Wolf's Weakness

Chapter 7

                Somehow, the whole world had turned to a pure white. A high-pitch ringing drowned out whatever sounds would normally penetrate the fox's ears, the only other thing he could hear was his own breath. For that moment, everything was almost blissful. Alone, surrounded by nothing and coddled by the earth.

"FOX?! FOX ANSWER ME!"

Somewhere off in the distance a muffled shout began to come to Fox's attention. He couldn't feel anything in his body except for fatigue, yet the familiar voice was beginning to inspire urgency.

"FOX, JESUS CHRIST WHERE ARE YOU?" The desperate shouting continued. The first thing the captain began to think was annoyance. What couldn't wait? What was so urgent that he couldn't lie there for just a couple more minutes? Finally, as his emerald-colored eyes began to bring the world into focus everything started to trickle back. He hadn't died, but that might almost be something easier to accept.

"WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS FOX YOU NEED TO PICK UP."

"F-F-... Falco?" Fox grunted out as the reality of the situation faded back in. The colors started bleeding through; the black night sky, pure white snow, the red painted all over his... Uh oh. "Falco I-..." Fox's voice strained against the cold as he struggled to regain control of himself. As his sense of feeling came back he realized how cold and exposed he was out here like this.

He tried to move his arm but a shock on pain jolted through his body, causing him to whimper like a pup. Everything was hurting; pain in his arms, in his legs... Nothing seemed to be free of agony. Nearby a pile of smoldering Arwing shrapnel lay, illuminating the darkness as it burned.

"Fox this REALLY isn't funny anymore." Falco's voice was beginning to sound fraught with defeat, the captain knew this couldn't stand. He started to gather whatever remaining strength he had left in him. Despite being shell-shocked, injured and incapacitated Fox knew he had to let Falco know he was alive.

Using his teammate's anguish as motivation he slowly and painfully began to pull his body out of the snow and onto his shaky feet. Almost immediately as he brought himself upright thick drips of blood ran down his muzzle and speckled the area around him. His fur was matted and disheveled, impact wounds running blood down his head and arm and rendering his left eye completely useless. Even still, none of this was enough to dampen his motivation. He'd survived, that's what was important. The only thing he could think about now was how he was going to get out of here.

Fox limped himself around looking for the source of Falco's voice. His communicator had come off in the landing and was thrown somewhere nearby... Using the sounds of shouting and static that emitted to track it down it wasn't long before Fox stood over his buried treasure. He dipped his right paw deep into the snow and felt around for a moment before pulling out his prize.

"H-hey... Falco." He coughed into the receiver. The fox's voice was weak and he flecked blood across the device when he spoke, normally he'd worry about some kind of internal bleeding but now wasn't the time. "F-Falco I'm here. I'm alive."

"Fox... Christ I've never been more happy to hear your voice. Listen, can you hear me okay? Do you understand me?"

"Yes, yes..."

"Look I wish we had time to celebrate but there's still a fight going on and you need to hide. I saw Wolf land his ship, I think it was somewhere around where you wrecked. Fox I can't come get you yet. This new guy's good... He's keeping me wrapped up right now. I'll be down to get you as soon as I can Fox. Just please. Lay. Low. Find your gun if you can."

"O-okay I'll try..." Fox's voice shook as he scanned the area in front of him with his one good eye. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to defend himself like this- after all he could barely even see.

"You'll 'try' nothing." A gruff voice spoke up loudly from behind him, Fox jumped in his surprise, dropping his communicator back in the snow as his hand instinctively snapped to where he holsters his pistol. Despite his dazed state the captain's well-trained reflexes were still fast, but that didn't matter when you're not carrying a gun. A loud thud emanated from the back of his skull. Whatever shred of consciousness Fox had scrapped together was knocked out of him once more, the world turning dark as he fell back into the snow.

Wolf shook his fist out from the punch as he chuckled to himself, the familiar sting in his knuckles felt good. He leaned over and reached into the snow to pull Fox's communicator back out, at the same time he grabbed the fallen captain by the collar and aggressively pulled his limp body up off of the ground. "I've got your boyfriend here, bird." He spoke to Falco, using the same receiver that Fox had been holding just moments ago. He wrapped his arm around the boy's chest and hoisted him up over his shoulder victoriously. "If you don't fly your prissy little tail back to base right now I swear to god I'll do things to him that you couldn't even imagine."

His words were met with a few moments of radio silence, his teammate clearly had no idea how to respond- this wasn't a situation he'd had to consider before and not being from the academy he wasn't as well trained in this as his teammates. Eventually the channel crackled awake and an unsure voice was transmitted through.

"You wouldn't do shit to him, Wolf. You're a coward." With his friend's life on the line Falco's unending well of confidence seemed to be running dry. "Only cowards take hostages. You know if you gave me the time I'd take down both of you, single handed."

"You really want to test me right now, pheasant?" Wolf spoke, already halfway back to his ship by this point with the captain slung over him like a sack of potatoes. Blood was staining his meticulously designed outfit but he didn't care. In fact, in certain markets that just made it more desirable. "You don't know how many people I've been responsible for killing, including this kid's own father. Leave. Leave and let the others know that your captain belongs to Star Wolf now. We're taking him." More silence followed, much longer this time. By the time that Falco replied Wolf had already opened up his Wolfen's canopy and was climbing up to toss his shiny new trophy behind the seat.

"...You know this isn't the end of this, Wolf. We won't let you hurt him." With those final words, the sole remaining Arwing lingered for a moment, then pulled its wings back and sped off from whence it came.

"Shall I run him down, captain?" Panther asked calmly.

"Let him go, Panther. You've done enough for today." Wolf watched the light travel away from them until he was confident that Falco wasn't coming back. As soon as he was out of sight the canine pushed Fox into his cockpit, getting to work on cramming him in the storage space behind the seat. It was just barely large enough to fit somebody of his size.

"Putting him in your Wolfen? The bird is gone, you can end it here if you like."

"He's more useful to us alive than he is dead. I'm putting the brakes on this mission, for all I care we've already won. Leon, start to pack up your things. We're leaving this godforsaken rock. We didn't get Andrew but we got something just as good. Something they probably want back."

"...Leon?"