Chapter 13

1:00 PM

The team had finally reached Corneria after what seemed like weeks even though it had only been a day, Everyone was at the docking bay ready to go except for Slippy who would stay on the Great Fox II, their job was to find as much info as they could about anything that had to do with the Doombringers, Fox was in his traditional green shirt and white vest, with a pair of black cargo pants, and his combat boots, he noticed that the rest of the crew wasn't prepared like he was, Falco had a white muscle-shirt, a pair of light blue jeans, and black dress shoes, Cross was wearing his favorite black, heavy metal loving tee-shirt, a black pair of jeans, and his white sneakers, Ecks had a plain blue tank-top on, a pair of black jean-shorts, and his black sneakers, Zivia was wearing a pink tee-shirt, white jeans, and a pair of white sandals, Hax wore a red tee-shirt, dark blue jeans, and a pair of black boots, and Alexia wore a sky-blue tee-shirt that alternated with white stripes, blue jeans that faded to white towards the bottom, and a pair of white sneakers, Alexia was well built, even though she was female, her muscles were proportioned perfectly, Fox thought she may even be stronger than him, the she-wolf's long black hair went down to her back and matched well with her light grey fur, as well as her sky-blue eyes.

Fox sighed, "This isn't a vacation you know." He told each of them.

"So? That doesn't mean we can't be comfortable, does it?" Zivia shot back, placing her right paw on her hip.

"Yeah, but..." Fox couldn't think of any retort, she was right, even though it was a mission, it wasn't one of which they would be fighting, "Nevermind." The vulpine said.

As the team prepared for launch, Cross was once again a bit hesitant to get into the Arwing as Fox explained what the plan was, "Falco, you will search the Northern area of the city, okay?"

"No prob, I'm just glad no one's gonna get in my way." Falco replied in his usual arrogant manner.

"Krystal and I will search the Southern area, is that okay with you Krys?" The vulpine asked politely.

"Yes Fox." The blue vixen answered, smiling at Fox's manners, it always amazed her at how much of a gentleman he was.

"Alexia and Hax, you will search the Western area, Cross will search the Eastern area, Ecks and Zivia will search the Central area," Fox added with a wink, knowing that the Central part of the city was where most of the shops were, "Does anyone have a problem?" The light brown vulpine asked, each shook their heads 'no', "Alright, then let's get going."

Cross crawled into the passenger seat of Fox's Arwing, his muscles tense as he did so, Fox knew this wouldn't change so he ignored it, "So, Ecks, you gonna ride with Falco or Krys?" He asked the dark blue vulpine.

"Neither, I can take myself," Ecks answered with a smirk, causing puzzled looks from everyone except Cross, who was sitting in the Arwing, still frozen in fear, "Just watch," The blue vulpine added as he closed his eyes, his body became engulfed by a pure white aura, and when he opened his eyes, they were the same dark blue color as his fur, "See you outside." He said before vanishing.

Zivia jumped into the small cockpit of her unique aircraft, Hax and Alexia entered the side compartment, appearantly it could hold more than one passenger, Krystal and Falco hopped into their Arwings, as did Fox, before closing the cockpit Fox told ROB to open the docking bay doors, when the doors were open, everyone was surprised to see Ecks floating out in space with his arms folded, "See, I told you," Ecks said using telepathy, "I'll meet you there." Ecks added before vanishing once again, the others blasted off towards Corneria, a loud scream escaped Cross' muzzle as the Arwing took off.

When the team arrived, they saw Ecks floating in the docking bay, Cross instantly jumped out of the Arwing as soon as the cockpit opened, falling on all fours as he breathed heavily, Ecks went to comfort his brother as the rest of the team hopped out of their aircrafts, "You'd think he'd be used to it by now." Falco said with a chuckle.

Cross was suddenly removed from his state of shock and glared at the avian, "Don't test me bird-boy." He warned.

Falco put his hands up in defense, "Hey no need to get all pissed at me, I'm just sayin'--"

"Well quit saying anything and shut...the hell...up." Cross cut the avian off coldly, Cross was beginning to like Falco but at times the avain needed to know when to shut his beak.

"Enough bickering, we need to get down to business, you all remember where to go?" Fox asked, everyone nodded in approval, when the team left the docking bay, each of them went towards their searching area, Falco to the North, Krystal and Fox to the South, Alexia and Hax to the West, Cross to the East, and of course Ecks and Zivia went to the Central part of the city, they would all meet back at the docking bay in three hours as it was now thirty minutes past one in the afternoon.

1:45 PM

Cross was searching a part of the city that he was very used to, the Projects, this area is where he spent his years as a kit when the ship crashed when he was eight, he noticed that the place hadn't changed in the least as every broken building was either inhabited by bums or gangs, Cross didn't know where to start, he saw a canine who was dressed very oddly, his shirt was much too large for him and his pants sagged down exposing the ass end of his boxers, the golden retriever also had a bandanna on his head and a backwards cap over that, "Hey!" Cross yelled out, getting the animal's attention, "Have you seen any shady characters around here lately?" The vulpine asked.

"Nope, but I got somethin' to show ya'," The canine spoke in an odd manner, "Deez nuts bitch!" The canine said, gestering to his crotch.

Cross raised an eyebrow at the weird motion, "Deez...nuts?" Cross was confused.

"You heard me asshole!" The canine said, gestering to his crotch again.

Cross became angry at the fact that all he did was ask a simple question and became insulted, he realized what the canine was saying, "One problem, you ain't got nothin' to show, DIP SHIT!" Cross yelled back, mimicking the canine's style of speech.

"Oh so you wanna scrap huh?" The golden retriever started walking towards Cross.

"More than anything." Cross simply thought, as soon as the canine got close enough, Cross jumped and landed a destructive roundhouse kick with his right foot on the side of the canine's head, knocking him completely out-cold, as Cross stood over the limp body of the retriever he extended his middle finger and flipped him off, "Now who's the bitch." Cross said as he turned to walk away, a few minutes passed until Cross felt a hard, blunt object hit him in the back of the head, knocking him out.

1:50 PM

Falco was walking in the high-class area of the city or, the 'rich' area as it was called, "Man, all of this high-society crap pisses me off," The avian said as he walked down the sidewalk, the houses were pretty large, but Falco just disliked the 'rich' area, probably because he grew up in the Projects, "If only they knew what it was like." He sighed.

A few minutes of walking passed, Falco turned a corner and a knife was instantly placed to his throat, held by a tiger in front of him, "This guy's a freakin' idiot, who the hell mugs someone in broad daylight?" Falco thought, to a normal animal, the first reaction to a situation like this would be panic and fear, but Falco was highly trained.

"Gimme your wallet, and nothing happens." The feline said, Falco immediately flipped backwards, kicking the knife away from the feline, Falco then leaped at the tiger, the avian shot his knee out and connected square with the feline's stomach, the tiger instantly doubled over in pain and began spitting up blood, Falco took this time to elbow the tiger on the back of his head, knocking him out.

"That should teach you," Falco said as he turned and continued to walk down the sidewalk, "I wonder if the others have found anything."

1:55 PM

Hax and Alexia were walking in the Eastern side of the city and decided to walk down a few alley-ways since they didn't expect any secrets to be out in the open, a half-hour later they found a door that looked rather suspicious, and Hax proceeded to knock on the door.

"Hey, open up! We promise not to hurt you unless you piss us off!" The lupine yelled over the loud knocking.

"Oh yeah, they'll come running for that, I'm sure they've got cookies too." Alexia sarcastically said.

"Oh well, I guess we'll just have to come back some other time," Hax said loud enough for anyone on the other side to hear, but just as he turned to leave, the lupine shot a straight kick at the metal door with amazing force, knocking the door backwards, "Wow! Did you see that? The door just flew right off the hinges! All by itself! Well I guess since no one's inside, we'll just let ourselves in." Hax added as the two wolves entered the room, the room's walls were a dark, blood red, .

Hax and Alexia found a doorway with beads running down the center, they entered, and found a large computer terminal, Hax sat down in the chair, after looking at the monitor for a few minutes, then laughed a little, "I can easily hack this," He said, taking a small chip out of his pocket and placing it into a small port on the side of the computer, "Just a few more seconds and we should have all of this computer's data stored in our little chip here." As Hax had predicted, the chip was ejected form the port, Hax wasted no time in putting the chip back in his pocket, the two headed back towards the docking bay.

2:10 PM

Ecks and Zivia made their way down the busy sidewalk, passing by many different shops, the streets were filled with rabid shoppers, most of which carried many bags, Ecks and Zivia found a place to sit at an empty table with an umbrella over it to shade them from the heat, a few times Zivia had to remind Ecks that he was floating and drawing attention to himself, a half-hour passed of the two foxes simply sitting at the table and chatting.

"Why did Fox even send us here? It's not like we'll find anything." Zivia said in an annoyed tone.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me," Ecks stood up, "I'll be right back." He added, walking off into the seemingly endless crowd Zivia waited for Ecks to return, she didn't know what he was up too, but he came back shortly.

"Here, I want to give this to you." Ecks said, placing a small jewelry box in the vixen's paws.

"What is it?" The orange vixen asked.

"Open it and you'll find out," Ecks answered with a smile, Zivia did so, revealing a necklace inside of the box, with a silver pendant, she held the necklace up in the light, it sparkled brightly, Zivia was more than happy to accept the gift, Ecks didn't need a 'thank you', the vixen's face said it all, "Here," Ecks said, taking the necklace and placing it around Zivia's neck, "It's a perfect fit." The blue vulpine said, as he looked at Zivia for a moment, the piece of jewelry only added to her beauty, Ecks meant what he said on the Great Fox II about Zivia being the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen

Zivia jumped up, gabbed Ecks' paw, and took off running, "Where are we going?" Ecks asked, a bit surprised at Zivia's sudden burst of energy, the two soon turned around a corner where no one could see them and stopped, Zivia turned to face Ecks, the dark blue vulpine was still confused as to what was happening, "Zivia, what's--"

Ecks was cut off as Zivia grabbed the blue vulpine and hugged him tightly, bringing her lips to his, the blue vulpine's eyes grew wide from surprise, but then closed as he embraced the taller vixen just as she had done with him, when she pulled away Ecks' eyes were still closed and his mouth still open, his eyes opened to the vixen smiling at him, "What was all of that for?" He asked, Ecks didn't know what to think for what had just occured, he had never experienced anything like this before, it gave him a strange feeling in the gut, he also felt a bit light-headed.

"For giving me this gift, and now it's official." The beautiful vixen said.

"What's official?" Ecks asked, still confused.

"Your first kiss..." She answered, poking his nose as if he were a kit, "...and mine." She added, turning to walk back to the table where they sat earlier.

Ecks still stood in the spot where Zivia had kissed him, wondering what had just happened, did he just become mates with the vixen? No, it was more than that, Ecks was never taught anything about love, but he had a feeling that he was experiencing it now, as Ecks turned to walk back to the table, "Get your hands off me!" He heard a familiar voice yell, Ecks dashed back to the table, where he found a large crowd, in the center of the crowd, a large wolf was holding Zivia by her left arm.

"Aw, c'mon baby, I just want to talk." The lupine said.

"Let go!" Zivia yelled again.

"I would advise you to do as she says." Ecks warned, finally making his way through the large crowd.

"Oh and what're you gonna do if I don't small-fry." The lupine arrogantly asked.

Before Ecks could answer, Zivia shot her right leg up, kicking the wolf square on the chin, causing the lupine to let go of her arm, her sandal flew off as she did this, sure her foot might have been soft, but the force behind it had "broken jaw" written all over it, Ecks was amazed at how flexible the vixen was, as the wolf staggered back from the brutal kick, Zivia shot her right leg out again and kicked the lupine square in the crotch with even more force than the kick to his face, every male in the crowd including Ecks cringed when this happened, Zivia fell to her backside with a yelp, and Ecks immediately ran to her side.

"Are you okay?" Ecks asked, extremely concerned for the vixen.

"Yeah, I think I sprained my ankle when I kicked that asshole." She answered.

"Which one?"

"Left."

Ecks inspected the vixen's left ankle, it was already starting to turn purple, forming into a bruise, "Here, let's get you up." Ecks said, placing the vixen's right arm over his shoulder and helping her to her feet, he looked back only to see that the wolf was starting to slowly stand up as well.

"That bitch is comin' with me, whether she wants to or not." The wolf said, despite his injuries.

Ecks closed his eyes and sighed, when his eyes opened they had now changed from their normal silver gleam to a dark blue color, when the lupine was standing fully upright, his body jerked backwards as he flew into a table face-first, knocking the lupine unconscious, when he looked back at the crowd, each face had either a look of fear or extreme surprise.

"Think what you will, I don't care anymore." Ecks said, the crowd then started to clap as cheers came from different areas of the group that made room for Ecks and Zivia, Ecks could've just carried Zivia with his telekinesis, but he used this as an excuse to get closer to the vixen, Zivia wasn't complaining either, she wanted to be as close to Ecks as possible for as long as she could.

As the two made their way out of the crowd, Ecks stopped, "I almost forgot," He said as a white sandal started to float in the air, the sandal floated towards Zivia, "I believe this belongs to you." The blue vulpine said to the vixen.

"Thanks." Zivia said as Ecks lifted her foot into the air using telekinesis and slipped the sandal on her foot.

"Now, let's get back to Fox so that we can take care of that ankle." Ecks said as the two walked towards the docking bay.

Cross woke up in a dark room, the back of his head hurt a bit, the dark red vulpine looked around to obverse his surroundings, the room wasn't much, basically a shit-hole, scrap metal in each corner of the room, a worn out couch with springs sticking out of it, there was very little light, Cross could only see what was close to him, he figured that the light was fixed on him, however there was a digital clock in one corner of the room, sitting on a desk, it read 3:45 PM, "I really gotta get back to Fox soon," He said, the vulpine tried to move but couldn't, he found that he was sitting in a chair which was bolted to the floor, his legs were tied to the front legs of the chair by a thick rope, his paws were tied behind his back, he tried to break them, but couldn't, "Damn." He said calmly.

"They're plasma cuffs, you can't get out of 'em." A voice said from the shadows.

"Who the hell are you?" Cross asked.

A lupine emerged from the shadows of the room, "Name's Wolf, Wolf O'Donnel."

Author's Note: Yeah yeah I know, a bit too kissy kissy blech in the part with Ecks and Zivia, but hey, they got something goin'. This chapter was fun to write, even though my crotch started to hurt when I was writing a certain part, yeah...anyway thanks for reading and please review if you liked it or not and remember, constructive criticism is always welcome, but if you flame me I WILL KILL YOU! No I'm just kidding, OR MAYBE I'M NOT! No I'm kidding, but seriously, don't flame, or I will cry...in a corner...with a knife.