FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Everything is in place," the warrior said.

"And our Queen anticipates his blood," the harvester hissed beside her, "his brood will arrive surely."

"The blood-holder is your priority," she looked to Seaclaw in her arms, "I will destroy them myself."

"And the pod-traitor shall be our Queen's first feast in her rebirth. Piece by piece, his body shall feed her and his mind will be kept in a new body...to witness us."

"I desire better results than the unminded drone."

"Of course warrior," the harvester bowed his head, "he is a prototype, a test designed to fail so as to reveal the weaknesses to erase."

"He served well, capturing the fertile one so his use was not limited. But we...are better."

Standing before a large monitor within a room now emptied of seawater, a computer panel gleamed beneath the scientist's claws as he placed his palm upon the clean slate where a keyboard would be. Something registered in the mainframe as his hand left an imprint and power surged towards the two pods, one on each side of the monitor. The rest of the room had smaller tubes where various creatures floated in different stages of birth, embryos forming to reveal miniscule aliens with developing heads and sharp little claws. The taller alien stared over each of them as they suddenly grew, rapidly evolving through weeks of gestation within seconds.

"The blood has successfully transferred," said the warrior peering over them, "a new army to survive."

"The unminded drone will learn," said the harvester opening a pod, "place the blood-holder inside, the transferal shall begin soon."

Gently placing Seaclaw's body within the capsule, it closed upon registering a life form as the monitor hummed with its scanning function reading his vitals. Targets dotted throughout his skeleton, then his muscular and nervous system before it highlighted his brain and the other capsule opened.

"NEURAL SYSTEM DETECTED. AWAITING HOST FOR TRANSFER."

"Summon a drone," said the scientist looking to her, "an obedient mind to inhabit this body."

"We cannot project it," the warrior responded staring up at the screen, "its body is too young to cross time and space unscathed."

"The blood succeeded," the harvester nodded, "but only the blood. Flesh and blood combined are far more difficult to project for that we can touch."

"But you succeeded," she slinked over to the door, "and you shall be rewarded. Perfecting this machine will ensure our Queen can never die, for if her body fails then a new Emissary can be found in the past."

She left the room as the harvester watched the sleeping body of Seaclaw in his capsule, waiting for a subject as he pondered with a growing smile and tenting fingers. He slithered back and forth in front of the PC, waiting with hands behind his back and deep black opals gleaming at the screen which ran through various lines of alien coding until it compiled enough information before the warrior soon returned with a smaller drone following.

"This drone is ready," she gestured to the bowing servant, "he will keep the body safe."

"Begin the transfer."

He motioned him into the empty pod as the drone slipped up inside wordlessly. The capsule closed and the machine started its preparations, during which the harvester glided his claws over the fluid surface of the console to bring up another window on the screen. A crackling feed showing a perfect blue ocean with islands peaked in green and white.

"A new destination for our Queen," the warrior leaned towards the monitor.

"Correct," the harvester stroked the console, "Spatial Zero-Eight, One-One, Two-Zero-Zero-Zero, in preparation for an escape."

"The pod-traitor will NOT succeed, we are certain of that."

"How certain are you?"

They turned and shrieked before Ecco shot a ferocious beam at the harvester, throwing him against the console with sonic blast as the warrior grabbed the key from the panel to shut the machine off and open the capsules, grabbing Seaclaw's unconscious body whilst the loyal drone in the other pod immediately leapt upon the intruders. Oddclaw slammed its face with his gun like a club before Ecco slapped his tail hard into its body to shut it straight back into the capsule that relocked itself on accepting its body.

"TRAITOR!" The warrior hissed clutching Seaclaw like a shield. "YOU SHALL JOIN US THIS DAY AS OUR ETERNAL SLAVE!"

"RELEASE MY SON!" shouted the father with gun raised. "If you do not release him now I will kill all of you!"

"Impudent...primal," the harvester pulled himself up from the panel, "your offspring has a greater purpose with us-"

BANG!

The harvester's head exploded with deafening blast, the raptor's shotgun sending a cloud of fire that projected almost solid across the room like a searing typhoon, bursting the alien's cranium to smear and singe against the back wall with his body slumping headless. The warrior ran out of the room immediately with Ecco following after, slipstreaming with water trails beneath him as Oddclaw raced after.

"SEACLAW! SEACLAW I AM HERE!"

"SHE IS TAKING HIM TO THE QUEEN!" Ecco shouted. "WE HAVE TO STOP HER!"

"NO!" Karziisss slipped in front of the door the warrior had gone through. "I, I cannot let you!"

"Wh-what, NO!" Skyfang shoved against him hard but the alien resisted. "MY, BROTHER'S IN DANGER, LEMME THROUGH!"

"PLEASE stop, I cannot let you fight my Queen!"

He frantically pushed the raptor back before Ecco shoved him against the wall with a tail thwack. Karziisss shivered as he stared into the dolphin's face.

"You know I am the enemy of your queen." He tightened his face with a sneer. "I cannot allow her to exist, you know why I am here."

"I...I-i must protect...my queen."

"You will stand aside or I will kill you here and now."

"Karziisss!" Oddclaw shouted from the side. "Please, I need your help, I need you to help free Seaclaw do not let them take my son from me, your FRIEND!"

"But...b-but..." he looked between the dolphin and him, "the pod...traitor will face the Queen."

"Do you believe I can kill your queen?" Ecco said with a grin. "And here I thought you believed in her strength."

"She...she is almighty, she can...she will rule this world."

"So all you are doing, if you let me pass, is allow me to face my death, correct? Your queen shall destroy me, and you will be credited with bringing me to them."

"I-...you...truly think you cannot defeat her?"

"Do YOU think I can?"

There was a silence briefly amongst the machines whirring and pumping strange fluids with the console beeping to itself. Oddclaw looked panicked with a shake of his head pleading silently, eyes of deep green almost on the brink of tears.

"...I..." he relented with a sigh, "you must...face my Queen. You will not succeed."

"I have been told that many times," said Ecco moving back, "and every instance they were wrong. This shall be no different. I will not force you to come, but I will not let you stop me Karziisss. Your fate is already sealed, your existence is tantamount, so what I do now will not undo your existence."

"What does that mean?" Oddclaw asked.

"I realise now...from what they spoke of him, they took your son to take his blood to create those such as Karziisss. They are experimenting, melding bloods together, hoping to birth stronger warriors."

"My...my son's...blood?" The raptor looked to the drone of dark copper tint. "That...s-so that means-"

"Hmmm?" Karziisss looked at him with unblinking eyes.

"You are..." The raptor stepped towards him and stared deep into his face. "You...they made you from my son?"

"Correct." The drone nodded. "I exist, because of him. His blood is what birthed me, blood they sent back to the past before we came here, to take your son and to ensure our victory. I am a hunter, just as you are, I only...did what I could so i could exist."

"That makes no SENSE!" shouted Skyfang butting his head. "I don't care what you smell like or what blood you got, you're not-"

"That is...that is not..." Oddclaw clasped his head with a deepened sigh. "I cannot understand this...but I know your scent, and it is the scent of those who come from me. That cannot lie to me, which is why I plead to you."

He offered his hand to the drone.

"Please help me save my son. He does not deserve this."

"I...I understand. I do not want to fight the Queen...but," he took Oddclaw's hand, "I will help...Seaclaw."

"Thank you." Oddclaw shook his hand. "I know it is difficult to face your alpha."

"Yes...but it is more difficult, to find a friend."

The two smiled briefly as Oddclaw picked up the strange scent of the beast, so close to his own and yet just a little different. But close enough as they headed together through the twisting labyrinth towards the high point of the Machine itself. The walls turned more silver, gleaming with the most coveted flesh that Ecco recognised as that of his own species or those similar to it, lathered skin of cetacean beasts that filled the passages with a horrific sheen like the blade of an executioner. Guards stood facing them down armed with pistols in their claws, taking aim with firing lasers that filled the hall with plasma fire as the last and greatest defence before the Queen's quarters. Karziisss only watched Ecco, Oddclaw and Skyfang take the small armada by themselves with sonar blasts and shotgun in tandem. The raptor's weapon made a shocking boom that rumbled through the walls and eviscerated one guard clean through its stomach, blasting a hole in its thorax as it screeched clutching itself to foetal position. Ecco charged ahead with one sonar shock to deafen a warrior, before stab-thrusting his beak into another alien's head and ripping its brain in half with a shrieking echo beam that tore through its skull and into the head of its comrade beside him.

The raptor fell when one creature swerved around him and struck his face with its huge tail, knocking him down before it rolled on top of him to reach for his throat. Karziisss made his move, lunging straight into its side and shrieking with a desperate bite into its throat that tore through the larynx partly, stuttering dark blood with gurgling shrieks as Oddclaw stood up and dropkicked the next drone that tried to leap onto Karziisss' back, strangling it viciously with sneering teeth before he raised his gun to beat it to submission. Skyfang took on two drones at once, ducking beneath one of their laser shots to whack its head with a tailspin before leaping onto the second beast and ripping at its throat with hungering rage, cracking the chitin in her teeth before stepping back to make a flying leap and crush-kicking it against the wall to suffocate it with a broken neck. The other drone she finished off by wallkicking above the corpse and slashing her sickle-claws at its eyes to blind it in anguish, reaching behind its head to twist its throat with a crunch and hurl it against its friend. At the end of this macabre hall was a single doorway.

"Stay here," Oddclaw warned his daughter, "keep this cave safe for our escape."

"Alright."

She nodded and stood to the side as they walked on towards the sanctum of the queen herself, a place that gave both raptor and drone a feeling of fear from their deep subsconscious.

"Your Time has come...Ecco."

The warrior turned with Seaclaw still in her clutches, one pair of arms holding the child whilst her other pair swept open wide as they stood in the midst of a large circular room of dark silver walls, the floor completely filled with water underneath some invisible barrier that they walked upon. Above the warrior was a coccoon suspended in its own capsule of purest water with tubes feeding into it, the constant flow of red and amber fluids combined with the deep pulsing throb filled them with unease. A beating heart of alien malice.

"And to think the unminded drone would be the one to lead you here. The blood-holder has proven his worth."

"I came of my own will," said the dolphin floating forth, "we shall battle again, and decide once more who survives."

"And allies for once," the creature grinned, "has your confidence wilted?"

"I am here for my son," snarled Oddclaw with his gun raised, "nothing else."

"You are a hunter, are you not? Why do you come if not to feed upon us? The pod-traitor is an anomaly, but you understand. You know you have no right to deny us this feast, you of all beasts should understan-"

"SHUT UP!" He fired at the capsule with deafening scorch as the coccoon swayed undamaged. "I have the right to protect my family from being devoured!"

"IMBECILE!" the alien shrieked swinging an arm at him. "All creatures consume life to survive, why would you come to our Hive facing death instead of protecting those of your family that survived us!?"

"I am not here as a hunter, I am his father, and I will NOT, ABANDON, MY SON!"

"A father who would risk his life for one mere offspring is of worthless breed!"

"BETTER THAN A FATHER WHO WAS NEVER THERE FOR ME!"

He shook with a stuttered breath, lowering his arm for a moment as he fought back his fury for a few seconds.

"I...promised my children, that I would be always there for them. That I would never abandon them, I would never leave them because I know that pain, I know how deep that wound becomes and I know what it can do to a family. My father was never there, but my mother was, always feeding me, nursing me, trying all she could with six-and-one children to look after by herself."

He struggled not to blink with tightening eyes on the verge of breach.

"My mother could not do everything, but she tried because she was there for me. Even when she could not save me from a beast, when I fell into the sea and almost died it was because she was alone, because I had no father to HELP her. That, is a pain too deep for any family to suffer. I will never let my children feel that pain and no matter what beast may come, from the stars or the land, I will kill ANYTHING that stands between me...and my children."

He raised his arm staring down the sights.

"If I am not holding my son by the count of three..."

Tears slipped down his cheek.

"Your tribe will fear me until the sun has died...for the things I will do to you."

The warrior snickered with a widening grin, looking towards Karziisss who stood behind him. The look on his face however made her snarl as she noticed the black dripping from his fangs.

"Have you betrayed us, drone?"

"My...my name is..."

"What?"

"K-karziisss. My name is-"

"SILENCE!"

"RAAAAARGH!"

Oddclaw rushed her immediately, gun in hand to club across her face and furiously wrest his son free from her grip. The raptor screamed with savage fist driving into her face, hammering blows upon her as Ecco tried to rush in before she swung her thick tail to club him aside and grabbed Oddclaw's neck, tossing him across the room before he rolled back up and ran straight back towards her until Karziisss came from behind the warrior to wrench her head back and bite into the back of her skull with a surprised shriek, forcing her to drop the child as Oddclaw dived to grab his body.

"Y-YU-RRAAAIIIGH! YOU, WORTHLESS DEGENERATE!"

She threw herself to the side and pulled Karziisss down with her, wrestling with the brown drone and overpowering him by a good three feet in her height to choke him violently with lashing strikes across his head, her thick muscled arms squeezing and raking as he fought back with desperate grabs at her wrists until Ecco charged into her waist, half-penetrating her side with his beak as she rolled off him. Oddclaw held his son looking over his face with a sigh of relief, kissing his head and nuzzling him.

"So..." she gasped pulling her body up, "it is fate that decides for us?"

"It has always been your fate," said Ecco floating towards, "you came to my home, you feasted on my family and turned the ocean into your wretched banquet, not as hunters but as slovenly beasts gorging yourselves for pleasure!"

"Is that not what all creatures desire? Pleasures in life, you would deny us that so selfishly?"

"You do not feed to survive, you harvest all life irregardless of your need!" He looked up towards the coccoon and shook his head. "All you have ever shown was greed, not necessity."

"This is simply survival of the fittest," she reached into her chest cavity.

"NO!"

He saw too late what she pulled out as something clicked. The room suddenly dove into darkness with a siren's scream as Oddclaw rushed towards the exit upon seeing the door closing. He was not fast enough to escape, but he was able to throw his son under the closing gap and into the hall.

"SKYFANG PROTECT HIM!"

"Wh-WHA, FATHER WAIT!"

Skyfang staggered back at seeing her brother roll under the door just before it locked in, banging her head and scrabbling her claws crying out for her father who faced towards the Queen and her guardian. The walls became a sickening bloodied jade in the midst of black light, as the coccoon gurgled with renewed fervour as fluids sucked stronger into its being.

"So we begin again." The warrior hissed rising herself up to her full height. "Let us see what truths the ecoes of Time speak in this world, pod-traitor."

"I will never stop, never will I cease fighting you, for however long that Time exists and whatever world you arrive in, I will ensure that every single ocean, every pod and every shore amongst the stars are free from your VERMINOUS KIND!"

"What is our Hive if not another pod, for another time?"

The room shuddered as the water shifted, threatening to break the barrier under their feet as Ecco charged towards the warrior who swiftly leapt onto the casing of her Queen's harness and wrapped her tail around it possessively. Something changed in her body as an aura pulsed from the Queen, feeding a latent energy into the warrior's chitin that twisted and cracked, snapping in places like a brittle shell as she gasped and shrieked with increasing pain from inside of her.

"What, what is happening?!" Oddclaw cried.

"She...sh-she is the Emissary."

"What?!" he turned to Karziisss' stricken face.

"The one the Queen has chosen to be her new body," he whispered clutching his face, "the one who...wh-who shall lead our Hive to the future."

"Until now," Ecco rose his body up towards the twitching creature, "This dance of time shall end forever now-GUH!"

"NEVER."

Ecco felt something slam him against the wall with his water stream splashing all around him.

"I AM YOUR QUEEN, YOUR GOD AND YOUR MAKER OF THIS WORLD'S FUTURE."

The warrior shrieked as her head stretched to a bulbous shape, widening to the shape of a crown that sat resplendent upon her skull in the shape of a ceremonial shield. The sound of cracking joints came as legs sprouted from her abdomen, twisting and snapping like roots growing to a monstrous size that wrapped entirely around the coccoon's capsule. Her flesh tore apart as a snake shedding its skin, a deep azure body stretching from beneath as she fell from her old skin left hanging against the side of the capsule, landing with all eight limbs crunching onto the steel-skinned floor with a body reaching up to 12 feet. Her shadow loomed across the tilting waters as she stretched her four arms forwards and marched with stomping feet that shook the floor's currents as Oddclaw went in for an attack. Dodging beneath the first and second wings with a dive then a combat roll, he made a furious leaping uppercut to crack into the Emissary's jaw with his fist before cracking the side of her face with his gun. She barely staggered from the second hit, instead gripping Oddclaw's face with an entire fist and lifting him up above her head with creaking fingers crushing his skull slowly as he struggled kicking his feet at her neck.

She suddenly bent forwards with a shuddering hiss as Karziisss barrelled into her stomach, forcing her to drop the raptor as the drone frantically slashed at her chest before he could think as the warrior slammed her fists down upon him. He ducked fast between her legs and mauled at her belly with savage teeth, scarring black lines across her abdomen as she crab-walked to the side with legs kicking him out underneath. Her tail swung like a brutal club straight for his head to send him rolling across the sanctum floor as Ecco came surging forth with his stream reformed, thrusting his head towards her waist as she swung her gargantuan body to one side in a crunching sidestep. Her tail swept back to try and crush him on the rebound but the dolphin swiftly dodged underneath its swipe as he shot a piercing beam to her cranium, the warrior's new body shivering from a neural shock that set alight every nerve in her body with seething red.

Oddclaw pulled himself back with gasping wheeze as he clutched his throat, feeling his shotgun tremble with its power recharging as he watched and waited whilst circling the monstrous Emissary, her vicious claws sweeping towards the dolphin who swerved and strafed like a leaf on the wind, stabbing his beak into her gut and pushing open the wounds that Karziisss left. She grabbed him in two hands and furiously crushed his body, a third hand wrapped around his beak to silence him as the dolphin struggled with kicking flipper. Her hands twisted his body slowly until he threw his beak back with much greater strength than she expected, shrieking a song of fury into her eyes which trembled with the threat to burst from his pressure as she dropped him and kicked hard across the floor. Karziisss grabbed at her tail and scrabbled onto her head, wrenching it back with frightful panic before he realised too late his transgression. The warrior reached for him from behind with a twist of her arms as he was slammed down on his back with her palm pinning his chest.

"WORTHLESS UNMIND."

"H-HHRRRRKH!"

"A FAILURE OF POOR BLOOD. WE SHALL PERFECT FROM YOUR ABERRATION."

"M-MY...MY FRIIIIEEEEEND!"

"FRIEND DOES NOT EXIST. FRIEND IS NOT A CONCEPT OF OUR HIVE. I AM YOUR QUEEN. Y O U. OBEY M E."

Something burned in the back of his mind as he stared upon her cold gleaming pupils, dark pitiless black abyss that pulled his thoughts towards her own, shuddering with growing fear as he felt a third eye piercing through his being, suffocating his thoughts.

"M-my...friend I must, s-service I must service-"

"I ALLOWED YOUR BIRTH. AND ONLY I CAN ALLOW YOUR DEATH, DRONE-HRRRAAAAARGHHKH!"

The creature howled from a blasting fire that shook through the room with earth-shattering strength, waters shifting under their feet as Oddclaw stood braced with smoking gun as the Emissary clutched the blackened crumpled burn on the side of her stomach. She threw Karziisss aside with such force that his bone bracelet fell from his wrist, and lunged at Oddclaw sharp as he dodged underneath her swipe and socked her in the jaw with one fist after another, before he scrabbled under her legs and clawed at her cracked burning rib to make her shriek. The beast raised her body to try and stomp his face, crushing her legs into the watery barrier-floor that shuddered from their movements as the raptor rolled back and forth between her legs, crunching claws that scraped the barrier like shrieking glass as he slammed both his feet into her gut before Ecco slammed into her bowed head to knock her back in rearing up.

The raptor joined the dolphin in bodyslamming the beast against the wall despite her impressive stature, throwing her fist to pummel Oddclaw hard and send him flying before she focused on Ecco, punching him out of his water stream as he rolled across the floor with the Emissary chasing after. Beached upon the floor he bounced his body and shrieked hard with a sonar shout to stifle her movement, stunning her slightly as each step she took made the floor rumble harder with Ecco trying to roll away from her thudding steps and sweeping claws whilst shooting smaller sonar beams in mid-roll. Oddclaw came flying from the side, leaping onto the queen's capsule and divekicking the back of her head whilst Karziisss rushed in to grab Ecco and rush him to safety. The raptor rode upon the Emissary's back, biting the back of her long head and wrangling her neck to one side trying to snap her throat.

"FOOL." She turned towards Karziisss carrying her opponent. "INSOLENCE."

She stomped towards the drone ignoring Oddclaw's scratching mauls as Ecco tried to shoot another beam that she dodged, swerving her grand head surprisingly swift to evade the focused shockwave and kicked him hard along the floor, grabbing the smaller alien to pin him against the wall.

"OBEDIENCE IS A VIRTUE."

"N-NNNNGH!"

"YOUR BIRTHRIGHT DEMANDS IT."

"I-I...I CANNOT, PLEASE!" he cried struggling against her grip.

"WITHOUT ME, YOU HAVE NO FUTURE."

"G-guh...ugh...I-i...m-my service...f-friend."

His eyes flickered with a strange glint reflecting hers whilst Oddclaw tried to wrestle the queen-warrior's head back. But she refused to yield, keeping her charge locked in her gaze as she reached behind herself with a hard swipe to throw Oddclaw down dangling from her side and swiftly yanking his legs to throw him against the wall.

"YOUR FUTURE ONLY EXISTS WITH ME."

"M-my...future...my queen...I hear your voice."

"YES. MY VOICE IS YOUR VOICE. YOU...SPEAK AS ONE, WITH THE HIVE. WITH ME."

"I...I-i must." He turned towards the raptor with increasing snarl. "I must...kill those who invade the hive."

"GOOD." She stepped back and turned to Ecco with her fingers cracking. "KILL THE PRIMAL, THE POD-TRAITOR IS MINE."

The warrior spread her arms wide as she suddenly fell through the floor, plunging deep to the depths unseen as Ecco felt the barrier under his body disappear in turn as he fell into the water. They were both in their element, dark synthetic seawater laced with the taste of metallic blood as the Emissary spread her four arms wide and snapped her tail hard to form a shockwave behind her. He heard her voice rasping into his mind from across the water.

YOUR DEATH SHALL NOT BE GRANTED TODAY.

Nor will it ever be.

Ecco surged the waters around him as his voice resonated.

The tides of time will never tolerate your existence.

WRONG. I CONTROL THE TIDES FROM WHICH YOU BIRTHED.

Then you're even more pathetic a queen when you couldn't kill me then!

YOU AMUSE ME. NONE BUT YOU HAVE SURVIVED THIS LONG, AND I DESIRE TO MAKE YOU SEE MY EVERLASTING REIGN.

I am NOT here for your amusement, only for your EXTINCTION!

Charging forth he dove at the queen consort's chest, the monster swerving her entire body through the waters as her tail came slicing down upon his head. The dolphin quickly swam downwards and back to evade the cutting chop, shooting his sonar with greater force in the water as it screeched past the alien's head with a searing shock, rippling the waves and scarring her neck as she lunged with carving claws for his face, ripping across the top of his head just missing the star-pattern as he thrust his beak into her gut with a forceful jab. Swiftly he followed with a tailstrike upwards, snapping his body into a somersault that whipped her head backwards before he struck the side of her head.

Above the surface of the water, Oddclaw was staring down upon the fight as he took a moment to catch his breath. He looked up as Karziisss slithered his way towards him with gleaming claws and a snarl of aggression he had felt from the other drones as he backed up.

"Wh-what...Karziisss, what are you-"

"Intruder, of the Hive."

"Karziisss no, NO STOP THIS IS-"

"INTRUDER!"

He dodged beneath a savage swing as the alien came chasing for him, the raptor strafing backwards to keep eyes on the drone who lunged at his face with hissing malevolence that he had not heard from him before. Oddclaw holstered his gun to keep his hands free and raise them in a sign of submission but Karziisss did not change his scent, his baseless eyes of instinctive violence fed to him by a higher authority as he charged with lashing strikes that scraped against the wall behind the raptor who dove and rolled aside keeping himself beyond arm's length.

"KARZIISSS STOP! Stop I do not want to fight you!"

"Intruders of the Hive will NOT be tolerated!" He lashed his tail fast with a spinstrike for his head. "All intruders are offence to the Queen!"

"What about Seaclaw?! What about your friend, my SON?!"

"The blood-holder will be safe...safe from those who dare to harm our QUEEN!"

He lunged with pouncing frenzy, grabbing the raptor's arm and pulling him in briefly to snap his jaws upon his face. Oddclaw threw his hands in triple punches to knock his long head aside and rolled him briefly to push himself off the creature's body and step back fast as he could to give each other the length of the room, trying to read Karziisss' movements in a slow circling hunt against each other. The drone whipped his tail behind him with a viper's strength, animated and vivacious with a hate not of his own as he made a swinging haymaker with both his claws before spinning his entire body with the momentum to try and sweep Oddclaw's legs. The raptor fell but rolled fast away, taking a chance to tackle the beast with a body slam and push him down in a desperate attempt to pin him. Karziisss fell onto his back but countered with a hard slap of his tail to arch his front and throw the raptor off in a bouncing crush, throwing himself in turn on top of Oddclaw who quickly shoved both his feet into the thorax and threw him aside.

Beneath the surface Ecco was swiftly circling his enemy, the Emissary's song a vile shriek that shook through the waters with a shockwave that he swam underneath out of range from its horizontal ring, piercing forwards with a hard thrusting stab that the Queen's guard deflected with a hard swat of her lengthly tail. He spun lithely into her attack, letting the momentum carry him across the water to realign himself with a brazen upwards thrust into her gut that surprised her with a vicious lurch, heaving sharp with bowing head before she swam straight for him with a spinning body strike, burrowing through the sea like a torpedo as he barely swerved past her body but her tail spiralled around her to lash against his back like a leather belt with cracking force. Ecco shrieked with a stinging red down his back, welted almost purple from the force of her blow as he rolled upside and shot a sonic force that cut deep into her abdomen, almost a knfie through water that gouged into her chitin and sent a cloud of ink from her porous wound.

WOUND THIS BODY ALL YOU WISH. IT IS BUT ONE OF MANY.

I will destroy as many bodies as you can stand to inhabit, parasite!

I HAVE THOUSANDS, PODLING. YOU ONLY HAVE ONE.

Tightening her limbs against herself, the Queen's Emissary propelled herself forth like a brazen spear let loose from its thrust, near-hitting the wall as Ecco dodged when she planted her claws against the side and twisted her body round to latch her jaws into his dorsal fin. He cried out with a gasp as the teeth twisted his fin, raking claws against his body which formed red slivers to quickly turn to crimson smoke. He thrashed and kicked with his tail as vicious as he could, her body floating above to keep out of range whilst tearing harder into his leathery fin, wrenching a piece of it almost out as Ecco screamed even harder with ineffable fury that he bowed his head forwards and wrenched his damaged fin from her jaws before spinning himself upside-down and shooting a full sonar cleave through her rigorous head. It did not split her skull in twain but she felt as if it had from the sheer force that ripped through her teeth, severing a third from their roots with such vicious vibrato that she screeched through the waters and made the surface above tremble at her horror from the wretched pains of her mandible, the dolphin adding further injury with a hefty uppercut of his full body, shattering her jawline almost completely to render it worthless for evisceration, dangling against her neck with a guttural hiss and a shiver of blind rage.

She swung down all four arms upon his face, pounding two fists into his head with two knuckles crumpling into his blowhole to make him briefly suffocate, the alien queen grabbing his head with her other two arms to stifle his breaths and jam a finger deeper into his hole. He was close enough to stab, shoving forwards before she could go too deep and punching her wounded gut before whalloping his tail against the side of her belly, sending her against the wall as he summoned the voice in his mind and braced for his most powerful roar yet. But the warrior swung her tail to crack his beak and interrupt his attack before she spun her entire body to form a double-hammerfist straight into the dolphin's belly.

Above this fray Oddclaw kept his distance from the creature that hunted him, Karziisss chasing him around the room with lunging snarls and shrieking pounds of his fists that shook the waters in his maddening pursuit. Dark copper scales gleamed with obsidian claws that would rend the shadows of the walls to catch Oddclaw's shoulder, scraping the flesh and sending him stumbling to the floor before he threw his arm in a haymaker that stunned the beast briefly. He took his chance to make a thrusting punch into the alien's face, screwpunching twice at Karziisss' head to dull his senses enough to grab his long dome and throw him against the wall with a heavy thud. The drone recovered faster than expected and swung his tail in a low kick to trip Oddclaw up and grab his throat hard with a threatening tightness. Oddclaw immediately swung his legs forwards to wrap around Karziisss' arm and twist him into a submission hold, pulling the claws from his neck and kicking fast against the hissing teeth to scrabble away.

"Karziisss, STOP!" The raptor stepped back feeling something clink at his feet. "Stop this, I do not want to hurt you!"

"Amnesty is but a false mercy," the drone staggered to his feet with twitching face, "mercy is...a weakness. Weakness does not exist in...in the, Hive."

"Why are you fighting me?! I just want my son back!"

"You are an intruder of the Hive, and so you must be punished."

"Please, Karziisss! You were created from me, I do not want to kill you!"

He lunged towards Oddclaw who dove under the beast, skipping sparks of white water behind him as he saw something shimmer beside him. He grabbed for it just before Karziisss turned and pounced upon him, pinning hard with slathering teeth drooling on his snout.

"If you lack the instinct to kill," he hissed, "you do not deserve existence."

"I do not kill family," Oddclaw gasped, "you are my brother, and I REFUSE to kill you!"

"...what...did you call me?"

"I will not kill my brother." Oddclaw steeled his gaze watching Karziisss shake his head.

"I...I am not your brother, strange beast."

"My brothers and sisters have the same scent as my family. So do you. That is why I shall not kill you, I will fight you but I will not kill you."

"I am NOT your family-"

"THEN WHAT IS THIS?!"

He thrust his hand towards the beast as Karziisss reeled back from a sudden scent. The bracelet jingled a soft skittlish melody that rang in his ear and with it came the smell of fish oils and another that he knew. His mind flickered with a soft warm burning as a breath caught tender in his throat, his eyes twitching with some vague recollection that grew ever greater.

"What...what is this?"

"Your...the one you came from," said Oddclaw, "my son, made this for you, I know he did. I do not know whether to call you my brother or my son's friend, but I will not kill those who have the scent of my family."

"Why? Why stifle this...urge to kill?"

"I made a promise. To the one who birthed me. You made a promise too."

At that moment the water burst from behind them as Ecco's body flew in a geyser, jettisoned from the depths and hitting the roof with a wet thud as he stopped himself falling with a swirling energy around his body to coalesce the water and keep him afloat. The Hive Queen followed with tsunamic furore washing the room in foot-high water as Karziisss and Oddclaw gripped each other fast, the vile Emissary hounding after her eternal enemy, sluicing torrents behind her with crooked legs that buckled and crunched with fiendish strength. The dolphin kept swimming in a circle shooting back blasts of sonar towards her as she dodged and harried after, slashing the water with powerful waves that she forced ahead of her in cutting arcs that scarred the walls with the strength she imposed, stomping the floor to almost tilt before she leapt onto the wall and made a flying tackle to grab Ecco in her claws. He fell from his hanging waters and shot a plume in her face to briefly startle the warrior, but she resisted with a snarl and crushed his body with claws getting tighter on his bruised darkening belly. But she was halted by an explosion of fire so grossly incandescent that the water beneath briefly dissipated into steam, charring her face to a deeper night with sizzling heat that further baked her fresh crackling wound like pyroclastic ash to her chitinous skin.

The only thing that burned hotter was her rage as she turned towards the raptor, tightening what remained of her teeth to the point of almost bending as she threw Ecco with one hand against the wall to crunch his back and marched towards Oddclaw. The raptor taunted the Queen with his fist in his palm, showing no fear as he went into a fighting stance and braced for her attack, the swinging fists that came once then thrice in succession as he dodged the first two haymakers that thrashed the water hard before lunging in underneath to punch her weakened jaw, leap-striking with double-jabs left and right to make her stinging mandible twitch as she punished him with a hard kick. She raised her body up to crush both her front feet into him, bending him over with a gasping heave as she raised two of her fists to form a mighty hammer against his spine, slamming him into the water and burying his snout into the depth as he groaned with a hard crunch. She raised all four of her arms ready to obliterate him, but then something jumped at her face with slashing arms that forced her to reel back howling. She covered her face in a reflex before feeling something attack at her waist, rending claws against her deeper wounds to twist them open and crack through her carapace as she stared upon the creature, one that stood between her and the raptor.

"WHAT. INSOLENCE."

"I...made, a SERVICE!" Karziisss stood shivering from head to tail. "My...my friend, my...f-fami-no, NO, YOU CANNOT HARM THEM!"

"T R A I T O R !"

Her screech rang through her sanctum, an alien song of destruction as the capsule still hanging above them all reacted with a vengeful aura. Her strength suddenly expanded with arms thickening in their muscles to a dangerous girth, breaching their bonds of chitin that cracked and buckled with blood escaping briefly from every pore, black lace that rippled across her inner folds as the Queen's song rejuvenated her beyond this body's limits. She swung with her arms and crunched into the water with the force of a falling tree as the drone circled her, keeping her distracted with jumping strikes and tackling slashes into any wounds that he saw on her to rake and plunge his arms within and eviscerate her piece by piece. The Emissary thundered with fists drumming against the barrier floor, water still pouring from the breach as thundering white sprayed behind her feet whilst the drone skated through the seaspill to keep his distance, moving to her side and leaping at her thigh to rip and tear the joint with adrenal madness. He leapt onto her back before she could turn fully, scrabbling up her back to latch upon her crowned visage and viciously mauling at her features, giving time for Oddclaw to pull himself away to the door with his body bent over in pains. The Queen reared her head like a tortured mare and slammed her face into one of the walls to try and shake the rider off, Karziisss latching tighter with numbing hands that would lurch and tug as if trying to rip the mantle from her skull. She looked towards the capsule in the centre of the room and galloped towards it, turning her body round and slamming the back of her head against it in a rearing posture, crushing Karziisss fast against the glass coccoon and causing him to slip off her side. Before he fell she grabbed his body and pulled him in front of her face, ruined by scars like a broken mask with teeth jagged and agape in a smile of cruel victory as she squeezed him with all four arms.

"FOR THIS, I WILL MAKE YOU WISH FOR DEATH ETERNAL."

"N-NNNNGH, H-HHHHRRKH!"

"YOU WILL SUFFER AS DEAR AS THE PODLING HIMSELF!"

She hurled him into the wall across the room, forming a crater of silver lines as Karziisss shrieked from horrid anguish. His tail had become limp, his spine severed into parts with each movement he made causing pieces to separate, crackling numbness as he bled umbran down his back with the struggle to push himself up before a deep crimson sound screamed from the base of his brain.

"NOTHING BUT AN UNMINDED WRETCH."

He looked up towards the Queen looming over him.

"I SHALL MAKE YOUR MIND A MIRROR TO YOUR BODY. BROKEN IN BONDAGE."

"H-HR-HRRRAAAAAAAA_AAAAAAARGHKKHHH!_"

Her foot pushed down on his back to the sound of brittle glass that he felt before he heard.

"ONLY YOUR BLOOD IS OF WORTH. AND IT IS SPILT. AND YOU HAVE LIED. AND YOU HAVE STOLEN A DIGNITY."

"H-HRR-HRRRRA-AAAAA-AAAARRRGH!"

"I GAVE YOU BIRTH, SO YOU COULD SLEEP. I GAVE YOU LIFE, SO YOU COULD EAT. I WILL NOT GIVE YOU DEATH, FOR YOU WILL NEVER SLEEP, NOR EVER EAT AGAIN AND SO YOUR ONLY FRIEND IN SUFFERANCE WILL BE THE POD-TRAITOR HIMSELF."

Before she could grab his skull and hoist him aloft, a searing lash of sonar force wrenched at her back causing her to arch and shriek with malice as she swung her tail fast to strike at the dolphin. But Ecco blocked her attack with a hard shield of water that became almost a solid sphere as he gathered his strength with bubbling fury.

"If you shall not give him death, then I will offer yours INSTEAD!"

"DEATH IS BUT A DREAM TO ME," she hissed almost cackling, "A DELUSION OF WEAKER PREY, BEYOND THE REACH OF MY IMAGINING."

"Then I will be your wishmaker." He raised himself like a gleaming sword. "You were but a nightmare in my youth, a fantasy that should never be and just as you became real, I will MAKE YOUR DEATH REALITY!"

"H A R B I N G E R !"

The Queen launched herself almost into the air as Ecco pulled back to the ceiling, shivering through his body with a potent energy that almost gleamed across the walls and burned the waters around him to a frothing heat. Steam trailed behind him as pinkish-red radiated from his aura as he thrust his beak straight towards her guarding limbs. Two of them shattered like sticks, the other two scarred across his sides as he plunged into her stomach, burying fully within her thorax like a parasite as the Emissary screeched with horror from the savage rending of his body that cracked and spiked with every muscular twist. She felt her back creak outwards, almost forming a hump as Ecco punched through her completely, the dull head of an axe cutting through a neck on its fourth swing gave the same sensations of agony as she felt his black-bloodied face leave her body. The Emissary fell with writhing death, twitching her tail and thrashing in maddened anguish as the water seeped to a nebulous pool that bled from her constant as Ecco swam through and out past is reach. The coccoon shuddered feeling a synchronous pain from her mind-shared host, shrieking an ethereal song that haunted the sanctum as Ecco stared upon the larval form of his archenemy. His eyes flickered with bittering rage as he looked towards Karziisss being helped up by Oddclaw, the raptor hoisting two arms round his shoulders as the beast dragged his tail behind them, the door to the sanctum opening from the Queen's weakened grip.

"HE NEEDS HELP!" he shouted. "Ecco help me with him!"

"I must destroy the Queen!" Ecco called back. "I need to break this damn crystal of hers, I am so close!"

"But...b-but Karziisss is, his back is broken, he will die!"

"We can help him after I have killed THAT!" he motioned to the coccoon. "Give me time!"

"The...th-the coccoon," gasped Karziisss, "c-cannot be broken by...force."

"What?!" The dolphin swam towards him. "You know how to break it?!"

"Sh-she was...in...my mind, I could see where...where the controls lie to...to free her and the food we harvest."

"...fine." He shook his head with a rancid snarl. "We will help you first, I do not know how long you have in this state."

"The Queen is...silent," the alien shuddered almost vomiting, "I cannot...hear her anymore."

"She must be resting. That gives us time, alright let us get him somewhere."

Pushing his body underneath the drone, Ecco supported him on his back like a stretcher with Oddclaw heading out of the room where Skyfang was waiting.

"Wh-what, what happened?!" she cried looking over the alien.

"He is broken," said her father picking up his unconscious son, "we must help him."

"Wh-why?!"

"Because he is your brother's friend and has the same scent as us...that makes him like family."

"But...but he's not a hunter."

"No. It is...difficult to say, are we safe?"

"Yeah," she looked down the hall, "no more starbeasts."

"Good, let us go."

Through the halls of dead aliens they made their journey back towards the room with the strange machine of its two capsules, the raptor cradling his son in his arms

"Th-the machine..." he gently raised his claw with a sharp hiss, "it...controls many things of the ship."

"It does?" Ecco looked to the console.

"Transfers...security...all are linked...a key only needed."

"Wait....wait, we can save his mind with that machine."

"What is it?" asked Skyfang cocking her head.

"A neural projector, it can send his entire neural network as a copy into another creature across existence. The Hive made it as a precaution after my interventions, to preserve their more important members such as their Queen."

"Why...do you wish to save me?" muttered Karziisss.

"You are my brother." The raptor stroked his head. "We may not have the same mother, but you are still family."

"But...I...I hunted your offspring."

"Are we not hunters? Is it not your duty to hunt the same as I, just as it is my duty to protect my family at any cost? You are right about me and you being not so different, and you must know that I will do anything to save my son."

I...am a hunter." He wheezed with fire in his lungs. "A drone of the Queen."

"Then why did you fight your leader to save us?"

"I......I do not know." The alien turned his head with a wincing pierce. "To think my inferior, and the traitor, wish to save my mind from decaying inside this-HRR-HRRKH, th-this wretched body...something made me...choose you over my Hive."

"We were not the ones who wounded you." Ecco pushed him up to the console as Karziisss started to close his eyes. "We should not punish your mercy with absolution. Come, put your key into the machine and we shall transmit your mind to someplace safe."

"U-uhngh...ghh-"

"Karziisss, Karziisss!"

"Is he dead?!" Skyfang hopped nervous seeing his head loll back.

"He is turning weak," Ecco sighed, "we need a key for the machine but the Emissary had one and I do not know if it is still there-"

"Why can't we just put him in?!"

"The machine is off, it needs a key to start."

"What about this?" Oddclaw pulled out the thin strip of metal from his satchel. "Hanma gave me this but I do not-"

"YES!" The dolphin gasped. "Yes, that thing he gave you, that is the key put it in the machine!"

Oddclaw stepped over to the odd long slate beneath the large monitor, tapping across the panel before he felt a thin slot on the left side that would catch against his claw. He inserted it carefully as the machine woke with a rumbling sound vibrating through the floor, sending power to the pods with one already occupied of a fresh drone and the other empty. The panel showed two hand of enormous clawed digits as Ecco motioned the raptor to put one of Karziisss' hands upon it for the machine to register its user.

"USER VERIFIED, NEURAL ACTIVITY IN CRITICAL STATE. AWAITING TRANSFER."

"Alright good!" Ecco shook his passenger awake. "Karziisss, before we put you in please free all of the creatures."

"F-free...free is..." he struggled to lift his head and keep his hand on the console, "I wish I was...free."

"Who says you can't?!" Skyfang chirped. "We just heal you up and then you can go anywhere you want!"

"Or we can project your mind to someplace far away," Ecco offered, "why settle for a drone's body when you can be something more?"

"Something...more."

"REQUEST VERIFIED, ACCESS GRANTED. TRACKING SPATIAL DESIGNATION 0-8 1-1 2-0-0-0 FOR TRANSFER, CHRONOPOINT MARKED AT MINUS 18615 ROTATIONS."

"What is that?!" Oddclaw stared towards the monitor where pristine islands shone within endless blue. "Is that the...sea?"

"Another world," said Ecco forcing a smile, "do you want to go there Karziisss?"

"Wh-where...where will I go?"

"Somewhere you shall live in peace, in the past of another ocean where your mercy shall blossom unto others so as to free you from this twisted creed."

"You...p-promise my freedom?"

"By the machines of your kind that so enslave others, I shall free you. But first, you MUST free the others."

"I will...free them."

He tightened his claws as another command opened up on the console.

"CODE ACCEPTED, QUEEN MEMORY RECOGNISED, RELEASING ALL FOOD CHAMBERS."

The sounds of mass eviction rumbled through the ship, creatures chattering through the tubes with clamouring freedoms from every pipe as Ecco's smile became more genuine with relief. An alarm sounded to warn the Hive of their emptying storage, rooms unseen jettisoning their cargo with dull thumps of torpedoing bursts in every direction. The ship started to drain with a lightening load that they visibly felt, the floor shifting to almost make them topple as the dolphin quickly moved to the open pod and with help from the raptors pushed Karziisss into the capsule.

"Thank you," said the dolphin, "we may never meet again, but you have my eternal gratitude Karziisss."

"I...thank you," he murmured gently bowing his head, "O-oddclaw."

"Yes?" the raptor stepped close as the capsule closed.

"Your...son...I am happy for him. He...h-he has good...family."

"I only hope you find a good family as well."

"I have. Brother."

The controls locked the capsules tight as it started to initiate the process. Flashing symbols unknown to them were told through the autonomous voice blaring into their minds of its progress as something shuddered from above the ship, a sound familiar to the raptor father as that of a portal opening from the mirror-shape that crowned the Machine itself.

"What do we do now?" asked Skyfang staggering from the ship's movements.

"You should leave," said the dolphin, "I have the Queen to dispose of, I will make sure that Karziisss is safe before I leave."

"So...is he, is this thing gonna heal him?"

"Yes," said Oddclaw looking to her than to his son in his arms, "he will be safe, and in a better world where he shall find someone-"

FZZZHHH!

"STEP, away from the machine, degenerates."

Staggering from the hall from the sanctum was the warrior who had once become the Emissary. The wounds she had suffered were smaller like her body, transformed to her original state and in the process managed to squash and force-knit the grievous injuries together just enough to drag herself over with a laser pistol in her claws, shivering from the black river that kept drooling down her front.

"I...will not let you come near the Queen again, not any of you."

"Your Hive is lost!" Ecco shouted keeping waters afloat under him. "The best you can do now is sleep and hope for a swifter end than you would have given me."

"Our harvest shall only resume," she raised her pistol towards him, "another time and another place we shall always exist. We are eternal, we are the Vortex and the only thing that shall end is YOU, pod-traitor."

"ENOUGH!" Oddclaw shouted turning his body to keep Seaclaw out of sight. "We are leaving, and if you come for my family again I will make you suffer for it!"

"SO JUST DIE ALREADY YOU SHIT!" Skyfang shrieked jumping forth then back. "Sooner you die the better, save us all a headache!"

"The only one that shall permit my death is the Queen, who I shall feed with your meat!"

"You cannot take on both of us drone!" the dolphin smirked with wild grin.

"I am a warrior, address me with RESPECT vermin!"

"YOU are the vermin here," snarled Oddclaw, "infecting my world!"

"What you call infection is but improvement!"

"LOOK OUT!"

The laser came piercing from her pistol, her aim unsightly as she shot for Ecco but he dodged as it burned deep into the console. She shot four more times as he evaded with the raptors taking flight into the hallway, streaking burns into the console before the dolphin thrust himself to the warrior who dodged with the last of her strength and pushed up against the wall, grabbing him by the fin and jerking him close to make a savage bite upon his head until Ecco bit her first, jaws like a sawing blade that twisted and mangled her neck to push her hard against the machine and crush her head brutally with the full weight of his tail in a backflip that cracked her skull upon hard bio-steel. He thought she was done when she dropped her pistol from weakening grip, slumping against the console with her head smearing bloody upon its panel. He did not notice her hand scrabbling towards the palm print to force the last of her thoughts into her final act of retribution.

"ALERT. ALERT. QUEEN OVERRIDE INITIATED."

"What?! N-n-no!" Ecco tried to throw her off as the ship rumbled hard.

"SPATIAL EVACUATION ACTIVATED, DESIGNATION 0-8 1-1 2-0-0-0."

"NO, the machine!"

"CHRONOPOINT MARKED AT MINUS 8760 ROTATIONS."

"WHAT HAS HAPPENED?!" Oddclaw rushed back to the room as the floor shook with frenzy.

"THE SHIP IS LEAVING!" Ecco shouted. "SHE ACTIVATED THE SPATIAL RIFT!, YOU HAVE TO LEAVE!"

"WHAT ABOUT KARZIISSS?!" He went to the capsule and frantically kicked whilst still clutching Seaclaw. "Karziisss, can you hear me?! Karziisss! KARZIISSS!"

"NEURAL TRANSMITTANCE INTERRUPTED. SUBJECT INCOMPLETE AT SIXTY PERCENT-"

"COME ON!" the dolphin shoved him down the hall. "WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!"

"KARZIISSS! KARZIIIIIIISSS!"

They stumbled and staggered through the alien passages, water gurgling from beneath as their claws clanged against the slats, barging against walls and racing til their legs burned red to reach back to their entry point. Moonclaw and Oddtooth stood with Hanma over the pool where Highwave and her group were waiting.

"GO, GO NOW!" Ecco cried.

"Where is Rumble?!" Oddclaw shouted.

"SHE TRIED TO KILL ME!" Moonclaw shouted back.

"WHAT?! WHY?!"

"NO TIME TO EXPLAIN JUST GO!" Hanma roared. "THE SHIP'S ALMOST READY TO LEAVE!"

They leapt onto their greatfish as they raced out the passages with Ecco in front, leading them through the trundling depths as bubbles flew and hissed with walls crunching and grinding, turning like locks as the Machine reverberated. Oddclaw clutched his son tight between him and Highwave's body, her tail thrashing violent as she kept straight beside Ecco through the crushing labyrinth that funnelled with steam and vapours mixing in the sea, almost blinding them before they could reach the exit. They burst from the Vortex ship and headed straight upwards, the raptors without their helmets struggling to hold their breaths with bleary eyes as they surfaced within minutes, heaving hard breaths and coughing fits from the taste of salt and air. Below the surface they felt shudderings of something great, a light that burst briefly with a crackling boom that caused the waves to ripple from above the craterous depths, undulating with a force unnatural as the ocean bent inwards from the spatial rift tearing through existence. The bowstring tightened, desperate to release as the ship faded from their world in a flickering flash, and with it the string flew to create a surging gush from the waters that almost threw them into the sea. A geyser formed with a brilliant crest that boomed with dragon's roar across the ocean and fell back to the water with a colossal strike that the greatfish quickly swam away from out of its range to keep their passengers safe. Ten minutes of fury soon ended with a tranquil ease, the sounds of the ocean returning as gentle waves treaded past their fins and the raptors snorted water from their throats.

"HHHRRRKH! KHHHH!" Oddtooth shuddered with a cough. "H-hhhow...ah...a-are we alright?!"

"Yes," Moonclaw adjusted her grip on the fish, "we are...despite one of us trying to kill me...I do not know where Rumble went."

"Why did she try to kill you?!" Highwave asked turning towards her.

"She...wanted to be Oddclaw's mate." She coughed back a deep breath. "She was driven with...envy, a sickness in her mind poisoned with loneliness."

"I cannot believe this," Oddclaw shook his head, "that...that is terrible, are you alright?"

"I am...thanks to Hanma." She looked to the spectre floating. "He managed to...Rumble trapped me in a cave, Oddtooth could not get in but Hanma could."

"I'm thorry mother," the son sniffed, "I-i...I couldn't...I couldn't get in-"

"No no, please...I will not blame you, Rumble trapped me and she knew to keep you away, do not blame yourself."

"Thank you Hanma," Oddclaw bowed to him, "I...I am very grateful."

"I ask for nothing in return," the phantom bowed in response, "you have aided me more than you could imagine by the success of your mission."

"WAIT! W-wait," Skyfang leaned forwards almost falling off her fish, "wh-what about your family, weren't they-"

"Are now free," said Ecco circling in the sea. "We managed to release all of the captives."

"I...wait." The red-finned fish turned hearing a sound inaudible to them. "Th-that...my daughter...my daughter's song!"

"I-i hear them too!" Another fish cried. "Is...that, my mate, my mate is here!"

"Tell them to follow us," said Ecco heading north, "let us bring this family back home first."

With a herd of greatfish now behind them, they flew across the waves back to the mainland as the icthyosaurs chittered with joy and jubilation amongst themselves, lost friends and family reunited to nuzzle beside each other to which the raptors felt a swell in their hearts as they looked upon Seaclaw's face. The father kissed him on the head as they steadied themselves for the journey home, hours passing by as the sun settled further beneath the sea to cast its shadow of auburn across the world. They landed upon the shore south of their home with Seaclaw just awakening, mumbling to himself as he stared upon his family in the cool ocean breeze.

"Whuh...m-mother, father?"

"Hello son," Moonclaw nuzzled his face, "are you alright?"

"U-uh...where, whuh happen?"

"We ethcaped," said Oddtooth nodding, "you were taken by the thtarbeatht but we brought you back."

"Your...y-your eye."

"Heh, I'll be fine." He purred licking his brother. "Long ath you're okay little brother."

"Yeah," Skyfang sat down and licked his other cheek, "we'll fight anything long as we're together, right Oddie?!"

"Mmhmm! OH, but your friend really helped uth too, uhh Highwave?"

"She's here too?!"

The boy looked towards the sea where all the greatfish were playing but Highwave was by herself, sitting up close to the beach as Seaclaw waddled over towards her smiling beak.

"You...y-you came for me too?"

"Yeah," she pointed over to the dolphin, "actually it was him who told me you were in trouble so I had to come help!"

"Tha-...thank you Highwave."

"Hey I mean...well, that's what friends do."

"Yah!" He hugged her with a smooch. "That's what friends do...wait, w-wait, where's Rumble?!"

His parents looked to each other with a nervous look as Moonclaw shook her head. Oddclaw sighed deep as he approached his son and knelt down to him.

"Rumble...Rumble attacked your mother."

"Whuh...wh-whuh?"

"She went mad...she was not well. She hurt your mother."

"It'th true." Oddtooth stepped forward. "I wath there, Rumble trapped her and tried to kill her."

"B-but...but," Seaclaw licked his lips, "why? I-i thought she was my friend."

"This is something I must teach you, my son." Oddclaw placed his hands on his shoulders. "There are some beasts who are kind and you are able to make friends with. But there are others who are selfish and will want to hurt you, because they do not care for others, only for themselves."

"Think of how Highwave has been a friend to you," said Moonclaw approaching, "now think of Rumble, and how she treated you. Which one do you say was a better friend before the starbeasts took you?"

"Um...H-highwave," the boy nodded to her, "cuz she...we do stuff together, we eat food an' go find caves."

"Exactly."

"But, where did Rumble go?"

"I do not know." She nuzzled his head. "She will not be coming back, that is certain. I do not wish to stop you from making friends, your kindness is always something I have treasured. But I want you to be careful, and know which beasts are kind and which are selfish."

"How will I know?" he gripped her head and hugged it close. "How will I know...who wants to be my friend?"

"You will learn like all of us do. From mistakes, such as this. But this was not your fault, please never think it was, Rumble made her choice, not you."

"I-i just wanted her to be my friend."

"And she wasted that, that is on her, not you."

"O-okay...um..." he scratched his head with a gentle bite of his teeth, "I...I had another friend on...where the starbeasts took me."

"Yes?" Oddclaw nodded patient.

"His...his name was Karziisss. Did you-"

"We met him yes."

Ecco slipped across the shore beside Highwave and him.

"He told us how you became his friend, and he was kind to us. He saved us from the Queen, risking his life to fight against his own Hive to keep you safe. He had to leave, so as to find a new home for himself, but he wanted us to tell you that, he will always remember you as his first friend."

Seaclaw smiled with swollen chest and a deep breath of relief, rubbing the bracelet of bones that still remained on his wrist. Oddclaw gave a silent thanks with a nod to the dolphin who left the family be to talk amongst themselves as he swam to the edge of the beach where darkness loomed. The shadow sat on a stone submerged in the sea, his cloak billowing softly under the surface to become ink briefly from its smoke-filled apparition.

"A moment to catch your breath?" said Ecco grinning.

"Hhhmhmhah," the spectre shook his hood, "haven't caught my breath since it left me years ago."

"I am glad that your mission was completed, or at least that's what I assume."

"Did any of them escape?" Hanma looked to sea. "The drones and such."

"Some always do," Ecco looked to the stars, "so long as Time exists I can never rest, and as the Queen continues her path of rebirth I can never die til we are finished."

"You sound like you're immortal," the geist pulled his hood to reveal his turtle beak, "seems we're friends in that department."

"I suppose I am truthfully," the dolphin circled around Hanma's stone, "I am beyond Time's grace, beyond its cruelty and its freedom. I can never die nor can I ever age. I never exist within any time long enough for age to take hold of me. So long as the Hive exist, I cannot rest, cannot age and cannot die as my duty to existence."

"Is that something you chose for yourself?"

"No. A power greater than Time itself chose that for me."

"And what power is that?" He swept his cape turning to the phin. "The stars themselves grant you a wish?"

"You could say that," he grinned, "though I half-expected you to say the gods."

"I obey only the king," he slipped off the stone.

"But even kings are helpless against the tides of Time."

"That is true...but, we have something." He tread over the waters to the sand leaving no footprints. "We have hopes and wishes, those that are answered by the Star Spirits who are both ancient and eternal. Mine, were answered by you and Oddclaw together, even if you don't know it."

"I see." Ecco nodded swimming upwards to a stream he formed in the air. "Did you come forwards or backwards?"

"Hmm?"

"That key you had, of which Oddclaw used to send Karziisss through to the other place, you must have obtained that from this ship."

"I did."

"Am I correct in saying that the Machine landed in your world?"

"Yes." The cloaked turtle pressed fingers to his beak. "I did not come from the past or future though. When I met Oddclaw before I met him as a means to practice my journeying from one world to the next."

"And yet you came to this point with knowledge of that ship's arrival."

"I knew when it would come, because the one whose consciousness you sent from the ship, was the one I spoke to in the past some twenty-four years ago. He was the one who gave me that key."

"I see," the dolphin nodded with growing grin, "but you came not with us, to face the Queen and meet Karziisss...was that your only reason to come here?"

"At first yes," said the phantom crossing his sleeves, "but then I felt something that I couldn't ignore."

"What?"

"From her." He pointed to Moonclaw with a skeletal finger. "I felt...her death approaching."

"Really?!"

"Dry bones have that power, when our king resurrects us. To know when death is coming sooner to others, and for what Oddclaw had done to save my nephew I owe him this. Even if they would never know the truth."

"Ahhhh I see," he nodded with a chirp as Oddclaw approached, "and that was your debt."

"Everything alright?" Oddclaw asked the strangers two.

"We were just discussing our departure," said the dolphin swimming between, "I must take flight to hunt down the Queen to wherever she has gone to."

"Are you leaving soon? If so then I must thank you both for all you have done."

"You saved one of my family. Only fair I should save one of yours."

"Yes, Moonclaw told me that you stopped Rumble when she..." he took a steady breath and pinched his snout, "well, would you not stay for at least a day? The hairless can help you leave with their coldfire and such?"

"And what would they have to offer if you pardon my asking?" asked Ecco looking about himself. "The Vortex have gone and both of us are free to leave by our powers alone, so I daresay that your friends could not help."

"Oh." The raptor rubbed his neck. "That...yes, um, forgive me today has been very...exhausting."

"It is fine," the shadow waved his hand, "we came only to face the ship, and so we leave with its absence. We depart not from bluntness but of necessity to our duties."

"I understand. Then let my family thank you at least."

He called them over as they stood together. The mother taller than the father with greying skin and blood-soaked eyes; her daughter nearing her father's height with the same lustrous emerald eyes as he; her brother whose skin was ashen silver marked only by the blemish of his hollow socket with one jade eye remaining above his hooked fangs; and the child who stood smallest amongst them with gleaming crimson pupils and pale brown skin covered with soft green skirt and wooden bangles.

"Thank you," Moonclaw bowed with humble purr, "for everything you have done."

"Yeah thanks!" Skyfang chipped. "It was fun huntin' starbeasts!"

"Hmhmhmhm," Ecco bowed in turn with gleaming stars upon his scalp, "the pleasure is mine fair hunters. OH, Seaclaw yes?"

"Y-yah?" the boy stood on his toes leaning forth.

"I recall you had a weapon, where did it go?"

"OH! UM!" He fidgeted at his scabbard remaining empty. "I-i, I musta dropped it when they took me."

"Let me offer a last kindness to you then, before I leave I shall retrieve your weapon, then you can offer farewells to us."

"Are you sure?" asked Odd.

"Of course, please I would not want a brave hero to come away empty-beaked."

"Th-thank you!" Seaclaw squeaked hugging the phin. "Um, d-don't tell Stonevoice okay, cuz I promised not to lose it."

"I shall say nothing," he said snickering as he slipped down to sea, "Hanma would you like to accompany me? I would love to continue our discussion before we leave."

"Certainly," the phantom rose and stepped over the wash, "we shall return shortly."

The family waved them off, not with farewell but with expectation as Seaclaw rushed off to speak with Highwave, the greatfish paddling round in the shallows where icthyosaurs played and rolled each other about with gentle prods of their beaks. The raptor joined them in turn as he swam beneath Highwave's body, tickling her as she yelped and dove beneath to grab his arm and wrestle briefly with him, all to the amusement of his family who watched on with relief. The next hour Ecco skimmed through the sea with his fastest pace, followed by Hanma's cloak that shrieked over the waves as white became wight, the two searching the cliffs along the western reach of the southern ridge beyond the great Jaws of the Earth which shone purest vermillion.

"Did the Queen arrive in your world?" Ecco asked.

"No," Hanma shook his head, "she went elsewhere, but we destroyed her ship so no one will learn its secrets."

"Good. Then my goal is set to chase her again."

"I hope we're not delaying you."

"No no...that's the thing with Time, it always waits for those who travel it. It's just others who wait not for it."

"Hm...could tell that to some of the recruits back in the castle."

"Remember what I told you. Time is more flexible than you would think. It is not a trickling stream but a river, and all you can do is either divert or split it in two. You are witness to it, you should know."

"What, what do you mean?"

"What do you think would have happened if you had not gone with Moonclaw?" The dolphin spun on his back with the grin of Loki. "You only came to offer Oddclaw a key, but if you had left there and then, what river would we be in?"

"I...hmm." They stopped at the cavern of the underground oasis. "That...I never thought she had a fate."

"She did not," said Ecco swimming into the lake, "no one does. That's another thing you learn whilst swimming through Time, there is no such thing as fate, no such thing as destiny. Those who bestowed on me this power to travel across worlds and ages, they said it was my destiny. They only said it was to inspire themselves, but I know the truths of existence."

He clicked his sonar across the cave of green grass and palm trees until something gleamed in the rough.

"I know that the only destiny you have is the one you make. No one is fated to become someone. I chose this path, to face the Queen endless just as she chose her pursuit avaricious. Just as that family chose to be together and Karziisss chose to make his stand."

"Free will's a wonderful thing." The shadow floated over to the sword left within the dirt. "Even the powers of a wish can't change that."

"As well they shouldn't. This cave is a lovely place."

"It is. I hope this world remains just as beautiful."

"I am certain it will," said the dolphin turning back towards the sea, "with those such as that family of hunters, this world will be safe."

"I hope so too, Ecco."

As the strangers departed with sword in tow, the cave would turn silent with only the briefest skitters of the fauna scavenging through the verdant moss, tasting the dew of the sea and the fruits that grew from the trees as well as those who feasted upon them. The cavern oasis was a piece of heaven, one unspoilt by the weights of the world until a few days previous, the traces of battle still left behind from the black inkdrops of blood and the two dead alien corpses that remained for curious invertebrates to sample the new feast. They would find their way into these bodies, and they would gorge themselves upon the fresh meat, strange visceral ends that would satisfy their tasteless needs. But the cavern would not find rest, not since the incident that had violated its peace. Farther along the western cliffs, down the length of the Greatbeast's Spine to where the old human facility still remained in the shadow of the Deep Mountain, a lone greatfish would arrive desperately heaving its passenger straddled upon his back.

"H-HHHNNNGH! GUH!"

He swam close to the shallows of the black silt as he felt his cargo push off.

"Th-there...NOW can I go?!"

"Yes," said the passenger, "leave and never speak of me to anyone."

"I would...rather forget you."

"That would help both of us, so do so yes."

The fish took his leave as soon as he could, cresting the waves that slumped against the dark mountain base as Riptor stood bitter towards the sea. She walked further inland across the barren beach of nightly sand that crunched between her claws before she sat sheltered from the wind. She said nothing for the next five minutes, turning thoughts in her head and processing all that she could before a single world punctuated it.

" FUCK! FUUUUUUCK!"

She kicked the sand with a blind rage, cracking stones with her claws and stomping with hissing flame that poured from her jaws in the midst of a numbing rant, filling the air with object profanity that would not end for the next seven minutes. She only stopped when exhaustion took her, causing her to slump into the dirt with a thick cloud as she slapped her tail behind her with venomous tense, clicking and unclicking the joints like cracking knuckles in a row. The ocean gasped and receded, droned and seethed at the edge of the continent as she clicked her comms.

"Sulphide. Sulphide."

"WHA, Ri, R-RIPTOR!" His voice almost shrieked in her ear. "RIPTOR ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"

"KEEP YOUR VOICE DOWN I'M HERE!"

"I-i, um, s-sorry, sorry I...o-oh, ohhh I'm so glad to hear your voice, I just a-aah!" She rolled her eyes at the sound of his tears. "I-i was just, I-i, I hadn't heard from you in days I-"

"Oh don't be so melodramatic!" she snapped. "It hasn't been that long, I only had to keep silence because of some THING, this phantom, this bastard-faced geist that couldn't even fight me fair and threw me down a tube like worthless trash!"

"Wait, wait, what do you mean a phanto-"

"Stuck in a cargo hold amongst a teeming horde of fish until we all were suddenly thrown out to sea by SOMETHING in the ship going insane I presume Oddclaw had done something to deactivate its defences, forcing one of those fish to obey me for transport across the endless sea-"

"RIPTOR!"

"DON'T INTERRUPT ME!" She stood up to stomp her feet. "IT WAS YOUR PLAN THAT FAILED, I DIDN'T SUGGEST KILLING ODDCLAW'S MATE!"

"...what?" Sulphide's voice dipped to a whisper.

"I failed, your plan, the one you so DEEPLY desired and made a convincing argument, I failed to kill one STUPID old BITCH because of this insufferable GHOST that was haunting the rest of us when we fell into the mountain!"

"You...y-you're not making any sense, what are you talking about?"

"THE PLAN!" she barked booming across the beach. "THE PLAN TO KILL ODDCLAW'S MATE THAT YOU KEPT INCITING ME, I'M NOT IN THE MOOD FOR THIS SULPHIDE!"

"WHAT, NO, NO I NEVER SAID ANYTHING ABOUT KILLING HIS MATE, WHO-"

"STOP BEING COY YOU'VE BEEN SAYING NOTHING FOR THE PAST TWO DAYS!"

"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"

"HOW?! How is it impossible?!"

"I NEVER SPOKE TO YOU, FOR THE LAST DAYS I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT YOU!"

"...wha-...what?" She reeled her head back as his voice reached a piercing scream.

"I have...TRIED to contact you," he whispered hoarse, "I couldn't reach you. I couldn't contact you, I was worried something had happened, this is the first time in half a week I have managed to talk to you, I know nothing about a ship or this ghost you sound deranged!"

"But you...no, no you must have woken up, you don't remember, I most definitely spoke to you!"

"That, no, th-that's impossible, I told you I haven't, you know I wouldn't lie to you!"

"Are you saying I'm a LIAR?!" she shrieked staring at the sea.

"NO, N-NO, I just..." he whimpered on the edge of tears, "I don't...know what to say, Riptor please you have to believe me, I never spoke to you these past few days, never once did I hear from you, whenever I tried there was static like there was interference."

"Are you certain of that?"

"YES, please I swear to you, on my life and yours that I never, spoke, a single word to you until this night."

"...I was in a cave." She stared upwards to the mountain behind her. "I was...I followed Oddclaw's family, we fell into a cave when an alien ship dropped out from a wormhole and...crashed into the mountain we were on. I heard you. You were with me, suggesting ideas that in the midst of the cavern darkness, when all the family were separate, when aliens came and took me away because I was 'fertile', that I should kill Oddclaw's mate, and take her place, after rescuing his son to get into his good favours."

There was a silence between them as Riptor felt Sulphide's throat tightening. He was lost without words as the sea continued to lap at her feet, cold sand that caked on her claws like mold upon blue. Riptor felt something she had never known in her life, something that always she incited within others but never had the temerity to feel it herself. Her voice became trembling, aged within seconds that made Sulphide clutch his heart with fearful shock.

"I would...like to come back now please," she surprised herself with her pleading request.

"Yes, I um...will, send a raft, where are you?"

"Northwest of the black mountain, the shore where you first landed."

"Right, I remember it. See you soon Riptor, and please...take care of yourself."

"Good night. Sulphide?"

"Yes?"

"...Nothing, I'll tell you when we meet."

She laid herself down against the foot of the mountain, the sounds of the sea lulling her to a restless sleep as her mind churned with a constant rage mixed by a deeper emotion. A fettered disquiet that stirred the depths of her soul to make her body shiver with unseen cold.