By Chaos it was hot!
Zephyr panted not only out excursion from running for the passed couple hours, but from the suffocating heat and smothering smelly air. He could feel the warmth rising up from the gravel underneath the soles of his shoes. Seriously who builds a secret weapon's facility in the middle of an active volcano?!
As he exited one of the many dead side-vents a wave of heat washed over him. The fumes smelling fouler than the time he broke an egg in his bedroom and didn't tell his parents for three weeks. The speedster choaked, coming to a stop. Just close enough to the cliff's edge, allowing him to peer down into the bubbling and boiling magma pool below. Zephyr pulled his face away from the edge and swallowed down rising bile. Well, that was probably one of the most terrifying moments of his life.
His com-link suddenly beeped, signaling someone trying to contact him. Snapping out of his trace, Zephyr pressed a period to his head set.
"Come in, Zephyr! Zephyr, come in!"
"I'm here, Sparky."
"Have you located the main vent?"
"That's the one with the giant pool of lava below it?"
"Yeah, and it's magma, as it hasn't reached the surface yet."
"Does that really matter right now?"
"Grammar always matters!"
Zephyr resisted to urge to roll his eyes, instead looking at their target. A large generator that was slowly being lifted out of the volcano through the main vent. It was hanging on a strong rope, over the molten pool. This was going to be tricky.
He leaned back into in com-link, "Are Mari and Angie ready."
"Few more moments, Angie's finishing the download now, but Mari is ready to go."
"Are we sure that this going to work?" Zephyr casted another quick glance at the cauldron of melted rock.
"Well, the numbers all work out...."
Angie ran down the stone hall. Oh, she was late! This places locks had been harder to pick then the last couple. She had downloaded the information, and then bolt for her position. Her cowboy boots crunching the gravel below them. Due to the ground's unstable nature, she almost missed the rumbling below her feet.
The cave wall suddenly split in half, and out tumbled a creature of metallic scales. Its large whirling jaws clicking loudly, as it began barreling towards her. Angie dropped to the ground and rolled to the side, causing the creature to hit the ground ahead of her, missing her, but also trapping her in the back half of the cave; where she was running from. Her head flew up to face her enemy. The creature's half rusted body, veiled in a dark aura like a storm cloud, made her stomach churn. A Bottom Feeder.
Oh, many of nights had she heard stories of these creatures. Birthed from the black womb of the genius mind of monsters, the creation was the darkest dead sprites forced to possess a broken metal shell. It wasn't alive, not in the normal way. It lived but only ever living in eternal pain. They were dangerous, powerful and bloodthirsty by nature. Blind and deaf but you could never hide from them, for they sense your very soul, the lifeforce that animated your flesh. She swallowed.
The clicking raged loudly, before the snake like undead beast rushed forward. Angie couldn't run. The tight walls off the cave was far too small, smothering any chance of fleeing. There was only one choice. Fight. She readied her stance, and clenched her fists. Once it was close enough, she threw her fist into its jaw. The strength of her punch, made the air around the impact ignite in a burst of wild flames. The creature was sent flying into the cavern wall, where it buried itself back into the volcanic rock.
Angie barely had time to open her com-link, when the rumbling started again. It was hungry.
"Bottom Feeders are here!! Repeat Bottom Feeders are-!!!" she tried to report, but the ground below her feet began the break way.
She tried to fly up but once again the low ceiling didn't let her get far. The Bottom Feeder's teeth snagged one of her boots. The creature yanked her down trying to pull her into the inky shadows of the newly formed tunnel below. A gloved hand barely managed to catch the rim of the tunnel's mouth.
Angie grunted, and clenched her grip harder on the meager hold she had, as the Bottom Feeder threatened to tear her in half. Don't let them bring you into their holes, that was the first rule that her father taught her when it came to these monsters. She swallowed and struggled, trying to kick the creature off of her.
She didn't hear the frantic calls coming from the com-link she dropped.
"Angie! Angie come in!" Sparky all but screamed into his mic, however all he heard in return was a hallow clicking that made his fur stand on end.
Bottom Feeders. Why it'd have to be bottom feeders?! This was the one thing that the fox didn't think they would find here. However, the lack of guards in the facility should've tipped them off. No, way would this place be completely unprotected.
He growled, and opened the com-link with Mari. He couldn't do anything about the attack on Angie from where his station was, but that didn't mean he was going to sit down and twiddle his thumbs.
Mari looked out at the volcano's internals from the small alcove that she was stationed in. The target in her sights, and the deep hot pool below. Along with its heat, she could feel its power pulsing out in waves. Sending a sparkling energic sting that picked at her fur. Vaguely she wondered what would happen if she reached out to feel it.
"Mari! Mari! Pick up!!!!" Her com-link suddenly activated.
The crossbreed flinched, and her blunt ears flopped down at the loud sudden sound, "Yes, Sparky?" She tried not to growl too harshly.
"Bottom Feeders are in the volcano! I repeat! Bottom Feeders are in the volcano!"
As if on some kind of cue, the wall behind and above her began to breakdown, heavy and thick debris began to rain down on her. She heard the clicking and then the creature's hot breath going down her back. There wasn't enough time to get away. The creature bit down on her shoulder, and yanked her back and up into the tunnels it crafted.
She didn't have much time. The teeth sunk deep into her shoulder; she could already feel the wounds bleeding. Her skates couldn't catch any of the ground to stop them. Within moments she could've been dragged away from the others, and brought to a painful end. Leaving them on their own. That possibility awoke something inside of her and she executed the only plan of escape she had left. Shutting her eyes, she summoned a chaos shard and shoved the jagged green gem into the creature's head. A large explosion quickly lit up the cavern.
It hurt. Oh, chaos, everything hurt. Her fur, whether, melted, singed or just merely smoking, felt like it was coated in lava. The heat numbing any sense of touch that was trying to get through to her. She couldn't even feel the tears in her flesh the rough metal teeth gave her anymore; did the blast cauterize them? A heavy ringing clanged through her ears. A harsh game of pinball was currently happening inside of her head, while snakes swirled around her stomach.
All of this was happening the dark. Her eyes, despite being closed had taken much of the blast. The skin and soft velvety coat of fuzz burned just as harshly as the rest of her left side. Even if she fought through the agony of opening her eyes. What remained of her vision was a bubbling soup of white flashing spots, and dark shadows. She was blinded.
Wincing, Mari pulled herself up from where she was lying. Her least injured hand, groped the surrounding ground for the tunnel wall, her claws scratching at the dirt. Once as wall was found, she collapsed against it, gasping for air that didn't help calm her rapid pulse at all.
Then came a wave of dizzying exhaustion, and she began to panic. Mari fought to stay awake. However, instincts from ages past were a hard opponent to fight. The urge to pass out and lie still, fueled by her wounds and pain, was strong, but she resisted each wave. If she kept this up, she knew they would slow, but there wasn't any time to wait for that.
"Mari! Mari! Come in! Are you alright?! Are you able to intercept?!"
The crossbreed swallowed and opened the link, "Negative. Vision impaired. I am unable to intercept."
"Great that means both you and Angie are down...Wait! Vision impaired?! What happened?! Are you hurt?"
She swallowed a grunt of pain before answering, "Don't worry about it," She couldn't worry Sparky, "What happened to Angie?"
"She's about thirty feet down from your position. I've been unable to contact her."
Okay, what were her options? She couldn't go to intercept and get Angie. The rookie speedster she had on hand could probably handle one of these tasks, but he might already be dealing with bottom feeders himself. There was never only one of these monsters. However, the blue hedgehog, with his smaller energy signature might go unnoticed. Mari growled, "tell Zipper to intercept the target. I'm going after Angie."
"Whoa, Whoa, no! You may not admit it! But I know your more hurt than you're telling me. Angie can handle herself! Stay where you are!"
The line cut. Mari took a deep breath, and put her skate on automatic, slowly using the spinning blade to dig downwards.
Zephyr was busy counting the pebbles on his ledge, for the fifth time. Honestly surveillance was a little more boring this time. Which wasn't really a bad thing, but it was starting to get old. He casted another glance at the target that was now even farther above his head...and passed Mari's and Angie's positions. Okay that was strange. Neither Angie or Mari were ones to fudge up a mission, at least not on purpose.
"Zephyr! Go to intercept! Go to intercept!"
Zephyr jumped at the sudden shout in his ear, "What?!"
"Mari is wounded and I've lost contact with Angie! You need to intercept the target!"
"Wait they were attacked?! I thought that, other than the folks in the chopper up top, this place was empty!"
"They weren't attacked by goons!"
The rumbling behind him suddenly became a roar. A heavy clicking accompanying the sound. Once again, the world slowed, as Zephyr turned around. The speedster was greeted with a mouth full of slowly grinding teeth. His ears shot up, and he took off from his spot on the vent's cliff.
"Sparky! I'm being chased by a giant metal snake! What do I do?!"
"Sparky! I'm being chased by a giant metal snake! What do I do?!"
Sparky wanted to curse. Bottom Feeders were not supposed to be here. These monsters while underground dwellers, weren't all that good at hiding. Not on their own. He sighed, calming himself down.
"Okay, Zephyr, listen to me. You need to get to the target! Bottom Feeders are blind!..."
"...They find their prey by sensing magical energy vibrations, through the ground and nearby air. They're fast and they're deadly, but they can't jump. Is there ledge that you could jump off of to get to the target?"
"If you mean over the giant pool of lava?" Zephyr shouted looking up at many ledges and cliffs ahead of him, that were stuck to the wall of the volcano's vent. A large roar coming from behind.
"Yes!"
"Are you crazy?!"
"The energy vibrations of the pool will mask you! Jump over the magma, and then land on the target. Cut it loose once you reach the top, and jump off. We'll find Mari, and Angie and then get out of here. Go! We're running out of time! Go! Go! Go!"
Taking his friend advice to heart, Zephyr took off. Quickly, but still carefully, scaling the inside of the vent (A lava bath did not sound very appealing right now). The heavy clicking, and metallic roar following his every move.
Angie was starting to think her arm was going to snap off. Something was on the verge of happening, that much she knew. She couldn't grip the ledge any tighter without breaking her only hold, and her wings couldn't beat any faster. This was a stand-still, and the Bottom Feeder wasn't giving up any time soon.
*Pop*
And there was the end of that. She cried out as her shoulder joint slipped out its socket. Her hand going limp, and losing its grip. Her wings beat against the air, but any resistance they gave wasn't enough to stop the violent pull. Just when Angie thought that she was going to pulled down into the dark hole to a fate that know one knew of but that no one ever came back from, there was a crumbling sound, and a shot of bright green shot passed her. Striking the monster down with a large explosion of olive.
The hold on her boot let go, and she shot up to the roof of the cave. Thankfully, Angie managed to angle herself and not hit the ceiling, but she still crashed into the rough stone ground, landing on her dislocated shoulder. She screamed, and gripped the arm as she shifted into a sitting position.
"Please tell me I didn't hit you," Came a familiar voice from inside a cloud of dust deeper into the cave that hadn't been there before.
"Mari?" Angie said, suddenly confused and concerned.
The half-breed got to her feet, one of her boots now sporting teeth marks. Holding her arm, she crept closer to the cloud. The dust and dirt slowly faded, floating towards the ground. A black form quickly became visible.
"Who else would save your spines," Mari coughed.
"Mari!" Angie nearly screamed.
Plum purple eyes widened in shock. Laying on the ground in front of her, was Mari. The black fur and quills charred and melted. The cross-breed's eyes beginning to swell shut, and a heavy grimace on her face that she was trying and failing to hide.
Quickly, Angie shoved her shoulder back into place, a grunt of pain escaping her lips. Then she ran over to Mari's side. Helping her friend up, slowly.
"What in the name of the Master Emerald happened to you?!" Angie said.
"Bottom Feeder. I blew up its head," Mari answered, through pants.
"You blew up its head?" Angie said slowly, "Where exactly were you when you did that?"
"Inside of its mouth."
Angie felt her heart jump, "Oh, Mari. Are you alright?"
"I'll live."
"That doesn't matter! Can you even, see?!"
Mari pulled away, standing on her own, but there was slight sway in her movements, "Come on, we need to go, before that blue rat gets himself killed."
"Are you kidding me! Your eyes are swollen shut! I can already see your quills falling out, and I know you're fighting to even stay awake! You can barely stand up!"
"I'm fine," Mari almost growled, her voice hollow, before stumbling. Angie rushed forward and caught the cross-breed before she could hit the ground.
"No, you're not," Angie sighed, and looked around. Quickly finding and fetching her fallen com-link. After helping Mari to the ground safely, she opened a call.
"Sparky! Mari's down! Tell Zephyr to take out the target! We need to get back to the mansion! We..." she noticed the static coming through the line, "Sparky! Sparky come in!"
Static.
"Somethings wrong," Mari said, trying to get to her feet.
Angie held her down gently, "No, don't go down that road. Just because he's not answering, doesn't mean they're in trouble. He's just might not be at his station."
"Since when has Sparky ever left his post in the middle of a mission?"
Angie stayed quiet. Denial and fear going through her mind. She didn't want Mari to be right, but her friend probably was.
That's when they heard the heart stopping scream.
"Whoa!" Zephyr shouted, as he almost slipped off of a ledge.
This was taking a lot longer than he thought it would. But there was a small number of ledges the further he when up, and the target was still going higher. The Bottom Feeder didn't have the same problem of finding footing. It just tunneled through the wall. Popping in and out of the vent wall every time that he touched the cliff tops. This dance of death seemed to continue, endlessly. Like a sick game...until it stopped.
Zephyr almost jumped off the small ledge he was on when he realized that there wasn't another ledge to jump onto. There was another roar, and the Bottom Feeder leaped out of the wall. Okay, what was Sparky's plan again? Get to target. Okay, where was that? Zephyr looked up, and bit back a groan. He hadn't been fast enough, the Target was nearly the mouth of the volcano, at least 25 feet above his head.
His quills and fur frizzed another echoing roar, "Oh, Legs don't fail me now!" He shouted as he jumped.
Once more he let the world slow (Zephyr really needed to ask if this was normal or not). The heat from the volcano below him was more intense than he expected. The loud growl of the Bottom Feeder was still there, slow, threatening, and lingering. The only other noises, he could hear was the near silent crackle of the lightning trailing behind him and his own panicked echoing breaths. He drifted through the air, getting closer, and closer. Closer...
But only his fingers grazed the underbelly of the rising generator. Zephyr screamed as the world caught up with him, and he was suddenly falling forward. His arms began to flail, desperately trying to grab at anything. Thankfully, his momentum carried him forward enough to grab on to the other side of the vent. The small grip he had slipped after a second of his weight, causing him to fall downwards a few feet before his fingers hooked onto another wayward stone.
Breath came to Zephyr's lungs in short gasping pants. Hesitantly he turned his head around. The sight of the bottom feeder falling deep into the volcano's stomach made relief wash over him, but its dying shriek still sent a chill up and down his spine. Looking back up, he used his only free hand to shakily turn on his com-link.
"Sparky! I missed!"
"You what!?"
"I missed the target!"
Sparky's throat closed. His blue eyes darted above his station, seeing the target slowly rising above the volcano's lip. Without him thinking about it, he'd had ripped off his headset and ran towards it. He knew if the target had reached the facility's outdoor spotlights' range, they wouldn't have a chance to stop them.
As the small fox jumped on to hanging generator, he caught a glimpse of the magma pool below. What would've been a long drop to someone else, was a seemingly endless fall to Sparky. The sight made his stomach churn and twist harshly and it didn't stop even when his hands had a firm grip on the ropes that held the generator. Once he began climbing and crawling up towards the top, it was a small miracle that he managed to keep his balance. He shut his eyes, and pressed his forehead against the generator, breathing heavily.
Winds from the chopper blades from high above, whipped his fur and tails. With shaky hands, Sparky continued to climb the ropes wrapped around the generator. He made it to the top without throwing up, but his stomach was still in knots, and he was pretty sure silent tears of terror had started dripping from his eyes.
The generator was being held up by a rope net which was looped on to a shiny metal hook on a single thick chain. He tried to stop his frantic breaths with logic, going through the options of what to do next. He couldn't unhook the ropes. Not only would it be physically be impossible for him (the generator was the size of his Uncle Omega, and probably just as heavy), but if they investigated in incident he was about to cause (which due to how expensive this thing must have been, the techs who built it would definitely do that) it would've been weird for the brand-new ropes to suddenly slip or even break.
The hook was hard steel. The metal freshly forged and strong, as was the taunt chain that it was attached too. However, the small weld that linked the two together was not. Sparky could tell that it had been done in a hurry. It was not a clean thin line, not a small metallic seam. It looked like a young child had tried to glue the two pieces together with molten medal. Some parts thickly melted together, while others were held together with mere strands. That he could work with.
Sparky always kept his tool belt on. Many times, he had tried to use 'Hammer Space' as all of his aunts and uncles called it, but magic had never really been his strong suit. So, he resorted to keeping on his belt, and he was thankful he did. Carefully reaching down, his trembling gloved hand grasped a small handle of what some one might think to be a while small, but ordinary, switch-blade.
But once the gleaming red-hot blade popped out of the handle it was anything, except ordinary. It was a tool he had offend used when cutting custom parts out of metal sheets if he couldn't find what he needed, but it would work for this scenario. The knife slowly, but steadily began cutting through the weld. He started with the thinner parts, and then slowly moved onto the thicker bits. All while feeling the only thing that was keeping him from falling in to the burning pit below, slowly shake and loosen.
Then it snapped.
There was a scream of metal, and then Sparky started shrieking. All of his organs went into his throat, and the wind made by his fall threatened to rip off his skin and fur. That was if his fluff wasn't already falling off to due to stress and fear. His scream ripped through his throat; was it bleeding? All of the nightmares that haunted his mind at night were coming true. Why he dreamt of falling, he wasn't entirely sure. Why the thought of being high up made his legs buckled and head spin? He didn't truly know, but maybe it had to do with the fact that he was born on a plane that was about to crash. Uncle Shadow teleporting away at the last second was the only reason that he was still alive today. That act seemed to have been for nothing now that he was falling once again to a fiery death.
Something snagged one of his tails, bringing the falling fox to an abrupt halt. His body jerked as the rest of the downward momentum snapped away. Slowly he started rising, the sound of flapping wings coming from above.
Sparky looked up, seeing Angie had caught him, "Got ya," The half-breed girl said.
Angie flew him back to his station. Dropping gently onto the volcanic stone ground. Sparky immediately melted to his knees, curled over and began retching. The half breed got down next to him and began rubbing is back.
"Are you okay?" Angie said.
"No," Sparky gasped.
"Okay, where's Zephyr?"
"In...t-the vent...he missed."
"Okay I'm going back in to grab him and Mari, are you going to be okay by yourself?"
Sparky nodded.
"Okay, be right back."
The orange raccoon, covered a cloak of black, stepped through the dark night. Slowly, approaching the well-lit camp. He crept through the camp, with an indecisiveness that said that he didn't know exactly what the was looking for. Ducking behind the tents and crates of supplies to hide from the number of soldiers roaming the grounds.
Eventually he slipped into an underground tunnel. The long curved concreate ceiling rests high above his head, but the lack of light made the atmosphere suffocating. The footsteps sounded to loud, but that should've been expected with the heavy work boots he was wearing. At the end of the tunnel there was a single room.
Or at least that's all he had been able to see.
Bright white lights were blinding, and made the workers who were welding or drilling that was happening inside only noticeable by the noise they were making. In the middle of the room, was a large...something...covered with a pale ivory tarp. The shape of it almost impossible to recognize. What were they building?
Dark eyes glazed over the seen, coming into view was a high platform. Standing there was three forms. A dark green Jackal, and two rabbits. The first one a male with golden brown fur, while the second, was a bright green female. Her crimson eyes seemed to glow with venom.
He shivered.
"Hey! Who are you!?"
He turned around...
...and Zephyr woke up with a scream.