A Wolf on Sauria Ch.8
#8 of AWoS
The corridors were in chaos as Sharpclaw ran this way and that, with no two being able to agree on where or which fox they were actually in pursuit of.
A wide, heavy door raised on a pair of chains and several of the heavy knights clanked out and down the hallway. Fox rounded the corner with blaster at the ready, making for the door. It was a short, wide room with BRIDGE labelling the next door ahead. Halfway to it however, a blast door crashed to the ground in front as well as the one behind him. He swung around on the figure standing on a catwalk above, having just thrown the lever. Copperback hopped down and hissed, pebbly mouth pulling back to bare his teeth.
Raising his blaster, Fox pumped several shots into the dinosaur. Merely tucking his head behind his arms, the shots only produced sparks off his scaly hide. The hardened metal over his head and back glowed red but immediately settled back over his body.
He dashed, spinning around to bring the flail on his tail lashing around. Fox leapt aside as it whipped past and pounded a dent in the wall. Claws ripped through Fox's vest soon after, just missing his flesh. The shine in them revealed they too were enhanced with metal.
Copperback jumped into a front flip, a vertical strike and now the floor had a dent in it. Fox put some distance between them and then aimed his blaster at the familiar staff tucked into the Sharpclaw's belt. This shot had more of an effect on him, prompting an irritated hiss as the staff clattered across the floor. Fox charged, firing as he did so. Copperback stood absorbing the blasts while Fox somersaulted right over his body. Blaster was holstered in favor of the staff and Fox spun around extending it.
Let's hope I remember how to do this..
Copperback was on him, claws raised when a burst of blinding white erupted. Frost swept over the lizard, sweeping top to bottom until he was frozen solid under a layer of ice with claws raised.
Something was still amiss though, as Fox felt the floor tilting under him. The airship was undergoing some kind of maneuver. The only thing available to brace against was the frozen Sharpclaw and he hugged it as the tilt increased. The airship was going vertical, he realized with a gasp.
Awkwardly he had to climb around the frozen dino as the ship continued its errant course. Fox soon found himself hanging from the lizard's crotch. He winced with sympathy when he felt something snap off and he nearly fell up to the roof, only catching the outstretched claws to save himself. The incident ended with Fox on his rump in front of the indifferent lizard. That was when he realized he was still holding on to something and what he found in his palm was akin to a frozen green sausage.
Cringing with horror, Fox tossed it away. A little too hard. The lizard sausage sailed over the railing and down into a turbine in the labyrinth of machinery below. It began to buzz and vibrate as damaged interior components began to fling themselves out of the turbine. A blade came flying up, ricocheted off the ceiling and shattered Copperback as Fox rolled out of the way. He pulled himself into a vent as the room continued destroying itself. Whatever the hell that was all about, he couldn't worry about it now.
Krystal looked over the room below her. It was a circular platform inside a cavernous chamber, propped on a column of various machinery and piping. A cresent of old steampunkish controls, dials and bulbs ran around one half of the platform with a space age holographic screen bolted at the center.
She already had a plan as she swung down on a chain to the platform. Set the ship for a crash landing and blast the controls with that grenade she found. That would ground these Sharpclaw and stop them from terrorizing innocent dinosaurs, or at least make it harder for them to do so.
Easier said than done though, as she examined the controls. One large triggered lever caught her eye and she gripped it. A slight tug had immediate effects. The ship tilted backwards throwing her off balance. With the only thing to hold on to being the lever, she only worsened the problem hanging on for dear life as the ship went vertical into a loop. The thing probably wasn't made with those high powered starship engines in mind.
Down in the bowels of the ship, cargo bays exploded into chaos. Sharpclaw were hurled off platforms or catwalks, slammed into floors or ceilings as gravity betrayed them. The ubiquitous explosive fuel barrels were pitched into vital machinery or piping. Those working the forges were the unluckiest of all, as mountains of burning coal were hurled out to incinerate many Sharpclaw and turn the lower decks into a blazing hellscape aglow with superheated metal.
Grabbing the panel with her other hand, Krystal was able to pull herself up enough to push the lever back forward. To those on the ground, the ship traced an S-shaped path as explosions bloomed out of the sides and it began to trail a murky stain over the sunset.
With a little more careful experimentation, Krystal managed to put the airship on a decline. According to an exterior camera, they were headed toward the gloom of Moon Mountain. A dark cyan toned desert landscape littered with rocks, craters and odd purple vegetation swept up to dominate the view. One reaching spire of rock took out one of the rear engines, tearing it off the ship and sending it on a spiraling course before it exploded against the ground.
_Done. Now to blow the- the controls _
Krystal reached for the grenade at her belt, when her hand was intercepted. She was whirled around.
Fox.
Wolf didn't quite make it to the afterlife. Before he could fade away and pass into history, a light erupted from his chest. Wounds healing, stitching flesh back together. As it so happened, that little snack from the previous day had done him some good. The bafomdad the shopkeeper offered him- eating it had infused a bit of the creature's magic into him. The things could do their job and save a life, whether kept in a bag or in the stomach. It would only work once, true to the bafomdad's magic, but that would be enough for Wolf. Destiny itself wanted him to mate with Krystal and he was inclined to agree.
Now he stood behind her, towering over the frozen vixen. He held her by the base of her tail, with one finger extended tucked between her perfectly round, plazrubber covered butt cheeks. His nose pressed against the top of her head and inhaled her scent, by which he had been able to home in on her. The nose always knew where the fertile womb begging to be bred was.
His eyes remained unblinking on Fox who had just then entered the control room. Horrified at the sight, gripping his blaster though he didn't dare raise it in Krystal's direction.
Wolf lifted Krystal by the tail, until she was up on her tiptoes. She whimpered as he smacked her ass.
"So nice to smell you again, you little sugar tail," Wolf said.
"Wolf.."
He lifted his head, "Yes?"
"We finish this like before," He holstered his blaster, "Until then you don't touch her,"
The massive lupine head nodded over Krystal's blank stare.
"And this time, she gets to watch me dominate you first hand,"
At that point, an explosion rocked the ship throwing all of them violently. Wolf crashed back against the controls. He lifted Krystal out of his lap and shoved her forward, spinning to take the controls and yank the ship out of its nosedive.
"Get her out of here! The ship can't stay up anymore. Just like you, Starfox!"
Fox hesitated for one instant but, seeing Krystal, he abandoned any thought of tangling with Wolf right there and then. He reached out and took her by the hand. As she was pulled through a door, she turned and took in the sight of the Wolf. He turned his head and his eye met hers for a brief slow motion instant.
The airship was going down fast, when the arwing blasted off from its interior. With Krystal crammed in the cockpit alongside him, Fox pulled up and away from the ship. A falling tower swung outward, scoring a grazing hit on the arwing and knocking it in an erratic downward course. Low to the ground, there was no time to correct their course enough and it plowed straight through a cyan dune, emerging from the other side mostly buried in a burst of sand.
Fox wiped his brow with the back of a hand.
"We're not quite home, but it's as close as we're getting in the arwing,"
He looked to Krystal in his lap and hugged her close. The green eyes blinked.
"Yes. Fox...I was so worried. I'm glad you're alright," She gulped.
He went in for a kiss as she buried her face in his chest. A smack on the cheek was more than good enough in the moment and they were far from being out of the woods. He opened the canopy so they could clamber out.
In the distance, the airship was just then plowing a gash through the terrain with its nose. Metal shrieked, crumbling and folding up under itself. Its back half bended up and it broke in half. Debris rained as it came to rest in a crumpled, smoking hulk lit from beneath by scattered fires. Krystal was transfixed on the sight.
"That wolf. Such a brute,"
"I know it, believe me. No way he's gone though,"
She only nodded as Fox took hold of her arm.
"Come on, let's get going. I'll have to deal with him eventually. I just want to get you home right now,"