinerator. Then, with a grimace of distaste, she thrust a finger in the hole, muttered something, and when she pulled the finger back out the wound was closed. She then proceeded to work out the other holes.
"Anyway," Bill said, slightly sickened by the display of combat medic. "I'm going to check on surveillance, see if anything is up." With that he walked from the room and Fox thought he heard gagging noises. Krystal continued to patch Eric up when Fox's communicator rang.
Pushing the button, Fox responded. "McCloud." The hologram of Peppy came into the room. Slippy's voice could also be heard in the background, marveling at something.
"We have kind of a thanks for Eric for saving our asses twice so far." Peppy said. His face seemed to be twisted between envy and happiness. "That, and it doubles as transportation for Eric and Sarah, since they don't have ships." Peppy's face disappeared as an incredibly sleek and streamlined ship appeared. It had an impressive white paint job (something Eric would have complained had he not been unconscious) and an image of an arrow piercing a wall on the left wing. On the underside was scrawled, "Silent Arrow."
"Cloak, Stealth, great maneuverability, could use a little work on the lasers and bombs but it's nothing Slippy can't handle. Several other useful gizmos came with it, and since Eric has gotten us out of two messes so far, I felt this appropriate."
Even Fox, who was used to seeing incredible ships, had his eyes twinkling from beholding the Silent Arrow.
"And the other one, …" The Silent Arrow disappeared and another ship came up. This one wasn't nearly as thin, in fact it was a bit bulky, with a white war-hammer wreathed in lighting on the left side, under the wing, but there was no denying what the gigantic front cannons meant. What this thing hit would not be getting back up anytime soon. "The Thunder Hammer. Isn't as flashy as the Silent Arrow, but has some serious firepower. Maneuverability can sometimes be a hazard, but this thing has some decent shields, enough to get through it. A sneaky trick is to use the belly-mounted cannon as a surprise attack, and the bombs even have a limited homing ability (more than I can say for the Silent Arrow). So, who wants which one?"
"I'll take the Thunder Hammer." Sarah said after much debilitation. "I guess that means Eric has the Silent Arrow?"
"I guess so. He can bitch and moan as much as he wants when he gets up." Falco put in.
Falco was about to show them the booklet when the conversation came to an abrupt and unsatisfactory end with Bill dashing back into the room, fear written on his muzzle.
"MacBeth rebels… they're headed this way.