Brothers In Arms (UNDER EDIT)

Chapter 6 - Racer

    This barren wasteland was killing Racer's eyes. He needed to see trees and a vast ecosystem, not... This.
    For two weeks he'd been flying from solar system to solar system, trying to get as far away as he could from planet Ginazi and its famous city. But he'd forgotten to recharge his ship's engines, and had been forced to land on what appeared to be a barren planet in the Vehnung solar system. There was no life to be seen, the only plants spotted were withered shrubs with small, sour berries clinging to life on their branches. He'd found several ponds while exploring, but they didn't seem very appealing and would have to be filtered many, many times to be drinkable. He was pretty sure the water was poisoned with something, as it was a sickening murky green and crawling with bugs. Racer was amazed at how he'd remembered to bring spare packs of water, and thankful Babs had reminded him to buy more. He didn't know when help would come, but he'd sent out a request for help, and prayed someone would hear and come to the rescue. And also weren't from Ginazi City and happened to be Nepolians.
    His animal friends, on another hand, were giving him a headache. Al kept worrying about how they might die here, Ana was hoping that help would arrive, and Babs was screaming at Racer, blaming him for all of this.
    Because truth be told, he'd kind of crashed the ship at the same time. A miracle they'd all escaped unscathed.
    "If you had even bothered to listen to me, we wouldn't be here!" Babs shrieked, flinging his tiny arms around. The apelike creature had been tasked to protect Racer when he was about four years old, and had not left his side since.
    Babs was also the reason how Sunny found him hidden in the bushes, gaining a friend and useful ally in the years to come. The apelike creature had gone out in search of someone that would help bring Racer up, and had found Sunny in the woods. Without being seen, Babs lead him to Racer, who had been cowering in the bushes, afraid. Afraid because-
    "Snap out of it!" Babs screeched, hitting Racer's arm and cutting his train of thoughts off, and started shrieking again before Racer could turn to scold him. "We have company!"
    Sure enough, there were five creatures approaching, and Racer's heart plummeted when he recognized three of them.
    "Oh no..." He said, as the Captains Ross, Sunny and Star, along with the two mysterious creatures, approached and came to a stop in front of them. Racer took a step back, trying not to show his fear, but he was pretty sure they'd heard his voice shaking as he cursed himself for having terrible luck. They were trained to pick up on even the tiniest notes of emotion in a creature's voice. Never underestimate Nepolian ears, he'd always told himself. Though small, they were formidable senses.
    "Oh yes." Sunny said, his face cold like hardened stone, and his voice was low and venomous. "Hello again, Racer."

~~~~~~~~~

    Racer (as usual) was regretting the fact he'd forgotten to charge his ship. Because he certainly didn't want to be on this planet, with no way to escape, facing the three creatures he never wanted to see again. And they were already pointing plasma guns at him. He was very much surprised the other two creatures weren't doing the same.
    "Hey, woah there." One of the two strangers said, a blue bipedal creature who Racer instantly recognized as a Blue Crayworl, his retractable metal claws gleaming in the light from the gauntlets they were attached to. "Hold on a second before you blow each other up. You... You know this creature?"
    "Of course we know this creature." Sunny snarled. While Ross and Star lowered their arms, he didn't. "He knocked me out cold."
    "Technically my friend Ana here did that, not me-" Racer began, but Sunny glared at him and the Gristlethorn stopped talking, taking a step back to protect his animal friends, who were cowering behind him. "Well, okay, I did kind of stick a tranquillizer in Ross, but apart from that-"
    "Stop talking. Just. Stop." Sunny snapped, and Racer thought fire would stream from the Nepolians wrists and burn him to a crisp. "And let me shoot you in the head."
    "There's no need for that kind of violence." The second stranger, a bipedal, red birdlike creature with four arms who was a Biggulon interrupted, taking a step forward and standing between Sunny and Racer. Though her four eyes were concealed behind glazed goggles attached to her helmet that covered the majority of her face, Racer could almost feel her gaze staring into his soul. "Surely we can talk this out? Settle this with words? Right?"
    There was silence while everyone stared at her, and then Racer began to laugh, because she seemed to have no idea what she was getting herself into. During the silence, he felt a small tremor through the earth, but he ignored it, thinking it was a meteor landing on the planet. After all, he'd seen plenty of meteors come crashing down ever since he landed, and had felt plenty of tremors far more powerful than the one he'd felt. He considered himself lucky he'd not been hit by one yet.
    "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into, do you?" Racer asked, tilting his head slightly. "Trust me, there wouldn't be enough time for us to say what we want to say to each other before we die from old age. Our rivalry goes far back."
    "Well, can you leave your rivalry behind just for a minute? Until we get off this planet?" The Blue Crayworl snapped. "We need to find Sunny's missing ship, because his scanner says that it's on this planet somewhere. But our ship hit a meteor and we had to sort of abandon it before it crashed and killed us all. So I'm sure it won't hurt to work together just this once."
    Both Ross and Sunny looked uncertain, and Sunny lowered his arm, his eyes narrowed in accusation, but Star, to everyone's surprise, sheathed his guns, nodding softly.
    "It sounds reasonable." He said, not looking at the two Nepolians who gaped at him like he'd grown three heads. "I mean, our priority is getting out of here alive. Racer probably knows more about this planet than us by now, and he, to put it nicely, is our only chance of survival."
    "So you think he didn't-" Ross began to protest, but Star cut him off.
    "I wasn't saying I think he didn't do it." Star said calmly. "I'm saying that we should work together, despite your grudge against him. There are times we should put our past behind us. This is one of those times. I know it's a barren wasteland, but there's something about this planet that seems... off. Like there's a danger we haven't seen yet. And I've got a feeling that it's going to show its face soon if you keep shooting daggers at each other."
    "Are you actually expecting me to-" Sunny began to say, but was interrupted as a giant creature burst from the ground behind them. It was as big as Ross, and covered in large spikes attached to lumpy red skin, with one slitted eye glaring at them menacingly. It let out a high pitched hissing sound, its mouth splitting into three sharp pincer like jaws, etched with sharp, gruesome teeth. It didn't seem to have any legs, spare from the large, muscled arms that it was using to stand up.
    The red creature hissed, glaring at them all. "Hisss... sss... hisssss....." It snarled.
    Not many creatures could understand this type of language. It was in a language few knew, and fewer understood. Fortunately, Racer was fluent in this speech, a gift from his father, he was sure of it, because he'd never taken classes regarding it and he was sure he would have remembered them.
    "Leave now." It had warned. "Or we shall feast tonight."
   Racer opened his mouth to speak, but saw the others trembling; rooted to the spot with fear, and Racer realized that he would have to choose his words carefully. Babs wouldn't be an issue, he was ready to throw punches alongside Racer, but Ross... Well, the dark blue Nepolian was now a lighter, paler shade of blue, his mouth agape and eyes wide. And he didn't want to have to drag their unconscious bodies away from this dangerous situation. He was very much surprised they thought this creature was scary, especially the Nepolians. After all, Captains weren't supposed to be afraid of anything!
 

  "We'd love to, but we can't." Racer said, stepping forward, staring right into that slitted eye. "We need time to fix our ship. We kind of crashed here and can't really leave."
    "No! Leave now or else!" The red creature hissed. "You will be punished with death!"
    "Not if I kill you first." Racer said, smirking. This creature, while big, looked very young, and very inexperienced. He bet he could overpower this creature in a few seconds with help from Babs. "You don't know who you're up against. What you're up against."
    It was over in a matter of seconds, to Racer's disappointment, who had geared up for an epic fight that would perhaps get him back in Sunny's good graces. The creature lunged forward, ready to tear Racer apart, but left its neck exposed to the Gristlethorn's sharp claws. Not hesitating, he nimbly avoided the attack and ripped into the soft flesh underneath the spikes, not stopping until it fell, missing its head and part of its neck. It helped that Babs had thrown a hit or two, knocking the creature sideways and vulnerable to attack, blinding it with a punch to the eye.
    "Bleh." Racer said, trying to shake off the blood from his claws. It was an unpleasing sight; a sickly dark red, and had an atrocious smell. "Well, that went smoothly. I must say, for a planet that seems very much abandoned, their blood absolutely stinks, don't you agree?"
    Al sniffed tentatively at the motionless body, and gagged at the smell, looking like he was going to be sick. "I agree with you." He whimpered softly. More tremors echoed through the ground as the Al Packa came to stand beside Racer. "Is it bad to admit I'm terrified?"
   "No, not at all. Even though I'm not afraid, I get why you are." Racer said, frowning. He couldn't see any meteors lighting the sky, yet the ground still trembled. As if... as if something was moving underneath them-
    From behind the dead creature's body, more of its kind came bursting out of the ground, each looking as furious as each other. "Revenge!" They cried in unison. "We must avenge our fallen brother!"
    Racer didn't blame the Biggulon to start screaming. Because even he felt fear coursing through his veins.