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Shattered

Chapter VII

Alexander regained consciousness to a feeling of warmth on his chest. He opened his eyes to see the furry form of Penelope laying on him sleeping. "So your wake." He heard a voice to his left. He turned his helmeted head to see a female black wolf with blood red irises, without a doubt she was Penelope's sister.

"So I am."

"You were the hardest life I've ever had to save. It was a four hour struggle to keep you alive." She said in an almost complaining tone of voice.

"Well My thanks for keeping me still breathing...." He slowly sat up from the bloody table and gently removed the slumbering cub.

"My name is Lupa. You should know Penelope was terrified that you were going to die. I'm surprised how easily she attached herself to you." The bewildered wolfess said as she watched him lay Penelope down on an adjacent clean table. "Thank you for saving her. I couldn't imagine what I would have done if she was gone." Lupa added.

"No thanks are needed. I did what anyone else would have. Plus she has kinda grown on me too. She reminds me of my sister." Alexander replied as he turned to the elder sister after taking care of Penelope.

"Where is she?" The wolfess asked.

"She....is a long ways away." He responded quietly. He stood on his two armor clad feet and groaned in pain as he clutched his chest. He could feel his hand on his chest. That meant that his armor was destroyed. It would take him forever to repair/replace it.

She grabbed him by the shoulders and softly helped him to sit on the bench like seats along the long table. "Be careful your wounds are not completely healed." She cautioned. He, with her help, sat down and sighed.

"I got a little banged up huh?" He chuckled.

"A little? You were practically falling apart when they dragged you in here!" She said angrily hands in her hips, with her tail whipping back and forth rapidly.

He laughed again hoarsely. "Wouldn't be the first time in my line of work."

She looked inquisitive, especially with one of her ears flopped down. "What exactly do you do?"

"I am a professional...monster hunter you could say."

"So you've seen these things before?"

"Oh many times, this is hardly my first tango with necromorphs." He muttered.

"Necromorphs? Is that what their called?"

"Yes indeed, I have been fighting these blasted things for a long time."

"How come we've never heard of them before?"

"They come from a far away place. Not any where close to this one, until now that is." He sighed and leaned back against the table.

"How did you get down here?"

"I was dropped of by Starfox."

"Starfox!"

"Yeah which reminds me I have a job to do. If you would excuse me." Alexander slowly got up and limped away pressing things on his wrist. She followed him curious. What was he doing?

Alexander walked down the cafeteria's long pathway between the tables. He saw that all the cornerians around him were looking at him. The guards looked awed and the civilians reverent. Ignoring the stares he sat down at an empty table and places his pistol and sword on it. He noticed that the pistol was almost empty. He expended allot of ammunition out there. He took the depleted cylinder and replaced it with a fresh one. Then he oiled the gun and made sure it would not jam on him anytime soon.

Satisfied with a job well done he shifted his focus onto his sword. The energy pack was spent and the blade was dulled. He took out the pack and replaced it with a new fresh one. After that he summoned a whetstone out of his digital storage and began to sharpen the blade. Ten minutes later it was good to go. Unfortunately his rifle lay broken and scattered in a hallway somewhere. He did have an extra one but he was saving it since it was his last.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Preparing." He answered simply. The poor wolfess was even more confused as she followed him.

With his weapons serviced and functional he walked over to the two guards at the gate. "I have some questions."

The guards were very forthcoming. He learned that this all started a week ago. At first some of the doctors interacting with the artifact exhibited signs of mental fatigue but they ruled it out as the isolation of being underwater in a research facility. Then the suicides began. By then it was too late to stop the snowball effect.

"I need you to open the doors." He ordered.

"Are you serious?" The horse exclaimed.

"Deadly." Alexander deadpanned.

"What are you doing?" Lupa demanded as she caught up to him.

"My job."

"You a haven't even fully recovered!"

"That doesn't matter. I must put a stop to this before they find away off this facility."

"Surely they can't?"

"They will, they always do."

"If you leave then you will die!" She shouted her patience running out.

"Inconsequential."

"You can't mean that?" She said shocked her muzzle hanging open.

"I do." He turned back to the guards. "Open the gate." He commanded again.

"ALEXANDER!" A little voice shouted. Penelope had woken up. "What are you doing?" She asked as she ran to the the source of all the commotion.

When he looked to her he could see all the cornerians staring again. It unsettled him deeply. The predatory eyes of all the species actually made him want to leave. "I have to go." He said as he kneeled down to eye level with the pup.

"Why?"

"I have to stop the monsters from getting in here or escaping."

"No you don't you can wait here until other people come!" She said desperately.

"There isn't enough time for that little one." He said using what he first called her.

"Of course there is, please don't go!" She begged.

"I'm sorry but I have to, I need to."

"Noo!" Penelope said hugging onto him.

"Look at me." He demanded. She looked up into his glowing red visor. Her blue eyes were watery with unshed tears. "Sometimes in life you are forced to make hard decisions. When that time comes you have to do it even if you don't want to. For me this is one of those times. Do you understand?"

She sniffled. "I guess so."

"Good." he wiped away a stray tear with one of his gloved hands before scratching her on the top of her furry head and ruffling it. "Don't worry about me I'll be fine. Although his assurance fooled the little kid the adults could see right threw his charade.

With the pup placated he returned to his feet. The guards reluctantly opened the doors. The large mound of bodies was still there from earlier. He left the cafeteria and looked back. The two guards looked at him with expressions of wonder. Lupa was holding onto Penelope's and was looking at him strangely. He could faintly see the civilians as they crowded around the door and watched his departure. The door closed the last thing he saw was Penelope's tearful face and Lupa's odd expression.

Once more he was surrounded by darkness. Brandishing his refurbished weapons he walked back to the elevator. He could not help but notice how quite it was without the little girl on his back. He entered and pressed the button that read research lab. That was the only logical locational for the marker. A few minutes later the doors split apart and he exited out into a surprisingly clean white hallway. Wary he carefully made his way down it sword ready and pistol out. Nothing attacked him. It was very unsettling.

He wandered down the pristine hauntingly white and empty corridors looking for any trace of the marker. It had to be there! Suddenly he heard wailing coming from a open door a few doorways down. The room was shrouded completely in blackness. The darkness seeping into the brightly lit corridor. The odd treble of the cry was distorted and...off. It almost sounded like a broken radiator given some twisted form of life. Heart pumping rapidly and hands shaking he walked over to the room. Standing directly in front of it he stared into the dark.

The crying stopped.

Alarmed he began to back away quickly. His retreat was stalled when a massive tentacle lunged out of the pitch black room and wrapped around him and lifted him off the floor. Yelling in fright he unloaded his pistol in to the flailing appendage and brutally hacked at it with his powered sword. He cut the limb off and fell to the ground with a thump. He scrabbled backwards shooting into the darkness what reckless abandon. Once he got a suitable distance away he climbed back to his feet. He took a minute to catch his breath. He stumbled away from the hellish door his wounds screaming in protest of their abuse.

The crying began again.

He looked back to the open door and shivered. Once he had calmed his beating heart he resumed his search for the marker. Twenty minutes later he found a door labeled Project Dawn.

He opened it and walked in. There it was. Standing at forty feet in all its perverted glory was the marker. This one was black. Like the one first discovered on earth. Hopefully this meant it was the only one. Trying to finish this quickly he jogged to it.

Halfway there he felt agonizing pain in his abdomen and felt himself pinned again a wall. In a brilliant haze of pain he couldn't help but notice he was several feet off the ground. He looked down to see a massive arm impaling him and holding him in place. He looked up to the owner of the arm and he saw a huge creature unfurl from above the marker. He coughed up blood that splatters Welty against his HUD. A picture appeared that pin pointed the location of the wound and read of a series of warnings. Each worst then the last. His organs were failing and he was losing critical amounts of blood. He was going to die.

The creature heavily impacted the floor drawing his ire.

It was a amalgamation of dozens of bodies. It had three main heads, each bursting with an ungodly amount of teeth. Its arms were a variety of spears. It had many sets of legs from half a dozen species. It skitters towards him like a spider out of nightmares. It got close and opens its maws wide and tongues came out that split into three more.

Before it could add him to its macabre collection he swung his sword and severed its grouping of tongues. It let out a pained and nightmarish squeal. Capitalizing on his advantage he cut of the limb pinning him to the wall like a butterfly in an entomologists bug collection. With a grunt and a spray of blood he removed himself from the inconvenience of being impaled he fell to the floor and shoved the barrel of his pistol into one of its many mouths and fired continuously. He emptied the entire cylinders worth of munitions into the behemoths maw.

It fell with a raggedy moan. Alexander closely followed. His stomach hurt, allot. It felt as of someone had heated a brand and rammed it into his intestines. He coughed up more blood. The necromorphs didn't give him a break. Four limped in from the door he arrived in. When the saw him they bellowed and charged. He fought them off on his knees.

The first one had its legs cut out from under it. As it was falling he cut its remaining parts in half. The energized blade bummed dangerously as he swung it around. In short order the necromorphs were eliminated. Alexander smashed his sword into the deck and used it as a means to get up. Once on his feet he hobbled over to the marker. He slipped on a unknown liquid and fell hard on to his back making him spew blood all over his HUD. He looked down to identify the foreign substance. He realized it was his own blood. Feeling woozy and incoherent he dragged himself to the marker. Carefully he took off his pendant and placed it into a shielded pouch. Then he took off an armored glove and put it into another pouch and placed his hand on the obelisk.

He opened his eye to find himself standing in a place covered in the mad scrawls that was marker script. At the far end was a tiny little marker. He saw that he was no longer wounded and was wearing his off duty outfit and had his pistol holstered on his thigh. "Hey bro whatcha doing here." A very familiar voices asked.

"Santiago?" Standing behind him was his closest friend. Santiago was wearing a pair of shoes jeans and a white shirt. But the shirt was ringed with marker script. The short Latino man began to speak.

"Duh bro who else would it be?"

"You died on Phoenix station. Along with the rest of the human race."

"Nah man the marker saved me."

"What the hell Santiago! The markers destroyed everything. They don't save people!" Alexander shouted

"Oh but they do!" Santiago said feverishly. "You don't get the big picture. The greater design!

Alexander backed away from his friend no longer, or perhaps, never was.

"Your not Santiago."

"But of course I am!"

"No! Santiago died I don't know what you are but your not him!" Alexander denied.

The Santiago imposter shook his head sadly. "I really thought we could do this the easy way."

"Do what?"

The imposter screamed and began to deform. It shifted and morphed like a piece of wet clay. Until finally in its place stood a regenerator. The most feared creations ever conceived by the markers influence. Alexander tried to run away. He ran towards the small marker at the end of the twisted path. Without warning something slammed into his back and sent him careening into the marker. He felt it give slightly. The regenerator had caught up to him. It howled and brought down a bladed limb that he barely dodged. He pulled his pistol out and blew the limb off. The necromorphs let out a gurgling chuckle and it's limb regrew in seconds. He needed a new strategy.

He looked to the small marker and saw a crack on its side. Testing a theory he shoved the regenerator into the marker. When it hit another crack appeared. Now Alexander had a plan. Which was almost ruined when the pissed off necromorph lashed out at him and almost cut him in half. He scythed the monsters legs off who a barrage of lead. With it immobilized momentarily he shifted his aim to the obelisk and started shooting it. Almost immediately cracks started to erupt across its surface. The crags vented hot red light into the perverse dream world. Before the regenerator could get back up the marker exploded.

Alexander abruptly found himself back in his own body. The marker lay in ruins in front of him. He fell backward and stared up at the dull gunmetal grey ceiling. He felt drenched. He looked lowers his head to look at his chest. Blood was pooling on him and around him. He closed his eyes for what felt like a second. Before he could sleep he felt a pair of hand shaking him.

Annoyed at the disturbance he tried to wave them off. He just wanted to sleep for a few minutes. Unfortunately the hands were persistent. He opened his eyes to scold the person. He was startled. Krystal? 'What was she doing here? And why was she crying?' Tears were dripping down her muzzle and her eyes looked like leaking pools of jade. He reached out a hand and stroked her cheek ruff. He didn't like it when she cried. He looked to his left and right and saw Falco and Fox. They were standing over him and looked worried. 'They were here too? What was going on? He was so tired maybe they wouldn't mind if he took a little nap. He began to drift off and his head slowly lowered to the floor. For some reason Krystal started to shake him harder.

Now he could hear her yelling. "No don't die! You can't die!" Her voice was broken up by sobs and hiccups. "We were supposed to be best friends! We can't if your dead."

Falco leaned in. "Don't you dare die on me! We still have stories to swap."

Die? He wasn't dying he just wanted to sleep. He turned his head back to Krystal one last time and she grabbed his ungloved bloody hand. His blood stained her clean beautiful perfect fur. "Please." She whispered hoarsely "don't go." Her tears fell on to his helmet and cascaded down the sides.

He squeezed her hand and then his went limp in her strong furred grip.

His suit emitted a harsh whine.

He flatlined.