FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"I have you now." Bucky murmured triumphantly to himself, blasting rapidly away at his opponent's shield below. Of course, after having fought this certain Vulpine opponent for the last half hour, the heroic Hare knew that his pistol couldn't break through his foe's glinting, personal, aqua colored deflector shield.

Nevertheless, pinned down by Bucky's reinforced pistol blasts from above, this red fox's time was clearly up. He was grounded with no place to go but sit tight. He had been for the last few minutes. And due to his own jet pack, free to fly where he pleased, the Hare had a distinct advantage over this meddlesome Vulpine.

Getting back to the fighting and trying not to let his feeling of triumph distract him too greatly, with a quick if not professional flick of his wrist, Bucky went about sealing his foe's supposed demise. He confidently plucked the last of his grenades from his belt, tossed it into the air causally while making measurements of the battlefield in his mind, confirming them as he caught the said explosive in his hand and then - with a pitch that would have put any major league baseball player to shame - lobbed the hazard with great precision.

Just as the Hare had desired, just as he'd mentally measured out, his grenade landed neatly just behind the pinned vulpine that was his nemesis! In turn, with what occurred next, Bucky felt a victorious smile come onto his expression as he watched his uncertain foe look behind himself. This was it. This would end the fighting. The final confrontation began now!

Truly, trapped, outmaneuvered, what was the he-fox below going to do? The tricky rotter had only seconds to decide. Clearly, foolishly, he could try to take on the resulting explosion and stay in his defensive position out of Bucky's line of fire. Or - like he'd been during the entire course of this entire fight - he could in fact be daring, create some distance between himself and the primed grenade as well as try to take on Bucky in the air once more. Of course, heh, this He-Fox couldn't hope to compete with the air master hare.

Yes, maybe the vulpine was strong on the ground but Bucky... he was invincible in the air!

In the end, with the grenade close to him giving off one last ominous "beep" followed by a blinking red light, Bucky's vulpine foe tried to dart out of the way of danger. He in fact lowered his shimmering aqua shield, poised for takeoff then seemed to speedily "blink" away from the primed explosive just as an explosion - fiery and powerful - commenced! In turn, unfortunate for Bucky as he took aim at his fleeing nemesis, a large cloud of dust now flooded the battle field! What? Why? How?

Ah, alas, this plan had had a fumble due to overconfident Bucky. If the Hare had taken a moment to rethink things beforehand, he would have realized that this battlefield, this planet, was mostly a barren desert world. Indeed, in most every direction, there was desert everywhere. Thus, due to his explosive, the dirt of this certain plain had been thrown high into the air which was now impeding the heroic, capable Hare's vision.

Blast it all! Even with his brilliant eyesight, the swirling dust was proving to be a hassle for Bucky. Floating in the air where he was, it was going to be impossible for him to locate his adversary from here. Could he go to the ground and find his foe? That he-fox had been pretty close to the explosion. Perhaps he'd died. If not, he had to be mortally injured which would allow Bucky to finish this conflict ultimately with a single laser blast. Still, not certain of how to proceed with the event at hand, Bucky's sharp eyes scanned the lay of the land carefully. As he did so, he came to a conclusion.

No. No, he wouldn't go back down to the ground. Rather, he would wait up here in the air for all of this dust to blow away before doing anything blindly. Remembering the ways of his older yet wisest mentor in this universe, trying to continue this fight while blind would more than likely get him killed. Thus, hovering in mid-air, patiently waiting for his vision to clear up, the heroic hare scanned the ground below for the possible remain of his former He-Fox foe. As he played it safe, out of the corner of his eye, Bucky noticed something happening behind him.

There, glowing eerily in the swirling clouds of dust was a twinkling flash. The said flash was suddenly followed by a large red object flying on an intercept course for Bucky himself! How as that possible? How had it come from behind him?! It couldn't have come from the fox, could it? Yet, no matter his shock, no matter his disbelief, Bucky's expression turned to one of impatience with what he realized next.

The glowing red object flying through the dust towards the slightly impressed Hare turned out to be the He-Fox, flying forth through the air with a purposeful "roar" thanks to his own jetpack. Bucky had to admit it. His Vulpine nemesis was a tad bit incredible. Most opponents would not have survived the grenade. Yet, even at this moment, the Fox was coming for him as if he were a ballistic missile. Still, there was something that shocked Bucky. And something was that the He-Fox had no legs!

Regardless, the air was Bucky's domain. This was HIS fight to win! The Fox was brave indeed but he would not leave this place alive. Yet, just as Bucky aimed his pistol at his coming enemy, his foe did a rather simple but in-genius thing. His said foe whipped out his deflector shield and with its shimmering surface reflecting what sunlight could get through the dust clouds, the resulting shine of the shield blinded the hare just for a second.

That second turned out to be the undoing of Bucky O'Hare. For him after being blinded, after having shot his blaster and missed his coming opponent, he didn't have time to react or counter or dodge for that matter. And like a meteor hitting a planet's surface he was fiercely tackled out of the air by his He-Fox rival, sending the pair of them - most of their gear flying off of their bodies meanwhile - tumbling through the air down into the ground below. Being below his enemy, Bucky received the worst of the impact. His resulting crash with the ground left him weary, dazed, and a bit confused. Something his opponent took full advantage of; with or without his feet.

"Blast... Is this the end? Yes it would... seem that way, eh? This is unless... I can pull one last feat off." The bruised hare thought to himself as he tried to push himself up. Rather, when his fox foe tackled him back to the ground and began to choke him, it seemed he was fated to lose. In his mind, losing air, he continued his line of weary thought. He was so very tired; the He-Fox was effectively crushing his wind pipe. He didn't have... much more time. As he was dying, Bucky felt good that the last things on his fading mind were his friends' faces. "Jenny, Willy, Bruiser, Blinky, Deadeye. Forgive me. I'm sorry about all of this. I got careless, looks like... we won't be going anywhere together anymore. It was fun while it lasted."

As his sight began to fail him, while his vision became increasingly draped in a thick grey fog that gradually became the black shroud of unconsciousness, the last thing that Bucky O'Hare - leader of rebels, master of justice, friend to all good folk - heard was an echoing sound of a laser blaster being charged up before his closing eyes. Then, there was the flash of a bright light that temporarily replaced the darkness that clouded his vision... and then there was nothing.

Which is to be expected when one dies, no? When experiencing the endless sleep that is death, there is no sound to be heard, no light to be seen, and no more life to live. And at the hands of his mysterious vulpine enemy, Bucky O'Hare had perished.

++++++

After having just experienced the craziest of nightmares, just as some foul He-Fox had been ready to blast his head from his shoulders, Bucky O'Hare - very much alive - awoke in the bunk of his personal star ship quarters with a start if not yelp! Gasping for breath, cold sweat running down his back, ears standing straight to attention, the heroic Hare nervously went about feeling his face, his arms, his torso. He pinched himself fitfully, feeling relived to see he was in fact awake. His reason for acting so oddly at the moment was to make sure he hadn't died like he'd experience during his sleep. No, he had friends, family and a galaxy to protect from the evil Toad Empire these days. He couldn't go off and get killed by some unnamed Vulpine on some random planet!

But why had Bucky - a master at everything - dreamed of dying to some unknown assailant on some god forsaken planet? How very peculiar. Her very ridiculous! How very... unnerving? To dream of your own death was not a grand way to begin the day. No, sir. Nope! Not one bit. Regardless though, falling back into his pillow to look up at the ceiling of his quarters thoughtfully, it was evident that Bucky was alive, alive and thankful.

"Phew, that was an intense nightmare. That's quite the way to wake up, isn't it?" The hare ruefully said as he sat back up, almost hitting his head on the bunk above distracted him. Again, he was covered in cold sweat which had matted his green fur. Even without knowing, he was still panting as if he had run a marathon. Trying to get a hold of himself, attempting to come back to the present where he'd be comfortable, he checked the ships on-board clock. "1700 hours, is it? Ah, good, the refitting should be done by now." He admitted to himself as he slowly got up out of his bed which was, well... a bit ruined due to his nightmare. Truly, the mattress was soaked in his sweat, the blanket was all twisted from his obvious thrashing and the pillow was nearly folded in half.

Good heavens. Even for valiant Bucky, that nightmare had been a real ride around the block. Taking a second look at it, the status of his bed was proof of that alone. Of course, trying not to think back on his defeat at the hands of a nameless Fox, the Hare got around to getting himself a much needed drink of water. As the soothing liquid passed down his throat next, he in turn felt much better. 'Ah, yes, there was nothing like getting a simple drink of H2O after a nasty bit of nightmare'.

With his dry throat eased now, with his a mind a bit more at ease and his heart pounding easier, twitching his nose and straightening his whiskers, the encouraged hare of a leader then headed to the airlock. On the way, brushing back his ears to not let them look so "bed ridden", he in fact ran into Deadeye and Bruiser who appeared to be in the midst of a, well, heated argument of sorts.

"Look you brown, brainless, banana loving, chattering ape, don't you dare argue with me! I'm the best gunner on this ship. Therefore I should get a say - the FINAL say - in how they upgrade me' guns. Seriously, the last thing I need is to have some wise guy giving me a dud! A dud won't win any blaster battles, you know!" The four armed duck yelled as he, with impatience shining in his eye, tried to push past the Berserker Baboon blocking his path.

"And we both know that I can't let you do that. Hmph, come on, don't you remember the last time you tried to oversee the refit?" Bruiser replied sternly if not patiently. Mind in the past, he had seen the aggressive duck's version of overseeing and - like now - never had he approved of it. "Besides, genius, you know Bucky said not to interfere. And seeing as Bucky is only our leader if not the only figure leading against the Toad Empire, I intend to follow HIS instructions".

"Well I don't see the cap'n here, monkey. What he doesn't know can't hurt him. So if you just let me have a look at the work them techs have done then I could not only stop shouting in your face but it would put my mind at ease!" Deadeye snarled forcefully.

The duck's attitude immediately changed though when, off to the side, he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. Swallowing nervously, the hot headed duck turned his gaze from the baboon to Bucky close by. Bucky who, with arms crossed over his chest, his foot paw tapping patiently against the space ship floor, had a sterner than stern look on his face.

"Oh, hi'ya cap'n. We were just....uh.. I was just discussing with Bruiser here..." Deadeye began to mumble, trying to cover up the scene he had just been in the middle of making with a now slightly amused Bruiser.

"You were just discussing what, Deadeye? Are you sure it was a discussion and not a shouting contest about the refit of the forward guns?" The green hare replied, doing his best - as leader - to not let his impatience get the best of him. Despite their differences, the people aboard his ship were his team; including Deadeye. Bucky needed them all united, not divided. "Look, Dead, I understand that the guns are your pride and joy but the technicians know what they are doing. Besides, you know that one of them is an Aldebaran."

"Yeah, yeah. I knew that already matey." Deadeye said reluctantly, rolling his one good eye and not sounding convinced still, "Everything they do is a secret to outsiders. Heck, though, man, I just gotta know what's happening! The last thing I want is to go out on patrol and find me guns have been turned into party poppers. It's like I told Bruiser here; I don't want to be in the middle of a tight situation and have to tell ya, "Sorry, boss. We got no guns. Good luck."

Yet, just as Deadeye voiced his uncertain opinion about the refitting taking place, an elegant brown and white cat decided to make her suave entrance. With an enticing grace, her tail flicking gently, she wordlessly strolled past the three individuals in the corridor toward the airlock. In the light, the sapphire blue gem in her elegant headdress glimmered brightly as she passed the dazed Deadeye.

"You know, you can quit complaining to everyone now, Deadeye. The gun system is operational. You can inspect it at any time." The feline said as she began exiting the ship. Before she vanished out of sight, she took one last attractive glance over her shoulder. Then she disappeared down the docking tube.

"Did you here that Bruiser, me boy? Can't hold me back now can ye'? I can inspect the handiwork as I see fit. So can you step aside before I have to make you?" Deadeye exclaimed with excitement. He had to stop, however, when Bruiser folded his arms and did not move off to the side like requested. Realizing he had missed something, the duck patiently cleared his throat, rolled his eyes, and then reluctantly said the "magic" word to the monkey, "Please?"

As soon as he said what needed to be said, Bruiser stepped aside and allowed his fellow to - like a kid on Christmas morning - run past. It was a rather funny sight to behold. In the meantime, Bucky shook his head and thought to himself, "Deadeye. Heh, he never changes. Hope he finds the refitting satisfactory." before leaving the ship himself.

Mind, before departure, the heroic hare had to check on the rest of his crew. And one of the crew members that needed checking was Willy DuWit, a rather useful human. The said human was a crucial part of Bucky's crew and he needed to check on his moral more than the others. After all, oddly if not sadly enough, the human was pretty much stranded in the Aniverse thanks to something happening with his Photon Accelerator back home. The only reasonable conclusions about Willy's coming to Aniverse in the first place was that someone had turned his said accelerator off or it'd overloaded.

One way or the other, Willy needed checking on and it didn't take Bucky long to find the lab where his top engineer was working. While the Righteous Indignation was undergoing refit, however, what Bucky found made him worried. The door to the lab was wide open as a series of scientists worked to unplug some strange looking devices from a somber looking Willy who was crouching down inside an elaborate machine in the center of the lab; a machine that looked to be a teleporter of some kind.

Wasting no time, valuing Willy's health like the rest of his team, Bucky quickly ran over to see if the human was doing alright.

"Willy? What happened? Is everything ok?" The heroic hare asked as a rat unhooked the last gismo attached to the human. In turn to being completely freed from the said gismos, Willy slowly rose from his crouching position. He then exited the device simply. Slowly, he turned to his hare of a friend/captain with a disappointed look on his face.

"Well, I'm doing okay. Really, I'm not hurt or anything. The good news was that the device worked. I was able to jump back to earth for a short amount of time." Willy explained next. In turn, with a grimace look on his face, he looked away from the machine to the floor, "The... the bad news is that I can never truly go home though." At this news, a tear welled up in the human's eye as Bucky led him away from the lab.

Truly, the heroic hare hated seeing his human ally like this. Willy had been working on a way to get back home for four long years now. Recently, he had finally found a possible way to do it. If the device back in the lab had worked like the human said then it was a sign that things were looking up for a change. Yet this... This was not what Bucky had expected for the result of so much work.

"Willy, bud, tell me everything." Bucky stated as an expression of concern crossed his face, his arm around his human ally, "I want to hear every detail. No matter how bad it sounds".

++++++

Meanwhile, during Bucky's time of gathering his friends together and having his ship refitted, there was a secret base in toad territory

There in that base, tense, the sound of a certain toad's own footsteps echoed around the empty metal corridor making him jump. He had a reason to be jumpy, you see. For this was not where he WISHED to be. Anywhere but here would be better! Oh yes, anywhere would be better.

This place, this untold base, had become dreadful after Bucky O'Hare had managed to utterly defeat the great Komplex and bring down the mightiest force in the entire Aniverse. The gentle chink of the uncertain, nervous toad's many medals only added to his fear, making him more on edge as he walked down the long hallway towards his destination. When moments away from his said destination, taking a deep breath, the amphibian tried to regain his composure. While he neared the main doors to the Computer Core that was now Komplex's main network hub to the rest of what was left of the Toad Empire, he straightened himself up along with tried to feel brave... which he wasn't.

As if on cue, as if having awaited the uncertain toady making his way nervously along through the hall, the large blast doors ahead - with a mighty if not heart wrenching groan - slid open. In turn, what was beyond the opened doors was revealed; a large super computer connected to a huge transmitter system. There with the super computer, a massive computer screen sat in the center of the area, displaying on its screen a series of code lines streaming like snakes from one side to the other in different directions.

Shaking slightly despite his brave face, gulping uncertainly and yanking at his outfit collar so it wasn't strangling so, the decorated toad of interest stepped out of the hallway and inside of the computer room. Once inside, the blast doors shut behind him with an unearthly grinding sound. Then, as the doors connected once more, when the only exit to him was shut, the slightly sweating toady was left standing in the room in silence, a silence that was soon enough broken by a most evil presence.

"Ah, Air Marshal, so good of you to finally join us" came a disembodied voice that made the dark green toad jump. At hearing the voice, all sense of bravery left him instantly. With a frightened, breathless squeal, the toady looked up from the floor he cowered upon at the pc screen above. There, the lines of code - swirling, whirling, shifting lie a nest of riled serpents - became a storm of data. Data that ultimately formed into the polygon shaped face of Komplex. "I would trust that in the future you will not keep us waiting so long like that. Not again. Otherwise I might have to punish you severely for your lack of trying."

"Of course, Komplex, it won't happen again! I assure you. Just, I beg you, don't hurt me." The frightened Air Marshal said slowly backing away until he ran into something large and metallic. Whimpering, wheezing with fear, the marshal turned around slowly. He got an even bigger shock - one that made him cringe visibly - as he realized who he'd just bumped into.

"Oh, heh, Komplex won't be the one who to hurt you. It will be me that does the hurting! So don't go and forget that." The hulking, robotic monstrosity that was Toad Borg growled at Komplex's servant, "Now pay attention to what the great Komplex has to say. Do that or I will take the initiative and see just how high your voice can REALLY go."

At being talked down to so bitterly, at being treated like nothing more than a piece of meat, the Air Martial gulped. Then, doing his best not to wet his pants, he turned back to the computer screen where Komplex's computer generated face smiled knowingly. The digital tryant of the Toad Empire next explained, "Now that we have that slight affair sorted, I have a special mission for you and Toad Borg. Listen well. Two years ago, our scientists discovered a piece of technology that didn't originate from the Aniverse. This technology was created by a Race of sentient machines in fact controlled by a hive mind." As Komplex explained his newest, evil scheme, a section of the main screen flickered to bring up a picture of a curious device, the device that looked to be badly damaged but was still functional. "This device contained plans for a powerful weapon which is now ready for live fire field testing. Your mission is to use our newest toy on a test subject I have selected."

"And who is this test subject? I wish to have an idea on who we are planning to use this experimental weapon on." Toad Borg said looking at the computer overlord. With a chuckle Komplex's smile grew even wider.

"Why, we will use the weapon on our most hated enemy Bucky O'Hare, of course. I have made plans to lure him to the asteroid designated X-97 where you will be lying in wait" The digital overlord of the Toad Empire replied. He turned his attention to the frantic Air Martial. In the meantime, his pleased smile turned into a most menacing frown. "And know this, marshal, I expect you to not fail me. Toad Borg will be in command and if you fail him he has orders to disintegrate you. Am I understood?"

"Yes Komplex! *Eep* Clear as crystal" The Air Marshal said before he watched Komplex's face unraveled back into lines of code that ominously snaked across the screen, side to side.

Once his overlord had disappeared, the marshal turned around to see Toad Borg walking out of the room. The Air Marshal knew that somewhere deep within that sarcophagus of a robot body, the remnants of organic Borg was smiling and cracking his knuckles while relishing the chance to eliminate him even for sneezing. Shaking his head, the marshal focused on his next task with intent.

"Frix! Frax! Get your warty butts out here now. We have work to do!" He barked, walking purposefully out of the control hub while trying to ignore the hairs of the back of his head. He could feel Toad Borg watching him go. Anyway, the marshal knew the two lazy no-hoppers - Frix and Frax - were most likely watching Toad-Vision again. And by the empire, if he caught them doing it again now, urgh, he would take his frustration out on them! Oh yes, he would.

++++++

While things happened in the Toad Empire, other events transpired back on the Righteous Indignation several hours later

Willy sat on his bunk looking down at the metal floor where he was pondering back to his little experiment. How had he really come to Aniverse and been trapped here? Who would have wanted to do that to him? He honestly couldn't believe anybody in his family would totally dismantle his Photon Accelerator as well as throw the pieces away. In truth, back before the testing of the accelerator, he wished he had left his loved ones with instructions telling them not to touch it without his permission. That or it might have helped to give them a detailed description of where he was whenever the device had been active.

Yet, these thoughts these days didn't help. What was done... was done. And there was no changing it unless Willy used his portal transport device (P.T.D. for short) to spend time building a new means for an accelerator. Yet, even if he made it to the point of warping again, there was no telling if he could replicate the events that allowed him to enter the Aniverse in the first place.

AUGH! This was all so frustrating. It wasn't like the Aniverse was a bad place but Willy missed his own system, his own people, his own family. He wanted the option of going back home. He wanted to find out how he'd gotten to this part of space in the first freaking place!

"Willy?" Came a feminine voice from the door. At hearing the said voice, the human looked up to see Jenny leaning in the door way. "Are you here? Mind if I join you?"

"Yeah I'm here. Come on in." The human replied giving her a wave. Like wanted, Jenny walked over to the bunk where she proceeded to sit next to the troubled human.

For a second, to himself, at feeling Jenny's presence so close to him, Willy felt a little nervous. After all, he was fifteen. That was the age when all young people started to feel different. And in his case, he was just starting to get interested in girls sometimes slowly, sometimes in earnest. And for a long time, a part of him had had a crush on the friendly Aldebaran for a while.

Still, looking at his situation of being trapped in Aniverse, the romantic feeling towards Jenny in Willy's gut was only fleeting and he was soon back to feeling depressed.

"I heard what happened with your experiment, Willy. I can't imagine what you're going through right now." Jenny said after a while. She gently placed her hand on top of his. This was a friendly gesture on her part that let him know that everything was still going to be okay. "I understand if you hate your parents for what they did. If... if I could get you to do so, if you want to talk about it, I'm all ears".

"Thanks Jenny but no, it's fine. I don't hate my folks for what they did nor the fact that I can never go home like I could before the Accelerator was shut down." The human sighed to the feline before continuing, "I couldn't foresee what my parents would do and I wish I told them everything before... before..."

"Don't blame yourself. You could never know what was going to happen. And to tell you the truth, I believe you will find a way home." Jenny replied before giving the shocked human a sudden hug.

"I... Thank you, Jenny, I appreciate what you're trying to do. To tell you the truth, I think you just helped me a bit." Willy admitted honestly, the pair of them enjoying the embrace. Suddenly an alarm sounded. This caught the both of them off guard!

"Whoa! What the-" Willy quickly reached for the nearest comm panel where he sprang into action, "Willy DuWit to station control! Hey, what's the emergency? Over." The human rapidly said with a concerned tone, making sure the comm panel was transmitting. There was in fact a burst of static before a familiar voice broke through.

"Android Blinky here, Willy, Bucky requests your presence at Station Operations immediately."

"What? Why?"

"There has been another attack on local shipping lanes again." The Android explained. Overhead, the sound of station personnel running to their positions could be heard over the static. The rapid feeling of this event, it meant that this was different than the other times they had stopped attacks along the shipping lanes.

"I'm on my way with Jenny. We'll see you there!" Willy replied and gave Jenny a look, "We need to get to where we need to be ASAP!"

The two companions wasted no time as they scrambled, rushed along with sped along to get to the station operations. Unlike the first time he was invited to the stations operation center where he was full of wonder and awe, Willy was cool, calm and collected about everything. He knew where he had to go. Thus, within minutes he as well as Jenny were reunited with their expectant team mates.

"Glad you two could make it to the party. Turns out we have a major problem." Bucky explained as the two approached the group, "Listen up. I got some details to give you both. This is looking to be waaaaaaay different than any mission we've faced before." Bucky lead them to a large computer screen showing a star map, a section of the map was lit up like a Christmas tree. "As you can see, we picked up a distress signal from this area, ships were dispatched to investigate and upon arriving in the in the area they find a Toad capital ship attacking a convoy bound for Warren, as soon as the ships moved to intercept it the ship disengaged then made a hasty retreat" the Hare explained as the image on the screen was replaced with a picture that looked to be taken by a hull mounted external camera.

"Toad Borg, so that's how it is" Jenny said as she identified the capital ships configuration, it was no secret that Toad Borg had vanished without a trace after his overlord Komplex was defeated by Bucky, however over the course of the past four years the menacing hulk of flesh and metal had surfaced several times, each time his ship had been described as being extensively modified.

"Yes, and that's not all, after the ship disappeared the crew of one of the freighters in the convoy found that their entire cargo hold had been breached and their cargo stolen." Bucky paused before finishing "the cargo in question was the replacement parts needed to complete Warren's restoration".

"So where is he now? Did the ships sent to investigate track him to where he's hiding?" Willy asked as he approached the screen, as he did so the image reverted back to the star map.

Bucky smiled as he tapped a few controls on a nearby console prompting the map to zoom in on a sector not far from the coordinates of the initial attack. "They managed to track the ship to this location then the trail went cold, our mission is to enter the area then using a newly developed tracking device we are to find and secure the missing cargo, once that is done we are to search the area from top to bottom in order to find Toad Borg's hideout" Bucky explained, as he did so the map began to display a series of shapes representing the Righteous Indignation and another ship began to play out what Bucky was saying as if it were a simulation.

"And once found we blast it to kingdom come plus a bit more for good measure, ohhhhhh this is going to be great, I can already feel me trigger fingers getting itchy." Deadeye blurted out interrupting Bucky; the Hare gave the duck a stern look but softened it when the duck made a gesture that signaled an apology.

After a quick moment to get his composure back Bucky continued, "as you know after the last major engagement we had with the Toads the U. A.F. Council has ordered us to conduct this operation with the aid of another ship, with the Indefagitable still out of commission and Commander Dogstar still recovering in hospital we have no other choice but to team up with Captain Mimi LeFloo, we are to link up with the Screaming Mimi outside the sector before beginning" at the mention of the name Mimi LeFloo Jenny rolled her eyes while Deadeye gave Willy a nudge and a wink, seeing everyone's reaction to the statement he made Bucky began to see red "you have your orders, we leave in twenty minutes so everyone head back to the ship and prepare for launch, dismissed!" he said sternly. The heroic Hare sighed as his team filed out, it was clear that everybody on his crew knew that Mimi had a major league crush on their heroic captain even speculating that the two were dating but they had no hard evidence to support the allegation, however there was nothing he could do to stop the roomers from floating around, looking over the mission brief one more time he quickly turned on his heels and strode confidently back to his newly refitted ship.

++++++

"Nothing on sensors yet Bucky" Jenny said as both ships plunged deeper into the asteroid belt, every so often the proximity alarms would go off warning them of an imminent collision however thanks to the Aldebaran's quick reflexes and almost Extrasensory perception the threat of hitting the chunks of space rock was pretty much nonexistent.

"Screaming Mimi to Righteous Indignation, we just picked up a strange energy signature near our location" came a voice over the ships comms. Upon hearing the voice Bucky opened a channel to the other ship, tow faces appeared on the comms monitor one was a beautiful Red Vixen wearing a blue captain's uniform that accentuated her hourglass shape the other who was the pilot and Mimi's First Mate was a gruff looking male equine wearing what looked to be a set of experimental power armor.

"Send me the data then fall back and cover our stern, this is starting to smell more and more like a trap by the minute" the Heroic Hare replied then checked his ships computer, within minutes a series of sensor readings showed up making his ears stand strait up. "These readings are off the charts, whoever or whatever made this signature must be powerful" he said looking over at Jenny who now had a worried and confused.

"I know, it's worth investigating and if it's something the Toads have developed we need to shut it down" Mimi said, there was a brief pause as her ship maneuvered into position behind the Righteous Indignation, "ok, we're in position, lead the way hot stuff" the vulpine said as the screen went black.

Bucky suddenly felt hot under the collar when his brain registered the last two words the vulpine had uttered to him; looking back over to Jenny he noticed she was now shaking her head as if to say "you got to be joking". Clearing his throat he focused back on the job at hand, for another few hours they continued in silence with only the beeping of the proximity scanners to keep them on their toes, soon they reached their destination. Breaking through the maze of shifting space rock both Jenny and Bucky found themselves face to face with a relic from the past, the peanut shaped asteroid looked pretty much baron save for several modules that looked to have seen better days.

"Is that X-97? I thought it was destroyed along with its crew" Jenny said as she looked at the derelict mining station. The two of them were so in awe of the discovery that they didn't register a new set of Proximity alarms, in fact the only time they realized something was up was when they felt the first impact of something hitting their hull had, "what the fuck was that?!" Jenny burst out as her fur bristled with the sudden shock, in all the years he had flown with the Feline he never once heard her swear at all. Bucky checked the ships ladar screen to see that they were now surrounded by enemy fighters; Deadeye by this time had taken the initiative and was already giving the newly refitted twin-linked Mazer cannon a good workout blasting Toads left, right and center while the Screaming Mimi continued to throw down covering fire.

"So you fell into our trap, just as the mighty Komplex planed" a new voice and very familiar voice said over the ships comm, how could this be? Both the Righteous Indignation and the Screaming Mimi were both using encrypted channels, flicking a few switches he triangulated where the communication was coming from. "Don't even bother Bucky O'Hare, why waste your last moments searching for something that's hidden right under your nose" the menacing voice continued, it was then Bucky realized the communication was coming from the abandoned mining station itself.

"Well why don't you show your face? Or are you to chicken to do so?" Bucky shot back as the ships vid come came online. The Hare growled as his assumptions were vindicated, there, on the vid-com was the Hulking monstrosity of Toad Borg, next to him was the Toad Air Marshal bouncing around like an excited child.

"Well now, seeing as I have you undivided attention I would like to direct your attention to the weapon that will be the tool of your demise" Toad Borg said with a maniacal chuckle before stepping to once side, the Heroic Hare was soon looking at what he surmised was a Mass Accelerator cannon only heavy modified to fire Plasma or something of equal destructive capacity, "Don't try to run, the cannon has already locked on to your ships signature and we are ready to fire it, so long soon to be Ex Captain Bucky O'Hare" and with that the communication channel was shut down.

Bucky looks over at Jenny who was now trying hard to not through herself into a fit of rage, he placed a hand on his First Mate and Pilot to calm her before kicking his brain into overdrive, there had to be a way to survive long enough to take that thing down, there just had to be. Then it hit him, a gun that size would need to charge before it can fire, all the need to do is hit it when it was at critical mass, "Jenny when that gun fires take evasive action, once its location has be found I need you to fly us as close as you can to it" he said as he keyed the ships internal comms "Willy I need you to divert all available power to the forward guns and Deadeye, when the Toads new toy is ready to fire I need you hit it with everything you got".

"On it now captain" Willy barked back, just as the human did so the ships readouts changed to show a majority of the Righteous Indignation's power reserves were now being channeled into Deadeye's cannons.

"Just say the word boss, me guns are loaded and ready to open a can of whoop-ass one these scervi wart faces" Deadeye added, now came the hard part, waiting for the first volley to be fired. Bucky held his breath as he waited preying to whatever deity that was listening to make sure the Toads didn't succeed in their mission to wipe him and his crew from the face of the Aniverse.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!