Shattered

Chapter 19

"He-he's still alive!" Fox shouted excitedly, pumping his paw in the air. The whole team was in a joyous uproar. Their human was not dead. It was a wonderful feeling. But it was slightly dampened by the fact that he was no doubt a prisoner of the insane scientist, and that he had sustained tremendous wounds.

"But his arm." Krystal muttered in horror. She had frozen in a shock when she saw her beloved holding onto his stump of an arm, she could still see, in her mind's eye, blood spurting onto the cold unforgiving metal flooring of that accursed facility. She was ecstatic beyond belief that he still lived, but...oh god his arm! She looked to Fay who held a paw out. Krystal gratefully took it, the collie squeezed comfortingly.

"We can't worry about that right now! We have to rescue him!" Falco exclaimed jumping up from his seat. He was holstering his gun and running out of the room. The avian absolutely refused to wait one more second, Alex was one of the very few friends he had made in his life. And he would be damned if he let him remain imprisoned.

"WAIT!" Peppy shouted, stalling the avian mid-run. "We need to have level heads about this, he is most likely in the hands of that ape Liedman. We have to formulate a plan." Peppy spoke with wisdom, stilling rapid hearts and restoring their grasp on the predicament.

Miyu surprisingly, was the next to speak. "Pep is right, if we want to save our friend we need to be smart about it."

Fox and Fara nodded in sync soon followed by everyone else. Krystal and Fay's were a little subdued though, their hearts and minds still focused on Alex's injuries.

"What ever we do it has to be done soon, I will not have him as that ape's prisoner for a second longer then necessary!" Fox growled, tail lashing back and forth like a whip. The vulpine fumed at the thought of his best friend in captivity. No doubt the despicably vile simian was doing horrendous things to Alex.

"I feel the same Fox." Peppy placated the furious vulpine. "I want to help him just as much as you, but as I said moments before, we must handle this with speed and intelligence."

"We need to get help!" Krystal suddenly blurted out. "I know Pepper will help is if he is explained the situation!" Her tone of voice was desperate and panicked. She wanted to bring her lover home.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he will." Fara consoled, patting the other vixen on her blue furred arm. She turned to Fox with a determined expression. "We need to leave immediately."

"Let's go then!" Falco exclaimed from the doorway, he had stood inside it as he watched them deliberate. He found it all pointless, they knew their friend was alive, so why weren't they already leaving?

Slippy was the first one to reach Falco, his speed startled everyone. The toad was just as anxious to retrieve their captured companion as the others.

With great haste they all left the great Fox and rushed to Pepper. Once the old hound had heard the news he vowed to assemble a strike-force to head to the location of the human. First though, he would have to get Okionny to cough up the whereabouts of the base.

It would take allot of political maneuvering, but he would succeeded, he owed that much to the human. So the reasonably impatient team had to sit it out, their wait was not pleasant. All they could think about was the suffering Alex would no doubt be experiencing at the hands of the accursed ape.

Alex was jolted awake by a surge of electricity coursing through his body. It was not a new feeling, the chains holding him up had a ground wire twisted into the links, a crude but effective means of delivering pain. He could feel his muscles spasming and he shuddered under the powerful voltage.