"Who is that?…" Topaz furrowed her brow as she walked up next to Krystal, getting a good look at Ares, staring back at them.
Krystal scowled. "I'd know that ugly face anywhere…it's General Scales!"
Topaz dropped her jaw. "But…I thought you told me he was dead."
"That was what I assumed." Krystal responded as she stood with her staff at the ready.
"I have discarded the title of General Scales…call me Ares now." The large, mechanically enhanced Saurian spoke, his distorted voice echoing through the room.
"All right, then, Ares…" Krystal responded. "So what is the great leader of the Sharpclaw tribe doing, following the orders of Xerxes?"
"Xerxes saved me from oblivion." Ares spoke. "He has shown me a better way of life. One without pain, or conflict, or death…and I shall see to it that this way of life is realized, by eliminating all opponents of the great creator, starting with you."
He then gave the order to the Cybers, as they all fired around the two at the same time. Krystal and Topaz immediately jumped up, both of them grabbing onto the rafters above them and hanging as the shots went past them, the Cybers hitting each other by accident.
Ares lifted and fired his tail blaster, smacking into the rafters as the force shook through them, forcing the two vixens to let go as Ares ran in with his right arm reared back, lunging forward in a big punch towards Krystal as she fell towards the ground. Krystal simply grunted and slammed the staff against his metal arm as she reached her feet, making his body quake a bit as Topaz yelled and thrust her staff in front of him, poking him right in the left eye.
Ares growled and shot back with his left arm in a hard punch, Topaz blocking with her staff as the fist slammed into her, sending her flying into a wall, as Krystal jumped and spun with a left kick, knocking away Ares right arm as she landed and spun again, bringing up her staff with both arms, smacking Ares across the left side of his face. This only angered Ares further, as he grabbed Krystal with his right arm, picked her up, and threw her across the room, making her collide with Topaz as she got back to her feet.
The two vixens rolled and groaned as the Cybers let Ares do his work, watching as he growled and held out both his arms. Slots opened on his wrists, revealing a pair of incinerators as they flared to life, opening his steel jaws as a third incinerator appeared in his mouth.
"This guy sure has a lot of toys!" Topaz exclaimed, as she and Krystal ran out of the way together, Ares rearing back, and yelling out as he breathed a great mass of fire from his maw, letting loose with flames from his wrists at the same time. Krystal grunted and avoided the flames, letting out an ice blast from her staff to shield herself from the larger flames, as Topaz did the same with her own staff.
They waited until the flames subsided, before Krystal looked to her partner. "Topaz! On three! One…two….Three!"
The two Cerinians held out both their staffs with both arms, letting two strong ice blasts fly at the same time. Ares put up his arms in front of his face, instinctively, as the ice blasts covered his metal limbs, freezing them, and thus disabling his incinerators.
Ares grunted as he struggled to fire up all of his weapons, desperately trying to scrape the ice off of his arms, as Topaz grinned and kneeled, letting Krystal run up from behind as she jumped, springing off of Topaz's back, as she sailed high into the air, her feet above her as she reached the distracted Ares, putting her staff over his neck as she let her momentum carry her behind him as she fell, putting her feet on his back as she began to pull him down with her staff, rolling onto her back as she yelled, and used her momentum to pull Ares down, making him face the ceiling as she let go with her staff and pushed him off with her feet.
The enhanced Saurian went sailing into the air, doing a single flip, before his large, metal covered form crashed into a collection of Cybers behind him, rolling with them as they all smashed into a group of pipes, sending smoke and steam everywhere.
Krystal rolled onto her feet as she ran over to Topaz, who quickly gave her the co-ordinates to where Fox was being held.
"Here!" She yelled. "Go find him! I'll keep these guys busy for you!"
"Thanks, Topaz!" Krystal nodded, as she ran out of the room, Topaz taking another path as Ares got back to his feet, drawing his attention with a fireball from her staff as he led his Cybers after her.
Krystal ran into another door before more Cybers could find her, following the coordinates as she ran down a ramp into another underground tunnel, the familiar moisture touching her feet once more as she leaned against a wall, hidden once more as she caught her breath for a moment.
She sighed and looked to the canteen she kept in her pocket, picking it up. "Thank you again, Fang." She grinned, as she unscrewed the top, taking a sip of the Red Cactus within.
"I can see how this helps him." She giggled to herself, as she put the canteen away, careful not to drink too much as she also reached into her rations pocket, pulling out another small, stale pastry, as she took a few nibbles.
With that, she walked slowly along the tunnel, little water drops echoing through the passageway as she looked to the papers with her coordinates, finding an intersection and making a right…
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"My stabilizer's loose again!" Slippy yelled as he weaved out of the way of a Cyber fighter's blasts, firing away at another one in front of him.
"Damn!" Fulton exclaimed as he rolled out of the way of one Cyber fighter, making it collide with another one along the way. "After spending all that time fixing the thing too!"
"Ahhh, that's just Slippy for ya, Fulton!" Falco spoke as he fired at a fighter flying right towards him, destroying it. "You get used to after a while…believe me!"
"Okay, knock off the chatter, you guys!" Fang shouted, pulling up hard, and coming in from behind to shoot down a Cyber fighter on Fulton's tail. "We've got a whole gang of these tin cans trying turn us into space debris! So let's stay focused, and send these brain scoopers back to the factory!"
"Finally taking charge, huh, Rookie?" Falco grinned.
"For Krystal, Topaz, and your Fox? You'd better believe it!" Fang shot back.
Falco nodded softly. "He's right guys…no more fooling around. Let's get ourselves some distance, and re-assemble in attack formation!"
The others nodded as they went along with Fang and Falco.
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Krystal walked down into a sloping passageway, walking down into it gently as she held her staff to her right, looking all around and back to her coordinates, putting them away in her pocket once she was sure she was going the right way, hoping Topaz was doing all right in hiding from Ares and the others.
The air seemed to get warmer and warmer the further she walked down into the passage, finally reaching the door. The handle was almost too hot to endure, as she turned it, opening the thing up.
She looked out and realized she had reached one of the major power supplies of the base. There were slick metal catwalks and bridges everywhere, but currently no Cybers to patrol the area, the ground hard and rocky.
Necross may have been a dead planet on the outside, but there was an abundance of hot magma coming up from the core of the planet. It was, for some reason, unable to break through the hard, rocky surface of the planet, but it was easily supplying the underground base with an abundance of geothermal steam for energy, as evidenced from the metal pipes that ran along several inches of the walls, leading up into the base itself.
Krystal walked up onto one of the wide metal bridges over the magma, looking up at the pipes, and then straight ahead at the path, finding the bridge branched off in a few different directions. She got her coordinates back out, and studied them, figuring out the best way to go.
She then put them away, not realizing that Diamando, who had come in from another doorway, was standing behind her.
"Welcome…" she spoke with a small smile, as Krystal jumped and spun with her staff, aiming for Diamando's head from the left side, as Diamando simply brought up her own staff, blocking the swing as she brought up the other end, trying to smack Krystal's head in return, as Krystal quickly twirled her staff, briefly making Diamando's fly out of her hands as she spun and let her have it with a kick across the neck. Diamndo grunted as the force sent her flying head over heels, before she landed right on her feet, and caught her staff as it fell right back down towards her.
Diamando smiled as she twirled her staff in her hands. "You're skilled…much more so than Wolf O'Donnell to be sure…"
"So you're the one who did the killing…" Krystal nodded softly, before furrowing her brow, in her fighting stance. "You stole his ship too…But what is it that you want with the thing, exactly, out of all the other ships you could take?"
Diamando smiled and shook her head. "You're not getting any secrets out of me, young lady…" the Cybernetic Cerinian got into her own stance. "They only thing you're going to get out of all this trouble is a quick, painless death…I could make it much more painful though…it all depends on how much longer you plan on being stubborn."
Krystal scowled as she readied herself. "Well then you'd better get ready to dish out all the pain you can, you pitiful excuse for a Cerinian."
"Cerinia and its people are dead, just as you and your friend shall soon be…" Diamando grinned. "I am eternal…"
Krystal yelled out in rage as she twirled her staff to her side, swinging it up towards Diamando's face as she quickly blocked it with her staff, turning and spinning on one leg as she delivered a side kick with her other, hitting Krystal right in the stomach as she fell back.
Krystal then held out her staff with one arm and shot off a fireball, Diamando ducking with her flexible body, as she countered once she lowered herself, a flame thrower opening up on the end of her staff as a spray of flame flew right towards the blue vixen. Krystal rolled back and shot off an ice blast, the ice she created quickly melting in the hot room as the magma bubbled below the bridge.
Diamando attacked one again, running in and springing off her feet, delivering a front kick with one foot as Krystal blocked it with her staff, trying to get her in the face with a straight punch, as Diamando quickly grabbed her fist in her hand, and squeezed it hard.
Krystal grunted and yelled out in pain as Diamando stood there with a smile, bending Krystal's fist back some as the blue vixen went down on one knee, quickly smacking the ground with her staff as the bridge rumbled some. Diamando stumbled a bit, as Krystal sprung off her knee, and made her head collide with that of the green vixen.
Diamando grunted and let go as she fell back, Krystal rubbing her head before she ran towards the cyber vixen with her staff, ready to swing it once more before Diamando suddenly threw her staff at her with amazing precision, making it collide with Krystal's hands as she dropped her staff in the process, Diamando then charging in and jumping, letting the blue vixen have it with a hard jump kick in the center of her chest.
Krystal yelled out in pain as she flew back some and hit the bridge hard, rolling a bit and finding her staff, grabbing it as Diamando quickly jumped over next to her, and started thrusting one of her feet at her back, kicking her repeatedly while she was down, a few times in the back, and once in the head as Krystal tried to get back up, smacking it back down against the ground.
Krystal eventually rolled away from this barrage, spinning on her back with her feet as she brought her staff over with one arm, sweeping Diamando's feet out from under her as the Green vixen fell over onto her stomach, the blue vixen getting back up onto one knee, as she brought her staff above her head, and swung it down with a thwack against Diamando's back.
Diamando grunted, and growled a bit as she quickly rolled towards Krystal, suddenly making the metal needle shoot out of her wrist, and jamming it into the blue vixen's left leg.
Krystal screamed out in pain, as Diamando grinned and quickly pulled out, turning and clipping her across the chin with a left hook as she got back up, making Krystal fall onto her back as she rolled away.
The confident cyber vixen ran towards Krystal as she got onto her right knee, looking to the wound on her left leg as she felt the adrenaline rushing through her body, putting her fingers on the head of her staff.
"Spirit fury!"
Her staff began to glow, as Diamando activated a magnetic device in her staff, making it fly back into her metal hands as she extracted two sharp blades on the head of her staff, spinning and taking a swing at the blue vixen. Krystal responded by screaming out in her rage with the attack, coming up and swinging her staff in the opposite direction, knocking it right out of Diamando's hands.
Diamando was thrown by the move, stumbling a bit on her feet, as Krystal screamed again and swung her staff right for the green Vixen's head, slicing the right side of her face wide open.
Diamando, whose designed skin had been given pain receptors for practical purposes, screamed out as she felt a kind of wound she had never felt before, clutching her face as it caught on fire from the energy of Krystal's staff as well.
Krystal stood there and watched, cancelling the Spirit Fury before it drained her, as Diamando groaned and found her staff, blasting her face and her hands, which had also briefly caught fire, with the freezer inside of it, putting out the fire on her body.
The blue vixen saw her chance for escape, and remembered a move she'd learned from Topaz, touching her staff to the ground, creating a wall of fire that Diamando cowered away from in her current condition. Krystal ran off swiftly, onto one of the branching passages on the bridge.
Diamando watched on with a growl, the upper right side of her face now completely burned off, revealing parts of her shiny metal skull, and her real right eye, which glowed a greenish blue.
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Topaz lurked around the hallways of the lower levels of the base, skillfully evading Ares and his Cybers as they patrolled the halls, hiding in the shadows, empty rooms, and even a waste disposal unit at one point.
The blonde vixen then slipped into a larger room, which was more brightly lit than the others, looking to her left and right as there were no Cybers to be found at the moment. Some of the equipment looked oddly familiar to her, as she walked around and studied some of the keyboards and computer screens.
She then looked over and saw some papers lying on one of the counters, picking them up and reading them. They were notes; notes about all sorts of different things pertaining to biology, much of it underlined and given extra detail in handwriting as well as printed words.
Topaz immediately recognized the handwriting…it was her mother's.
"What the hell is this all about?" She wondered. "What would Xerxes be holding onto my mother's notes for?"
She then heard the tromping of the Cybers in the distance, as she quickly ran off to hide from them again in the hallways.
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"My poor child!" Xerxes exclaimed, as Diamando came back to the lab in order to treat her damaged face. "Did that awful Cerinian you were after do this to you?"
Diamando nodded. "Yes sir…but don't you worry. Once I've fixed myself up, I'm going to find that little bitch, and make her wish she had died when Cerinia was blown up!"
Xerxes grinned in surprise. "You're first curse, child…you're really developing better than I had expected." He thinks of something afterward. "What is the condition of your Wolfen ship?"
"It's still in good shape." Diamando responded, as she rubbed gel over the flesh along her face, to stop any infections."
"Good." Xerxes nodded. "I don't need to tell you again how badly we need this craft. It's swift, it's powerful, and it's undetectable. It's the perfect delivery system."
He looked over to an unusual device in one corner. It was sleek and black in color, shaped a lot like a missile.
"Once everything goes according to plan, we shall slip through all of their defenses, and Corneria will be ours for re-modeling. It shall finally be reborn as a world of my choosing…a world of Cybers…"
He smiled at the missile, which had two words written along the side…
LIFE FORCE