Chapter IV

"It's time for your execution." Leon Powalski snarled.

"Oh, oh, zish ish perfect…" Eric muttered. He reached for the piece of plaster he used to write on the wall.

"What are you doing?!" Fox hissed. "You can't take them on with one piece of plaster!"

"Jusht watch me…" Eric missed most of Fox's point; there were more than one foe. Walking up the wall with his hands on one of the beds, he managed to get himself lodged in between the ceiling. Six or seven soldiers walked into the room with Leon in the back. Clutching his piece of sharp plaster, it would be his only chance… and then they might shoot Fox before he could grab Leon's gun…

Eric leapt down from the ceiling, planting his plaster piece into Leon's neck. It wasn't like the time he was killing prior Venom guards who were merely drafted, this time he felt like he was ridding the land of an evil piece of trash…

He liked it.

He immediately grabbed Leon's blaster and shoved his corpse at the platoon of gaurds, creating confusion. Two or three had enough sense to level their blasters at Fox, who seized the initiative Eric bought him, with a double roundhouse knocking over two guards and flipping backwards over a volley of lasers, picking up a blaster from a guard's dead fingers.

Eric had Leon's blaster ready and was already firing, but three of the guards turned around, malice planted on their face. The other two conscious or alive ones rounded on Fox. Squeezing their triggers, two shots found home on Eric's tender flesh. Rolling to the side, he fired a blind round at one of the guards and missed, then got his focus before he was hit again in the leg. Aiming, he got two of the guards who were on him as Fox flipped over the two on him, kicking the third on Eric in the back giving Eric enough of an opportunity to finish one guard off. Fox then snapped the neck of the last one up.

"That'sh break-neck shpeed, Fox." Eric quipped. Fox almost laughed in spite of himself.

"Throw them in their own prison and grab the clips in the guns. We're going to need all the firepower we can get." Fox ordered. "I'll try to find my radio and get the Great Fox over here…"

Eric pointed to his mouth and said, "Shtill hurtsh, you talk."

"Agreed." Eric picked up another blaster and handed a second to Fox. "What's the extra gun for?"

Eric aimed in two opposite directions to answer before suddenly convulsing. "Gnn!" Eric stumbled, clutching his side and leg in agony.

"What's wrong?!" Fox asked suddenly, before he noticed the smoking holes in Eric's chest and leg. Whoa, Fox thought. There's not a kid I know at his age who can take three lasers…

"Nngh…" Eric groaned. Fox helped him to his feet.

"Where's Krystal when you really need her?" Fox muttered to himself.

"Mm?" Eric asked.

"Never mind."

Fox and Eric limped hurredly throughout the ship. It wouldn't take very long for the rest of the ship to come in, wondering where Leon and his battalion was, and then all hell would break loose. And neither of them wanted to be around when Wolf found out Leon was dead… Eric wouldn't be surprised if Wolf just started killing people at complete random in a rage.

A few minutes of walking through the corridor, they came to a pair of double doors. "You know what's beyond here?" Eric shrugged. "Well, the way I see it, they're all going to be at the execution site. The guards of the ship, I mean. It's slim odds there in this room, of all rooms, right?" Eric nodded. "Well, in that case…" both companions placed foot to door and glimpsed the inside.

"Oh, -"

"-crap."

"-shit."

The room they had just walked into was absolutely packed with guards and the surviving members of the Star Wolf team. The room of Fox and Eric's execution!

Sarah knelt by Krystal's corpse and closed her half-mast eyelids shut. If there ever was a time she listened to her parents about matters of sentimentality, this was it. Forming a cross with her hands, Sarah got up, mind in a blind rage. She dashed over, to where the switch was, the arrow pushing back the switch as the train changed tracks. Sarah yanked out the arrow and stuffed it in the quiver at her back. She then affixed the quiver to her leg to allow for better access for arrows as they come as she pulled out a pocket-radio Slippy gave her and dialed the Great Fox.

"Slippy here. How are you holding up?" Came a familiar high-pitched voice.

"Like hell, Slippy. Eric and Fox are MIA after falling from a bike, and Krystal's dead." At the mention of Krystal's name, Sarah fought back a knot in her throat.

"Oh…" A long silence on the other end of the line. "…Man… Well…" Slippy was obviously taken aback at how quickly the battle had gone to hell. "What do you want us to do? Falco's ArWing is damaged to the point of being out of the fight, and the Great Fox has it's hands full delivering soldiers faster than they could walk and is in it's own battles!"

Sarah grit her teeth. Powerlessness was not a feeling that came easily to her and was even harder to shake off. Eric got on her case for being an overachiever, but she was needed, for the love of god!

"Fine. I'll get them out… somehow…" Sarah muttered.

"Wait…!" Slippy started before Sarah cut him off.

"If I'm going to get this done, I'm on my own," Sarah said aloud, diving for a ditch. "Think, Sarah, think! What were you told about before with the furries?"

"Remember, Sarah," Vixy whispered across the realms. "You have to make it to the central command center in that building and destroy their radar sense. That way, the planes will be greatly hindered without radar and our air forces can clean up the ground."

"Thanks, Mrs. McCloud…" Sarah said gratefully. Vixy could be heard complaining, "Just call me Vixy…" but Sarah took no notice. She had to pull this off, or the strike force would fail. Putting Beamstriker back over her shoulder, she made a mad sprint for the building, which was shockingly close by now. The fate of a universe rested on her shoulders, and by golly, she was not going to let it down!

"Aw, crap."

"Oh, shit…"

Eric and Fox slammed the double doors shut in the nick of time as the high-pitched whine of a laser assault slammed into the doors. A millisecond later, lasers speared through the doors faster than the eye could see. Suddenly, Eric felt his wrist grabbed by Fox as he was thrown from the path of death. A second later the door was flung open as hordes of soldiers and Cerberus guards came running out into the hallway.

They sprinted through the corridors, pursuit on their tails. Fox pulled the bedraggled and injured Eric and mashed the "down" button.

Eric gave Fox a look that very clearly said, "Are you INSANE?!?!?" Then made a hand-gesture to the outside and formed two legs with his hands. He mimicked sliding down a ladder and formed a pistol with two fingers, then pointed to both him and Fox, finally giving a loud grunt and scattered his hands to the four winds.

"Fox stared. "You're saying they're going to go downstairs, wait for the elevator to open, then blow us away?" Eric nodded. "And you think I didn't think of that?" Eric nodded again. "Well… then you'd be right. Plan B."

Fox leapt at the wall of the rather large elevator and kicked off, hanging from the ceiling door. Lifting himself up, he forced his weight downward, breaking the ceiling hatch open and giving themselves access to the roof as the elevator started moving down. Eric pointed at his wristband clock with increasing urgency.

Eric limped over to the hatch as Fox climbed on the elevator's roof and gave Eric a paw up. Once Eric was on the roof with Fox, Fox grabbed a hold of one of the ropes and beckoned for Eric to follow suit. "No, the same rope." Fox commanded. Eric grabbed it nervously, questioning what Fox had in mind. As soon as the elevator stopped, Fox waited for three seconds before shooting the bottom of the rope Eric and Fox were holding with a death grip. Immediately, Eric realized exactly what Fox had in mind; he clenched the rope with a death grip as all balance equilibrium was lost as they zoomed upwards with the speed of a peregrine falcon. At the same time, the elevator plummeted to the first floor.

At the top of the climb, at the third and top floor of the Cerberus, the rope jammed, preventing their hands from being lacerated at the top of the rope. Swinging to gain momentum, they launched themselves at the elevator door and poured into the hallway and were on their feet in seconds, for Fox's diversion would not last long.

Eric tried focusing on where his sword was; he was feeling helpless without the cool grip of the handle. He reached out with a hand and was returned with nothing. Fox was frantically pulling him along by the arm in an attempt for two things: a weapon and a way out. Kicking a random door, both men could hear the frantic footsteps of the hunt, doing everything in its power to catch them.

A volley of lasers suddenly flew from behind them, getting Fox in the back as they plowed through a random door on the hallway. There must have been a benevolent god somewhere in this turbulent battle, for the first thing Eric's hand landed on was Murasma's hilt. Fox quickly found a machine-gun blaster.

Eric shook his head as Fox turned around, gun aimed at the door, ready to go down fighting. Eric pulled the sword around the incredibly cramped closet and clanged it against the back wall, the tight room was barely able to contain the to compatriots such.

We're screwed, James, Eric thought.

"Not quite. Take another look…" James responded as soldiers came through the door in slow motion and colorless. A flash, Eric had cut the wall, and another flash. The Great Fox underneath a distorted image of Solar. The guards were back with color in their fur, and Eric slashed three more times to make a square in the original cut of the tiny closet, then grabbed Fox's arm and tumbled out of the hole he had made in the wall, tumbling out of the outer wall of the Cerberus.

Tumbling through the wall, several lasers found their mark on Fox as they fell through the hole made by Murasma. Almost three seconds later, they landed on the Great Fox with a bone-shattering CRUNCH. Eric rolled into where the wing met the body on top. However, Fox rolled to absorb the impact and slipped off, barely being able to grab the wing edge.

"Help!" Fox called from his precarious grip. Eric leapt forward to where he saw Fox fall, hoping to grab him and pull him to safety before his many laser wounds screamed in agony. Stumbling, he moved forwards as fast as his hands and knees could carry him as a bomb blew a small hole in the wing and covered Eric in metal shards. Looking back at the source of the bomb, Eric saw a familiar face, with boulbous eyes toting a rocket launcher.

"Sanskort…"

"Embrace The End."

Sarah stooped to pick up a gun from a fallen soldier. His death had definitely gruesome; his was missing half of his head and a leg, and had numerous cuts. Whatever had killed him, it was either extremely powerful or not of this world.

Hoisting the heater, Sarah ran for the main building. She had to be confident in her abilities or she would not be able to pull this off and may even not be able to survive. Hopefully, she thought, with Beamstriker, Vixy, and a little luck, I'll get seen through this. Gun at the ready, she dashed towards the building, crouching underneath the windows as she placed her hand on the door.

"Jodt ucc wiuhtj ke kxo eikcoadw rukkco."

"Rik jah…"

"A um nocc unuho ev kxo cedo kheefoh nxe xuj muto ak fujk tovodjoj. Boof kxo hojk ev kxo Cornerian Army rijo. A nuj huajot ad kxo ogialacudk ev kxo Bronx uk mo xemo fcudok. Kxaj aj jemokxadw u jsimruw cabo oei neictn'k idtohjkudt. De edo rojkj mo."

Sarah took a step inside and her gut instinct (and shade precog) wouldn't stop screaming. A tingly feeling similar to when your foot falls asleep crept over Sarah like a wave of ants, and it wasn't a good feeling. Paranoia set in as the few teachings from her parents that got to her came back with a vengeance. She had two arrows by now, and was going to use them to a good advantage.

Creeping around a corner, she positioned a bow to be able to use the blades as a mirror. It was hard; Beamstriker had a lot of energy (if not arrows) and peering through a yellow flame at a reflection was hard to do. However, Sarah saw that besides the fire, there was no movement. Nocking an arrow, she spun around, ready to shoot.

And yet the corridor was empty. No traps being sprung, and no soldier ready to tear her to pieces with laser fire. This was too easy, and it was making Sarah feel uneasy. Every one of her own footsteps sounded like a dozen hostile paths, her own breathing sounded like a poison gas vent being released.

Being very careful to footpad, her ears strained to catch any sound of persuit. Pushing the button on her new wristband, she decided on letting Vixy's heightened vulpine ears handle the dead silence.

Her back suddenly lurched as the pain set in of bones re-forming and her spine elongating to supply Vixy's tail, and her skull reshaping like something was trying to climb out of it. However, it didn't hurt as much as the first time… it must decrease per transformation.

Instantly, Sarah was beset with an amount of information that she hadn't even counted on before. It was like taking earplugs out of her ears and everything smelled stronger. And yet…

Besides her footprints, there was still nothing. Cold silence. Now, Sarah knew something was up. How could they let such a valuable building go completely unguarded?

"This is odd…" Vixy lamented.

"Of course… I don't hear or smell anything…" Sarah responded.

"That's what worries me…" Vixy muttered.

Another few minutes of walking, and a big, black, metallic door stood omnipotently in the middle of a hallway that practically screamed, "Come on in…" Sarah looked around for a keyhole or a passcard slot, or anything that would permit access to the room on the other side. A small box with two holes was on one side of the door and a single button on the outside of the box, but that was it. There was no other source of even possible access.

As Sarah crept towards the box, a smell wafted into her heightened vulpine nostrils and nearly knocked her out. The smell of…

Death…

Sarah tightened her grip on her bow. Staring at the box and looking for anything else other than the holes covered with red glass and the button, she seemed at a loss for something to do. Left with no other choices, she pushed the button.

"Retina Scan activated. Place head in the specified area." The computer droned.

"Uh oh…" Sarah muttered. She looked frantically around in vain for an object to put into the scanner. Oh well, Sarah thought. Looks like I'll have to find another way in…

No sooner had she turned the corner than two pieces of information hit her like a steamroller.

Around the corner, a decapitated scientist stood lay there, vacant eyes staring into space like a man in a coma. The head was still intact, but the rest of the body looked like it had gotten flayed into hamburger.

And at that exact moment, the retinal scan blared, "Alarm will sound if item is not placed in scan in thirty seconds."

Sarah gave an exasperated sigh and quickly decided on using the scientist's head in the scanner. Gingerly picking it up by the wolven ears, she sprinted back and rammed the head in the scanner. It made a series of beeps before droning, "Access approved, Dr. Pendansky," and the doors opened.

"Pendansky?" Sarah muttered to herself. She took a look at many computer terminals around the room. The room was at least as big as twice the size of a standard house and with a computer terminal spaced three feet in between each other in numerous cubicles along the walls and an electricity hub in the center. It was odd… for a place with so much technology, there were no wires… Where was a computer junkie when you needed him?

She examined some of the terminals and let Vixy's consciousness creep over hers; she knew what she was doing. Sarah felt her mind step aside, being able to relax as Vixy's own consciousness stepped in to take over.

Vixy bent over, investigating the computer screens, and discovered that all of them had wireless adapters. On many of the screens, there were references to a connection to a satellite which was powering mechs outside.

"You know what this means?" Sarah asked from her backseat in the car that was Vixy's body.

"Yeah," Vixy muttered to herself. "This is the power station." At these words, she raised the assault rifle she brought and was about to open fire when the strap was suddenly cut loose, screwing up her aim and causing her to spray the bullets upwards wildly. Vixy somersaulted forward to get another look at her attacker, spinning 180 degrees and bringing the rifle barrel back up to look at her attacker. A towering, eight-foot-tall scaly creature wielding a sword and a metal hook for a left hand.

"General Scales…"

"De kouhj. Ak'j u nujko ev weet jivvohadw." No tears. It's a waste of good suffering.