A/N: Hi again everyone. Srry for anyone actually following/reading this at all. Once again, class, blah blah, work, blah blah, poor me. Anyhow, I'm not sure how long this fic will be but I'm hoping quite a few chapters. The story that I have planned out is pretty...extensive. Anyhow hope you enjoy the chapter. R&R ^^ feelings and personal opinions are duly appreciated...

The Footsteps in the Darkness ~ SkullFox

(PS: On my breaks at work I've been working on Footsteps in the darkness II: Echos in the Dark. I hope to get it posted soon)

Far into the Lylat system, in a much different environment; Marcus peered over a snowbank while brushing a bit of melted snow from his shoulder. A small number of individuals stood near an old outpost. Two of them were Ficina natives, polar bears, not the most fun creatures to stare you down. He could easily think of roughly a thousand things he'd rather fight his way through. Bears were large, heavy, thick hided, and incredibly physically strong even as children. He found it odd that they would be standing guard outside of an actually derelict base; in fact according to most military records that Marcus had access to the base hasn't been in use for more than fifty years, sometime after the Environmental Control Center was installed. The warmth that kept him and Sierra from freezing to death as they spied on the small base, was none other than the soot black vixen laying next to him. By using her abilities to heat the air around them, it was easy to keep them moderately cool rather than freezing without giving away their position. He'd been going through the base inside the minds of it's occupants one by one for just over two hours, leaping from one mind to another, piggybacking through the base. This was a much easier way to conserving the stamina required to keep a mental link than a full takeover, and was much less obvious. Outside of the link, he could hear the gentle whisper beside him...

"How bad is it in there?" Sierra asked in her naturally silky voice.

Without seeing through his own eyes Marcus shook his head, "Not good," He responded, "so far I've hopped through more than a hundred minds and there are more and more of these people by the minute," Suddenly however, his jaw visibly dropped, "oh that's not good."

Sierra hated the fact that she couldn't see what he saw, "What's wrong?"

"You know that thing that was dragging you through the streets like a drunk prom date?" He asked, "well...If my math is correct, about thirty of them. These ones look different though, more solid and built more like us," His face snarled into a low growl, "Powalski."

Through the eyes of one of the guards of a massive room inside filled with soldiers; there stood the very familiar sight of a blue eyed chameleon. HIs gangly, slender form wrapped tightly in black leather, he carried the shifty look that Marcus's mother and father had always warned him about. His final leap from mind to mind was over, inside the chameleon's head, he was certain to find everything he needed to know. Everything was there, spare the fact that he either didn't know what they were planning, or simply decided to keep certain facts locked away in case of such emergencies. Very suddenly a hooded figure appeared before Leon staring him in the eyes quite intensely. She was different from what Marcus saw, as her gaze instantly caused a chill to shoot through his entire body. Her luminous green eyes were the likes of which he'd seen before, though he could not pinpoint where he'd seen them before. Too dark under the hood to make out features, the vixen smiled a grin of pearl white teeth as she stared the lizard down...

"Why hello there," Her voice seemed deceptively sweet, "do you think I cannot see you in there little one?"

Marcus was lost. Nobody should have been capable of picking him out of the air like that...

"Why so shocked," She smiled a bit deeper, "do you think you are the only one capable of toying with other people's minds? That's very selfish of you, if you wanted details you only needed to ask."

Marcus finally reached out causing Leon's head to arch back in a sudden jolt of pain before his now green eyes glared ad the woman in front of him, "What are you doing here? Why are those things here?" Marcus's voice fell from the reptile's lips.

"What am I doing?" The strange vixen stepped away with her hand on her chin as she turned her back to the possessed reptile, "are you prepared to take that information by force?"

Leon glared at her, "I think the bigger question is are you willing to force me to tear that building down on top of you and your little friends?"

"I certainly hope you don't mean your little friend there," The strange vixen chuckled lightly, "her mind is far from a steel trap. Do you think that you'll actually get in here undetected? You've already given yourself away."

The reptile smiled a crooked grin, "Or..." He chuckled with Marcus's voice, "...this is a recon mission and I already got what I wanted from this useless puppet. Hopefully this is the last time I talk to you, cuz I can already tell that you're a psychotic bitch WAAAAY crazier than Aunt Katt."

Sierra suddenly watched as Marcus's eyes fluttered for a moment regaining their normal brightness before he looked to his companion and nodded his head, "Well, ball's in your court now," He smiled, "try not to leave anything standing, but keep collateral to a minimum."

"Well," The vixen sighed heavily as she stood up, unfolding a T-board before tossing the small hover-board to the ground in front of her, "you're gonna want to keep your head down; and once you hear it get a shield up."

"Anything else?" Marcus asked.

To his surprise Sierra grabbed his collar pulling him toward her, she kissed him fairly aggressively before pushing him back to the snow, "What the hell was that all about?!" He half shouted.

Sierra leapt onto the board before looking back to the young fox, "Just in case I don't come back."

Marcus wasn't exactly prepared for such a display, Sierra was better and more prone to hiding her feelings than most. Her father was well known so it was easy enough to see why she would put on a tough face, but, seeing her act so clearly female was a bit of a shock. Not only was it uncharacteristic, it was something that he simply wasn't used to; female affection toward him was a forethought...with his sights set so deeply on meeting Skye again, but, now. It all seemed to work in slow motion; the snow that was kicked up seemed to hang in the air forever, and for the first time since they'd known each other, Marcus took a long look. Oddly, for the first time he wondered wondered if she'd come back, he even contemplated going after her. One of the best T-board riders he'd ever seen; the young vixen danced around the two guards, spraying them insultingly with snow before finally tipping the front of her board into the groin, and then into the face of one of the guards. Almost in unison with this attack, was the blue-hot burst of flames that scorched the other guard from her right hand, causing him to instantly bow to the snow clawing at his blistering flesh while driving his seared face into the snow. With Sierra's specialty being demolitions, something the team rarely had much of a use for. He wore concern on his face when she vanished into the complex but, in hindsight, all he could sense from her mind was fun. It wasn't however, until several long moments went by before Marcus's eyes went wide with shock at what he felt from her mind, as well as those around her.

"Oh..." He shuddered nervously as he threw up his palms causing a blue-white dome to encase him.

The blast was not only without warning, but, intense and violent beyond any explosion he'd witnessed as a Viper unit. The outer steel walls of the fort began to writhe and swell in sorted hotspots around the perimeter before all of a sudden rupturing in all directions. The outward torrent of flames caused even the snow falling from overhead to evaporate; nearby trees instantly scattered into ash, and finally a concussive wave of heat and sound slammed into Marcus's barrier. The impact causing his nose to trickle blood, as his mind struggled to compensate with the force of his shield. Unfortunately, a white fissure began to form, finally followed by a burst of heat and sound that fired the young fox out of his protective dome and through the snow in a long trailing path causing him to come to a rest buried in a large snow mound. After a frozen moment buried in the snow Marcus burst out into the open shaking his head, he'd not expected anything quite so large. Even as the young vixen staggered out of the now smoldering wreckage, only to have the young McCloud avert his eyes as he managed to catch her falling body.

"Hey you okay?" He asked.

Looking up to him, Sierra smiled, "I-I think I might have been a little overzealous."

Marcus chuckled, "Don't look now but...you're also naked," He pointed out wrapping her in his jacket.

"Okay..." She replied, "...so I really overdid it. Looks like the Professor might need to rework that fireproof not so fireproof material of his."

Marcus scanned the area for extra thoughts only to shake his head, "Did you get the weirdo in the cloak?"

Shaking her head Sierra sighed, "No, whoever that was it looked like they vanished into thin air," She paused, "something's bugging you."

"Yeah," Marcus replied standing with the vixen in his arms, "can you walk?" He asked receiving a negative head shake, "then this'll have to do," He replied, "I have some questions for my mom; something unsettling I felt in that psycho in there. I couldn't read her mind but the vibes that I got just from trying felt...familiar."

After a moment Sierra looked to her captain with a confused expression, "Familiar how?"

"Almost, like I've tried to get into that mind before," Marcus replied shaking his head before looking to her, "it felt just like my mother."

"You can tell something like that?"

Marcus chuckled as he nodded, trudging through the snow, "Thought patterns are a lot like finger prints. Every living being has a unique signature. I could pretty easily pick your or Maryk in a crowd of millions. Problem is I'm only partially telepathic, my real gift has always been telekinesis. Mom's telepathy is a million times stronger than mine. So strong now that she wears a device to suppress it."

Sierra gave him an uncertain look, "I've never seen you move anything with your mind."

"You don't know much about Telekinesis do you?" He asked receiving another uncertain look, "I don't move things. I manipulate kinetic energy, so the idea that I can make things levitate is sort of asinine."

Thinking back Sierra came to realize; all the times he should have been hit by a bullet she realized it never did, on top of everything else however something caused her to punch his arm, "You cheated!" She shouted, "I knew that kick during training last month felt a little harder than it should have been. You were doing something to your foot."

Marcus laughed loudly, "I developed the technique when I was in Viper Training. I figured that, If I could manipulate kinetic energy...why not amplify the kinetic force behind a punch or kick? Took me several week to get it right, then I realized that it was a bit more deadly than I though. On top of that Telekinesis and Telepathy are on their own levels; reading minds isn't all that hard on the mind, manipulating physical force...it's not something that mind usually has to compensate with. Take it too far for too long, you could easily cause your brain to bleed out. Uncle Slippy told me to watch for nose bleeds...that's why I let down my shield and took a part of that blast.

The young vixen gently pecked his cheek before pressing her head into the fur of his arm, "You know you're a lot more brave and strong than you give yourself credit for. Now that I have it out there...you're pretty cute too."

Like before, Marcus was at a loss on how to respond to the attention. He'd only ever really expressed a physical attraction to Skye and that hadn't worked out to his planning. He'd never even thought that way about Sierra, though from what he was experiencing she'd clearly had time to think that way about him. Though she clearly wasn't sleeping, Sierra did nothing to move from her position nuzzled into his arm, giving him ample opportunity to scan over the forefront of her mind. Nothing there but comfort, an unusual level of comfort as if she was completely at peace laying in his arms. He found it difficult in his current state not to stare; after all despite her petite form, her body was pleasant in all consciousness. On top of that the fleshy orbs about her chest being pressed against his side were a big disarming to a young male his age. With his Aunt Katt's usual love for being topless, breasts were no new sight to him but, with all that he'd been through it was the only time he'd recalled ever having a pair physically touch him. All the way back toward the town that was, luckily enough for them, not horribly far away lead Marcus to stop just outside of the town. There was an odd mental vibe emanating from the settlement; even a lower grade of telepathy would have picked it up. Everyone inside the walls was concerned about something and all that worry was directed at the hanger where Marcus and Sierra's ships were docked. The impression was solid in his mind, if he bothered to enter town trough the main gate, they'd both be turned in. Sierra managed to come to just as Marcus approached a section in the far wall near where the docks stood, she could tell by his face that something was wrong but didn't bother to distract him right away until he looked down to her...

"There's a small battalion of men inside the dock with our ships," He half whispered to her, "hang on tight, I'm gonna get us over this wall."

The vixen looked over the separating wall, its highest point reaching some twenty feet, "How do you intend to do that?"

"Well..." Marcus chuckled looking to the height of the wall, "...even a jump has a kinetic force behind it."

Not very fond of heights she had no control over, Sierra shrieked rather quietly as she dug her claws into Marcus's back. The rush of air and snow that passed her suddenly caused her to realize just how much force had been applied to them both, and she looked back only to see the top of the outer wall, several feet below her. Upon their decent however, she took note of a lone soldier standing by exhaling calmly from a lit cigarette; which dropped from his lips as he looked up to notice the falling mass above him. Too late to react to the situation the soldier reached for his weapon, only to suddenly have Marcus's foot, bathed in a translucent blue light bear down on the front of his muzzle. Transferring all the kinetic force of their rapid decent into his foot, Sierra felt their landing as if cushioned somewhat; yet, she was quickly reminded of where the force had gone as an eruption of blood and viscera sprayed up around her from the force of the soldier's skull literally bursting beneath Marcus's foot. He set Sierra onto her feet before kneeling and looking over the now headless body...

"This guy look about your size?" He asked.

Sierra inspected what was once a wolf, "No, but, it's better than having my business all out in the open like this." She pointed out tossing Marcus his jacket, "keep watch while I get dressed," She sighed mumbling to herself as she did so, "Seriously gonna talk with the Professor about that suit."

Marcus seemed to go quiet for a few moments, a time that was well known by Sierra to be a time in which he needed the utmost concentration. He looked to the building's upper windows; some distance off the ground while swinging his jacket back over himself, "Stay here," He half whispered, "after that blast back therer you're still in for some recovery time...I can deal with our ships. Keep an ear out for trouble, if you hear anything it means I probably screwed something up. If that turns out to be the case, get somewhere safe and once you can manage a decent flame again...get to your ship and find Maryk. Understood?"

Sierra squinted at him a bit, it wasn't like Marcus to pull rank, "Was what you saw really so serious with that weirdo back at the base?"

Marcus sighed, "She's a Cerinian..." He replied, "...if nothinge else that means, with her mindset, she's a threat; and a strong one. I've never even heard of someone so powerful that they could see me inside the mind of another person while I was in there. Mom always told me that there were more full-blooded Cerinians floating around, I just always thought they'd be more like mom. If nothing else find a way to let her and dad know if she doesn't already. That Terra lady that's been causing trouble is just another Cerinian. Don't worry though...I'm not gonna get caught..."

Like before with the wall, Marcus barely seemed to make any effort to jump before his body rocketed into the air and through a window in the upper floor of the building. There he came down on a long metal catwalk that networked around the upper floor of the building, making certain that any work higher up could easily be done as the catwalks all had a section that could be manipulated to move about to give mechanics access to the tops of ships too tall to otherwise reach. Side-by-side, their two fighters lay on the far side of the dock a ways away but, unfortunately this was where all familiar sights ended. Several soldiers clad in black armor moved about the area, odd however, the armor he was seeing was not the same as the soldiers as the base. It was military grade and very polished. His big concern at the moment however, were the weapons he noticed. Most of them were blasters, no way of stopping light basted energy with kinetic shields. Unlike his father he didn't carry a deflector shield; they were clumsy devices and picky at the worst possible moments. Luckily however, one of his favorite tricks of telepathy was something his mother called "Charming".

The first of many soldiers met with him face to face as he walked along the catwalks; peering right through him. A simple suggestion to his mind and it was as if Marcus was not even there. It was because of this ability alone that he was named the lead recon and infiltration specialist of his team. As he stepped to one side, the sharp, instant searing point of the young vulpine's combat knife slid quickly into and out of the passing soldier's head at the base of his skull. Unaware that he'd even been hit, several steps continued before the body simply fell lifelessly to the metal walkways. The strike was precise and practiced; driven into the proper spot, death becomes instantaneous severing the brain stem in one sharp backhanded thrust. At first, in training of course, he had trouble with the idea of killing anyone...but, as time went by his father's words began to sink in. Killing really was something that became easier the more you did it. Now, instead of remorse from a kill, he only wondered when the line was crossed that made you less of a person, and more a monster. His inspection of the building would have been a more arguous, however, for Marcus it simply depended on how long he could manage to keep his hold on so many minds at once. Walking along his path, another soldier crossed him falling to his knees while grasping an open wound that bit cleanly through his throat causing his scream to emit nothing more than a mottled rattle of blood that flooded his throat. Looking down below an opportunity to move everything along approached; four of the soldiers stood in a small semi-circle. Drawing a second knife he kept in his bood, Marcus darted across the catwalk before leaping from the metal walkway with his arms drawn over his head. The double edged knives came down with utmost force, tearing into one of the four's traps before Marcus's falling weight tore the knives down along his sides opening wounds that nearly severed both arms spraying the others in a grotesque volume of blood. The sight to any watching instantly became a nightmare, as the blood soaked form of something insideous take shape as it swiped one soldier across his abdomen causing him to instantly drop his weapon in an attempt to catch his insides, while the other instantly dropped his weapon as a hole simply erupted from the visor of his helmet. Two onlookers then took aim as the final of the four fell to the ground, a spin from the unseen attacker causing the final soldier's head to roll away as his body fell to the floor. The sound of several instantly rushing away from the scene only caused the young fox to kick one of the downed soldier's weapons up into his hands, knives weren't going to do it all...and he could feel his hold on their minds slipping.

The first two to notice him as his grip on the lot of them fell wasted no time; the short shots of light that tore from their weapons punched holes in everything they touched. The expert training of the Viper unit however, instantly took effect caushing Marcus to drop to his back. The forward monmentum from his run causing him to slide between the two, an upward blast from his own stolen rifle ripping bloody chunks from the soldiers' chests and heads as he rolled forward and to the left behind an idle set of crates, no sooner than to have two blaster charges rush overhead...

"Hold your fire!" A loud voice rang out cusing the blasters to suddenly stop before a last shot, followed by a loud thud, "I said hold your fire!"

The sound of a superior officer calling rank caused Marcus to roll his eyes, "What's this joker want?"

"We have orders to take you in alive," The C.O shouted over his troops, "now that can be in one piece or several, they didn't mention how many limbs I had to remove. So easy way or hard...what's your call?"

Using his telepathy on a bird perched on the catwalks overhead, Marcus could easily see their formation. It was loose; several men scattered here and there ducking behind various objects for cover. Their leader standing, as if to appoint himself the grand authority in the situation ahead of the rest of them...

Marcus pulled one of his knives smiling at it as he sat there, "Well, dad did always say that the easy way out is for cowards and Venomians."

All of the men looked on in shock as they watched a single black combat knife flip into the air over the crates Marcus hid behind before all of them gasped in shock. Connected to Marcus's mind, the blade suddenly tore through the air was the speed of a bullet, it's rapid spin like a buzzsaw as his mind continued manipulating the kinetic force the throw had added to the weapon. It's path clear as it's spinning path tore the tall standing Commander's left arm from his body before looping back around. Several times the spinning blade made passes across the armored soldier's body, each one tearing hunks of flesh away from the victim until he fell lifeless to the ground, the knife lodged deeply into the right side of his head.

"Fuck!" Marcus swore to himself, without momentum the blade was as idle as any other, "how's that for a FUCK YOU!?"

A series of blasts went off, causing Marcus to duck as low to the ground as he could get before the sudden roar of a voice caught his attiention, "You were all ordered to hold your fire!"

This voice was not as deep as the last, but even seemed to draw Marcus's attention. Taking another look from the bird watching in on all the commotion Marcus could make out his form. He was roughtly his father's size, in fact the proportions weren't that far off either. He was clad like the other soldiers, but, a black cape and crimson visor in the shape of s screaming wolf set him apart from the others. The press of a button on the side of the helmet caused it to fold over into itself and recede back, revealing a fox that caused Marcus to question the bird's eyes and his own mind. The stranger's fur was the sapphire blue of his mother, and his jade green eyes matched hers as well. The only difference was that a large portion of his face was white, set in a large triangle travveling from his forehead down the length of his muzzle. Marcus was brought to a shocking halt from the bird's mind as he involuntarily leapt into the air and soared up over the crates, motionless and paralyzed. Forced to look toward the one with a hand outstretched as if manipulating the young fox to hover there...

He shook his head lightly, "Tsk tsk tsk," He clicked his tongue, "someone has failed to teach this little Cerinian the basics of his own abilities. Though I find how you handled this lout fairly impressive. Do you even know anything about your own abilities? How combining different psionics can give you varied results..." With a shift of his hand Marcus plowed violently into the ground instantly feeling his right arm crack, "...for instance, combine a bit of lift and levitation with your ability to apply force...you get a very effective tool for detaining someone, just as you're experiencing now. Terra seems to think you are something...more...I only see less."

Marcus grimaced as he struggled against the unseen vice holding him still; as he did so he dug through the depths of his own mind struggling desperately for anything that could set him free, "Keep thinking that. I have a bad habit of … surprising people."

Reaching out for anything that could help him, something did touch his mind. Even in the back of his mind it felt heavy, cold, with a strange grid-like feel. He wasn't certain how but, he quickly became aware that it was in fact the catwalk overhead. He'd never felt a physical object with his mind before. Either way, he took hold and pulled with all the mental strength he could muster. The creak and moan of steel was quickly followed by the screams of the soldiers behind the overconfident fox holding Marcus. As he turned causing the young McCloud to fall to the ground he could only watch his men become trapped beneath the tons of steel. As he looked on, shocked by the incident, Marcus barely managed to keep himself upright. His head was swimming, his vision dancing in circles in front of him, blood ran from his nose, not in a trickle but, something much more frightening. His labored breathing brought his attacker's attention back to him, where he held his pulsing head in his hands groaning in agony...

"Clearly your luster for surprising people remains in tact..." The stranger said approaching him.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Marcus screamed in pain swiping a hand at his antagonizer only to have the black armored stranger explode from his standing position. The path he took tore a deep gouge into the ground, smashing a large portion of the catwalk in half, before punching a massive hole in the far wall, leaving the individual hundred yards away, disoriented and confused; while equally happy to have gotten up a shield before the attack could land. Looking on to the path of destruction his flight had taken he hesitated to return. Watching on as a pair of fighters tore recklessly from the dock he shook his head with a smile...

"You are correct," He said to no one in particular, "that is without a doubt your sister's offspring."

The voice that echeod in his mind was unheard by all others, "As I told you. She is very much alive out here. Leave him be for now, phase one is nearly complete, once phase two begins there will be no turning back."

"I am with you to the end of this my love," He chuckled, "however, the little one has killed every soldier I had with me."

Not sure what to expect, his comment was met with only deep laughter causing him to chuckle himself as onlookers simply watched him slowly phase out of sight, as if he'd never been there to begin with...

AN: Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and stick around the next.