Dance of the Macabre

Chapter 1

"Get out of this house now! You don't live here anymore so get out of this damn house!" I heard my father scream at me. I must not have run fast enough for he hauled me over his shoulder and he threw me bodily out of the door. I landed hard on the rough gravel and he screamed at me once more. "Now get out of my life you sniveling kit!"

The neighborhood that I lived in looked down on me and I rose to my feet. I turned to my neighbors and they quickly shut their blinds; I knew that they had heard my fight with my father.

My father, the once great James McCloud had disowned me but I did not cry as the moon of Corneria looked down upon me. I only had the clothes on my back and my wallet with had about twenty credits in it. I was only thirteen at the time; my mother had been killed two years earlier and now my own father had given up on me.

There was nothing I could do; I set out walking.

Fifteen years later…

"Bring forth the accused." The judge said as I slowly walked into the court room.

Let me elaborate on what you missed. After being thrown from my home, I got worked my ass off until I was twenty and I bought a mercenary ship. I traveled all over Lylat doing odd merc work until I discovered Zoness; it was a mercenary's heaven. Drinking, gambling, beautiful vixens, you name it and it was there. My first time with a vixen had been there but the whore had tried to rob me so I shot her. After I had done it, I felt withdrawal from the killing but I soon pushed aside the feeling and moved on. I learned how to shoot a blaster and I also had some training in heavy weapons; shotguns, rocket launchers, grenades, etc.

I also received my first gunshot wound. The sly falcon cheated in the card game; I protested and he shot me in the chest. It was a miracle I even survived. Anyway, I found him later and fed him a blaster bolt, justice was served.

Anyway to make a long story short, I ended up going on a mission with another three mercs; we robbed a government facility, hijacked a couple vehicles, and killed some animals. I lost two of my friends and the last rat bastard pulled a fast one on me; he tried to leave when the Feds were closing in. I was captured but I put a round in his head just as he almost got away.

"Fox McCloud, do you realize what you have done?" The judge said after he read off my offenses.

"I do."

"Then I have no choice but to send you to Shark Tank." The jury around me nodded their agreement and I cursed myself. Shark Tank was one of the maximum security prisons scattered around Lylat and it broke some of the worst criminals out there. "You are sentenced to a fifteen year prison term without parole, the court is adjourned."

I sat in the transport craft with ten other inmates; they ranged from panthers to tigers to leopards to felines to lizards to vulpines like me. One husky looked over to me and his jaw dropped slightly.

"Hey, aren't you McCloud? Didn't you kill like twenty Cornerians?"

"Don't make it twenty one." I answered and he shut up. I set my head back and my senses were amped up fivefold; many years of sleeping only to wake instantly and kill my assassins had taught me to be alert. The ride into space was completely quiet and by the time we reached Sargrasso, I could sense some of the prisoners were already shaking out of fear.

Sargrasso, much like Zoness although a little nicer, was a rough region and the Shark Tank was held there; the prison was one of the most heavily guarded ones in Lylat as I have said before and I was in for no picnic.

"Ok all you scum; we'll be arriving in ten minutes." The guard said from the cockpit. I opened my eyes and I saw a panther staring at me.

"I'm…going…to…kill…you…" He mouthed to me.

"Not if I kill you first." I said quiet audibly. The guard turned around and he looked at me.

"What's going on here?"

"Nothing, we're fine." I answered and he saw me lock eyes with the panther. The guard turned back and the shuttle continued on.

The shuttle landed on the strip and after a few moments the door opened.

"Ok, get your asses out now you scum of Lylat." I jumped out into the warm air and Shark Tank stood before me; the facility had high walls with a force field covering it for added security. We were ushered into the prison and I noticed that there were female inmates that were housed here as well.

It was divvied like this: The prison was divided into two buildings, one for males and one for females; they curved around and seemed to meet in the middle. The prison recreational yard was divided by fields that separated the prisoners by gender. There were six towers, four on either corner of the facility and two in the middle. I noticed that the guards were heavily shielded and they carried double barreled shotguns, they also had personal shield generators. The guards also were able to walk through the fields while the inmates were blocked in. A path was opened in between everything and the new prisoners were ushered between the inmates. I shut out the probing eyes and we walked into a large chamber; guards surrounded us and I noticed a large panther walk out from a guard house.

"Welcome, welcome to Shark Tank my inmates." His voice was soft and he walked in front of us. "I am the Warden and you are the inmates. You are all here for one reason or another; murder, robbery, larceny, rape, etc." He waved his black paw and he faced us again. "I will not tolerate any shit from any of you; that means behave and life will be good. Be a troublemaker, rabble-rouser, the like, and I will slam my iron paw on your scrawny neck. Any questions?"

"Yeah, when are we going to eat?" A feline called out. The Warden walked up to him and he drew out a black nightstick.

"You eat when I tell you," He slammed the stick into the feline and the cat crumpled to the ground. "You shit when I tell you, you sleep when I tell you. I am the master of this prison and only God above can save you. Take them to their cells and thrown this one in the hole for his smart ass mouth." We were herded into our cells and I sat down on the bed; the doors closed and I examined the room. It was tiny with only a cot, TV, and a small table by the cot. I lay down and the lights died.

It was permanent now.