Chapter Five: Lone Wolf

“I’m not leaving.”

Falco groaned and flopped back, rubbing his eyes tiredly. The group had combed the area around the city, and found nothing. The storm had wiped away any chance of finding the Rinaldi… or Jesse. They had already concluded that Jesse had been sucked into the Entity, but whether or not that was his reason for leaving, they didn’t know. Either way, Wolf had been on edge for the last two hours, hackles up the entire time, bristling with anger and worry to the point that no one was willing to go within arm’s reach of him.

“Look, we’ve done all we can do, Wolf.” Fox finally burst out, arms crossed. “We’ve combed the area. Jesse doesn’t have a transponder, so we can’t track him that way. We’ve got to back up to the Great Fox. The GalFed’s ‘cleaning crew’ is going to be here in less then three hours, according to ROB.”

“Exactly the reason why I am not leaving.” Wolf turned away, voice tight. “I’m not leaving Jesse here, Fox.”

“We’ll come back for him, but the point is we’ve go to make sure there’s something to come back for, god dammit!” Falco snarled, turning to look at Wolf. “I already agreed to fly this thing, so get in here.”

“Bite me. You can’t give me orders, Falco. I’m not going anywhere.” During this, Wolf had been checking his gun, and had added a rifle to his gear, slinging it over his shoulder. With one last look at everyone, he turned to leave.

Fox grabbed the rifle strap and yanked him back. “He can’t order you around, Wolf, but I can. I didn’t want to stoop to this, but its official, I ORDER you to board the shuttle and return with us. Do you hear me?!” Fox turned him around.

Time froze as the pair growled at each other for a minute, Fox looking at the near-hysterical panic in Wolf’s eyes. Fox knew he was ordering Wolf to leave behind someone Wolf had come to love more then anything, and he was more then willing to risk throwing his life away on the chance that he could find Jesse before the GalFed crew arrived. To Wolf, joining a lover for an apocalypse was better then surviving by abandoning that lover. It was pack law, and his heart demanded nothing else.

“So what’s it going to be Wolf? Risk a court marshal? Or help Jesse by stopping the GalFed?” Fox asked very quietly.

“I will get you back for this.” Wolf replied, and stalked inside one of the shuttles, sitting down by his suit and hugging his knees to his chest, head bowed.

“Well, I now officially feel like the scum of the earth.” Fox sighed. “Let’s get the hell out of here before something else blows up in our faces.”

Jesse saw the shuttles take off, and sighed, leaning on the tree and banging his head into it. He had seen the confrontation between Wolf and Fox, and seen Wolf back down angrily. Jesse was kind of glad Fox had made Wolf go, though, as much as he loved Wolf he didn’t want to be drug away from this yet.

The network of the Entity fascinated him, the thousands, hundreds of thousands of voices, races the GalFed didn’t even know about, blended together, becoming one driven unit. It wasn’t quite as organized as it could be though, Jesse saw the glitches and problems, and as far as he was concerned that was exactly what he had to fix.

“Part is in pain?”

He looked down at Mrokin, the Rinaldi which had passed the Entity to him. Those in the Entity kept their names, but didn’t use them much. They didn’t have to. “Sort of.” He sighed, rubbing his eyes as they burned, swallowing a whimper. He hadn’t liked the pain in Wolf’s eyes. Even as he fought the tears, voices rushed through his mind, comfort, kindness, gentle feelings trying to make him feel better. He wearily shook his head, playing with the vine, which had now wrapped up his arm and over his shoulder, spreading continually as he succumbed bit by bit to the Entity. He fought it, a little, trying to remain himself and not blend into the hive mind.

“Can this part help?” The Rinaldi leaned into his leg, looking up at him with four innocent glowing eyes.

“I don’t think so.” He shook his head again. “Let’s go.”

Fara jumped when Wolf stormed by her, punching the wall as he exited the bay, the resounding ‘clang’ of the metal reverberating through the air. Hope whimpered, and she soothed her child automatically, staring after him. “It’s ok, baby.” She looked at Fox as he walked up, looking guilty. “You really had to leave Jesse behind?”

“We didn’t have a choice.” He replied helplessly. “We couldn’t find him and the GalFed crew is a slightly higher priority right now.” He rubbed a hand down his face. “Wolf is really mad at me now…”

“How would you feel if someone forced you to leave me behind, eh?” Fara replied.

“I wouldn’t allow that option, mostly because I’d shoot them. But yes, I do see your point.” He drew her close and buried his face into her hair.

“Christ, you should have seen him.” Falco shook his head. “It was like a flashback to the war, the look he was giving Fox.”

The group was silent for a moment, then left the bay together, going up to the bridge. Fox gestured for ROB to continue trying to track Jesse down, flopping in his chair and calling the fleet. “How much time do we have, ROB?”

“Little less then two hours, if they stay in steady warp.” ROB replied, checking in with the tracking signal of the GalFed crew. “It looks like its three heavy cruisers. This is not good. We can’t possibly fend that off without taking some heavy, heavy damage.”

“I know, I know.” Fox rubbed his eyes, counting the several-second delay as the call went through. “This is McCloud reporting in. We’re in orbit around Versyi, and we’ve had some… complications…”

“This is Admiral Myers, standing in for General Pepper. Please clarify.”

“We’ve found what the GalFed is so afraid of. It’s basically the Borg, except its natural, some sort of hive-mind symbiote. We went down to the surface and investigated, it looks like the entire Rinaldi colony has been taken.” He paused. “One of our crew has been taken by it.”

“How did this happen?”

“One of the other pilots tried to stop him, but didn’t react in time. We ended up camping for a brief time, and he disappeared while we were sleeping. It might be more trouble then it’s looking to be, as well, because the one taken was Jesse Patterson, a literal genius. All that information is probably being taken in by this borg ripoff even now.”

There was a pause, then Myers came back on. “Do what you can to prevent the GalFed from acting. We’ll petition for the cancellation of the FAKK zones, and do what we can to send backup.”

“It’ll take over six hours for any backup you send to arrive, Admiral.” Fox replied. “Keep your forces. We’ll do what we can here.”

“Roger that McCloud. Fleet out.”

Wolf stormed into the workout room, tossing off his jacket and guns, taking off his boots and stripping from the waist up, taking out his frustration on a punching bag, trying not to think, hackles up as he continually snarled to himself.

It was so easy to backslide into old ways. It always was. When Fox had pulled him back and ordered him to leave Jesse behind, that old hate had screamed to life, and Wolf had had to restrain himself from striking out at his friend. That hatred had once driven him to kill thousands in a war, he knew it was powerful, he knew what he could do under the influence of it. He wasn’t sure he cared, what was the point?

He snarled and punched, making the bag fly off the hook and onto the ground. He stood panting, trying to control himself. No, he wasn’t going to do that. He’d loose too much if he did that… even if all he wanted to do was rampage… No. No. NO! He dropped to his knees, sending his fists into the metal floor, then again, until the pain reached his brain and he forced himself to calm down because of it.

Old habits, painful old habits. It was so easy to hate, so easy to kill. The part of him that was the cold hunter knew just how easy it would be to strike at his friends, and that very thought calmed him more. There was no point in an easy hunt. There never was. As much as he hated Fox for making him leave the person he loved behind, he knew he couldn’t do anything about it. Fox was his leader. He had to obey.

He howled, letting the cry scream from his throat, echoing through the metal room, hands slamming into the floor again. Damn it! What should he listen to? His training? Instincts? Heart? What should he obey? Should he just submit? Strike out? Rebel and go back to the planet surface? Choking on tears of frustration, he watched the blood spread out around his hands from his battered knuckles, and wondered what to do.

After several moments he stood and staggered to the workout room’s showers, not even bothering stripping the rest of the way, leaning on the wall and leaning into an ice-cold spray, letting it wash away the blood and tears, whimpering to himself, shivering. Cold, so cold…

“Well, I guess it’s better then starting smoking again.”

He jumped and looked over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes at Drax, who leaned on the locker bank and watched him with a carefully neutral gaze. “Please. Go away.” He heard himself plead. “Please. I… I don’t want to talk to anyone right now.”

“That’s obvious… I found blood out there. Are you all right? No. Nevermind. Stupid question…”

Wolf let himself slide down, leaning back against the tiled wall, staring up at the spray and trying to ignore the reporter staring at him. “What do you want?” He finally asked wearily.

“Christ. Everyone’s worried about you. I’m no different.”

“You don’t even know me, Drax.”

There was a very long silence. “From what I’ve come to understand, no one really does. Fox and Jesse know the most, and Fox doesn’t seem to know that much.”

“Just go away.”

There was another long silence, Wolf still letting the water run, looking at his hands, flexing his living one to see if the bleeding had stopped yet, then falling still again, letting his mind wander away again, absorbing himself in his thoughts. Somehow he wasn’t surprised when Drax huffed, walking over and putting a hand the water, only to yank it away. “My god, that’s like ice. You’re going to make yourself sick, Wolf.” The water was turned off, and one of the larger towels wrapped around his shoulders, Drax crouching beside him, wiping rivulets of water away from his eyes. He closed his eyes and allowed it, not moving. “What are you thinking?”

“Music.” Wolf replied in a bland voice, not moving. His uniform pants clung to him, but he ignored the discomfort. “Trying not to think… Hurts too much.”

“What song?” Drax tried to pull him up, but Wolf turned into dead weight. Huffing, he tossed the soaked towel down the chute and got two others, ignoring the water as he knelt back beside Wolf, unsure of what to do. Wolf opened his living eye for a second, then closed it, taking one of the towels without looking and starting to dry off the mechanical arm. Drax watched as tiny hatches opened, trapped water draining out as Wolf continued the automatic motions.

“Number One Crush by Garbage.”

“Appropriate.” Giving up, he wrapped the towel around Wolf’s back and tried to work water out of the silver fur. Wolf allowed it, eyelids fluttering a bit.

“What is it with you?”

“What do you mean?” Drax replied.

“… I don’t know. I just can’t figure out why you’re so nice to me.” He let his eyes open, looking at Drax.

“You’re cute.”

That made Wolf laugh a little. “Yeah. Thought you were gay…”

“And you’re bi, and Jesse’s transgender. Your point would be…?”

“None, really.” Wolf grunted, hefting himself to his feet and staggering over to his locker, leaning heavily on the door once he had it open. His angry feelings had been replaced by emptiness. He set a change of clothes out, but wasn’t even really dry yet. He sighed, looking at Drax. “Would you at least turn around?”

Drax held up his hands and turned his back, letting Wolf strip out of the soaked clothing. “Modest?”

“Only around people who would probably check me out.” Wolf sighed, humming to himself without really knowing it as he finished drying off then putting on clean clothing, zipping into black jeans and pulling on a white muscle shirt over it, tossing the wet towels and clothing down the chute automatically. “All right. Now what do you want?”

“Do I have to want something?” Drax turned back around, following Wolf out of the locker rooms.

“Most people do.”

“All right, fine. Why did you look at Fox like you were going to kill him?”

Wolf stopped in midstep, looking over his shoulder. “Would ‘because he god damn deserves it,’ be a good enough answer for you, mister reporter?” And with that he left Drax in the hall, growling to himself.

Needless to say, the GalFed cleaning crew were a bit surprised when they found a Lylatian fast-attack cruiser waiting for them.

The three heavy cruisers were a mixed design, mostly based off of Vun warships, complete with the huge heavy guns that the Vun designed for distance combat. But the fighters were more like the Rekuva, with the melee capabilities. Like the ships, the crews were mixed, all aware of the mission they were to carry out, and were determined to do so. They had been told how dangerous the Entity could be.

They hadn’t been told too much about the newest race in the GalFed, so they had to look up what the Great Fox was and who it was registered to. Regardless, they weren’t all that happy that the smaller ship was determined to stay in their way.

“Looks like they’re finally trying to page us.” Said Katt, looking at the radio controls over Falco’s shoulder, who tugged her around to sit on his leg.

“Put them through.” Fox replied, rubbing his temple. Wolf was hiding in his room, refusing to come out any time soon. The screen in front of him flickered, and a Vun was on the screen, frowning in surprise.

“Are you the commander of the vessel blocking us?”

“Better believe it.” Fox smiled grimly. “We have decided we don’t agree with the GalFed’s decision to wipe out so many colonies. We’ve already landed on this planet and evaluated the situation. The destruction is unnecessary.”

“That’s for the GalFed to decide, not a new race with no power as of yet.” The Vun replied with a sigh. “Look we know the idea must disturb you, but this planet’s contaminated, it must be done… wait. You touched down?”

“Yes. We did. We’ve met the threat. And as for contamination, one of our people is down there under the thrall of that threat. We’re not going to let you kill off an entire forest world and our friend with it.” Fox crossed his arms.

“If your friend is taken, he is better off dead.” The Vun blanched. “I’m sorry it’s true! That, that thing that contaminates the planets and spreads like a virus is… is more trouble then you’ll believe. Please know we don’t want to do this, but we must. We’re sorry your friend is down there, but he is better off dead.”

Fox narrowed his eyes. “I don’t believe that. We’re not going to move.”

“We can go around.”

“I guarantee we’re faster then any of the ships you have over there.”

There was a long pause. “Look, Lylatian Commander, we don’t want to use force. Just move aside and let us do what we must.”

“No. We’re not going to, and you can’t change our minds. We’re not going to let you carry out your orders, if we can possibly stop it.” Fox shut off the radio and huffed. “You’d think the GalFed was god…”

“One government, claiming democracy, that controls the universe.” Peppy said. “Got a better definition of god?”

Wolf looked up and slicked his ears back when he saw the red light on the wall of his room start flashing, the lights turning down. Battle stations, then, Fox must have pissed the convoy off. He sighed, rubbing his eyes, trying to coax himself out of the room and not able to. Dammit, they were fighting to keep the convoy from wiping out the planet, and Jesse was down there. Why the hell couldn’t he get himself to get up and help?

Because… because… because he didn’t know. He didn’t want to have to face Fox. He didn’t want to try to fight honorably when what he wanted to do was tear through anything that was trying to threaten the person he loved. He had fallen into old habits, and he knew it, and he’d be labeled a monster if he went out. He’d been a monster before. He hadn’t liked it much.

Someone pounded on his door, and he looked up again, sighing. “What?”

“You gonna come out of there?” Drax’s voice sounded a little worried. “Fox and the others just launched, there’s gonna be a full-out fight and I think they’ll need your help.”

“Go away, Drax. I can’t fight right now…” He combed his fingers through his fur, stewing.

“You mean you won’t.” There was a pause. “Can I at least come in?”

“Sure.” He reached over and thumped his fist on the remote that keyed the door lock, and Drax came in, looking at him in puzzlement. “So?”

“So why can’t you fight?”

“Because I’ll hurt someone.”

“… Well. That’s honest, I guess.” Drax crouched down in front of Wolf, who was sitting on his bed, elbows propped on his knees. Wolf didn’t look at him. “Listen, the guy in charge of the cleanup crew, a Vun, sounds pretty determined. He sympathized for Jesse, too, but just said Jesse was better off dead if the Entity’s got him.”

Wolf growled to himself. “I can’t believe that.”

“Fox didn’t either.” He looked at the pain in Wolf’s eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Getting eaten by my past. That’s all.” Wolf wearily returned the gaze, and huffed, angry at himself. He was tired, angry, bloodthirsty, and of all things horny. Some things just always went together. “What do you think the odds are?”

“Well, according to Peppy, the Vun design their ships to have guns that can tear up planets like anything. The GalFed actually has a gun that can burn up a planet’s surface like it isn’t there. ROB’s worried they might try to use it on the Great Fox if they get pissed.” Drax rubbed his chin. “About a thousand to one against us, I guess.”

Wolf sat back and laughed loudly. “I was wondering how they planned on doing it…” He went silent when the Great Fox rocked, alarms screaming. “Damn melee fighters.”

“No kidding.” Drax stood slowly. “You really should help, Wolf…”

“I can’t. I just told you that. I’m too dangerous right now.” He stood and went over to the window, watching as a pair of arwings went by, chasing off some of the ET fighters and going after one of the cruisers. “Looks pretty even right now. The GalFed ships aren’t angry enough to really try.”

“That won’t last for long, probably.”

“I know.”

The pair stood silently for a long time, absorbed in their thoughts.

ROB gunned it, the Great Fox flying backward, guns thundering, picking off some of the drone fighters and scoring the hull of the GalFed ships, trying to stay between the GalFed ships and the planet, analyzing the entire time. The GalFed really didn’t feel like hurting their newest allies, but it was obvious their presence had hurt relations more then a bit.

“We’ve got power readings on the main ship, ROB.” Slippy said, looking at the readout screens.

“Break off!” ROB told Fox, and the Great Fox suddenly dove, ROB shoving all energy to boosters. The AI didn’t know how to panic, really, but it knew that those power readings meant big trouble.

The beam of energy lashed out of the Vun cruiser, and the Great Fox rocked as one of the wings were slashed off, the hot energy going through the planet’s atmosphere and tracing lazily across it. The once-white clouds turned black with smoke and ash as lightning writhed around the continual laser beam.

The team attacked the cruiser, which shrugged them off, the destruction continuing. The GalFed had decided that nothing the Lylatians did could stop the heavy cruisers from doing their job.

Which is where they were wrong.

“Dammit, no!” Wolf screeched, punching the window, watching with wide eyes as the planet burned. “Jesse…” That came out helplessly, and he turned away from the window, grabbing some CDs and his handgun.

“Wolf…? What are you going to do?” Drax asked, watching this in confusion.

“What I need to.” He paused, looking down at the mouse, and sighed. “Don’t tell anyone I did this…” He dropped the CDs on the bed and yanked Drax close, kissing him briefly and passionately, then left the room, scooping the CDs up as he went, not wondering why he had just done that. He didn’t love Drax, but.. but… oh what the hell, he was pretty sure he was going to die within the next ten minutes, so why not?

He went down to the launching bay, glanced around, and went to his suit, loading the CDs into the slots then tossing his shirt off, slowly stepping in and letting the suit hook up, the strange feeling of the neuroconnection settling in as the suit closed around him. Only then did he go one of the shuttles, giving it verbal orders to launch. The arwings weren’t so much as touching the GalFed ships. Perhaps it was time for a new tactic.

“What the hell?” Fox turned and gaped as the shuttle launched, blasting by them. “ROB, who was that? Was that Wolf?”

“Yes. His radio’s off. We can’t talk to him.” ROB replied. The Great Fox had limped off to one side, hanging lopsided in space, one wing sheered off, engines blackened. The cruiser wasn’t beyond repair, but it couldn’t take another hit like that and still be able to travel.

“What the hell is he doing?” Katt wanted to know, looking at his trajectory. “Oh, hell. He’s charging their launching bay. He’s going to board.”

“I’m not sure if he’s stupid or a genius…” Fox moaned, looking at the planet, and couldn’t take it. He just couldn’t. His system had already been wiped out, how could someone just do this? “Come on guys, let’s give him an escort in.”

“Now we’re talking.” Falco whooped, and they charged ahead of the slower, less-armored shuttle, plowing the road for it, breaking off before they hit the sealed bay. The shuttle didn’t break off, and went right through the shields in a sputter of fire, wings snapping off but making it all the same.

“Good luck Wolf.” Fox sighed. “Let’s try to keep Jesse alive for him…”

The sudden entry of the shuttle into the Vun cruiser shocked the crew members inside, needless to say. They had dived out of the way, and now stood there, staring at the sparking, wrecked shuttle, which was leaning against a wall. No one had come out yet. It was a Lylatian shuttle, by the markings, but who was crazy enough to just try to charge in like that?

A rekuva stepped forward and clambered up onto the wreck, studying the door, and yanked on it, trying to open it. The effort was for naught, because rounds tore through the door, streams of fire from a slug-thrower igniting the oxygen rich air as they punctured the ceiling. Chaos broke out as the door flew off, and a huge robot stood there, framed by the broken shuttle, guns still smoking from the creation of an exit.

“Who the hell are you?” Demanded the Rekuva, standing and brushing itself off.

Inside the suit, Wolf smiled a bit, nodding along to an acoustic soundtrack lazily. This was going to get him in trouble, and he knew it, but when he had launched he had seen the damage to the Great Fox, the planet boiling away, and suddenly he didn’t care. Honor was obviously already out the window, if they were killing colonists because of fear of the unknown.

“If you feel alive, in a darkened room… do you know the name of your solitude?” He sang along, walking away from the shuttle casually, letting his voice echo strangely out of the suit, footsteps heavy. “They cannot end this mourning of my life.” He looked at the guards that had arrived, and sighed, shaking his head. “Show me… how the gods kill.”

The music screamed in his ears, and he braced the suit as the guns came to life, chewing into the walls behind the guards, which dove down as the bay was systematically ripped apart. Wolf leapt over them in a trail of smoke and ignited oxygen, blowing the door open and tearing through the ships, leaving destruction in his wake. He didn’t know how many had died. He didn’t care. He had gotten one level up when they decided to try to take him out.

The laser bolts pinged off the chest plate of the suit, and little stings of pain let him know the armor was being damaged. He sighed when his guns spun empty, knocking out the clips and loading off the rack on the back of the suit, opening fire again, plowing his way through the guards.

“If you feel alive, if you got no fear, do you know the name of the one you seek?

If you want the answer, if you want the truth, look inside your empty soul, there you'll find the noose!”

By the third level up, the crew had realized that there was no way to take this ravaging monster out, and just ran. From that point on, it took him only moments to reach the command deck, strolling in like he owned the place, suit splattered with blood.

“Stop firing that damn gun.” He said, leveling the smoking barrels at the captain.

“You’ll kill us all, you fire now!” The Vun was terrified, voice shaking.

“You should have realized by now that my life is not of consequence, and if this ship is taken out, that gun stops firing. It’s your choice captain. I didn’t want to kill your crew.”

“Then why did you?”

Wolf sighed, turning his head. “They were in the way. Now stop that gun.”

Fox sighed in relief when the planet-scorching laser died out. According to ROB, the colonized area had been missed, but a third of the planet lay desolated now. “Any word from Wolf?”

“Not yet.” ROB replied. “We can assume he was successful in what he did.”

“Wish we knew what that was, exactly.” Fara’s voice remarked. “But I think we can assume that whatever it was, it was violent. He took his suit with him.”

The Vun captain’s voice came onto the radio, sounding scared to death. “We’re backing down.”

“Well, that’s nice to know.” Falco said. “What convinced you of that?”

“Twelve barrels of incendiary rounds are a very good negotiator.” There was a pause, and the Vun burst out. “Your entire race is insane, you know that?”

Wolf’s laughter echoed into the radio. “Only some of us, Commander. Only some of us.”