Chapter VIII
Hey guys, another chapter before thanksgiving.
Enjoy!
Shattered
Chapter VIII
"Alexander? Alexander? ALEXANDER!" Krystal was shaking his lifeless body screaming and crying. Tears were following like a river off of her muzzle and striking the prone form of the last human. Falco and Fox stood there numb.
"What do we do?" Falco shouted.
"Maybe we can help him on The Great Fox." Fox said with little confidence.
"We can't carry him by ourselves."
"We can try."
Suddenly the door opened and four heavy armored cornerians strode in with two black wolves. One was older in a lab coat, and the other was young at about ten years of age.
When the younger wolf saw Alexander on the floor she screamed and ran over to cradle his head. The older one walked up to fox. "What the hell happened? And what are you doing here? He told me starfox was here but that they weren't inside the facility."
"When we saw him go into the artifact room we rushed down here in the blue-marine to help, even though he told us not to. As we got closer we saw him fight that thing," he pointed at the massive dead necromorph. It pinned him to the wall but he managed to kill it. Then he was attacked again by a pack of these things. As we finally entered the room he put his hand on the artifact and froze for a few seconds. Then it just fell apart and he fell to the ground. What are you doing here?"
"Now is not the time for explanations, we need to get him to your ship." Lupa said quickly. "We should be able to revive him there."
"Agreed. At least with your help we can pick him up."
Lupa motioned for the guard to lift the limp body and they did. A distraught Krystal and Penelope followed closely behind. As the group rushed out of the room with their unmoving cargo Fox questioned the wolf woman again.
"So how did you get here?"
"When he left my little sister Penelope was distraught. After her unending pleading I finally managed to convince. A team of guards to help him. Unfortunately it seems we were too late." They arrived at one of the docking tubes, the one that held the blue-marine. The guards stashed Alexander inside and exited. "I wish I could come with, but I should wait with the others until the authorities arrive." She said sadly.
"Lupa, you can go with them. We can watch over the people." The horse guard from earlier said.
"Are you certain?"
"Yeah we'll be fine." He reassured.
"I don't know." She mummered.
"Come on sis what are you waiting for!" The pup shouted. She was already in the ship with Krystal who was hugging onto Alexander's chest and sniffling.
"Alright then." She climbed in with the others and the ship quickly left. It traveled at great speed to the Great Fox. As soon as it docked they all lifted the prone form of Alexander and rushed him out and to the medbay.
Along the way Miyu, Fay, Slippy, and Peppy showed up. They placed him onto a gurney and wheeled him to the auto surgeon. Remembering something Fox pressed the button on his helmet and it broke apart and returned to its storage area inside the gorget. This revealed his golden eyed human face. Lupa and Penelope gasped in surprise. Miyu and Fay only started a little bit because they already knew he was an alien.
"What is he?" Lupa wondered aloud.
"He's an alien." Fox answers as the surgeon efficiently cleaned up its patient and began the healing process. It pressed two pads to his chest and with a thump shocked him. He was hooked up to the life support system. With another jolt his heart beat once and flatlined. "Come on man wake up." Fox urged.
Krystal was hugging herself tightly with her own tail. Her tears had subsided but she was still sniffling and hiccuping softly. Alexander was shocked again. This time his heart beat steadily. "Thank god!" Slippy exclaimed. Krystal rushed to the bed and hugged his comatose form. She was now crying tears of joy and relief. Penelope had also run up and was holding onto his ungloved hand. She was smiling.
"We still have to get him back to Corneria. The medical facilities are much better there." peppy input.
Lupa and Fox agreed. Leaving Penelope and Krystal in the medbay the others quickly headed to the bridge and ordered rob to head to Corneria, overclocking the engines again. Soon they found themselves back in cornerian space. Fox immediately contacted general Pepper.
"Yes fox?" The old canine asked.
"Sir! We need you to prepare cornerian medical for a critical patient and get ready for one hell of a media storm."
"Whatever for?" The bloodhound asked confused.
"Sir I can explain in depth more but the outline is this. There was one of those marker things on Aquas."
"Good lord!" The General exclaimed. "What happened?"
Fox filled him in on the specifics. "And when was got down there the marker was destroyed and he was in the ground." He finished.
Pepper was deep in thought. "Hmm...I'll send a small fleet to retrieve the personnel left behind. And from what I gather we owe this human a great deal."
"Yes we do sir. Who knows what would have happened if he never came." Fox agreed.
"Get him down to Corneria medical I'll be heading there as soon as I can. Feel free to take a transport directly to the roof access I'll have a group of doctors assembled there. Talk to you soon." Pepper disconnected.
Fox fell into his chair with a sigh. Miyu walked up to him, Fay trailing behind. "So Fox tell me more about this human."
"I would also like to know more." Lupa added.
"Alright you can come with me when we take him down. When he wakes up you can ask him yourself. "He turned to Falco and the other guys. "Falco your in charge while I'm gone."
"You betcha, let me know when the big guy wakes up. Tell him the first rounds on me."
Fox got back up and headed down to the medbay with the women. He walked in to see Krystal sitting next to Alexander's bed. Penelope had fallen asleep on her lap. "How are you holding up?"
She looked up, "I'm alright now. Penelope fell asleep a couple minutes ago."
"Alright well we're taking him to the hospital right now. I'm sure you wold like to tag along." She nodded her head and stood up holding the sleeping kid. She walked over to Lupa who took her sister.
"Thank you for taking care of her." Lupa said gratefully.
Krystal smiled. "Of course."
With that taken care of fox wheeled the bed out of the room and down to the hanger. They went over to a larger ship, the transport. He strapped in the bed and secured it and headed to the cockpit. The girls stayed down with Alexander. Krystal was softly stroking his head as she looked at him. The other women could see why she liked him so much. He was extremely selfless and was surprisingly handsome. Especially with those golden eyes and strong facial features. Miyu wouldn't have minded spending some time with him.
"You must really like him." Lupa remarked.
Krystal blushed brightly. "Is it that obvious?"
"Kinda." Miyu said sarcastically.
"I think its cute." Fay said smiling. "And so is he." She muttered quietly to herself.
"Huh?" Miyu said.
"Uh nothing!" Fay said quickly. Her tail was frizzed and she blushed faintly.
The intercom buzzed. "Alright ladies well be landing in a few."
"Alright Fox!" Miyu yelled up to the cockpit. She turned back to the others. "Looks like we're almost there." The rest of the ride was spent in silence as each person was deep in thought.
The engines cycling off shook them out of their reverie. When they had shut down fully Fox emerged from the cockpit and went to the bed. He unstrapped it and wheeled it to the the big sliding doors. Penelope was still sleeping heavily. Lupa picked her back up and went to the doors. Fox opened them and walked out. The others followed to see five doctors waiting for them. Three dogs a cat and a bull. The bull must have been in charge because he was the first to speak.
"General Pepper informed me of the situation. I take it this is the human?"
"Yes doctor Merlow." Fox said as he read the name tag.
"Amazing! He truly is alien."
"Yes well we can talk about that after you help him." Miyu scolded him.
"You are absolutely right." He signaled for two of his assistant to take over the business of ferrying the patient. "Please follow me."
They traveled down an elevator and went through a few hallways filled with gawking patients and doctors. All eyes were on the sleeping human. It was difficult but they managed to get through the crowd and into a solitary room. They transferred him into the bed and hooked him up to the monitoring equipment.
The removed his rent and battered armor leaving him in a very skintight suit. The women blushed and then looked horrified. There was gaping rips in the underweave and they could see dried blood. The doctor cleaned it up and did what they could.
"If you would please take the seats to the side we can get to work." Marlow told the Starfox team. They complied and sat to the side. They listened to the doctor as they conversed among themselves.
"Multiple lacerations."
"Severe muscular damage."
"Critical blood loss."
"Trace bone fractures."
"Internal hemorrhaging."
"Collapsed lung."
As the doctors listed the numerous injuries. The team got progressively amazed and depressed. How was he still alive? That should have been enough to kill five men. The doctors themselves were baffled. Then they stumbled upon something. The rig that was still attached was releasing a chemical cocktail that was slowly but surely healing him. This allowed them to focus on the smaller wounds. One of the doctors that was scanning his brain suddenly yelped in surprise. The black lab called Marlow over and they talked in hushed tones.
Worried the team watched them intently. Eventually Merlow sighed and walked over to them ominously. "What is doctor?" Krystal asked voice filled with concern.
"He is healing but we discovered something about his brain."
"What?" Fox asked.
"He's dying." Marlow said bluntly.
"What you said he would be fine!" Miyu exclaimed.
"Yes his body will heal but his brain is shutting down. It's happening at an incredibly slow rate, we almost didn't catch it."
"Why!" Krystal implored she was close to tears again.
"Honestly we don't know why. There is no discernible reason but he is. Maybe when he wakes up you can ask him."
With that deflating shred of news the team was numbed. "We did what we could and he is on the road to mending. He should awake within the hour."
The doctors left and then they moved their chairs to the sleeping human. He looked so peaceful. It was hard to believe he was dying.
Alexander opened his eyes to find himself in a hospital. He was confused. How did he end up here? Last think he remembered was passing out in the marker room.
"Alex!" He heard a feminine voice shout before he felt warm furry arms wrap around him followed by a blue furred body.
"Hey Krystal." He said his usually strong deep voice sounded weak and infirm.
"We thought we lost you!" She squeezed him firmly.
"Sorry to disappoint you." He chuckled.
"Good to see you awake." He heard Fox say. He looked over Krystal's shoulders to see Fox, that Wolf woman from the facility, Penelope who was sleeping in her arms, and two vaguely familiar girls, a lynx and collie.
"I didn't think I warranted this much attention."
"Your only the only human here." Fox said as he rolled his eyes jokingly.
Suddenly Alex saw a flicker of movement by the door. He dismissed it. "So...where am I?"
"You are in a hospital on Corneria." Lupa informed him.
"Huh." He grunted. He was distracted by strange writing on the walls. Wait...strange writing? He went to touch his necklace and froze. Where was it? The he remembered he left it in his armor, which was on the small table across from him. He panicked. He gently pushed Krystal away she protested which he ignored. He could see Santiago standing in the doorway smiling sickly.
"What are you doing," Krystal asked upset that he pushed her away. The others also wondered but were studiously ignored. He almost fell off the bed as he tried to get up. Fox supported him. He didn't stop to thanks Fox as he stumbled over to his armor. Confused they watched him rummage around in a pouch and take out a necklace. He hastily and sloppily put it on.
"What the hell was that about!" Miyu demanded.
They watched as he went back to the bed and laid down with a sigh of relief. "Seriously what was that about?" Fox asked.
"I don't think I can tell you." Alex replied quietly. "I don't think you will understand."
"Sure you can tell us." Krystal said, she seemed to have forgiven him for his earlier rudeness.
"You can trust us." Fox backed her up.
"What about them?" He gestured to Miyu and Fay.
"Of course you can! We're long time friends of fox!" Fay said perkily.
He sighed again. "I suppose you deserve to know. I have a...condition."
"Condition?" Lupa inquired.
"Yes over the course of the marker war soldiers who had prolonged exposure to their influence developed symptoms. Hallucination, bouts of insanity and violence, self harm, and several kinds of psychosis to name a few."
Krystal put a paw to her mouth. "Oh no you mean..."
"Yes I do, I was one of those men." They all gasped.
"Why haven't we noticed it before?" Fox asked.
"That's because of this." He flashed the necklace. "It counteracts the signal stuck in my brain,...but it has a drawback."
"What is it?" Miyu wondered.
"It is very, very slowly shutting down my brain."
"So thats what the doctor couldn't figure out!" Lupa grasped.
"So your going to die?" Krystal was teary eyed.
"I'm afraid so, but don't worry about it it won't happen for a little while yet." He said nonchalantly.
"Don't worry about!" Krystal shouted, she was really upset now. "Your just said you were going to die how can we not."
"I've accepted it so will you. That is unless of course you have the cure to my affliction." He replied scathingly. "You are not the one dying! You didn't fight those things, watch them consume everything you've ever known and loved, and finally after you though it was over, that you could finally die and not have to worry about it all anymore, find yourself in some weird place with aliens lost and alone!" He was out of breath and panting as he finally vented.
He stunned everyone with his outburst. It allowed them to see what it was like for him. To truly understand his grief and sorrow. "Oh but your not alone." Krystal said softly and hugged him. "You have us now and we will fix you. Right Fox?"
Fox nodded with determination. "She's right we will help you. You are apart of the starfox team, our family. And we take care of our family."
"Yeah fox is right! We'll help yah!" Fay said with her customary enthusiasm.
"We sure will!" Miyu added.
They saw him frown until he smiled. It was warm enough to fill the whole room. "Really?"
"Really." Krystal replied.
He stroked her furry back softly. He looked close to tears. "Thanks, that means more to me then you guys will ever know."
Suddenly out of the blue Lupa asked Fox something. "Can I join starfox?"
"Why?"
"It seems like you could use a good doctor, Penelope is strongly attached to him, and I would like to help."
He considered her proposal. "We could use a doctor. Welcome to the team!"
She smiled. "Thank you, you won't regret it."
"I would also ask," Alex said getting their attention, "that Penelope not find out about my condition."
They all agreed. Ironically seconds after she was mentioned she woke up. "Yay! Your awake!" She ran at him and knocked him and Krystal over in a big pile of fur.
He chuckled warmly. "Yes I am." He picked her up and held her at eye level.
"Your all better now?" She asked innocently.
"Yep I'm one hundred percent okay, nothin wrong with me at all." He said before swirling her around playfully making her squeal with childish laughter. The group took this in with smiled all around. There was a few tears from the women, they knew he was lying for her sake.
That happy moment was interrupted when a young cat came in wearing military apparel. "Mr. Fox sir?"
"Yes, who wants to know?"
"General Pepper is here." The cat replied.
Alex let Penelope down much to her disappointment. "Well then lets not keep him waiting."