CHAPTER ELEVEN

Faster, Stronger, Better

November 6th, 2053

Toad's House

Marcus dribbled the basketball around a little bit before using a jump shot to throw it in the hoop. The ball bounced back. He caught it and tossed it to Chase, who did a lay-up, then threw it to Anna.

"Tyler's been bugging me lately about asking you guys if he can join the team." Chase said. "It's really getting under my skin."

Tyler was one of Chase's four brothers, as well as the youngest at age seven. His other three brothers, George, Logan and Matt, were triplets at age eighteen and were enlisted in the Cornerian Army in the Basset, Husky and Bloodhound units respectively. Chase hadn't seen any of them in at least three years

"What, is he jealous of you or something?" asked Anna before running up to the hoop and slam dunking the ball.

"Nah, he just thinks that he could do it a lot easier than we could."

"He's seems to have forgotten the fact that he's seven and we're sixteen."

"He has this really bad habit of being cocky. He's been like that for months…actually, I think he might have gotten it from me."

What was his first guess?

Marcus smirked.

"Trust me, if he had gone through that mission on Solar, he would've dropped out…" (Here he snapped his fingers) "…just like that."

Chase laughed.

"Yeah, but at least he's got guts. Maybe I'll just tell him he'll get on when he's fourteen or something."

Chase tossed the ball over his shoulder.

"Either of you guys bored as hell right now?" he asked.

Marcus and Anna nodded.

"Of course, you DO have that habit of getting bored as hell by just standing still for three seconds." Marcus chuckled.

"Ha ha. Real freakin' funny, smartass." Chase said sarcastically.

"Let's go down to the Great Fox and just screw around or something." Anna said. "I mean, it's better than standing around out here, right?"

"Not exactly what I had in mind, but sure! Why not?"

20 minutes later

"Lemme get this straight: you were just lying in bed when something snuck into your room and snogged you on the cheek?" Chase asked, stifling a laugh.

Marcus had told them what happened the other night. Chase and Anna had both burst out laughing when he first said it.

"Hey, I ain't a liar!" Marcus said.

"I never said you were."

"Well, that's just the pure facts. And I was not, I repeat, NOT dreaming!"

"We understand that. Any idea who it was?" Anna asked.

Marcus stopped. Good question.

He thought and came up with five possible answers.

It couldn't have been Anna, because she told him herself that even though Chase was an egotistical jerk, believe it or not, she actually had a crush on him. (Here Marcus smirked).

It definitely wasn't Krystal, because she would've come in through the hallway, not the balcony. Plus she was his mom, and that kiss was WAY too passionate for a motherly kiss.

There was no way it was Katt, because Falco would've noticed if she had left, and they were still hooked on each other.

Even in his wildest nightmares, it wouldn't be Kursed. She was dead…or so he thought.

So, by order of elimination, that left only…

"Coyote!" Marcus said out loud.

Anna's eyes went wide.

"O'Donnell's kid? You can't be serious!"

"I haven't seen her since the Fichina mission, but it's gotta be her!"

"Sitting duck." Chase said suddenly.

"What?"

"Sitting duck."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"SITTING DUCK!"

Chase meant that Marcus was a sitting duck.

"She's not gonna kill me in my sleep, moron!" Marcus retaliated. "She could've done it last night, but wonders of wonders, she chose not to!"

"You don't know that!" Chase shot back. "For all you know, she could plotting your downfall right now! Have you ever seen The Wolfman? Well, she's just like the monster in that movie! One minute she's snogging you, then next, WHAP! She's mutilated your whole freakin' body!"

"Great, now you're comparing her to a monster in some movie from FORTY-THREE YEARS AGO! Look, I know you're just trying to help me, but don't! I can take care of myself!"

"Will you both just stop it?" Anna cut in with a sincere tone in her voice. "You've both been best friends for God knows how long, and now some girl from another planet is going to mess that up? You two should be ashamed of yourselves!"

Marcus and Chase shut their mouths. It always seemed to be the Hares that ended arguments. Even Peppy and Lucy could cut in and stop people from fighting when it was absolutely necessary.

"I'm sorry." Marcus said.

"It's OK. Don't worry about it." Chase replied, a small grin on his face. "But seriously, don't let your guard down. You never know when you'll be just walking along; minding your own business, then suddenly WHAM! Knife in your back!"

Marcus rolled his eyes and smirked.

"I think you need to stop watching Friday the 13th."

The three teens arrived at the airway. They stepped underneath the Great Fox, and ROB beamed them up. Inside the command bridge, Katt and Falco were lounging around with their feet up on a desk.

"You guys, too?" Chase asked.

"Yep." Falco yawned. "It ain't the first time I've had nothin' to do around here."

"Speak for yourself, why don't ya?" Katt sarcastically said, rolling her eyes.

Suddenly, a voice crackled on the hologram projector. It was extremely static, but they could make out a few words.

"Star Fox…this…Command…Bill Grey!" the voice shouted.

"Dad!" Anna screamed. "What's going on?"

The image became clear and the static stopped.

"Phew! That's better!" Bill said in an exhausted voice.

"Bill, where are you?" Marcus asked. "What's going on?"

"Me and the Husky unit are at the Katina hinterland base. We need your help! We're under attack!"

Chase's eyes went wide. That meant Logan was in trouble!

Marcus saw the fear in both of his friends' eyes and furrowed his brow.

"We're on our way! Try to stay alive until we get there! Marcus out!"

The hologram projector shut off.

"ROB! Set course for Katina, pronto!"

"Affirmative."

Everyone ran to their seats except Chase, who stood there staring blankly into space with fear in his eyes. Marcus put a hand on Chase's shoulder.

"Logan's gonna be fine." he said. "But we gotta get over there now and help them out!"

Chase snapped out of his trance and narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah! Let's do this!"

10 minutes later

"Entering Katina air space!" Marcus shouted into his comm as the five Arwings flew down into the atmosphere. "Anna! You, Katt and I will take the ground. Chase and Falco, the skies are all yours!"

"Gotcha. Try not to make a mess of things, Chase." Falco said.

"Give it a rest, Falco. I just wanna save my big brother before he gets buried in scrap metal!" Chase retorted.

Marcus, Anna and Katt piloted their ships through the rampage going on across the sky. They barely made it to the ground and hopped out of their ships. For the first time, Katt got a good look at Anna in her pink jumpsuit, compared to the vest and cargo pants that she had been wearing before. She wolf-whistled.

"Wow, that outfit really shows off your figure, Annie! You should feel proud of it!" she said.

Anna blushed.

"I…I don't wear this to look good, you know! I wear it because it's aero-dynamic!"

"Sure you do, Anna Aensland." Chase said, chuckling.

"This is no joke, Chase!"

"Sorry. Force of habit, y'know."

"Bill!" Marcus shouted into his comm. "Are you OK?"

Marcus heard Bill's voice on the other end.

"Star Fox!" Bill breathed. "Oh, thank God it's you! The Venomians have broken through our primary defenses and have taken over the base from the inside. We're being overrun out here!"

Suddenly, a voice Marcus had never heard before crackled on the line. The person who spoke was talking to Chase.

"Little bro! Is that you?" the voice asked.

"Logan! Phew, you're OK. Man, I haven't seen you in…"

"3 years. I know. We can catch up later, shortstop. Right now, we've gotta kick some Venomian ass!"

Marcus extended his staff, while Katt and Anna pulled out their guns as several Venomian foot soldiers ran for them.

"Go! Go! Go!" Marcus shouted.

The three ran full speed at the Venomian, firing their guns off as they went. Katt front-flipped over the enemies with her guns still going off, sending a massive barrage of lead raining down on them.

Marcus rolled to the left as one of the Venomians shot at him, then he leaped into the air and hit the guard on the side of the head, knocking him out cold. Meanwhile, up in the air, Chase was keeping on the tail of one of the enemy units.

"Your carcass is mine!" he shouted.

The enemy ship swerved out of the way.

"Escaping?" Chase mocked. "I don't think so!"

Chase locked onto the ship and let fly with a smart bomb, then quickly U-turned to avoid being caught in the blast radius.

Logan smirked at his younger brother's work.

"You've become quite a pilot, little bro!" he said.

"Yeah, you know it!...Watch out! There's a bogey behind you!"

Logan looked behind him. An enemy ship was following him. He somersaulted over the enemy, let fly with an energy sphere and blasted the ship to smithereens.

"No sweat!" he mocked.

"Damn it, you filthy apes!" Falco shouted. "Just die already!"

Marcus looked around and saw that the Venomians had them outnumbered by at least three hundred soldiers. He'd never be able to take them down…

…at least, not on foot!

Marcus turned on a line to the Great Fox.

"ROB, deploy the Landmaster!"

A bright beam of light touched down about 25 feet from Marcus. A few seconds later, the massive tank stood ready for combat. Marcus sprinted over to it, remotely opened the cockpit and hopped inside. A group of Venomians started running toward the tank. Marcus aimed the heavy gun at them and fired, sending the foot soldiers flying in all directions.

"That's it, Mark! Show those punks what that Landmaster can do!" Falco cheered.

Bill's voice crackled on the comm.

"OK, Mark, listen up. If we're gonna flush out all those Venomians, we need to get inside the base. Only problem is that the entry points are protected by a buncha barriers that prevent us from going in. The Venomians set up some shield generators to keep those barriers going. If you destroy them, you'll be able to get inside."

"Understood." Marcus replied.

"I've marked the locations of the generators on your radar, kid." Logan said. "You make good use of that, y'hear?"

"Whoa, wait a second. When did you learn how to mark locations on radar?" Chase asked.

Logan glanced at Bill.

"You get the son-in-law of the general as your boss, the two are really close…kinda self-explanatory, really."

Looking on the screen next to the windshield, four blinking dots were visible. The first one was fifty feet west and twenty feet above ground level.

"Keep on me, girls!" Marcus called. "I might need backup!"

"Right behind you, Mark." Katt replied.

The Landmaster began moving. Katt and Anna followed it. Marcus locked onto one of the Venomian ships and fired an energy sphere at it. The ship came down with an explosive crash.

"Smash anyone and anything that gets in your way!" Falco said.

"With pleasure." Marcus replied.

Several Venomian foot soldiers started firing at the tank. The bullets bounced off like rain.

Marcus smirked.

"My turn."

He pressed the fire button. A massive laser hit the ground were the Venomian soldiers stood and sent them flying away.

"Get ready! You're coming up on the first generator." Bill said.

Marcus looked up. An odd-looking machine was attached to the wall of the base. It was rotating very quickly and powering a translucent, green force field. Nevertheless, it only took one shot to destroy it.

"The next one's on the far side. Hurry!" Bill said.

Marcus turned around. Several Venomians were standing on the wall with grenade launchers in their hands.

"FIRE!" one of them shouted.

The guns went off and several small bombs went hurtling at the Landmaster. Anna and Katt took cover behind a wall.

"Try hovering!" Anna shouted.

Marcus held his feet down on the boost and brake pedals and pulled up on the steering control. The Landmaster ten feet off the ground. The grenades passed harmlessly underneath. Katt looked back from behind the wall. She loaded up her gun and shot all the Venomians down from where they stood.

"It's all clear!" she shouted. "Get moving!"

Marcus slammed on the boost pedal and rocketed across the ground toward the second generator, which, unfortunately, was guarded by two anti-aircraft turrets, which immediately sprang to life and began shooting at the Landmaster.

"I can't get close with those turrets shooting at me!" Marcus said. "Chase! Falco! You think you can handle for me?"

"On our way now, bud!" Chase said.

Falco and Chase swerved down, locked onto the turrets and hit them with charged shots, immediately detonating them.

"Thanks, boys. Now, to bust that generator!"

Marcus locked onto the distant generator and let fly with an energy sphere, which destroyed it on contact.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Chase shouted. "My radar's getting jammed!"

Marcus looked at his radar screen. It was flickering and getting harder to see the dots.

"I've got a bad feeling about this…" Katt said.

"Hurry and get the other generators, McCloud!" Logan shouted.

"Hey, calm down! I've got this under control!" Marcus replied.

The third generator was in orbit around the base.

"I can't get the third one! It's too high!"

Chase spotted the generator and was about to head for it when two enemy ships came up behind him.

"Dammit! I can't break free!" he shouted. "Mark, do something about the guys behind me!"

"It would be easier if you weren't 300 feet above me!"

Chase dropped altitude, barrel-rolled, and somersaulted, but no matter how hard he tried, the Venomians stuck on him like glue.

"Hands off my little bro, you stinkin' fleabags!" Logan shouted.

Logan's ship shot toward the enemies. He laid his thumb on the fire button and blasted them to smithereens.

"Phew! Thanks, Logan!" Chase said.

He U-turned back toward the generator and hit it with a smart bomb. The last generator was up on a tower at the middle of the base. And much to Marcus' dismay, it was protected by three guards holding homing launchers.

Even worse, the evil soldiers chose that moment to fire their guns at Marcus.

"Incoming missiles!" Marcus shouted. "Girls, take care of 'em for me!"

Katt and Anna held down the triggers on their guns and shot the missiles' rocket thrusters. They were no longer tracking Marcus, but they were still hurtling toward him at high speed.

"Roll out of the way before you get smoked!" Anna shouted.

Marcus shoved the steering console all the way to the left. The Landmaster rolled out of the way as the missiles hurtled past it, but Marcus now felt nauseous. The Landmaster wasn't designed to perform barrel rolls the way the Arwing could, so whenever a roll was successfully performed, it ALWAYS left the pilot with a sickening feeling.

Katt managed to shoot down the soldiers on the wall before they fired again. Marcus pulled himself together, locked onto the generator and destroyed it with a smart bomb.

Bill's voice crackled again.

"Good job, Mark! The shield's down!"

"Now get your ass in there!" Falco shouted.

"And hurry!" Chase shouted. "From the way my radar's reacting, I think something HUGE is coming right at us!"

Marcus ejected from the cockpit and sprinted to the entrance. He ran inside the room and set the elevator to descend to Level B3. The elevator went down. When the doors slowly slid open, Marcus quietly unsheathed his staff.

No one was in the hall. Marcus hid behind a wall and peeked around the corner. A group of Venomian soldiers, possibly commanders by the way they were dressed, were standing around the table, discussing something.

Marcus didn't catch much of the conversation, but he could make out the words "resurrection," "December seventh" and "core of the planet."

Whose resurrection? What core of what planet? And what would happen on December 7th? One thing Marcus was good at was mental notes.

"Bill…uhh…how exactly do I flush 'em out?" Marcus whispered into the comm.

"You'll need to go to the boiler room and activate the atomic rinse sequence. If you do this, every living creature inside the base will be killed."

"Uhh…yeah, but doesn't that include me? How do I stay alive?"

"Simple: get out before the rinse goes off."

"Well…alright. It's kinda barbaric, but it doesn't look like we have a choice. Marcus out."

Marcus turned off his comm and stepped back. He bumped into someone.

"And just who the hell are you?" the guard asked.

Marcus back-flipped over the guard and threw his staff at him. The staff hit the guard in the back off the head and knocked him unconscious. Marcus grabbed his staff, then quietly ran down the hall, making sure to duck into any nooks and crannies to keep from being seen by the several guards patrolling the inside.

After a few minutes, he made it to the boiler room. Silently, he opened the door and went inside. The entire room was made of metal and every thing seemed to radiate heat. Marcus quickly found the control panel and on the bottom side, outlined in red, was a button that said "Atomic Rinse. For Use in Emergencies Only."

He took in a few deep breathes, said "Here goes nothin'." and slammed his fist down on the button.

"Atomic rinse sequence initiated." a computerized voice blared. "Five minutes until detonation. All personnel evacuate immediately."

Marcus ran back to the elevator and hit the ground floor button. As soon as he reached the top, he ran out and shut the door. The base seemed to shake violently for a few moments, but other than that, nothing happened.

Marcus doubled over, panting.

"Phew! Glad that's over with." he breathed.

Suddenly, a gigantic shadow slowly loomed over the base.

"Look!" Katt shouted. "Up in the sky!"

Marcus looked up. A massive, circular ship that seemed to be wider than the whole base was floating above it.

"Commander, enemy mother-ship is positioning over the base!" Logan shouted.

"Oh, no, they've brought reinforcements!" Bill shouted.

A loud, sliding sound rang through the air as four hatches opened on the ship's underside. Hundreds of Venomian fighters came flying out.

"Looks like we've got company!" Falco shouted.

Marcus flipped out of the way of an enemy ship's laser fire as they slowly filled the open sky. He ran and took cover behind a wall.

Marcus looked up at the ships.

"Chase, gimme an analysis on that thing!" he yelled into the comm.

"The exterior looks like it's made of plutonium, one of the strongest known elements! Laser fire's gonna be useless!" Chase replied.

Marcus groaned and watched in annoyance as more ships shot out of the four hatches. Wait…the hatches! They weren't made of plutonium. They were made of steel!

"All ships, go for the four hatches on the underside. It'll prevent more ships from coming out!"

As if on cue, the military ships U-turned and headed right for the mother-ship.

Anna and Katt ran up to Marcus.

"Let's head for higher ground!" he shouted to them.

They nodded in response. The three broke into a sprint and found a few ramps near the central tower. Running up to the wall, Marcus jumped into the seat of a turret positioned at one corner of the main bridge. He carefully aimed at the open hatches.

"Time to show you who's boss." he grumbled

He pulled the trigger. Thousands of titanium bullets hit the hatch and detonated it, blocking anything else from getting out.

"Good job!" Bill said. "Only three more to go!"

"Falco, can you come down here and give us a hand with this?" Marcus said into his comm.

"No problem!" Falco replied. "I'm headin' down right…hey now! What have we here?"

Falco landed the Sky Claw on a large platform and spotted a missile launcher sitting off to the left. He grinned.

"Now THIS is what I call firepower!"

He picked it up, looked through the scope and lined the crosshairs up with the closest hatch.

"Adios, sugar puff!" he shouted, before pulling the trigger.

The missile soared through the air until it collided with the hatch and exploded.

"Yeah, baby!" Falco cheered. "I almost feel like dancing!"

Katt smirked. She always loved to see him happy, even if he WAS being a little cockier than he really needed to be.

"When we get back…I'm gonna tell him." she said to herself.

Chase and Logan's ships passed underneath the third hatch. The two brothers looked at each other.

"You ready, big bro?" asked Chase.

"Always ready, little man."

Chase frowned. He was much shorter than his three older brothers, and that was something they had held over his head for his entire life (And for now, it looked like they would keep doing it).

"I have a name, y'know!"

The two ships U-turned, then Chase flipped his Arwing upside-down and lined it up underneath Logan's ship.

"TOAD CYCLONE!" they shouted.

The two ships rotated around each other at supersonic speed and fired off their cannons. Sure enough, the two lasers (Chase's plasma laser and Logan's mercury laser) blended together and collided with the hatch. The hatch itself exploded on contact.

"AW, YEAH!" Chase cheered. "I finally pulled it off! Take that, you no-good varmints!"

"Phew! Man, you're no little man when it comes to piloting, bro!" Logan said. "You've certainly grown since the last time I saw ya…and I honestly admit that I've never heard you say 'varmint' before."

"Then you've got a lot of catching up to do, buddy boy!"

"I'll take care of the last hatch!" Bill said.

He U-turned back toward the mother-ship and deployed a smart bomb at the last remaining hatch. The hatch exploded.

Suddenly, the central part of the underside began glowing.

"There's some sort of energy reaction on the underside, sir!" Logan shouted.

Slowly but surely, an odd needle-like protrusion appeared on the glowing spot.

"The core has appeared! All ships stand by to attack!" Bill ordered.

Bill turned on a comm link to Marcus.

"We've got two minutes before that ship fires its artillery cannon. That beam will destroy the base if it's launched. We need you to get up here and take out the core!"

"Got it." Marcus replied. "Anna, let's get back to our ships. Falco! Katt! You two cover us from below!"

The four started sprinting to Marcus and Anna's ships. Suddenly, a Venomian foot soldier that had survived the onslaught pulled out the pin on a grenade and threw it at Falco. Falco himself didn't see it, but Katt did.

"Falco, watch out!" she shrieked.

Katt tackled Falco out of the way. The grenade exploded in front of her, and she screamed as she was hurtled toward a wall.

"Katt!" Falco screamed.

Anna, Marcus and Falco ran over to Katt, who was crumpled on the ground and couldn't stop her tail from fidgeting, as though she were having a seizure. Falco knelt down and turned her over on her back. Her chest was bleeding like mad and her face was strained.

"Oh, God." Marcus said.

He touched his fingers to his comm.

"Man down! MAN DOWN!" he shouted.

The Venomian didn't seem content with downing just Katt, so he pulled out an AK-47 and started firing several rounds at the team. Marcus stood up, whipped out his staff and slammed it into the ground. A translucent, blue force-field erupted from it. When the bullets made contact, they reflected back onto their firer.

Logan's ship landed near them. He jumped out. Now that Marcus got a good look at him, he could see that Logan looked much like Chase, except much taller and with red skin instead of orange.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Grenade." Marcus said.

Logan knelt down next to Katt and pressed his middle and index finger to her wrist to check her pulse.

"Is…she gonna be OK?" Anna asked.

"It's hard to say." Logan said. "But she's definitely out of the fight. You've still got work to do."

"But what about Katt?" Marcus asked.

"Falco and I will take care of her. Hurry up and take out that core!"

Marcus hesitated, then sheathed his staff. He and Anna ran to their Arwings and jumped inside. They immediately flew up into the air. Marcus flew at the needle-like core and immediately began blaring off his lasers.

"Danger!" ROB blared. "Thirty seconds until laser fire!"

"Hurry up, Mark!" Chase shouted.

Marcus U-turned back toward the core and launched a smart bomb at the core. The bomb implanted itself into the structure and suddenly…

…KA-BOOM!

The entire mother-ship exploded!

"YEEHAW!" Bill cheered. "You did it!"

Everyone landed back on the ground. Falco picked up Katt in his arms.

"Let's get back to the Great Fox. Now!" Marcus ordered.

10 minutes later

Inside the medical room of the Great Fox, Katt lay on a metal table, still straining from the pain in her chest. Chase was performing an X-ray to see what the problem was.

A loud beep was heard.

"Got it." Chase said.

Everyone stood up.

"What's wrong with her?" asked Logan.

"It's just as I thought." Chase muttered.

He showed them the X-ray. An odd-looking object was shown in the chest area. Chase pointed at it.

"Know what that is?" he asked them. "That's a piece of shrapnel. It's stuck in her arteries."

"Does that mean she's…" Anna started.

Chase sighed, then looked up sincerely.

"She will be if I don't operate immediately."

"So…"

ROB stepped forward.

"Confirmed. The only chance Katt has for survival is if the shrapnel is surgically removed."

'Oh, God." Anna said, covering her mouth her hand and looking like she was about to throw up. She had been hemophobic since she was eleven. The mere mention of blood made her want to throw up.

"…if it'll save her life, then do it!" Marcus said.

"OK. Don't worry, I'm a trained professional." Chase said as he slipped on a pair of latex gloves.

He looked at them.

"You guys might wanna leave. If you're any bit like Anna, you probably don't wanna see this."

Everyone got up and left…except Falco.

"Falco, you too." Chase said.

Falco shook his head.

"I'm not gonna leave her…not again."

Falco took Katt's hand. Her face stopped straining and she looked at him with weak and frightened eyes.

"Falco…" she said quietly."…I'm gonna die, aren't I?"

A tear fell from Falco's eye. It was the first time he had cried in forty years.

"No…you're not." he said. "You'll live, because I'm gonna stay with you this time and tough it out with you. You're not alone anymore. You still have so much left to live for…you can't die now."

ROB placed a mask over Katt's mouth. Sleeping gas flew into her nasal cavities. Just before she fell asleep, she said something that made Falco want her to live even more.

"Falco...I love you."

Katt's eyes closed. Falco held her hand even tighter as Chase slipped on a surgical mask, took in a few deep breathes, placed his scalpel to Katt's chest and made the first incision.

15 minutes later

Anna, Logan and Bill all sat anxiously in the room adjacent to the medical room, waiting to hear if Katt would be alright. Marcus was pacing up and down the room, the suspension literally driving him crazy.

Anna's eyes slowly began to well up with tears. She looked at Marcus.

"Mark?"

He stopped pacing and looked at her.

"Yes, Anna?"

"She'll be OK…right?"

Marcus looked away from her for a moment. He was just as worried about Katt as anyone else was, but he looked back at Anna, smiled and answered.

"She'll be just fine. We just need to let Chase handle this. Just…have faith, okay?"

"…..okay."

Speaking of Chase, right at that moment, the door opened. Everyone stood up. Chase was pulling off the latex gloves.

"Chase," Bill started "…is she gonna make it?"

Chase looked up. He was grinning.

"See for yourself." he said.

They slowly walked into the room. Katt was sitting up on the table, looking as healthy as ever. Falco was holding her hand.

"Katt, are you OK?" Marcus asked.

"Never better." she answered. "But…I feel…weird."

"Weird? Weird how?"

Katt felt at the blood vessels in her neck.

"Chase…did you shoot something into me?"

Chase grinned even more.

"Indeed I did." he said. "That operation was the perfect time for me to test out the strength-enhancing hormone I was developing. If it works, you should be more than twice as strong as you were before."

Katt hopped off the table and looked at her hands. She didn't notice any difference.

"You're not bluffing, are you?" she asked

"If you don't believe me, try lifting that table." Chase said. "It weighs about 205 pounds, but you should have no trouble with it at all."

"Uhh…okay, I guess I'll give it a shot."

Katt slipped her hands underneath the table. She seemed to strain for a second as she pulled on it, when she suddenly lifted it above her head as though it were light as a feather!

"Son of a gun!" Marcus whispered.

"Impressive, huh?" Chase smirked.

Katt lowered the table back down to the ground, stood up and looked at her hands.

"This ain't natural…but I like it!" she said.

Falco stepped toward her. Katt suddenly turned around and cheerfully bear-hugged him.

"I can't believe I'm still alive!" she cheered.

"Whoa, hang on a second! Calm down, girl!" Falco said. "Don't underestimate your own strength!"

Katt had lifted Falco 2 feet off the ground. When she saw what she was doing, she flushed bright red.

"Uhh…oops." she said, lowering him back down.

Marcus smirked and rolled his eyes.

"Typical." he said.

"While those lovebirds chum it up," Logan said. "…we've just gotta say thanks for your help down there. We would've gotten slaughtered if you hadn't shown up."

"Don't mention it." Marcus said. "That's our job, remember?""

"We better get going." Bill said as he and Logan walked back to the hangar bay. "I'll see you tonight, Anna."

"See ya later, Dad." Anna replied.

"Chase, you stay smart, y'hear?" Logan said.

Chase smirked.

"You can bet your soul on it!"

The two soldiers got in their ships and flew back down to Katina.

"So that's your brother?" Marcus asked.

"Yep. He's a real pain in the ass sometimes, but he's a good guy nonetheless."

"I can well imagine."

"Hey! Are you two done in there?" Anna called.

Katt and Falco stepped out of the medical room, grinning.

"I'll take that as a yes." Marcus said. "Mission accomplished, ROB. Take us home."