Disclaimer: See the Prologue
Chapter 11 – Explanations
Fox and Krystal ran to up to Jacques, who was on his knees, the staff laid out in front of him. He breathed harshly, considering what it took for him to fire the Soul Blaster: His living energies.
"Jacques?" Krystal begun, "Are you alright?"
She kneeled and placed a hand on his cold armour-plated shoulder. Jacques turned his head her way and smiled slightly.
"I am now," he replied, "In insuring your safety, Krystal."
Krystal blushed slightly, luckily not being noticed by anyone.
"Lombardi," Jacques suddenly said, turning towards the avian's crashed Arwing.
Fox was suddenly alarmed. His best friend had gone down during the battle and he didn't even realise until now. He quickly ran up towards the ship.
"FALCO!" he yelled, "HEY FALCO!"
The canopy was shattered and sitting in the cockpit was an unconscious Falco, blood trickling from a cut on his head down his face. Fox tore open what remained of the canopy and reached in. He dragged Falco out and onto the ground.
Krystal and Jacques walked up to them, Jacques using her staff as a crutch.
"Is he alive?" Krystal asked, with deep concern.
"I can feel a pulse," Fox replied, finger on his neck, "It's weak, but it's something."
They suddenly heard guns cocking behind them.
"Really?" asked a sinister voice behind them.
Fox, Krystal and Jacques spun around to find the Venomian Commander and several soldiers holding blaster rifles, ready to kill.
"That's good to hear," the lizard said, smiling, "Cause' the minute he wakes up we'll be keeping him awake long enough to see himself dismembered slowly."
"Aw, no," Falco mumbled, before opening his eyes.
Jacques glared and felt he was ready to fight again.
"And you," the Commander said, pointing a finger at the Marine, "You try anything and your friends will die right not. You understand me, human?"
Jacques gripped the staff and was about to say something when he felt Krystal's hand over his.
"Please," she begun, looking into his eyes, "Do what he say. You've done all you can."
Jacques mouthed closed in semi-shock. Surely they wouldn't just give up that easily. Still, he nodded, eyes downcast.
He dropped the staff, which landed roughly on the asphalt.
"How cute," the Commander said, smiling, "A human and a Cerinian."
Their heads suddenly jerked towards him.
"Throw em' in the brig," the Commander ordered, "And put some extra-strong binds on that human."
The next thing they all knew they were holed up behind steel bars in the detention block beneath the Control Centre. Jacques' hands were cuffed behind his back as he sat cross-legged on the floor.
The others all had separate cells across from Jacques'.
"Well this is just great," Falco said, rubbing his bandaged head.
"Don't start, Faclo!" Fox exclaimed, his cell right next to his, "This is not the time."
"Fine," Falco retorted, "I was going to point out that we are definitely in deep shit now. I mean…"
He chuckled.
"We're about to be interrogated, tortured, possibly castrated and kept alive long enough to see our own hearts plucked from our bodes, only after they crack our chests open."
The avian then eyed Jacques.
"It'll take a while to crack through you," Falco pointed out, "Seeing as you're probably wearing two inches of steel.
Jacques shook his head slowly, "No. They will not."
"How come," Falco asked smiling, with a hint of fatalism.
Jacques grunted as he broke free of his would-be unbreakable cuffs, amidst incredulous stares from Fox, Falco and Krystal.
"Because I will not let them," Jacques simply replied.
He then stepped up to the bars of his cell, where he gripped them firmly. He tried pulling them off, but to no avail.
"Jacques," Fox sighed, "Maybe you should save your energy. There's no way we are gonna break out of here that easily."
Jacques then suddenly spat at the bottom of the bars of his cell. Fox's eyes went wide in surprise.
"Ooook," Fox said, rolling his eyes.
They then all heard a hissing sound and smelt smoke rise from Jacque's bars as the spit ate their way through them.
"Acid for spit?" Falco said humorously, "Now I've seen everything."
Krystal smiled once again, seeing that the Space Marine will never give up.
Meanwhile, four armed guards made their way through the prison block towards Star Fox's cells.
"What are we doing again?" one of them asked.
"Bring them up to interrogation," another replied, "And give them the full treatment."
They walked up to the door leading to Star Fox where suddenly Jacques smashed through the doors, where he practically broke it down and sending them all flying. The Marine grabbed the guard still standing and smashed his face into the wall.
"Nicely done," Fox said, smiling.
"Thank you, McCloud," Jacques replied, bending over to pick up a fallen blaster rifle.
"Right," Falco exclaimed as he too picked up a rifle, "Let's take down these apes."
"First," Krystal cut in, "I have to find my staff."
"Do not worry, Krystal," Jacques said, "I can sense it's energies in this facility, hence it's presence."
Fox smiled, "Alright Jacques, you find the staff while we…"
He cocked his rifle.
"…will handle the control room and what lies before it."
Suddenly, another guard appeared around the corner.
"Shit!" he cried, "THE PRISONERS ARE…"
One kick upright the face by Fox later the guard laid sprawled on the ground, missing some of his teeth.
"We best make haste," Jacques said, "They will soon know of our escape."
Suddenly alarms went off all over the place.
"They know NOW!" Falco exclaimed.
Fox and Falco took off down one path while Jacques, and surprisingly Krystal ran off down another.
Jacques noticed Krystal accompanying him.
"Your Highness?" he begun questioningly as they ran.
"It's my staff, Jacques," Krystal explained, "It's protected me when you no longer could have."
She then smiled, which Jacques returned.
Fox and Falco headed for the staircase going up. Fox noticed that Krystal wasn't with them.
"Krystal's gone with Jacques," Fox said, alarmed.
"So?" Falco simply replied, "It's her staff."
Suddenly guards tore from out of the doorways, opening fire on the vulpine and the avian. They returned fire, dropping onto the ground and picking their shots.
They blasted the Venomians with ease, mixing reflexes with firepower. Box blasted one monkey through the chest while Falco simply shot the top of one lizard's head off.
Jacques and Krystal were also sharing the same situation, only that Jacques was charging and tackling the dozens of guards that stood in their way, knocking them down and stomping on them.
"Where is my staff?" Krystal asked, slightly breathless from running.
"It is close," Jacques replied, "I can sense it's power nearby."
That 'nearby' was in interrogation, where amidst a host of torture devices of many shapes and sizes stood two Venomians dressed in black. One of which was holding Krystal's staff.
"What'd the Commander want us to do again?" he asked.
The other sighed, before explaining, "Use it in a variety of means on the blue chick. Which I will decline to mention once again, thank you very much."
"Ahh, you're a wuss!" the other gasped, "I thought that kind of stuff turns you on."
The door leading into the room then opened.
"About time too," the torturer holding the staff said, "Let's get…oh!"
A guard fell forward into the room from the doorway, his chest blown out. Standing behind the corpse was a human Space Marine and a Cerinian vixen. The torturers-in-black felt the impulse to run, but felt their bodies were too petrified at the sight of a loose Space Marine to move.
"I believe that staff belongs to me," Krystal said.
"And you were planning to do what to the Princess of Cerinia?" Jacques queried, glaring and gripping his blaster rifle.
The torturers looked at one another, before quickly pulling out their blasters. Jacques opened up with his rifle and blew the both of them into oblivion. Krystal stepped up to her staff, bent over and picked it up. Jacques surveyed the room the room and almost flinched when he saw what appeared to be a rack.
'Foul, barbaric xenos,' the Marine thought irritated.
"Jacques?"
He turned to her, who extended her staff.
"Let's catch up with Fox and Falco," she said, "They'll be way ahead of us."
Jacques nodded and they ran out of interrogation, which would be better labelled as the torture chamber. They didn't even notice they were watched from the security camera…
"Impressive. Very impressive, Loyalist scum!"
…by the Commander himself, who was holding a crimson-coloured stone in his hand.
A guard suddenly ran up to him, panting as if he was running a marathon and coming last.
"Sir!" the guard started, "The prisoners have been freed and have taken out half of the security here. They're heading our way!"
"I see that," the Commander replied, heated, "Double the defence outside control."
"Yes sir."
Meanwhile, Fox and Falco stood at the bottom of the elevator, which led upwards to the Control Centre.
"They're probably waiting for us to just take the lift up," Falco said
"Roger that," Fox replied.
Jacques and Krystal finally managed to catch up to them, amidst stepping over a dozen bodies. The Marine was visibly impressed at the vulpine and the avian's slaying of so many enemies.
"Fox," Falco," Krystal begun, "Caught up with you finally."
"Don't worry," Falco said, looking over at them, "You haven't missed anything…peaceful."
"We can see that," Jacques said, his foot on top of a lizard's corpse, "Why are we are standing here?"
They're waiting for us up there," Fox answered, "They'll pick us off easily."
Jacques nodded. Fox suddenly turned to him.
"And don't suggest you go up first," Fox said, looking at the Marine sternly, "You'll never make it."
"You are right," Jacques said, "We should be creative."
He then looked over at the bodies lying sprawled on the ground, then at Fox, whose pupils diluted in disturbance.
"You can't be serious," Fox said.
Jacques nodded.
Meanwhile one floor up, several Venomians had their guns trained on the elevator doors, waiting for Star Fox and the Space Marine to show their faces…so they can blow them off.
"What's keepin' those bastard mercs?" one guard edged towards another.
"Probably know we're waiting for them up here," the other replied, "If they don't come up, we'll just blow the lift and the dungeon can be their tomb!"
They then heard the elevator beep before them.
"GET READY!" the officer with them ordered.
One ping later, the doors opened.
"What the…?"
Sitting on a wooden chair in the lift was the corpse of a monkey, who was tied to the chair. It's head was lulled.
"Capsis," the officer said.
"Sir," a chimpanzee replied.
"Check it out," he ordered, "We're right behind you."
"Yes…sir," the ape replied, unsure.
Cautiously, the young soldier stepped up to the elevator, where he looked over his dead comrade.
"It's nothing," he called out.
Then all of a sudden…
"ARGHH!"
…Jacques landed before him, knocking the chair over. He grapped the chimp by the shoulders, lifting him up.
"FIRE!" the officer cried, "KILL THAT HUMAN!"
The Venomians opened fired, where Jacques used the chimp as a shield.
"NO!" the chimp cried, dropping his rifle, "ARGHH! AHH! ARGHHH!
Blaster fire tore into the chimp as Jacques gripped him by the neck, while holding his rifle by the other and gunning down the Venomians, their bodies falling like flower petals.
Only the officer was left. Jacques dropped his 'human' shield and was before the wounded ape. He grabbed him by the collar of his vest.
"Where is the control room?" Jacques asked.
"J…just up ahead…you monster," the officer coughed out.
Jacques looked at him; "My anger is spent. You may live this day."
Jacques then punched his across the face, making sure to only knock him out. Fox, Falco and Krystal appeared behind them, having hid themselves on top of the elevator's lift.
'God,' Krystal thought, looking around herself at the carnage spilled around the passage, 'He killed all of them…by himself.'
'Not all of them, Krystal,' Jacque's thought cut into hers.
His eyes indicated the officer. Krystal nodded.
"The control room is just up ahead," Jacques reported.
"Good job Jacques," Fox replied, "Let's go, and this time…"
He stepped past Jacques.
"…I'm in front. No more people are going to die, good or bad."
Star Fox made their way down the hall towards the large door at the other end. Surprisingly, it opened for them.
"Wha…?" Falco begun.
The control room, rather a large room, was practically empty. Save for a solitary figure looking out through the large window, his back turned.
"You really should learn to respect your hosts," the reptilian Commander said, "Even if the accommodation is lousy."
"Cut the elegance, asshole," Falco growled, "You better start talking!"
"Falco!" Fox hushed him, before turning to the Commander, "Surrender yourself Venomian. It's over."
The Commander turned around to face the group, their weapons trained on them.
"I have to give you credit, bootlick of the False Emperor," the Commander begun, "I've never see a Cerinian staff used to it's fullest potential like that, and destroying a possessed mechanical Bloodthirster."
Jacques eyes widened. He just referred to his Emperor as false.
"That's one thing you'll going to talk about," Fox said, "Just what was that thing out there?"
The Commander smiled, his eyes lighting up crimson. Jacques and Krystal's eyes widened as his fist uncurled to drop his stone.
"Chaos!" Jacques exclaimed, glaring at the entity inhibiting the body of the Venomian.
The Commander nodded, where he still smiled.