Author's Note and Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own StarWolf or
StarFox or anything related to StarFox except for this fic and plot. And
the character Chamille is different from the other one, so in other words,
this Chamille is MINE! This fic is rated R for a number of reasons,
violence, blood, gore, language, some sexual content, blah blah blah, ya
get the picture. The full genre of this fic is Angst/Drama/Humor/Romance.
See if you can guess the pairing I've made for this ficcy, and if you can
figure it out, then good for you! ^_^; I'm sorry for that LOOOOOOOONG time
before I updated, for one, I placed this fic on hiatus because I was
focusing on my first fic "Falling Stars", so for those who are among my
"Torn Asunder" readers, I'M SO SORRY!!! Please review after reading! Thank
you.
~~Imagen~~
~~~~~~~~~ ***~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 4: "Angel in the Tempest"
"ARGH!!! We can't turn back for Leon now! That gawddamn StarFox is-OW!- after us like dogs!" Pigma grunted as a shot was fired at his thrusters.
This time Wolf made another stupid comment. "Hey, hey! I'M the dog around here! Where the hell is that b@$t@rd?!"
"He musta gotten lost in the blizzard!"
"Damn..." Wolf realized that there was no choice between either running from StarFox or go against them and search for Leon. If he knew Leon long enough, he'd be all right on his own. "Let's go back when it's clear!"
"Right!"
***
It seemed like hours have passed ever since StarWolf made an attempt to attack StarFox at Amarok City. However, because it unplanned for them to actually face an entire Army, StarWolf retreated before they would even lay down one attack. Chamille was beginning to think about why she stowed away in the first place.
As the winds of the blizzard blew harder and harder, she curled up closer to the fire of the explosion. Chamille watched as the flames danced wildly, trying to survive in the death cold of the icy planet's wind. Her eyes watched them flicker, the warmth hardly produced from the energy of the fire. She gasped when an extremely strong gust of wind blew out all the fire, save a tiny flame, yet that couldn't survive in the freezing air either. Chamille shuddered as she embraced herself, feeling her temperature fluctuate from its warmth to the cold. She could feel her breathing and heart rate slow down, her blood flowing slowly along. Her eyes began to feel heavy. Chamille struggled to stay awake, knowing the consequences of what will happen to her if she sleeps. But the more she struggled to stay awake, the more and more her temperature decreased and heart and breathing rate lowered. The poor woman felt herself surrender to what is known to reptiles in the cold as hibernation.
'No................ I can't....' she thought as the last of the small flame finally died out. 'If... I go down........ I will........ never....... accomplish..... my mission.... down.... here.... on...'
"CHAMILLE!!!"
"Wolf... you came..." Chamille whispered as she slumped down on the snow, watching her world go black as a tall figure approached her in the freezing cold.
***
Leon awakened several hours after his ship exploded. As he awoke from his sleep, his eyes blinked as ice collected under them. He could not move- his whole body was numbed by either the cold or the explosion. That won't stop him. Leon was numbing to begin with... numb-hearted anyway. The chameleon grunted as he struggled to lift his arms from the snow and push himself up. It was hard, very hard, for there were already clumps and clumps of snow collecting over his body, almost completely burying him in the icy world. Leon Powalski, however, refused to allow a little snow to hinder him from surviving. The hardy chameleon lifted the snow that buried him and shook, allowing it to shift to the ground. The lizard dug himself out until he could finally stand, breathing in the chilly air. Leon didn't shiver. His skin was so numb he cannot even feel the cold.
Because of the explosion happening so suddenly, however, the reptile was unsure of his current location. Although the blizzard slightly eased, it was still blowing hard with snow and wind. Leon squinted as he struggled to look through the blizzard. Shades of darkness surrounding him, seeing many, many hills of white. Not one of them had a destroyed ship on top. Then again, Leon was standing at the foot of a hill. Perhaps this was the hill he fell from. The lizard brushed off the leftover snow on his arms and shoulders and began climbing the hill, but as soon as he began climbing a few feet the wind blew hard and pushed him back. He could feel the icy snow shift into his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, then in his clothes. His left, his right, his up and down, his entire world was jumbled in an array of bafflement. Leon could feel himself tumbling down and down the hill until he hit the base, his head slamming into a harder piece of ice that was more like a rock.
Leon held his spinning head as he felt icy blood drip. As soon as his senses stopped dizzying, much of it returned to his head. "What was I THINKING?!" He turned to his communication link, which was a microchip in his mouth and ear. "Wolf? Wolf!"
***
When Chamille regained consciousness, she found herself sitting by Wolf in his cockpit with his coat over her. Wolf was leaning on the controls, careful enough not to trigger anything. His Wolfen was on the ground, being several meters away from Leon's Wolfen. The fire stopped burning, and the winds blew harder. In fact, the Wolfen was shaking slightly from the violent winds. Chamille also shivered, and she embraced herself as she clutched the dark crimson jacket that her lupine companion covered her with.
"Cold?"
Chamille turned to Wolf then looked down and nodded. "What I'm more worried about is Leon."
"I see..."
"Why aren't you flying, Wolf? Aren't you looking for him?"
"Pigma and Andrew are. When I landed here to pick you up, my engines suddenly stopped running. Right now I'm trying to get it to work again."
"Oh."
Silence hit both the wolf and chameleon hard, save the harsh winds blowing and the Wolfen shaking. Chamille embraced herself again, pulling up her knees and hugging her legs. Although it was warmer inside the Wolfen than it is outside, it was still freezing cold. The only warmth provided was the jacket she wore. It was... somewhat warm... either from the collected body heat of hers... or possibly Wolf's. The woman turned to the canine. Wolf was wearing his usual StarWolf uniform but without the jacket, which were mostly yellow tank-top shirt and pants, red bandanna, and black boots. Chamille stared at Wolf's bare arms. "Aren't you cold?"
"A little bit... but I'm a grey wolf, and most of us grey wolfs were adapted to cold weather. Plus my fur is super thick, I can keep myself warm. Still... it's below freezing out there-"
Chamille began taking the jacket off then handing it to its owner. "Here."
"No."
"Why not?"
"You need it more than I do. You're a cold-blooded reptile who cannot survive very long in temperature extremities such as this... I know Leon can for a while, but I don't know about you."
"Oh... thanks..."
Silence returned again, mostly because Chamille thought carefully of what to say next. She then turned back to Wolf, "Thanks."
Wolf was surprised she took that long to express her thanks. He sighed, slightly frowning, "No problem. Don't worry. We'll get your brother back."
Chamille smiled and leaned her head against Wolf's shoulder, slowly drifting back to sleep. "Thank you again... Wolf-chan."
Wolf shook as soon as she said her head touched his shoulder. Once again, he could feel that fluttering feeling inside him... something... it was as if his heart, that tainted heart... it was if it... skipped a beat. It felt... warm. It wasn't the warmth from Chamille, that's for sure... it was... different. Wolf clenched his fists and closed his eye when a thought came to his mind, then shook his head as if saying no to a ridiculous idea.
'No... it can't be...' he thought. 'Could... could this be-'
"How long will it be until we find Leon, Wolf?" Chamille asked, her voice soft and drowsy yet still wanting to talk.
Wolf trembled. "It would probably take a while... after all, this blizzard could get anyone lost... but if he was blown away from that explosion, then I'm sure he's not too far away."
"How are you so sure he wasn't killed in the explosion?"
Wolf chuckled. "Oh, believe me, Chamille, it'll take more that a mere explosion to kill someone like Leon."
"Oh. That's good, then."
"Tell me something, Chamille... How come you care so much about Leon? I mean, I'll bet he doesn't even like you! In fact, I'll bet he hates your guts!"
Chamille thought about it before speaking her mind. "Well... remember our discussion before we went to your idea for 'fishing'? About that everyone not completely good but not completely evil?"
"Are you saying you believe there's something good in Leon?"
Chamille nodded. "Don't... don't you?"
"Well... he's an exceptional pilot... he's normally calm and cool in dangerous situations... he's quite obedient, but when he-'
"I don't mean that. I mean... do you think he has... a heart?"
It was Wolf's turn to be silent. "I... don't know. I doubt it, though..."
The woman nodded. "He has one. I'm sure of it."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Even if your heart and soul is torn asunder... it's still there... What it needs for it to be is to be mended and released from all pain bottled up inside..."
"Torn asunder... what are you talking abo-"
"Wolf? Wolf?" Leon's static-y voice was heard in the communication link.
The lupine jumped in surprise. "Leon, is that you?!"
"This is..."
"Where the f#cking hell are you?!"
Leon, who sat by the hill's foot, began shaking slightly as the winds blew harder. "I am not quite...s-sure... I'm at the foot of a hill, that's all I know!"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm... positive..."
Chamille began shaking Wolf inside the Wolfen's cockpit. "Is it Leon? Is it him?"
"It's him. He sounds okay, although I can hear his voice slightly stuttering."
"Well, he's cold! Where is he?"
"He says at the foot of a hill."
Chamille looked outside. "Probably this hill."
"Are you sure?"
"Not quite."
"All right," Wolf said to himself as he began another attempt to get his engine running. He turned back to his communication link, "Just hang in there, Leon, we'll get you now!"
"Make it quick before I freeze to death!"
Wolf sighed when his engine failed again. He reopened his comlink, but to two other of his wingmen instead of Leon. "Pigma? Andrew?"
***
Despite the increasing ferocity of the storm, both Pigma and Andrew placed their ships on Autopilot so they can sleep. Obviously these two weren't too worried about their lost lizard comrade.
Wolf's barking interrupted one of Pigma's favorite dreams, which was raiding a women's underwear store. "PIGMA!!! ANDREW!!!"
"What? What? Nooooo! I want those polka-dotted panties over there!"
"Pigma? Are you having one of those panty dreams again?"
Finally Pigma was fully awake. "What?"
"Pigma?"
"No! I swear!"
"Liar..." Wolf then began calling Andrew. "Andrew!"
"Nooo... Mama... I don't wanna eat my peas... I'm a big kid now... I want my ice cream NOW!!!"
"Oh, gawd, you guys..."
Pigma turned the Autopilot off then slightly rammed his Wolfen into Andrew's, in which both were flying side by side. Andrew woke up in a jolt. "WHAT???"
"You idiot, Wolf's talking!"
"Oh!" Andrew turned to his comlink. "What's up, Wolf?"
Wolf was counting up to ten in his head, feeling that he wanted to strangle someone but can't because he just can't strangle Chamille and she's the only one in his cockpit. "Leon just opened his link to me, but he probably cannot reach the rest of us due to this weather and the bad reception! He says he's at the foot of a hill, although he's unsure where... hurry up and find him, guys! My Wolfen's still down, so I can't join you!"
"All right, Wolf!"
"Can do!"
Chamille leaned over to Wolf and began yelling into his comlink. "Please, you guys, hurry and find him before it's too late!"
Pigma and Andrew hesitated. "Is... that... Chamille, Wolf?"
"Um... yeah... she's here with me inside my Wolfen."
All of the sudden images began dancing in both the pig and monkey's heads. 'She's... alone... with him... in the Wolfen... inside the cockpit... this... whole... time...'
Pigma began howling. "WHOOOOOOO, good job, Wolf! How far did ya get-"
Andrew then began yelling. "Freakin' b@$t@Rd! I'll bet you've taken advantage of her, you-"
"NO, NO, YOU ALL GOT IT ALL WRONG, SHE'S ONLY SITTING HERE BY ME, YOU FILTHY-MINDED B@$T@RDS!!!"
Chamille leaned away from Wolf, once again deciding to keep her mouth shut.
***
"What's... taking them... so... long..." Leon muttered to himself as he sat on the snow, embracing himself. He cannot feel the cold very well, his skin was numbed... but he was beginning to lose consciousness, and he knew that this was not good at all...
Suddenly noises other than the blowing winds were heard in Leon's ears. The chameleon turned back his bulbous eyes, seeing two Wolfens zooming towards his direction. He immediately jumped to his feet and began waving his arms, leaping and shouting out for their attention. "HEY!! HEY!!! HEY, I'M RIGHT HERE!!!"
Unfortunately, it was to no prevail. Both Wolfens zoomed passed him as the snow began to blur the air again, much of it striking Leon to the ground. He shook as he watched the ships zoom by, leaving him behind. "Damn them, whoever they are, regardless if it was Wolf, Pigma, and Andrew. Oh, wait until I get my hands on them-"
The winds blew much harder than before, so hard it literally took the lizard off the ground and blew him several feet. Leon screamed as he was flung into the icy air, twisting like barrel as the gales rushed harder and harder. He shot like a bullet headfirst, his world once again spinning. He could see the snowy hills spinning, going around and around. He began dropping, his head diving downward at an angle, heading back down to the ground. Or rather...
Leon didn't have a chance to catch his breath as he felt himself crashing through something hard... cold... icy... wet. Rushing. He thrashed about, feeling his arms and legs whip as he struggled to stand... or even try to realize where he was. All he knew was that he was... cold... and wet. Very wet. Underwater.
It was a freezing river that alone survived the blizzard.
***
"What was that?" Pigma asked as the storm blew harder on his Wolfen. The pig shuddered as his ship also shook, but almost twice as violently. The eyes of the swine widened as frost began to accumulate all over his ship, creeping over his windshield like a web of ice produced by a spider. The frost on his ship began to place weight on it, making it harder to fly and control. Even the thrusters were beginning to lose heat; Pigma could feel his ship slowing down. Looking at his side, he could see that Andrew's ship was also slowing down from the frost and winds of the blizzard.
"I think..." the pig could hear his comrade mutter as he shivered in his own ship. "I think that was Leon... I don't know... I thought I saw someone... it could be him!"
"Oh, great, we passed him!" As soon as Pigma spoke, his computer began to blare its warning, flashing red.
"Warning! Warning! Engine and thruster instability! Warning!"
"$#!T!" Pigma swore. "What are we doing here in this blizzard anyway? Risking our lives for the sake of that sadistic sicko? I wouldn't give a damn if Leon died!"
"Yeah, but... he's a great fighter! It'll be hard to replace him, according to Wolf-"
"I DON'T CARE!!! Leon could just freeze to death and find warmth in the pits of Hell! I'm outta here!"
As soon as the pig made a U-turn the winds blew fiercer than ever, faster than a running cheetah. Andrew's computer bleeped as he felt his ship shake violently. The winds scanned 67 MPH. This is not good. The monkey's ears could hear cracking sounds, coming from the wings of the ship beginning to bend and break and his windshield cracking from the frost and winds. Sweat, despite the cold, dripped down Andrew's face from fright and anxiety as the computers continued bleeping, his windshield continuing to crack. Before he would grab his comlink for an SOS, the glass shatters, much of it shooting towards his face and shoulders. Pinned to his seat as soon as the windshield exploded, Andrew screamed as he felt razor sharp shards cut, slash, stab, and thrust into his shoulders, chest, and face, shattering upon him in a heartbeat.
Andrew thrashed in his cockpit as soon as the ship began spinning almost immediately after the windshield shattered. He could feel it spin out of control, but he could not hear anything but ringing... ringing because the loudness of the shattering and the thrusters exploding from overheating just burst his eardrums. Ringing... it's driving him nuts! The monotonous, eerie sound dug deep into the primate's mind (that is if he had any), causing him to clutch his ears as he braced himself. He cannot hear, but he can still feel and see... he could see the snow, the blowing ice, and hills of white, and he could feel the frost, the glass, the pain, and the wind itself... The primate shook as he braced himself, screaming with the comlink on as his world turned black upon contact on the ground beneath him.
***
"Andrew! Pigma! Come in! Pigma! Andrew! Do you copy?!"
Silence. Chamille was breathing hard, her eyes tearing up as she bit her claws, shaking from not only the cold but of fright as well. Wolf was furiously barking at his communication link, almost slamming his fist at the walkie-talkie. She bowed her head as if in prayer, "Oh, please... not them too..."
"Pigma! Andrew!"
*KSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!!!!*
"$#I+!" Wolf cursed as he slammed his comlink back to the main controls. He sighed angrily as he bit his finger, then began thinking.
Sounds of bending metal began to moan, making Chamille move her bulbous eye anxiously. Looking behind her, she could see one of the Wolfen's wings beginning to bend, bits and pieces of metal beginning to scrape off and fly from the wind and blowing snow. The windshield began cracking, no longer strong enough to stand against the sinister frost of the blizzard, the cracks slowing crawling like a snake slithering towards its prey, stopping once in a while and stilling as if waiting for its next strike. Chamille hyperventilating, sweat dripping down her face despite the cold. Like a striking scorpion she snapped her arms around one of Wolf's, her delicate, scaly limbs squeezing the mammal's hard, muscular, furry biceps.
The chameleon began screaming on top of her lungs, crying in deathly fright, "WOLF!!! WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!"
"WE'RE NOT GONNA DIE!!!" Wolf roared fiercely, backing away from the woman. "AND LET GO OF MY ARM!!!"
Chamille didn't let go. She only held on to it, squeezing it tighter and tighter until it popped out of its socket.
"Gaaaaah! My arm! My arm!"
Still, Chamille didn't let go. Instead, she held on and squeezed tighter and tighter, her grip clasping around the lupine's arm as if gluing to it as the cracking and bending began to grow louder, the ship beginning to shake again but more violently. Although Wolf hated to admit it, he was beginning to feel scared. Leon is lost. Pigma and Andrew are lost. What more will happen as long as they remain in the blizzard? Wolf felt his heart pounding, his hands clutching the walls of the cockpit around him. He could feel the ship violently shake then tilt... it tilted... Wolf gasped when he noticed the nose of his ship lifting, the thrusters digging deep into the snow. The sky... it was gray... could this be night falling? Wolf didn't realize they were in the storm for this long... how will they get out of this now?
"EEEEEEEEEE!!! WOLF!!!"
"DON'T SCREAM IN MY EAR, B!TCH!!!"
Chamille's sobbing rang out in the wolf's ears. "Wolf... I'm scared..."
Before Wolf would say anything else the nose lifted up straight to the sky, pointing up very high then falling back in a crash, the top landing hard and the glass shattering. Wolf and Chamille screamed as soon as their ship landed upside down and the windshield exploding, the narrow nose blown by the harsh gales. The lupine's head landed hard on the ceiling, a lump forming as a result and a little bit of bleeding from the bump and the glass. He was all right, otherwise. Shaken up, perhaps. He can ignore his wounds and perhaps a bit of the cold... but somehow... it all feels... warmer...
Wolf looked up (since he was upside down). Chamille was out cold, her eyes closed and head bleeding. Her face was very close to his. The lupine could feel her breathing... barely. Her body was otherwise limp. She must be really out.
Wolf found out the reason why he was somewhat warm. While the Wolfen was toppling and while Chamille was gripping his arm, Wolf unconsciously took hold of the woman herself, wrapping his free arm around the young lady's shoulders. Wolf gasped and shoved her away, making her crumple to an awkward position inside the cockpit. He backed off to his seat, clutching his chest and panting for breath. "What the f#cking hell did I do...?" he muttered to himself. He shivered, feeling the blood go to his head. He began to feel dizzy, his arms and shoulders throbbing in pain. He was beginning to lose consciousness, and immediately he realized it was coming from the cold, his wounds, and the fact that he's hanging upside down in his cockpit. He sort of regretted that he gave his coat to the lizard woman... now that she's unconscious, he could just take it off and use it himself. Wolf placed his hands on Chamille's shoulders then gripped the jacket and slowly began taking it off, his world blurring as he worked from the collar to the sleeves. It was partially off, however, when he stopped. It was not from dizziness, though, or it could have... Wolf didn't exactly feel like himself today. He felt as if he should just leave the jacket on her... even though she's unconscious. Wolf once studied that cold-blooded animals hibernate when their surroundings become too cold for them, their heart and breathing rates lowering and internally keeping warmth. So that means she doesn't need it... right? Still... he feels it's only right that he should just leave the jacket on her, and not only because she's a woman, or the fact she's out cold. Wolf clutched his chest again. He was still breathing hard, and his head beginning spinning faster as his eye blurred and began fading. His skin was numbing, and he could no longer feel his wounds pulsing. All he could feel, and even hear, however, was his own breathing... short and hollow. And alongside he could feel and hear his heart beating. He could feel it pulsing, pounding against his chest and inside his injured ribs, and he could hear every beat, which was like a steady tapping on a hollow drum. Mist formed as he breathed unsteadily, his sight leaving him as he struggled to breathe. Now his head was beginning to feel heavy, and it hurt... too much blood... but Wolf could still feel his own breathing and his own heart beating... he realized that one hand was still on the jacket that Chamille wore while the other one was on his chest. His chest... it began to hurt... and not from the wounds.
Moaning was heard again from the bending metal in the winds. Wolf looked down and saw that snow was collecting in his opened windshield, the ship shaking again but not as violently. Immediately he realized that the tempest, still blowing furiously, was moving their ship.
"We're still on top of a hill," Wolf whispered, the mist from his breath fading as his sight began leaving him. "Any moment now... we'll roll down... and we will die... either from the ship or from the storm..." The lupine took one last look at the chameleon before he completely lost consciousness. "Damn you, Chamille... giving us this much trouble at a time like this... especially me-"
He was cut off when his head smacked in his cockpit again as the ship rolled down the hill. He didn't say anything after that.
***
Silence. The sky was grey. But the snows and the gales still blew. The sight is beautiful... but deadly. As a rose can be beautiful yet dangerous upon touch, the scenery of a snowy landscape can be deadly when caught in the storm.
Hours have passed. Night was already falling. The rivers have frozen, and bodies are buried. Voices inside heads were no longer heard. None is stirring, except for the chilling air and the falling sleets and ice. If any eyes were left open then ice would collect from their tears... the tempest was cruel and heartless tonight.
Yet in the midst of the storm, light shone through. The ice and snow around it melted, and the snow... it was as if it too melted upon contact to the light, as if the glowing was a shield of some sort.
The glowing was in a radiance of silvery white light, an aura of gold like halos from the heavens. It was warm... that was why the snow melted. And in the heart of the light, the source of the warmth stood in a form of a woman... gentle eyes that gaze upon the whites of the hills and the deep blues of the sky above, sparkling like the stars that watch over her. Long white feathers and ribbons flap along with the wind as well as a robe, a long golden rope wrapped around the waist and lifting in the air. The feathers and ribbons... they decorated the robe just perfectly... accenting the beauty the angel in the tempest already has.
The glowing light approached the buried ship that has fallen down the hill, and without even bothering to touch it the figure lifted the ship up, turning it over and gently setting it right side up. She melted the ice that blocked the broken windshield with the light, seeing inside an unconscious wolf, who appeared to be sleeping peacefully. The lady of the light then leaned to the wolf and placed her soft lips on his lightly, the wounds closing up, his skin beginning to feel the warmth, and his breathing and heart rate returning to normal. The wolf opened his eye, the one not covered by the black eyepatch he wore... he looked up to what he felt was warm, his eyesight however still blurry from dizziness. He cannot see clearly what the figure was... he could not focus his eye on the stranger in the feathered robe.
"Who... who are you...?"
"Someone who has been watching all this time," the lady of the light answered in an angelic voice, the figure almost fading in the light itself. Wolf has never felt this warm before, as if he was in the blizzard forever. He smiled faintly and went back to sleep.
***
Daybreak. The sun was shining and the skies were clear. The blizzard was no more... all was still, except the skipping of a joyous chameleon woman in a brown coat.
"The sun is so beautiful!" she cried gleefully. The ice didn't bother her at all... she was, in fact, ignoring the cold. Perhaps it was because the storm has stopped for so long she was very glad to see the sun again.
The young lady looked back to see Wolf sleeping in his cockpit. Chamille ran back to the ship, sitting on the nose then taking off her coat. She placed it on Wolf, laying it over him as she crawled back in. She smiled, "I will wait for you to wake up."
***
"Whoa-ho-ho..." Andrew muttered as he looked around. He stood in the middle of a snowy crater, his Wolfen in pieces. Yet he remains unharmed.
Pigma was feeling just as fine, just colder since he has no hair all over his body, unlike Andrew. He stood there in the middle of his Wolfen's wreck, shivering and teeth chattering. Andrew turned to his swine companion and grinned, "Ain't it amazing? We're alive!"
"Yes, but for HOW LONG???!!!" Pigma growled.
Andrew shoveled his feet into the snow as he trod to wrecked cockpit, grabbing what was left of his communication link. He took hold of the device then turned it on, loud static being the first thing he heard. He smacked it a while, trying to gain frequency until the staticy sounds disappeared. The monkey spoke to the mouthpiece, "Wolf?"
At a far distance, probably a mile or two where Pigma and Andrew roamed, Wolf remained asleep in his cockpit. Chamille heard the incoming calls from the monkey, and she picked up Wolf's comlink and spoke to it, "Wolf's asleep!"
"Chamille?"
"Yeah, it's me!"
"Where's Wolf?"
"Like I said, he's asleep!"
"Yeesh, and he tells US not to sleep on the job-"
"Andrew, have you found Leon yet?"
The monkey scratched the back of his neck, "Oh, yeah, that's right, Leon..."
"Andrew, please! Any sign of him yet?"
"Erm....... um...... not yet, baby, but we'll find him soon!"
Chamille's scaly eyebrows rose. 'Baby?'
"Chamille, is Wolf's Wolfen still in good condition?"
"His Wolfen..."
"His ship!"
"Oh!" Chamille looked around where she sat inside Wolf's cockpit. "Well...... the windshield's shattered, and the burning things won't start- "
"Damn!" Andrew cussed aside as he turned his hand away and cupped his hairy hand over the mouthpiece. He bit his lip, sighing, "Man, now that all of us have wrecked Wolfens, how are we gonna get back at the base? It'll take hours for us to just WALK there-"
"Andrew? Andrew?"
Andrew faked a laughed. "What is it?"
"Is Pigma with you?"
Andrew turned to his side. Pigma was romping about, complaining and grumbling to himself. The monkey faked another laugh then whispered, "Yes................. unfortunately..."
"Where are you two?"
'That's what I'd like to know...'
"Andrew?"
"Hang on a second, honey!" Andrew said as he turned off his comlink.
Chamille's eyes widened. "Honey?!"
"Pigma!" Andrew called out as he romped through the snow before tripping over a piece of metal and falling flat on his face.
His stumbling soon caught the pig's attention. "What do you want, monkey balls?"
Andrew spat out the snow from his mouth and began to growl, "Hey, I didn't call you so you could make fun of my weenie's two best friends!"
"Whatever. What is it?"
The monkey brushed the snow off himself as he continued on to the pig. "Is your radar still working?"
"My what?"
"Your radar! I looked at mine and it's completely wrecked!"
Pigma grumbled as he trod through the snow to his ruined ship. Turning to a part in his cockpit, he pressed a few buttons then flipped a switch. The computer's monitor, which survived the crash and remained in good condition save a few scratches here and there, flashed then showed a menu screen. Pigma typed in a bit in his keyboard until a map, which was a radar of the StarWolf Team's positions and the nearest cities, was shown. Wolf's icon was actually not too far from where they were, and the nearest city, Amarok, was actually about half an hour worth of walking away.
Andrew hooted. "Oh, yeah! Amarok City is actually not too far away from here!"
Pigma stuck a hoof in his ear. "You don't HAVE to yell in my ear!"
"Sorry!"
Pigma sighed as he looked back at the radar. "Wherever Wolf is, that Chamille girl must be also........." He searched around the radar. "Hey........."
"What?"
"I only see three icons, yours, mine, and Wolf's. Where's Leon?"
"Aren't we tracked down by our Wolfens?"
"No... this time we have them in our uniforms... in our portable comlinks... Leon has his own with him..."
"So, then........ where's Leon?"
***
Chamille sighed and turned back to Wolf, who was peacefully sleeping. She smiled, stroking the fur on his head playfully as the lupine smacked his lips and mumbled in his sleep. She took her clawed hand off when she thought she heard him mumble, "Fox... McCloud... you... will die..."
"Oh, my........" The woman sighed as she slumped back as Wolf tossed a bit in his seat. "Even in his dreams he holds that grudge..."
Chamille felt a cool breeze blow against her face, a gentle one, unlike the gales before. She shivered and looked up. The sun was still rising, and its warmth was comforting to the ectothermic chameleon. But she knew that staying too long in the cold would not be good for her health. She stood up the hopped out the cockpit, looking back Wolf. "Don't worry, Wolf... I'll be back in a moment... I just need to get my blood running..."
Chamille began to tread about, realizing that it was far too difficult to jog in such thick snow. She shook her head and turned back to hop in when two figures at a distance were seen at the corner of her bulbous eyes. The chameleon looked back. Pigma and Andrew were coming her way. A smile returned to her pretty face, and Chamille turned around and threw her arms up and waved. "Andrew! Pigma-san! You're all right!"
As soon as she said those words both slipped and fell. Chamille gaped then picked her feet up to run as fast she could to the fallen men. At that very moment Wolf awakened to Chamille's calling and opened his eye, yawning. He turned to the running chameleon and rubbed his eye, blinking from the sun's light. "Wha..."
"Andrew! Pigma! Are you two all right?" Chamille asked as she began approaching the pig and monkey. Wolf shook his head and lifted a leg to step off his cockpit when Chamille slipped and fell as well. This had the wolf leap off his ship rather than slide off, and at the drop of a hat (or chameleon) he began sprinting to where his three companions lay.
Pigma and Andrew held their hands up. "Wait! It's-"
*SLIP!!! CRASH!!!*
"Slippery..."
Wolf had his long nose stuck into the ice. With stretching then popping sounds heard in his ears, the lupine pulled his noggin off the ground then fell back, falling on his head upon the hardened water.
"Ice?"
"It's.... ice!" Andrew began as he carefully stood up, Pigma doing the same. He continued rambling, "That's nice... we're on ice....... how nice........ that's ice......." The pig stared at the monkey. "What? I can't think of any other words that rhyme with ice-"
"Well, there's mice, there's lice, there's rice, there's slice and dice, oh, yeah, there's pulver-ICE!!!" Pigma growled as he held up a fist up to Andrew's face.
Chamille also stared. "Pulverize doesn't rhyme with ice!"
"DOES IT REALLY MATTER?!!!"
"Lucky you two found us," Wolf said as he brushed the frost off his arms and shoulders as he stood up carefully upon the ice. "I don't have to find you two."
"Yeah, but now we have to find Leon," Andrew reminded him.
Beeping sounds were heard inside Pigma's jacket. All eyes turned to him as he opened it and pulled out the small monitor he brought from his cockpit, with some wiring and microchips reattached to it. The swine's orbs widened. "Wait.......... I see a fourth icon!"
"WHERE???!!!"
"Dunno....... it's really faint..."
The three men suddenly silenced. Chamille's eyes widened as well as they began back off, slowly so they wouldn't slip again. She tilted her head in confusion as they backed off further and further away, as if forming a circle. She kept staring even when they stopped. Pigma sighed when the blinking icon in his radar disappeared. "It's gone..."
"LOOK!!! LOOK!!!"
"WHERE???!!! WHERE???!!!"
"DOWN THERE!!!"
Wolf, Pigma, and Andrew shot down to the ice, looking down at the center of their circle. Several feet below the surface, something dark was frozen deep below. Wolf quickly dived over that dark figure and began brushing aside the snow and frost to have closer look at whatever was down below. He couldn't make out quite correctly of what it was... except he could see a coiled lizard tail.
"Oh, my gawd!" Pigma squealed. "It's Leon!"
"I can't believe it...... he's down there......" Chamille began crying. She kneeled down and covered her eyes to wail, causing the men to run * and slip and fall* to her. "He's dead, he's dead! I can't believe it, he's dead!!! WAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
"Chamille, please, stop crying!" Wolf barked. Chamille choked as she glanced up to him. "Please....... um....... don't...... Leon could still be alive-"
"How could you be so sure?!"
"First, we get him out!" Andrew coughed as he readied the blaster he kept at his side. He cocked it and aimed to where Leon was frozen in and shot. The laser blast only penetrated an inch deep into the ice, creating only a tiny little hole.
Pigma shook his head. "You moron!"
"I'm sorry..... was it a bad idea?"
"............................ No!" Pigma brought out a bigger blaster, which was twice the firepower of Andrew's gun. "We use a big-@$$ gun and-"
"Don't! Please!" Chamille pleaded. "What if you hurt Leon?!"
Both Pigma and Andrew were silent. They turned to each other and grinned. "We use a bomb!"
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT????!!!"
Chamille ran and shook Wolf as soon as she saw Pigma pull out a small round object from his coat. She took hold of the lupine's overcoat and shook him hard, "Please, Wolf, don't let them use a bomb!"
"Chamille!"
The chameleon stopped shaking him before the wolf placed his hands on her to calm her. "Relax, Chamille, Leon won't get hurt-"
"YOU'RE ACTUALLY GOING TO LET THEM USE IT???!!!"
Wolf looked back. Andrew and Pigma were readying the bomb, setting it directly on the surface on top of Leon. He turned back to her, "Don't worry about it. Pigma and Andrew are using the smallest type of bomb we have, which actually makes a small explosion but causes a lot of force and pressure. If we use this one, it should be able to blow off about three feet deep worth of ice of the surface, make a hole's mouth about five feet diameter, melt a few inches worth into water, and crack the rest down to Leon so it'll be easier to free him."
Chamille paused. "I....... I hope you know what you're doing.........."
"Okay! Bomb's set up!" Andrew waved a hand to warn the lupine and lizard. They and the pig and monkey ran a good distance from the bomb, all of them forming a snow bank then hiding behind it.
Pigma chuckled and held up a little hand-held device with a button on it. He clicked on it with a grin, "Fire in the hole!"
*Click!*
*KABOOM!!!!* Chamille screamed as ice chunks blew everywhere, flying towards all directions. Wolf pulled her down to prevent any to fly into her, Chamille ducking and covering herself. As soon as the silence was returned, she became the first one to peer over the snow bank. A large hole was formed, with some water at the bottom. Some of it was draining through the cracks that were formed by the explosion, which were able to go deep enough to actually form some air touching Leon's body. Wolf was the first one to stand and walk *and slip* towards Leon, looking down at the hole while kneeling. Chamille, Andrew, then Pigma were next.
Wolf turned to his comrades. "I'll chip him out."
***
Although it was taking him quite an awful long time, it was pretty easy to chip away the ice that formed around Leon. Wolf, with his knife drawn, stabbed and thrust through the ice, actually kneeling inside as he chipped the frozen water away. He was soaked in the two inch deep pool of water, which slowly drained as Wolf broke off more ice and as more cracks were formed. Yes, the ice and water was cold... but all this chipping was making him warm. Perhaps this could be a strange type of exercise.
Chamille huddled for warmth by a fire made by Pigma, which was made by burning the pig's burnt and torn seat from the crash. Whenever the fire died down, Pigma had to light another match and throw it at his old chair, often times lighting another then warming up another part. Anything he could do to keep himself and the lady warm.
The lady felt even greater warmth when a brown overcoat was laid across her shoulders and back. At first she thought it was Wolf's, but when she turned around she noticed that the jacket really belonged to Andrew. The monkey wore the exact same uniform underneath what Wolf and Pigma were wearing, except his tank top and pants were tan. Chamille recalled when Wolf took off his jacket for her. Comparing the two mercenaries, Andrew's a noodle- limp wimp compared to the strong, hard-armed Wolf. "Um, Andrew... aren't you cold?"
"N-Naaa-a-a-aah... th-the cold never b-bothers me..." Andrew chattered through clenched teeth, huddling himself for warmth and shaking violently.
Pigma, who was poking the burning chair with a long piece of metal, only shook his head. "Liar."
"Fine! I'm freezing cold here!"
Chamille took the jacket off. "You can have it back."
Andrew smirked and shook a hand. "Nah, keep it for now. Besides, aren't cold-blooders very vulnerable to temperature extremities?"
"Well, I got this fire... I think it should be enough for now..."
The monkey grinned as he wrapped an arm around Chamille's shoulders. "Then don't worry, angel-face, I'll make sure you-"
*WHAM!!!*
Pigma shook his head and clicked his tongue, "Tsk, tsk, tsk", as soon as a HUGE chunk of ice was thrown at Andrew's head. Chamille leaned back, surprised. She turned her eyes towards Wolf, who was angrily standing upright with an arm flexed. As soon as his eye caught sight of hers, he kneeled back down and resumed chipping.
Chamille thought, 'I wonder why Wolf did that...'
"There! There! I'm almost there!" Wolf hollered from inside the hole. Chamille and Pigma staggered up with Andrew limping behind. All three of them were running sliding towards where the wolf and male lizard are. Looking down, they could see that the ice was only three inches deep until they could actually reach Leon's tail.
"Here! Here!" Chamille began yelling. "His tail's near! Keep chipping, Wolf!"
Wolf began stabbing and thrusting the knife into the ice until he slowed down to almost gently chipping the rest of the ice off the male chameleon's tail. As soon some of Leon's scales were exposed to the air, the water draining down the cracks, Wolf touched it gently with his furry fingers. "Oh, gawd... it's cold..."
"Of course it is!" Pigma squealed. "What do you expect? He's been frozen inside for who knows how long!"
Wolf sighed. "We need a faster way to do this..." He thought for a moment. "Pigma! Get me some of that fire!"
"What?"
"NOW!!!"
"Fine!"
Pigma climbed out of the hole and took hold of a burning piece of his chair, clutching it where the fire didn't burn. He hopped back in and handed it to his leader, who held it up. He gave it back to Pigma and turned to Andrew, "Do you have a bucket of some kind?"
"What? A bucket?"
"We need to drain the water out faster!"
"Crap..." Andrew moaned as he climbed out of the hole. He searched about in his crash site, and seeing large pieces of metal he took some and ran and *you guessed it... slid* back to the hole. Before he slid back in he bent the metal in a shape that was similar to a large cup. He hopped back in and handed two to Pigma and Chamille, asking Wolf, "Would these do?"
"Perfect! I see you're actually using your brain!"
Andrew grumbled.
Pigma chuckled, "What brain?"
*CLANG!!!* Andrew smacked his "bucket" on the pig's head.
"C'mon, you guys, there's no time!" Chamille reprimanded the two men as she began scooping up some water and throwing it out of the hole. Pigma and Andrew glanced at each other and began doing the same, taking out the water that slightly filled the hole. As the water level lessened, it became easier for Wolf to melt and chip away more of the ice to free his other lizard comrade. In a matter of minutes, the ice lessened down to Leon's feet, then to his legs, his rear end, to his hips, then his stomach. Wolf decided to stop there.
Both of the men and Chamille were groaning as they held their backs. "Why are you stopping?"
"I think we can pull him out now..."
All four of them soon then clutched Leon's tail, feet, and legs. Wolf still held the fire, but by his tail, close to the ice that still trapped the lizard. "Okay, guys, in the count of three..."
Everyone waited a bit until some ice melted.
"One... two... THREE!!!"
The four men (and woman) pulled as hard as they could as Leon slowly began slipping from the ice then popping out of it, chest, arms, then head. Wolf accidentally dropped the fire to the water, completely dousing it out. But he was glad their search was over.
Chamille crawled quickly to her brother's face and began patting it. "Leon? Leon? Can you hear me? Leon!"
"Is he......." Andrew muttered.
Wolf shook his head. "He's not dead. He's hibernating."
Pigma and Andrew both turned to Wolf. "Hibernating?"
"Yes. When an ectotherm (cold-blooder) is trapped in a very cold environment, often times he or she hibernates. With their bodies unable to generate its own heat, normally ectotherms, like Leon, for example, lower their heart and breathing rates. Then they would 'sleep' until warmth is regained to their environment. In other words, we have to get Leon somewhere warm."
"Yeah..." Pigma started. "That is, if ya didn't drop the fire in the water!"
Wolf just remembered that. "Oh, $#it!"
Chamille ignored the other men. She just kept patting her brother's face, calling out his name. "Leon! Leon!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
'Where... where am I? ... And why is it so dark in here?'
Leon held a hand close to his face. 'Blood?'
Crimson has stained the lizard's hand as the chameleon held his clawed left palm close to his bulbous eyes. The blood... it was fresh. Warm. And very thick. Leon could feel his whole body being soaked, but not with blood, perhaps here and there, but not completely. It was water... water from the sky. The reptilian sadist looked up, seeing the grey skies covered with thick clouds, each and every one of them heavy with rain. He could feel the rain pit-pattering on his scaly skin, dripping down and soaking his clothes... but even the rain could not wash the blood from his hand.
Leon looked down on his right hand. In it, a machete, also fresh with blood, was held tightly, as if the lizard had just made a kill. It felt heavy, however. Very heavy, in fact. Leon held many, many machetes before in his life, using them to chop his deceased victims to pieces and scattering their remains across whatever land he walked on. They were very light to him, for he didn't work out for nothing, plus he had used heavier weapons and machines quite more often... holding a machete should prove no problem. Yet why does this one somehow seem very heavy?
Come to think of it... both his hands were very... small... weren't they big enough to cover his whole face before, count his eyes? Now... they seem a third smaller... but why?
The grey skies began to dim... Leon could still feel the cold rain falling and the warm blood still staining his hands... his eyesight was fading, though... everything was becoming very blurry... and very dark...
Except something suddenly appeared before his eyes, but very briefly. It had the colors of sunny yellow and dark brown, the brown in a fuzzy circle with the rays of yellow surrounding it, making it look like a flower.
Leon gasped in confusion as the darkness overcame him.
"S... Sunflowers?"
((to be continued...))
~~Imagen~~
~~~~~~~~~ ***~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 4: "Angel in the Tempest"
"ARGH!!! We can't turn back for Leon now! That gawddamn StarFox is-OW!- after us like dogs!" Pigma grunted as a shot was fired at his thrusters.
This time Wolf made another stupid comment. "Hey, hey! I'M the dog around here! Where the hell is that b@$t@rd?!"
"He musta gotten lost in the blizzard!"
"Damn..." Wolf realized that there was no choice between either running from StarFox or go against them and search for Leon. If he knew Leon long enough, he'd be all right on his own. "Let's go back when it's clear!"
"Right!"
***
It seemed like hours have passed ever since StarWolf made an attempt to attack StarFox at Amarok City. However, because it unplanned for them to actually face an entire Army, StarWolf retreated before they would even lay down one attack. Chamille was beginning to think about why she stowed away in the first place.
As the winds of the blizzard blew harder and harder, she curled up closer to the fire of the explosion. Chamille watched as the flames danced wildly, trying to survive in the death cold of the icy planet's wind. Her eyes watched them flicker, the warmth hardly produced from the energy of the fire. She gasped when an extremely strong gust of wind blew out all the fire, save a tiny flame, yet that couldn't survive in the freezing air either. Chamille shuddered as she embraced herself, feeling her temperature fluctuate from its warmth to the cold. She could feel her breathing and heart rate slow down, her blood flowing slowly along. Her eyes began to feel heavy. Chamille struggled to stay awake, knowing the consequences of what will happen to her if she sleeps. But the more she struggled to stay awake, the more and more her temperature decreased and heart and breathing rate lowered. The poor woman felt herself surrender to what is known to reptiles in the cold as hibernation.
'No................ I can't....' she thought as the last of the small flame finally died out. 'If... I go down........ I will........ never....... accomplish..... my mission.... down.... here.... on...'
"CHAMILLE!!!"
"Wolf... you came..." Chamille whispered as she slumped down on the snow, watching her world go black as a tall figure approached her in the freezing cold.
***
Leon awakened several hours after his ship exploded. As he awoke from his sleep, his eyes blinked as ice collected under them. He could not move- his whole body was numbed by either the cold or the explosion. That won't stop him. Leon was numbing to begin with... numb-hearted anyway. The chameleon grunted as he struggled to lift his arms from the snow and push himself up. It was hard, very hard, for there were already clumps and clumps of snow collecting over his body, almost completely burying him in the icy world. Leon Powalski, however, refused to allow a little snow to hinder him from surviving. The hardy chameleon lifted the snow that buried him and shook, allowing it to shift to the ground. The lizard dug himself out until he could finally stand, breathing in the chilly air. Leon didn't shiver. His skin was so numb he cannot even feel the cold.
Because of the explosion happening so suddenly, however, the reptile was unsure of his current location. Although the blizzard slightly eased, it was still blowing hard with snow and wind. Leon squinted as he struggled to look through the blizzard. Shades of darkness surrounding him, seeing many, many hills of white. Not one of them had a destroyed ship on top. Then again, Leon was standing at the foot of a hill. Perhaps this was the hill he fell from. The lizard brushed off the leftover snow on his arms and shoulders and began climbing the hill, but as soon as he began climbing a few feet the wind blew hard and pushed him back. He could feel the icy snow shift into his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, then in his clothes. His left, his right, his up and down, his entire world was jumbled in an array of bafflement. Leon could feel himself tumbling down and down the hill until he hit the base, his head slamming into a harder piece of ice that was more like a rock.
Leon held his spinning head as he felt icy blood drip. As soon as his senses stopped dizzying, much of it returned to his head. "What was I THINKING?!" He turned to his communication link, which was a microchip in his mouth and ear. "Wolf? Wolf!"
***
When Chamille regained consciousness, she found herself sitting by Wolf in his cockpit with his coat over her. Wolf was leaning on the controls, careful enough not to trigger anything. His Wolfen was on the ground, being several meters away from Leon's Wolfen. The fire stopped burning, and the winds blew harder. In fact, the Wolfen was shaking slightly from the violent winds. Chamille also shivered, and she embraced herself as she clutched the dark crimson jacket that her lupine companion covered her with.
"Cold?"
Chamille turned to Wolf then looked down and nodded. "What I'm more worried about is Leon."
"I see..."
"Why aren't you flying, Wolf? Aren't you looking for him?"
"Pigma and Andrew are. When I landed here to pick you up, my engines suddenly stopped running. Right now I'm trying to get it to work again."
"Oh."
Silence hit both the wolf and chameleon hard, save the harsh winds blowing and the Wolfen shaking. Chamille embraced herself again, pulling up her knees and hugging her legs. Although it was warmer inside the Wolfen than it is outside, it was still freezing cold. The only warmth provided was the jacket she wore. It was... somewhat warm... either from the collected body heat of hers... or possibly Wolf's. The woman turned to the canine. Wolf was wearing his usual StarWolf uniform but without the jacket, which were mostly yellow tank-top shirt and pants, red bandanna, and black boots. Chamille stared at Wolf's bare arms. "Aren't you cold?"
"A little bit... but I'm a grey wolf, and most of us grey wolfs were adapted to cold weather. Plus my fur is super thick, I can keep myself warm. Still... it's below freezing out there-"
Chamille began taking the jacket off then handing it to its owner. "Here."
"No."
"Why not?"
"You need it more than I do. You're a cold-blooded reptile who cannot survive very long in temperature extremities such as this... I know Leon can for a while, but I don't know about you."
"Oh... thanks..."
Silence returned again, mostly because Chamille thought carefully of what to say next. She then turned back to Wolf, "Thanks."
Wolf was surprised she took that long to express her thanks. He sighed, slightly frowning, "No problem. Don't worry. We'll get your brother back."
Chamille smiled and leaned her head against Wolf's shoulder, slowly drifting back to sleep. "Thank you again... Wolf-chan."
Wolf shook as soon as she said her head touched his shoulder. Once again, he could feel that fluttering feeling inside him... something... it was as if his heart, that tainted heart... it was if it... skipped a beat. It felt... warm. It wasn't the warmth from Chamille, that's for sure... it was... different. Wolf clenched his fists and closed his eye when a thought came to his mind, then shook his head as if saying no to a ridiculous idea.
'No... it can't be...' he thought. 'Could... could this be-'
"How long will it be until we find Leon, Wolf?" Chamille asked, her voice soft and drowsy yet still wanting to talk.
Wolf trembled. "It would probably take a while... after all, this blizzard could get anyone lost... but if he was blown away from that explosion, then I'm sure he's not too far away."
"How are you so sure he wasn't killed in the explosion?"
Wolf chuckled. "Oh, believe me, Chamille, it'll take more that a mere explosion to kill someone like Leon."
"Oh. That's good, then."
"Tell me something, Chamille... How come you care so much about Leon? I mean, I'll bet he doesn't even like you! In fact, I'll bet he hates your guts!"
Chamille thought about it before speaking her mind. "Well... remember our discussion before we went to your idea for 'fishing'? About that everyone not completely good but not completely evil?"
"Are you saying you believe there's something good in Leon?"
Chamille nodded. "Don't... don't you?"
"Well... he's an exceptional pilot... he's normally calm and cool in dangerous situations... he's quite obedient, but when he-'
"I don't mean that. I mean... do you think he has... a heart?"
It was Wolf's turn to be silent. "I... don't know. I doubt it, though..."
The woman nodded. "He has one. I'm sure of it."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Even if your heart and soul is torn asunder... it's still there... What it needs for it to be is to be mended and released from all pain bottled up inside..."
"Torn asunder... what are you talking abo-"
"Wolf? Wolf?" Leon's static-y voice was heard in the communication link.
The lupine jumped in surprise. "Leon, is that you?!"
"This is..."
"Where the f#cking hell are you?!"
Leon, who sat by the hill's foot, began shaking slightly as the winds blew harder. "I am not quite...s-sure... I'm at the foot of a hill, that's all I know!"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm... positive..."
Chamille began shaking Wolf inside the Wolfen's cockpit. "Is it Leon? Is it him?"
"It's him. He sounds okay, although I can hear his voice slightly stuttering."
"Well, he's cold! Where is he?"
"He says at the foot of a hill."
Chamille looked outside. "Probably this hill."
"Are you sure?"
"Not quite."
"All right," Wolf said to himself as he began another attempt to get his engine running. He turned back to his communication link, "Just hang in there, Leon, we'll get you now!"
"Make it quick before I freeze to death!"
Wolf sighed when his engine failed again. He reopened his comlink, but to two other of his wingmen instead of Leon. "Pigma? Andrew?"
***
Despite the increasing ferocity of the storm, both Pigma and Andrew placed their ships on Autopilot so they can sleep. Obviously these two weren't too worried about their lost lizard comrade.
Wolf's barking interrupted one of Pigma's favorite dreams, which was raiding a women's underwear store. "PIGMA!!! ANDREW!!!"
"What? What? Nooooo! I want those polka-dotted panties over there!"
"Pigma? Are you having one of those panty dreams again?"
Finally Pigma was fully awake. "What?"
"Pigma?"
"No! I swear!"
"Liar..." Wolf then began calling Andrew. "Andrew!"
"Nooo... Mama... I don't wanna eat my peas... I'm a big kid now... I want my ice cream NOW!!!"
"Oh, gawd, you guys..."
Pigma turned the Autopilot off then slightly rammed his Wolfen into Andrew's, in which both were flying side by side. Andrew woke up in a jolt. "WHAT???"
"You idiot, Wolf's talking!"
"Oh!" Andrew turned to his comlink. "What's up, Wolf?"
Wolf was counting up to ten in his head, feeling that he wanted to strangle someone but can't because he just can't strangle Chamille and she's the only one in his cockpit. "Leon just opened his link to me, but he probably cannot reach the rest of us due to this weather and the bad reception! He says he's at the foot of a hill, although he's unsure where... hurry up and find him, guys! My Wolfen's still down, so I can't join you!"
"All right, Wolf!"
"Can do!"
Chamille leaned over to Wolf and began yelling into his comlink. "Please, you guys, hurry and find him before it's too late!"
Pigma and Andrew hesitated. "Is... that... Chamille, Wolf?"
"Um... yeah... she's here with me inside my Wolfen."
All of the sudden images began dancing in both the pig and monkey's heads. 'She's... alone... with him... in the Wolfen... inside the cockpit... this... whole... time...'
Pigma began howling. "WHOOOOOOO, good job, Wolf! How far did ya get-"
Andrew then began yelling. "Freakin' b@$t@Rd! I'll bet you've taken advantage of her, you-"
"NO, NO, YOU ALL GOT IT ALL WRONG, SHE'S ONLY SITTING HERE BY ME, YOU FILTHY-MINDED B@$T@RDS!!!"
Chamille leaned away from Wolf, once again deciding to keep her mouth shut.
***
"What's... taking them... so... long..." Leon muttered to himself as he sat on the snow, embracing himself. He cannot feel the cold very well, his skin was numbed... but he was beginning to lose consciousness, and he knew that this was not good at all...
Suddenly noises other than the blowing winds were heard in Leon's ears. The chameleon turned back his bulbous eyes, seeing two Wolfens zooming towards his direction. He immediately jumped to his feet and began waving his arms, leaping and shouting out for their attention. "HEY!! HEY!!! HEY, I'M RIGHT HERE!!!"
Unfortunately, it was to no prevail. Both Wolfens zoomed passed him as the snow began to blur the air again, much of it striking Leon to the ground. He shook as he watched the ships zoom by, leaving him behind. "Damn them, whoever they are, regardless if it was Wolf, Pigma, and Andrew. Oh, wait until I get my hands on them-"
The winds blew much harder than before, so hard it literally took the lizard off the ground and blew him several feet. Leon screamed as he was flung into the icy air, twisting like barrel as the gales rushed harder and harder. He shot like a bullet headfirst, his world once again spinning. He could see the snowy hills spinning, going around and around. He began dropping, his head diving downward at an angle, heading back down to the ground. Or rather...
Leon didn't have a chance to catch his breath as he felt himself crashing through something hard... cold... icy... wet. Rushing. He thrashed about, feeling his arms and legs whip as he struggled to stand... or even try to realize where he was. All he knew was that he was... cold... and wet. Very wet. Underwater.
It was a freezing river that alone survived the blizzard.
***
"What was that?" Pigma asked as the storm blew harder on his Wolfen. The pig shuddered as his ship also shook, but almost twice as violently. The eyes of the swine widened as frost began to accumulate all over his ship, creeping over his windshield like a web of ice produced by a spider. The frost on his ship began to place weight on it, making it harder to fly and control. Even the thrusters were beginning to lose heat; Pigma could feel his ship slowing down. Looking at his side, he could see that Andrew's ship was also slowing down from the frost and winds of the blizzard.
"I think..." the pig could hear his comrade mutter as he shivered in his own ship. "I think that was Leon... I don't know... I thought I saw someone... it could be him!"
"Oh, great, we passed him!" As soon as Pigma spoke, his computer began to blare its warning, flashing red.
"Warning! Warning! Engine and thruster instability! Warning!"
"$#!T!" Pigma swore. "What are we doing here in this blizzard anyway? Risking our lives for the sake of that sadistic sicko? I wouldn't give a damn if Leon died!"
"Yeah, but... he's a great fighter! It'll be hard to replace him, according to Wolf-"
"I DON'T CARE!!! Leon could just freeze to death and find warmth in the pits of Hell! I'm outta here!"
As soon as the pig made a U-turn the winds blew fiercer than ever, faster than a running cheetah. Andrew's computer bleeped as he felt his ship shake violently. The winds scanned 67 MPH. This is not good. The monkey's ears could hear cracking sounds, coming from the wings of the ship beginning to bend and break and his windshield cracking from the frost and winds. Sweat, despite the cold, dripped down Andrew's face from fright and anxiety as the computers continued bleeping, his windshield continuing to crack. Before he would grab his comlink for an SOS, the glass shatters, much of it shooting towards his face and shoulders. Pinned to his seat as soon as the windshield exploded, Andrew screamed as he felt razor sharp shards cut, slash, stab, and thrust into his shoulders, chest, and face, shattering upon him in a heartbeat.
Andrew thrashed in his cockpit as soon as the ship began spinning almost immediately after the windshield shattered. He could feel it spin out of control, but he could not hear anything but ringing... ringing because the loudness of the shattering and the thrusters exploding from overheating just burst his eardrums. Ringing... it's driving him nuts! The monotonous, eerie sound dug deep into the primate's mind (that is if he had any), causing him to clutch his ears as he braced himself. He cannot hear, but he can still feel and see... he could see the snow, the blowing ice, and hills of white, and he could feel the frost, the glass, the pain, and the wind itself... The primate shook as he braced himself, screaming with the comlink on as his world turned black upon contact on the ground beneath him.
***
"Andrew! Pigma! Come in! Pigma! Andrew! Do you copy?!"
Silence. Chamille was breathing hard, her eyes tearing up as she bit her claws, shaking from not only the cold but of fright as well. Wolf was furiously barking at his communication link, almost slamming his fist at the walkie-talkie. She bowed her head as if in prayer, "Oh, please... not them too..."
"Pigma! Andrew!"
*KSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!!!!*
"$#I+!" Wolf cursed as he slammed his comlink back to the main controls. He sighed angrily as he bit his finger, then began thinking.
Sounds of bending metal began to moan, making Chamille move her bulbous eye anxiously. Looking behind her, she could see one of the Wolfen's wings beginning to bend, bits and pieces of metal beginning to scrape off and fly from the wind and blowing snow. The windshield began cracking, no longer strong enough to stand against the sinister frost of the blizzard, the cracks slowing crawling like a snake slithering towards its prey, stopping once in a while and stilling as if waiting for its next strike. Chamille hyperventilating, sweat dripping down her face despite the cold. Like a striking scorpion she snapped her arms around one of Wolf's, her delicate, scaly limbs squeezing the mammal's hard, muscular, furry biceps.
The chameleon began screaming on top of her lungs, crying in deathly fright, "WOLF!!! WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!"
"WE'RE NOT GONNA DIE!!!" Wolf roared fiercely, backing away from the woman. "AND LET GO OF MY ARM!!!"
Chamille didn't let go. She only held on to it, squeezing it tighter and tighter until it popped out of its socket.
"Gaaaaah! My arm! My arm!"
Still, Chamille didn't let go. Instead, she held on and squeezed tighter and tighter, her grip clasping around the lupine's arm as if gluing to it as the cracking and bending began to grow louder, the ship beginning to shake again but more violently. Although Wolf hated to admit it, he was beginning to feel scared. Leon is lost. Pigma and Andrew are lost. What more will happen as long as they remain in the blizzard? Wolf felt his heart pounding, his hands clutching the walls of the cockpit around him. He could feel the ship violently shake then tilt... it tilted... Wolf gasped when he noticed the nose of his ship lifting, the thrusters digging deep into the snow. The sky... it was gray... could this be night falling? Wolf didn't realize they were in the storm for this long... how will they get out of this now?
"EEEEEEEEEE!!! WOLF!!!"
"DON'T SCREAM IN MY EAR, B!TCH!!!"
Chamille's sobbing rang out in the wolf's ears. "Wolf... I'm scared..."
Before Wolf would say anything else the nose lifted up straight to the sky, pointing up very high then falling back in a crash, the top landing hard and the glass shattering. Wolf and Chamille screamed as soon as their ship landed upside down and the windshield exploding, the narrow nose blown by the harsh gales. The lupine's head landed hard on the ceiling, a lump forming as a result and a little bit of bleeding from the bump and the glass. He was all right, otherwise. Shaken up, perhaps. He can ignore his wounds and perhaps a bit of the cold... but somehow... it all feels... warmer...
Wolf looked up (since he was upside down). Chamille was out cold, her eyes closed and head bleeding. Her face was very close to his. The lupine could feel her breathing... barely. Her body was otherwise limp. She must be really out.
Wolf found out the reason why he was somewhat warm. While the Wolfen was toppling and while Chamille was gripping his arm, Wolf unconsciously took hold of the woman herself, wrapping his free arm around the young lady's shoulders. Wolf gasped and shoved her away, making her crumple to an awkward position inside the cockpit. He backed off to his seat, clutching his chest and panting for breath. "What the f#cking hell did I do...?" he muttered to himself. He shivered, feeling the blood go to his head. He began to feel dizzy, his arms and shoulders throbbing in pain. He was beginning to lose consciousness, and immediately he realized it was coming from the cold, his wounds, and the fact that he's hanging upside down in his cockpit. He sort of regretted that he gave his coat to the lizard woman... now that she's unconscious, he could just take it off and use it himself. Wolf placed his hands on Chamille's shoulders then gripped the jacket and slowly began taking it off, his world blurring as he worked from the collar to the sleeves. It was partially off, however, when he stopped. It was not from dizziness, though, or it could have... Wolf didn't exactly feel like himself today. He felt as if he should just leave the jacket on her... even though she's unconscious. Wolf once studied that cold-blooded animals hibernate when their surroundings become too cold for them, their heart and breathing rates lowering and internally keeping warmth. So that means she doesn't need it... right? Still... he feels it's only right that he should just leave the jacket on her, and not only because she's a woman, or the fact she's out cold. Wolf clutched his chest again. He was still breathing hard, and his head beginning spinning faster as his eye blurred and began fading. His skin was numbing, and he could no longer feel his wounds pulsing. All he could feel, and even hear, however, was his own breathing... short and hollow. And alongside he could feel and hear his heart beating. He could feel it pulsing, pounding against his chest and inside his injured ribs, and he could hear every beat, which was like a steady tapping on a hollow drum. Mist formed as he breathed unsteadily, his sight leaving him as he struggled to breathe. Now his head was beginning to feel heavy, and it hurt... too much blood... but Wolf could still feel his own breathing and his own heart beating... he realized that one hand was still on the jacket that Chamille wore while the other one was on his chest. His chest... it began to hurt... and not from the wounds.
Moaning was heard again from the bending metal in the winds. Wolf looked down and saw that snow was collecting in his opened windshield, the ship shaking again but not as violently. Immediately he realized that the tempest, still blowing furiously, was moving their ship.
"We're still on top of a hill," Wolf whispered, the mist from his breath fading as his sight began leaving him. "Any moment now... we'll roll down... and we will die... either from the ship or from the storm..." The lupine took one last look at the chameleon before he completely lost consciousness. "Damn you, Chamille... giving us this much trouble at a time like this... especially me-"
He was cut off when his head smacked in his cockpit again as the ship rolled down the hill. He didn't say anything after that.
***
Silence. The sky was grey. But the snows and the gales still blew. The sight is beautiful... but deadly. As a rose can be beautiful yet dangerous upon touch, the scenery of a snowy landscape can be deadly when caught in the storm.
Hours have passed. Night was already falling. The rivers have frozen, and bodies are buried. Voices inside heads were no longer heard. None is stirring, except for the chilling air and the falling sleets and ice. If any eyes were left open then ice would collect from their tears... the tempest was cruel and heartless tonight.
Yet in the midst of the storm, light shone through. The ice and snow around it melted, and the snow... it was as if it too melted upon contact to the light, as if the glowing was a shield of some sort.
The glowing was in a radiance of silvery white light, an aura of gold like halos from the heavens. It was warm... that was why the snow melted. And in the heart of the light, the source of the warmth stood in a form of a woman... gentle eyes that gaze upon the whites of the hills and the deep blues of the sky above, sparkling like the stars that watch over her. Long white feathers and ribbons flap along with the wind as well as a robe, a long golden rope wrapped around the waist and lifting in the air. The feathers and ribbons... they decorated the robe just perfectly... accenting the beauty the angel in the tempest already has.
The glowing light approached the buried ship that has fallen down the hill, and without even bothering to touch it the figure lifted the ship up, turning it over and gently setting it right side up. She melted the ice that blocked the broken windshield with the light, seeing inside an unconscious wolf, who appeared to be sleeping peacefully. The lady of the light then leaned to the wolf and placed her soft lips on his lightly, the wounds closing up, his skin beginning to feel the warmth, and his breathing and heart rate returning to normal. The wolf opened his eye, the one not covered by the black eyepatch he wore... he looked up to what he felt was warm, his eyesight however still blurry from dizziness. He cannot see clearly what the figure was... he could not focus his eye on the stranger in the feathered robe.
"Who... who are you...?"
"Someone who has been watching all this time," the lady of the light answered in an angelic voice, the figure almost fading in the light itself. Wolf has never felt this warm before, as if he was in the blizzard forever. He smiled faintly and went back to sleep.
***
Daybreak. The sun was shining and the skies were clear. The blizzard was no more... all was still, except the skipping of a joyous chameleon woman in a brown coat.
"The sun is so beautiful!" she cried gleefully. The ice didn't bother her at all... she was, in fact, ignoring the cold. Perhaps it was because the storm has stopped for so long she was very glad to see the sun again.
The young lady looked back to see Wolf sleeping in his cockpit. Chamille ran back to the ship, sitting on the nose then taking off her coat. She placed it on Wolf, laying it over him as she crawled back in. She smiled, "I will wait for you to wake up."
***
"Whoa-ho-ho..." Andrew muttered as he looked around. He stood in the middle of a snowy crater, his Wolfen in pieces. Yet he remains unharmed.
Pigma was feeling just as fine, just colder since he has no hair all over his body, unlike Andrew. He stood there in the middle of his Wolfen's wreck, shivering and teeth chattering. Andrew turned to his swine companion and grinned, "Ain't it amazing? We're alive!"
"Yes, but for HOW LONG???!!!" Pigma growled.
Andrew shoveled his feet into the snow as he trod to wrecked cockpit, grabbing what was left of his communication link. He took hold of the device then turned it on, loud static being the first thing he heard. He smacked it a while, trying to gain frequency until the staticy sounds disappeared. The monkey spoke to the mouthpiece, "Wolf?"
At a far distance, probably a mile or two where Pigma and Andrew roamed, Wolf remained asleep in his cockpit. Chamille heard the incoming calls from the monkey, and she picked up Wolf's comlink and spoke to it, "Wolf's asleep!"
"Chamille?"
"Yeah, it's me!"
"Where's Wolf?"
"Like I said, he's asleep!"
"Yeesh, and he tells US not to sleep on the job-"
"Andrew, have you found Leon yet?"
The monkey scratched the back of his neck, "Oh, yeah, that's right, Leon..."
"Andrew, please! Any sign of him yet?"
"Erm....... um...... not yet, baby, but we'll find him soon!"
Chamille's scaly eyebrows rose. 'Baby?'
"Chamille, is Wolf's Wolfen still in good condition?"
"His Wolfen..."
"His ship!"
"Oh!" Chamille looked around where she sat inside Wolf's cockpit. "Well...... the windshield's shattered, and the burning things won't start- "
"Damn!" Andrew cussed aside as he turned his hand away and cupped his hairy hand over the mouthpiece. He bit his lip, sighing, "Man, now that all of us have wrecked Wolfens, how are we gonna get back at the base? It'll take hours for us to just WALK there-"
"Andrew? Andrew?"
Andrew faked a laughed. "What is it?"
"Is Pigma with you?"
Andrew turned to his side. Pigma was romping about, complaining and grumbling to himself. The monkey faked another laugh then whispered, "Yes................. unfortunately..."
"Where are you two?"
'That's what I'd like to know...'
"Andrew?"
"Hang on a second, honey!" Andrew said as he turned off his comlink.
Chamille's eyes widened. "Honey?!"
"Pigma!" Andrew called out as he romped through the snow before tripping over a piece of metal and falling flat on his face.
His stumbling soon caught the pig's attention. "What do you want, monkey balls?"
Andrew spat out the snow from his mouth and began to growl, "Hey, I didn't call you so you could make fun of my weenie's two best friends!"
"Whatever. What is it?"
The monkey brushed the snow off himself as he continued on to the pig. "Is your radar still working?"
"My what?"
"Your radar! I looked at mine and it's completely wrecked!"
Pigma grumbled as he trod through the snow to his ruined ship. Turning to a part in his cockpit, he pressed a few buttons then flipped a switch. The computer's monitor, which survived the crash and remained in good condition save a few scratches here and there, flashed then showed a menu screen. Pigma typed in a bit in his keyboard until a map, which was a radar of the StarWolf Team's positions and the nearest cities, was shown. Wolf's icon was actually not too far from where they were, and the nearest city, Amarok, was actually about half an hour worth of walking away.
Andrew hooted. "Oh, yeah! Amarok City is actually not too far away from here!"
Pigma stuck a hoof in his ear. "You don't HAVE to yell in my ear!"
"Sorry!"
Pigma sighed as he looked back at the radar. "Wherever Wolf is, that Chamille girl must be also........." He searched around the radar. "Hey........."
"What?"
"I only see three icons, yours, mine, and Wolf's. Where's Leon?"
"Aren't we tracked down by our Wolfens?"
"No... this time we have them in our uniforms... in our portable comlinks... Leon has his own with him..."
"So, then........ where's Leon?"
***
Chamille sighed and turned back to Wolf, who was peacefully sleeping. She smiled, stroking the fur on his head playfully as the lupine smacked his lips and mumbled in his sleep. She took her clawed hand off when she thought she heard him mumble, "Fox... McCloud... you... will die..."
"Oh, my........" The woman sighed as she slumped back as Wolf tossed a bit in his seat. "Even in his dreams he holds that grudge..."
Chamille felt a cool breeze blow against her face, a gentle one, unlike the gales before. She shivered and looked up. The sun was still rising, and its warmth was comforting to the ectothermic chameleon. But she knew that staying too long in the cold would not be good for her health. She stood up the hopped out the cockpit, looking back Wolf. "Don't worry, Wolf... I'll be back in a moment... I just need to get my blood running..."
Chamille began to tread about, realizing that it was far too difficult to jog in such thick snow. She shook her head and turned back to hop in when two figures at a distance were seen at the corner of her bulbous eyes. The chameleon looked back. Pigma and Andrew were coming her way. A smile returned to her pretty face, and Chamille turned around and threw her arms up and waved. "Andrew! Pigma-san! You're all right!"
As soon as she said those words both slipped and fell. Chamille gaped then picked her feet up to run as fast she could to the fallen men. At that very moment Wolf awakened to Chamille's calling and opened his eye, yawning. He turned to the running chameleon and rubbed his eye, blinking from the sun's light. "Wha..."
"Andrew! Pigma! Are you two all right?" Chamille asked as she began approaching the pig and monkey. Wolf shook his head and lifted a leg to step off his cockpit when Chamille slipped and fell as well. This had the wolf leap off his ship rather than slide off, and at the drop of a hat (or chameleon) he began sprinting to where his three companions lay.
Pigma and Andrew held their hands up. "Wait! It's-"
*SLIP!!! CRASH!!!*
"Slippery..."
Wolf had his long nose stuck into the ice. With stretching then popping sounds heard in his ears, the lupine pulled his noggin off the ground then fell back, falling on his head upon the hardened water.
"Ice?"
"It's.... ice!" Andrew began as he carefully stood up, Pigma doing the same. He continued rambling, "That's nice... we're on ice....... how nice........ that's ice......." The pig stared at the monkey. "What? I can't think of any other words that rhyme with ice-"
"Well, there's mice, there's lice, there's rice, there's slice and dice, oh, yeah, there's pulver-ICE!!!" Pigma growled as he held up a fist up to Andrew's face.
Chamille also stared. "Pulverize doesn't rhyme with ice!"
"DOES IT REALLY MATTER?!!!"
"Lucky you two found us," Wolf said as he brushed the frost off his arms and shoulders as he stood up carefully upon the ice. "I don't have to find you two."
"Yeah, but now we have to find Leon," Andrew reminded him.
Beeping sounds were heard inside Pigma's jacket. All eyes turned to him as he opened it and pulled out the small monitor he brought from his cockpit, with some wiring and microchips reattached to it. The swine's orbs widened. "Wait.......... I see a fourth icon!"
"WHERE???!!!"
"Dunno....... it's really faint..."
The three men suddenly silenced. Chamille's eyes widened as well as they began back off, slowly so they wouldn't slip again. She tilted her head in confusion as they backed off further and further away, as if forming a circle. She kept staring even when they stopped. Pigma sighed when the blinking icon in his radar disappeared. "It's gone..."
"LOOK!!! LOOK!!!"
"WHERE???!!! WHERE???!!!"
"DOWN THERE!!!"
Wolf, Pigma, and Andrew shot down to the ice, looking down at the center of their circle. Several feet below the surface, something dark was frozen deep below. Wolf quickly dived over that dark figure and began brushing aside the snow and frost to have closer look at whatever was down below. He couldn't make out quite correctly of what it was... except he could see a coiled lizard tail.
"Oh, my gawd!" Pigma squealed. "It's Leon!"
"I can't believe it...... he's down there......" Chamille began crying. She kneeled down and covered her eyes to wail, causing the men to run * and slip and fall* to her. "He's dead, he's dead! I can't believe it, he's dead!!! WAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
"Chamille, please, stop crying!" Wolf barked. Chamille choked as she glanced up to him. "Please....... um....... don't...... Leon could still be alive-"
"How could you be so sure?!"
"First, we get him out!" Andrew coughed as he readied the blaster he kept at his side. He cocked it and aimed to where Leon was frozen in and shot. The laser blast only penetrated an inch deep into the ice, creating only a tiny little hole.
Pigma shook his head. "You moron!"
"I'm sorry..... was it a bad idea?"
"............................ No!" Pigma brought out a bigger blaster, which was twice the firepower of Andrew's gun. "We use a big-@$$ gun and-"
"Don't! Please!" Chamille pleaded. "What if you hurt Leon?!"
Both Pigma and Andrew were silent. They turned to each other and grinned. "We use a bomb!"
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT????!!!"
Chamille ran and shook Wolf as soon as she saw Pigma pull out a small round object from his coat. She took hold of the lupine's overcoat and shook him hard, "Please, Wolf, don't let them use a bomb!"
"Chamille!"
The chameleon stopped shaking him before the wolf placed his hands on her to calm her. "Relax, Chamille, Leon won't get hurt-"
"YOU'RE ACTUALLY GOING TO LET THEM USE IT???!!!"
Wolf looked back. Andrew and Pigma were readying the bomb, setting it directly on the surface on top of Leon. He turned back to her, "Don't worry about it. Pigma and Andrew are using the smallest type of bomb we have, which actually makes a small explosion but causes a lot of force and pressure. If we use this one, it should be able to blow off about three feet deep worth of ice of the surface, make a hole's mouth about five feet diameter, melt a few inches worth into water, and crack the rest down to Leon so it'll be easier to free him."
Chamille paused. "I....... I hope you know what you're doing.........."
"Okay! Bomb's set up!" Andrew waved a hand to warn the lupine and lizard. They and the pig and monkey ran a good distance from the bomb, all of them forming a snow bank then hiding behind it.
Pigma chuckled and held up a little hand-held device with a button on it. He clicked on it with a grin, "Fire in the hole!"
*Click!*
*KABOOM!!!!* Chamille screamed as ice chunks blew everywhere, flying towards all directions. Wolf pulled her down to prevent any to fly into her, Chamille ducking and covering herself. As soon as the silence was returned, she became the first one to peer over the snow bank. A large hole was formed, with some water at the bottom. Some of it was draining through the cracks that were formed by the explosion, which were able to go deep enough to actually form some air touching Leon's body. Wolf was the first one to stand and walk *and slip* towards Leon, looking down at the hole while kneeling. Chamille, Andrew, then Pigma were next.
Wolf turned to his comrades. "I'll chip him out."
***
Although it was taking him quite an awful long time, it was pretty easy to chip away the ice that formed around Leon. Wolf, with his knife drawn, stabbed and thrust through the ice, actually kneeling inside as he chipped the frozen water away. He was soaked in the two inch deep pool of water, which slowly drained as Wolf broke off more ice and as more cracks were formed. Yes, the ice and water was cold... but all this chipping was making him warm. Perhaps this could be a strange type of exercise.
Chamille huddled for warmth by a fire made by Pigma, which was made by burning the pig's burnt and torn seat from the crash. Whenever the fire died down, Pigma had to light another match and throw it at his old chair, often times lighting another then warming up another part. Anything he could do to keep himself and the lady warm.
The lady felt even greater warmth when a brown overcoat was laid across her shoulders and back. At first she thought it was Wolf's, but when she turned around she noticed that the jacket really belonged to Andrew. The monkey wore the exact same uniform underneath what Wolf and Pigma were wearing, except his tank top and pants were tan. Chamille recalled when Wolf took off his jacket for her. Comparing the two mercenaries, Andrew's a noodle- limp wimp compared to the strong, hard-armed Wolf. "Um, Andrew... aren't you cold?"
"N-Naaa-a-a-aah... th-the cold never b-bothers me..." Andrew chattered through clenched teeth, huddling himself for warmth and shaking violently.
Pigma, who was poking the burning chair with a long piece of metal, only shook his head. "Liar."
"Fine! I'm freezing cold here!"
Chamille took the jacket off. "You can have it back."
Andrew smirked and shook a hand. "Nah, keep it for now. Besides, aren't cold-blooders very vulnerable to temperature extremities?"
"Well, I got this fire... I think it should be enough for now..."
The monkey grinned as he wrapped an arm around Chamille's shoulders. "Then don't worry, angel-face, I'll make sure you-"
*WHAM!!!*
Pigma shook his head and clicked his tongue, "Tsk, tsk, tsk", as soon as a HUGE chunk of ice was thrown at Andrew's head. Chamille leaned back, surprised. She turned her eyes towards Wolf, who was angrily standing upright with an arm flexed. As soon as his eye caught sight of hers, he kneeled back down and resumed chipping.
Chamille thought, 'I wonder why Wolf did that...'
"There! There! I'm almost there!" Wolf hollered from inside the hole. Chamille and Pigma staggered up with Andrew limping behind. All three of them were running sliding towards where the wolf and male lizard are. Looking down, they could see that the ice was only three inches deep until they could actually reach Leon's tail.
"Here! Here!" Chamille began yelling. "His tail's near! Keep chipping, Wolf!"
Wolf began stabbing and thrusting the knife into the ice until he slowed down to almost gently chipping the rest of the ice off the male chameleon's tail. As soon some of Leon's scales were exposed to the air, the water draining down the cracks, Wolf touched it gently with his furry fingers. "Oh, gawd... it's cold..."
"Of course it is!" Pigma squealed. "What do you expect? He's been frozen inside for who knows how long!"
Wolf sighed. "We need a faster way to do this..." He thought for a moment. "Pigma! Get me some of that fire!"
"What?"
"NOW!!!"
"Fine!"
Pigma climbed out of the hole and took hold of a burning piece of his chair, clutching it where the fire didn't burn. He hopped back in and handed it to his leader, who held it up. He gave it back to Pigma and turned to Andrew, "Do you have a bucket of some kind?"
"What? A bucket?"
"We need to drain the water out faster!"
"Crap..." Andrew moaned as he climbed out of the hole. He searched about in his crash site, and seeing large pieces of metal he took some and ran and *you guessed it... slid* back to the hole. Before he slid back in he bent the metal in a shape that was similar to a large cup. He hopped back in and handed two to Pigma and Chamille, asking Wolf, "Would these do?"
"Perfect! I see you're actually using your brain!"
Andrew grumbled.
Pigma chuckled, "What brain?"
*CLANG!!!* Andrew smacked his "bucket" on the pig's head.
"C'mon, you guys, there's no time!" Chamille reprimanded the two men as she began scooping up some water and throwing it out of the hole. Pigma and Andrew glanced at each other and began doing the same, taking out the water that slightly filled the hole. As the water level lessened, it became easier for Wolf to melt and chip away more of the ice to free his other lizard comrade. In a matter of minutes, the ice lessened down to Leon's feet, then to his legs, his rear end, to his hips, then his stomach. Wolf decided to stop there.
Both of the men and Chamille were groaning as they held their backs. "Why are you stopping?"
"I think we can pull him out now..."
All four of them soon then clutched Leon's tail, feet, and legs. Wolf still held the fire, but by his tail, close to the ice that still trapped the lizard. "Okay, guys, in the count of three..."
Everyone waited a bit until some ice melted.
"One... two... THREE!!!"
The four men (and woman) pulled as hard as they could as Leon slowly began slipping from the ice then popping out of it, chest, arms, then head. Wolf accidentally dropped the fire to the water, completely dousing it out. But he was glad their search was over.
Chamille crawled quickly to her brother's face and began patting it. "Leon? Leon? Can you hear me? Leon!"
"Is he......." Andrew muttered.
Wolf shook his head. "He's not dead. He's hibernating."
Pigma and Andrew both turned to Wolf. "Hibernating?"
"Yes. When an ectotherm (cold-blooder) is trapped in a very cold environment, often times he or she hibernates. With their bodies unable to generate its own heat, normally ectotherms, like Leon, for example, lower their heart and breathing rates. Then they would 'sleep' until warmth is regained to their environment. In other words, we have to get Leon somewhere warm."
"Yeah..." Pigma started. "That is, if ya didn't drop the fire in the water!"
Wolf just remembered that. "Oh, $#it!"
Chamille ignored the other men. She just kept patting her brother's face, calling out his name. "Leon! Leon!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
'Where... where am I? ... And why is it so dark in here?'
Leon held a hand close to his face. 'Blood?'
Crimson has stained the lizard's hand as the chameleon held his clawed left palm close to his bulbous eyes. The blood... it was fresh. Warm. And very thick. Leon could feel his whole body being soaked, but not with blood, perhaps here and there, but not completely. It was water... water from the sky. The reptilian sadist looked up, seeing the grey skies covered with thick clouds, each and every one of them heavy with rain. He could feel the rain pit-pattering on his scaly skin, dripping down and soaking his clothes... but even the rain could not wash the blood from his hand.
Leon looked down on his right hand. In it, a machete, also fresh with blood, was held tightly, as if the lizard had just made a kill. It felt heavy, however. Very heavy, in fact. Leon held many, many machetes before in his life, using them to chop his deceased victims to pieces and scattering their remains across whatever land he walked on. They were very light to him, for he didn't work out for nothing, plus he had used heavier weapons and machines quite more often... holding a machete should prove no problem. Yet why does this one somehow seem very heavy?
Come to think of it... both his hands were very... small... weren't they big enough to cover his whole face before, count his eyes? Now... they seem a third smaller... but why?
The grey skies began to dim... Leon could still feel the cold rain falling and the warm blood still staining his hands... his eyesight was fading, though... everything was becoming very blurry... and very dark...
Except something suddenly appeared before his eyes, but very briefly. It had the colors of sunny yellow and dark brown, the brown in a fuzzy circle with the rays of yellow surrounding it, making it look like a flower.
Leon gasped in confusion as the darkness overcame him.
"S... Sunflowers?"
((to be continued...))