[Author's Note: I'm sorry once again for the delay. School started up again, but everything's in order now, so chapter 9 should be along shortly. Thanks for reading and enjoy!    Foxmerc]
 
 

CHAPTER 8
Into the Fire
Macbeth City
2007 hours
 
 
 

     “…Ike?”
     The tall red fox, clothed in the uniform of the force Gage had sworn to defeat, stepped forward into full light as Fox choked out the name. The dull glow from the surrounding city proved the apparition it to be true, freezing the minds and dulling the senses of the other two foxes on the roof.
     “I…I thought you were dead,” Gage said in a low voice carrying all his pain and confusion. “What happened? And why…why are you with…Venom?”
     Ike sighed and glanced at Fox to make sure his trigger finger wasn’t getting itchy. He then fixed his eyes on Gage with an expression halfway between sadness and amusement and slowly shook his head.
     “You were always one step behind, Gage,” he said in a voice slightly deeper than his brother’s. “You never see things clearly. I guess we’ll never settle this unless you know what happened, so I’ll tell you. Least I could do for my little brother.”
     Gage grimaced a bit at this, but let Ike continue.
     “I’ve been with Venom for some time now, about two years. The remnant forces of Venom were sprawled and leaderless after the war. After a few years of failed leadership, I received an offer. They decided they needed someone who was a battle-hardened veteran and used to leadership. Most of that kind on their side was killed in the war.”
     “But why?” the other Birse interrupted. “You were respected in the Cornerian Army—“
     “Tell me, Gage, what’s your pay these days? Is your name ever on the news when you risk your life and save lives? No. Garbage collectors get more money, AND more recognition.”
     “It’s not about the money—“
     “Then what’s it for, Gage?!” Ike shot back, inflamed for some reason. Fox kept a firm grip on his pistol. “Huh? Why do you put your life on the line? ‘Cause it’s the right thing to do? Don’t give me that bullshit. Whoever’s more powerful determines what’s right.”
     Gage either didn’t have an answer or didn’t know how to put it in words. Ike took the silence as a victory and continued his story.
     “After a year getting the Venom army up to something of a formidable force again, it was decided that I needed to disappear. If Corneria found out, it could be detrimental. I was overjoyed when given the task to work with McCloud. Kill two birds with one stone.”
     He shifted his gaze over to Fox and continued. “No need to feel guilty about the unfortunate demise of Dagger squad. The dropship was not shot down; I was able to hide a bomb in it. Good move for you to choose to go in alone, Fox. I wasn’t too mad when I found out. Who would’ve thought you could get through StarWolf and escape that place alone? Disappointing that you made it.”
     “So how did you get out?” Fox asked, trying to piece it together like a movie with a twist ending.
     “Simple,” Ike replied without missing a beat, starting a slow pace in front of the ship. “I jumped out and detonated the bomb. The damned ship was too high though, and I broke my ankle. A ship was planned to pick me up, and did so.
     Of course, the destruction of Overlord devastated the army. We decided that in order to proceed with any plans, you, Fox McCloud, would have to be eliminated. Fortunately, we looked on our contact list, and saw that another group felt the same way. IceStorm.”
     Fox tensed at the sound of the name. If Ike had anything to do with Vixy’s death, he would let his gun take on a mind of its own.
     “Stefan was eager to take on the job of getting you out of the picture while I oversaw the rebuilding of the army. However…there was ONE part I wanted to see to personally.”
     Fox thought he knew what Ike was going to say next.
     “You never did find for certain the person who portrayed you, did you?” Ike said with a grin and light chuckle. He was definitely enjoying the moment. “I always hated General Monagi, and I always hated you. Shooting him AND being able to hurt you at the same time was a chance too good to pass up. The civilians, well…there will always be collateral damage.”
     “You piece of shit!” Fox spat out, his blood boiling from anger. His shred of self-control managed to stop him from making a fatal mistake. As he was about to raise his gun, he noticed the cheetah, calmly rest his hand on the grip of his own. The swiftness with which he raised his gun earlier made Fox think twice, and he lowered it again.”
     Ike continued in a calm voice, ignoring Fox. “Of course, Stefan somehow managed to screw that whole operation up, but it didn’t matter. He bought us enough time to regroup the army and start on the new Overlord. And that brings us to the present.” He stopped his ponderous pacing and looked at his brother. “It doesn’t have to be like this, Gage. Join me. We always worked together well, even when we were kits. Remember me boosting you up to steal the cookies from that high shelf?”
     A sad grin pulled at the sides of Gage’s muzzle, but it quickly disappeared. “How could you do this, Ike? Now that I see you’re alive, I…I wish you were dead. At least I could keep the good memories I had.”
     “How touching,” Ike replied, rolling his eyes. “Gage, you’re still my brother, and I don’t want to kill you…but I won’t let you stand in my way. This offer only comes once. Cut out this hero crap and think straight.”
     Gage’s usual cold and emotionless countenance had understandably totally broken down during the conversation, worse than when he told Fox of the battle in Macbeth City. Fox tried to imagine if his father or Vixy suddenly reappeared as an officer for Venom, threatening to kill him. He quickly derailed that train of thought, figuring he had enough on his plate at the moment to worry about.
     However, as Fox looked over at his partner, he saw that he had the stern, slit-eyed look on his face again. Fox knew immediately he didn’t have to worry about Gage’s decision; he just had to worry about what the hell to do when he said it and lasers started flying.
     “I am thinking straight,” Gage replied, his voice quivering considerably less. “As far as I’m concerned, Ike Birse is dead; the Ike I knew. You’re just another piece of Venom trash!”
     What happened next seemed to go in slow motion for Fox. An angry look crossed Ike’s face and he spun around and walked into the dropship, giving the cheetah another quick wave and a mutter of “End it, Charon.” Fox’s heart leapt to his throat as the cheetah raised his pistol in a quick, fluid motion, aimed directly at Gage.
     Gage’s awareness was still dulled, and he seemed to be staring at the ship instead of the immediate threat. Fox was still all there upstairs and threw the captain and himself to the deck as a laser scorched the air above them. He fired wildly back from where he lay, most lasers pinging harmlessly against the armored ship. None connected with Charon, but one did the next best thing; it hit his gun, causing it to fly out of his hand in a shower of sparks.
     Fox slowly stood up, keeping his gun trained on Charon’s angry red eyes, and began to walk towards him. Just as he was about to pat himself on the back for a job well done, the cheetah grinned and wagged his index finger at Fox, as if telling him no candy before dinner.
     In the Charon’s left hand, Fox could barely make out a small, black object. Before he had a chance to wipe the grin off his face, he brought it to his muzzle, said a few words into it, then turned and started into the dropship.
     “Hey! Stop!” Fox shouted, taking a few more steps forward.
     With a lightning-quick motion, Charon spun around and seemed to point at Fox. It wasn’t until a glint of metal in the air caught his eye that he realized the cheetah threw something. A millisecond later, Fox heard a deep ‘thunk’ and was sent stumbling backwards by an unseen force. By the time he regained himself, the cheetah had disappeared into the ship and it was already taking off.
     “Damn it…” Fox muttered. He holstered his gun and started checking himself to see what had hit him.
     “Lucky bastard,” Gage said from behind him. Fox turned to face him and he lifted Fox’s com headset off and held it to show him. A thin, shiny throwing knife was stuck squarely in the center of the top band.
     “Holy shit,” Fox breathed, amazed by another near-brush with death. They would have to watch out for that bodyguard. While he seemed to have a fairly enormous amount of luck, Fox’s supply was bound to run out. “Will that thing electrocute me if I pull it out?”
     “One way to find out,” Gage replied, tossing it back to his partner. Fox’s luck supply held out and he managed to wrench the knife free. He was about to drop it, but suddenly changed his mind and stuck it in his pocket.
     “What’s wrong?” Gage asked, noticing Fox’s worried expression, then added as an afterthought, “besides everything…”
     “That cheetah…Charon…he said something into his hand, maybe a little comm.” Fox suddenly remembered the real estate they were standing on and a pit formed in his stomach. “I think be better get off—“
     Before he could finish, the door at the other end of the roof that lead into the building blew off its frame and black-clad soldiers rushed through the hanging smoke like ghosts in the night. Gage dove behind a nearby power box and Fox sprinted for his Arwing as red lasers darted by them.
     “Come on!” Fox shouted, scrambling into the cockpit.
     “I won’t fit!” Gage said back, changing the clip on his gun and firing blindly over the power box a few times.
     “Get on the wing again!”
     As much as Gage loathed the thought of another trip on that thin slab of beat-up metal, he knew it was the only way off. Just as he was about to make a dash for it, the ship pulled violently back off the roof accompanied by a string of curses from Fox. “What is it?”
     “Shields are down,” Fox answered through his recently ventilated comm., which was thankfully still working. “They were charging when I rushed back here, completely forgot.”
     “Then get out of here,” Gage answered, his eye catching something on the edge of the roof. A spark of a plan formed in head. It would be a long-shot, but everything recently seemed to be. “Can you get a charged one and meet me in the lobby?”
     “The lobby?!” Fox answered, swerving further back to avoid the gunfire. He figured it wasn’t the time for explanation, just to trust the captain knew what he was doing. “Yeah, give me ten minutes.”
 

     * * *
 
 

     It all seemed surreal to Gage as he watched the Arwing pull away into the night sky, like a dream he knew he was dreaming. Only he wouldn’t wake up from this nightmare. Since Ike’s “death”, there was so much Gage wished he could tell him, so much he wished they could do. It didn’t seem possible, discovering his brother was alive one second and holding a gun to him the next.
     The lasers smoldering the power box were real enough, though, and Gage forced his military mind to take over his emotional one. He holstered his pistol and fixed his gaze on the knot that held his rappel rope, still dangling down. The gunfire had ceased, which meant they’d be moving in. Now or never.
     With a deep breath, Gage shoved off the metal box and sprinted for the edge of the roof, lasers tearing through air and concrete behind him. Before he could change his mind, he vaulted off the edge of the roof, the lights far below swirling in a daze as he plunged towards them. His hand finally found the rope and he held for dear life as he slid a few more stories down, the rope burning his hand through the glove, then came to a halt.
     Not wasting a second and ignoring the searing pain in his hand, Gage shoved off the heavy window, came swinging back, and crashed through onto the carpeted floor of an empty, dark office. He barely had time to sit up before hearing a shot and seeing the rope fall out of view.
     Gage jumped to his feet and checked himself quickly for broken glass before unholstering his pistol and moving to the small office’s door. The long corridor was dark and, thankfully, carpeted. With no serious firepower, he’d have to rely on stealth to make it out of this FUBAR’d mess. His playmates on the roof would be down any second, and the seven shots left in his gun were no match.
     A guard had apparently heard Gage’s entrance and turned the corner at the far end of the hall. Gage took advantage of his hesitation and put a well-aimed laser between the two green-glowing circles of his eyes. He cautiously walked over and searched the corpse, keeping his ears pricked for any noise. The assault rifle, an extra mag, and the night vision goggles were added to his inventory. An improvement, but still not enough to go guns blazing.
     Through the green haze of his newly-acquired goggles, Gage made his way to the emergency stairwell, which was as dark as the corridor. The silence pushed and pulled at his nerves, augmenting the sound of his breathing to sound like a hurricane and his footsteps to sound like gunshots. He almost wished he actually could hear the sound of a squad of troops running for him. But his rooftop foes were good. They weren’t grunts. They knew there was only one way out, and they had all the time in the world to wait.
     The trip down over twenty stories of stairs was long, but Gage didn’t waver. He took each step as if navigating a minefield, trying to sound as soft as possible on the metal grate, the trigger of the rifle pulled half back. When he was finally greeted with a large “L” on the concrete wall, he glided over to the door and listened for any noise. Dead silence was his only answer.
     After a short debate with himself on whether to kick the door open or open it slowly, Gage opted to keep discreetness up as long as possible. As he slowly turned the knob and opened the old metal door, the first thing that greeted him was blinding light. The lobby was apparently still lit, and Gage tore off his goggles.
     The second thing was a barrage of gunfire that perforated the flimsy door, sending it lopsided on one hinge. Gage was still seeing spots from the flash of light and fell to the side, a string of curses muted by the rifle fire. He regained himself and risked a peek into the bright lobby to get an idea of the layout.
     It was impressive, as far as office lobbies go. The front wall was all glass, with a row of double-doors leading to the street. Marble seemed to be the main material for the rest of the huge room. Symmetric staircases began on either side of the reception desk and curved around to meet on a high platform with a row of elevators. Gage saw the stairwell door was right next to the elevators, and soldiers were spotted all around the room. He was right; they were no normal foot soldiers. The black uniforms were of the Venom Special Forces.
     Another volley forced Gage to duck back in. There was no way he could take them all. Each one would be an equal fight for him, and there were at least twenty out there. Time for his partner’s entrance.
     “McCloud, you there? I have a little problem.”
     “Yeah, I’m here. You at the lobby?”
     “Close enough,” Gage mumbled, firing a blind burst to keep the soldiers at bay. “Where the hell are you?”
     “Close. Get ready to run. You’ll know when you see it.”
     Hoping this particular idea didn’t end up like the destroyed Blue Marine, Gage heard shouting from the lobby, followed by footsteps and more shouting. A low rumbling found its way over the noise to dominate Gage’s ears and shake the floor.
     Curiosity getting the better of him, Gage peeked out just in time to see a large metallic vehicle speed through the glass front of the building with an enormous crash and come skidding to a halt in a hail of broken shards. He recognized the vehicle immediately; he had seen it in the news during the war. The Landmaster. It seemed that Fox had a good idea for once.
     A green glow swirled around the tank’s long barrel before an energy blast decimated the left stairwell with a deafening explosion, sending debris and three of the soldiers flying. The remaining soldiers ran for cover as another charged blast vaporized the large reception desk in an explosion of wood splinters. The tank held center stage; Gage was forgotten for the moment.
     Before the soldiers had a chance to recover, Gage took a deep breath and sprinted across the marble floor, dodging lasers like raindrops. He vaulted over the edge of the top level and landed hard amongst the remains of the shattered reception desk. Two of the soldiers saw him and fired down on him from the top, but another blast from the tank silenced them.
     Gage recovered and ran for the tank when a sharp pain echoed through his left leg, causing him to stumble. He managed to keep going and clambered up the side of the tank as the behemoth let fly with another shot that blew a crater in the hard marble wall. Gage was able to locate the hatch and pulled it open, causing the pilot to whirl in his seat, blaster in-hand.
     “Oh, it’s you,” Fox said, letting out his breath and turning back to the controls. “’bout time.”
     “I see we have to get buddy-buddy again,” Gage said, noticing that the cockpit was even smaller than the sub’s.
     “Well, I can leave you here and go look for a bigger one.”
     Gage mumbled as he worked his way in the best he could. A final shot was loosed, then Fox backed out of the lobby and began rumbling down the seemingly deserted street. “Any holes anywhere?” he asked when they were clear.
     “Got clipped in the leg, I think, nothing serious.”
     “Lucky.”
     “Skill.”
     “Whatever.”
     As Gage’s heart rate slowed and the adrenaline rush diminished, his mind found its way back to the reason they were there in the first place. The rhythmic rumbling of the tank treads seemed an ominous background music for his thoughts, a steady, heavy, sad tempo that drove home the gravity of the situation. Fox seemed to sense this and didn’t probe.
     As the Great Fox descended on them from the black sky, Gage’s mind raced with questions. But a single one stood out from the rest, a more important one, like a flame in his mind over a field of snow. He didn’t want to think about it, but he had to. He had to because sooner or later, the question would become a decision.
     Could he possibly kill his own brother? And if he couldn’t…would he let Fox? The question loomed over him like the countless stars in the sky, and the answer seemed equally out of reach. But the answer was there, and the means to find it was still tucked securely in Gage’s thigh holster. One way or another, there was going to be only one Birse left at the end of the week.
 
 

    -Chapter 9 coming soon!-