CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Two Worlds, One Family
The last thing Marcus wanted to do when he escaped from the mountain in his father's Arwing was face everyone and tell them what had happened to Coyote, let alone that he was unable to defeat Kursed and was nearly killed in the process, but he saw he'd have to face the music in the worst possible way when they landed and saw everyone waiting there for him. Everyone from the rest of his teammates to the group that he had left behind going into Tartaros to Peppy, Bill, Lucy, and Amanda to Star Wolf…including Wolf and Lori.
"Oh, God…what am I gonna say to them?" he thought with his confidence slowly sinking away. "'Hey, guys! Nice to see you, but guess what? Your daughter's dead!'"
"Mark!" Anna cried cheerfully, rushing headlong towards Marcus and pulling him into a bear-like hug. "You're okay!"
Marcus said nothing, causing Anna to look at him with confusion before seeing the melancholy look on his face.
"Mark? What's wrong?" she asked.
Again, he said nothing. He pushed his way through the crowd and walked towards Wolf and Lori. They looked happy to see that he had made it out alright, but became somewhat unnerved when they saw the look on his face. He stopped in front of them and looked Wolf deep in the eyes. How would he react to hearing the news? What would he do to Marcus?
"…where's Coyote?" he asked.
This was it. Marcus tried his best not to choke on his words, but the memory of what he had done still flashed in his mind and made his tear up all over again.
"I…I'm sorry…there was nothing I could do."
The two stood there in shock for a few moments. Lori was the first one to react, sitting down on the ground and burying her face in her hands as she began to cry. She cried longer and louder than she ever had in her life. Her beloved daughter was gone…and she didn't even get the chance to say good-bye. Bill rushed over to his sister and attempted to comfort her to the best of his abilities while Marcus saw Wolf's hands curl into fists and began shaking with unspeakable fury. Marcus bowed his head and prepared for Wolf to reap his vengeance on him, but it didn't come.
"…what were her last words?" he said, beginning to choke on his own tears.
"…she said to tell you, Lori and Scott that…she loves you."
Then Wolf said exactly what Coyote said he would say.
"I understand…there's no way I can fault you for this. You'd never want to kill her on your own volition."
Then it happened. Though Wolf didn't break down in the same way his wife did, he raised his sleeve to his eyes and let the tears drop like rain. One of the toughest men in the galaxy had just lost something that meant everything to him…and now he was crying over it. Wolf O'Donnell was crying, and it pained Marcus to watch. A child was not supposed to die before their parents, and to see it happen anyway made the parents suffer the worst kind of pain they could ever experience.
That's how it seemed: everyone around him was suffering because Kursed saw them as his weaknesses and was using that against him. But no more. They were here to fight alongside him…even though he knew in his heart that he wasn't worth it.
He laid his hand on Wolf's shoulder.
"We've come this far already. We have to end it before it gets any worse."
Wolf looked into Marcus' eyes with the most determined face he'd ever worn.
"Yes…she'll pay for what she did to you…to your friends…and to my daughter."
The pilots heard marching in the distance, steadily growing louder and louder until they saw just what they needed to see. The Cerinian natives led by Aileen, Hephaestus, and Aphrodite were coming towards them, all of them armed and ready for war by the looks of it. Aileen stopped in front of Marcus.
"Lead us to victory, cousin." she said. "We're ready to take back our home."
Before anything else could happen, Aileen turned her head and met Krystal's gaze. Seeing her aunt for the first time made her feel a strange sensation within her, seeing a female likeness of her father standing right in front of her and not having any words to speak to her. Krystal felt nearly the same. This young girl was all that remained of her dear brother, and she was nothing short of wonderful. Before they knew it, they found themselves standing within arm's length of one another. They said nothing, but after staring at one another long enough, smiles formed across their faces and they embraced.
"So Marcus isn't the only family I have left…" Aileen sighed.
"Your family is all those you love, not just those related to you by blood."
"Yeah…I've kind of figured that out on my own after being with him and the others for the past few days."
Peter jumped down from one of the trees after surveying the area long enough with his binoculars.
"Mates…there's this huge tower-like thing a few dozen miles from here that's spewing out Aparoids." he announced. "And…it's alive."
"What do you mean 'alive'?" Slippy asked.
"I mean it's…never mind. You'll know it when we see it."
Everyone crowded around Marcus and waited for him to give their orders, but what they were not aware of was that his self-doubt had come back at full force. Why did they all put his trust in him like this? It couldn't be because of his psychic powers. Krystal had proven not even ten minutes ago that she was stronger than he was.
Then he stopped and thought about it. Kursed had affected the lives of almost everyone here. Every single one of them wanted to take her down before she could do anymore damage, and they wanted him (the one who had been affected the most) to lead them to victory. It wasn't fate that he would lead them…it was responsibility.
He exhaled.
"Okay…" he said, looking around at everyone. "We made this thing…all of us. We all have to work together to destroy it."
"Orders, Mark?" Damalgo asked.
"Listen up, everyone! It's do-or-die time! Our primary objective is to get the beacon and keep as many Aparoids from getting off the planet as possible! Cerinians, you'll follow Aileen and come in from the south. Peppy, you take half of our pilots around and flank the east. I'll take the other half and flank the west. We'll leave the north to the Great Fox."
Chase dialled his communicator right away.
"ROB, bring the Great Fox down."
Right before the bewildered eyes of the natives, the massive mothership came gracefully soaring down into the atmosphere from far away and began moving towards the direction Peter had located the beacon.
"We've got to establish relations with Corneria…" Hephaestus mumbled in amazement. "I mean….wow."
"LET'S MOVE OUT!" Marcus shouted.
The pilots hopped into their vehicles and started the engines immediately. Marcus had noticed Wolf and Lori get into the same vehicle and Wolf slamming the ignition as hard as he could. Reaching out with his mind, he heard exactly what he thought Wolf would be thinking: "I'm gonna skin that bitch alive…"
The numerous ships raised themselves high off the ground., sending an intense gust rifling through the trees.
"Dad, Chase, Pete, Slippy, Leon, Oikonny, Lucy, Anne! You're with me! The rest of you are with Peppy!" Marcus ordered. "Let's move out!"
Aileen faced in the direction of the beacon and raised her blades, letting out a loud battle cry that was echoed by the Cerinians that followed her. They drew their weapons and the ground seemed to rumble beneath their feet as they charged headlong, following the pilots as closely as they could.
For Marcus, it felt good to sit in the sit of his beloved Arwing again. He was sick of walking all over the place, getting scrapes and bruises all over him when he kept slamming into the ground, and he was just sick of the ground in general. Flying seemed to relieve some of this stress, but what he couldn't shake off were the thoughts of all the other pilots when he decided to sense them. What he heard made him even more determined to get this job done.
Krystal: "I can't believe she'd do this…I mean, sure, we didn't exactly treat her right but…to think she'd sink to this level."
Wolf: "Coyote…my little baby girl…I never should have let her go. She didn't deserve to go this early…"
Falco: "This is just too much…once this is over, I'm done for good."
The thought from Falco was what cemented Marcus' thoughts on the subject. He had dwelled on it enough already, but it simply couldn't be addressed enough. The life of a Star Fox pilot was a never-ending cycle of violence and pain…and it needed to stop.
"This is it, folks!" Peppy barked. "Aparoids incoming! We're flanking east!"
The massive bugs began surging up out of the trees with the full intention of killing anything that tried to prevent them from getting off the planet, some swooping down to the ground while the rest split off into separate groups to take down both teams. Marcus gripped his steering control as hard as he could and jammed it to the right, slipping out of the way just in time for Fox to blast a trio of Aparoids down with a charged shot.
"Alright! It's go-time, Kursed!" Marcus growled under his breath. "Let's bring the rain!"
Marcus and Anna locked onto a nearby group coming up from the ground and fired away with a barrage of lasers, slicing through them all with barely any effort before barrel-rolling when a few came too close. Clearly Anna was furious at the death of her cousin, and now she wanted to watch Kursed suffer just as much as Marcus did. Fitting, really. She had been tortured, and now she wanted to torture the one who had done the torturing to her. She'd earned it after all of the disasters she'd been through.
Down on the ground, the Cerinians and Aparoids clashed. Leading the way through them, Aileen and Hephaestus slashed, ripping the Aparoids apart once their subjects followed suit. A rather large one jumped on top of Hephaestus' back, only for Aphrodite to ram a spear through its head and vault it off him.
"When did you learn how to fight like that, Sister?" asked Hephaestus in bewilderment.
"I've done a lot of things in the time you've been in a statue, Brother…not all of them things I should be proud of."
Hephaestus smirked.
"In any case, you're certainly putting your new skills to good use. Keep it up!"
Marcus' group approached a mountain poking up from the forest with a single tunnel leading through it.
"Everyone form up!" Marcus ordered. "Single file!"
The ships organized themselves one after the other and proceeded directly into the tunnel, but right as they did so, they saw something that wasn't what they were hoping for: the tunnel walls were lined with dozens of Aparoids!
"It's a trap!" shouted Leon.
"Quick!" shouted Peppy from the other end. "Do a barrel roll!"
They followed the order right as the Aparoids lunged at them, and thankfully their progress was anything but impeded from this. The Aparoids were crushed against the sides of the wall the second the nine ships rolled, sending revolting ooze spraying onto their blast shields.
"Oh, come on!" Peter groaned. "I practically had my bloody skin burned off and now I got bug guts all over my window! This is like rush hour in a back alley, for Christ's sake!"
"You think that's gross?" Fox scoffed. "You should've seen the kind of shit I had to go through on Sauria!"
They shot out the backside of the mountain as it began to rain, lightning striking Tartaros from far away with thunder soon following. What cemented this moment as tense, however, was the tower-like structure that Marcus could just barely see over the horizon. He couldn't quite make it out from here, but as he sensed the environment, he could tell that this was their target…but what in the world did Peter mean by it being alive?!
"Jeez, bogies behind me…" Slippy grumbled, zipping ahead and trying to shake his pursuers. "Did Falco ever tell you guys I was the ultimate basket case?"
"He said you were a basket case, but he never said anything about being the ultimate one." Chase replied.
"Oh, great. I suppose that's me, then." spat Oikonny.
Fox switched to Multi-Lock, targeted all of Slippy's pursuers, and then let fly with several charged shots.
"Whew! Thanks, Fox. Even when we're retired from this, you're still saving my ass, huh?"
"Can't be helped, I suppose."
Anna booted up her map of the region and examined the planet surface for any other obstructions.
"Ah, shit…" she growled.
"What's wrong, Anne?" asked Chase.
"There's a valley up ahead that's apparently prone to rock slides. Everyone watch your six!"
The ships jetted into the valley, and as if on cue, giant rocks began tumbling down towards them. They boosted, braked, somersaulted. Every possible thing that could be done to avoid the falling rocks was done, and yet that didn't stop Lucy from being struck from above by a particularly large one. She let out a yelp, but managed to keep flying.
"Are you okay, Mom?!" called Anna.
"Yeah, I'm fine…but you weren't kidding, Annie. Watching my six probably would have been a good idea right about then."
They flew further and were just about to leave the valley when Marcus heard a voice echo out from nowhere. Not Kursed's voice, but…Coyote's.
"Dad…he killed me. Marcus murdered me…why are you siding with him?"
She was speaking to Wolf, and from what Marcus could hear in his mind, Wolf wasn't taking to this mental violation too well.
"He did what he had to do…he didn't want to do it."
"You don't know that…for all you know, he probably ripped me limb from limb and then laughed about it…think. He wouldn't befriend me just like that. His father hates you…HE hates you, and what would be the best way to get you to be at your most vulnerable?"
Marcus was about to jump in and demand the voice to stop, but then he heard Wolf smirk.
"Nice try, Kursed, but my daughter would never say a thing like that. I'm her father. I knew her a hell of a lot better than you did."
Kursed scoffed.
"It was a good try, but trust me: I can feel the anger welling up inside you. You want to just strangle me to death in those nasty claws of yours, don't you?"
"Exactly. That would be why I'm flying towards your beacon and about to destroy it."
"Hm. Fine. Go down in a fiery explosion for all I care."
"That's just it, though. You don't."
Marcus smirked.
"Even a living incarnation of evil can't trip up the Space Cowboy…especially not when he's mad as hell."
The nine ships swerved around a group of trees and blasted through another group of Aparoids, the final blockade keeping them from the beacon. Once they came close enough, they saw precisely what Peter had meant by it being alive.
The tower was about five hundred feet in height. There were Aparoids crawling over it and spewing out from small holes, but then came the revolting part. The entire tower seemed to be pulsating and was wrapped in something that looked a lot like rotting beige flesh. And to think that wasn't even the last of it, because right as they came within sniping distance, several long appendages burrowed their way out of the tower. Most of them were long arms with either pincers or sickles attached, but the center one possessed a cavernous mouth lined with teeth and let out an ear-splitting roar.
Peppy's team rounded the corner on the west side and the Cerinians arrived at the tower's base from the south. All that remained to arrive for the offensive was the Great Fox.
"ROB, where the hell are you?!" Chase shouted.
"On route to destination." ROB responded. "Estimated time for arrival: five minutes."
"You've gotta be fuckin' kidding…"
Marcus wasn't exactly happy about it, either, but they had not time to waste.
"We'll just have to damage it as much as we can until then. Activate all-range mode!"
Thus, they engaged the tower and the Aparoids guarding it. The mouth at the ships that got close enough to it, though didn't manage to hit any of them before they could get out of the way. The Aparoids that had been clinging to the tower jumped off and began flying after their attackers, revealing large red eyes dotted all about the tower and making it even more disgusting in appearance.
"Anybody got a weak spot for us?!" Fox demanded.
Krystal was the first to reply, quickly sensing the tower and desperately searching for any sort of weak spot. She did manage to find one, but it wasn't going to be easy to get to.
"There's something inside it that should bring it down if we destroy it." she said. "We just need to get it to come out."
"Maybe it's those eyes all over it." said Amanda. "…I mean, really. Something like that is practically guaranteed to do something if you hit it hard enough."
"That settles that, then! We're looking at about twenty in total!" barked Peppy. "Everybody gouge out those eyes!"
They boosted inward, swerving around the sickles and pincers and flying straight for the eyes. The combined efforts of Fox, Wolf and Panther took down four of the eyes with relative ease. Another roar escaped from the fang-lined mouth, indicating that Amanda's hunch had been fairly accurate.
"Nice shooting, pup." Wolf remarked.
"You, too…and what did I say about calling me that?" Fox replied, growing slightly irritated at the name Wolf had used.
"Sorry. It's a force of habit now. I'll never be able to stop saying it."
With the Aparoids on the ground dealt with, the Cerinians proceeded to climb up the tower to reach the eyes. When a small group of Aparoids attempted to lunge in and send them tumbling off, Krystal and Marcus reached out telepathically, seized the Aparoids, and bashed them together until they all fell limp and tumbled to the ground. Aileen looked over her shoulder as she climbed to see Marcus and Krystal swerve back around to join the other pilots after spending those few precious moments to save her and her followers. She smiled. They really were her family.
"Corneria and Cerinia…the siblings that once fought one another are now fighting together."
"Goddammit, Slippy, are you really getting chased again?!" Falco shouted.
"Hold your water for a second, Falco." Slippy shot back. "I've got an idea."
He boosted forward and started gliding up the side of the tower. The Aparoids on his tail steadily began to grow in number as he ascended, and continued to do so until he passed a small cluster of the eyes high above.
"Bombs away, bug boys!" he shouted, slamming a button to his side.
With that, three smart bombs dropped out the back of his ship, detonating upon making contact with the Aparoids and taking not only them down but also three of the eyes in a massive explosion.
"Okay, so you finally did something smart with bogies on your tail other than call for help." Falco grumbled. "Big deal, buddy."
"Hey, cut me some slack, will ya? I'm getting old here!"
The bickering was quick broken by a loud scream when one of the pincers seized Anna in its grasp and was about to bring in a sickle for the killing blow. Thankfully, Chase swerved in quickly enough to stun the sickle with a charged shot. Marcus turned his attention to Aileen and sent her a mental signal: "Throw it." For a moment, she had no idea what this meant, but upon seeing Chase, she got the picture. Next, Marcus sent a mental signal to Chase: "Eject." Chase looked over at Marcus like the latter was horribly drunk.
"Are you insane?!" he sputtered. "I can see you and Anne doing stuff like that, but…"
"Don't worry." Marcus said calmly. "If you fall too far, I'll catch you."
Chase was nearly certain that Marcus was relying far too heavily on his psychic abilities, but he gave it a shot. He slammed the eject button and shot up into the air. Once he had done so, Aileen threw one of her swords to him like a boomerang. Flipping around in the air a few times, Chase caught it and made one heavy slash to slice through the pincer arm holding Anna, releasing the sword afterwards and letting it fall back down into the grip of its owner while Chase fell perfectly into his ship's cockpit.
"Well, I'll be damned!" Chase said with a laugh of bewilderment. "It worked!"
"Of course it worked!" Anna cheered. "You grew a spine, that's for sure!"
"Yeah…though I can thoroughly guarantee I ain't doing a thing like that ever again. I think I'm gonna be sick…"
Leon dove downward and engaged his Multi-Lock, locking onto three eyes before his ship shook violently. An Aparoid had landed on him with them full intention of tearing his engine apart. Thankfully, Falco shot by right at that moment and blasted the giant bug off just in time.
"Thanks, Lombardi…guess I owe you one, eh?" Leon asked.
"Don't sweat it. We'll have a drink later. My treat…just don't go stabbing me when I'm not lookin'."
Leon laughed right after he let fly with the charged shots and took out the eyes he had been targeting.
"It's a deal."
Peppy somersaulted over the Aparoids behind him and took down two more eyes with Bill swerving up and blasting away not only another eye, but the Aparoids on his father-in-law's tail.
"Good work, Bill." Peppy called.
"No problem, Peppy."
"Tell me something, though: did you do that because I'm your commanding officer, or because I'm your wife's father?"
"Does it matter? You've been more of a father to me than anyone else I can think of."
Peppy smiled.
"You've got no idea how good it feels to hear that…when we get back home, I've got a surprise for you."
"Can't wait, but we've got a job to do right now."
Suddenly, there came an unfortunate revelation: the mouth suddenly fired a barrage of laser beams, slicing the wings off of Wolf and Marcus's ships.
"Son of a bitch…" Wolf growled. "Looks like we're sticking to the ground from here. Hold on, Lori!"
The two piloted the ships down to the ground and exited the second they touched down.
"How are your sniping skills, Marcus?" asked Wolf.
"Umm…not bad, I suppose. I've never really had a chance to test it too much."
Once he had heard "not bad", Wolf dug a rifle out of the back of his ship and tossed it to him.
"That's a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. Not quite like the rifles the new kids on the block prefer to use. It fires bullets that can easily pierce through someone's skull. Only downside is it needs to be cocked between each shot."
"Okay…but what about you and Lori?"
"Don't you worry about us. We've shot goons in the head from miles away."
Marcus nodded and looked through the scope, aiming perfectly and managing to hit an Aparoid chasing Krystal. He cocked the gun and aimed for a nearby eye, taking it down with one shot. Wolf and Lori aimed at the Aparoids following Anna and Bill, taking them down flawlessly before taking care of another eye. Aileen and Hephaestus had managed to climb high enough up the tower and were now hanging on directly in front of another eye.
"This one's for my father!" Aileen shouted.
"As is this one for mine!" Hephaestus followed.
Thus, they both stabbed their weapons deep into the eye, rendering it useless. Much to their surprise, Isaac and Aphrodite suddenly scurried up ahead of them.
"Hey, where the hell are you two going?!" Aileen hollered.
"We've got an idea! Hold your water!" Isaac shouted back.
With that, the two jumped onto the nearby sickle arm and put their plan into motion. Firstly, Isaac cupped his hands together so Aphrodite could step on them. Once she did, he vaulted her high into the air and she readied her spear. Isaac drew his gun and fired a bullet directly at her spear, and once it struck the metal surface, the force of the collision propelled her into the air, high enough that she was able to stab an eye.
"Damn…good work, guys." said Aileen.
"Careful planning can lead to a fantastic show, Aileen." said Aphrodite with a satisfied smirk as she and Isaac resumed their safe position on the tower. "…or a fatal injury, but we managed to avoid that this time."
"Piece a' shit, GET OFF ME!" Amanda yelled when an Aparoid landed on her ship and she began swerving all about to try and shake it off.
Fortunately for her, Katt swerved in just at that moment and launched the Aparoid off with a quick barrel roll.
"You need anything else, just call." she said.
"Thanks…where's your baby?"
"Oh, that woman Persephone is taking care of her. Couldn't risk having her in the ship in case she gets brain damage from barrel rolling…which I'm surprised hasn't happened to anyone yet."
The two women thus shot forward and took down two more eyes each. More lasers flew from the mouth with the pilots struggling to dodge them.
"Goddammit, ROB, hurry the fuck up!" Damalgo yelled into the communicator.
"Hey, hey. L-let's go to space…LET'S GO TO SPACE! …by this, I mean yelling at me will not solve anything. It is illogical and unnecessary, and therefore I firmly believe you should cease it."
"It's fine, Al." Chase spoke up. "We've only got two eyes left, anyway…scratch that. Zero. Nice shootin', Mark."
"Thanks…this gun kicks ass, by the way. Why they don't make them anymore is beyond me."
With all twenty eyes destroyed, the weak spot that Krystal had sensed made itself visible. Snaking out of the mouth came a stalk with a red pulsating eye attached to it. Once it had located its targets, it began firing lasers at a breakneck pace.
"Good Lord, that thing is gonna…" Fox started before looking over. "Jesus, about time!"
The Great Fox entered the area from the north.
"Alright, ROB." Marcus instructed. "Clean this place. Leave no Aparoid alive."
"Affirmative."
The Great Fox began firing its cannons, ripping through the giant bugs like butter, though that still didn't stop the giant eye from firing a beam at the mothership and actually managing to damage it. ROB let out an R2-D2 like shriek from his end of the communicator and the Cerinians climbed back down from the tower to get to a safer range.
"Ah, crap!" Peppy grumbled. "There's no way we're going to able to get close enough with that kind of firepower."
Marcus gritted his teeth.
"Not to worry. I can handle this."
He drew his staff, sank to a crouch and concentrated. He let his internal energy flow through his body, and once it had built up enough, he let out a wondrous battle cry and fired the Hyper Beam. The massive laser connected and completely obliterated its target. The mouth roared once more and the multiple appendages thrashed about before finally going limp. With it all said and done, the tower slowly turned a shade of gray before crumbling away like dust.
"Fuck yeah!" Chase cheered. "We did it!"
"Hey, easy with the language there, sport." Slippy laughed.
Marcus smiled. At least now there was no risk of the Aparoids getting any further out…but that still left the Big Cheese herself.
As if on cue, Marcus turned and found her standing right there with a smirk on her face, still in that hideous form she had obtained from leeching him. All the ships landed, and once every single solider was behind Marcus, they trained their weapons on her. She said nothing, and as she raised her hands, Marcus prepared to lunge at her. That is, until she performed her intended action: she began slowly and obnoxiously applauding them.
"Well done." she said. "Well done, indeed. I have to say you all have shown some incredible resilience…especially the planet that betrayed me. Twice, in fact. That really takes some guts, you know."
"It's over, Sister." Krystal growled as she came up behind Marcus. "There are no more beacons left in the galaxy. It's just you now."
"Perhaps."
She gently raised her hand and, to everyone's astonishment, aimed it at the Great Fox.
"Just me is a lot, though."
Then the unthinkable happened: she clenched her fist together and the Great Fox's rocket thrusters exploded! The ship came plummeting down to the ground in a fiery crash, with ROB screaming "Goodbye, cruel world!" as he went down.
"ROB!" Marcus cried.
"Pity, but he was a pretty useless bucket of bolts, anyway. I mean, come on. Did he really help all out that much?"
"Whether or not he did, he was our friend…and you're about to learn what that means!"
"Oh, I'm so GAAAACCK!"
All of a sudden, a small gray blur had jumped out of Wolf's ship and onto Kursed's back, beginning to strangle her to the best of its ability with its scrawny arms.
"YOU!" Scott screamed. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"
"Scott!" Wolf cried. "Damn it, he must have stowed away in the cargo hold!"
Enraged, Kursed wrenched Scott off of her back and dangled him in front of her by his neck. Scott bucked about to the best of his ability to try and get loose, but he simply wasn't strong enough.
"You conceited little…" she growled before realizing what she was holding and smiling evilly. "Oh, my! You must Coyote's little brother."
"Let my baby go!" Lori screamed, dashing forward.
Kursed raised her hand and a ring of fire circled around her and Scott. Lori stumbled backward almost instantly, the tears returning to her eyes.
"No…please…don't hurt him!"
Kursed brought two fingers to Scott's neck and gently pressed inward. Scott fell unconscious, and Kursed this began to cradle him in the crook of her arm.
"So adorable."
She looked at Lori with a malicious smile.
"He's my baby now." she said before running a single finger through the air.
Upon doing this, a small silver line appeared with the space around being distorted abnormally and Kursed stepped inside it with a coy wave goodbye.
"Wait…" Anna said, pondering before looking up in horror. "No…she's…she's taking him into the Echo!"
Everyone began to panic, but with the ring of fire around Kursed, nothing could be done.
"No…I already lost my daughter…" Wolf began to cry. "I can't lose my son, too!"
Marcus let out an enraged roar and blasted the ring of fire with his staff's Ice Blaster.
"YOU'RE NOT TAKING HIM, TOO, YOU BITCH!" he hollered.
And thus, Marcus did yet another unthinkable act…
…he dove headlong into the Echo.
And that guarantees another emotional chapter in the future.
Sorry that this took so long to upload, but believe it or not, I actually have a decent excuse this time. Being that it's June, it's almost exam time up here in Canada, so therefore I've been really caught up with both culminating activities and studying for exams. It's especially important because I'm in my senior year in high school, so if I don't pass these exams, I won't graduate. Sorry, but that's just how life works. I need to put school before everything else, otherwise I won't be able to get a good job in future.
Unfortunately, because of this, I'm guaranteeing that there isn't going to be another chapter for at least two weeks. So until then, please be patient.
SOUNDTRACK SO FAR
Krystal's nightmare/"Save her..."- "Parabola" by Mer (Originally by Tool)
Marcus versus Coyote (friendly)- "Name of the Game" by the Crystal Method
F-Zero race- "F-Zero Medley" by Entertainment System
Space pirate attack- Space pirate theme from Metroid Prime
Ridley- Ridley's theme from Metroid: Other M
Falcon takes down Ridley- "The Meaning of truth" by Hiro-X
The date- Ilia's theme from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Coyote versus the shadows- "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson
The star Lylat- Magmoor Caverns theme from Metroid Prime
Marcus and Fox/Marcus and Chase- "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Fox versus Kursed- "Du Hast" by Rammstein
Marcus and Coyote versus Nightmare- Nightmare's theme from Metroid Fusion (ArcX version)
The Nightstriker- "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath
The death of Commander Dane- "Mad World" by Gary Jules
The prisoners of Kew- Byelomorye Dam from Goldeneye 64
Escape from Sargasso- "Hard to See" by Five Finger Death Punch
Marcus and Wolf versus Master Hand and Crazy Hand- Final Destination from Super Smash Bros. Brawl
To Cerinia- "Laser Cannon Deth Sentence" by Dethklok
Aileen- "Working Class Hero" by Green Day (Originally by John Lennon)
The slaves- "Forgotten Children" by Tokio Hotel
Aileen's sorrow- "Narcissistic Cannibal" by EarlyRise (Originally by Korn and Skrillex)
Marcus and Aileen- "Name" by the Goo Goo Dolls
Aileen versus Aphrodite/Marcus versus Malice- "This Fire Burns" by Killswitch Engage (suggested by ianagainstcliffhangers. Thanks, man!)
The river Styx- "Where the River Flows" by Collective Soul
Marcus versus Coyote (infected)- "Mermaids" by Xandria
Coyote's death- Laura Palmer's theme from Twin Peaks
Marcus versus Kursed- "Magia" by Kalafina
Krystal versus Kursed- "Everybody's Fool" by Evanescence
Engaging the final beacon- "I Will Not Bow" by Breaking Benjamin