Fixed the punctuation being eaten in this. woooooooord.
-ken
Chapter -5- Course of action; Price of Freedom.
Fox McCloud, son of James and Lylat Mercenary stood on what could have been a frozen lake, the foothills of a steep mountain directly behind him. On either side of him, stood the lovely Krystal of Cerinia and Fara Phoenix, wrapped in special thermal suits and covered with Gortex winter wear. Each had a special face mask designed to fit their muzzle, which had been sculpted by laser up on the GreatFox. Above them, the transport shuttle fought it's way back through the blizzard and vanished up through the stratosphere.
Fox lost sight of it only a third of a mile out, regardless of the slight break in the storm's intensity. Now was their window to act. The team was fitted with special snow shoes that would allow them the most traction on the ice and going up the mountain. He pulled his locator unit out and squinted through the light coating of powder accumulating on his mask at the flashing device in his paw.
He did a sideways head-nod in the direction they were heading, both girls nodding in compliance. They began a brisk pace out onto the ice, heading further out towards the center of the frozen lake. Fox pressed a button on his wrist communicator, mashing his fingers through the special rubberized film that Slippy... his Slippy... outfitted for it, so that it wouldn't freeze over.
"Falco 1 and 2, how are you guys doing up there? Katt just dropped us off, everything look kosher?" He asked.
"Yeah," came the reply of the Ace Pilot Mercenary Falco Lombardi, adding, "I'm glad I ain't down there. I hate the cold, man. But I think I feel even worse for the girls. Don't try to put any moves on Krystal while you're down there, to keep warm. Her stuff might freeze."
"Falco!" Krystal chimmed in with a measure of shock.
"Oh shoot! Dude, you didn't tell me the girls were patched into our communication grid, Fox!" Lombardi scolded. "Well, uh, sorry about that Krystal. Had I known, I would have said something more along the lines of making fun of Fox for having total shrinkage, you know?"
"That's enough boys," Krystal said, rolling her eyes with an unseen lopsided grin. "Back to the mission, so that no one gets careless. Save the guy-talk for the GreatFox locker room, please?"
Fara didn't say a word, but had to agree with Krystal on that one. Although it was highly amusing, it just wasn't conversation she needed to hear about. The trio braved their way out over the slick ice, striving to make their way across 7 and a half miles of frozen lake. As worried as Fara was about the thing cracking underneath of them and the group falling into the water, their gear was waterproof. The only problem was, it weighed enough that they wouldn't be able to swim out of it and while they wouldn't freeze, thanks in part to their thermal-wear, they would surely drown.
Another miasma of fog-like warm air puffed from her delicate nose, glancing to the other two members of her coterie. It was a long walk in the ice, hiking for 7 miles in restricting arctic gear. Within forty-five minutes, they had made it out to where the first half of the probe was laying in the clearing. It was covered with permafrost and half-blanketed with snow. There were no icicles on the unit, due to the fact that it never got warm enough for the water to drip off the edges, for which to freeze into any sort of shape.
The unit was simply encased in frost that held the object's shape, like wrapping paper. It was the heaviest of the two pieces, as well as the largest of the two. Not that it was really that heavy, but the other part, thousands of miles to the south was only supposed to be half the weight of this piece, which weighed in at about 70 pounds. It would be up to Fox to strap this beast to his back, but for now, they would pull it through the snow, back from which they came.
Due to the absolutely sterling use of the GreatFox transfer device, Fox didn't want to risk putting the Landmaster on this side of the mountain, just to be safe. This meant that it was received on the other side of the steep mountain, back at the edge of the lake. Really, the massive, frozen lake was nestled between two mountains, like a giant puddle of water that may have once filled the valley between two peaks.
"So how did you guys meet again?" Fara asked, finally breaking the silence, as the group pulled the Probe fragment back across the ice with a makeshift sled fashioned from an emergency parachute that Fox kept in his away mission pack. The Chute was only half the size of a skydiving chute, used for absolute emergencies, if he had nothing else to his disposal.
"Well," Krystal said, glad that Fara was making an attempt to be friendly, "I sensed a distress signal from Planet Sauria, an absolutely beautiful planet of lush jungles and beautiful peaks and valleys. I took my ship down and met up with one of the local...well.. dinosaurs, there," She began.
"Yeah? What happened?" Fara inquired, simply making small talk to pass the time and get her mind off of helping to drag a snow-covered hunk of metal across 7 miles of ice. Anything to get her mind off of the fact that beneath her feet was a layer of ice half a foot thick, which separated them from a mile of frozen water.
"I met this ..Pawn, named Scales, who was running the place as a dictator. Come to find out, Andross Oikonni was behind everything. I was in the middle of using my body to carry a spirit of one of the planet's founders to a palace, which I know sounds absolutely bizarre, but it had my telepathic powers dampened. I never sensed that Andross had snuck up on me," She replied with a sigh.
"So Fox came to save you?" Fara asked.
"Actually, we met on accident," Fox said.
"That's right," Krystal continued, glancing back at the machine they towed, every so often. "Andross was trying to use my life-energy and several of the other spirits, used to hold the planet together, with an archaic technology we know nothing about. Andross locked me inside of a glass chamber, using machines to borrow my life force to sustain himself long enough to continue with his plans. But after 8 years, his body was dying and the bionic parts he had added to himself were failing. So after some measure of research, he found out the spirits used to keep the planet stable would be enough to revive his body and rejuvenate himself to heal his dying form, there was just one problem," she explained.
"Which was... the planet became unstable?" Fara concluded.
Krystal nodded. "That's only part of it, Fara. The Spirits could only be harnessed by what
they considered to be pure of heart. Andross was anything but pure of heart. Anyone with good in their soul could have done it. Me, Fox, yourself." Those words caused Fara to smile. Krystal glanced back at the probe behind them, then back ahead to the mountain that began to grow larger as they neared it.
She continued her short story, saying, "The problem was, he thought my one spirit I'd retrieved would be enough. He found out, almost immediately, that it wasn't enough so he employed his backup plan. After luring me there, by using my body to sustain him, but draining my very life force would have killed me in a matter of days. Chunks of the planet ripped off the surface, rising into the atmosphere like something out of a science fiction movie. Fox was called in to save that."
"And found you?" Fara wondered aloud.
"No," Fox said, stepping into the conversation. "We later found out that Andross used a large holographic representation of a Krazooa Master-Lord. Tricky, a dinosaur that was helping me, recognized it as a 'true Krazooa'. Andross then had a machine, simulating Krystal's voice. He had her voice played out over a loud speaker in Dinosaur tongue, saying she was dying and in grave danger. As if to drive the point home, he had her voice sound like she was coughing and wheezing, ontop of things. Turns out I had to use these Krazooa spirits to make the spellstones stay in their cradle up in the Force Point Temple, anyhow, so when I finally starting bringing the Spirits back to the palace to save the girl," Fox said before pausing and shifting the weight of the chute ropes to his other paw.
"I never realized it was Andross just using me to gather all the spirits so he could revive his body completely. I didn't think saving the girl was that important, I just wanted to finish the mission before the planet exploded, but I felt so guilty leaving someone in distress .. and it turned out to be crucial to the mission," Fox said before drawing silent once more.
"So," Fara said with a chuckle. "Andross inadvertently played matchmaker for you?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that. Because of my telepathic powers, I'm able to tap into the vocabulary of new species, so I was able to speak to the dinosaurs and ultimately to speak to Fox and other Cornerians," Krystal said. "When I met the local dinosaurs, there was a storm so bad that I couldn't use my ship to navigate it. I landed and inquired about who could point me in the direction of where to go to answer the distress signal. My outfit was damaged and my gear was mangled, minus a staff my people used as a blaster rifle. The dino's... well, they helped me fashion clothes out of seashells and some cloth. It was a little uncomfortable, but what can you do? What about you? How did you meet your Fox Junior?"
Fara smiled softly at Krystal, who was giving her the chance to talk about her first meeting with her mate, as well. "Well, Andross got us together too, but not as personal as the way he did for you guys. Some of his men hijacked one of my Father's flagship transport vessels, because they were trying to ransom me back to him for enough money to fund another base being built," She began, remembering back to how things happened.
"Then, because Fox was stowing away for a free ride to Corneria, to take Pepper up on a deal, they hopped out of hiding to see what all the commotion was about. The Lizard saw Fox and used me as a body shield, but actually, it was Slippy who rescued me," She said with a chuckle. "But Fox got his chance later. To his surprise, I was the Lead Arwing Test Pilot and we got competitive. Half an hour into the training run, Venom launched an assault on Cornerian controlled airspace, 25 miles from the base. The base had their attention on the assault, Fox and I had our attention on flirting and next thing you know, we flew into hostile airspace."
"How'd he go about saving you?" Fox asked, currious as to what happened to his twin. They were only about a mile from the mountain foothills by now and the conversation was helping to close the gap of animosity between the women, or at least that's how he felt the situation was looking.
"I got... cocky. I was a flight trainer, not a combat pilot. Regardless of having a knack for being fairly developed in combat, at the time, I was 19 - a year older than Fox - and I was young and cocky, compared to now. I took a shot at a troop carrier bot and... I must have blinked because I took the full force of an Ion Cannon. My shields weren't even at full combat ready. The Arwing crumbled around me."
"Oh my," Krystal said, softly. "That's the one thing I worry about, in the back of my mind. What if I'm shot down completely. I worry but it's not happened yet. It must have been dreadful. How did you react?"
"I figured if was dumb enough to try a stunt like that, when I wasn't even trained to fly with teammates ... I deserved it. I wasn't even going to eject, we were surrounded. A woman doesn't eject right into the hands of the enemy, because there are things they can do that are worse than death," Fara explained.
"But?" Fox asked, wanting to see how things panned out.
"But Fox begged me to eject. I asked if he had brought a catcher's mitt, more or less. He made some remark about not having dropped the ball yet, or something. There was so much going on, I don't even remember what he muttered under his breath. Anyhow, he adjusted his blaster arms. You know, the vertical thrust and retro reverse rocket wings on the side? He put them horizontal and caught the pole that connected my ejection seat to the antigravity sail. The chances of someone doing that without ripping the entire starboard side of their Arwing apart... are slim, I'm not sure how he managed it," She told them. Her story was finished and that had brought them right to the foothills of the jagged, steep-looking mountain they needed to pass to get to their tank.
"That's a pretty classy rescue," Fox said with a chuckle.
"Yeah. Peppy referred to you as The Renascence-Fox or something, I believe. It was a long time ago," said Fara, over a giggle.
Fox glanced up at the foreboding mountain and, as if to prolong the need to climb the darn thing, he stopped in his tracks and said, "Well, I hate to break it to ya, but our Arwings don't have a cockpit ejection like the M-Class fighters. The cockpit canopy flies off and you leap out and if you're in space, we have this wonderful little blue barrier. It holds enough air inside the bubble for a few hours at most, so you'd better hope someone picks you up soon."
"Oh? Why wouldn't you have such devices for your safety?" Fara wondered publicly, to her mate's alternative half. "To make your fighters less heavy?"
"Because they don't always work. But jumping out on your own works every time. Yeah your way is safer for the pilot when it works, but I don't want any of my pilots to have died because their trashed fighter caused the ejection mechanism to fail. You either die in combat or you die from age. You don't die because of an accidental machine that was jammed because your fighter is trashed," Fox explained, beginning to pull the parachute out from underneath the probe chassis, wrapping the backpack straps around it and, with Krystal's help, hefting it up onto his shoulders.
"You know, for 75 pounds, this thing is pretty big. It's like a chunk of a speeder bike without the engine or hover pads attached," McCloud groused.
"Well, let's get up and over this mountain, the sooner we get to the Tank and thaw out, the happier we'll all be," Krystal replied, reaching into her field kit for a grapple-hook gun. She loaded the three-prong hook into the small arm-cannon and aimed up towards the summit. "Can you rappel, Fara?"
"It's not the most fun way to spend my free time, but I'll manage," She said with a chuckle. The team began to work their way up the rope, using hooks in the rope loops and the spikes of their boots to work their way up the side of a cliff that seemed to be the safest, most direct route. Any other way up was so jagged, it would have caused injury such an icy region.
About half way up, McCloud was half-startled when his team's Falco popped up on
holographic communication graph, his head floating besides McCloud's body as the vulpine struggled to work his way up the rope. He put a metal spike into the rock and used a small hammer to drill it in, attaching the rope to it before pausing to look at his wingmate. "What is it, man? Something going down up there?"
"Yeah. We've got bad company. It's just one guy, but he was quick. He broke right through our group, leaving us to deal with his gang of ruffian marmosets with sour attitudes. He didn't have the rest of his team with him, it's just him," Falco said.
"Who?" Fox hollered over the wind.
"Wolf O'Donnell! I couldn't get a bead on him. He nearly smoked Katt's transport, so both me and the other Falco were trying to protect her, because she's your ride home," he explained, hating the fact he had to resort to excuses. "I wish I could have shown ya better flying, but yeah... Wolf is already in the atmosphere. Be ready."
"Shit," Fox said under his breath, trying not to let anyone else hear him swear. Krystal could sense his frustrations. Up to this point, she'd not met Wolf. She'd only heard rumors. Supposedly, this guy was flying with Pigma on the day James was captured. Wolf was only about 22 at the time that Fox's father was shot down. He was about 24 by the time Fox reorganized StarFox and got it out on the mission to take down Andross.
Wolf was now 31 years old and was rumored to wear an eye patch. Further than that, it was even rumored that he was dating some woman that Fox was close to, through ties of blood or close-knit friendship. She wasn't sure of the entire situation. She only knew Fox hadn't heard from him for 8 years prior to the Dinosaur planet mission, and now, a year later, it was nearing a decade without a single word from this O'Donnell character. And now, here he was, coming to pay a visit.
Fox continued to climb, trying to push everything, save the success of his mission, from his mind. Krystal could sense his determination to reach the LandMaster but it wasn't enough. Within minutes of nearing the summit, Wolf's fighter came to hover near the cliff so that he could look over at the group dangling from a rope with a smirk.
"Greetings, pup. I see you amateurs are doing exactly what the rumors were saying," Wolf sneered.
"Oh, was that you, Wolf? I didn't even notice you were there. With that giant ego of yours, I thought we were just that close to a second mountain," McCloud muttered over his snow-mask's built in communication headset.
"Well, it's like this," Wolf said. "Bolts of energy have ripped holes in Venom, so I've moved my operations to the Sargasso quadrant. But you know, rumors that started over in the Cornerian cafe that one of my newest team members likes so much, make it sound like you have information to figure out why this is happening and how to stop it."
Wolf leaned forward, peering through his new optical implant. Hmm, McCloud had two women with him. New team members, obviously. But that was strange, because he was almost positive he had passed McCloud out in Sector X, on the way here. He just wanted to come here for those probe parts to sell them to the Cornerian science department for a few dollars. But he wasn't going to sweat it.
Krystal could tell Wolf was somehow able to see the three of them through their suits and was now trying to determine who they were, while looking the two women over. She felt dirty just having his eyes on her, even though his intentions were anything but lust. She searched his mind deeper and gasped to herself, realizing that Wolf's mate was a vixen named Nichole McCloud. Were the rumors true, or were they just rumors because this vixen had the same last name as Fox? He'd never mentioned anything up to this point, that was for sure.
"Get on with it, Wolf. I'm kinda busy saving the Galaxy, you pompous bafoon," Fox snapped.
"You know, I just wanted to tell you one thing," O'Donnell said. "While we're here with a moment to spare, since you're just... hanging around."
"Ha ha. Funny as hell, aren't you? Get on with it or go away. Preferably in that order," Said McCloud, as he pulled himself up to the next tenth yard, driving another nail into the frost covered rock face.
From inside of his cockpit, O'Donnell shrugged and told them, "Leon may have tortured Peppy and your old man, for hobby... and Pigma may have been the traitor filth that turned his team in for cash, but I had no part in your old man's death. Yeah, we had a fight, right there on the flight deck. It cost me an eye, so I hauled off and punched him in the face, but I have nothing to do with that man's death."
"Uh, okay. Why are you telling me this?" Fox said, hoisting himself up to the next spike, beginning to near the summit. "Does this have something to do with my damn sister?" His words caused both Fara and Krystal to gape in shock. Even with Krystal's telepathic abilities, neither of them had any clue Fox had a sibling. Wolf nodded, adding, "Yeah. As a matter of fact, it does. That woman means more to me than you can understand. You really need to treat her better. In fact, you should apologize to her for that hot little one liner about how, 'if she was never born, mommy wouldn't have taken the red car to the store for diapers and formula and died in that bomb', crap. No wonder she thinks your a scumbag."
Fox growled in the back of his throat, forming his words slowly and pushing them passed his lips, painfully. "I was 12 when I said that to her. She was a little girl and I didn't mean for it to sound the way she took it. So back off me. To me, you're still that idiot who flies with a moron team of Andrew and Pigma and you're a worthless wannabe pirate. Second rate, at that."
"Listen here, cub," O'Donnell spit, holding back his rage, "That woman is twice the McCloud you are. She has everything that I respected about your father and more. You're half the man he was. I may not get those probe pieces but I still decided to say something non hostile to you. Your sister was right, you're no hero, you're just trying to look like one, living in your father's shadow, you twit."
"Are you done?" Fox said, trying to put his anger aside.
"No," Wolf snapped, taking a moment to get his calm tone back. He only lost his cool when Nicky was involved. And with Fox, this conversation was completely about his mate, Nichole Jaye McCloud. "First of all, Pigma is a piece of shit. Screw that porker. I sent his bacon-butt packing. Personally, I wish he died when ya shot him down, I didn't want him betraying my team. I had respect for a man like James. He was a tough old man. He was twice the pilot you are. Second of all, Andrew is trying to run things out on Venom now. He's even building a base, right under your nose," Wolf said, referring to the new construction, right here on Fortuna. Fox and Corneria didn't even know about it, but Wolf sure as hell wasn't going to offer that kind of information. He knew how to keep his mouth shut unless real money was offered.
"As far as my team, we're a trio, now. Maybe if you could learn not to get flustered when someone else is right, you'd have patched things up with Nichole O'Donnell a long time ago," he sneered, a hidden tinge of amusement in his heart. He wanted Fox to think they were already married. That would really piss the kid off. As far as Fox being in his mid 20's now, to Wolf, McCloud was still just a kit. Nothing more than a "mister tough guy" adolescent, at best. He was a good pilot, but Wolf knew just whowas better, and not just from experience, but raw talent. Fox sure as hell wasn't showing enough gull to use his fighter in this blizzard. Wolf, on the other hand, piloted a hovering starcraft, five yards from a mountain cliff.
"Take a hike, lupine," Fox muttered, pulling his first paw up onto the summit.
Wolf chuckled. "Don't worry, I take better care of her than you ever did, big brother. I have a measure of respect for you, Fox, that's why I leave you alone anymore. But remember, if anyone is going to smoke your team, it's going to be StarWolf, and I'm the only one allowed to tan your hide, boy. Now do yourself a favor and stay away from Sargasso. Later, kids." And with that, O'Donnell increased his vertical boost, lifting upwards and disappearing into the whiteout conditions that surrounded them.
"Goddess forbid," Fara said. "That guy is a total goon. He's dating your sister?" She asked. She was incredulous, to say the least, she had no idea this Fox even had a sister. "How old is she? How old is that guy, at that? And what happened with you blaming your mom's death on her?"
"Excellent questions, indeed, Fox. Let's take a break, here at the summit. You can tell us all about it," Krystal agreed as the two women made their way to the top, coming to sit down on a large ledge, to let their aching bodies relax.
"I wasn't even near 10 when Mom was killed. A few years later, we were arguing the way siblings do, and I was 12 and she was about the age I was when I lost mom. I told her that mom went for diapers and formula for her when that bomb exploded. She was only a few weeks old, when mom died, so she never met her mother," Fox confessed, pulling the probe chassises from his back and tying the harness around the two welded pieces. "Our Aunt, Mom's sister, Vicky, died as well. They went to the store together."
"That's still awful," Krystal said before stopping herself. "I mean to say that, you should have somehow made sure she didn't think you blamed her, later in life."
Fox paused before deciding to just explain the best that he could. "She had a tough childhood. It was so bad at one point, that I'd rather not even talk about it. She ran away when she was 16. That was 7 years ago. Wolf is 31, now. He was just hitting his third decade when I met you, Krystal."
"Nicky is 23 now? She's eight years younger than Wolf?" Fara inquired, trying not to butt in, but it was difficult to avoid. "I mean, he's calling you a kid and you're 27 years old, Fox."
"I know, I know," McCloud said. "Wolf thinks that, because my father never took me out into the woods to learn how to hunt, or showed me how to open a beer bottle with my teeth, that I'm a pushover baby. He thinks that I just never grew up and the only reason I tore a hole through Lylat, on a path to Venom, 9 years ago, is because I was enraged to find out that the same man who killed my father, Andross Oikonni, ...was the same man who put a car bomb on dad's car, which mom borrowed, to take to the store."
"Well, a careful, calculated revenge can cause someone to accomplish impossible feats," Krystal said, getting a nod from Fara. "It's not safe or healthy but not impossible to be fueled to success by vengeance, so long as you don't let it consume you. Wolf has it in his mind that he thinks your last victory in combat against him was a fluke, I could sense that much."
"Like I said," Fox replied, "He thinks he's better, regardless of shooting his tail down. Now, let's not talk about Wolf. I wanna get down this slope, put the defroster on in the LandMaster and ride it straight down through the warmer parts of Fortuna. Let's go."
"What's your plan for getting down that incline?" Fara said, looking down the 70 degree slope with a frown.
"The Probe," Fox said, straddling the tube. Krystal sat down on it behind him, putting her arms around his waist, sensing his idea. Fara, on the other hand, first looked over them, to scout the slope again, before looking back to the makeshift toboggan sled and sighed. She placed her paws against the back of the cylinder and began to give it a hard push, taking a few steps down the slope before hoisting her body forward and wrapping her arms around Krystal, her paws gripping at Fox's shoulders, tucking her legs up a bit as she unceremoniously crashed down onto her tail, on the back of the tube.
Fox used his feet to gently ease and steer the tube so that it didn't roll to one side. The trio picked up speed, nearing forty miles an hour. Fara tucked her head against the back of Krystal's neck to reduce wind resistance, when something caught the corner of her eye, looking back over her own shoulder. Just the fear she didn't want to face... a sheet of ice and snow began to slide forward, rolling into a chaotic cloud that loomed above them, racing to meet them from behind.
They were about to be swept up by an avalanche. Krystal could sense Fara's panic and quickly glanced over her shoulder to see what was happening. She screamed in terror, even as Fara squished herself up against Krystal's back, instinctively, sandwiching Krystal between the fennec and Fox McCloud's backside.
"What is it?" Fox shouted over the wind and ambient noise, so she could hear him over her communicator.
"AVALANCHE!" It was Fara who answered for Krystal, who was simply shocked at seeing the twenty foot wall of snow reaching up at them like a giant paw coming to stomp them out of existence.
"We're all most there, we'll make it, hold on! I'm going to steer for safety!" Fox shouted.
"No time! Everyone brace yourselves!" Fara yelled at the top of her lungs. Krystal clung to Fox, Fara clung to Krystal and they all held tightly to the probe they used as a sled. The azure furred vixen stole one last glance at it, her fear turning to disappointment and utter dismay. This was going to be a horrible way to die and she didn't like feeling helpless again, like back on Sauria. She shut her eyes...
The wave of snow crashed over them, pushing their bodies apart from the probe. They could feel their bodies being tumbled around inside the weight of the snow, which could have easily grinded and crushed them to their deaths. Fox felt the wind knocked out of himself by some heavy, solid force. His eyes went wide and he saw that the snow was using the body of the probe to batter him without mercy. He tumbled end over end a few times, then, thrown about like a rag doll, he rolled by the force of the snow for another moment until coming to rest underneath a blanket of white.
In stark contrast, everything went dark for him.
-
-twenty minutes-
Fox groaned. He was buried so deep that he couldn't be sure which way was up and which was down. Everything around him was pitch black and he only had enough of an air pocket to move his hands and wrists, which were over his chest, in an eerily similar way one might have their hands folded when they're in a casket.
The numbing cold and the ache from being tossed around by several million tons of fresh snow had him completely disoriented. He couldn't tell if he was laying on his back, his belly or if his feet were sticking straight up. He lifted his paws trying to push some of the snow away from his muzzle and took a deep breath, but the air pocket wouldn't sustain him forever.
The thing was, being underneath the snow was far warmer than being up in the cold, windy air. Infact, it was nearly twenty-five degrees warmer under the snow. His cloudy mind was beginning to awaken and he had to fight not to panic. Both girls could be dead, but he didn't want to think about that right now, because it would allow for despair to creep into his heart.
Fox shut his eyes and puckered his lips. He then wadded up enough saliva in his mouth to spit and did so. The gooey spit ran up his nose, over the eyes of his mask, causing him to cough, to keep the saliva from going up his nostrils. That gave him a very good idea of the direction of gravity. For the spit to run back over his face like that, he must have been laying on his back, feet up, at a 30 degree angle.
He brought his paws up and began to claw furiously at the snow all around his body. Within minutes, he had dug out enough of a space to feel the ability to lift his head some. His fingers were already starting to burn from clawing into the frozen, compacted snow. That's when he heard something that caused his heart to stop. His ears perked and he listened for it. It happened again. Krystal! She was calling for him and her voice sounded full of concern.
He was afraid that she may have been trapped or injured and immediately doubled his furious digging effort. His fingertips were bleeding into his gloves now, from the harsh abuse they received. As he clawed, he used his upper body and legs to help him sit up, so that he could crouch down in his new, larger space, under the snow.
He tried the spitting thing again. Now it ran down his muzzle, over his jaw and down over his throat. Yuck, but at least now he was crouched straight up and down, facing the right direction. He heard Krystal call for him again, the urgency in her voice worrying him. He began to clamor upwards, using his legs to push him upwards. The snow began to grow white, here, letting him know that he wasn't far from the surface. He didn't have the breath to spare to shout back; he'd nearly used up all of his oxygen.
Once he broke the surface, he gasped for breath and used it to call back for Krystal. But to his absolute surprise, she raced over to him, kneeling down to meet him. She was safe. Infact, she was the only one who was tossed upwards by the snow, instead of getting buried. She reached for Fox's wrists, pulling him out of the 9 foot hole he'd tunneled up through.
Underneath of his gloves, his hands and fingers were bloody from abuse, his claws having torn through the gloved fingertips, in clawing through the icy tundra. Krystal drew his paws to her, worried by the sanguine blotches where his claws had pierced the fabric. She then kissed him softly, glad that he was safe.
"Where's Fara?" He asked, after a quiet moment of reunion together.
"I don't know. I sense her fear and panic, so I know she's here, but I couldn't sense her exact location, because it was difficult to pick apart the intense emotions I sensed from you, as well. Let me try and concentrate, clear your mind Fox. That way I can lock onto her mind," She explained.
Fox nodded and tried clearing his mind. He was elated, but he tried to just focus on something plain and simple. The numerical digit, 1. He tried to imagine the structure of the actual digit, the way it was drawn, just the way Peppy had showed him to do, when he was trying to learn how to meditate when he was riled up. When he was 15, it was Peppy who taught him that focusing on something like a simple number was the best way to put everything else out of his mind. He did this now.
Krystal closed her eyes and zeroed in on Fara's distressed mind, letting the panic lead her towards their buried teammate. Finally she announced, "I've found her, help me dig her out, Fox! She's growing very faint! I don't want to lose her!" McCloud's eyes snapped open and he turned to Krystal, then dashed over to where she now stood, helping his mate dig, regardless of his battered paws, into the snow.
They hit something solid. McCloud knew immediately that they'd found the probe first. The problem was, they had to dig the whole thing out, because it was laying ontop of Fara, who was quickly losing consciousness due to a lack of air, according to Krystal.
"Dig around it, let's get air to her, before we worry about getting this beast off of her," Fox ordered. He and Krystal quickly began working around the Probe, creating a small tunnel around the metallic beast, where Fara had been trapped. Fox uncovered her paw, giving it a squeeze, before continuing his digging to try and find her head.
"It's here, I've found it on the other side of the probe!" Krystal cried. Fara's lengthy fennec ear stuck up through the icy blanket. Fox then realized the probe was laying directly ontop of her body. If he could lift it, they would have complete access to her form. Krystal continued to dig around Fara's head, to get her face uncovered before she suffocated.
Meanwhile, Fox braced his legs using his paws and lower back to try and work the probe's weight, which was still half buried, from atop of her body. "We're losing her, Fox!" Krystal cried, working the snow from away from Fara's face, until she uncovered Fara's muzzle. The woman was still, she wasn't breathing. "Get this thing off of her, I'm going to try and give her CPR!"
Fox found his second wind, his body burning to try and carry out Krystal's plea of getting the heavy probe off of Fara's chest. It was keeping her from drawing breath just as badly as having her head burried underneath the snow. Krystal wasn't even sure how she could have survived this long, it had been about half an hour now, since they were caught in the wave of snow.
Fara had drawn her last breath only a moment ago, and Fox was growing worried that they may have been too late. "C'mon, Phoenix. Don't die on us yet, you still have to marry my other half, come ON!" he was growing frustrated trying to use his anger at the situation to give him the strength to lift the probe out of the snow.
It worked. He finally pulled the metallic beast from her belly, heaving it with Krystal's help, up onto the snowy surface, near by. Fox then pulled Fara out, laying her flat on the snow, where Krystal could better help her. The blue-furred vixen pulled Fara's snow mask up, uncovering her muzzle now, more than just her nose. She then pulled her own completely off.
Fox knelt down besides them, feeling helpless of the situation, growing fidgety and paranoid with worry. Krystal pushed her paws in on Fara's chest, then leaned down, placing her paw against Fara's jaw to keep her mouth shut, and covered the fennec's nose with her mouth, trying to force air into Fara's lungs.
In the animal kingdom, most of the time, CPR was given by blowing air in through the nose. But it wasn't yielding the results that Krystal wanted. She finally just reached for Fara's jaw, prying it open with her paws, then leaned down, placing her own maw, making sure to form an airtight seal with her lips, to keep air from escaping, and now used her paw to pinch Fara's nose shut. She then breathed another heavy breath into Fara's lungs, before taking her fist and nailing the Fennec in her chest.
Success. Fara gasped for breath, as if she'd been under water far too long and only just broke the surface. Fox leapt to his feet, relief taking over, which Krystal telepathically fed off of, sighing in contented relief that she was able to save Phoenix. Fara's eyes opened and she panted for breath for a few moments before her normal breathing returned.
"Thank... thank you both. I thought... well. It doesn't matter, I owe you both," She said, reaching to pull her mask back down over her face to keep the cold out. Krystal turned to Fox, looking rather pleased with herself and her abilities as a healer, from her world. Finally, Fox untangled the harness on the Probe and shouldered it, pulling it up onto his other shoulder, then turned to both women. Krystal helped Fara to her feet then pulled her own mask down.
Falco's holographic visual reappeared over Fox's wrist comm, his floating head displayed about a foot from Fox's body as they trekked the rest of the way to the foothills of the mountain, only a few hundred feet infront of them. "Good job you guys! I was worried there for a moment. Fara, your Falco says he's real glad to see you safe. Make sure you guys don't get into any more trouble, all right? Oh and Krystal, that was hot. I've always wanted to see two hot chicks ki--" His transmission was immediately cut by Fox, who had already anticipated such a remark, from the beginning.
"Arugh, he's so immature sometimes," Krystal groused, coming in step behind Fara to help dust the ice and snow off of her back and shoulders. She then came up to walk on Fox's right, while Fara came to walk on Fox's left side. Up ahead, the Land Master tank sat majestically. Snow wasn't even accumulating on it's hull, because it was running and the deicing equipment was running to keep the cold from clinging to it. Snow melted as soon as it touched the warm armor, dripping and forming icicles all around the side, giving the tank what Fara refered to, as a translucent skirt.
Finally. Now they only had to brave a relaxing drive through the intense weather in a slightly cramped tank, and that was the easy part. Fox sat in the driver's seat with the Probe case strapped to the outside of the tank. Fara and Krystal knelt, huddled in the space behind the seat, stretching their legs out on either side of Fox's chair. He glanced around the tank's cockpit, the controls at his fingertips with a rather lush pair of legs on either side of him. Lucky vulpine.
-
-15 hours later-
The Landmaster Assault tank jolted. It caused Fara to wake from her slumber, glancing at the view screens around Fox. He looked wide awake, and she realized he was listening to heavy rock music, through a headset, that she could hear if she strained her ears. In the rear monitor, she could see the tree trunk they just rolled over, which had caused the jolt. Krystal was still asleep, but because Fox was listening to music to keep himself awake, he didn't seem to notice that Krystal was talking in her sleep.
She seemed anxious. She muttered the words, "No, that can't be," quietly, causing Fara to grow currious at what she was dreaming. According to a map on the dashboard, they were still about two hours from the target location, which meant Fox was easily traveling well over 250 kilometers (about 100mph) per hour. Either the LandMaster was a fairly smooth ride in snow and dirt, or she just couldn't stay awake, sitting on the floor for 15 hours.
Krystal's eyes suddenly went wide and she awoke with a start, gasping in surprise. Fara leaned forward to speak to her in a soft tone, "You all right? You looked like you were having a rough dream. Was... was it about Andross or that Scales guy on that Dinosaur planet you mentioned earlier?"
"No," Krystal said back, in her own soft voice, "It wasn't about Sauria or either of those two. I... I dreamt about a life force I cannot understand. It's full of anger and hatred. I don't feel it now, but I've had this dream two nights in a row, and now during this nap." She then cleared her throat and called out to her boyfriend, "Fox?"
"No use, he's listening to music to keep himself awake. You'll have to shake him," Fara said with a somewhat sheepish grin. Krystal nodded and lifted her foot to give Fox a little nudge in his arm. He reached to pull the headphones from his ears.
"Sorry, I didn't want to wake you two. You were sleeping awfully peaceful." Infact, he thought they both looked rather... astonishingly beautiful, asleep. Krystal was put at peace from her dream, after feeling the emotion in him that he found their slumbering forms to be extremely peaceful to behold. They both looked in bliss to have rest after such an ordeal. It'd been about 7 solid hours of sleep and both of them felt quite refreshed.
"It's all right, Fox. Let's pull over somewhere. It's been ...how long? ...More than half a day? I think we need to stretch our legs, freshen up a bit, all of that," Krystal said.
"Come to think of it, I've had to pee, also," Fox muttered, having really kinda had to go for about the last half an hour, now. He was afraid to wake them, but he figured they would wake up eventually. He pulled through a stream, stopping alongside the water, in a mossy area, just a few hundred miles from the target. It was a comfortable 81 degrees here, in comparison to the incredible cold, up north.
The LandMaster shuttered to a halt and the trio climbed out through the hatch, ladies first, Fox shutting the hatch before hopping to the ground. "I'm assuming Falco and his other half and Katt went back for a refuel at some point. They're probably doing shifts now that the air is clear up there. Wolf left, so he prolly took his cronies with him," McCloud said aloud, more to himself, than to Krystal and Fara.
The group split up. Fox went to go take a piss by a nearby tree, while Fara and Krystal found their own places in the brush, to 'freshen up' as Krystal put it. She was so ladylike at times and so much fun to hang out with at others. What other woman could go from being mannered, regal and pleasant one moment to a proud, competitive marksman and pilot, the next minute, to a passionate, sultry mate in private? She was everything Fox ever wanted. And all the girl was going to do was 'freshening up'. It was just the cute way she refered to something so normal and plain.
He just, he was so glad to have her in his life. That's all. He lost his parents, his sister walked out of his life, and at one point, even one of his best friends simply disappeared for a few years, leading up to the Dino-planet mission on Sauria. But the thing that had him feeling so emotional right now was ...Wolf.
He still thought of Wolf O'Donnell as his rival. That wouldn't change, but he no longer had a hidden, bottled hate for the man. Pigma and Andross, they were responsible for alot of things, and everyone could be darn well sure that Fox would have danced on their graves if given the chance, regardless of Pigma not being dead, yet. But Wolf, Fox could forgive him for everything but his attitude and the contraband he moved for cash.
Wolf was just low class, in McCloud's eyes. A common criminal with good piloting abilities. A rogue of rogues. A scoundrel with a ragtag pack with whom he prefers to run. He had to wonder who Wolf's new teammate was. Leon was still in the group and he was a confident pilot as well.
Another thing. Wolf despised of Pigma, Andrew and mentioned respect for James McCloud. Not the kind of respect that little Johnny has for his big brother, who beat up the class bully for him. No, the kind of respect Wolf had for James was the kind of respect that a true warrior has for his adversary of equal strength and ability.
Wolf took nothing personal. Except his relationship with Nichole, Wolf never let business mix with pleasure. If he had to shoot a one-time friend, if he had to take down a pilot he respected to earn a paycheck, business was business. But when it came to Nicky, Wolf guarded his vixen with a fierceness so powerful that not even Fox McCloud could take her away from him. And his adoration for his mate was something that earned Fox's respect, which he wouldn't dare mention to anyone.
Maybe he just accepted Wolf because, regardless of how many years since he'd last seen his sister and how far apart they've always been, he loved her as family. Enough, in fact, that he had to accept Wolf as her mate, but the thought, which made him shutter in the past, now didn't spark any emotion. Krystal approached Fox who stood off in the distance, facing away from the Landmaster, ribbing him.
"You ready? It's good that you're putting feuds to rest in your heart," She said quietly.
He looked over his shoulder and smiled a bit. "All... freshened up, Angel?" To his words, she nodded then leaned to kiss him softly, on his cheek. But it wasn't a chaste peck, she planted an "I love you," kiss on the side of his face, to remind him that he's here, now in the present. It caused him to smile. What else could he do, he was in love and she wasn't leaving him. He didn't have to be a telepathic being to trust her with his heart.
-
-
Several hours later, Fox, Krystal and Fara found themselves in the near-tropical regions of Fortuna, where trees were covered with moss and the river was as warm as bath water. They had left the LandMaster in a nearby stream, which was only ankle deep. The group followed the water in the direction the transponder location device had pointed them to go, now clad in weather-forgiving apparel.
Fox wore a pair of shorts, boots and a vest. Fara, on the other hand, wore a one piece bathing suit and a pair of shorts, for the sake of pockets for her gear. Krystal was dressed in a similar way to Fox, a pair of shorts, a black t-shirt and vest with netted pockets. She carried a blaster, where Fara's was holstered.
She could sense a presence, but the thoughts and emotions of that person were sheltered. Thus the reason for the blaster at the ready. Fox held the locator in his paws, following the signal upstream with both girls on either side of him. The group stopped as the area around them opened up into a clearing. Fox glanced up from his locator, his jaw falling wide open.
"What... the hell... is that?" He muttered.
"I don't know how it got here, but that," Fara said, swallowing the shallow lump in her throat. "Is a Monarch Dodora."
"I can only sense that it's confused and does not belong in this world," Krystal said softly, to the other two. "But it, nor I, have any clue how in the world it wound up on this Fortuna. That can only mean something far more sinister is at work here," She added.
"What's it doing?" Fara said, pulling out a small pair of high-definition goggles to zoom up on the beast.
"It's lonely. There are no others of it's type, on this Fortuna," Krystal whispered to her companions.
"No, it's doing something with it's talons, but I can't see from this angle," Fara said so that only Fox and Krystal could hear her.
"It's probably got the damn Data Box we need," Fox grumbled.
"How can you be so sure?" Krystal looked perplexed that he could make such an assumption without any evidence to prove his statement. Fox simply shrugged.
Suddenly the massive dragon turned about, facing the three of them, flaring fiery smoke from it's nostrils. Fara didn't even flinch. She zoomed in and groaned when she saw what was in the massive clawed hand of the beast. "Damn! Fox is right, it's got the data box, why would it have that? There's nothing that thing could possible want with a 35 pound 10 inch by 10 inch piece of metal," She grumbled.
"See?" Fox said, shaking his head. "I saw it coming, all the way from 5th Avenue," he added with a smirk. Just as he said that, the Dodora lifted the box to it's massive maw and swallowed it, then roared loudly, smelling the three of them down wind.
"How in the heck can it see us? We're not moving, it shouldn't know we're here," Fara said, putting the goggles into her shorts zipper-pocket.
Krystal shook her head with a sullen sigh, "We're downwind. He could smell us from... OH my Goddess! He ate the box!" She exclaimed in surprise.
"Okay," Fox groaned, "now that I have to admit... I didn't see that coming. But it just figures. Crap." He smacked himself on the forehead with the locator, cursing his luck. After a moment, he put it into his vest, securing the device before folding his arms. "Now what?"
As if to answer Fox, The Monarch Dodora, a monster sized dragon being from the Fortuna in Fara's universe, let out a roar and gushed out a thick plume of fire, in anger. This confusing world and those three tiny beings have defied it's will to be left alone and now it was going to make them pay.
"We...uh," Fara licked her lips apprehensively before uttering one final word, "Run."
(next)
Chapter -6- Saving the Universe is a dirty job, but...this takes the cake.
...or
Chapter -6- Answers
