"Get out, you little BASTARD!"
"Adhes, you can't do this, he's only a boy!"
"Get the hell off me, you bitch!"
The crack of hand on cheek shook Wolf out of the shock and fear that had paralyzed him. He picked himself up off the ground, coughing up the mud that had splattered over his face. He tried to make himself more dangerous by drawing himself up to his full height, like he'd seen the fighters do, but he barely reached up to Adhes' waist. Still, the anger and hatred roiling in him made him feel big enough to take on the well built pirate.
"Don't... touch... my mother!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, his tiny hands balling into fists. Adhes just laughed at him.
"Oh, we've got a big man on our hands. You want me to put you in your place, too?"
Wolf launched himself at the lupine, despite Wrya's pleading screams for them to stop. His claws dug into the skin of Adhes' forearm, exposed where he had rolled up his sleeve. He roared with rage, grabbed Wolf by the neck, and wrenched him off, shaking him hard before tossing him against the stone wall. Wolf cried out, his ears filled with the sound of his bones cracking against the brick. He fell back to the mud, struggling and unable to regain his footing. His struggling became more frantic with every slow, deliberate step Adhes took towards him. Wrya reached out and grabbed his hand, begging him to leave the child be. He simply wrenched it back out of her grip.
A savage kick struck Wolf hard in the gut. He gasped, his breath rushing out of him, chased away by the pain of his ribs breaking like twigs under the force of the blow. He collapsed like a rag doll. A second blow struck him in the face. It was hard enough to make his face explode in blood, not hard enough to kill him. When, even after all the hits he took, he still tried to get back up and protect Wrya, Adhes pinned him with his boot pressing hard against his chest. Fresh pain from his broken ribs tore through him again. The sound of a gun cocking made Wolf's gasped breaths froze in his throat. He looked up into the barrel of a gun.
"So, who's the big man now?"
Wrya struggled from where she had been slumped, throwing herself on Adhes. He growled in frustration and tried to shoulder her off, but with Wolf's life in the balance she would not be thrown away again.
"C'mon, he's just a kid trying to take care of his mum, don't shoot him, you can't! Adhes I promised his mom!" She reached out and grabbed the gun, begging him. Adhes' red eyes connected for a moment with Wolf's purple ones. The gun was uncocked and put away.
"Oh god, thank you, thank you..." Wyra murmured.
"Get out," Adhes snarled. Wolf and Wyra paused. Adhes lashed out and grabbed Wolf by the scruff, lifting him and tossing him towards the exit of the sheltered courtyard. "Get out. You can thank her that you're still alive, but if I ever see your face again, you won't be so lucky."
"Adhes, please, he can't live out there by himself."
"Shut up, woman! I never want to see you back here again." He grabbed Wrya's arm and began to drag her back towards the entrance to the apartments.
"Mum!" Wolf cried, leaning against the wall for support. She turned back to him with tears in her eyes. He trusted her. She would never let that monster throw her surrogate son out of his own home. She would protect him like she always did. She loved him.
Adhes wrenched her arm. She had to turn around and follow him wordlessly back into the house. Not even a goodbye. Wolf began to walk down the dark passage to the rest of the city. He had just tried to protect the people he loved. Now he was alone.
XxX
Krystal's delicate fingers closed gently around his wrist, hoping to stem the rage that would undoubtedly bubble up after the shock had dissipated.
"It's not like that. Dr. Regal explained it to me while you slept... they're under direction from one of her lab techs, its very safe-"
"Krystal, there are aparoids within the immediate vicinity of our daughter! Do you not remember what happened two years ago?"
"That was then, Fox. These aparoids are a new breed, they aren't interested in death."
"And I assume you are just taking this all on faith?"
"You don't have to take my word for it," Regal cut in. "Like I said, I'll show you exactly what is happening to Mia and the other boy who's sick."
"Yeah, well I'd like to see it."
"Come this way then."
She led them through the medical centre to a hanger. Inside was a small anti-grav vessel that was only meant for small excursions. It was roomier than it looked from the outside, and that suited Fox just fine. He wanted to sit as far away as possible from the doctor and her aparoids. Knight had come with them, and he sat at the doctors right, turned all the way around in his seat so he could watch Fox as intently as Fox was watching him.
Regal tapped a few switches, and a slight vibration ran through the hull. It was the only sign that the machine was now on. Another couple of button presses, and the heavy steel doors of the hanger slid open, making a far cry more noise than the ship about to pass through. Without any more instruction from the doctor, the ship lifted up and proceeded out the doors on a predetermined course.
"Now, if you're calm enough, I'd like to explain a little more of what's going on before we get to the hive. Out there, hidden amongst the treeline, is an aparoid civilization. It was made from a piece of crystal that was found post-war during the Corneria clean up. This is a highly secretive experiment, so I trust you'll keep all this information to yourself."
"Or else what?" Fox growled. The anger that he'd seen in Regal's eyes earlier came bubbling back to the surface. She was not a hard one to piss off.
"Or else I'd hate to have to explain to my insurance adjuster why the door to the shuttle opened up on the way through the jungle. It's a hell of a drop from above the canopy."
Fox was about to snap back, but Krystal put a hand on his shoulder. He could see there was an immediate look of regret in Regal's eyes. He held is tongue, and instead just glared at the doctor. She watched him for a few seconds, then sighed and turned back around to the control panel, busying herself with something Fox couldn't see.
There was silence in the cabin for the rest of the trip. Fox just sat and glared at the back of Regal's head, knowing that Krystal would be watching his thoughts.
The ship glided to a halt in midair. The trip had been so smooth that Fox didn't even really notice their change in direction until there was a weight shift in the vehicle as it began to descend to the forest floor. He felt the well cared for beast settle on the ground, and the door opened to let in the heat and sound of the jungle. Fox stood and glanced at Regal. Without a word, she motioned for him to exit. He did so, with her following close behind.
They were in a section of jungle that his search had not taken him to. It seemed innocent enough. The same sound and smells, if only a little more light from holes made in the canopy from felled trees
"Now what?" He asked Regal. She just motioned forward again, and began to walk casually forward with Knight, as if they were on an afternoon stroll, and not walking towards an aparoid infestation of her own creation. Fox followed cautiously.
As they walked, the air began to change. The creatures of the forest went silent, their smells faded away. Where there had been a frenzy of activity, there was now nothing but the swaying of trees in the wind. Fox began to notice the first inklings of aparoid influence; glowing tendrils that clung to the ancient trees, climbing up to the sun underneath their bark. Others lay along the ground, roped with leafy creeping vines. He squatted down next to one, poking it gently. It answered by shrinking back away from his touch, its light dying.
"Don't do that," Regal warned, "it's first method of defence is to look dead, but if you persist it will attack you."
"What are these things?"
"The ones on the ground are information lines. They know we are coming now."
"And in the trees?"
"Energy. They've taken over a couple of trees in the area so they can harvest the sunlight. They've manipulated their DNA so that it converts into energy that they can use instead of sugars. Its all quite fascinating really."
"The tree has been turned into aparoids?" Krystal asked.
"Hmn, yes I suppose you can think of it that way. Take a left," Regal directed, turning down a path that continued through the bush for a time, before dropping steeply downwards, until it became almost tunnel-like. The wet, muddy sides were full of glinting aparoid crystal, which Fox presumed had been used to keep the sloping tunnel structurally sound. He felt the occasional insect scuttle by his foot, and he soon realized with a start and a yell that these were miniature versions of the monsters he had fought two years ago. He noticed Regal's slight smile at his expense, and swore that he would not be startled again.
Just when he was starting to think that the tunnel would never end, it opened up onto a balcony overlooking a wide, cavernous room. Regal moved towards a set of steps that led down into the cavern, but Fox stepped closer to the edge of the balcony, careful not to touch the hand railing made of aparoid crystal, and scrutinized the place further. There was a very wide, thick pillar nearby, so close he could almost touch it, that blocked most of the view of the room, but from what he could see, the place was of mostly natural creation. The rounded walls and high, natrually created pillars were all made of stone. There seemed to be only minimal aparaoid intrusion to the natural architecture, like the stone and crystal balcony and the set of wide steps that led down into the main chamber.
He could see a few people wandering around below, so tiny they seemed like ants. There were some he immediately recognized as med-techs and Regal's research assistants from the white, green-shouldered uniforms they wore. There were others as well, not in uniform, that he assumed were aparoids like Knight, that seemed to be aiding the techs in whatever job Regal had given them. He noticed one in particular, a black haired human having a heated discussion with one of the techs. This seemed odd to Fox, since all the other aparoids he had seen had either taken the form of a species native to Lylat, or a completely unrecognizable shape. And if Knight was anything to go by, strong emotion wasn't exactly their forte. Regal's hand fell on his shoulder, commanding his attention away from the scene.
"Your daughter is this way," she said, pointing to the steps.
As they descended the staircase, the voices of the two combatants grew to an audible level, but Fox still couldn't quite make out there words. Regal hurried ahead, presumably to quell the disagreement.
"I guess you guys can get a little heated too sometimes," Fox chuckled to Knight.
"The human is not an aparoid," Knight replied blandly. "She is the sister of the other patient. Her anger lights easily."
"I see," Krystal murmured, a suspicious undertone in her voice. Fox looked at her meaningfully, but she did not return his gaze. They followed Knight around the corner, to where the two had been fighting. He could see now that the tech was an older woman, maybe her late thirties or early fourties. She looked to be some kind of frilled lizard, frighting to keep her warning frills down in her anger. Other than that, there wasn't anything particularly special about her.
The human however, was a completely different story.
Two years had done a lot to her. She had shot up in height, a good six inches at the very least. Her body had developed too, going from a thin, lanky child to a curvy young woman. Her raven hair had been cut aggressively short. All in all, she cut a much more impressive figure than the scared little girl Fox remembered from Corneria.
"Sloan!"
Her head whipped around, eyes still full of her frustrations. Her stare was so much more intense now, it was almost hard to look at her. So much had changed, he barely recognized her.
The fire dropped out of her eyes, replaced with mingled shock and disbelief, before the stare renewed with a different kind of rage. She traded her angry gaze once more between the lizard and Regal, before turning on her heel and disappearing down a side corridor. Regal sighed.
"You'll have to excuse her. She's very scared for her brother, so she's trying to hide it by acting tough. Please, follow me."
As Regal guided them down the same corridor, and though a maze of progressively more aparoid influenced halls, Fox watched the rapid thought flashing across Krystal's eyes as she tried to understand.
Sloan doesn't have a brother, her voice said inside Fox's mind. She's an orphan. Fox nodded almost indistinguishably at her. Her ears perked as she heard the first threads of Sloan's voice echoing down the corridor. She focused on the fragments of noise, taking in the sound and magnifying it in her mind.
"...Some solution, what's he gunna' do?"
A pause, someone answering her. The voice was lower than hers, more controlled, and Krystal couldn't pick it up. As they drew closer to the room that held the young patients, someone inside must have heard them, because the conversation ended abruptly. Regal stopped, motioning Knight to go ahead of her. He did so, placing his hand on the fleshy material that made the room's door. With a slight whine,it gave way like the valve in a heart. Standing in the doorway, apparently about to emerge, was a man. The sight of this man in the doorway, the man that Sloan had been speaking to, made Fox's heart stop.
XxX
"Where the hell is she!" Sloan demanded loudly of Vrill, Dr. Regal's assistant. Vrill's eyes rolled up into her head in frustration.
"Ye gilded gods, child, we have been over this a thousand times. There are tests that must be run that cannot be done here! Dr. Regal is back at the Medical Centre, and will return when the tests are finished."
"So what are we supposed to do while she's gone, huh? Just sit here like mushrooms?"
"Now listen here..." Vrill growled. Humans were, in her experience, by far the most annoying* species she had ever encountered. This Sloan girl had been after her day and night since about a week after Regal had left. Granted, she was gone longer than usual, but that was no reason for such impatience.
"What seems to be the problem, ladies?" The bright, cheery voice of the doctor cut into their argument. Vrill silently thanked the gods, as now the human's childish wrath would be turned on someone else.
"And where the hell have you been? Connie has been getting sicker every day!"
"I know, I know, but I haven't been wasting my time while I was gone. I think I have found a solution," she announced, and grinned knowingly.
"And what exactly is-" She was cut off by a man calling her name in surprise. She growled in frustration as she turned, expecting some other med tech that wanted a piece of her. When her eyes connected with Fox McCloud, to say she was shocked beyond belief was an understatement. This is your big solution? she thought angrily, looking between Regal and Vrill like she was expecting some kind of reply. When none came, she turned and escaped down the hall that led to her brothers room. She stayed controlled until she reached the mouth of the hall, but after that, it was breakneck speed up until she reached the door.
She placed her hand on it, her biosigns downloaded into the door for security, and it opened without trouble. She was panting hard as she walked in, and Bristol looked up at her in confusion. Wolf did not move, just sat staring down into the bed he was leaning on.
"Fox... he's here... Regal brought him..."
"Of course she did," Wolf replied calmly, "his daughter is here, it was only a matter of time before he showed up."
"But... but, Regal was rambling on about some solution. What's he gunna' do?"
"You don't know anything about her plans, Sloan. Don't be so quick to jump when a problem arises."
Sloan stared angrily at the back of Wolf's head, feeling deflated by his lacklustre response. But the anger died quickly, replaced with concern. He had not made eye contact with her since she had entered the room. They were busy, slowly scanning the contents of the bed, the same thing they had been doing for days. Sloan watched him uncomfortably for a few seconds, she had never seen him so subdued, before approaching him.
The bed he was guarding was more like an over sized cradle. It was green and carapace like, making it look as if the young boy inside, her brother Conrad, was lying in a hollowed out bug. The milk coloured covers looked very warm, and were tucked very tightly around him so that he couldn't move, even if he had the strength for it. A lattice of sinewy threads were laid out over his covers, in a pattern similar to ribs. There was a strange apparatus covering his muzzle, forcing him to breath. It looked like some kind of cartilage sleeve that had latched to his body. Across the room, another cradle did its work on a different patient, a young girl with "Miasma McCloud" on a name plate above her head.
"Has he been doing any better?" Sloan asked hopefully.
"Same as always," Wolf answered flatly. He finally looked up at her, and opened his mouth to say something, but shut it again, his ears perking. He looked at the door. "Seems they're almost here," he said, getting up and walking towards it. Just as he was reaching the threshold, the door came open of it's own accord, and he was face to face with the aparoid, Knight. Behind him a few steps were Krystal and Fox. Probably a wise decision on Regal's part, she couldn't have been sure how aggressive a response to expect from Fox's most bitter enemy.
"Funny seeing you here," he mumbled, and stepped aside to let them pass.