by J Bigby
Fury holds his breath, slowing down everything around him once again. He gets on his feet and runs toward Hotshot, shoulder charging him roughly. Hotshot flies past Dex and crashes against the wall, hitting it hard. Fury lets the air out from his mouth as Hotshot slides down the wall, falling to the ground.
"Let's get you out of here," Fury says to Dex, walking toward him. Fury lets off a blast from his hand to destroy the bottom chain wrapped around Dex's leg. He then destroys the top chain making Dex fall to the ground on his hands and knees. Fury runs over to him and picks him up.
"It's good to see you again sir," Vicor says to Dex from the suit on Fury's back.
"You found him? I thought he was gone forever," Dex says in relief, looking at Fury.
"More like he found me." Fury replies.
"Where's the Ambassador!?" Dex asks in pain.
"He's fine. A little banged up, so I made him wait on the ship," Fury answers. He takes the suit off his back and gives it to Dex. Dex slams the compressed suit onto his chest. The box forms back into a suit that extends around his body.
"Vitals low. Injecting adrenaline into the bloodstream now," Vicor informs.
"We need to go to the armoury, they have my weapons," Dex says as his eyes widen and he stands up straight.
"Won't there be a lot of guys guarding that?" Fury asks.
"That's half the fun, besides I need to stretch my legs." Dex responds.
They run out of the room and turn right towards the armoury that is close by. As they approach Dex puts his arm out stopping Fury from going further, grabs him and brings him down behind a few crates. Fury looks up and sees two guards, one covering each side of the door.
"Sir, I read seven life signs beyond that door, may I suggest a quiet approach?"
Dex thinks about a plan going forward. "On my ready, take out those guards, I'll get them lined up nicely for you," Dex says to Fury.
A tiny shoulder compartment from the suit opens up and shoots out a small blinking probe towards the guards. As they investigate, Dex takes a small disk from his belt and throws it at the door.
"Now!" Dex tells Fury.
Fury stands up blasting them back, sending them through the air and crashing into the armoury wall, making a loud noise. The bounty hunters inside the armoury hear this and rush to open the door. As it starts to opens, two loud beeps from the device thrown earlier echoes throughout the area and suddenly explodes killing the two closest guys to the door and sending the rest back.
"So much for the quiet approach sir," Vicor jokes.
As Dex and Fury walk towards the blown up entrance to the armoury, the five bounty hunters left, get up from the ground, quickly preparing themselves.
Dex and Fury work as a team to take down the bounty hunters. Fury slows time as he runs to the two guys to the left. He throws a mean right hook at the one closest to him, then push kicks him with a lot of force. Fury turns to the other opponent, lifts him and slams him on his back.
As Fury resumes time, the guy closest to him goes flying backwards. Dex extends a blade from the forearm of his suit and charges at the two guys to the right to take them on at the same time. As one of them swings at Dex, he ducks, avoiding the hit as he slices the hunters stomach open. The other White Tiger pulls out her pistol but Dex cuts it in half then uppercuts her, putting the blade up her chin as it comes through her head.
As the three remaining bounty hunters start shooting, Fury puts up an energy shield. Dex uses his thrusters to fly up then slams onto the ground, knocking the hunters off their feet. As the closest one is about to fall, Dex grabs both his feet and swings him around throwing him at the wall. Fury takes his shield down then grabs one of them, head-butting him and as the guy falls from his grip, Dex and Fury direct their attention towards the last bounty hunter. Dex and Fury run in unison simultaneously punching the remaining guy together, ending the fight.
Dex looks around the room scanning for his weapons until he sees a metal crate big enough to store all of his stuff. He opens it up and sure enough finds his rifle, pistol, plasma grenade and knife. As he finishes equipping his gear, he notices some experimental ammo capable of piercing through metal and other tough materials.
He picks it up. "Come on we have to go, more could be on our ass at any moment," Dex says.
"Okay, this way!" Fury says as he starts to run out the door with Dex following close behind.
They approach the ship but slow down when they see Hotshot holding the Ambassador in a headlock while pointing a gun to his head. He is standing next to Fury's ship, which seems to have been rammed straight into the side of the warship.
"As soon as you get the chance, grab the Ambassador and get into the ship," Dex says turning his head to face Fury.
"What about you? I didn't come here to save you, just for your ass to die," Fury replies.
"I have a plan," Dex says "Don't do this Colt, you still have a chance to come with us!" He shouts out.
"You may be happy with dying a free man, but I like my life. I'll do anything to keep it!" Hotshot shouts back getting irritable.
"Now!" Dex says to Fury. Fury takes a deep breath then runs toward Hotshot, prying his arm off Raygan and taking him inside the ship.
"Now it's just you and me," Dex calmly says to Hotshot.
"Why did you have to do this! We were brothers! But now you have forced me to kill you!" Hotshot yells as he fires his gun from emotion.
Dex already planning for this, throws his plasma grenade, right in the line of fire. "Shields Vicor!" He shouts as an explosion is created in-between the two of them, sending them both back.
Dex gets up and sees Hotshot laying there unconscious. After everything, he couldn't just leave him there. Dex picks him up, enters the ship and puts him next to the Ambassador in the back. Raygan slowly moves away from Hotshot. Dex sits over next to Fury, who is piloting the ship. Fury backs his vessel out of hole he had made earlier, in the side of The Tiger Claw, scraping the sides of the ship as he flies away. A few minutes later Fury notices The White Tiger ships heading towards them on the scanner. They start to fire.
"We got bogies on our tail!" Fury shouts as he sways his ship from side to side, dodging most of the cannon blaster fire. As all this is happening Hotshot wakes up and freaks out, grabbing the Ambassador in another headlock.
"Come on, not again!" Raygan yells hopelessly waving about. Dex gets up out of his chair and walks over to Hotshot with his hands up.
"What's going on!? How did I get here!?" Hotshot asks.
"Listen, you were going to die and I wouldn't leave you there, I couldn't."
"Why!? Why are you doing this!? Why won't you just give up on me!?" Hotshot screams out.
Dex looks Colt directly in the eyes "I'll always come through."
Hotshot lets go of Raygan and leans against the back of the wall. "Fine, I'll help but I still think we're going to die. Then again, I would already be dead if it wasn't for you." Hotshot chuckles "So what are we waiting for, an overrated holiday?" He continued.
"Yeah, just one little problem. We are being attacked!" Fury says while concentrating on not killing everyone.
"No problem. I have a little solution," Hotshot says revealing a bunch of thermal detonators inside his long brown jacket.
"Oh shit! I'm sorry but how is that little!?" Raygan says with a shocked look on his face.
"The point is, we can use it to blow up those ships before they do any damage," Dex says.
The ship shakes causing everyone to stumble.
"We've been hit!" Fury shouts from the cockpit.
"Wow, what are the odds of that happening?" Hotshot says surprised.
"One in twelve," Vicor states.
"We have to do this now," Dex says.
Hotshot takes out two of the thermal detonators from his coat. He takes off his hat so that the grey armour underneath his coat can form a helmet over his head.
"Seal off the cockpit then open the back ramp!" Hotshot yells to Fury. A compartme
nt seals off the cockpit and the back ramp comes down, exposing the space's atmosphere.
Hotshot tosses one detonator to the left and one to the right at the two ships flying right behind them. He then takes out his pistol and shoots once to the left then he turns to the right and fires another shot, hitting both the detonators and blowing up both the ships. Hotshot does a little victory dance before coming back inside.
"Good job but now the hyperdrive has been damaged. We can't take the Ambassador home yet," Fury says.
"We'll have to stop on the nearest planet to have it fixed by an engineer or something," Dex says to everyone.
"There's a planet not too far from here," Fury says while looking on his navigation console.
As the team approaches the atmosphere of the planet, the computer systems start to cut in and out, causing the engine to do the same, hurling them towards the ground.
"I have no idea what's happening here!" Fury shouts out.
Hotshot has a look on his face that indicates he's seen this before. "I do!" He yells "Don't fight it! Cut off the power and let the ship glide down, that way we have a chance of surviving and keeping the ship in one piece!" He continues.
Fury follows Hotshots instructions, guiding the ship down, crashing and sliding it across the ground. They come to a stop and take a little time to settle down. "How did you know to do that?" Fury asks Hotshot.
"I've been here before on a mission. We are pretty much fucked. There is no technology on this planet what so ever and any that are, like our tech is basically useless," Hotshot explains.
"How is something like this possible?" asks Dex.
"There's a large shield surrounding the planet's atmosphere. It shuts down any kind of technology."
"Why would anyone put something like that here?" Dex questions.
"Because tech is illegal here, so we better leave our suits on the ship," Hotshot answers.
"So there's no way off this planet?" Ambassador Raygan asks.
"There is one person who can help us. I just hope he's still breathing," Hotshot says.
"Why do you say that?" Dex continues to ask.
"He was the person I spared a long time ago."
Chapter Four: Lions Pride
A long time ago, on a world that is overgrown by plant life, lived a race of anthropomorphic Felidae. The Felidae were so advanced. They created many destructive weapons which lead to war among the many tribes. The lion tribe decreed that there was too much destruction and death, so they created a shield around their planet's atmosphere to keep out any kind of technology and became the rulers of all the tribes.
The wars have stopped but the people have become oppressed due to harsh tyrants throughout the generations. Many years have passed and the people have forgotten their history with technology. The people fear and hate it, all but one boy.
This boy was very different not only because he was the prince of his people but also because he loved to visit ship crash sites from all over the land. He would pick up pieces of technology, take them home and would secretly work on making things. After he realised none of this technology worked, he drew a blueprint to a tiny chip, that would negate the shields effect on whatever he placed the chip in. Turns out he had a natural ability to create and fix pieces of advanced equipment just like his ancestors.
On a night like any other, the boy returns home to his family's fortress, hiding some circuit boards underneath his leather shoulder guard on the right-hand side of his body. He walks quietly to his room, trying not to draw any attention to himself. He turns the door knob ever so slowly and quickly goes into his room. He walks over to his desk, sits down and pulls out the circuit boards he had hidden.
He then opens a draw from the desk and reveals a secret compartment containing more technology that he's taken over the years. He takes it all out and puts it in front of him next to the circuit boards and starts fiddling with it. All of a sudden the door opens and a pure white lioness walks into the room. The boy stumbles with his hands as he tries to put everything away to hide what he's doing.
"Mum!" He says, his face frozen with fear.
"What are you doing Sh'kar?" She asks him.
"Umm, nothing. I was just... just umm..." Sh'kar says stumbling over his words. He sighs and reveals what he's doing. "I'm making something... with technology." He says as he looks down with shame.
She walks over to him and lifts his chin up "It's okay," she says looking into her son's eyes with a smile on her face. "I personally don't think technology is bad, It's the people who use it for all the wrong reasons," she says.
"Really?" Sh'kar asks. A smile emerges from his face as his eyes widen from excitement.
"Let me tell you a secret," she says while holding his arms softly "I love technology, just like you. Your step-father doesn't understand that it can do amazing things, like heal the sick and feed the hungry. When he thinks of technology, all he sees is a war but I think we can change his mind together," she continues to say to him.
They both light up with joy "How can we do that?" Sh'kar asks.
She gives Sh'kar a tight hug "Together, as a team," she expresses.
"I love you," Sh'kar says as he hugs her back, burying his head in her shoulders.
"I love you too." She wipes a tear from her boy's cheek and looks at his workbench looking ever so proud "What are you working on?" she says intrigued.
"An invisibility device to help get me to the crash sites without being noticed."
"How did you get it to work with the shield?"
"I created a device that deflects the shields EMP emitter signals," He says with a proud smile on his face.
His mother reaches for her satchel and pulls out a similar looking chip. "My cubs a genius!" she quietly yells as she raises her arms up in the air. "This could be our chance to convince your step-father. If we work on something together we can show him it could help our kingdom. Maybe we make technology legal again."
"I was thinking we could make an energy shield that goes around someone's body to protect them." Sh'kar says.
"That sounds perfect baby," she replies.
They talk all night and bond even more as mother and son, through their love of technology.
A year has passed, young Sh'kar and his mother have secretly been working on the shield. With them almost finished, all they have to do is test it and then convince the king to make tech legal again.
It's a stormy night, the winds gust and the lighting strikes. Sh'kar and his mother are safely working in is his room.
"And done!" Sh'kar's mother shouts out excitingly. "All that's left to do is to test it," she continues.
She presses a button that's attached to a harness and it starts glowing blue, they both look over at each other smiling but all of a sudden sparks start flying off the device and making a horrible screeching sound.
"Oh no," Sh'kar's mother says as she looks down at her kid as if it was for the last time.
"What? What's happening?" Sh'kar asks as his face turns into a worried look.
"Everything is going to be alright," she says as she grabs him and smiles, one tear rolling down her eye. She knows what is coming next but all she can think about is saving her son.
"I love you," she says for the last time as she picks up her son and places him into a closet, locking the door behind her. Knowing the blast would destroy the whole room, she runs at the device and jumps on it just in time. A blast of energy bursts out of the device destroying a large portion of the room.
Sh'kar bursts out of the burnt closet door, breaking the weakened lock. "Ma! Ma!" he shouts looking all over the room until he sees her lifeless body laying on the ground. He runs as fast as he can towards her, gripping on to her. "No Ma! Please don't go! It's all my fault! Ma!"
"You did this?" a voice from the door struggles to say. Sh'kar looks up to see his step-father, Sh'kan.
Many more years pass. Sh'kar is grown up and working on a project in his secret workshop, off the outskirts of the vi
llage. As he works on his invention, his best friend, Kai from the Cheetah tribe, walks in.
"Hey, what you working on," he says as he tosses an apple in the air and catches it.
"A laser cannon," Sh'kar replies focusing hard on his work. He turns to face Kai. "Have you been stealing again? Come on man I'm the prince and I can't keep letting you steal shit. Sh'kan will kill me and you know he's just looking for a reason." He gets up and walks toward Kai.
"I'm sorry Sh'kar but it's hard to survive around here because of your fathers neglect. He has ruled for over three hundred years and not one thing has changed," Kai replies as he heads to Sh'kar's desk.