The gray skies released many torrents of rain down from the heavenly clouds above. Sixclaw looked up at the clouds as she made her way onto the pad. "Where's the boss?" yelled Sixclaw, spitting out rainwater that had dripped down her face.
"Laid up with another bad leg because he lost to that dickhead." said Crabfang, pointing to the only other beast inside the hovercraft. Deyna looked back out at the two cats with cold, dull eyes before turning back to stare at the ceiling of the craft.
"Ever notice, he's got shark eyes?" asked Crabfang, nudging Sixclaw and giving her his signature smirk.
Sixclaw let out a quiet, mirthless laugh. "Don't let Gil hear that, he'll skin you alive."
Crabfang chuckled. "Suppose he would."
Sixclaw looked up. "Rain's lightening up. How long before we're good to go?"
Crabfang checked his cheap watch. "Shouldn't be more than 20 minutes, why?"
"I'm gonna go see One-Eye, say 'bye. Hold down the fort while I'm gone, will ya?" said Sixcaw, turning to head back into the hangar.
Crabfang struck up a mock salute. "Ya can always count on me, Six."
Sixclaw smiled before running inside the castle.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Click, click, creeeeak. Walking into One-Eye's bedroom, she found it a sparsely furnished dwelling. The walls were white with a black ceiling, and the only pieces of furniture in the room were a desk and a bed. The desk had a stack of paperwork and a small photo on it. One-Eye's scimitar, Bite, was propped up unceremoniously in the corner, dried blood still staining the blade. Armor was set up on a stand next to the bed, which was occupied by the large wildcat.
"Hello, Six." said One-Eye, sitting up. This rattled the plastic tubes that had been jammed in all over his body.
"I've just came to say goodbye. If this is a bad time, I can..." She gestured at the door.
"Oh no no, please come in." said One-Eye. "Coggs, give us a few."
Coggs nodded and silently left, shutting the door behind him.
"What's the matter with him? Asked Sixclaw. "Usually he's all full of energy."
"I figure Flametail's ill again." said One-Eye. "Coggs always gets like this when ever the little bastard isn't firing on all cylinders."
"Who's that?" asked Sixclaw, tilting her head as she sat down in the chair Coggs had previously occupied.
"Eh, some femboy Coggs hired." said One-Eye, gesticulating with his left paw. "But enough about that, how're you holdin' up?"
"Oh... Fine, I suppose." said Sixclaw, letting out a nervous laugh.
One-Eye raised what was left of his right eyebrow at her.
"I'm conflicted about this whole-" Sixclaw made a circular gesture. "-Thing. Just gives me a bad feeling, you know? Shivers, all that shit." She sighed. "Plus, I don't know a gates-damned thing about navigating the place to begin with."
The warlord laughed. "Now you sound like me."
Sixclaw chuckled slightly. "I suppose I do."
Silence overtook them both.
"You know, I might have a solution to the navigation issue." said One-Eye. "Back in the day, we'd put cameras on our elite assassins and live feed it to the bosses. Course, we stopped that after Longtail popped one after watching a guard get his head cut off."
"I see."
"Anyway, what we could do is put that system on you, live feed it to me so I can guide you. Also gives me something to do while I recover."
"That's..." She paused and thought on it for a moment . "Actually a decent idea."
"Yes, I do occasionally have good ideas. Besides, when have I ever steered you wrong?" asked One-Eye, giving her his most winning smile. (A deranged, toothy grin showing off a quite a few metal teeth.)
Now it was Sixclaw's turn to raise an eyebrow.
"Ah, fuck. Maybe don't answer that." said One-Eye, scratching the back of his head and grimacing.
Sixclaw laughed. "I'm going to go see if Coggs has got any of those camera things."
"Cool." said One-Eye, as she left the room. "I'm going to, uhh... play with my intubations, I suppose."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
As Sixclaw heard the door click behind her, she found Coggs sitting in a chair next to the doorway. "Hello Coggs, you wouldn't happen to have any of those camera things you gave to the assassins just, you know, lying around, would you?"
"Maybe. I'll check." The short brown fox got up and made to leave, but paused. "You know, I'm not a doctor, I'm a scientist and a weapons designer. If you want good medical care, drop him off at a hospital."
Sixclaw looked down at the ground. "Someone should've dropped him at a hospital a long time ago."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
When Sixclaw reentered the room, she found One-Eye sitting up and puffing on a pipe. "Welcome back, did you get it?"
Sixclaw held up the device in response. "Now to install it."
It was an odd piece of equipment, a small box with a metal offshoot that ran up to the ear. Sixclaw fiddled with it for a few minutes before giving a frustrated sigh. "How the fuck do you even install this thing?"
"Yeah the installation is kind'f jacked up. You've got to- Ah, just come over here. It's unintuitive as fuck."
Sixclaw smirked. She then got up and climbed on top of the bed, straddling the thin warlord. "Close enough?"
One-Eye considered himself a professional. A refined, experienced creature, who'd seen it all, done it all and made it out okay. A beast who wouldn't freak out, not even a little. But in that moment, the wildcat was a hairs breadth away from a nervous breakdown.
"Hellooo, earth to One-Eye?" said Sixclaw. "You gonna install this thing or what?"
One-Eye blinked once. "Oh, uhm, yeah. Sorry, I tripped."
Sixclaw raised an eyebrow, but chose not to say anything.
"Yeah, you've just got to-" The warlord fiddled with the device for a minute with shaking paws, mumbling the whole while. "Alright, you should be good now."
"Aww, you're so sweet." said Sixclaw, leaning in close.
One-Eye promptly flattened his ears and covered his eyes. "Why do you do this to me?" he groaned.
"Because it's fucking funny." said Sixclaw, getting off the bed. "I'm running out of time, I've got to go."
"Good luck!" said One-Eye, craning his head forward. "And, uh, Sixclaw?"
Sixclaw paused on her way out of the door. "What's up?"
One-Eye looked at her with a pained expression. "Don't die. Please."
"I'll do my level best." said Sixclaw, turning to leave. She paused and turned around to grin at One-Eye. "Dasvidaniya." she said, blowing the bedridden warlord a kiss on her way out.
One-Eye buried his head in his hands. Did she have any idea what she did to him? Of course she did. And she didn't. Fuck.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Sixclaw walked down the halls of Fort Skull, snickering evilly the whole ways. When she arrived at the landing pad, she found that the first members of the hitbeast team were just beginning to filter through. As they boarded the transport ship, a massive thunderclap sounded. One of the team members tilted their head up, squinting into the rain. "Hell of a storm"
Sixclaw sniffed. "You got that right. Now let's get going."