Chapter Eighteen: Knocking Some Sense
I don't own Star Fox, but I own my characters. Using my characters means you have to ask me for permission and giving me credit. I would be delighted then when you do! This is probably one of my long-running stories, so bear with it!
Rufus slashed an evolved bunny guarding the accessories of Wulf. He made sure that everything to be done must be executed quietly to avoid any attraction of more guards. He didn't kill the female rabbit; he only injured her to disable her.
"Okay, this is good," Wulf commented as he snapped his belt containing the medicine and placed his PDA to his left forearm. He grabbed his neutron blade and placed to its holster as well. "I can help you now, Rufus."
The red wolf just scoffed with a smirk, "Hmph! Just don't get in my way, but if you really want to, then go ahead and be my guest, but don't waste your energy on these smaller ones. Remember, we have a kingpin to deal with!" He discharged his neutron blade, making the red colored laser return back to the handle. He placed his two laser katanas back to their holster as well.
The two made a quick run for it. It would be a little while before the guards would realize that their prisoner had escaped. Wulf knew Fox wouldn't be much of a help, now that he's joined his father. Wolf and Falco's condition were also unknown for him, not knowing that they're already returning to their evolved thinking. The only person he could trust now is Rufus, his childhood friend who turned into a bitter rival thanks to a tearful event years ago… the event that gave Rufus the cross scar.
It was only a few more steps before they could reach the room where James held his previous meeting with the chosen ones, the room where Wulf saw and faced the evolved Fox McCloud. However, Rufus pulled Wulf back to the shadows of the walls, as two lion guards were watching the entrance carefully. It was easily known that evolved people have enhanced senses, and a small mistake could get the two caught. Rufus and Wulf thought of something to get past them.
"Any ideas?" Rufus asked Wulf. "If you ask me, I say we beat them up, but I believe you're good at preventing me from doing it." Wulf chuckled for a while, but he got serious afterwards.
"We'll rough them up, all right, but we won't cause much trouble," he explained as he grabbed a stun gun.
He hugged the wall so that he aligned himself with the shadows. Wulf aimed for one of the lion's neck. With a careful pull of the trigger, thin plasma ejected from the pistol, hitting the lion and making him unconscious. The other lion wondered, but he ended up being shot as well.
"Impressive," Rufus gave a smart admiration, "why didn't you use that move against me?"
"I play fair when facing you," he replied with a smile as placed the gun back to the holster on his belt. He then grabbed his neutron blade and gave a sign to follow. Rufus quickly tiptoed to tail him.
All at once, the two kicked the door at the room where James resided. As the door fell down to the floor, the alpha fox was surprised from his guests. He stopped reviewing his plans and stood up from his seat. "You again! Very persistent, Wulf, but don't you think you're way risking your life? And you even brought a friend."
Rufus grinned as he grabbed his neutron blades, one on each hand, and unleashed the lasers from them, "Then you must be the cause of this chaos! I go by the name Rufus Reavis, and I'm here to take you back to reality!" Wulf sided beside him and also unleashed his neutron blade.
Suddenly, the computer alarmed James. The monitor showed the scanning on Rufus' anatomy. He was amazed to see him having strange cells like Wulf. "So you also have those… fused cells like Wulf. Sadly, you can't join my new kingdom. I am afraid I must eliminate you." He removed his cape, throwing it the seat. "If I have to kill you both with my bare hands, then I will, for the sake of this system's future!"
"Be careful, Rufus! Don't get lured from his smooth talking!" Wulf warned Rufus. The red wolf still had his temper, fortunately, but he didn't want to stand and do nothing.
Rufus slid forward and jumped high. He dropped down with his blades extended forward. James just defended himself with his muscular arm. As the blades hit the arm, it seemed like James wasn't feeling anything at all. "What the…" Rufus spoke out in surprise. The fox quickly swung his arm to deflect the blades. Rufus was able to land on both feet, but he hit his back to a wall.
"Rufus!" Wulf yelled. He immediately lunged towards James, forcing his weapon forward. However, the fox just evaded it and grabbed the laser part of the neutron blade. It didn't harm him at all. He flung the weapon away and kicked Wulf to the stomach, making him land on his back. Blood spewed out from his mouth, and he's rendered weak.
James slowly walked forward and proclaimed, "You're both nothing compared to my evolved physiology! You're all weak!" This however, triggered something to Rufus.
"You're calling me weak?" he grumbled in a low tone. Suddenly, he pulled himself up and yelled, "I'll teach you for calling me WEAK!" He cupped his right hand, as his right arm started to create red plasma. His palm started to gather what seemed to be a perpetual energy.
"What is this?" James wondered as he looked at the monitor. "His cells suddenly react to his emotion. His anger fuels his strength, giving him energy." He then started to rush towards Rufus to make sure he won't charge up more. "It doesn't matter if you could do that or not. Evolution is stronger!" He punched him to the face, but quickly, Rufus defended it by grabbing James' fist with his charged palm.
"You're not strong! Those who rely on other things for power are weak!" he growled back as he pushed James' punch away. He then forced out his charged palm towards James' chest, creating a large explosion of energy. It's so bright that it could blind anybody seeing it.
As the smoke cleared, Rufus was heaving. He looked to his side, seeing the weakened Wulf. "It's over, I guess…" However, as he looked forward, he saw James. He's still standing, with only smoke clearing from his place.
"I'm impressed that you're able to inflict slight pain to me, but it still won't work," he grinned as he cleaned himself up by dusting his shoulders. "Now, it's my turn!" He quickly charged towards the tired red wolf, grabbing him to the neck and slowly tightening his grip. Rufus tried to struggle, but he was hardly doing any success.
Wulf limply stood up and saw what James was doing to his companion. "Rufus!" he shouted as he dashed towards the two. However, James just simply grabbed him with his other arm and began to choke him to death.
James raised the two up while slowly tightening his grip. "You could've lived and continued your lives back at your home system if you didn't interfere. All I want is total peace for the system by simply reshaping it. Wars will never occur anymore, and people will be happy because they will stay with their family."
"…Your goal might be right… but don't you think… your exaggerating it?" Wulf spoke out with labor. "Reshaping the system… for a simple fear that… will never occur because… the threat is gone…" James was suddenly pulled by his words. "The way see it… the only threat of the system… today is… you…" Angered by his words, James threw the two to the wall.
It was about a few minutes earlier when the people of the Defense Force, along with Galaxy Wulf crew, Katt, Leon, Peppy, Slippy, and Nebulla Wolf crew, split up and headed to the five waterway gates. The first blockade was assigned to Bill, Lupina, and Slippy. The second one was assigned to Lupe, Bark, and the bat commander named Jill. The third was allocated to Gustav, Arma, and Eagle. The fourth was designated to Fara, her boyfriend Louie, and Garou. The fifth was given to Leon, Peppy, and the evolved captain Reynard. How fierce their battles were. Thankfully, everybody's been cured, and Bark, Leon, and Slippy were able to generate many of the psychological vaccines. Tides were turning against the evolved soldiers wanting domination. The evolved soldiers they were able to capture were immediately rehabilitated, and now their numbers were increasing.
However, the Chosen Ones, the four people that James evolved because of their spectacular evolved nature, namely Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Wolf O'Donnell, and the newcomer Panther Caroso, weren't in the battlefield yet. Still riding in the small carrier ship Ragnarok, they monitored the five blockades of the waterways infested by the CEL virus.
"Damn! Looks like they haven't opened it yet!" Fox grumbled as he looked at the computer showing the mapping of the waterway. It showed the pipe colored in blue, and five dots blinking. The continuation of the pipes from the dots was colored red. It meant that the water hadn't flown yet. "We should go there soon! We have to split up as well."
"That means that one of the blockades won't be visited by us," Panther remarked while showing his rose. "If that's the case, then we should finish our jobs at the locations we pick to go and meet at the last one. I'll take the second waterway gate."
"Mine's the fourth!" Falco grinned while rubbing his hands. "What about you two?"
"I'll take care of the first gate. Fox, what's yours?" Wolf asked Fox.
"No… you guys go ahead… I have a bad feeling about father… I'll go back to base… I'll catch up with you later once I'm sure everything's okay there."
"Shin Ookami Ken!" (New Wolf Fist!) Lupina yelled aloud as she charged towards the oncoming evolved raccoon. Aura blasted from her fist as she punched the coon, making him hit the ground flat. She quickly delivered quick kicks and somersaults to approaching evolved people, instantly tiring them one by one. "At this rate, we'll be able to finish our job quickly, but it looks like their numbers are increasing…" she heaved as she wiped sweat from her forehead.
"You need some help?" Bill asked as he gave Lupina something to drink. "Slippy told me that it's your favorite: Strawberry Juice… and no! Don't think about how Slippy figured that out. I think he asked that from Bark." Lupina laughed from his comical statement.
"So, how's he doing?" she asked as she finished her drink.
He smiled back, "He has treated many soldiers, but I doubt that we'll be able to finish defending this place until…" Before he could finish, he immediately covered Lupina from an approaching wheel blade. It injured the dog's back, but thankfully, it was a small one, since he had evolved, anyway. However, it pierced and it was stuck on his back.
"Bill, are you all right?" she asked as she looked to his back. "Your wound!" she immediately took the wheel out, which gave the greyhound a slight signal of pain. Then, she heard somebody laughing.
"What's this? An evolved person helping a non-evolved trash!" the voice from a distant end laughed. He approached the two slowly, and to the two's surprise, it was Wolf O'Donnell. "Why are you looking like that? Oh, I forgot, I was once on your side!" The wheel blade returned to him and transformed back into an earring. He placed it back to his hear.
"Wolf, I thought you're cured!" Lupina cried out. "So that means I'll have to knock some sense back to your head, huh?" She dashed forward towards him, not knowing what Wolf's up to.
He quickly removed his nipple piercing and turned it into a metal plane. It quickly traveled below Lupina's path, making her stop to wonder. "Fool! You stopped running!" he laughed as the metal released chains that bound her legs tightly. The chains then crawled up to her body, squeezing her tightly.
"Damn!" Lupina cried out in pain as she felt the restraints choking her. Wolf just laughed out as she slowly dies.
Bill stood up from his position. "Lupina!" he growled as he fired optical lasers towards the chains. He focused the laser to the binds to melt them, releasing the she-wolf.
"There's more where that came from!" the wolf howled as he removed two earrings and turned it into bladed boomerangs. He commanded them to hurl towards the two.
Lupina quickly bent down to avoid the boomerang, and Bill jumped away as well. The boomerangs flew past them, but the two knew it'd return. "Bill, the only way to stop him is to get rid of his piercings! He's controlling metal, and I guess you know what to do!" Bill nodded with a smile.
As the boomerangs made a return, Lupina quickly caught the two. It injured her hands, but at least she had something in mind. "Here you go, Wolf!" she yelled as she threw them back to Wolf. Bill immediately fired lasers to the blade, making them ultra hot, disabling Wolf's psychic control on them.
"What the fuck…" Wolf growled as he saw the blades going towards him. Unable to control them, he was hit to the chest, injuring him completely. The two boomerangs fell to the floor, and his body is full of small cuts.
"NOW!" Lupina cried out as she dashed once more towards the wolf. She gave a powerful punch to Wolf's face, sending him down to the ground. Bill followed and helped her remove all of his piercings. He then gathered them all and set them to intense heat, melting them and making sure that Wolf wouldn't use them anymore. After that, she sighed, "Finally, it's done…"
"Not… yet…" Wolf roughly coughed out as he stood up, with blood drooling from his mouth. Without anything to fire at them, he simply grabbed Lupina's arm and tightened his grip. "I'll make sure you won't punch for another second… Oh, and don't do anything funny, Bill…" The greyhound just growled back. However, as Lupina held her pain, she just smiled.
"I'm… I'm sorry Wolf… but I'm afraid I must put some noggin to your head to make you realize that we're your friends!" she smiled as she delivered a punch to Wolf's stomach. That caused him to release his grip from her, allowing her to punch him more. "Here we go!" she declared as she gave a kick."Issen…" (One Thousand…) She followed it with a back flip. "Tetsu…" (Iron…) She then barraged him with multiple punches. "…Sakura!" (…Cherry Blossoms!) A final punch was given towards Wolf's chest, giving him one painful blast to the heart. He was hurled towards a concrete slab before sending him down.
Lupina was suddenly terrified from what she had just done. "Oh no! I overdid it! It was a fatal move!" Ignoring her own loss of strength, she looked at the fainted Wolf. She checked his heartbeat if it was still throbbing. "Bill… Bill!"
"Don't worry," he relieved her after checking his pulse. "He's okay, just exhausted."
"Lu…" Wolf suddenly whispered out from his struggle. He opened his eyes for a moment and looked at her. "S-sorry… I… was brainwashed… If only… I had… helped… Wulf…" He suddenly closed his eyes, a sign of unconsciousness.
"What the…" she wondered. "Anyway, let's take him to Slippy. He knows what to do…"