by J Bigby
"Maybe we don't need to break into the castle," Dex tells them as an idea pops into his head "Look I got an idea but it will only work if everyone does it perfectly."
Moments later... Fury walks up to the two guards, guarding the front of the fortress.
"Hey guys, know of any tech I can get a hold of?" he asks as he casually walks up to them. The guards look at each other and point their spears at Fury.
"Whoa... I was just asking for a friend, you don't have to get so touchy," he continues. Fury puts his hands up and the guards slowly walk behind him, with their spears still pointing at him. They walk Fury into the fortress, straight towards Sh'kan and poke his back legs with their spears to make him kneel in front of the king.
"This man asked about technology. What shall we do with him your highness?" one of the guards asks the Sh'kan. Fury just kneels there with a smile on his face.
"I don't have time for outsiders right now. Just lock him up, I'll decide what to do with him later," Sh'kan responds.
The guards each grab one of Fury's arms, dragging him into the dungeon and throwing him into a cell next to Sh'kar's. The guards turn around, locking the door behind them.
"They're all yours," one of the guards says to the prison guard as they leave.
The room is filled with darkness, no light in sight except a tiny ray of sunshine peaking though a hole in the back of the wall. Fury makes his eyes glow blue to be able to see in the shadowy cells. He looks around the cells for Sh'kar and spots a big lion creature curled up in the corner of his cell next to Fury's.
"Hey, you!" Fury quietly yells, trying to get Sh'kar's attention.
The lion's head turns to reveal Sh'kar. He seems to look almost lifeless, like he has given up on his existence. He turns his head back around to face the corner of his cell, without saying a single thing. Fury goes to the bars that separate Sh'kar and Fury's cells.
"I've come to get you out of here. We need your help to fix our ship," Fury explains. Sh'kar stays silent, not moving an inch. "I can get us out, I just need you to be willing. Please, a lot of people will die if you don't."
"Just leave me alone," Sh'kar quietly answers.
"No! Look, Hotshot once saved your life and it's time to repay the favour," Fury goes on.
"Colt is here!? Why?" A glint appears in his eyes as hope dawns on him.
"It's a long story and I don't have time to explain. He's about to set off a distraction so we can get out of here unnoticed. Are you with me?"
Sh'kar sighs and turns around. "I don't really have much of a choice. I owe Hotshot a favour but I do have one request."
"What is it?"
"Take me with you. I will be killed if the king finds out I've left the prison," Sh'kar says, his face filled with hope.
"Done. Now we wait until Hotshot does his thing, so I can then do mine," Fury says as he lifts his fist up, glowing in blue energy.
Meanwhile in the courtyard, just inside the fortress, past the gates. Hotshot sneaks around, looking for something he can use as a big enough distraction, to lure most of the guards away from their posts. He spots a barrel of flammable grog and his eyes light up with happiness. He runs over toward it, while taking out a little flask from his coat. He fills up his flask and takes a big sniff.
"Whoa that's some strong shit," he says to himself, putting the flask back into his coat.
Hotshot backs up far enough to get out of the explosions reach and takes out one of his pistols, he aims at the barrel.
"This is such a waste. I already don't like Fury's plan," he says with a look of shame as he closes his eyes and fires a shot causing a massive explosion, blowing up a huge chunk of the fortress's wall. The fortress goes on alert as the overseer guard see the destruction and uses a horn to signal the other guards that there's an attack. Over half of the lion guards rush out of the main building with swords, spears and crossbows. Hotshot emerges from his cover and waves his pistol in the air.
"Hey ladies!" Hotshot shouts out at them. The guards start to chase Hotshot as he runs towards the gates leading into the forest.
"Oh my bad. I really did think you were ladies! I mean do your women even have breasts!" He shouts out as he looks back at them following him.
The two gate guards stand in the way between Hotshot and the forest, pointing their spears directly at him. Dex sneaks behind one and jumps on him putting him in a headlock trying to choke him out.
"Go to sleep!" Dex shouts as he gets swung about. The other gate guard looks toward Dex as Hotshot runs straight past them without them realising. The other guard heads towards Dex but the using the momentum Dex has from getting swung about, uses it to kick the guard in the face with both feet, causing the guard to fall onto the ground and get stampeded on by the rush of guards following Hotshot.
Dex braces his feet against the guards back to stop himself from getting tossed about. Dex then uses his whole body weight to increase the pressure on the guard's neck. The guard slowly starts to fall until he collapses to the ground. Dex jumps off the guard's body and waits for Fury.
As the guards chase Hotshot, Fury hears the explosion and looks over at Sh'kar, with him looking back at Fury. They nod their heads and Fury lets off a blast of energy destroying his cell door. The prison guard quickly gets up from his seat and is about to take out his sword when Fury holds his breath, to slow time down. He runs over to the guards sheath, takes the sword and puts it through the guards leg, right behind his left knee. As time resumes, the guard yells in pain, the injury forcing him to kneel. Fury hits the guard as hard as he can in the face causing him to become unconscious. Fury grabs the keys from a hook above the guard's chair and uses it to unlock Sh'kar from his cell.
"Come on, we haven't got much time," Fury tells Sh'kar.
"No, wait. There's a secret passage through the dungeon. If we take that, we can leave unnoticed," Sh'kar replies as he heads towards it, using his hand to gesture at Fury to follow him.
Hotshot sees a narrow passage through the forest, small enough that only one person can go through it at a time. Hotshot runs straight through it, with over half the guards of the compound still following him. Hotshot dives under a branch that extends across the path, a few of the guards smash into it falling over. Hotshot quickly looks back and sees a lot of the guards still chasing him, he turns his head back to see where he's going and without looking he shoots his laser pistol at the ground behind him, making a small pothole causing the closest guard to trip and fall along with a few others.
"Damn these guys are persistent," Hotshot says to himself getting annoyed. He then lets out multiple shots at the bottom of a tree, until it starts to fall over towards the path he's running on. As the tree falls, Hotshot slides underneath it, just making it in time from crushing him but causing the most the guards that are left to run straight into it. A few of the guards from the back of the group, jump over the fallen tree still chasing Hotshot.
"You can run but these woods are our domain!" shouts one of the guards as he throws a spear, hitting a tree inches from Hotshot's head.
"I didn't want to do this but it's either my grog or my life," Hotshot says with the saddest expression on his face as he keeps looking at his flask then back at them. He takes a long think about whether he wants to do it or not as another spear comes flying at him but misses again.
"Oh god damn it! Fine!" he shouts. He throws the flask and shoots at it causing an explosion, knocking the guards back and setting the forest on fire, preventing them from moving forward.
"My poor baby." Hotshot cries as he heads towards the ship.
Fury and Sh'kar make it out of the fortress and catch up with Dex as they all run towards the ship, without seemingly being followed. As they make it back to the ship, they see Hotshot leaning against the side of the vessel talking to Ambassador Raygan.
"...Then I set the forest on fire and not to brag but I was... magnificent," Hotshot tells Raygan. "Oh hey guys, what took so long, did you braid ya kitten's hair?" he continues
.
Sh'kar growls at Hotshot "Whoa put him on a leash!" Hotshot says right after jumping back a bit.
"I've forgotten how much of an asshole you are," Sh'kar retaliates.
"All part of my charm," Hotshot responds while Fury rolls his eyes.
"Do you guys mind if we fix the ship now and argue later, while there isn't a bunch of cat people chasing us!" Dex shouts out.
"Right, I'll get to work," Sh'kar says. He heads inside the ship and starts looking at the damage. "Luckily It's not too bad I can get this done within the hour!" he shouts out from inside the ship.
Dex, Fury, Hotshot and Raygan wait outside the vessel keeping a lookout.
"I thought you said technology didn't work here but I saw you use one of your pistols," Dex tells Hotshot.
"When I spared Sh'kar's life, he gave me a chip to insert into one of my pistols, negating the EMP fields effect on it. How else do you think he's able to use the tech here and be able to get us home?" Hotshot replies.
"You still haven't told us the story of why you spared his life?" Fury says to him, his face filled with curiosity.
"There's not much to tell. He was a kid and it was one of my first missions. I pitied him but when I got back to White, man did I get a beating of a lifetime and never made that mistake again... well until now." Hotshot says as he looks at Dex.
"Look, I'm sorry Colt. We will take him out together, for all the shit he has put us through. I promise," Dex says putting his hand on Hotshot's shoulder.
"Well, you always come through." Hotshot smiles as he nods at Dex.
"Umm guys. I don't want to interrupt your little bonding moment but I don't think that's a good thing," Raygan says pointing at Sh'kan leading an army straight towards them, consisting of all the tribes except the Cat tribe.
"Hurry up in there!" Dex shouts out in worry to Sh'kar.
Sh'kar leans his head out of the back of the ship, looking at Dex "I'm going as fast as I..." He pauses and looks out into the distance to see his step-father with an army behind him. "Okay, got it! I'll fix only the bare essentials, that should save us a lot of time. I'll fix the rest when we're on board," he continues as he's rushing back into the ship.
"There is so many of them!" Raygan shouts in fear, sweat pouring from his face.
"Good, then we don't need to aim," Hotshot jokes while taking out one of his pistol and spinning it around his finger. They hear a sudden booming sound coming from above them. Dex looks up and sees a large fleet of White Tigers coming out from hyperspace, appearing above the planets orbit.
"Great! Just what we need, more trouble!" Fury shouts sarcastically in anger.
"What do we do!?" Raygan yells, looking around for someone to give him answers.
"Go back to the ship," Dex calmly says to Raygan but the Ambassador is frozen in fear.
"Now!" Dex shouts out trying to snap him out of it. Raygan runs into the ship as fast as he can.
"We know that The White Tigers can't land here because of the shield surrounding the planet, so the only threat at the moment is Sh'kan and his people." Fury explains but suddenly the ships above start firing down upon the planet's surface, destroying everything it hits.
"You were saying!" Hotshot shouts out as multiple energy blasts from the fleet, start getting closer towards Fury's ship, also taking out some of Sh'kan's army.
"Actually, it's not all bad luck," Hotshot continues as he raises his eyebrows and slightly tilts his head.
Fury closes his eyes to concentrate while blue energy swishes around him then as he opens his eyes, the energy expels to create a large energy shield, covering them and the ship. "I don't know how long this will last but whatever we're going do, we better do it fast!" Fury yells out.
Sh'kan races past all his men to get to Dex, Fury and Hotshot first. "What in the hell is going on! Why are they attacking my people? Did you send them here!?" He shouts out in a rage pulling out a large sword.
"No they are after us. If you take down the shield for just a moment, we will leave and never come back," Dex replies while still being protected by Fury shield.
"You really think I would let you escape! After what you have done! I should kill you right now! Perhaps then, those ships will leave us alone," Sh'kan growls.
"Good luck with that," Hotshot says under his breath.
"You realise I have extremely good hearing, cowboy?" Sh'kan replies.
"Look, if you do kill us, that won't stop them. They have a target here and will destroy the whole place to get him... or her," Hotshot says while Dex looks at him with a utter look of confusion.
Hotshot winks at Dex as if to tell him his lying. "I... just saw you wink." Sh'kan says, his face dazzled by the lack of Hotshot's subtlety.
"Ah. I really need to work on that," Hotshot says to himself.
"Enough!" Dex shouts "We can argue about this all day until we're all dead or you can lower the shield long enough for us to leave, take them with us and never return. Do you want to save your people? Your choice." Sh'kan pauses to think and sighs.
"Fine, but if you ever show your faces on this planet again, I will personally rip out your heart and feed it to you!" He then takes out a little device that controls the EMP field and deactivates it. He runs back to his people to tell them to run and take cover. Fury lets down his shield and they quickly run into the ship.
"Please tell me your done!" Dex yells out to Sh'kar.
"Anddd... Finished!" Sh'kar shouts out from inside the engine room. He then climbs up a ladder to get to the cockpit, as Fury jumps into the pilots chair and takes the wheel. The ship takes off and rushes into the atmosphere. Hotshot sways the ship left and right to avoid any damage from the firing ships.
"Coming back online..." Vicor says from Dex's suit, still in the back of the ship from earlier. Dex runs up and grabs his suit, slamming it onto his body. The suit forms around him as Hotshot does the same with his.
"They keep tracking us by your chip sir. Now that you have someone who can help maybe you should remove it," Vicor states.
"Good idea Vic." Dex turns to Sh'kar "Do you think you can remove this chip from mine and Hotshot's neck?"
"Easy," Sh'kar says pulling out a large knife from a strap wrapped around his left leg.
Hotshot gulps. "I don't think that's a good plan," he says backing up towards Dex. Dex uses the butt of his gun to hit Hotshot on the back of his head causing him to fall forward, crashing onto the ground unconscious. The crew look at Dex in surprise.
"What? He was never going to go for that," Dex says.
Sh'kar slices the back of Hotshots neck carefully and removes the chip, placing it on a chair near him. Raygan hands him the first aid kit from the ships medical room. Sh'kar sews the wound up and patches it with a bandage. He leaves Hotshot on the ground drooling.
"Guess you're up," Sh'kar says to Dex "Want to be somewhere a little more comfortable?" he continues.
"The medical room is more than acceptable," Dex states. They head into the room repeating the same process although Dex is awake. He lets out a little yell but it's over before he knows it.
"What do you want me to do with these?" Sh'kar asks while holding both the chips in his hand. A blast from the enemy ships hits the hull, shaking the vessel but without doing too much damage.
"I know exactly what to do with them," Dex says with a confidant smile. Dex grabs the two chips from Sh'kar's hand and races off to the escape pods. He opens the pods door and throws the chips in to it immediately shutting the door.
"Shut off the power!" Dex yells out to Fury.
"We'll be open to attack!" Fury shouts back, worrying about the ships integrity.
"Just do it!" Dex responds, pushing the button to make the pod fly off into the distance, hoping The White Tigers follow the escape pod so they can flee.
Fury shuts off all power systems as the ship floats around space. Everything becomes silent, even the enemy ships weapons have stop firing. The crew wait to see what the enemy ships do next as their
vessels stay still. The anticipation slowly killing the team, their hearts racing through their chests as one shot could completely decimate them.
The Tiger Claw slowly start to move towards the escape pod and fires at it, blowing it up, while the Fury Fighter reignites its engines and quickly goes into hyperspace, heading straight for the Ambassador's system. The team cheer in relief, all but Dex because he knows The White Tigers will stop at nothing to find them and destroy them. With his new found family he has a lot to lose.
Dex walks over toward the cockpit and sits next to Fury "Vicor, take over the wheel," he says.
"I guess we made it," Fury says, a spark of hope appearing in his eyes.
"I wouldn't count on it yet. Yeah this was a win but we haven't seen the last of them yet," Dex replies.