I actually didn't expect to finish another chapter as quickly as I did, but hey, I'm not gonna be upset over the fact that I managed to get one done fairly quickly. Full-steam ahead on this, though. I'm excited that I'm able to get some progress in on it. This chapter is continuing the plotline revealed in the last chapter. Hopefully, with this plotline, things will become a little more fluid since this is bringing in Jinx again as a key player in the story and her actions and experiences will choose a bit of a direction for Fox. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I'll hopefully get one more together before I go on vacation.
Soon enough, Wolf joined us in the docking bay and Leon seemed to return to the silent persona he had forged, standing there and grinning with his arms crossed over his chest. I looked at Wolf a second, and he looked a little flustered, but he had the materials that we'd need for this mission, weapons and all sorts of gadgets just like last time. He kissed me and placed a knife and a gun in my hand as well as a small bag. "Knife left ankle, gun right ankle, distribute the contents of the bag however you see fit. You might also be able to conceal the bag at your hip, since it'll flatten out nicely."
I dropped the knife as I tried to fumble with everything he gave me, huffing as I felt the blade brush the tip of my finger and draw blood. I winced, placing the finger in my mouth to suck at the wound as the bitter taste of my own life kissed my tongue. I leaned down and slid the gun into my sock, making sure the safety was on before I dug through the bag to find the anklet for the knife. Without much trouble, I found it and slid it on before the knife was nice and in position for a fight.
I turned back towards Wolf before I wrapped the bag around my back, and when arriving to my Arwing, the soft murmur of my voice opening the cockpit, I pulled out a flight jacket and slid into it, the fabric doing plenty to conceal the bag. As I turned back towards Wolf, I saw him giving Leon all of his gear as he held onto his own. He just wanted me outfitted first, but unlike last time, there was no briefing on what everything did or any disclaimers about what would go wrong if I misused the materials. I would just assume that overusing or misusing something would cause irreversible damage, that was a safe bet.
I slid into the cockpit of my Arwing and brought the glass down to seal myself into the cockpit. I turned a little bit towards the other two. Soon, they were slipping into their Wolfens and the comm channels came online. It didn't change much, we were still immersed in silence, and I could feel the tension that was to come because of the mission that we were about to undergo. We exited Sargasso and entered the abyss of space and it was comforting to have that sense of freedom return even though we knew where we'd be going.
As I peered through the glass of my cockpit, I couldn't help but lift my hand to my eye, to just try and grasp how much my eye had degraded. Without the good eye, I found myself staring through the foggy lens and I let out a soft sigh. Wolf knew what this was like, to a greater extreme, but it'd be an awkward conversation to have considering the damage was my fault. It'd heal, but never fully and I'd have to get used to not having a fully functioning eye.
I turned a bit and caught sight of Wolf's ship, moving easily through the abyss with the backlight of stars, and it was no different as I turned towards Leon. It was a pretty view, the gentle heat of Solar as we moved towards Venom. The last time that Wolf had been on Venom, we had fought, as far as he had told me, he fell out of good faith with Andross and was more or less discharged after that last fight. Considering my survival being Wolf's intervention, I can't imagine they would be welcome back anyways.
"Do you have any idea about the military environment of Venom since the wars? It's been more closely observed, but I never inquired enough when I was working at the Academy to actually know what was going on."
"No, they're still contentious with Corneria but the war cut their balls off, so the only fighting they do is through captures and hostage situations. Corneria doesn't have the money to put into war again yet over hostages, so it turns into a nuisance more than anything," Lean chimed, a soft hum. I wasn't expecting to really hear his voice as often as I was starting to. He was breaking out of that terrifying shell of his.
"We used to keep regular tabs on them but we couldn't get any meaningful information without sending a professional and we didn't have the money to afford it. Whatever operations they had were pretty well classified, but we're right up there with you on the political enemies for that planet. Seeing a Wolfen or an Arwing is gonna put them on red alert, so we're going to be watched pretty closely. We're going to try and play this out diplomatically at first, but we don't have the firepower to fight their military if it falls through." I let out a soft exhale, I enjoyed the sound of his voice but I didn't really care for the words he was saying right about now.
"I don't really want to play the diplomat, though," I said, running my hand through my hair a second. I could see the little dot that was Venom on the horizon that we were approaching. We didn't have too much time to really get into the nitty gritty about it, so I just sighed a moment.
"Corneria does have political control over Venom, but only on the surface," Leon said, "Corneria has a military base on planet to suppress the Venomian backlash while they impose laws and regulations on the planet. The galaxy as a whole was pissed at them, so when the vote on punishments goes to the galaxy as a whole, a single aggressor will lose every vote against them. Expect some pretty harsh hostility to you in particular, Fox, being the posterchild for the Cornerian military and all that. If they follow the news though, you may be their hero."
"They don't see anyone in Star Wolf as their hero, Leon, it'd be a longshot for them to give any benefits to Fox with him associated to us."
"They don't know who pays him yet," and I saw Leon smiring on the comm display. He wasn't wrong, "If you want to play diplomacy, Fox can go alone."
I could practically hear Wolf's hackles rise, as I just sat there and listened to the two of them talk about me, "No! I'm not letting him go alone, that's too dangerous."
"My legacy is going alone, Wolf. If it gives us an edge, I'll do it," and my voice was soft. I doubted it, just a little bit, but I didn't let it break into those words so much as I had the little bit of self-control to not get Wolf even more freaked out. "If it means saving Jinx's team, then I'll go alone."
Wolf grumbled, and Leon laughed a moment as he got some sick thrill from the idea that I was disobeying the big bad wolf, but it was all in good fun. I would come to regret it, though, as we approached Venom the silence was overwhelming. Wolf looked bitter, upset, concerned, all sorts of emotions that I could easily read off of his face and Leon seemed content to just bask in the silence and the agreement. We arrived, we landed, and I left alone towards the capitol building. I didn't even know how I was supposed to approach it.
I entered the building, I peered around and I looked for anyone that had a pulse, but there was only a lone ram that sat at a desk on the other end of the room. She looked tired, probably had no idea what I'd be talking about, but I stepped forwards towards her. Wolf had insisted I take my blaster and it was attached to my ankle, hidden beneath the flight pants and there was a knife attached to the other ankle, some sort of sick joke from Leon, but knives were a valid weapon as well. "Hi, I don't think you'll know what I'm talking about, but I'm here to try and locate a Cornerian squad that was captured in Venomian airspace. The leader of the squad is named Stephanie Perot."
She looked up, she seemed to be bored of me even though I'd only said a few words, but those eyes had a knowledge beneath them. She knew what I was talking about, and she gave a slight nod, "Just one moment, someone will be right with you to discuss this with you." I gave a slight nod, and she continued, "You're Fox McCloud, right?" she asked, and I found myself nodding all over again, "Should you be here right now? Cornerian military is crawling all over the place," she whispered. Leon was right, they saw me as an enemy to Corneria.
"I'll be fine," I said, bu it seemed as if I spoke too soon, because I felt cold steel through the back of my shirt as I started to turn.
"They're watching the cameras, McCloud, just keep looking forward and we'll get you to a floor they're not watching. Walk to the elevator," the voice was low, cool, and sadistic. It reminded me of Leon, and having someone's tone remind me of Leon put me on red alert. "It's always a pleasure, Linda," he said, and we were moving towards the elevator. His other hand came to rest on my shoulder and I felt the brush of scales against my cheek as his head hovered over the other. The elevator door opened and we were within. The gun didn't move from my back, but my personal space grew a little bit as he relaxed away from me and pressed the button for the floor.
"Do I get to know your name?" I asked, as I continued to stare forward at the door. I couldn't even let my eyes wander, which was hard for me. I didn't like to focus on one thing, but the fear of getting shot gave me the incentive to keep on staring forward.
"Damian," he said, and he left it at that, "If there's anything else you'd like to know, you're going to have to wait until I get you to the destination." I swallowed but it caught in my throat, I coughed as I felt like I was choking for a second, but that was only the anxiety setting in. The elevator came to a stop and I was shoved out into the open air as he pocketed his gun. Three more waited there, and as I turned, I realized they were all four chameleons like Leon. Their hues were different, their structure just a little different as well, but there was no mistaking it. They may even know him, but Leon had gotten discharged for a fascination with knives.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, and I turned to face him.
"I'm looking for Stephanie Perot," and I left it at that. If I hinted at my closeness with her, that may get me in trouble. The more ambiguous I was, the better off I would be in the end.
"We have her but why should we let you see her?" As I turned, I realized I was boxed in. They were trying to intimidate me, but something in me didn't care for intimidation, and I glared at one of them. I knew why they had her, why they'd bothered with the capture.
"I'd like to help you in any way. Interrogation, execution, I know what limits they're trained with, I know what to do," I said, and it felt harsh, but I needed to put that side forward.
"You've got some bark, but do you have any bite?" he asked, and I slammed my head forward right into his. Everything started ringing immediately, and I pulled back, ducking as I felt a fist go over the top of my head. My elbow hit the attacker's stomach but I felt the remaining two grabbing my arms and restraining me.
I smiled, "How's that for bite," and he grinned, despite the blood coming from his nose before he gave a firm punch to my gut. I definitely had a black eye, and the air had rushed out of my lungs, but I was no worse for wear in the end.
"Not bad," he said, "Let him go, we'll show you to them."
"One condition, I want to go in alone. You can observe, but I don't want anyone else in there with me." He smirked, but for the wrong reasons. He assumed I was bloodthirsty and a bit shy about it, but I was just looking for any sort of opening to get her out. I was in over my head and I could tell already.
My ears started ringing a moment as I stepped back from them. Wolf was monitoring what I was saying, what I was doing, he'd imposed a bunch of backups to try and ensure that it'd go well, but what could he really do here? The ringing was him trying to get me to check my comm, but checking it would just make it a little bit worse in the long run, so I just kept my head down and followed them. The hallway was immaculate, but I could see rooms where I was sure people had been detained and been killed in the past, single tables with chairs to either side as they were drained dry of information then deposed. Stephanie was alive, still, I could do something if I just kept with it.
I was going to get shot at, no doubt, and this hallway was so long and we were getting further and further away from the elevator. The chance of me making an escape there had begun to disappear, but I still had some hope to hold out for for the time being. I just managed to put it into a situation where there was a window of opportunity for me to do this right, to get them out, but it was a pretty narrow opening to get through. There was so little room for error and I hated that, but that was the nature of this situation, because I wouldn't be able to handle it diplomatically when they were out for blood.
Soon enough, we reached a door and I was handed a gun and pushed in. The only light in the room was a single over hanging light, and the rest of the room was trapped in a cool darkness. It was horrifically silent, but too warm to be empty and with enough scanning, I found her, I found them, all sitting against a wall and chained up and how the hell am I supposed to get them out of this place alive? Why would I put myself into the situation where it was make or break, and break meant that I had to stare them down the barrel of a gun and send them off to the great, white beyond.
"Fox?" and I heard her voice. It was definitely her, Jinx. Before she had a chance to say anything else to me, I reached into my jacket and dug through. I found a small orb, I remember it from the first mission. It was a way to induce an artificial loop in security cameras. I pressed the button in and felt a sudden and harsh shock rush through my body, I let out a cry, but I heard the slight discharge from above me as well.
"Yeah," I said, and it was soft. I didn't even know who would be on her squad. Ferris was the only member of her squad that had graduated with her, so he would be here, but they would also place someone that was more of a veteran in the military. I would have a few minutes before they'd notice the artificial loop, but that wasn't without the possibility of them checking just to see why I hadn't killed them yet, "How are you holding up?"
"Why are you here, Fox?" she asked, and she looked concerned. Ferris was indeed there, which was surprising, but the veteran member was surprisingly a familiar face as I saw a bulldog against the wall as well. Bill. He would make sense as a choice, though, another trusted elite in the Cornerian military and his dogfight skills were topnotch as far as the military goes. He would be a favorite for leading specialized units like the one that I assumed that they were a part of.
"I'm trying to get you out of here," I said, but she saw the gun, Bill and Ferris surely did too, and I held it for a second. None of the gadgets that I had there would really help us get out of the room undetected, but I fumbled through the bag. I had pretty much nothing that would help us other than relying on arming them and trying to get out by force, but we wouldn't get out of here without sacrifices. "God damn it," I said, and I held my hand over my maw for a second and just forced myself to think.
"How do you plan on doing that, Fox?" and it was Bill, and I could hear the doubt in his voice. Fighting meant death, it'd be 4 to 4 and the Academy's combat training wasn't exactly what you need to be ready for a fire fight. I turned for a second, a minute had passed at this point and I felt a tear welling up in my eye because I knew that I'd already made a deadly mistake by coming into this room, because no matter what I tried to put together, there was nothing that seemed even remotely plausible.
"I'm thinking," I said, and that admission just set the doubt even deeper there for myself and for all of the others there. I walked towards them, putting the gun into my bag and exchanging it for another device. I could undo their bonds, it worked even to undo my own bonds, and one by one they were out of their shackles, but Ferris was unconscious.
"They've been drugging us," Jinx said, "Interrogating us and then putting us out as much as they can. Bill showed me how to hide the pills, us, but Ferris didn't get it or didn't want to, he's been out for a while now," she said, and she stood there a second. "If he comes with us while like this, we're going to die, aren't we?" She was teary-eyed, I didn't need to look at her to know that.
I placed a gun into her hand, and one into Bill's. "Do you have any idea what they've been drugging you all with?" Bill shook his head, Jinx too, and I gave a soft nod. I reached into my bag for a second, "You're all getting out of her, even if it means I put myself at risk," I said. I had my gun an the gun they gave me, but the only other weapon that I had was the knife at my ankle. Leon would be proud, but I placed myself at the door, we were running out of time before they'd check on us. They wouldn't gun me down if they thought the others were dead.
"Jinx, stand at the center of the room and take 3 shots at the back wall. Angle them towards where each of you were resting. Get Ferris and bring him to the door first, but we have less than a minute before we have to go or they're going to come in. Maybe less, we have to go." Ferris was rested against the wall and Jinx took the three shots. I gestured to the walls and the two of them were there after a few moments, huddled against the wall, "We can do it," I said.
After a few more moments, I opened the door and I stepped out. Only two of them were waiting, which gave me an advantage in the end. I don't know how far the others would be, but I stepped out. "You did the deed, then? I heard the girl in there was one of your students, you must've hated her a lot," he said, and he started to move past me, "I want to see where you shot her," he said, and it took all of my willpower to not show a reaction. They'd take care of him, and I counted down from three in my head. He stepped into the room, and I heard a "Wait. . . " and then my knife was buried in the stomach of the other guard.
I heard another shot from behind me, and there was soft, wet gasp from the male in front of me. He wasn't expecting it, his hands fumbled at my chest and they dragged, they clutched at the fabric before he grabbed at his gun. He didn't have the strength to hold it, and it fell and misfired, catching the side of my calf as I let out a hissing gasp. My hand rested over his mouth, any scream that was going to come, any shout for help never did and I drew the knife from him as he collapsed into a heap. It felt okay, like that was something that was within my ability. I could kill someone if I needed to.
There was sound from the end of the hall, the end that we came from. We couldn't go the other way, God knows how many people would be in that direction and God knows if we could even get out if we go that way. Bill's hand was at my shoulder, his other arm occupied with carrying Ferris for the time being, "That's the way out, isn't it?"
"Yeah, I don't know how we're supposed to be getting out of here right now," but the next person to appear, the next antagonist was quickly taken down my Jinx. I dipped into one of the nearby opening, resting against a door. The little cubby offered some protection, and every door had that. The doors opened outward, they'd shield us if we needed it, but they opened that way because they were supposed to be easy to exit. If there was a door that opened inward, it meant that it was pointed towards an exit, but none of the doors in the immediate area were like that.
It wasn't long before I heard an alarm go off, and I turned a bit to try and see if there was anything we could do, anywhere we could go, but there was no sign of us being able to comfortably get out before I just sorta stared forward, "Move," I said, and I started to run down the hall, but I felt a blaster shot whiz past me before I was back into a cubby. They were in too, but Bill's hand had slid off of Ferris to clutch at his shoulder. That shot had hit him. "Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine," and he let out another hiss of pain. He lowered Ferris to the floor, but from what I could tell, he wasn't handling it all that well. There was no sound from the other end, maybe because this was a prison unit there was no one located anywhere except the exit. We wouldn't get flanked, but we'd have to fight our way out. I tapped my comm a second before I lowered down towards it, peering at the image of Wolf that soon appeared, "It's not happening diplomatically," I said, and his eyes widened immediately.
"What the hell, Fox?" he asked, his voice a hushed whisper as if he knew that being loud would put me into a bit of danger, "What happened?"
"They were in a prison unit and I was getting a lot of aggression when I came in. I volunteered to execute them but that means now that they're not dead, that we have to fight out. Bill took a shot to the shoulder. Can you and Leon do anything?" When I asked, he just gave a little sigh.
"We can, but it depends on how daring you want to be. If you want to keep your Arwing, we're gonna need to come in on the ground, but we're gonna have a dog fight once we're in the air, too," he said, and I looked across the hall. Bill was bleeding quite a bit, and Jinx was taking potshots at them as she could do so safely. Eventually, a shot flew back and I heard a hiss from her. We were accurate, but so were they and as I looked towards her, I saw her hand was resting on her cheek. That sort of shot was inches away from being lethal.
"We need to get out safely, that means the ground. If you try to blow a hole in this building and extract us, you're gonna get shot down before we can even get out," I said, and I'm sure he'd agree in the long run. He nodded. The comm link closed, and we were stuck there for the time being. It wasn't long before I heard shouts and yelling from the end of the hall and soon enough, there was silence. I was too afraid to look down the hall, but I soon heard footsteps, slow and calm. I turned, and I caught sight of Leon, "Don't shoot!" I yelled as I turned. Jinx had her gun trained and ready, but this was our way out, our chance of getting out.
Leon was an assassin, I should've expected him to come because he could dispatch a large number of people. He was dripping in blood and riddled with bullet holes. Most of that blood wasn't even his, but his eyes were bloodshot. As I studied him for a second, standing, I realized that that wasn't natural. What did he do when no one was watching?
Bill stood, scooping Ferris up again, and Jinx stood. Her face had a slow drool of blood, but nothing that was going to be lethal in the long run. We took our steps towards the entrance, but Leon looked at me a moment, "We only have a few minutes before they dispatch their private military towards our location. It'll take a little bit before they're able to arrive, but I'd much rather be in my Wolfen when that happens than on the ground." His voice was calm, his tone level and he didn't even have any sound of pain laced in his voice. He was something else, but I nodded.
We began to ran to the end of the hall, dancing through the line of corpses before we were at the elevator. As we began to exit the building, I could hear the sound of the alarm outside. The ram that had been at the desk was absent, which was probably for the better. I felt like I couldn't run fast enough, my lungs heaving as we all tried to make some ground. I heard a periodic gunshot, and I wasn't sure if it was towards us or if a riot had started. I refused to look away from the path that we were on.
Soon, we were back to my Arwing and the Wolfens, "Jinx, take my ship, you and Ferris can fit in there. Bill, you go in with Leon. I'll go in with Wolf," I said, and there was no questioning it before we were sliding into our ships, and I was back into Wolf's lap. My body was weak from the stress, but I wouldn't be able to participate in the coming dog fight, I had entrusted that to Jinx over myself, especially after how she had performed in the dogfight against me and Fara and the other teams.
We began to part from the ground and I turned and planted a soft kiss on Wolf's jawline. It would only get tougher from here, but once we were out of Venom airspace, we'd have a little more of a chance of actually getting out of here alive. If anyone died though, they'd die because I fucked up and I don't know if I want that burden on my shoulders.
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This chapter does bring in Bill (very small presence as of right now) and we're getting more and more out of Leon as well. While Fox and Wolf's relationship are a big part of the story, the characterization of Leon, Jinx, Bill, Fara and others are also important to me and I want them to have some impact beyond just being characters on the sidelines for this ride. I know that Fara's presence has some decent impact, alongside being pregnant and all that, but I don't plan on her being the only one that has a major impact on Fox's life.
I'm trying to avoid soap opera-like reveals where things happen completely out of the blue. Most everything that's happening, with a few exceptions, are foreshadowed in some way and there's some hint before the reveal. Any case where the foreshadowing is vague, I'm trying to still carry it through Fox's vantage point where he is naive and he may miss out on cues or read into things that aren't relevant. Feel free to leave feedback because I'd appreciate any feedback on how the dramatic side is playing out. I hope you all enjoyed though~