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Chapter 19 The Empress Express

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The troop transport plane's propeller's hum as a bit of air turbulence makes the plane rumble and shake. "Twenty minutes till drop point," shouts the raptor pilot from the front of the plane as Crisis' drop team is gathered in the back strapped in tight along the sides.

Along one side of the plane is Sasha, the only organic in the group. She looks at the others as she’s wears heavy military gear, her trusty sniper rifle current strapped to her side. Beside her is Crisis and next in line is the newest member of Crisis’ group, the robotic skunk Ruby; her blue jacket still a part of her at attire. Across from them are Francis and three other robotic raptors.

“I'm impressed that we've managed to get this plan underway in such a short order,” comments Crisis.

“It helps that General Raszer couldn’t resist the idea of kidnapping the person behind Chaos Croc. Getting the needed resources behind the plan after that was easy,” explains Francis.

“This is true, I don’t think anyone would pass up the chance to capture the creator of my nemesis, good thing we found you isn’t that right Ruby?" responds Crisis as she looks over to her. Ruby's eyes give off a soft blue as she smiles and nods before answering.

“Of course Mistress. This will be so much fun.”

“This is an important mission, not some game,” groans Francis.

“It is but being tense before it won't help. When I was on the first mission to attempt to kill or capture Chaos Croc we joked and kid around right till the mission began,” remarks Sasha

“Was this the recent attempt to take out Chaos Croc before you were assigned to keep an eye on me?” asks Crisis as Sasha shakes her head.

“No it was the first attempt some time ago way before you were built. It was one of the largest special ops missions I was ever a part of. It involved one of our armies attacking his front lines to distract him once we had word he was in the area. It was an elaborate and brilliant plan but in the end we only managed to disarm Croc... quite literally.”

“What do you mean?”

“After an intense battle we managed to blow off one of his arms, he escaped but we managed to get out of there with his arm along with a lot of roboticization technology. In hindsight I assume that technology was used to help with your creation,” explains Sasha.

“How very interesting, I think I might want to see this arm when we get back. Information about my creation has been quite scattered and the more I can know about myself and my enemy the better.”

“For now we should be worried about what we have to do now. It’s tricky to do an air drop onto a moving train,” interjects Francis as he looks over at Sasha, “You know what to do right?”

“Of course I know what to do you twit; I’m heading over to the bridge to blow the damn thing right as the train goes across though I don’t think I’ll need one of your robotic helpers to help me with such a simple job, but orders are orders,” she remarks.

“Good you remembered.”

“Five minutes till drop,” shouts the pilot Crisis unhooks herself from the side of the plane and grabs one of the back packs hanging off to the side and swings it around her back, locking the several straps around her chest and belly, with the others soon doing the same.

“Everyone make sure your communications are working,” states Crisis.

“Ours is built into us, and working just fine, I don’t know about Sasha though,” remarks Francis.

“Testing, one two three, everyone hearing me loud and clear?” asks Sasha into her headset which is part of her helmet, “See mine is working just fine, I test my equipment before we get onto the plane.” growls Sasha softly as she looks at Francis.

“Enough you two, its go time,” yells Crisis as the cabin lights turn red. The back doors of the plane begin to open, the howl of wind fills the plane as the group get to the edge of the platform as they all hang onto the overhead straps to make sure they don’t jump too soon on accident.

Sasha stands next to her as she looks down at the ground below, the sun midday sun reflects off of the cloud cover as the shadow of the plane is seen moving over the clouds as she then comments.

“I hate this part.” Sasha taking one last check of her sniper rifle strapped to her body.

“If you don’t like it you could always go home,” suggests Francis as he and the others of his group jump off the plane.

“Did you make him like that Mistress?” asks Ruby.

“Nope, I don’t change people’s personalities when I turn them into machines,” replies Crisis as the three jump from the plane, their bodies free falling for a moment as they angle themselves forward in the direction of the tracks. As the three align themselves they pull a string on their backpacks. Instead of a parachute though, hang glider wings fly out and a metal bar extends around them for the group to hold and control.

Crisis claws grab onto the bar just as her body jerks up by the sudden uplift of the hang glider. A lower body rope hangs behind her which Crisis quick slips into, allowing her body to better balance as well as gain greater control over her descent.

“We have about two minutes before we split, we’ll land on the train about ten minutes after that with another ten to fifteen till we get to the bridge. You won’t have much time to set it to blow.”

“No sweat, I’m now blowing down the whole bridge just the tracks to cause the train to fall into the ravine,” replies Sasha.

“First we should hit the communication car it should be the second to last on the train. We don’t want to them to be able to contact Croc of trouble and bring down his forces down upon us,” warns Ruby.

“Yes I can see the communication car from here,” shouts Crisis as her eyes focus far out into the distance where she can just see the train bustling along the tracks.

“Which direction?” asks Sasha.

“That direction why?”

“Let me see if I can make one part of your job easier,” she says as she carefully pulls a bullet from her pocket and slips it into the chamber of her rifle. She pulls the gun to her body, peering through the scope she makes a few calibrations to her rifle, “How fast do you wager that train is going?”

“I’d say about forty, the empress likes to enjoy the scenery.”

“Explains why it’s not as fast as I thought,” replies Sasha as she makes more adjustments to her scope, “It’s that small dish on top of that second to last car, isn’t it?”

“Yes, I’ve seen them before back when I was infiltrating Croc’s City, they are a short range transmitter with about a twenty or so mile range to a booster station. Makes it harder for people to pick up and track down the origin of the original signal,” explains Crisis.

“She’s right, those dishes are used for short range communication,” comments Ruby.

“Alright just give me a moment...” says Sasha as she tries to steady her rifle and glider at the same time, her tail moving slow and steady to counter balance the random air currents. After thirty or seconds Sasha takes a deep breath and releases it as she presses down the trigger. Her glider jerks up almost causing it stall out right then and there as Crisis keeps one eye on her and another eye on the train. Seconds pass as the bullet travels through the air as it then hits the small dish cracks and falls over, tumbling off the train as the bullet hits its mark.

“Nice shot,” exclaims Crisis with a grin.

“Thank you, but there’s still much work to do, good luck Crisis, Ruby,” replies Sasha as she turns her glider away towards the direction of the bridge while Crisis and Ruby head towards the train.

“I can’t believe she made that shot,” states Ruby.

“She’s good what can I say? When they assign someone to watch me they assign someone who could take me out easily,” remarks Crisis.

“If that’s true why do you let her on a mission like this?” asks Ruby.

“Because she’s good at what she does,” explains Crisis as she and Ruby drive down to catch up with Francis.

“You three have a lovely chat up there Miss Crisis?” asks Francis.

“Oh it was quite nice, and Sasha took the liberty of knocking out the train’s communication.”

“She did what?”

“She sniped the communication dish,” explains Crisis.

“She sniped that? There is no where she did that.”

“Well she did and no reason to argue on it, this just gives us a greater advantage.”

“Maybe unless everyone on the train is alerted to the possibility of an attack now their communications are down,” Francis cautions.

“I wouldn’t worry about it. We’ll get there before they come to that conclusion,” responds Crisis.

Meanwhile on the train the Empress, dressed in a black and red ‘dress’ sits in her own passenger car. Two armed buff fox guards stand at either end of the car's entrance. The car itself is intricate and fancy. The look of the car just screams this is a train car fit for royalty and no one else. The empress leans back in her leather booth seat, wearing that fire red leather outfit of hers. She leans back into her seat as she looks out the window at the passing terrain, in one hand is a half filled glass of wine and the other is her cigarette held by an extra long cigarette holder. She flicks some of the ash of the cigarette into a nearby glass ashtray.

A knock on a nearby door is heard as the empress looks up at the door with a glare, "Come in," she commands in a slow and dominating voice.

Another armed guard, this one a squirrel, comes into the room, he walks up to the Empress at a slow and steady pace, his hands to his side as he clears his throat before about to speak.

"What is it?" inquires the Empress as she looks up at the guard who takes a deep breath before replying.

"I hate to inform you but our communication line just went dead. We had someone check and it looks like our dish fell off the train. We can’t be sure if it's foul play or n—,"

“Inform everyone to be on high alert. Tell the conductor to speed up the train and not to stop for any reason unless I command, got it?” she orders.

“Yes Empress, I’ll get right on it,” replies the squirrel guard as he salutes her before walking off. The empress returns her gaze back out of the window and sighs before she looks at her half empty wine glass, “At least I now know what happened to you my dear Ruby,” she mumbles.

Meanwhile back far above the train, Crisis and her team glide towards their target.

“The train is speeding up, seems your sniper friend tipped them off that we’re coming,” growls Francis.

“You don’t know that for sure,” replies Crisis as the group adjust their flight path.

“We’ll be reaching the train sooner, which is good but means we’ll have less time before they reach the bridge, and less time for the other two to set up the explosives. I’ve already informed them of the change in plans, hopefully they can handle the new time frame.”

“They’ll be able to.”

“You are far too trusting,” remarks Francis.

“I have faith in those under me to do the job given to them,” she replies as the rumble of the train below becomes louder and louder. The smooth metal aluminum cars with their grooved surface clack against the metal rails. Crisis flies just over the last car before releasing her glider, the glider flying off behind her spiraling into the ground with a thud, kicking up a small cloud of dust as it tumbles away from the train. Crisis’ metal feet banging onto the roof of the train as she gets her body low to keep her balance.

Francis and his fellow team member glide slightly farther up and ahead, one on each side of the train, above and out of sight of those within the train as their attention was turned the thud on the roof. The two in a synchronized fashion angle their gliders down and towards the train. In one breath taking motion the two machines fling themselves from their gliders and smash themselves through a train window and land inside, their gliders skidding across the roof of the train before flying off into the ground. The gliders almost hit Crisis in the process.

At the same time Ruby makes her move towards the train gliding at the very end where she pulls out her whip and whips the back railing of the train where she gives a firm tug and pulls herself off of her glider and onto the back end of the train’s balcony as her body lands with a heavy thud.

After the near hit with the gliders Crisis hears gunfire from below, Crisis quickly moves forward her electro blades activating as she slices through the roof of the train. Her weight causes the section of roof to collapse and Crisis lands on her feet with a mighty thud. Sparks fly over her head from the electrical wiring for the lights, as Crisis sees several guards killed by Francis and the other robotic raptor. Before Crisis stands a lone wolf guard stands before Crisis, shocked and dazed by her entrance.

Before he could respond Crisis disengages her blades and grabs the wolf by the collar of his shirt, lifting him up onto his feet before banging him onto the side of the traditional passenger train car. Crisis’ other hand hits the wolf’s hand hard forcing him to drop his pistol as Crisis eyes give a soft glow as she looks into the wolf’s eyes.

“Alright my dear you are going to tell me everything about—,” says Crisis as a bullet goes right into the wolf’s head killing him instantly. A small splatter of blood hits Crisis’ face as she flinches and drops the now lifeless body to the ground with a thud, Crisis turns to Francis who is just now lowering his gun.

“Why did you do that? I was going to get information out of him about what is on the train,” exclaims Crisis as Ruby comes through the back of the train.

“We don’t have the time. Think about it, they know we’re here; they’re setting up in the next car to stop us and probably evacuating the Empress to another train car. Also do I need to remind you if we don’t do this fast enough we are going to be on this train when it blows?” explains Francis.

“Right...” she replies as she looks away taking a nearby piece of clothing to wipe off her face. “We better keep moving.” The four move towards the edge of the train car. Crisis activates her electro-blades, the static sparks move between them as Francis moves up ahead towards the door being careful to avoid being seen through the small window in the middle top of the door.

“When I open this door, Crisis you head to the right, Ruby you follow her. We will go the left. Once there we’ll bash through the next door and make our way through to the next car, throwing in a flash bang grenade to disorient them as we clear. We’ll rinse and repeat as we move our way up, any questions?” asks Francis.

Crisis shakes her head.

“One question who made you the boss of this operation?” asks Ruby.

“I have the most experience out of anyone here, that’s why. Crisis is the leader but in a combat situation I know what is best, and best to shut up and do as you’re told or we won’t make it out of there in one piece, this is a military operation and don’t have time to argue about this, you understand?” growls Francis.

“Understood,” answers Ruby with a nod, her hand on the handle of her specialized metal whip.

“Alright on three... one... two... three!” yells Francis as he bashes the door open. The door swing opens with a thud as Crisis jumps from one car to the next, getting herself on the right side of the door, and just as she gets there the door flings open and there is a quick fire fight between Francis and the first guard. The guard quickly falls back behind some cover, groans coming from the door.

Francis throws the flash grenade, the grenade going off with loud deafening boom as he and the other robot move through into the car, taking cover nearby as the firefight doesn’t even stop for an instant.

Crisis only manages to get a quick glance before a hail of gunfire pulls her back into her hiding spot. Crisis reviews her memory banks as she looks over to see that there are several armed guards placed at several points up and down the passenger car. Three of them already injured from the fight but Francis and his companion are pinned down in their spot.

“What should we do Mistress Crisis?” asks Ruby.

“I want you to assist Francis in any way you can. Take a look and see if you know any of those guards there. You were meant to be here defending the empress as well. Maybe you’ll know a weakness or two to assault those troops better.”

“Yes Miss Crisis, what will you do?”

“I’m going to try to bypass them and head to the next car; we need to head to keep pushing forward.”

“Got it,” replies Ruby as she takes a quick glance as she just dodges some gunfire. “Yeah I know those guys, I think I can give a bit of help,” says Ruby as she pulls out her blaster pistol, a bit of advanced technology from Croc’s side.

“On three I’ll move in,” states Ruby.

“You two need to stop talking and start moving,” growls Francis as he takes a few pot shots over the chair before ducking back down, “We’ll cover you the best we can when you come in.”

“Go,” commands Crisis as Ruby dives into the passenger car rolling ahead of the other two pinned down raptors and getting into one of the open passenger booths, from there she gives a few quick shots, injuring another guard with a shot in his left shoulder, causing him fall down in pain and agony.

Just as Ruby joins the fray Crisis hears a tap of metal from overhead, she looks up just to see the end of a gun peering over the top moving to aim towards her. Crisis jumps and digs her metal claws into the metallic roof over that’s over the car’s platform. Crisis swings herself over and on top of the car smashing herself into the guard above her. The guard is flung back into another guard that was standing a few feet behind him. Crisis lands n the roof with a thud her metallic claws scraping against the metal as she sees three guards in total.

The one farthest back struggles to keep his balance in the winds that whip across the train as it speeds down the tracks. He takes aim at Crisis as she gets low to the roof and charges the guard. Jumping over the two she knocked over her electro-blades activate as the guard fires at Crisis, the bullets land around her, a few ricocheting off of her metallic body, her systems informing her of the damage received as she swings her blades slicing the gun in half.

Crisis attempts to side swipe the fox guard, but he manages to jump away, stumbling slightly but retaining his balance on the roof of the train. The two other guards get off each other and the second train his weapon onto Crisis managing to get one shot off that blows a hole right through one of Crisis’ metal head crest feathers before she knocks the weapon away with her tail.

The three guards move to surround Crisis their light organic bodies struggle against the whipping winds. As the three pull out their pistols Crisis jumps back towards the first guard she knocked over. He fires at her, the bullet hitting her shoulder before flying off to hit the other guard in the shoulder. He stumbles back from ricochet shot as he drops his gun.

Crisis quickly manages to knock the two guards down, her blades quickly slicing into them. The third guard fires a few more shots hitting Crisis in the chest plate before she returns the favor with her electro-blade. Crisis quickly pulls out as the guard falls to the ground dead. Crisis disengages her blades as she moves forward. The sounds of the ensuing gun fight below are easily heard over the whipping winds. Crisis’ systems inform she sustained moderate damage to her chest and shoulder but it is well within acceptable parameters.

“That was exciting...” comments Crisis as she moves to the edge of the train car, there she sees no guards between the two cars. She humps down onto the third car as she takes a peek through the window behind her. There she can see the firefight that is taking place between her people and the Empress’ guard. Bullets and a blaster shots go back and forth as the window hatters as a bullet breaks through the window. Crisis ducks for a split second before peering into the next room which at the moment looks completely devoid of any sign of life.

Slowly Crisis opens the door and peers through. She steps inside and looks around still seeing no one, but as she approaches the center of the car she sees the Empress staring out the window, a long cigarette holder in one hand with the half burned cigarette in it, and a full glass of red wine in the other.

“About time you showed up, what took you so long,” remarks the Empress as she turns her gaze over to Crisis, a smug grin across her muzzle.

“I wouldn’t be so confident if I were you. It’s just me and you, none of your guards are here to protect you.”

“Funny, I was about to say the same to you. Don’t think just because it’s me and you that it means you have me,” answers the Empress as she takes a sip of her wine, before adjusting her body to truly face Crisis, “I wonder who will win, my men or yours.”

“Of course mine will,” remarks Crisis.

“Really now, why don’t you sit here and wait with me, and we’ll see who’ll win the fight.”

“Sorry not going to happen,” replies Crisis as she extends her electro-blades once again.

“Ah electro-blades, Croc did keep those installed on you didn’t he Crisis.”

“How do you know my name?” she asks

“Please you think I don’t know what my creation is up to? You’re so blind to the world around you I am surprised you even manage to get this far. Do you honestly believe I wouldn’t have taken precautions once my friend Ruby didn’t show up from her mission?”

“Of course not.”

“Also you think Croc not to mention myself notice wouldn’t your little disappearance? That we couldn’t put two and two together? I figured you’d try something once you knew of my trip,” she remarks.

“If you have everything so figured out why am I here, able to take you out at a moment’s notice? Your life is in my claws.”

“Is it now?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Do you really want to kill me? Somehow I don’t think so. You want me alive, you want to draw out Croc, but let me tell you this miss tin can,” explains the Empress as she takes another drink from her win glass.

“I wouldn’t be so cocky,” remarks Crisis.

“And I wouldn’t be so confident; you’re just a mere machine. You think you are so free willed, able to do what you want, think your even able out smart me? You just follow whatever those ones and zeros tell you to do. You only think you’re free willed and self thinking only because of your programming.”

“That’s not true at all,” growls Crisis with a blue eyed glare.

“Is it now? You’re nothing like Croc, just some cheap imitation.”

“Imitation?!”

“Yes a simple knock off. Nothing like the true article that is Chaos Croc,” she states as she drinks more of her wine.

“A knock off? How dare you call me some knock off! I am my own machine and no one else’s. I do what I want for my reasons.”

“Are they truly your reasons? Are you sure they aren’t your programming that someone else put into you, that someone else who designed you, built you, who gave you your purpose.”

“That’s preposterous; you’re just trying to stall me.”

“Am I now?” asks the Empress as she takes another sip of her wine almost finishing the glass now, “Then tell me this, can you not try to destroy my creation? Can try not be so focused on his destruction? Or better yet, tell me what you plan to do if you happen to succeed?”

“Of course I can, but he’s attack my nation, and I just can’t stand and let what he’s done go on.”

“He’s turning people into machines? Same thing you’re doing? And how is it your nation? Isn’t it just a nation of organics, and you were built to serve them? To be someone else’s tool for what they want. Not anything that you decided for yourself.”

“That’s completely not true. When I was close to Croc I had clear opportunity to attack but didn’t. That shows I am in control of myself and not bound by any programming.”

“Is it now?”

“It is and you sure say ‘is it now’ an awful lot.”

“It is or is it that you knew that your chances were too low to succeed and it was better for you to wait, your kind is patient and sneaky, the traits of those that built you are programmed into you. Your personality is exactly what others want you to be, not what you decide. You’re not a true self thinking robot, just a simple programmed machine following your orders; to do what you others want.”

“What about Croc then, he’s doing what you’re telling him to do. You made him,” she remarks.

“I built him, programmed him, and gave him the spark of life but what he’s doing now, what his goals are, aren’t my own. He evolved far beyond my expectations and now, I am just watching to see how far it will go, a lovely curiosity, but you? You’re just a nuisance, trying to be something you’re not with your single minded, ‘Must destroy Croc’ programming.”

“I’ve had enough of this,” growls Crisis as she moves her electro-blades towards her, “You’re coming with me now or things are going to get ugly.”

“Let me just finish my drink at least, this is expensive stuff,” responds the Empress as the squirrel takes last gulp, finishing her wine and as she does she throws the glass at Crisis, the glass shattering and releasing a dusty looking electro-magnetic cloud that scrambles Crisis’ sensors. Crisis’ vision sparks and hazes as she barely catches the shadow of the Empress, Crisis reaches to grab her, disengaging her electro-blade at the same time but falls short as she gets an internal error message and her right arm seizes up.

“Damn it not now!” growls Crisis as she stumbles forward through the cloud, she hears the door up ahead up and open and slam shut. As Crisis moves her way out of the cloud her vision sensors gradually return to normal. Crisis stumbles a few more steps as she regains her bearings before she sprints to the door, slamming her body against it as the door doesn’t budge an itch.

“You won’t get away that easily,” growls Crisis as she extends her electro-blades once more and slices into the door, cutting the lock mechanism, the metal door glowing bright red as some of the metal melts before quickly solidifying. Crisis easily slams the door open as she jumps to the next car in line. Her body smacks against the door with a heavy metallic thud, Crisis’ right hand and arm moves slow but with the help with her left electro-blade, she makes short work of the door. Slamming the door open, Crisis is greeted to the site of an empty dinner car. To her right is a large bar, with a few empty glasses; to her left are several empty booths.

“ __Now where did she go..._ ”_ thinks Crisis as she scans the area, the static sound of her blades filling the quite dinner car as she looks around. Suddenly the entire car shakes, the sound of rattling glasses emanates from the bar.

As Crisis regains her positioning and moves forward she hears the sound of more glasses rattling about, quickly Crisis turns around extending her electro-blades once more, “You can't hide from me Empress!” exclaims Crisis as a black and white skunk pops up from behind the bar, his nice dress shirt is only button half up his shirt, making his chest and the big white X shaped fur on his black fur body easily visible.

“Whhy hhelllo thhere,” stutters the Skunk as he stumbles a bit, a half drunken wine bottle in his hand. “Whhat can I doo for you,” he asks as he slouches over the bar table.

“Scott?! What are you doing here? Did you see the Empress? Where did she go?” asks Crisis as she disengages her blades.

“I’m here to serve the alcohol to the Empresssss, shhh, don’t tell her but I’ve been having shome of her stuff. Shhe hash some awesome drinks here,” says Scott.

“Yes, yes, but what about the person who just ran into here, where did she go?”

“Oh, you mean the rude lady in the red outfit? Shhe went that a way,” stumbles Scott as he points down to the other car, “Shhe wash sho rude. Just ran in here, knocked me over. Shome people don’t have any manners.”.

“Thanks,” replies Crisis as she bolts forward to the next door, she swings the door open and stops herself just short of the edge of the car’s platform finding herself quite a distance away from the next car. Crisis looks at the train car was disconnected and they were slowly slowing down. The Empress’ train gaining a speed and fast without the extra wait. Crisis glares as she can see the red silhouette outfit of the Empress. It’s then she notices the train was approaching the bridge and will be there in less than a minute.

“ __I hope they are ready..._ ”_ thinks Crisis before she turns around, “ __I need to help the others,_ ”_ thinks Crisis as she rushes back into the previous car to find Ruby, Francis a little roughed up with the other robot fairly banged up with a few scorch marks and a few holes placed into his chest and arm.

“What happened to the Empress?” asks Francis.

“She got away, the car was decoupled from us before I could get to her,” replies Crisis.

“Damn it... At least the bridge is ready, speaking of which we need to jump off the train before it reaches the site. Nothing more we can do here.”

“Right,” responds Crisis as a huge explosion is heard. Crisis rushes to the side of the car lowering a window to stick her head out to see the end of the fireball and smoke. The train the empress is on, attempting to screech to a halt, the sound of grinding metal is heard as the train veers off the tracks and into the ravine below. The sound of metal grinding, crushing echoes as the train tumbles down the face of the wall, going down several hundred feet into the raging river below as a billow of fire and smoke emanate from below as the train explodes moments later.

“We don’t have much time we’ll be there ourselves in a minute,” says Francis as he opens the side of the car door. The countryside still moving past us at a quick pace as Francis turns to his companion. “Remember jump away from the train and roll,” as the other robotic raptor nods and jumps his body tumbling off to the side as Francis motions for Ruby to get next.

“Aren’t you going?” asks Ruby.

“I’ll go last,” responds Francis as Ruby nods getting to the edge of the train car, placing her whip and weapon into secure locations on her body before jumping.

“You’re next Crisis, better hurry we don’t have much time.”

“Alright...” says Crisis as she gets to the edge and stop, “ __Scott!_ ”_

“What’s wrong? Jump already”

“I forgot something, go ahead and jump I’ll be there in a moment,” states Crisis.

“We don’t have a moment! The train is about to go over into the ravine!” growls Francis as Crisis runs ahead to the next car, Francis giving a robotic sigh before jumping himself. Crisis reaching the next car as Scott is still there drinking from a new bottle of wine now.

“Thish ish shome good shtuff,” says Scott.

“Come on, you’re coming with me.”

“Where are we going?” asks Scott as his head nods a bit.

“Off the train.”

“But what about the booze?” asks Scott.

“Forget about the booze, we don’t have time to argue about it, you’re coming with me now!” says Crisis as she grabs Scott’s shirt and drags him over the bar counter.

“But the wine, you spilled my wine!” complains Scott as Crisis grabs his arms and pulls him towards the door, flinging it open as she could see that the train was just seconds away from the bridge.

“We’re going to jump off of a train? You nuts!” exclaims Scott as Crisis pulls Scott up against her body as she jumps back first off the train. Crisis’ metal body bouncing against the hard ground, grass, rocks, twigs brush up against her form as she can feel Scott’s head bang against her chest. Crisis uses her tail and legs the best she can to keep herself from flipping over as she slides alongside the train, the sound of the cars flying off the edge heard moments later as Crisis sees the car fly up and over into the ravine on top of the train below. Crisis sees herself sliding towards the edge as she digs her feet claws into the ground, digging deep and hard as she can to slow their slide to the edge. Crisis’s body grinds to a halt with her head over the edge, making it easy for Crisis to see the sheer drop below.

“Made it,” sighs Crisis as she looks at Scott who is now unconscious, “I guess the trip was a bit rough for an organic,” chuckles Crisis as she pushes Scott off of her and onto the side, a good distance away from the edge.

Crisis does a quick diagnostic heck over her body, and outside of the earlier damages, she took only minor damage to her back, and as Crisis digs the dirt out of her claws, Sasha and the other robotic raptor helping her come over.

“You okay?” asks Sasha.

“Yeah I’m fine more or less, though we failed to get the Empress...” replies Crisis as she walks over to the bridge, peering down the edge to see the entangled mess of burning train engine and train cars below, “But I think we at least removed her from the picture.”

“At least she didn’t get away,” says Sasha.

“Are you nuts?! Did some of your circuitry come lose? Or is there a virus in your programming?” exclaims Francis as he storms over with the Ruby and the other.

“What?” asks Crisis.

“I saw what you did, you went ahead, risked yourself and almost got destroyed trying to save that organic over there. He’s the enemy! We don’t go about trying to save our enemies! We either capture them or kill them!” Francis pulling out his pistol and taking aim at the unconscious Scott. Crisis quickly moves over to him and hits his hand up making the shot go way over him. “What are you doing,” growls Francis with a glare.

“No, we aren’t going to kill him or take him prisoner.”

“What? He’s the enemy; he’s a witness to what happened.”

“So?”

“So? We can’t have any witness; the less Croc knows the better.”

“I say let Croc know, let him know that he isn’t safe. Let him know that I will come for him, make him become paranoid that his creator is now dead.”

“And make him focus on his more than he already has, he’ll put more forces against us and try to wipe us out. We’re barely making an advance as it is, this will do more harm than good, we need to end his life here and now,” growls Francis as he attempts to aim at Scott again but Crisis steps in the way. “Move out of the way.”

“Let him be,” demands Crisis.

“He needs to die.”

“I say we’ll let him be and that’s final, or will you defy me?” asks Crisis as Francis looks at her for a moment before sighing.

“Fine, but this will come to haunt us”

“Relax it won’t.”

“Come we need to get going to the extraction point, don’t want to be here when Croc’s forces arrive,” says Francis as the batter group leaves the site, heading towards the most difficult part of their mission, all the while, the things the now passed Empress said to Crisis mull around in the back of her mind.