Dargor, Shadowlord of the Black Mountain

by Nick the Raccoon

Chapter 7: And the war begins. Nack and his fleet must now begin the long trek from the East Coast to the West Coast, and it's a bumpy ride.

Nack's Legendary Tale Chapter 6 Dargor, Shadowlord of the Black Mountain by Nick "frwl" Byrd frwl@nothingbutnack.com

And thus you can tell, this fic is taking a new turn from the somewhat- light-hearted to very serious. Well, sit back and enjoy the ride... it's sure to be a tough one. Copyright info... see earlier chapters. Kit is copyright to Daisy Hunt (trust me...). Dirk/Onyx is copyright to Sonic Rose. The name of this chapter is inspired by Rhapsody. Sonic, Tails, Sally, and Shadow are all copyright to SEGA/Archie. If you think I missed something, yell at me.

Dargor, Shadowlord of the Black Mountain

Everything was blurry... sound was distorted, muffled...
In front of the Weasel, Nack could see his hand once again holding the handle of the Emerald Sword, but besides that he couldn't see any other part of it. It looked like it was embedded in something... something dark. Below him, he saw what looked like an ocean, but at the same time it didn't... there was something very eerie about it... like there was a hole, a void in its expanse. They were falling towards it from high up. And on top of it all, the muffled sound which was something like a masculine yell of pain... But it sounded far off and unclear... The sound of his own slow breathing was louder than all of it...
Nack had no idea what was going on, but he knew that it was important... very important...

His eyes shot open suddenly, and all he saw was a darkened room... his room. The first thing his eyes could make out was the back of Crystal's head as she lay asleep next to him. Slowly and almost painfully he sat up, shaking off the rest of his sleep while taking in the rest of his dim surroundings. There was no Emerald Sword. There was no ocean below him. Dreaming... he had been dreaming again. But what did it all mean, and what had woke him up?
A series of knocks came from the thick metal door across the room. Slowly Nack arose from his bed and looked at his bedside alarm clock, which registered 6:12 AM. 'Can't it wait another hour?' Nack mentally asked whoever was knocking at the door, but he was resigned into opening it.
As he did so, he was greeted by a teenaged, powder-blue weasel, one of the messengers onboard the ship, and also Rambo's daughter: Roxy. "Captain Byrd would like to speak with you in the conference room, sir."
"Tell 'em I'll be there in ten minutes," Nack replied, trying not to yawn.
"Yes sir."
Nack closed the door and stretched, trying to free himself from the last of Morpheus' magic. He put his Stetson on his head and wrapped his holster around his waist, prepared for another hard day's work. Before leaving the small room, he lay a kiss on the still-sleeping Crystal's head. "Sweet dreams."

Twelve years had passed since Akron had stolen the Emerald Sword and it had been about 9 years since we launched that attack at the Western Coast of the United States. None of those years had been easy ones, but like I said before, we were in them and there was nothing we could do to get out.
For those past nine years, we stuck back in Europe, training up another force, a bigger force, a better force. We knew that unless we were truly prepared to launch an attack at Akron and Lucretia that there was no point in ceasing our training. So we did just that... train, train, train... The result was once again what we hoped to be the seed of a brighter future.
Our army was now floating once again over the waters of ocean, but this time the other way, over the Atlantic. This ocean wasn't as fortified as the Pacific, and so we thought that we would have a better chance at victory this way. What was our target location? It's more like: What were our target locations? Our force this time around was big enough to be split up... Rambo, Thorn, Nack, Crystal, Calia, and I were heading towards New York. Rocky, Angel, Nic, Andre, and Nova were going to retake Georgia. The double-attack would throw things much more in our favor, especially since they didn't know it was coming...

Nack walked down the narrow hallway which lead to the conference room, but before he got half-way down it, a tall figure in a trench-coat and a large, concealing Stetson emerged from the doorway. Nack hadn't seen this man before, as was the case with many of those who were in the ships, but he could feel that under the brim of that hat, the person's eyes were burning into his heart. Time seemed to stand still right then, but slowly the figure passed by Nack. Still, Nack didn't move. Something about that man didn't feel right...
The weasel then proceeded to enter the conference room. There I sat behind a small table, waiting for him. "Good morning, Captain," Nack greeted me.
"No need for formalities here, Nack," I smiled. "But a good morning to you."
"Who was...?" Nack started, shifting his weight slightly towards the door.
"Kit?" I replied. "Just an officer. I think you two'd like to talk some time... he leads a division of sharpshooters. He asked specifically to be on this front of the war, and I didn't reject that... very mysterious though."
Nack didn't respond.
"Well, have a seat," I continued, ready to get down to business. He did so. "You know where we are?"
He looked at me blankly for a few seconds. "In the middle of the ocean?"
"Wrong," I replied. "Within the hour, we'll be in attacking range."
Nack's velvety ears perked up. "You mean we made it this time?" he asked with a bit of surprise in his voice.
"I know, it's odd... not one bit of interference on the way over here. But they didn't know we were coming."
"We did it right this time," Nack said in a soft tone, smiling.
"Yes. So, get your artillery unit ready for action... we need to hit hard and fast."
"It's the way of the Sniper," Nack laughed as he headed towards the door.
Nack was back out on deck, happy to know that they were close. Danger was not an issue in anyone's mind. This war was bitter and long-drawn out. People who shouldn't have died were dead, and everyone in our army wanted to repay the blood back to that army of the risen.
As the weasel headed towards his unit's quarters, he was confronted by a similar weasel, but this one was white and a bit shorter. It was Trent, his own teenaged son, and he was excited.
"Dad!" he began as he walked alongside his father. "There's been a lot of excitement around the ships today. Something's happening, isn't it?"
"Yep," Nack replied simply and crisply.
"Did something happen to the other fleet?"
"Nope."
"Did something happen to our fleet?"
"Nope."
"Are we gonna attack?"
Nack just kept walking, not answering that question. Trent paused for a second, waiting for his answer, and when it didn't come, he ran to catch up to his father.
"You mean we're gonna hit them today?"
Nack paused and sighed. "I wouldn't go around spreading any rumors if I were you." Again, he started walking while Trent lagged behind for a few seconds.
And again, Trent ran to catch up. For a second, he stumbled over his ideas, trying to figure out what to say. He was quite anxious over the whole thing... "Can I come?" He asked. "I mean... you must have one open cannon that I can man..."
"Trent, listen to me," Nack broke in. "You're sixteen years old. That isn't old enough by our army's standards to have any part in our force..."
"C'mon! There must be something I can do!"
"Trent!" Nack replied sharply. "Listen... There-aren't-any-open- cannons. There wouldn't be any; we haven't suffered any losses yet."
Trent sighed with disappointment. "Yes, dad..."
Nack sighed with self-disappointment. This was a great day for him; he didn't want to ruin it for his son. "I know what you can do."
"Yeah?" The boy's body perked up with expectation
"You can get Christine and Roxy and head back down to Mom's quarters and hang out down there... tell her that I'll be back in a few hours."
"Yeah, sure thing," Trent said unevenly, unsure if this would be worth it or a boring waste of time. He turned and began running in the opposite direction.
"And... hey!" Nack yelled over his shoulder. "Tell Rambo and Nick where y'all are going! Last time you didn't, there was hell to pay..." (And there was. Not that I didn't trust the boy, no. Kid was as smart and respectful as they come, if not a bit over-active at times, but that doesn't change a father's protectiveness over his daughter.) Trent kept running, seeming not to hear his father. Nack sighed and just kept walking to his men's station.
Trent rounded one corner at top speed without looking first and almost crashed into a being about his size. As he was, so was she, pure white... with the exceptions of her pure black mask and ringed tail. Yep, that was Christine, my daughter. She wore a pale-green dress. It was obvious that it was her favorite color, and although she had brown eyes, in the darkness they would glow a similar shade of green. She jumped at the first sight of Trent coming around that corner with such haste, but was happy when she realized who it was. "G'morning, Trent!" she smiled.
"Good morning, Christine," Trent replied, caught off guard and at a loss for better words.
The two stood there, just looking at each other for a few seconds. "So," Christine began again, "Do you know what's going on today? Seems like everyone on board's awfully busy for this time in the morning."
Trent's excitement over the situation about to take place quickly overrode the nervousness about being by Christine. "Dad's getting his share of the cannons manned right now... I think we're finally gonna attack!"
"We're close to the shore?" Christine said with a hint of surprise. "That's wonderful! Do you think we'll land this time?"
Trent laughed. "If I know my father half as well as I should, he's not gonna try any less than his hardest at blasting them this time... it'll be hard for us NOT to land with this much firepower behind us."
"That's great!" she replied. "So, we're finally gonna get to the mainland this time... America... It's been so many years, I barely remember what it was like..."

A few minutes later, Nack stood in front of his men, the most highly trained sharp shooting and artillery-shelling fighters that this army had to offer. "My soldiers," Nack started to rally the troops, "My friends, and my brothers... This is the day that you've been waiting for. The shores of former New York are on the horizon, and within the hour it will be up to you to let 'em know it!" At that, the men let up a small cheer. "They took that land from us by force, so we'll give them their due desserts... force! Holy Thunderforce!" Another loud cheer from the men at that. The army was named Holy Thunderforce. It couldn't be said that it belonged to any one country or nation, but the fighters there were from as far south as Egypt, as far north as Norway, from the coasts of Portugal, and from China and Russia, and even those aren't entirely accurate boundaries. In short, this was a World War in which the world made one side and that unspeakable evil made the other. "Today, let us blast those demons that destroyed what was once great; let us send them back to hell with 155mm shells as souvenirs!" A loud huzzah arose from the ranks, and before it faded, Nack gave the orders: "Get to your stations!" Still cheering, the warriors did run to their cannons.
Nack walked along the long row of M1A1 Artillery Cannons which sat at the starboard side of the ship. Each one was loaded and ready for action. This was gonna be a piece of cake if everything went smoothly. New York City may have been manipulated and transformed into a fortified stockpile for Akron and Lucretia's forces and was now a formidable station on the ocean, but we had one thing that turned the tide in our favor; the element of surprise.
The early morning light soon showed the city approaching fast. It was sitting quietly, as if it had been abandoned, but it was clear that the area had take on many subversions over the past years that made it more of a base than a city. But there was no time to stop and look at what fate had brought of the place, for as the quiet ship crept silently towards those shores, one of the ship's messengers tapped Nack on the shoulder... "Captain says fire on your will... you'll lead the rest of the fleet..."
Nack looked over his shoulders. Several ships were running the same path as this one, all with cannons ready to fire. The weasel stepped between two of the cannons and looked out over the city one more time. "This is it," he whispered. This WAS it... this was the beginning of an almighty fight for freedom. He walked back behind the cannons and faced forward again. "Ready?!" he shouted. No response from any of his men, meaning that things were going so far, so good... "Aim!" The noise of pneumatic pumps and squeaking metal filled the air for a few seconds as the cannons lined up their shots. Nack paused for a few seconds... This was it, the moment of truth... He put his hands over his ears and gave the final command... "FIRE!"
Two uniform blasts, the first from the ship Nack was standing on and the second from the other ships, ripped through the air as all the cannons discharged upon the unsuspecting forces ahead. For a few seconds after the powerful sound subsided, there was nothing besides the smoke that showed that the cannons had fired. Then came the report from across the waters, as the city's front exploded with fire upon the shells' impact.
Within seconds, the sound of the enemy's alarm horn could be heard. The still-far-off coast suddenly came to life, and the silhouettes of the 'zombies,' as they had become called by most, began running about for action. Nack ordered the cannons to be charged again, and again they pelted the awakening beast of that army. It wasn't until the third volley smashed the coast that there was a true retaliation.
Amidst the exploding of our own shells, nobody noticed the cannons being fired on land. With slowly increasing intensity, small explosions began rippling the waters around the fleet. "Brace yourselves!" My voice came over the ship's communication systems. "It might be a bumpy ride!" As soon as I said that, a blast came to Nack's ears, as well to the ears of everyone in the fleet. The weasel turned his head to the right to see a ball of fire surging upwards from one of the ships. "Ship R-04's been hit! One more volley, aim for the front! Make sure the LZ's clear!"
Nack turned back to the target and yelled to his men: "You heard him, get the docks ready!" The cannons readjusted their angles, pointing just beyond the docks. The timing couldn't have been better, because right then a number of plasma-turrets began sending their high-speed shots at the ships. Their attack lasted no more than ten seconds before the artillery shells blew straight through them.
Suddenly the fleet took much more speed towards the docks. "We're approaching the LZ!" I yelled over the COMMS. "Snipers, get ready! Tanks and infantry get to your positions too!"
"Alright, y'all!" Nack shouted to his men again. "Get your rifles and prepare to give cover-fire to the ground forces when they break on the land..."
His men were already on it, and they were all hyped about the job they had done already. But before Nack could go grab his weapon, one of the ship's messengers got ahold of him. "Captain would like to see you below deck, sir!"
Nack jogged down below deck and found me in the ship's weapons- control room. "We're approaching the LZ, as you already know," I greeted.
"So," Nack returned, "What do you want me down here for?"
"We believe that we know the exact location of this installation's headquarters. We want to take it out before we go on the direct offensive."
"Alright..."
"They placed it on the western coast of this island," I continued. "It's a long-distance job, and you're the long-distance CO, so I want you to do the honors."
"How so?" Nack asked, raising an interested eyebrow.
I pointed to a computer console which sat up against the wall. "Guided missiles."
The weasel stared at me for a second, then let me know his doubt. "I don't know how to use it, why don't you do it?"
"I already told you why. Besides, it isn't that hard. After it's launched, you just use the joystick to fly it where it needs to go." As I said that, I opened a small door in the console and brought forth the joystick of which I spoke.
The lavender weasel looked at the machine hesitantly for a few more seconds. "What if I miss?"
I laughed. "We have six onboard; not much to worry about unless you crash it into one of out ships... trust me, you'd have to try pretty hard to pull that off."
"Alright," Nack said, taking the joystick in hand. "But what's my target?"
I pointed to the upper right-hand corner of the screen. "This radar'll show you where to go. The target's a two-story tall installation with several military-grade radio/microwave communication devices that are probably being used right now to relay information to San Francisco. You'll know it when you see it."
Nack hummed once more in thought about it. "Alright, it's worth a shot,"
"Good." I handed the joystick over to Nack and turned to a skunk who sat at another nearby console. "We're all ready here."
"Affirmative, sir!" the skunk replied. "Launch number one in five, four, three, two..."
The screen in front of us came to life, quickly shooting forward over the ship's deck and then over the ocean, riding parallel to the island's shore. Nack's focus was on nothing else but the screen and radar before him. I watched the flight guided by the weasel, and I was pretty surprised to see that he decided to go around the island rather than over it. His route provided us with an interesting view of the place; the city hadn't changed all that much; it was just emptied of all its natural life, and that life was replaced by those zombie-warriors. We hoped to change that...
The missile flew around the northern tip of the island and a few seconds later was heading down its western coast towards its destination. Besides the beeping of the console, the room was dead silent. All eyes were fixed on the screen, wondering what the result of this flight would be. The radar registered that the target was coming closer, and soon it was within sight. A COMMS-station sitting on the coast, it was clear that it was the headquarters of this base. Workers were running in and out of that building, probably trying to salvage the situation of our surprise attack, and Nack took advantage of the open front door to send the missile right in. For less than half a second, we were able to see the dark insides of that building. Then, the screen went to static for a few seconds, then blacked out.
"Did that do it?" Nack asked.
I turned to the skunk, and he smiled. "That did it."
Nack smiled back. "That was pretty fun."
"Heh, I thought you'd like that. Now, go get back on deck and join the sharpshooters. We'll probably need some cover-fire..." I turned to the skunk again. "How much time till we hit the LZ?"
The skunk looked at a computer monitor in front of him. "Somewhere between three and five minutes, sir. It's hard to tell with all the fire we've been taking on... but things seem to be tapering off now that their HQ's down."

"Good. Then I wish you the best of luck, Nack. Time for me to go join my men." Nack nodded to me as we left the room. I went further down into the ship, and he headed back up on deck. He headed into the gun-locker first, and picked up his "baby," a Unique Alpine TPG-1 sniper-rifle. He loaded it up with .338 Lapua rounds and grabbed a good number more, just in case. Those rounds are powerful enough to rip through the world's most durable body armor and still over-penetrate the target... it was perfect for this job.
Nack got up on deck and joined his men. "Remember," he began, "Snipers can be sniped, so shoot and then get out of sight for a while... we're sitting ducks up here on deck."
An eagle standing in those ranks laughed. "We'll shoot so sharp that they won't know what hit 'em!"
Nack smiled wryly at that comment. "That's what you've been trained for..."
"We're approaching the LZ," the voice of a certain Arctic Fox broke over the loudspeaker. "Strike team, grab guns and get ready to come out swinging. Sniper team, we're well within range if you wanna start the second phase early."
"Yes, Calia," Nack said softly. Then he addressed his troops one more time: "You heard her; let's get cookin'!"
The crowd let up a joyful roar and then ran to their posts along the side of the deck, each one with a fully loaded BFG-50 rifle- again, plenty of power to put down anything that got in one's way. Nack followed behind at a distance, smiling the whole time. "Time to show you what I got, 'dear' aunt and uncle..." he taunted at the great land which lay before him. He was going to show them just that even though and if it took all of his strength and willpower to do so. This was war, and he and we were going to fight it all the way.
Nack stepped up to his firing position and almost instantly saw his first target running to get into position on one of the buildings. He too was a sniper, this was clear. He was carrying a rifle of sorts and was wearing a visor which covered his face completely. "First rule of sniping, rookie," Nack instructed his target quietly as he lined up his shot through the scope, "is to not move more than necessary..." The target finally stood still and began scanning the ships with his own rifle, looking for a target. Nack pulled his trigger and the result was a loud bang, quick muzzle-flash, a puff of smoke, and a firm shove of the butt of the rifle into his armpit. As the shock of the shot subsided, Nack looked back through the scope at his target. The bullet had so much power that it left a single, clean bullet hole in the visor without cracking or shattering it. The target, it seemed, really didn't know what hit him, as he stood for a few short moments, undisturbed by the bullet. Then he dropped his gun, wavered on his feet for a few seconds, and fell headlong over the side of the building...
Nack ducked back down for cover as he loaded in the next round to be fired. "Yee-haw! I'd like to see any of you beat that one!" He got a positive murmur from the other snipers, a few whistles, and two very distinguishable lines: "Nice shot, sir!" and "Ah, I missed it..."
"My turn!" The eagle who had spoken out earlier laughed. He popped up over the shelter and began taking aim. Nack stepped back (in order to avoid the BFG-50's side-exhaust when the gun fires) and looked out over the cover, but couldn't tell exactly what he was aiming at. The eagle fired, and Nack couldn't see what the result was, but a few of his men could and cheered him for it. He ducked back behind the covering wall again and just let his men have their fun taking shots, hitting most of the time but with a few misses (which they vocally expressed their disapproval of quite strongly).
After a short period of time passed, the ship had aligned itself with the dock and was now just floating there. Calia's voice came over the speakers one more time: "Touchdown; go get 'em, strike team!" The side of the ship opened up, and out spilled a large number of Mobians, each toting a Street-Sweeper shotgun and a healthy amount of body-armor. The group quickly spread out across the battleground, and shortly after they were followed by three M1-A1 tanks. I was amongst the troops, and Rambo Griffin was driving one of the tanks. Nack and his force continued to pick off ground targets from their position on the ship, but there weren't any more enemy snipers to worry about, so it was pretty much just a field-day for them.
Of course, Holy Thunderforce's troops were far greater in number than those which that one ship was holding. Nack watched as the other ships pulled up to the docks and unloaded their share of the force. It didn't take more than a few minutes for the whole front of the island to be cleared of the enemy. The lavender weasel simply sat back now, waiting and watching the still docks and city front below, listening to the far-off shotgun blasts and the occasional discharge of a tank's cannon. There were the pops of enemy machinegun fire too, but from the amount of it that was heard, they weren't able to put up much of a fight.
Nack patted the eagle on the shoulder. "I'm going below deck. You make sure that anyone who's not on from our side of the war who sticks so much as a finger in the air down there gets it shot off, alright?"
"Yes, sir!"
Nack smiled to himself as he turned and walked towards the access to the rest of the ship below. His help was no longer needed on deck, so he figured that right then was just as good a time as ever to see his family. "You could have woken me up when you knew we were going to land today," Crystal greeted, fixing eyes with Nack via a small wall-mounted mirror as he entered the room. She was getting dressed for the day ahead of her.
Nack laughed: "But you looked so peaceful. I wouldn't want to disturb your beauty sleep."
Crystal returned the laugh on a lighter scale. As she walked across the room and opened a small drawer, she asked: "How have things gone so far?"
"NYC's ours," Nack said matter-of-factly.
"Good," Crystal replied as she cocked a small 9mm, placed it in a holster, and wrapped it around her waist. "Then I guess that it's my group's turn to head out." Crystal too was a commanding officer in this war. She was in charge of the Medic unit.
Nack laughed again. "I doubt that there'll be much for you to do; this time around, we massacred them... Hey, where's Trent and the others?"
"I told them that they could hang out with Thorn in the bridge. Really, do you think that it would have been pleasant for them to be pent up in here all day?" As she said this, she picked up a staff that sat propped up against the wall. It was her powerful Chaos Staff. The power it possessed wasn't the same as a Chaos Emeralds, but it was still Chaos energy, and could be harnessed by Crystal in a number of ways.
"Well, here seemed like a better place than on deck... but I guess that the bridge's alright."
Nack opened the door for Crystal and stepped out with her. "Besides," she added, "Thorn might be glad for some help from them."
"Right," Nack replied. "Just... you be careful out there, ok?"
"Of course," Crystal said, wrapping her hand around the back of his head. "I'll come back." The two shared a simple three-second kiss right then, passions of love still burning hot in their hearts for each other.
"Good luck," Nack added at last as she walked down the hallway. She was heading lower into the ship to get united with her unit, and Nack was going the other way to watch the rest of the battle with his.
There wasn't much of a battle to be watched, however. The snipers simply stood there, leaning on the railing of the ship, looking at the stillness. There was hardly any more gunshots after a half an hour. Nack and his unit simply chatted with each other, talking about life back home (where ever home was for the individual) and about how easy the rest of the war should be after that great of a start. Eventually, even this got boring...
A few hours passed. Besides the occasional wounded soldier being helped back on the ship by a medic, there was still nothing to look at... until something did catch Nack's eye. I, along with four other shotgunners, were escorting a trembling crow off the docks and into the ship. We were holding him at gun point, and he didn't have any of the Thunderforce's armor on, so the weasel was very curious as to what was going on. Thus he headed below deck to find out.
"Please! don't kill me!" a terrified voice echoed around the narrow corridor's corner as Nack headed further below deck.
"Keep moving!" my voice followed up. Shortly afterwards, we rounded the corner into Nack's view.
"Who is this guy?" the weasel asked as he walked along with us.
"He's the general of NYC's base," I replied. So Nack had his first view of a zombie which Akron and Lucretia had deployed, and he was surprised. The zombie didn't look anything like Nack had imagined. He looked just like a normal Mobian crow. He clearly had emotions and was able to communicate, though all he kept pleading were things such as "Don't kill me!" and "I don't wanna go back!"
Eventually we reached the brig, and when we did so, I cast him into one of the cells and slammed the bars behind him. "Listen to what we say and maybe we won't kill you," I hissed.
"Please," he cried, ducking into the far left corner of the cell, "I'll do anything..."
"What's your name?" I asked. No reply. I poked my shotgun between the cell's bars and pelted the ground next to him with a shell, causing him to jump in fright. "Your name!"
"My name's Joseph Greene the Crow!" he cried out.
I took a chair after that. "Good... alright Mr. Crow... tell us, what are the access codes to San Francisco's base's computer mainframes?"
"I don't know... I SWEAR to you, I don't know!"
"Then who does?"
"The communication's manager, but he was killed when that bomb flew in our COMMS-post...
I turned to Nack. "Good job," I said so flatly that there was supposed to be a detectable amount of good natured sarcasm in it, but it was clear that he didn't hear it as he slinked backwards a step, ears going flat against the back of his head.
"Please... just don't send me back!" the crow pleaded again.
"Don't send you back where?" I asked as I turned back to him.
"Don't kill me! Don't send me back to hell!" The room went dead silent for a few seconds after he said that. "That place... it's so terrible and painful... You can't send me back!"
"So..." I broke in. "You're from hell... huh?"
"Yes... King Akron... he opened up the gates and took me out of it... he said that if I worked for him that he'd let me live... I chose to do what he said..."
"And so you fought for an army that had so many innocent ones killed?"
He got down on his knees and started begging more than ever. "Please! I'll do anything for you if you just let me live!"
I sighed. "Very well. I'll let you live, but that life won't see much outside of bars like these of your cell."
"Thank you," he groaned, getting up and laying down on the cell's cot. He covered his eyes with his hand. "Thank you..."
I had had enough and turned to leave that room, and Nack followed. "What was that all about?" he asked me.
"We took the guy captive in battle," I said. "The rest you just witnessed."
"So, the fighting's over, here?"
I nodded. "Virtually. There's still a bit of work to be done, but we've won for sure in this place."
Nack grinned again. "That was a piece of cake."
"Mm-hmm. We lost a few of our own, but the numbers are so low that the price was worth it."
The weasel sighed. "Great. I'll go break the news to my unit..."
"What?" I laughed. "You mean they couldn't already tell?"
"Well, now that it's been officialized, it'll just be sweeter news to their ears."

And so Nack did tell his men the good news. Naturally they were happy... but that joy wasn't going to last much longer than that night...
Morning came. The same old dream had haunted Nack again just as it had the night before, and he couldn't understand it, but it was quickly forgotten after he woke up. Crystal was still asleep, Trent was again not in the room. That was not unusual. He enjoyed walking out on deck in the early morning. Nack got his holster, gloves, Stetson, and boots on again. It was starting off like a normal day, but he knew that some things were going to be different now that we had landed.
Five minutes later, Nack walked into the conference room. The first thing he saw when he entered was me, staring at him expressionlessly. I waited for him to sit down at the table before I opened up the conversation: "We have a problem."
"I don't like the sound of that," Nack replied.
"You shouldn't."
"What happened?"
I sighed, then pressed down the intercom button without answering Nack's question. "Get me Crystal, Calia, Rambo, and Thorn, please."
It took about half an hour, but all the people I called for eventually got to the room. Rambo was the next to speak: "Why don't you tell us why you called us all here, Nick?"
Again I sighed. "We won the battle."
"So isn't that good news?" Crystal asked.
I looked up. "I don't know if we attacked early or if the southern fleet attacked late, but whatever happened, the enemy was much more prepared for battle in the south than they were here..." I paused to think things through again. "The fleet did win down there, but... they need reinforcements, badly."
All was silent. "Where are we gonna get reinforcements from?" Thorn asked.
"The only place where we can get them from; this fleet."
More silence. "How?" Crystal asked.
"This isn't going to be easy to accept... but we need to send a large portion of our troops down there. Nack, Crystal, Calia, and I are going down there... half of the medical branch will stay here, however."
"But... that will leave Rambo and I all alone up here..." Thorn broke in quietly.
I nodded. "Nova's infantry division lost the fewest in the battle. She'll be coming up to help you. The forces that you have between you two should be great enough to hold the island until she arrives..."
"I don't like the sound of this," Nack added. "Why do we need to reinforce them so badly? Can't they just sit and wait for reinforcements from Europe?"
"No," I said. "They have the Railway gun; that's our best weapon to use against San Francisco. They need extra protection, but we still need some forces to provide cover from the north until we combine in Texas. Nova's group should be able to do the job well."
"Alright," Rambo sighed. "If that's the way it's gotta be done, then that's the way it's gotta be done."
"Good," I said simply. "We will be leaving as soon as possible. I've scheduled that we get out of here tonight; 1800 hours..."

1800 hours came, and we left. It felt like the entire fleet was going south; only a small portion of it remained in NYC. "Well, Rambo," I began, "Hold the fort up till support arrives... I think you can do it so long as you don't try starting anything with whatever Akron might send this way."

"Of course," Rambo replied. "We're going to be as quiet as mice while we're here."
"Good tactic," Nack added.
"Good luck, eh?" Crystal said as she lightly hugged Thorn.
"Yeah," Thorn laughed. "Good luck to you, too... We'll see ya later, eh?" Crystal nodded, and with that they parted.
Rambo laughed as he took Nack's hand and shook it. "Well, who would'a known that I'd side with the likes of you?"

"Not I," Nack chuckled back.
"Yeah... well, say 'Hi' to Rocky when you get to him, alright?"
"Sure thing."
"Thanks."
"Well," Nack said, breaking the handshake, "Seems like it's time for me to get going... y'all take care now, alright?"
"You can bet we will!" Rambo laughed. With one final goodbye wave, Nack turned to board the ship. Little did anyone know that that would be the last time that Rambo and Nack would see each other.

Nack watched from the ships deck as the island slowly faded into the horizon. "Good luck, guys," he whispered. He had a feeling that they would need it. The island slowly melted into the horizon, as did the sun a bit later. As night reigned over that part of Mobius, Nack couldn't help but look out at the quiet battlefield to the west. The Emerald Sword's power was still calling to him. His sword, in Akron's hands... over all these years, it was still something that he couldn't get over in his mind, and even though he kept it quiet from those around him, it was a burning desire to get it back.

The next night, as the sun was sinking into the land, Nack was back up on deck again, but he wasn't going to be alone for long this time. As he stood there, leaning on the deck's railing, another cloaked figure walked up and stood with him. It was the one who Nack had learned to be Kit a few days before, and even now, Nack didn't know the secrets that this one held. For a few seconds, he stared at where Kit's face was, but all he could see under that hat's brim was the silhouette of Kit's muzzle. He too was staring out over the ocean and land.
A good minute or two of silence passed between the two. While Nack couldn't detect any of Kit's feelings, he himself felt a certain awkward about the situation. "So," Kit's deep, aged voice broke the silence, "You're Fang the Sniper, huh?"
Nack's reply was delayed by his doubt. "Yes, I am." Kit laughed a bit at his answer, then went silent again for a good many seconds. "Why do you ask?" Nack asked.
"Just wanted to make sure... Been a good many years since I got this close to you, y'know..."
"Who are you?" Nack asked sternly.
"Me?" Kit turned his face to Nack, but still he couldn't make anything out of it in those lighting conditions. However, one new eerie detail showed itself from Kit. His eyes glowed slightly, as a wolf's eyes. Kit laughed a bit again. "I'm just a nobody now... I just wanna enjoy the show while doing my part." He laughed again as he backed up and went below deck again, leaving Nack as he stared after the mysterious character. The weasel's mind was filled with questions, but he could honestly not answer any of them. Only time and changing circumstances would show who Kit was on the inside.

It was midday the next day when our destination finally came to view. Savannah Beach, Georgia. From our first view of the place, it was clear that things hadn't gone well. Two of Holy Thunderforce's ships lay half- exposed, half sunk near the shoal. The other ships which did make it to the docks looked like they had fought a mighty battle; they had taken much damage. And to top it all off, the inland base was quiet and still.
"Are we too late?" Crystal asked as she looked over the deck with Nack at her side.
"Remember what Rambo said about his 'quiet as a mouse' theory? I have a good feeling that things aren't much different here." Nack held a high spirit about this situation. "Besides, if they had retaken the base, they would have attacked us by now."
Nack was right. When we landed and unloaded our troops, we were greeted almost instantly by that scruffy weasel, and it was the first time that I had seen that guy smile. But that was to be expected; after sitting so quiet for so long, the relief should have been great. We exchanged greetings and moved in to our newly gained base. Not only that, but according to Rocky, Holy Thunderforce's vanguard had detected Savannah to be entirely abandoned by the enemy. I did plan to take a quick stop there later on...
"So," I began after we got situated in what used to be Akron's communication room for Savannah, "Exactly what happened that you suffered such heavy losses?"
Rocky shrugged with a sigh. "Somehow they knew that we were coming. They fired the first shots, and we returned fire. That softened them up for when we landed, but they still put up a big fight... We couldn't find the COMMs-room at first, so our missiles were useless..."
"Well, y' did beat them nonetheless," Nack replied. Rocky simply nodded.

"Now the real fun starts... Assault by land." I smiled. I didn't know why, but somehow it seemed so promising at that point. "And I assume that the main components of the Railgun got to land." Just as I said that, the one who would know walked in the room from behind us. He greeted us with the sound of a clattering assault rifle as it hit the ground. "Geeze, Andre... could you be any clumsier?"
Andre DuBois simpered as he picked the rifle up. "I'm sorry... guns just aren't my thing..."
"Shouldn't be, except for one," I broke in. "Well... how's the Railgun?"
"All of it's main pieces and ammo are safe and sound," Andre replied.

"Good," I replied. I might as well take this time to explain what the Railgun was supposed to be and why it was so important that we resupply the forces in the south. We had blueprints formulated for a Railway-gun; a weapon of massive power that we could use to effectively attack any city or base within 70 miles of us. As its name suggests, it was made to be built and kept on a rail system. This particular model could be placed on any normal set of railroad tracks that could be found in America. Our goal was to get the pieces of the Railgun to Texas. There was a Depot there that we could use and manipulate. From there, we could move it to California and decimate Akron's forces in San Francisco. It seemed so good, we thought it would work like a charm. The only problem was its size... it was several tons and would take much work to move it to the destination.
"Yeah," Andre continued, nervously scratching the back of his head. "But my men were wondering, why do we need these rifles?" As he said this, he tossed the rifle from one paw to the other, inspecting it. That rifle, along with the other rifles issued to Andre's troops, was a unique creation by Angel McCallon (who served as this fleet's quartermaster and inventor). It could fire like most other assault rifles, but it could also be armed with a fragmentation grenade and then fired. The shot could propel the grenade long distances or short; it all depended on the angle at which the user fired it.
I shrugged at his question. "Just make good use of it when the time comes."
DuBois shifted his weight from foot to foot, nervously. "But I don't like firing it," he whined. "And besides, those zombies really freak me out!"
"Well, they'll do more than just freak y' out if you let them get to close," Nack shot back. Some people say that we picked on Andre too much, but trust me when I say that until you meet him in real life, you won't know how easy and how much fun it is.
For a few seconds, the mechanic looked at us with a blank stare; then with a surprising air of arrogance about him, he turned, pointed his nose upwards, and let his dark ponytail cross over his shoulders from his back to front. "I know when I'm not wanted," He said with an equal tone of pride.
"Where are you going, sir?" I asked.
"I'm gonna go help Nic out with her troops' supplies," He answered. "At least I know I'll get some respect there." His anger was something rare, but it was clear at that time that we had pissed him off. Too bad, really. We never felt good about playing with the fellow's emotions like that.
"Well," I restarted, turning to Rocky, "I hear that Angel has some stuff for us. Is she available?"
Rocky laughed. "Yeah, she's available. Go ahead, get your stuff from her; but don't make her work too much; today's a special day for her." I didn't think of that comment at all right then.
So we headed off to find Angel, and that didn't take too long. She was still on one of the ships, in her lab. What exactly were we going to do there? Well, like I said before, she had made some stuff for us. She made all sorts of strange weapons and devices now, just as she did for the Whipped Cream Avengers before all this started. Sometimes she'd make blueprints for something simple that could be mass-produced for an entire section of troops, other times she'd make special weapons for the officers. Well, today we got news that she had a few of those special weapons for us. It was like presents at Christmas, only deadlier.
She presented Nack with his new weapon first; and what a weapon it was. I'd never seen or heard of anything quite like it. "I know how you're so into two types of weapons," The pink and white weasel started, "Sniper weapons and stunners. As far as I've seen, I can't really add much to your long distance weapons much, so I put together a new weapon." As she said this, she reached to the table in front of her and picked out a rather bulky pistol. "I've named it the Bio-Electric Pulse Generator 36, or for short: BEP."
Nack chuckled a bit at this, with an almost disappointed-sounding air in it. "Gee, what can I say, Angel... It sounds... cute."
"Well, don't judge a book by its cover," She scoffed back. "It drains an amount of energy from the user and uses it to generate high levels of electricity, which can be used as a high-powered stunner or full on electric gun."
"And what would I use it for?" Nack asked.

Angel laughed. "Well, that enemy officer you brought in... don't tell me it was planned. Wouldn't it be useful if you could stun them to keep them from fighting? Safe and effective takedown, y'know..."

"That's a good point," Nack answered as he holstered his new weapon.
Then she turned to me. "And if I couldn't improve on the sniper-type weapons, I figured that I could with the exact opposite; shotguns." As she said this, she presented me with an odd device; a long tube with a trigger mechanism near one of its ends.
"What is it?" I asked the obvious question. It didn't look like much of a shotgun, though it felt like one in my paws.
"Nobody had ever tried combining a laser with a shotgun before," She said with a wry smile.

"I like it!" I answered.
"No more clumsy reloading. All it requires is some charging, and it's ready to fire a spread of light. However, the particles are still rays; not like a mist. An earlier version of it operated like a mist, and it was not at all effective. So, this weapon was born."

I laughed at her creativity. Innovations like this were things that made the world go 'round in my eyes. They certainly kept me entertained, and now I had a new best friend for when I went to battle. "You are a genius, Angel."
"Thank you," she replied.
"I'm going to be sure to test it out soon and tell you exactly what I think, but for now... Nack, Rocky, and I have an appointment inland more..."
She nodded. "Rocky told me that I'd be happy with where you are going."
"Where exactly is that?" Nack asked.
"You'll see," I replied with a grin.

A few hours later, he did see. Rocky had informed me of one of the interesting findings of the vanguard: an abandoned and virtually untouched jewelry store in Savannah. Why he was so eager to take us there, I did not know at the time (although I was about to find out the ironically tragic reason later), but I too was happy to go.
I watched Nack in his peculiar jewel-hunt. He was like a child in a candy store, picking out the gems of his eyes. He'd go only for the jewelry that had the gems themselves in them. Sapphires, rubies, diamonds... He'd hold them up to his flashlight (for there was no power to the building, and we brought our own lighting in), inspect them as if he were a professional (and I'm sure he was), toss out the bad and keep the good. It was clear that his goal was to pick out only the best for him and Crystal.
Rocky, on the other hand, seemed to be looking for one thing in particular, as if he were shopping for someone. He'd check out necklaces, perfectly fine necklaces and rings, and if they didn't appeal to his heart, he put them back. Through our goading, neither I nor Nack could figure out why he was taking such care in this process. Whatever he was doing, however, he was doing with great care...
As for me, well, I only picked out the purest of silver. No gold, no platinum... only silver. It didn't matter what the piece was, weather it was an earring, a necklace, or a ring; as long as it was silver, I took it. Nack noticed this quickly and asked why I did it. In response, I produced a 6-shooter from my pocket. "I take it you know what this is."
Nack shrugged. "Looks like an ordinary magnum to me. A nice one, but nothing to gawk at..."

"Exactly," I replied. "It's a normal revolver. Nothing different from it than all the others in the world. It's what's inside that matters." He was curious at this comment as to what I meant. So I opened the chamber and took out one of the bullets. As it shone in the light, it became obvious what I meant. The bullet of the cartridge was made entirely of silver. "This is a war against evil," I started again. "Vampires and Ware Wolves... some people think they are myths, but I tell you the truth that they are out there. There are very few ways to kill them. The most common way is to drive a steak through their hearts, but I wouldn't want to get that close. Thus, this." I flicked the chamber back into the revolver and spun it, letting a random one of the six bullets get into the firing position. "A direct hit to the heart or brain of one of those creatures will cause a virtually instant death."
The weasel shivered. "How do you know that we'll be running into them?"

"I don't, but it's good to be prepared. I melt the silver down, and use it as bullets."

After our hunt in the jewelry store, we rode back to the base; Nack and I before Rocky because the one-eyed weasel had yet to make his choice. As a result, we were about to get the horrible news before him.
A messenger quickly alerted us to get to the meeting hall, insisting that there was something of great importance to the army there. We did so, and as we entered the room, we were greeted by the scene of a number of folks, but amongst them, sticking out like a sore thumb, was Andre. DuBois was standing there over the table, staring down at either it or the floor on the other side of it, sobbing like a child. That chilled us both to the bone; something bad really had occurred. And the sight of the others wasn't encouraging either. There was an air of shame, sadness, and anger towards Andre. Our viewing of the room was very limited, as we were quickly ushered to sit down at the table.
At that point, I noticed another weasel present in the room; Rex McCallon. He had a congruent expression about him as Andre, only less pathetic. Sadness that he was trying to compress, causing a painful silence... Our eyes didn't rest on him long.
"There has been a friendly fire incident today while you were gone," a mongoose started.
"Great," Nack sighed. "How are we supposed to make it across this damn continent if our own army kills itself?" He was quickly hushed.
"A Rifle-Propelled Grenade was discharged without warning or purpose. It went through a window in the main complex, in the mess hall. The explosion killed 5 and injured 8 others."
There was a long silence. "Well," I broke it, "Lets hear the death list."
He read off of a list. "Samantha the Hedgehog, Tech unit; Kim the Wolf, Tech unit; Janus the Bobcat, Tech unit; Cathy the Fox, Tech unit..."
I had to interrupt. "What is this? Why the Tech unit? This is not a good loss... What does Officer Angel think of this?"
After a pause, the mongoose continued his reading of the list to finish it. "Officer Angel McCallon the Weasel, Leader of the Tech unit." Before anyone could do anything more, Rex, Angel's son, got up and walked quickly and quietly from the room.
Nack called a good cussing down upon all of our ears. "Durn it!" he yelled in anger. "How does something like this happen? How do we lose an officer before the real fighting begins? And who is the blundering idiot who wasn't watching his aim?"
"That is a question that we have the answer for, Captain."
"Well then tell us already!" As he said this, he slammed his gloved hands down upon the table.
"Officer Andre DuBois the Weasel, Leader of the Engineering unit." My blood ran cold when that name hit my ears, and I bet that Nack's did too.
"It was an accident," Andre put up his defense. "I was just walking along to the mess hall with this... stupid gun at my side... I let my head turn to give a passing smile to Nic and tripped over some hole in the ground... I got up, and next thing I know- BOOM, the mess hall's aflame!"
My eyes, which had moments earlier been fixed on the tabletop in front of me, slowly rose and connected with his. "Andre, do you realize what a buffoonery you have just made of this army?" His eyes shot down again at my harshness. "For a comrade to shoot another comrade accidentally in the heat of combat is looked down upon, even more-so when the victim is killed by it... but for an officer to kill another officer during lunchtime? What were you thinking?"
"I- I... it was an accident! I... wasn't thinking at the time..."
"Good Lord, Andre! I believe you! What kind of fool who spends half a second thinking carries such a weapon around without the safety on and without regard to what you're doing with it? By my head, you must be the biggest fool this side of equator! Why, you'd probably throw your gun at the enemy if confronted by him in combat, and I reckon that's better than what a teamkiller would do!"
"I said it was an accident!" he cried back.
"I said I believed you," I replied, softer this time. "Live and learn. These folks are dead and nothing can change that. But if you please... please make sure that it doesn't happen again, on behalf of this army you are forgiven."
Andre just sat there silently, unable to process all the different emotions hitting him right then. The poor guy, just by looking at him, made me feel like I had done some horrible sin by yelling at him. "Shape up, Andre!" Nack began. "You're an officer for this great army, so act like one! So you made a costly mistake; move on. It's one thing to kill someone, but it's another to let that fact turn around and kill you."
Again, he just sat there in silent remorse. Nack and I stood up and headed for the exit, but before we crossed the threshold, I turned over my shoulder and added: "Andre, just remember that accidents don't mean much. They don't reflect what's in your heart or character, they don't make you a worse weasel, and they don't make you a murderer. What you did today was as innocent as a child tripping and scraping his knee. So listen to Nack; get up, brush yourself off, and move on."
"I will," was his quiet, simple answer.
The two of us walked down the quiet street, voicelessly contemplating what had happened while we were away. We had lost a valuable asset to that army, and we never got the chance to test out what she had just given to us, but more than that, we lost a friend.
Rocky's transport came rolling down the road, and Rocky's beaming face met us. He wasn't himself; something had made him very happy. "Look you guys!" He laughed, leaning out of the vehicle. "I got it! I got the perfect piece of jewelry!" As he said this, he opened a small jewel-case. Inside was a beautiful ring. The band was shining yellow gold, and in it's center shone a deep pink ruby; no cheep jewel.
"It's beautiful, Rocky," Nack said dully. "What makes it so special? What's it for?"
"Why, didn't you know?" He laughed again, beaming with pride. "Today's Angel and my anniversary!"
Have you ever been punched in the gut before? That felt like pleasure compared to the sudden pain that came upon Nack and I when those words hit us. And explaining to him what happened made a root canal feel like a walk in the park on a sunny day.
Heaven forbid that I ever have to give news like that again.
I can't recall what I must have looked like when doing so, I was numb to myself. But if I looked anything like Nack... what a sorry sight we were. He looked pale, as if he were about to pass out or something. His eyes kept fixed unblinkingly on Rocky's as we told the tale of Andre's accident, stumbling over the details. Our speech was quick and clumsy, but we did get the point across.
When we were through, it was Rocky's turn. At first, of course it had to be a joke, because if there were things that were to good to be true, there were also things that were to horrible to be true, and this was one of those things. And when that didn't work, then it was just a horrible dream for him. Surely he would soon wake up from it and Angel would again be there at his side, just the way things were supposed to be. No, that didn't work either. So Angel had been in the accident, but she couldn't have been one of those killed. She must have been just on the injured list, and that if they really did put her on the list of those killed, it was a mistake, nothing more.
But this didn't work either. Reality came to the weasel like a cold winter's wind at night. He shivered for a moment, looking at us, then at anything but us, and finally anything but anything. He just sat there, eyes fixed on the floor of the jeep with an emotionless gaze. "Rocky, I'm so sorry..." Nack whispered at last. Rocky seemed to not hear it, and just put the jeep back into gear and sped off without another passing word. It is hard to lose a loved one, especially the one in your life who is your other half, and this rule did not bend for Rocky.

A few months had passed, and we were still heading westward. It was a push; the enemy did not just let us by. We soon found ourselves fighting for every inch. Tonight was no different.
There was fighting in a new area that we wanted to acquire; a forested area at that. It made fighting hard in some way for everyone. My troops had to rush headlong around tree trunks, looking for our enemies, and Nack and Nic's sniper troops were not the most effective having to sit back and look for targets in the foliage. Long distance shots from those two were few, but they didn't give up. There was always the sound of popping gunfire in those woods, but little action for them.
Night wore on for the weasels. Tiredness came to their heads and for a while they thought of returning to camp altogether to save their strength for another day. But without warning, a noise came to Nack's ears. "There, did y' hear that?" he asked his sister.
"Boy," she sighed, "you really are a lost cause... listenin' to every little peep that comes to your mind... It's probably just your imagination."
Nack didn't reply; it would not be good for them to fight while in battle. But again, a few seconds later, the noise came to his velvety ears. It was a Siren's song, beautiful, enchanting, drawing him in to itself. "There!" He whispered again to Nic. "Tell me you don't hear that..."
"I don't hear nothing," she sighed, and honestly she did not hear it, for it was not aimed at her ears.
"I'll be back," Nack said simply. He could not resist the beautiful song any more. A beautiful female voice was calling to him in an unknown tongue, and although he could not understand a bit of what was being sung, he felt deep in his heart that it was made for him. Slowly he put his rifle down and walked into the forest.
The voice was growing louder, clearer, prettier with each step. Hypnotized by this force of audible beauty, he walked into that battleground. Others rushed past him, even brushing up against his side or tail at times, but it was as if he were blind to them and they were blind to him; they just went on their way and he on his. Friends and foes they were, but nobody took notice. He walked for a few minutes, unable to find the source of the music, but knowing he was getting closer.
Then, he stepped into a small clearing of the forest. The beauty that reached his ears was nothing compared to what his eyes felt. The source of the music stood no more that twenty feet in front of him, but he could not clearly see her, for a bright white light seemed to radiate from her very body. Her song continued to mystify Nack for minutes on end, and all he could do was listen to it.
Soon this song came to its end, and with it the light began to die down. He couldn't wait until he had a clear view of the singer; he wanted to congratulate her on the performance from the bottom of his heart for her voice. But when the light did fade away, all of his emotions turned around. No longer did he want to thank her, oh no. He would kill her before he did that, because just in front of him, the singer stood. Lucretia, the dark witch who was responsible for so much turmoil.
"Good evening, "dear" nephew," She said with a wry smile. Nack didn't reply, but just stood there, poised for action. "I see you enjoyed my song, didn't you?"
Nack wanted to hold his silence, and did so for many seconds. "Yes," he answered simply after a while.
"Good." she said while taking two steps forward. Then she turned to the fighting which was taking place in the woods. "Isn't it a shame that all those folks have to die in this war? Doesn't it seem illogical?"
"It will be worth it if it gets rid of the likes of you," Nack replied to his aunt.
The black weasel scoffed at this. "That's not going to happen. Our army is far larger and stronger than yours. You will never make it to your destination. Why don't you just give up and become part of our army? You'll live a much longer life this way. There would be no need to kill you if you willingly came over to us."
"I'm fine where I am, thank you."
For a second, she frowned. She really was trying to reason with him, trying to get him to come over to their dark side. "Why, you would be like a king!" she laughed lightheartedly. "Imagine having control over a vast portion of this planet's land. 'Prince Nack' they would call you! You'd have total control over them... as long as you listen to Akron and I..."
"No," Nack replied. "I'd rather lose the world than my soul."
Again the Queen of the Dark Horizons paused. "And what about your family? Crystal, your beautiful wife... wouldn't she like to be a princess? Wouldn't it be better if she didn't have to risk her life in this war? You're her husband; didn't you vow to do anything to protect her? Why, not only would she be totally safe by following us, but she'd be like a beautiful goddess."

"A goddess who would have no control over what you give her," Nack countered.
Lucretia was growing impatient now. "And what of your fighters? Are you just going to keep on sending them out in the battlefield to get killed? Think about it! If you surrender, they can all go home to their families and loved ones! There would be no need for them to die needlessly against a force that can not be stopped!"

"You can be stopped!" Nack growled.

"And how?" Her anger was growing with every word and showing all over her body. Her dark dress quivered as if a wind were blowing oddly over it, her eyes grew wide and her mouth bared teeth. "You are coming against the power of the Emerald Sword! It was made to defeat all other powers!"
"We can stop you," Nack growled again. This time, he pulled the weapon that Angel had given him from his holster and pointed it at her.
"A stunner, ha! You think you can stop me with a simple stunner... I'd like to see you try!"
Nack grinned at this invitation, and then pulled the trigger. As Angel had said shortly before her death, it did suck power from Nack. It was an odd, tingling feeling that left him breathing hard. But the shot caused an arch of electricity that connected with Lucretia. She screamed for a second and staggered back on her feet, trying to keep her balance. Nack's smile grew wider as he saw what an effect the shot produced.
But as she recovered from the shot, her pure rage became apparent. With a snarl she brought her hands together, and as she did so, a burning ball of red light formed between them. Lucretia flung her arms in Nack's direction and the ball sank into his chest. It didn't leave so much as a mark where it entered, but caused searing pain in his chest, as if a book of matches were burning between his lungs. He clutched his chest where the energy ball was planted before falling to the ground, writhing in pain. Lucretia simply looked at him for a few seconds, anger still in her eyes, before brushing a few strands of her hair out of her face and walking away. As for Nack, the pain quickly overtook him, causing him to pass out.
The night passed, and nobody seemed to take notice of the sleeping weasel on the ground. The pain eventually died away, but he felt so drained from the shot that he didn't want to get up. But as morning's light hit his eyes, he heard footsteps approach him and stop above his head. Slowly and lazily he opened his eyes to see the sight of Crystal standing over him with her Chaos Staff in hand. She was wearing a smile, but it was a disappointed one. "Did you have a good night's rest, Sleeping Beauty?" she asked.
"A living nightmare," Nack answered dully.
"Do you need help?" She asked, offering him her hand.
He took it and stood up, brushing the dirt off of his lavender fur. "Thanks," he added.
"What exactly happened out here?"
"I was just saying 'Hi' to my 'dear' aunt."

Three years passed, thus it was 2038. The war was still going, and we were still fighting for everything we could get. Through these years, we had fought our way into the heart of Texas, just outside of Nack's hometown, Houston. The resistance there was very hard compared to what we faced before; we could not get past that city. However, we continued to try.
Early morning one day had a surprise for everyone. Nack, as with almost all the other officers, were asleep in their quarters. War was a draining activity, and even for those odd creatures like Nack, sleep was well welcome in it.
But his sleep was cut a bit short today. "Get up!" An enthusiastic voice came to his ears. "Get up! We gotta go!" Naturally, he was angered that someone had the guts to disturb his sleep, so he pretended to not hear it. Then a cold arm grabbed his, and this caused him to open his eyes. It was me who was causing the noise, and something had made me very happy.
"What is it?" He asked with a yawn.
"We gotta go! Knothole... that's where we need to go..."
"Why? They don't want the likes of me there..."
"I know, but trust me on this one!"
Slowly he got up, shook the sleep from his body, and got ready to go. "Have you gone insane?" He asked me eventually.
"Maybe," I answered, "But maybe not. Insanity of divine inspiration, I don't know... I had a dream, and it needs to be looked into!"
"Yeah, whatever," He replied, still not convinced that I was on to something. Crystal was awake too, but trying not to show it, keeping her bare body hidden under the covers. Nack bent over her and gave her a light kiss on her forehead. "I'll be back," he whispered before leaving the room.
Nack followed me out to the helipad and was greeted by a small number of other folks who were standing under the still propellers of a transport helicopter. Among them were Dirk (Crystal's twin brother), Calia (My wife), and a trio from my own squad. "Why are we going to Knothole?" Nack asked his brother-in-law.
"Beats me," Dirk replied with a shrug. "But he felt that it was important that I come along."
"C'mon, everybody get in!" I said energetically. They looked at me as if I were indeed insane, but they would soon find out that I wasn't. Crystal was the only one who didn't get in, for she was not a part of this party.
"Come back safely, ok?" she said, catching me in her embrace.
I smiled as I held her close. "I kiss you," I said, giving her a small smooch, "and say 'Farewell, I love you' with all my heart, for it may be my last chance."
"Come back in one piece," She said with a smile.
"If it's up to me, I will."
So our transport took off and began its flight towards Knothole, the great home of the Freedom Fighters. The war had forced it to put up powerful defenses against anyone who might attack them. Why they didn't go on the offensive as they did when Eggman made an attack, I don't know. It surely would have helped, but I'm sure they had their reasons.
"This is Knothole, state your reasons for approach, over." That was the voice that came over our radio. We couldn't identify it, but it sounded like a man in his mid to late twenties.
"This is Holy Thunderforce Transport #1," The pilot replied. "We request landing in Knothole, over."
"Holy Thunderforce? Why you? Over."
"One of our leaders thinks that you might have something that we need, over."
"And who are your leaders on board?"
There was a silence. The truth had to come out, and they probably wouldn't like it. "Nick the Raccoon and Nack the Weasel..."
"Nack the Weasel? ... Permission to land denied. Turn around immediately and go home."
There was more silence that was unbroken except by the transport's blades above. So Nack got up and took the radio for himself. "Yeah, It's me, Knothole. Like it or not, we're gonna land this copter!"
"Negative. Turn around and-"
"Shut up!" He interrupted before closing the connection.
"Smart move, Nack," Dirk said. "Now they'll probably shoot us down!"
"No sir," The pilot replied. "We're already inside their defenses and they haven't attacked. I think we're safe!"
"Well, good," I began. "Get us to the hanger. I have a feeling that's where we'll be most welcome."
Thus we headed there. The doors were open, so we flew to one end of it and landed. "Now what?" Dirk asked as we sat in silence after the engine was turned off.
I peaked out of the transport and looked around. "Coast looks clear," I said to those inside the transport. One by one, we filed out and looked around.
Dirk laughed. "So this is Knothole? Ha... I guess it's pretty nice... calm..."
"Yeah, as long as you don't let that blue rodent push ya around." Nack's comment got some light laughter from the rest of the party.
"Ok, so Knothole's unwilling to help us. So, we get some persuasion, eh?" I smiled wryly. "Let's play a little game..."
"Like what?" Nack asked. But before I could answer, there was a sudden noise up against the wall of the hanger. Someone had dropped something on accident. Everyone's eyes shot to the source of the noise, but nothing was seen.
"Check it," I hissed to Dirk.
The black echidna did so, peering carefully into the dark clutter for a few seconds before he made a lightning-fast grab at something. "Ha! look who I got!" He yelled towards us. When he pulled his arm into view, there was the most unexpected of sights... Sally Acorn was being held by the scruff of her neck in Dirk's hand!
"Let me go!" She protested, trying to get him to let go. It was a most comical sight as Dirk hauled her over to us.
"Oh, don't worry, Princess!" Dirk laughed. "We don't mean you any harm! We just need you to help us, that's all..."
"No way!" she screamed at us. "I would never dream of helping someone like you!"
With a laugh, Dirk shoved her to Nack, who also laughed. "Don't take it personally, Princess... Dirk's grabbed me like that before... Of course I feel your pain..."
"Really?" She growled back. "Does it feel anything like..."
Nack was quick to recall the past and slapped her, hard. The force of it put her on the ground with a moan of pain. "Don't be a fool," He began. "I remember where that went, and you'll be happy to know that I did have a son after it!"
His assault was ended by my fist, which I promptly sent flying into his head. As he stumbled to the ground, he sent me a glance which truly said I was insane. "We're not here to be a threat," I said to the weasel as I gently helped Sally to her feet and began to slowly lead her towards the exit of the hanger. "You see, Princess," I began again, "what we want isn't to cause any trouble, but we want to make a deal with you folks out here."
This reasoning wasn't any more effective than Nack's word, and I soon found that out as she gave me what was originally due to the weasel. Yep, she gave me a knee to the good ol' family jewels, and I know I was feeling Nack's pain. She took the opportunity to try running away, but again she was stopped by Dirk and one of my soldiers. "That wasn't very nice," Dirk growled.
Slowly, I got up and faced her. "You're going to help us, like it or not..." I didn't get to say anything further before the sound of mechanical footsteps came to my ears. We turned around and there they were... Tails in the Cyclone, the pretty Amy Rose on one side, and the Blue Blur on the other. My frown turned to a smile at the sight. "The Freedom Fighters, we meet at last..."
"Yeah, well the meeting won't last long if you don't let my wife go." Sonic could be such a killjoy.
"We want to make a deal," I followed up.
"I don't make deals with uninvited guests," He followed up.
Nack snickered at this. "Not the way things went in our last encounter though. Tell me, does Sonic still sleep with a gun under his pillow?"
"Gun?" Tails may have been in his mid to late twenties now, but his boyishness was very well preserved. "Sonic doesn't have any gun, he doesn't need one!" Nack gave Sonic a devious little smile, knowing the dust he had kicked up, and Sonic shot him back a very irate glance.
"What do you want?" The blue hedgie asked suddenly.
"I want to make a deal," I repeated.
"Don't listen to them, Sonic!" Sally gasped. "We don't make deals with hostage takers..."
"Hostage takers?" I replied with a light laugh. "Let her go."
After a few seconds' thoughts, Dirk let Sally go. She looked over her shoulder at us with a look of confusion mixed with resentment, and then ran to her beloved Sonic. He paused, then asked: "What kind of deal?"
I smiled as I took several steps forward, until I was an equal distance from my own party and theirs. "The kind that goes something like this: I give you something you want, and you give us something we want."
He shook his head almost instantly. "We're not giving you nothing."
I sighed. "If I wanted, I could kill each one of you right now..." To prove this, I slowed time down to a stop and stood in front of each one and let time flow normally for a second or so between each demonstration before I returned to my mark between the two groups.
"How did he do that?" Amy asked in her cute little way.
"I have to ask the same, Nick," Nack followed up. "How did you do that? I thought you gave that over to me..."
I snickered a bit. "I passed the ability to acquire the techniques on to you, but I am still able to do them. I just lack the power."
"And where do you get this 'power?'" Sonic asked.
I'm glad he did so, so I withdrew from my satchel a Chaos Emerald. "That's a Chaos Emerald!" Tails exclaimed.
Everyone else was also taken aback by this sudden sight. "How'd you get one of those?" Nack asked in tandem with Sonic.
"It's not hard to do when the world is concentrating on other things," I laughed as I juggled it in my hand.
"What do you want?" Again he asked this question.
My mood suddenly became a bit more serious, business-like. "There are prophecies about this war..."
"Yeah, who believes them?" Sonic jeered.
"I do. And these prophecies speak about a dark warrior... Referred to him as Dargor. They spoke of his ultimate power, called him 'the ultimate lifeform.' I believe that you know where to find him."
"We don't know anything about any warrior!" Sally shot out.
"I think you do," I retorted. "Shadow the Hedgehog..."
Dead silence. Long silence. Long enough to tell me that they knew exactly where he was, but... "We don't have what you want."
"Yes you do," I returned. "You have him, somewhere here, hidden. Give him over to us..." With that, I placed the Emerald on the ground and returned to my spot with the others. "You'd like to have it, wouldn't you?"
The Freedom Fighters stood stock-still for a long time before Sonic raced out, grabbed it, and returned to his spot with his friends, all in the blink of an eye. "Sonic," Tails whispered, "We can't! Shadow's-"
"I know... but I have a feeling about this one." He addressed us again. "Come with me, I'll show you to him."
The Freedom Fighters lead us into another building across Knothole; the lab. There were a few at work in there, barely disturbed by our presence. We were shown to an elevator which lead down into the ground, under the building, and so we took it. The sight that greeted us was amazing.
There he was, Shadow the Hedgehog, with this place seemingly dedicated all to himself. Pathetic creature... suspended by a liquid of sorts in a large capsule, which itself was connected to a large machine. "We did find him shortly after the incident on the ARK," Tails began. "He's been in this coma ever since then... kept alive by his life support."
"It's so sad," Amy said in a depressed way. "He was such a strong fighter, and now we haven't heard even a word from him."
I nodded. "Well, I think we'll hear something soon."
"How can you be so sure?" Sonic asked.
"Let him free."
"What?" Tails began, a bit shocked. "He'll die if disconnected for more than a few minutes!"
"Not like he's doing any good trapped in there," Nack reasoned.
"You want that Emerald, right?" I followed.
Tails thought hard for a few seconds. "Sonic..."
"Do it, little buddy," He murmured back.
"You don't have anything to worry about," I said. "The prophecies didn't say he'd die like this."
So Tails, being compelled by both sides to act, walked over to the far side of the machine. He tapped a few buttons, pulled a leaver or two, a few beeps were heard... "Are you sure about this?" Sonic only nodded back. "Alright," Tails sighed. "I'm cracking the case in thirty seconds..."
Everyone's eyes were fixed on the capsule at this point. Slowly the fluid drained from the interior of the tube to some unseen containment area. The unconscious hedgehog, no longer able to keep afloat in the draining fluid, sank to the bottom. His feet hit the bottom of the container, and, amazingly, he seemed to stand on his own, even though the fluid was gone. "Ten seconds," Tails murmured.
Everyone counted these seconds down in their heads. There was nothing. The black and red hedgehog just stood there, motionless, not even breathing it seemed... then, as everyone's timers hit the final second, his eyes shot open with a piercing gaze... right at Nack. The weasel had heard a good earful of stuff about the legendary black hedgehog... his strength, his speed... and now those eyes, those burning red eyes were threatening to set Nack aflame, it seemed.
The case shot open quickly. After a brief moment of staring and otherwise motionlessness, Shadow stepped out of the case as one who had just woken up from a deep nap. No one said a word or even took a breath... Shadow still hadn't... and when he did...
His first breath out of that tube was an exhale, and with it came the startling flow of the oxygen-rich fluid which he had spent the past how many years in. This was followed by a quick inhale, which caused him to cough uncontrollably at the sudden adjustment from one breathing medium to another. Sonic was quick to get at his side and help him up from his doubled-over stance. "Are you ok?" the blue one asked.
The black one coughed four or five more times before gaining stability to stand. "Yeah," he started in a raspy tone. "Where am I? What happened?"
Of course these were rational questions. According to the Freedom Fighters, he had been in that deep sleep ever since his battle by the ARK. "The world thought you were dead!" one of the soldiers from my ranks said aloud. I felt like backing him down for that, but it was true what he said and half of us there simply nodded.
"Dead?" Shadow said with a bit of shock. Then he burst into laughter, which was a sight which the others had never seen before. "You couldn't kill me that easily! That's right... I remember it now... that voice told me it was time to sleep..."
"Sleep?" Sonic asked, puzzled.
"Yeah. As I was falling away from the ARK, I felt nothing but pain... outside me, inside me... and then that voice..." He murmured the last part. "I don't remember it too well, but I do remember what it said: 'Sleep for a while and I'll wake you up later.'"
"How weird!" Amy added to that.
Shadow only shrugged. "I heard it again just now. He told me it was time to wake up... so I did, and... here I am..." He examined Sonic and the others for a few seconds. "You seem so much older than how I remember..."
"Almost two decades have passed since that fight, Shadow..." Sonic replied.
Shadow sniffed the air quickly and audibly. "Why is it that everyone keeps me asleep for so long?" He asked, almost humorously. There was some very light laughter, followed up by his next question. "What now?"
Sonic lightly kicked the ground beneath him with the toe of his shoe. "We needed to awaken you..."
"Why?"
I laughed. "For us... We need you, Shadow..."
He gave us a moment of his cold silence. "Who are you?" He asked.
"We're with Holy Thunderforce," Nack answered plainly.
"Hmph," Shadow grunted in his usual manner as he crossed his arms. "That doesn't help me much."
"We're the biggest force fighting in this war... well, the biggest one on the good side." Dirk was the one to say that, and he said it with a bit of pride. Ha, I guess it made sense... he too was glad to be on the good side of things... the Dark Legion had made a mess of his life with all those enhancements and neural implants and such.
But Shadow only blinked. "War? There's a war going on?"
I nodded. "And you are an important part in it. Prophecies predicted this war and they spoke about a dark warrior; they spoke about you. But we only have the faintest whispers of those prophecies... and while we don't know everything about you through them, we are sure that you'd be better off on our side of the war."
After hearing these words, Shadow lead his eyes to lock with Sonic's, but all that the blue one did was shrug as if to say he didn't have any power in the situation. "Come with us," Nack followed up, "and see what you think. If you're dissatisfied with what you see of us, we'll bring you back and you can do what you want."
Shadow entered a period of silent thought at this. 'So risky,' he thought. 'How do I know that they won't betray me like I've been betrayed before? But... they seem good with Sonic and the others...' "Alright," he said out loud after a few seconds, "I'll come with you, but don't you dare try anything against my will."
"Of course," I answered with a smile. "We're here to help. Now, there is no point of us staying here longer than we must; there is a war to be waged. Come." I gestured to the elevator which would take us to the surface and everybody went to it without objection... Except Shadow, who stayed behind for a moment. And when he started walking, he lost his balance and fell to the floor with a low grunt.
Dirk, having heard him hit the floor, walked back to help the hedgehog. "What a mighty warrior," he whispered under his breath as he passed by me.

It was quite late at night when we left Knothole to go back to the depot in Texas. The flight there had been a long one, and it would naturally be a long one to get back to our forces. Everyone was tired, ready for sleep as we sat there facing each other in the helicopter. Mission accomplished.
Then Murphy's Law set in. It started so innocently, a minor ring in Dirk's ear, something that he could just faintly notice while the sound of the copter's blades ahead beat so quickly. But it gradually got louder and louder till it blocked out the noise of everything else around him. It got so loud that it was causing him pain, deep powerful pain. A splitting headache, one he had never felt before, set in. He tried not to show it, telling himself that was nothing, all along gripping his seat with all his might.
Then, all of a sudden, his consciousness and the ringing ended with a powerful "Crack!" But nobody noticed it till it was too late. He sprung up, pointed his stunner at me, and fired. I fell, knocked out cold, to the ground. Nack turned to him then. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" the weasel yelled, and for that Dirk fired at him too. Nack hit the ground after the electricity passed through his body, but he was not quite knocked-out.
"Land! Land this thing now!" Nack could hear Dirk screaming at the pilot, but that was all he got before a cold darkness overtook him.
When I next awoke, it was still night, but there was no sound of the helicopter. There was no sight of it either; I was face down, looking at blades of green grass. Cold wind blew over my body, chilling me a bit, and the sound of a kind woman's voice and crackling of electricity was what I heard. I looked up to see a sight which made me want to scream... but I couldn't.
Lucretia was standing over Shadow, who was kneeling on the ground, willingly it seemed. "All I ask is that you join us," the witch said oh-so compassionately.
Shadow wore a look of confusion. "But these over here are my friends. They said they wouldn't hurt me."
"They lied," Lucretia replied softly, but the audible stench of her own lie was poignant to me and Nack, who had also woken up shortly after me and who was equally powerless. We couldn't see where Dirk was. "They were going to kill you the first chance they got," Lucretia continued. "The reason why they came after you was because they knew the prophecies said that you'd fight for me."
"Why would I fight for you?" he asked her. "You seem more bent on destruction than anything."
Lucretia laughed lightheartedly. "Oh, foolish child. Can't you see? Nothing new can come about without destruction. What we do, we do for good. We are going to change this world and everything in it because it is old and not worth keeping any more! The new era we will usher in won't be a bad one; no. It will be a golden one; one that will never end..."
I stirred, my throbbing ears telling me to end her filthy lies right then and there, but even speech was not something I could do right then. She heard what I tried to say, looked over at us, and smiled a smile that wasn't a smile. Her grim lips may have curled upwards, but it was only because she knew how much she had tricked us right then. "What's in it for me?" Shadow asked.
She smiled warmly again, this time running her finger across his chin seductively. "All you have to do is vow to follow me and my king... to fight alongside us." Shadow repeated his question to her, and this time she got shoulder-to-shoulder with him and waved her arm over the field. "Imagine... everything you see could be yours on this planet. If you follow us, we'll gladly give it to you."
"Everything..." Shadow murmured.
"You would be like a prince," Lucretia continued, her eyes glowing as she saw victory approaching.
"Like a prince..." Shadow murmured in a similar tone as his last comment.
"You would be like a god."
"...A god..."
"Your own god, to do what you wanted. You'll live an endless life forever, in power over this planet, and in time maybe other worlds... Worlds of your own. You will be your own deity! Nobody can break you or tear you from it if you just follow us!" Shadow was silent at her words. It sounded almost too good to be true. And I, knowing that it was, was straining to get to my feet, to rush forward, to yell out, something to tell Shadow that it was all a bunch of lies. But I couldn't... my power hadn't returned to me yet. "What's the matter, Dargor? Are you scared of something?"
"I'm not scared at all," he replied.
"No," Nack eventually managed to gasp out. "No, it isn't- it isn't true! It's a bunch of lies!"
Shadow stared hard at him for a few seconds. "And I don't wanna hear you," the hedgehog hissed at the weasel.
"Say it, Dargor," Lucretia urged. "Say that you'll follow us! Promise that you'll follow us and take the right way, and you'll get everything you could ever need or want!"
"I will," Shadow said, giving in almost instantly. Nack and I groaned at that, but they didn't seem to hear us.
"Yes," Lucretia laughed in ecstasy. "You've made the right choice." As she said this, she floated a few feet off the ground, facing the still kneeling hedgehog who had just sold himself over to darkness, and she began to chant something. The spell was not in a language that I understood or had even heard before, but it was clearly magical. Shadow quickly started to glow lightly as the magic started taking effect. The light would get brighter and brighter with every few seconds as her necromancy progressed. And when she was done, the light faded, and Shadow sported a new pair of wings. They had a huge span, about seven feet if not more, almost double his height. They were as black as he was, with red "droplets" forming at the outside edges of either wing, but not fully reaching the edges. (Thus the edges of his wings were still black.)
Shadow stood up after this transformation that left the rest of his body seemingly untouched. Slowly he looked over each shoulder, observing his new appendages in all their glory. "Thank you, my Queen," he voiced humbly.
The dark Queen was only able to smile for about a second before there was a scuffling sound behind her. Before she could spin around and defend herself from whatever it was, there was another sound, a hollow, metallic thud. My vision was good enough to see that it was Dirk, and he had hit her square on the shoulder with a long pipe. She staggered for a second, but got her footing again and sprung into the air. "Fly, Dargor!" she laughed, as if the blow had done nothing and as if her levitation were a fun sport. "Fly with me!"
Without so much as a second thought, Shadow jumped into the air and beat his wings. It kicked up a powerful wind towards us, not enough so to do much, but enough to be surprising to each of us. Dirk threw his body forward with one great push of energy and chucked the pipe at the retreating witch. The shot was right on target, but unfortunately it was deflected by an energy field which she put up. Thus, all we could do was watch as our warrior flew away...
Nack and I were able to get on our feet again by now, though not very well. "They used my brain implants to possess me," Dirk muttered.
"Damn it," Nack and I said in tandem.

We returned to the depot late the next morning, defeat seeming to reek from our bodies. But, at first, it seemed that all was not lost. "They attacked the depot," Calia said as we sat around the conference table, drinking the brew of a fresh pot of coffee. "But we held it and drove them off in a matter of hours."
Nic laughed. "It was as if they didn't stand a chance, like they were unprepared!" She paused for a few seconds, thinking of something. "Andre even did a better job than them..."
Andre blushed and smiled. "Gee, all I did was sit back by the Railgun and shoot at anyone who came near!"
There was an upraising of laughter at that one. "Maybe you're not such a total screwup after all, Andre!" Nack cackled.
We chattered for another hour that night before retreating to our beds. The next few days were not very exciting. Andre was hard at work with the Railgun, putting it together with painstaking perfection, his quiet and often jittery hands slowly completing that war-machine.
Our children kept themselves busy. They provided a good source of entertainment, playing funny but harmless pranks on the other soldiers. Trent and Christine's courtship had been an ongoing thing for years now, and they only grew closer and closer together. Rex was still saddened by the loss of his mother; he loved her dearly, even more-so than he loved his father. And he too was in love, with Roxy Griffin that is. It was a shame that they were separated in such a way, but our plans that we made were going to have our two parties meet again in due time. Malik and Gracie were growing up too... They made an interesting pair. Malik took more like his father, Andre. He could be somewhat brave at times as long as someone was backing him up, but otherwise he was just a coward. Gracie was adventuresome, getting into trouble occasionally, but just as kind-hearted as they came. Our kids were kids, but they were growing up.
Night came exactly 11 days after our loss with Shadow. Everything was going just as it had before at the nights before; Andre was working on the weapon, the kids were prowling around somewhere, and the rest of us high- ranking officers were playing poker. Nack was really winning tonight, picking up the pot every single time it seemed. I never understood him and cards... no matter what the game was, he seemed to know the backs of the cards as well as the front.
I was about to give up after he had taken a good number of quarters from me in the game, but it didn't matter. Suddenly a loud bell rang in our ears, the alarm. Before any of us had time to spring up and ask questions, a private slid into the room, out of breath from his run. He got one word across to us: "Lucretia!"
We rushed out of that room like sparks from a shot rifle. I grabbed my shotgun and Nack got his rifle. We were ready to fight her to the death. Other privates told us that she was in the train yard, killing anyone who approached her. Thus, that's where we headed.
The winter night was cold when we rushed out onto the train tracks, and we quickly made contact with our target. She didn't seem to notice us until the clanging of our feet was no more than 30 yards away. She was an odd sight... covered in a filthy, tattered dress. Her fur was dark, but it didn't seem totally black right then. We disregarded these two facts when we noticed she was bent over a fresh-killed guard, her mouth at his neck...
"Halt!" I shouted through the night. Instantly she turned and fled as quickly as her legs could carry her... It wasn't like her to run, but like I said, this seemed like a golden opportunity to take her down.
Nack brought his rifle up and took quick aim. All he wanted was a hit, any hit. He didn't want to risk taking the time to line up a headshot and miss. So quick and fluid-like were his motions of aiming and firing that they were like one natural body movement, and with that shot the target fell, whimpering in pain.
I slowly approached her, shotgun loaded to kill. She was crying; I couldn't understand it. She was also bent over double, on her knees, letting her lavender hair fall over her face. I had my doubts right then... Lucretia didn't have lavender hair the last time I checked...
I gave her a shove with my foot... a solid shove, not a kick. My shotgun was poised for the kill right then, but when I saw her face, the shock of what I saw almost made me drop it. We had made two serious mistakes...
I turned around to the party who had come out with. I was sickened at what we had done, how blind we had been. As I took aim at the female weasel who stood there in the Stetson hat, I cried out: "Medic!"

To be continued! Next chapter: Chapter 8

Rain of a Thousand Flames