Chapter III
Krystal swerved out of the way at the last nanosecond to avoid a fatal impact. It was out of the frying pan, however, as the blast exploded into a fragmentation effect, sending bits and pieces of plasma everywhere. Krystal's and Sarah's right arms were impaled by the shattered shrapnel. The immense pain caused Krystal to swerve wildly and Sarah to drop Eric's submachine gun.
Krystal started to slow down the bike as the pain clouded her mind. No, she told herself. I can't get past this train going on the side…
"Sarah!" Krystal called out, muttering softly to remove the pain in her arm.
"Yeah?" Sarah replied, trying to nock an arrow and failing with only one good arm. Krystal was slowing down, the back of the train was now running perpendicular to the bike and the cannon in the middle was retracting. "What are you doing?! They're going to get away!" She protested.
"Trust me!" Krystal said. She put a soothing hand on Sarah's injured arm. She couldn't concentrate enough to fix the wound, but she could take away the pain.
Krystal ran over the tracks and was chasing the rear bumper of the train. "Get ready!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. Flooring the throttle, she picked up speed and was going faster than the train until the front wheel hit the rear of the train, causing the bike to explode!
Using the propulsion force of the motorcycle, Krystal and Sarah leapt to hold onto the back of the train. Sarah found herself screaming when she looked down at the ground, speeding along below the train at a blur.
"What the HELL did you do?!" Sarah yelled.
"Got us an infiltration tool, come on!" Krystal yelled, grabbing Sarah's hand and pulling her into the back car. Sarah nocked an arrow out of instinct.
"Come on, we have to find a hiding place." Krystal whispered.
"What EXACTLY do you have in mind?!" Sarah demanded.
"This is a supply train. It was even headed for the building that Fox was told to target. If we hang out here, we can get in there and figure out what's going on!" Krystal replied.
"That's a pretty good idea… but how do you know this is a supply train?"
"Look behind you." Sarah complied with Krystal's statement.
"Whoa… if Eric could only see where I am now…" All kinds of rapid-fire energy weapons were stuffed into the tiny car with various supply orders.
"Well, look what the cat dragged in." Eric said sarcastically to the new foes. Wolf and Leon were there with a few other soldiers, holding Katt, gagged, at gunpoint. "Hey Wolf… the safety's on."
O' Donnell replied by burning a hole through Eric's foot with his blaster. Eric cried out in pain. The two StarWolf team members, with several borrowed troops from Venom had found Eric and Fox and were taking advantage of their confused state.
"Well, isn't this an irony." Wolf sneered. "The two biggest annoyances in my career and they are defeated by a stroke of bad luck"
"You call bumbling every assassination attempt you've EVER done a career? Shoot, Wolf. Even I have standards…" Those would be the last words Eric would say for awhile. A burly pig held him behind as Wolf took a cheap shot at Eric's head, breaking his jaw. Eric stumbled to his knees.
"An acid tongue won't get you very far in this world, filth." Wolf yelled in his face. Eric mumbled back and spat blood through clenched teeth, sunglasses dangling from one ear. "Hmmph." Wolf said with a sense of triumph.
The pig and several other guards picked up Fox and Eric as Leon removed Fox's blaster and Murasma by the scabbard. Wolf hit a button on a remote control and the light ahead of them shimmered.
"What the?!" Fox said. Eric murmured, his jaw feeling like it was biting itself in half.
In the midst of a previously empty clearing, first the outline, then the full body of the menacing Cerberus ship came shimmering into view.
"Maybe this wasn't a very good idea…" Sarah said as she spun around and sliced a Chihuahua upside the head. They had only managed one car before what seemed like half of Venom's army came storming in. Fortunately, they were lining up like bowling pins, forcing Sarah to learn a technique that would come in handy later; an arrow that goes through the target. The Penetration Arrow.
"Sieraan!" Sarah cried out as another wave appeared.
"There's no end in sight!" Krystal cried out as she let forth a chilling blizzard from her staff. "Sarah?"
Sarah was frozen in place, a helping hand being lent by the forces beyond the grave. In black and white, a floorboard beneath a chair was illuminated in the midst of dark shades.
Sarah fired off another penetration arrow and yanked Krystal towards her. "Over here!"
They both yanked the seat away from the wall and chucked it in the way of the advancing army. Krystal tapped it with her staff and with a small chant of "lrain du hastmans…", she bolted the chair to the middle of the car. The various Venom guards had troubles climbing over the now-immovable chair.
"Come on!" Sarah said, breaking open the floorboards. Underneath was a tunnel that seemed to lead to the front of the train, just big enough to be on hands and knees. "Sieraan!" Sarah cried out, firing another Penetration Arrow and diving head first into the tunnel. Krystal immediately followed suit.
Cries of rage and frustration could be heard as a deafening CLANG CLANG CLANG hit the tunnel and nearly blew Krystal's eardrums. "They must have muscled their way through the chair!" Krystal said. Lancing lasers of a crimson hue impaled the ceiling of the incredibly small tunnel as a few soldiers started crawling in after them.
"AUUUGH!" Krystal cried out. "They've got my tail!" And so they had. Looking back, a burly pig had grabbed Krystal's tail and was pulling her back into a sweeping mob of Venom forces, and there wasn't enough room for the Beamstriker to be drawn!
Sarah pulled out several arrows and started slinging them like darts at the encroaching forces of Venom. The one holding onto Krystal got one in the eye and let go from pain. With no time to spare, Krystal and Sarah crawled as fast as their limbs could carry them. From behind them, the sound of blaster fire and the crimson flashes flew at them, one laser nailing Krystal's flank.
"Get out of there, I'm gonna gas 'em!" Could be heard amidst Krystal's screams of pain, followed the slow hissing of deadly nerve gas being slowly pumped into an agonizingly small tunnel.
"Well... history has a funny way of repeating itself, doesn't it?" Fox said in the prison cells of the Cerberus.
"Mmm?" Eric moaned.
"Let's just say that I've gotten captured my fair share in this profession. Occupational hazard, you learn to deal with it."
"Mm-hmm."
"Can you speak? How bad is your jaw damage?" Fox asked Eric. Eric responded by shaking his head no and spreading his hands wide. "That bad, huh?" Fox said.
"Mm-hmm."
"We're going to have to get you orthodontic headgear, otherwise it'll never heal."
"Mf?!" Eric murmured. He grabbed a splintered piece of the plaster floor and started to draw a crude picture of a vixen in the floor, and then wrote next to it, "blue vixen".
"Krystal?" Fox asked. Eric nodded. "If we don't set the bone before she tries to pull something, it'll heal crooked that much faster." Eric rolled his eyes in frustration.
"WHat do we know?" Eric scrawled nearly incoherently.
"Huh?" Fox said, squinting. "Oh," he added, getting the message. "I don't know… I hate prisons. You'd think I'd be used to them by now… the wardens will throw every trick under Solar to get you to snap. I know. I've taken plenty. Torture, brainwash… then the torture that you don't get behind bars…" Fox slunk into a corner as he started talking about his past. "Do you know how it's like to watch your father die, being powerless to prevent anything?"
"Mmm…"
"Or watching your mother blown up right in front of your face?!" Fox practically yelled. He had gotten up and was in a rage.
"Or watching your fiancé shot RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU?!?!" Eric cowered and scooted away from Fox. He had familiarity with this kind of anger; you give them time and they'll calm down. Fox slumped, energy spent. "I'm sorry, Eric… I didn't mean to take it out on you…"
I bet you meant that, man… Eric thought grimly. He was ready to spring to the side in case Fox found his emotional punching bag with Eric.
"I'm sorry… sometimes…" Fox muttered into a wall. "I just hate this job…"
"y u take it?" Eric scrawled.
"Why… huh? Oh," Fox added, getting Eric's shorthand. "I felt I had to live up to my father's reputation. And the rest of it is a bit more selfish than that. You see… I want revenge on the ape who took my life away from me and gave me years of suffering and loneliness. Andross… Andross… ANDROSS!" The force of Fox's scream was practically enough to knock Eric down. Fox reared around and punched the wall and gave a small grunt.
"Wha-GAAAAAH!" Eric cried out, trying to talk through his jaw pain. Fox brought his hand back, split open from the force he exerted on the wall. "Whoa…" Eric thought. "The guy packs punch."
"They say that hind-sight is twenty-twenty," Fox went on. "If I could do it all over again, I would have fixed all the mistakes I made. Like getting mom out of the car that day and killing Pigma when I had the chance…"
"Yeh… 'bout yur fasher…" Eric started, trying to keep his mouth closed enough so his jaw didn't interfere. Even so, it ached horribly.
"Yeah?" Fox said, looking up.
"Ah shood probaby tell you someting abouut your fasher and mosher…"
"MOVE!" Krystal cried, ramming into Sarah in an attempt to get her to move faster. Sarah was crawling as fast as she could, but the gaseous death was flowing freely, unrestricted through the tunnel. Already, Krystal's keen nose could already smell the deadly vapors.
"We're doomed," Sarah thought.
"Not yet. You're forgetting something…" Vixy whispered to Sarah. "Above you…" A black and white sonar image followed immediately afterward.
Without hesitation, Sarah started ramming the ceiling of the tunnel that they were in. Krystal could hear the Venomians, so far back from the sudden sprint, laughing in triumph. "What are you doing?! We have to move!" She said, suddenly noticing Sarah's attempts to break down the ceiling.
"Give me a hand here!" Sarah yelled. Combining their strength, they began to dent the ceiling! "One… Two… THREE!" They cried, smashing into it at the same time. The ceiling of the tunnel succumbed. Lucky for the two members of the Star Fox Fellowship, the gas was already upon them and both women were feeling nauseous.
Suddenly, the tunnel ceiling gave way and they were given a blessed breath of fresh air. Insidious laughter could be heard behind them as it became apparent that they were several cars ahead. Closing the door behind them, they did the best they could in putting the piece of metal back in the hole to keep the toxic vapors from their level.
"Shh!" Sarah whispered. "Stealth before confrontation. We have to be more careful from here on out." Sarah grabbed an arrow and Krystal drew her staff.
Clang clang clang.
Footsteps! The door behind them opened as a sole grey fox walked through the door. "Now for the victory cold one-" Sarah cut him short with the arrow thrown like a dagger. Krystal, without missing a beat, leapt forward to drag him out of sight.
"Shoot… so much for subtlety…" Sarah cursed. Krystal hid him in an ammunition closet. "We really need to move. How much more time before this thing reaches the mission destination?"
"Not much longer… if we intend on blowing this joint, we're going to have some work to do."
"Let me check how much longer we have…" Sarah said tensely. Great, the entire mission was going down the drain… she thought. Poking her head out of the train window, the Venom base was getting closer. What was closer, however, was a change in the tracks to a fuel depot… Sarah checked her quiver. One arrow had regenerated. Another wouldn't be on the way for a while. "Krystal… how do the train tracks change?
"A switch is flipped on the right side of the train. Two miles ahead, the train tracks then switch. Why?"
"I have an idea." Switching window sides to be on the right hand, she saw the switch approaching rapidly. Nocking the arrow, she only had one shot… wait… wait for it… the windspeed would make this shot nearly impossible. Wait… the screaming outside of the still-raging battle of Corneria vs. Venom was deafening and throwing off her concentration.
"What the…?!" Came an unfamiliar voice.
"Sarah!" Krystal called.
NOW! Sarah let forth the arrow, crying out in hope. Hit the target… she willed as Krystal ran into her, shoving her out of the emergency exit of the train. For a split second, they were suspended in inertia before hitting the ground like a bag of bricks. For what seemed like an eternity, the hostile blows of Venom's uneven territory and their immense momentum jostled them as they were thrown from the train, machine gun volleys flinging from the train by the enraged Venomians. A flurry of confusion later, Sarah found Krystal lying on top of her as the train sped on. Shoving Krystal off of her, she immediately looked up at the speeding train and the switch she was firing at. The arrow had pierced the switch, moving it back, changing the tracks.
"Yeah!" Sarah cried out in a victory whoop. That was one less supply train they would have to deal with, especially heading to that explosive depot… but why wasn't Krystal celebrating? "Krystal?" Sarah turned around and sank to her knees in grief.
Krystal's back had gotten speared numerous times by the acid rain of crimson laser. Her spine was visible through all the holes made by the angry hornet swarm of automatic rifle blows, and one went through Krystal's cranium, spearing her mind and separating her consciousness to the Outer Plane.
"No…" Sarah said, slamming her hand into the ground. Krystal, of all the people she had met so far, were the most down-to-earth, easiest to make friends with, which can be saying something for nobility. "No…" A casualty on the battlefield… One of her best friends, taken away before she could know her other than the battlefield… Sarah felt like she was going to explode… "No, fuck, no…" She slammed her hand into the ground in rage.
"NOOOO!"
Eric stood there, his jaw feeling rubbed raw after trying to talk through clenched teeth. He had poured out the story of Murasma, Beamstriker and what he knew of James and Vixy McCloud. Fox stood there, gaping in disbelief. "'n' you wan' pruf?" Eric ended. "Mah shord hash 'Eric J. McCloud' on the hilt."
"No… I don't believe you."
"Zatsh what you claim, but you don't want to believe me."
"No shit. I've spent most of my life trying to put the past behind me, and now you come telling me the most far-fetched story ever. A brief foray into the land of the dead and telling me that your body is partially inhabited by my late father. Don't you understand?!" Fox whimpered, fear in his voice and eyes now. "You don't have any idea the kind of psychological scars you're reopening right now…"
I bet I do, Eric thought.
"Even if you're right… do you really think I could take it? Not seeing my family for years, getting past the fact that they're dead and then seeing them again?
"Mmmm… mm hmm?"
Fox sighed exasperatedly. "You don't understand. You never will be able to understand until one you love becomes ripped from your life, you try to put it behind you, and you think you succeed and you are then faced with the fact that they're alive.
"Not rihlly alive, just ze soulz return. I don' really know ze answers…"
"You know them, you just don't want to tell me. That's it, isn't it."
"I've told you all I know about the experiment on the Outer Plane."
"You know more than you think you do. I can tell. I'm not stupid."
"I know that, I just don' know what you mean by knowing more than I think I know. That doesn' even seem possible."
"It is. Just… nevermind…" Fox said, slumping into the corner with his thoughts. Eric felt bad for the guy; having his family taken, his fiancé… life just naturally sucked for him. This current bit of information must be hard.
"NOOOO!"
Eric and Fox jerked upright. "What the hell was that?" They both said simultaneously, the conversation going behind them for the moment.
"That sounded like Sarah…" Eric mused. "Something really, really bad just happened."
"And is going to happen. Listen!" Fox said.
"I don't hear anything…"
"If you really have my dad inside you, you'd hear that," Fox said. "Footsteps!"
Then, a blood-curdling shout echoed through the prison cell.
"It's time for your execution."