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Mission No. 60

Corneria
Capital City Airforce Base

"Club Down"

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Fara soared over the countryside on the far outskirts of Corneria City. She passed over rolling hills, patchwork quilts of plains, and ridges of lush green mountains. Carrying her high above the land was the A-23: the crowning achievement of the Arwing project. It was the latest in a long series of prototypes, which now significantly-outclassed those Star Fox used. Soon, every fleet in the Cornerian military would be outfitted with a squad of the advanced fighters, and little could stand in their way.

The original Arwing was the love child of Arspace Dynamics and Phoenix Corp, precipitating their eventual merger. Early on in the project, a little up-and-coming mercenary team known as Star Fox happened to save Fara, placing her mother in the debt of James McCloud and his son. To show her gratitude, Edelyn gave his team three of the prototypes free of charge, and in exchange James promoted the companies and extensively tested the ships in action.

Now Fara felt proud to follow in James' footsteps, once again testing the Arwing's latest model. She swooped down low to the ground and wondered if he felt the same exhilaration she did watching the trees, boulders, and rows of crops zoom past. Then, switching to all-range mode in the blink of an eye, she performed a sequence of rolls, spins, loops, and spirals at high speeds, as if showing off for him. In any other fighter craft, she would've blacked out after the first few maneuvers—but not the Arwing, thanks to the G-diffuser lessening the inertial forces on the cockpit. Even with the complex tricks, it was the smoothest ride Fara had ever felt. Even smoother than… back then.

Finally she pulled up and ascended to thirty-thousand feet, bringing the A-23 above the bright, snowy cloud peaks. With most of her tests completed for the day, she put the ship in cruise mode and kicked back, closing her eyes and soaking up Lylat's rays.

Though test flying was work for some, Fara enjoyed it. Flying, and the sensation of weightlessness, untethered her from the heavy world below. Up here there was nothing but a sea of blue sky to get lost in, and a veil of pristine clouds to mask over the bustling city full of millions of individual worries. It was just herself and this ship which bent to her control. Yes, that was it: control. It was only for a short moment, but she lived for such moments.

In these times, peace like this was hard to come by.

Her ear twitched when a notification sounded, and she opened her eyes with a grimace. It was a message from her mother, and at once she felt the ship become heavier. It was only a simple note to say she'd be arriving to pick her up for lunch, but of course it made Fara feel a pang of anxiety. Her mother intended for her to inherit the family company someday, along with all the headaches and stresses associated with it. Company politics, cross-department drama, tedious tutoring sessions… Fara wanted no part in it. But, seeing as Edelyn had no other heir, she didn't have a choice.

With a sigh she typed a quick message back, then reluctantly sank the Arwing through the bright clouds to the dark world below.

Around noon Fara landed the A-23 at the Capital City Air Force Base. She jotted down her notes, reported to her overseer, and transferred the logs from the FDR to the base's systems. From there she mingled with some of the other pilots she'd gotten to know before receiving another message from her mother saying she'd arrived.

Outside the front gate she found one of her family's sleek black hovercars waiting. Ewen Drexel, her mother's personal assistant, stood waiting by the rear passenger door. The zone-tailed hawk stepped aside and opened it, allowing her in. Fara immediately crashed on the cool leather seats, sighing.

Her mother smiled from the seat beside her. "Tough day at work?" she asked.

"Oh, yes—but it was wonderful! The latest version of the Arwing handles like a dream! You wouldn't believe how far it's come."

"Good! It's nice to hear we've made so much progress on it."

"I think this is it: the final iteration before production. I wouldn't be surprised if it saw official military use by the end of the year!"

Edelyn laughed. "Well I'm glad you're finally taking interest in company business," she joked.

Fara grinned, but returned to looking out the window at the base. Her comment served as a grim reminder of her real duties.

Edelyn cleared her throat. When Fara looked back at her she was surprised to see her face had grown serious as well. "Listen, Fara, I've been giving your involvement in the company some more thought. I'm… not sure if you're ready for such things quite yet. I've also been having second thoughts about our merger with Space Dynamics. You see, recently—"

At that moment a soldier stepped from inside the main office and cupped his hands to his mouth, shouting something inaudible to them. Ewen, who had just rounded the outside of the car to the driver's side, tapped a knuckle on Edelyn's window. Confused, her mother rolled it down, and the tall avian ducked to poke his head in.

"Some soldier is calling you, ma'am. He says General Weber, the base commander, has something important to see you about."

Edelyn raised her eyebrows. "Weber? I hadn't scheduled an appointment with him today… It must be about the A-23, then."

Ewen opened the door for her, and Edelyn scooted out. "Sorry dear," she said to Fara, "this sounds important. I'll be out as soon as I can."

Fara made to open her door as well. "Oh, I might as well come with you—"

"The messenger said it wouldn't take long," Ewen told her.

As Ewen sat in the driver's seat, Edelyn rounded the car and walked through the front gate. Fara watched as the small figure of her mother disappeared inside the main office. Both the fennec and hawk waited in the car, observing the soldiers and work crews milling about the base to pass the time.

As the minutes dragged on, Fara grew impatient. She pressed down on the door handle. "Ugh, I'm going to see what's taking so long."

"I'm sure your mother is nearly—"

A blinding orange fireball erupted from the main office, shattering windows, collapsing walls, and knocking soldiers to their feet. A deafening bang assaulted Fara's sensitive ears and set off every car alarm in the parking lot. The burst of fire bloomed into a cloud of black smoke, towering above the base and the mountains on the horizon. Shards of glass lay strewn in the street, windows and doorways were covered in soot, and a rain of concrete, steel, and mortar debris fell in chunks around them.

Fara's heart nearly stopped. For a minute she merely gaped in horror at the aftermath of the explosion. Smoke continued to belch out of the broken windows and caved-in roof, while flames licked from gaping holes in the walls.

It wasn't until the base's emergency alarms kicked in that Fara had the life-shattering realization, and her blood ran with ice.

"MOM!" Fara screamed.

She shoved the door open an instant before Ewen could lock it. She hit the pavement running, even as debris continued to rain down around her.

"Wait, Ms. Fara!" Ewen's voice came from behind her, but she ignored it, eyes streaming tears and focused on the roaring flames. She half-sprinted, half stumbled towards the desiccated compound. She didn't care about the fire or the smoke beginning to envelop her. Her only thought was to get inside that building and pull her mother from the rubble before… before—!

Ewen tackled her to the parking lot, and they hit the ground as more flaming papers and ash fluttered like snow around them. He wrapped her tightly in his wings, but she struggled all the same, trying to crawl to the open doorway. "Let me go!" she sobbed. "Let me go you idiot! My mother's in there! My mother's—!"

But the roof collapsed, and a column of flames spat forth from the door like a dragon's breath. Ewen tucked his head in and shielded Fara's face with his wing—but she could still feel the sizzling heat nearly roasting her tear-stained muzzle through his feathers.

"Don't be crazy, miss! There's nothing you can do now…"

Her bodyguard rose with her in his arms, trying to pull her back to safety—but Fara cried and beat him with her fists all the way. "You useless idiot, why won't you let me go?! Why don't you help me save her?!"

Face a mask of stone, Ewen picked her up and ran back to the car, leaving Fara to look over his shoulder at the flame-engulfed compound through her stinging, blurry eyes.

"Mom…"

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Everything hurt when Falco came to, but a sharp jolt of pain in his shoulders came to rise above the rest. He groaned and rolled onto his side, lessening the pressure on his back, but also discovering his arm was hurt as well. In fact it was impossible to find a spot that didn't cause him pain to rest on.

Opening his eyes and looking down, he found himself once again completely covered in bandages—fresh ones to replace the old after having reopened all his wounds fighting Grimmer. Now he sported a few additional ones; this time on his face. The vision in his left eye seemed darker than usual, but maybe that was just a trick of the light in Katt's room.

The feline sat next to his bed in a chair, wringing her hands till she saw him stir. "Falco, you're awake!"

"What happened?" he asked groggily. "How long was I out?"

"A few hours. You fainted halfway through your speech, you big ham!"

He smirked. "Damn. And I'd prepped so much shit to say… But what about Grimmer?"

Katt's face wrinkled with worry. "We… couldn't find him. None of the three brothers are accounted for. But the rest of the gang got pounded silly or scattered, and they can't show their faces in the North End again; I wouldn't worry about them ever coming back!"

"And their hideout?"

"Cleared out. Angry mob approached with torches and pitchforks, and they bailed. The civilians are trying to figure out what to do with all the shit they left behind—most of it was stolen or extorted from them anyway, so now it's back in its rightful hands."

Falco sighed in relief. "Good. I gotta say, I always had a feelin' that would happen. I really couldn't a' done it without them…" He rested a wing on her hand. "I couldn't a' done it without you, either. When Grimmer struck me down, I thought it was over. It sent me back to three years ago, like it was happening all over again. It… felt like I'd failed you."

Katt stroked his wing atop her hand, then bent forward and gently kissed his beak. "I think you had to go down, Falco. There was only so much you could do on your own. You couldn't make the North End get rid of Grimmer; they had to do it themselves." She released a rush of air through her nose. "Just like you couldn't beat Allusion for me; I had to do it myself—but you sure helped get us there."

Falco smiled proudly to himself, feeling accomplished. Then he went quiet, for the first time noticing the rhythmic bass thumping through the walls. "Hey, what's going on out there?"

Katt betrayed a glance at the door. "…Nothing to concern yourself with."

"Aw man, they're having the victory party without me?!"

"Just a little celebration! Nothing exciting. It's really a snoozefest; you'd do better to sleep and rest up here—"

"Alright, come on Katt, help me up! If I'm gonna lie around all day like a dead fish, I might as well do it close to my friends."

Katt sighed. "Well, I see there's no stopping you…"

Begrudgingly, the feline helped Falco out of bed. Every movement he made was slow and ginger, so as not to disturb his wounds again. Together they hobbled out of Katt's room, through the kitchen, and into the garage proper.

Once they stepped through the threshold, the music hit them full blast; one of the new members had hooked up his PDU to a car and was playing club music through its speakers at deafening volumes. The rest of the Free Birds and other guests partied with abandon, packing the entirety of the garage floor. They chugged drinks, ate snacks, and danced to the music.

Looking around, Falco saw the Free Birds flaunting paraphernalia and trophies stolen from unfortunate Gang members. They jokingly pinned their green patches upside down on their shoulders, wore confiscated bandanas, and played knife-throwing games with their daggers. Falco even caught Mouser parading around a fine-looking bike he'd nabbed—one that was much too big for his tiny stature.

It put a smile on his face to see them celebrating. The last few weeks had been so stressful, and the gang's future seemed uncertain, but now it looked like they were here to stay in the North End. As much as he hated being left out, he still felt satisfied seeing the others able to enjoy themselves for once.

Damn, that music was loud though. His head still rang from getting punched silly that morning, and the relentless dance beat was giving him unpleasant flashbacks of a certain pounding. He turned to Katt and shouted, "I know I'm usually the last one to ask this, but can they turn that shit down?"

"It's gotta be this loud to drown out the sirens!" Katt shouted back.

His eyebrows raised. "The… sirens?!"

"Yeah, they still haven't shut them off!"

"…And the people haven't returned?!"

"No, they're still in the shelters!"

At once his good attitude disappeared, replaced by a sinking feeling in his gut. "Katt: shut the music off now!"

The feline looked at him funny, but ultimately obliged. She helped him sit down on an empty car seat, then talked their self-appointed DJ into stopping the song. Sure enough, when the music cut out, Falco once again heard the distant sirens wailing.

"Awww, who killed the music?!" Shani demanded, and others raised their voices to echo the same sentiment.

"Hey look, it's da Boss!" Mouser exclaimed.

Bowser raised a mug overflowing with beer. "Champion of boxing is awake again! Three cheers for—"

"All of you, can-it and listen!" Falco shouted. "Don't any of you find it strange the evacuation order hasn't been lifted? That they haven't diffused this imaginary 'bomb'? If they're not letting people return to the North End, the Bureau must intend to rout us. Which means it's our turn to evacuate."

"What?" many in the crowd gasped.

"Abandon the garage?" Kitt asked.

Shani brandished her rifle. "Aw come on Falco, we can take 'em! I've been aching for a proper shoot-out for weeks!"

"Not a chance. We were fortunate enough to beat Grimmer's Gang today; I don't want to push our luck by fighting the Bureau as well. If we do, a lot more of us will get hurt—and probably killed. Take as much stuff as you can carry, return to your homes or old hideouts, and we'll stay in contact. When it comes time to meet again, we'll choose a new base of operations and notify you." He clapped his wings together. "Alright let's move!"

Free Birds gathered their things and rode off on their bikes, while others stayed behind to help pack. Pukes' lab equipment and supplies were the bulkiest of the luggage, but Bowser had lifted heavier baggage on vacation.

In no condition to ride his bike, Falco reluctantly entrusted it to the care of an old friend, planning to walk to the nearby safe house instead. Katt refused to go on ahead without him, so she had someone else take her bike as well.

Before the last of them could leave, however, flashing red-and-blue lights shone through the garage's front windows—just like Falco had predicted. Time was up; the Bureau had arrived.

"Go-go-go!" Falco told the others, and they started to hurry out the back doors. But Bowser was still helping Pukes pack her equipment, and Katt and Kitt were busy packing their personal belongings as well. The garage had been their home for the last few years, so they had many of their life's possessions to bring with them.

Falco, Shani, and Mouser crept up to the grime-covered windows. They peeked over the ledge, discovering a dozen police vehicles had pulled into the two streets that intersected in front of the corner garage, while even more continued to arrive. They arranged themselves in a defensive wall, boxing in the corner garage from all 270 degrees adjacent to the streets. The officers got out and took cover behind their cars, aiming weapons and searchlights at the building.

"This is District 13's Central Police Department," a loud speaker bellowed. "We have a warrant for the arrest of Falco Lombardi and the members of the so-called 'Free Birds.' You are accused of illegal drug trafficking, armed robbery, and assaulting officers. Stand down immediately, and no one will be harmed. If you do not surrender in the next three minutes, we will be forced to open fire."

Three minutes…

Falco looked over his shoulder at the evacuation progress; one member was passing out bags full of Corruption to others as they disappeared out the back door, while Pukes and Bowser were still packing the last of their items. Katt started a fire in a trashcan in the middle of the garage floor, dumping piles of sensitive documents in to burn.

"We're not gonna finish before they start the siege," Falco realized. "We need to buy some time!"

Shani grabbed her rifle. "We can return fire from the roof, then escape over the adjacent buildings and disappear."

While Shani took a few of the remaining Free Birds up top, Falco hobbled back to the rear of the garage and helped the others pack, shoving their most important belongings in random bags.

"We have given you ample time," the voice over the megaphone blared. "If you do not come out on the count of ten, we will open fire. Ten!… Nine!…"

"Heads down!" Falco urged. "Try to stay below the window ledge!"

"Three!… Two!… One! Open fire!"

A rain of lead crashed through the windows, shattering glass panes into fragments and pinging off the sides of cars. Several bullets embedded themselves in the wall just above Falco, raining dust and mortar into his head feathers. Pukes cried out and ducked low, covering her head and cowering, but Katt urged her to keep packing.

Their volley didn't go unanswered. Soon they heard return rifle fire coming from the roof, ringing even louder in their ears as Shani and her men fired back. The policemen released cries of surprise and hunkered behind their cars, quickly redirecting their focus up at the rooftop. More shots rang out, followed by a burst of sparks and bright neon-red tubing raining down from above—they'd hit the store's sign, and Falco wondered what the remaining letters spelled-out now.

Bowser finished packing up a case and moved to shove it towards the back door, but in the process inadvertently stood up too tall. A bullet ripped into him, and he grunted. Quickly he dropped to the floor again and clutched at his broad forearm, which began to leak a dark stream of red.

"You okay big guy?!" Falco called over the gunshots.

"Is fine!" the croc growled through gnashed teeth. "No need for worrying! We must get Ms. Pukes' lab out."

"Those bastards," Mouser cursed. Taking his handgun, he ran up to the window and ducked beneath it, poking his head out to return fire and claim his revenge.

But outside they heard an engine loudly gunning, and Mouser ceased his firing to stare.

"Dey got a car pointed right at the garage door!" he warned. "Dey're gonna ram through!"

After Dimmer ran a truck through the garage door a week ago, the Free Birds had done their best to patch it up—boarding up the interior with plywood and parking a car to brace it—but it still couldn't survive another frontal assault.

Just then, Bruiser stepped out of the back room. Unlike everyone else who rightly feared for their lives, the robot stood up straight, unfazed by the storm of bullets flying through the room. His head swiveled back and forth, his processor overwhelmed by the amount of damage done to the shop and the number of assailants outside. Finally he identified the car through the window.

"Warning: a motor vehicle is on a collision course with store property. Please avoid the vicinity. I will warn the driver."

In the middle of all the gunfire, Bruiser let himself out through the personnel door between the two garage entrances. When the officers saw him they ordered him to halt, but of course the one-track-mind robot didn't heed their words. With no concern for his own safety, he kept right on marching towards the car that was revving up. The police had tied the accelerator down, but finally they let off the clutch and let the car jump forward, the wheels squealing on the wet pavement as it gained traction.

The squad car raced to close the gap to the garage door, but at the last moment Bruiser stepped in front of it. Kneeling and bracing himself, he latched onto the hood and front bumper right as it ran into him.

To the shock of all, Bruiser held firm; anyone without his super-Lylatian strength would've been hurled seventy feet in the air. The car still pushed him several yards back after the initial impact, but Bruiser's steel feet grated against the pavement, keeping their grip till it slowed. Reaching beneath the bumper, he lifted up the front end and raised it over his head till it precariously balanced seven feet off the ground, wheels spinning futilely.

For a moment, both sides paused and gaped, in awe of the robot's feat of strength—but the police regained their composure and turned their fire on Bruiser.

Bullets tore at him from every angle. Those that were fired from low-caliber handguns simply pinged off or dented his metal casing—but unlike Grimmer's Gang, the police had brought high-powered rifles and other weapons for the assault. As deafening crack after crack rang out, more and more pieces of Bruiser's body tore away. Holes ripped through his torso, shards of metal blew off and clattered to the ground, and fountains of sparks and oil opened in quick succession till they gushed in every direction.

Now little more than a scrapyard sculpture twisted in a vaguely Lylatian shape, what was left of Bruiser could no longer hold the car up. His arms and legs caved in with a grinding metallic screech, and the police vehicle crushed him to the ground. The car's wheels touched down on the pavement and the vehicle once again lurched forward, dragging Bruiser's metal corpse underneath it. Still, it managed to build up enough momentum to ram into the garage door, bursting it free from its tracks and displacing the car on the other side.

The police had broken in.

Falco clenched his fists. Once again, the spark of life vanished from Bruiser's robotic eyes, but this time it seemed for good; there was no repairing or even reclaiming his parts now. Falco would have felt the same way if ROB had died; the robot was so familiar and eager to help that he seemed almost like family. It was even worse for Katt who'd known him longer. Besides the shop itself, Bruiser was Katt's last connection to the previous owner of the garage, before he died in the war—and now she had to abandon him as well.

"Falco, let's go!" Pukes cried, snapping him out of it. "He bought us time; we're done packing!"

Just in time, too! he thought, for every second the unmanned car continued to push the gap wider. As soon as the police could pin Shani and her men down on the roof, their full force would swarm in through the breach in the door like rats.

Falco turned from the spectacle outside, finding Bowser had most of Pukes' gear in his arms. One of the croc's biceps sported a nasty black hole bleeding red down his army-green scales, and Pukes was hurriedly patching it up.

Mouser scurried over from the window to join them. "I'll go with Bowsa' and Pukes! I can't carry much, but I can cover them during da getaway."

"Come on Falco, you're with us," Katt said, motioning to herself and Kitt. The pair of felines carried their luggage in either hand, and wore backpacks over their shoulders. Even though they weren't brother and sister, it was hard not to believe the two weren't related seeing the cotton-candy-colored felines standing side by side.

"Alright, let's move!" Falco ordered.

As gunshots continued to ring out behind them, and the tires of the unmanned police car squealed into the garage, they disappeared out the back. The rear of the shop opened onto a pair of crisscrossing alleyways. When the group of refugees reached the crossroads, they split up; Pukes, Mouser, and Bowser taking the left alley, and Falco, Katt, and Kitt taking the right.

Falco did his best to run, but his injuries still hindered his movement. He had to lean on Katt a good deal and ended up slowing all three of them down. He felt humiliated to be the weakest link in the chain for once; normally he was always at the forefront, and everyone else had to keep up—whether it was Star Fox or the Free Birds. But now he worried he'd be the reason the three of them were caught. He felt no different than the baggage they had to carry on their backs.

They limped behind rows of abandoned buildings—mostly tenant housing and some shops. The North End felt like a ghost town in this state, and Falco couldn't shake the strong feeling that someone was watching them. He imagined pairs of eyes leering at him from every empty window they passed: a side effect of his paranoia.

The cracks of gunfire continued to echo between the tight alley walls, but it faded the farther they hobbled from the shop. Then it all died-off at once, only leaving the sirens to fill the ensuing silence. Shani and her men were either caught or had escaped. A few shots still rang out intermittently, but they seemed to be coming from other parts of the city now…

Eventually the avian found himself short of breath and fading. He slowed down drastically, and Katt noticed it was harder to pull him along.

"Falco, you still okay?"

"Yeah," he gasped, "just need a moment…"

The avian plopped down in a discarded chair, and the feline siblings sat against the wall opposite him. The bird breathed heavily from his recent exertion, thankful for a chance to rest.

After a long lull in the gunfire, an explosion rocked the floating city. All three of them jumped, flinching from the shock as the ground quaked beneath their feet. For a moment the alley walls and cloudy sky were painted bright orange, accompanied by a deafening bang.

The escapees turned to look back down the alley; black smoke began to rise into the sky.

"They didn't…!" Katt exclaimed.

"They blew up the shop?!" Kitt said in a high-pitched voice.

"If they were gonna do that, they may as well have blown us up with it from the start!"

But Falco shook his head, speaking between breaths. "No, they wanted me alive—probably for questioning. They wanna know about everyone else in our network, and where I've been sourcing Corruption from. Must think I'm working with Venomians or something."

Katt nodded. "Then the bomb was to cover up the shoot-out; now they can just say they 'failed' to diffuse it. It also keeps us from using the garage as a base again…"

She clenched her fist, enraged by the Bureau's actions, and Falco knew how much the shop meant to her. After all, it had been her whole life for nearly a decade.

Grunting, he rose from his chair. "Come on, let's get going. The whole North End will be swarming with police soon."

Katt grit her teeth as she watched the smoky aftermath rise into the sky. Finally, she nodded. "You're right. Let's keep going…"

After a few minutes they came upon a perpendicular branch of the alleyway that led to the street. Kitt ran ahead of Falco and Katt, but Falco heard the sound of tires and a motor approaching. Lurching forward, he grabbed Kitt by his backpack and yanked him behind cover again; a pair of squad cars passed on the street perpendicular to the alley, shining lights down it.

"Shit, they're everywhere now," Katt cursed. "We have to be more careful or we could get pinned down here."

Going forward from this point was more difficult; now they had to account for the police actively hunting them. Every perpendicular alley they came upon they had to stop and pause, making sure it was safe before passing it. At first they were secure in the confines of the main alley, but the block only ran for so long. Eventually it ran out, spilling into an open road.

Katt pulled both of them behind a dumpster near the exit, crouching with them. "We have to cross that street to get to the safe house," she whispered. "You two stay here—I'll go check if the coast is clear."

Against Falco's protests, she stood and pressed herself against the wall. She slinked down the alley and into the open, disappearing around the corner. Falco and Kitt remained crouched behind the dumpster, with the avian taking the moment to regain his breath again.

…But Katt didn't return.

"What's taking her so long?!" Kitt whimpered.

"I dunno, but I'm not staying here anymore. Help me up…"

Kitt took Falco's arm and pulled him into a stand with some difficulty. Then, he helped him hobble down the rest of the alley till they came to the exit. There they pressed themselves flat against the wall and peeked around the corner—but there was no sign of Katt in either direction: just groups of knocked over trashcans, abandoned cars, dead bushes, and a sewer manhole.

"Where the hell did she go?!" Falco hissed.

His wrist unit buzzed, and he jumped to answer it. Sure enough, the message came from Katt's comm—but she wasn't the one who wrote it.

we have her
if you want her back follow
we're in the sewer

-an old friend.

Falco's eyes darted to the black hole in the middle of the street. The rusted iron cover lay beside it, haphazardly strewn aside.

"Falco? What'd she say?"

He looked back at Kitt, unable to hide the worry in his face. "It's Grimmer…" He swallowed, and Kitt's eyes widened. "He kidnapped Katt and took her below the city."

Kitt's eyes widened. "What? He took her down there?! But why?"

"It's how he gets his revenge. I knew he might try to get even eventually, but I didn't think he'd be able to strike this soon."

"Well… shit! How're we gonna save her?"

Falco looked back at the manhole. Every second he wasted debating his next move was another second Grimmer took Katt farther away from him—and another second he had to do something terrible to her before he could stop him.

Kitt placed a paw on Falco's arm. "You're not thinking of going down there, are you?!"

"It's the only way I can save her."

"Then I'm coming too! She's my sister!" he proclaimed.

But Falco shook his head. "Sorry Kitt, I gotta do this alone. I need you to reach the safe house and tell everyone else where Katt and I went; I may need them for reinforcements later."

"But it's too dangerous to go alone—'specially with you this weak. You don't stand a chance!"

Falco lifted his shirt, showing Kitt the butt of a blaster he'd shoved in his pants. "Hey, I'll be alright. I know how to handle myself, and I still have that ace up my sleeve," he added, tapping his skull. "Now, I've given you a job to do, so you'd better do it—or you're off the team! But above all else, don't get caught!"

"Wait, Falco—!"

But the avian took off, hobbling into the middle of the street. When he reached the manhole he lowered himself into it, quickly finding the ladder and making use of the iron rungs. He caught one last look at Kitt's anguished face before he disappeared beneath the street, wondering if he'd ever see the kid again.

Falco descended till he heard the sound of engines approaching. He realized an uncovered manhole would probably be a dead giveaway, so at the last second he reached back out and dragged the cover into place, his aching limbs screeching in protest. With a metallic thunk he slid the lid closed, sealing off the cone of light illuminating the inside of the sewer.

Falco clung to the ladder in the shadows now, heart pounding as the vehicle approached. In a flash it swept by overhead, and he released a breath when it passed without slowing. He'd gotten away, and Kitt had escaped as well.

…Now he turned his mind to finding Katt.

He started climbing down the ladder, but discovered it was much harder than he'd anticipated. His sweaty wings struggled to grip the slimy rungs, and his arms and legs screamed in displeasure. He felt so weak and pained at the same time, he didn't think he'd make it to the bottom…

After a few more rungs, Falco just couldn't hold himself up any longer. He gnashed his beak and made one last effort to stay aloft, but it was no use. His arms gave out, and he let himself drop the rest of the way down the ladder, plunging feet-first into the darkness of the sewer.