Chapter 4
Kang's hidden power/ Kirin vs. Private Kio
"On three, okay Kang?" Kirin whispered to the sharpclaw child, his paws tightly gripped around the shafts of his hand axes, not a second wasted to untense his paws from them, he was truly ready to take on any enemy that stood in their way, even if it was a war machine with a shot that could penatrate titanium.
Kang looked at the war Machine and artemis cannon attached to it, he didn't know what to do at that very momment but he nodded his head anyway, slowing clenching the shaft of his weapon tightly, his breathes coming in slowly but his heart beat was slamming his chest like a war drum, fear was quickly overwhelming his courage.
"1..." Kirin started the countdown, clenching the two axes in his tensed paws.
Kang held his weapon as tight as possible, gritting his teeth nervously and eyed the field with terror, they would be facing death himself if their plan didn't work, as well as be taken by him if they failed.
"2..." Kirin continued with the countdown, coming closer to the end, his feet readied themselves for a charge into action.
Kang started to sweat, glistening on his red scales and drying against his tunic or freezing against the icy cold air, but he kept a sturdy face upon himself to the best as he could, ready to attack any opposition that would come their way to disrupt them from achieving victory.
"What comes after two?" Kirin asked as he scratched his head, a puzzled look on his face that would make anyone laugh.
Kang looked at Kirin with a blank face and a dropped jaw, thinking of one sentence of the cerulean vulpine: God you really are a senseless moron, Kirin!
"Oh yeah, 3!" Kirin finished with the countdown loudly, clashing his axes together and turned to the field with Kang.
Kirin and Kang rushed out from their hiding corner and advanced quickly onto the war machine without being caught by the sensors, they were truly lucky, climbing up its blunt exterior and entered the huge mechanical beast from the top silently, quiet enough to sneak up on the sharpclaw engineers inside it, controlling and managing the artemis cannon. Kirin swung his axes hard and swift into the Sharpclaw opperating the war machine, quickly stepping to the side as their dead bodies fell to the side, and took control of the machine, a great asset to them now.
"Uh how do I drive this god forsaken thing?"Kirin asked as he scratched his head with great confusion, the beeping lights, the steam sounds pouring out of tubes, switches and cranks, even the steering wheel confused him; Kang rubbed the between of his eyes and took in a calming breath to explain to Kirin as gently as possible.
"First of all, it's not god forsaken, it's well designed and crafted from the thickest and strongest materials on Sauria, and second of all, I am driving, not you."Kang pointed out and moved Kirin to the seat next to the drivers seat, planting himself on the chair and took possession of the machine.
"Okay Mr. Grumpy dinosaur, you drive."Kirin barked at his sharpclaw companion, his arms crossed and a pout on his face like any kit would make when they were mad.
"I will." Kang replied calmly as he flipped some switches and slammed some throttles, releasing old steam to rejuvinate the main power engine.
"Go ahead." Kirin barked again at him, baring his fangs at him.
"Alright!" Kang snarled as he put the war machine into action, having full control over both it and the artemis cannon to do their bidding.
"Fine!" Kirin yelled and whipped his head back to looking at the window.
The two knew each other for two days and their friendship was falling apart, but after a couple hours of driving through blizzard plains and old ruins of the ice region, as well as doing their best to avoid falling into icy rivers and falling walls, their friendship slowly rebuilded itself and formed again. The gates of the city were close enough to lay sight upon, the two let out a yelp of cheer and high fived as Kang drove down a snowy hill towards the gates.
"Okay we're entering the city, be on your guard Kirin, you'll never know what might come out from behind those walls." Kang announced and smiled, flicking a couple more switches to keep the engine silent as well as alive, Kirin let out tiny coughs when he breathed in too much steam, and finding that a problem to both them and their stealth, the machine, Kang thanked his uncle in his head for futuring planning of this model, had fans to clear the air.
Kirin looked outside, many Snow Horn were imprisoned, some tortured, and some…dead, it was a horrible sight for Kirin, he tried his best to hold back tears for the deaths of so many but his heart couldn't let him, striking his emotions rapidly while he was still open, it was too grusome for him to hold in any tears, but Kang gently patted his shoulder and smiled slightly, trying his best to comfort him and to keep him silent.
"Is this what the Sharpclaw do to anyone that is a prisoner to them?" Kirin asked as he wiped the tears away and sniffled, his heart ached at the sight of death in a massive amount, but not enough to take away his will to go on and stop this atrocity of acts and events from ever happening again on Sauria.
"Sadly yes, in order to sustain existence, we must rise above others, another reason why I became banished, because I believed that we have no right to be above others, to try and be above the krazoa gods...to try to be equal as gods...even better than gods. Who are we to say that we are intellegent enough to overthrow the krazoa when we have failed before? I'll tell you...no one."Kang sighed and lowered his head, he remembered many deathes and public torture events from his village, even the loss of his parents he had to watch had tortured him inside for so long, as well as becoming a slave boy afterwords for the general.
"I don't blame you Kang, this is just horrible." Kirin said, now being the one trying to comfort his friend, a paw on his scalish shoulder and a slight smile across his muzzle.
Kang looked forward as he regained some joy, only to lose it again as they were stopped by Sharpclaw soldiers for inspection, Kang was starting to sweat from being nervous, he had no planning time with him talking to Kirin about his past, he was going to be killed with Kirin in Sharpclaw territory and not even make it to the gates of the ice region bridge.
"Kirin, I don't want to die, I'm to young to die!" Kang cried as he shook Kirin rapidly through fear and nervousness, Kirin gently slapped him across the face to calm him down and stop him from shaking him, a slight growl coming from his muzzle, telling Kang to never do that again.
Kirin placed his paw around Kang's mouth and pulled him into a shadowy spot behind a couple large pipes, the steam behind them hiding them very well from the Sharpclaw. Two Sharpclaw soldiers looked inside the hull of the war machine, calling out in grumbles and gnarled voices like they were chewing on bark, the cockpit, the whole damn thing was empty, or at least that was what they thought, and when they thought out an organized solution of the problem, only one thing that only a mindless creature or a psychotic person could quickly use as a conclusion: Ghosts! The two ran screaming like little girls for their lives, dropping their weapons behind them, telling those who they came across about the "haunted" war machine making its way through the city, and, also like mindless creatures or psychotic people, those who listened too the mistaken soldiers had begun running as well as far as possible; Kirin pulled Kang out of the shadow and put him in the drivers seat again, feeling a lot of humor from his little prank put into a massive scale.
"How did you do that?" Kang asked as he finally stopped laughing, wiping a few tears from his eyelids, but being serious as well, if Kang had tried that stunt, it would have failed so badly it would be seen from 20 miles away.
"I always scared the shopkeeper when I use to live with him, I hid on top or behind something that I could fit onto or into, jump out silently, then spook him."Kirin explained after he finished his laughter as well, a smirk across his muzzle and a voice full of triumph.
"Cunning like a thief, I see." Kang smirked as he drove the war machine again into the town, finally calming down from laughing.
"I would be better as a thief?" Kirin asked as he scratched his head at Kang's statement, his brow raised and a frown of concern across his muzzle..
"I'm just saying, you have a warrior's spirit, the cunning of a thief, but not the wisdom or intelligence of a mage, so I think you be more of something else, not quite sure, but not a warrior, or a thief, and most definatly not a mage." Kang explained to him, multi-tasking with talking to Kirin and driving the machine through the city.
Kirin was confused, what was greater then those three applications, why did he think of it as a weird application that is better then the rest, and why did he want to be it, but what was it is what he wanted to know the most, this thought tugged on every string of his mind, but he couldn't produce the answer, he sighed and relaxed in the chair as he watched the city pass by in the window.
"Well let's go, we have to-out of gas, damn." Kang grunted as his eyes fixed upon the fuel indicator on the panal next to the steering wheel, blinking a bright red, sadly it had drawn upon the artemis cannon's fuel as well, draining both machines dry.
"You mean we have to…" Kirin began with his statement, looking at Kang with a concerned look.
"Yup, walk the rest of the way." Kang replied as he stood from the drivers wheel and walked towards the hatch with his vulpine friend, both gathering their weapons into their paws.
Kirin sighed heavily like a whine and opened the hatch, the two quietly poked their heads out of the hatch entrence and looked around the camp for danger or sight of sharpclaw, many weapons and armors laid about, they had landed in the one place they never would want to end up: The war camp. Their jaws dropped onto the metal outlining of the entrance and their gaze fixed upona whole bunch of War machines in the front, ready to fire any ammo they had as well as their artemis cannons. Kang was scared out of his mind, there were over forty war machines in front of the two five year olds; Kang held his chest tightly and grunted, his hand started to burn badly but brightly, burning into his palm an odd asortment of arcs and circles, almost like some sort of puzzle, he removed his paw from his chest and glanced at the tattoo on his palm, it glittered brightly with a fasinating aura that only a mage could call upon, was Kang a mage without even knowing?
"Fire!" A commander roared over the machines with his finger extended out as a point towards the children.
The forty war machines blasted the two with everything they had, their shots bulleting towards them, but before they hit, Kang held out his claw with the tattoo and charged up a dark fog with his palm, so dark that even fear feared it, that even terror would take a step close to it, the fog rushed into the marks of his tattoo and brightened it like a searchlight.
"DIE!" Kang roared over them as he fired a colossal-like blast of dark energy, covering the whole camp in a ember shroud of fire and darkness, the entire camp was about 10 miles wide and long, seeming that it had taken days to set up, only to be torn apart in a mere 5 seconds. The fog disappeared, not one war machine was left standing or running, they looked like they had been skidded against the sky, they were pushed back part by part, quietly breaking apart into nothing but metal ash, Kang lowered his arm and looked at the destruction around him, panting heavily and clenched his chest from so much power.
"Kang…that was…FREAKING AMAZING!" Kirin yelled out in amazement, his adrenaline flared within him, he had never felt such a rush in so long.
"Yeah, I know, but how did I do it?" Kang asked himself as he examined the tattoo on his paw, running his fingers over it with concern and confusion, why did it come to him? Where did it come from?
"Don't know, don't care, as long as there is no trouble for our walk." Kirin squeaked in excitement and shot around the hatch with so much excitement, he was ready to almost explode if he didn't do something fast.
"Yeah that's all that matters, I suppose." Kang chuckled as he moved to the side, letting the bulleting Kirin out of the hatch, his adrenaline now shut down by the icy cold wind bashing against him.
Kang and Kirin hopped off their fueless war machine and made their way across the dead war camp and towards the gate to the mines, finally gaining warmth from the magma heat within, hoping they will find the private soon enough and kill him, this would make their journey much easier then usual. The two delved deeper into the mines, passing through several hall ways of burnt marks and scorched walls, like people had been blazed apart, they found no Sharp Claw alive but only their empty armor laying on the floor, no one was alive within the mines, Kang blew them away into oblivion.
"Hey, look, the bridge, lets go!"Kirin pointed out as he looked at an icy bridge leading out of the ice region and towards the deserts.
Kirin and Kang made their way onto the Bridge after running down several steps and ladders, quickly running towards the deserts, but something met them first as they leapt back from being struck by a sharpclaws weapons, thick snow horn hide armor around him, it was none other than Private Kio, holding two scimitars in his paws and spun them like they were straws.
"Alright, hand the key over and we'll let you go Kang."Kio announced as he gripped the hilts of his swords, a smirk came across his face that no one could trust.
"Hey! Kang is apart of the legend too, he's the lock, and ha!"Kirin barked at the private, Kang's jaw dropped and he let out a whine of irratation.
"Kirin, you couldn't just shut up could you? Why couldn't you just keep your mouth shut? WHY!" Kang cried to Kirin, smacking his weapon over and over across the ground in frustration.
"The Lock! Well I'll be receiving a big promotion from the general for both key and lock." Kio gasped and rubbed his muzzle, he chuckled at the mere thought of receiving a promotion to be an admiral.
"In your dreams!" Kirin snarled as he readied his axes in his paws and rushed forward into a charge.
Kirin leaped forward and swung his axes at Kio, blocking every attack one threw at the other, Kio smirking and easily parrying and clashing his swords with perfect aim agaisnt Kirin's axes.
"We are evenly matched, key, just stand down and come with me back to general scales." Kio announced, pressing his scimitars hard against the axes as well as pushing Kirin back.
Kirin pushed Kio's swords to the ground and ran up his arms and onto Kio's shoulders.
"Actually, we're not."Kirin explained quickly.
Kirin flipped backwards off the sharpclaws shoulders and took a tight grip on his sides, throwing Kio in back of him with a hard heeve; Kio quickly got up and attacked again, scimitars spinning like tops. Kirin swung his axes rapidly at Kio's head, hoping to make a fatal strike, only to suffer a swift kick to his stomach, Kirin released a loud grunt and fell to the floor, holding his stomach tightly in agony; Kio brought his swords up to knock out Kirin and meet with Kang, but Kang thrusted his scythe under Kio's legs and flipped him as hard as he could onto the bridge's icy structure, knocking him out for a while.
"Kirin, get up!"Kang barked, trying to lift Kirin up onto his feet.
Kirin stood up in pain, the kick was hard especially since the Sharp Claw have one deadly thing…claws; Kirin grasped his Axes tightly and ran forward, running towards Kio with axes readied in each paw behind him. Kio tried to pushed himself up and ready himself for another assault, but it was too late for him to act, Kirin swung both his axes straight into Kio's spine, severing it from every nerve with an instant kill, as well as penetrating his lungs and spleen, the young vulpine continued his assault upon the dead corpse.
"Kick me will you, I don't think so." Kirin snarled loudly and sheathed, spitting into the heavy bleeding wound.
Kirin smiled at Kang as they continued along the bridge and towards the desert, the two made their way across the ice bridge, and soon enough, they were on their way to General scales's battle camp.
On Corneria
"Lazlo!" An elder avian voice called out into a ship garage, his blue feathers smoothed down and his eyes shifted around the area.
"Over here dad." Another avian voice, yet younger, called out, his feathery hand waving out from under a ship with a sliding plate of tools beside him.
Falco looked down at his son, fixing an Arwing faster then any mechanic or engineer could possible do, Lazlo was quite a mechanic and lover of technology, but not only that, he had graduated from weapons training after performing in front of judges at the age of six at spear craft.
"Can you get that Arwing up and running soon? Fox and Krystal gotta go and get their son back, ASAP." Falco asked the young avian and passed him a tool that Lazlo tried to reach for.
"You can't quicken time, and besides, he probably doesn't remember them anyway." Lazlo explained as he wiped himself of arwing oil and tightened a bolt and fixed a couple electrical wires.
Falco rubbed the between of his eyes, that was the seventh time Lazlo had said that and felt no remorse for it at all.
"I might have it up and running in a couple of days, maybe Tuesday…yeah Tuesday." Lazlo announced, grabbing another tool and continued to work with sharp care, not knowing that Fox and Krystal waited outside from under the arwing.
Fox tapped his foot impatiently on the hard floor as Krystal held her arms in sorrow, she sniffled slightly and wiped a tear from her eyes.
"But that's too long, I want my child back quicker." Fox demanded of the young avian, Lazlo stuck his slightly oil bathed head out and coughed with a scowl.
"Alright jeez, once again I get yelled at by another ballistic male." Lazlo mumbled and rolled his eyes as he rolled back under and worked carefully.
Fox placed his arm around Krystal, trying to comfort her, but it wasn't helping, she was to sad to be cheered, sorrow could radiate from her if Fox was a cerinian, he would see it so clearly like a sunny morning.
"I want him back fox…I want him in my arms again." Krystal cried softly and silently, sniffling and buried her face into his chest.
"I promise you Krystal, we'll get him back…we will." Fox said softly as he gently hugged her close, his head resting beside hers.
Lazlo looked up at the couple with a frown and sighed. "They do miss their kid...well then Laz, no more break time, lets get to work!" and immeidately darted under, working as fast he could, hoping that it wouldn't be too late for them to arrive on Sauria if Kirin were to meet a horrible fate.
