Dixie spotted the Iron Vulture seconds before the Ct-37s' engines became audible. Dropping what was left of her meal, she dashed to her fighter, passing a dumbstruck Ears on the way.
"They came in under the radar!" Ears gasped, kicking herself for not noticing the Vulture drop off her radar screen.
"We don't have time to stand around and gawk right now, Ears!" Hazel grabbed her arm and pulled her up to the Albatross, "We've got to get off the ground!"
Dixie and Meg gunned their engines and took off - and immediately bounced back onto the waves as diving fighters swooped down on them and began a strafing run on the bar. Taxiing out a bit farther, they took off again, as the lead group of CT's finished their first run. The Albatross, heavier and with less powerful engines, was still skimming the surface and picking up speed.
"Please think we're just a cargo plane tryin' to get outta here! Please, please, PLEASE!!" Hazel yelled. Like her namesake, the Albatross was a grand flier...once she got into the air. Takeoffs were often awkward and difficult - and this one was complicated by now-full fuel tanks.
***************************
Sal ran down the pier at top speed, watching as Dixie and Meg struggled into the sky and drew some of the fire away from her. The Albatross plowed through the nearby surf, slowly rising into the air.
She vaulted into her fighter and was airborne half a minute later, the others trailing slightly behind her. Takeoff had been relatively easy - the Albatross had turned and flown straight into a group of pirates that had evidently mistaken it for a cargo plane until Hazel opened fire. Dixie and Meg were also drawing fire, cat-and-mouse-ing in front of the biplanes.
Sal circled around, gaining altitude and engaging a few fighters. Scat and Meg zigzagged across the paths of countless CT's, confusing some into head-on near-collisions with their fellow pirates and giving others so many targets they quit trying to aim at any of them. The Albatross had surprised the CT's when she first dove at them, but was now trying to stay on the fringes of the battle, firing from both her manned and pilot-controlled guns and diving at the pirates whenever a group of them passed near her. Patch alternated between doing surprise pop-ups from behind the Albatross and kamikaze hit-and-runs from above.
Dixie wasn't faring too well - they hadn't quite fixed her flippers, and she had taken a lot of hits to her damaged pontoon. It was now nearly dangling from its supports and unfailingly wreaking havoc on every maneuver she attempted. Worse, a brightly-painted, red-winged triplane had just come around behind the wounded fighter.
"Oh no you don't!" Sal cried, diving at the triplane. "Heads up!" she called, heading straight for the tri-winged fighter. She'd always hated playing chicken, but was reasonably good at it, staying dead-on as the triwing dodged. Inches from impact, she rolled left as Karnage dove right, then quickly slip-turned behind her.
Weaving and dodging, Sal considered her options. With a full load of fuel, she could push her engine and outrun the triwing -maybe. That all depended on whether Karnage had strengthened the triwing's engine to compensate for the extra wings. The third set of wings increased the drag on the aircraft, slowing it slightly but giving it a great deal more maneuverability - and a smaller turning radius. Which meant that out-maneuvering the triplane was going to be difficult. She dove right as a Tigercat dove for her - forcing their pursuing CT-37 to break off rather than risk hitting their captain.
They needn't have bothered - the triwing stayed on her tail, safe from both the Tigercat and the CTs. Sal sized up the situation - her fighters were too few and too scattered to make formation maneuvers feasible. And the Iron Vulture, with an almost constant stream of fighters exiting to join the fight, was too close to make retreating an option, either. The thought hit her hard - they were going to have to make a stand, at least until an opportunity to escape arose.
Well, no one said suicide couldn't be fun, she thought, finding the radio frequency Karnage's fighters were using and lifting her mike...*************************** "Hey, Karnage, you call that flying?" a voice taunted over the airwaves, "let's see how you do against a fighter that's not crippled!"
"How dare you insult the fabulous Don Karnage?!" he yelled angrily, "I will hang you by your pinkies!"
"Stinks and stones, Donny boy. Ya gotta catch me first." The fighter ahead of him wove left and right, banking nearly 90 Degrees as she traced a semicircle before finally using her pendulum-like momentum to push her rolls into corkscrews.
Hmmph. A moving target was no problem for Karnage, who tracked the fighter's movements and fired a round at her tail.
As the bullets ricocheted off her fighter and cut into her flippers, Sal cut the throttle. Her fighter slid slowly out of its sideways loop as Karnage sped by. Giving the Tigercat full throttle again, she charged him, firing as he banked around to face her again.
"A clever little trick," he allowed, swinging behind the fighter again. It didn't look very different from the other monoplanes - no rust, fewer dents, and a bit more paint than the others, but there was nothing on it identifying it as their captain's plane. But he knew that was whom he was fighting. Only the captain would come after him, drawing his attention away from her crew in an attempt to give them time to escape. A valiant attempt, but it would be a futile one.
"You like that?" Sal began, ducking as another stream of bullets hit her plane, "Then you outta love this!" She jerked the stick back, climbing a bit before rolling into a dive - straight into a cluster of CT's firing on two Tigercats. The biplanes scattered as she dove into their midst, rolling to keep any damage relatively even around her plane - and to inflict as much as possible on the CT's around her.
Karnage pulled back as the monoplane dove into a group of his fighters. He knew better than to follow her, as his pirates scattered, doing more damage to themselves in the crossfire than to the enemy fighter. Diving under them, he caught up with his prey as she leveled out of her dive and began climbing behind the group.
***************************
"SAL!!!" Another voice cried over the radio, "I could use some help here!" Off to their left, one of the single-winged fighters was smoking badly, its engine overheating. Above and behind, CT's continued to bombard the fighter. It went into a dive above another group of CT's, its purpose evident.
As the dying fighter plunged toward the cluster of CT's, the fighter in front of him dove in that direction as well. Karnage pursued it until it pulled up, headed directly for the kamikaze even as the fighter closed the distance between it and the CT's scattering to avoid it. Breaking away to distance himself from the explosion he knew was coming, Karnage watched as the diving fighter's pilot leapt from their plane - and landed on the side of the fighter he had been chasing just as the jumper's plane slammed into a CT distracted by the other fighter.
He caught up to the leader even as the explosion's shockwave sent other CT's spinning and floundering, causing several other, less-serious collisions. The calico cat dangling on the left side of the fighter, desperately clinging to the pilot's seat, shot him a frightened look as he attacked from that side. Losing her grip on the torn upholstery, she slid down the fighter as it banked away from him, free-falling as her claws lost their purchase, her leader making no move to help her again. Too bad, but inevitable, really, he told himself. Such was the consequence of not wearing a parachute. He turned his attention once again to the fighter in front of him.
***************************
Patch flipped herself over as she fell. Not to land on her feet, though. She hit the CT below her hard, just behind the cockpit. Fighting to hold on by her claws, she knocked the startled pilot unconscious with a swipe of her paw. Shoving him to the side, she squeezed into the seat of her commandeered fighter, leveling it out and carefully looking around her to see if anyone else had noticed her landing. Evidently, no one had.
She toggled her mike a couple of times, creating a series of static and fuzz over the radio that let Sal - and the rest of the band - know she was all right. She breathed a brief sigh of relief, trying to slow her racing heart just a bit. Thank goodness for adrenaline. Practiced or not, free-falling with no parachute in the middle of a battle was scary. Beyond scary. It was insane. But it had worked. She searched the skies for a moment, then set off to help a floundering fighter to the east.
***************************
Dixie knew she was in trouble. Her pontoon was paralyzing her fighter so badly she half-wished it would just fall off. An unbalanced equilibrium was something she could compensate for. A pontoon that swung whichever way it darn well pleased regardless of her attempts to compensate for it was, well, not.
To make matters worse, she couldn't shake the pirate behind her. Oh, she'd be fine if she could maneuver, but since she could only maneuver about as well as the Albatross right now, he stayed on her tail regardless of what she tried. She had to give the pirates some credit, though - the better ones were mostly leaving her alone, concentrating on the others. That left her only the inexperienced and ill-trained pilots to worry about.
Or at least it had. The two CTs barreling in from her right didn't look to be lacking in skills. As they drew closer, however, one began weaving in a way she couldn't understand - until it broke away, and the CT behind it opened fire on the CT in back of her.
"Hey, Dixie, how ya doin'?" a friendly voice queried.
"PATCH?!" she gasped, hardly believing her eyes, "Is that you?"
The calico's grin was audible even over the radio. "Who else?"
"You mean that stunt of yours actually worked?!?"
"Yeah, but trust me, chica, you do NOT want to try that free-fall stuff. My advice is to stay by the Albatross, pick off the ones that get by Ears & Hazel."
"Roger that. Between my left flipper and pontoon, I'm can't maneuver to save my life."
"I'll testify to that!" Patch called, heading off into another troupe of CT's.
***************************
Sal breathed a sigh of relief as her radio warbled a series of static bursts and fuzz. Patch had made it to another fighter. She'd hated having to watch as Patch let go and free-fell to almost certain doom on the chance that a far-fetched maneuver might work. But now Patch had a CT-37, and could help the others by masquerading close enough to other CT's to do some serious damage.
Speaking of serious damage, her tailfins were beginning to resemble nothing so much as Swiss cheese. Aesthetics aside, that meant her ability to maneuver was seriously hindered.
She swung her fighter around again, dodging feebly and taunting Karnage as she scanned the battlefield. By now, the braver patrons at Louie's Place had ventured out onto the docks, gawking up at the fight as if it were no more than an air show performance. Those with a bit more sense - and those still carrying valuable cargo - were quietly taxiing along the waves, loathe to enter the skies with the battle raging overhead, but even less eager to stick around for the victors to tire of their prey and start looking for something with monetary value. Her friends were desperately trying to take advantage of this - the Tigercats wove in and out of the cargo planes, herding them into the battle - and then ducking out of sight behind them as they fled. It was far from a solution - Karnage's men were starting to catch on - but it bought them some time and gave the distracted pirates more to shoot at.
A warning light flashed on in her cockpit. Her ammo was running out. And if she was running out, so were the others. It was hopeless, really. They were gravely outnumbered, seriously outgunned, and thoroughly outdone. But the fleeing cargo planes brought a fleeting chance of salvation. For her crew, anyway. Karnage would never be fooled by such a childish trick, but his pirates would be, so as long as she kept him distracted...
Toggling back to the channel her friends were operating on, she ordered them to retreat. The shouted protests were as one, but she cut them off. "I said run! NOW!!!"
A CT - probably Patch, she thought to herself - came into view, clumsily "chasing" Dixie's crippled fighter out of the fray. She saw the cream-colored cat duck into a cloudbank, hiding as Patch returned to the battle, singling out another wounded Tigercat. This strategy, at least, appeared to be working, as long as no one realized the pursuing CT wasn't firing at her quarry. In the distance, the Albatross fell back, flying alongside the cargo planes - circling, no doubt, but giving the fighters a wide girth. Patch dogged after Meg's plane, trying to herd her away - but the Siamese cat stubbornly dove back into a pack of CTs. Scat, however, had other plans. She dove straight for Karnage's tri-wing.
***************************
Karnage let out a sharp bark of surprise as a fighter trailing a dozen of his men charged at him. He ducked out of the way as they tore by him, allowing the wounded fighter in front of him to slip away. His anger took control, and he whirled after the intruding plane, guns blazing. His men scrambled out of his way as he cut a path through them, closing on the fighter, which was now trailing smoke.
He guided his sights to the fighter's fuel tanks. Fighters of its size almost unfailingly shared the same layout, and the clear liquid flowing out a hole in its belly gave the tanks' location away anyway. This meddling brat had cost him her captain, who had no doubt flown to safety as soon as his attention had been diverted. It was a sacrificial move, he knew, and he intended to make the pilot ahead of him pay. He squeezed the trigger.
And was rewarded not with the sight of the interloper's satisfying explosion, but that of the exposed belly of her captain's fighter. The Tigercat tore across the sky in front of the feline, taking the brunt of his attack in its battered pontoons and exposed underwings.
***************************
"Scat! Get out of here!" Sal yelled at the astonished feline.
"But..."
"No! Go! Move! NOW!! Or so help me, I'll shoot you down myself!"
***************************
Don Karnage was not one to hesitate when surprised. Instinctively, he tracked the fighter in his sights and continued to fire at her. Vulnerable as she was in her maneuver - and since the extra pair of wings on Karnage's CT sported an extra set of guns - she took a lot of damage. At this close range, the heavy shells shredded her wings, tearing off entire chunks in places. Shots ripped into her engine compartment, sending smoke spewing back along the fuselage. Her pontoons held for a time, shielding her fuel tanks - which had to be nearly empty, or the fighter would've exploded by now - even as they were torn to shreds. One of them finally gave, tearing away from the fighter and hurtling earthward.
The loss of the pontoon, coupled with her extensive wing damage, failing engine, and useless tailfins, was too much for the hardy little fighter. Sputtering and streaming smoke, she plummeted, spiraling uncontrollably towards the sea.
No, wait. She was headed for the Iron Vulture.
***************************
Sal saw it coming. She knew how exposed she'd been, she'd expected the devastating damage she sustained. She'd actually thought she'd be consumed in a fireball, but, as the plane continued its wild spiral, realized she'd been too low on fuel for the shots to have sparked a fire.
She fought with the ruined plane, struggling to level it out. Her engine screamed in protest, but her tattered wings had enough surface left on them to allow her to stop the spiral. The fighter continued to plummet, however, headed straight for the gaping mouth of the Vulture. The fighter's angle was too steep to hope for the possibility of landing - even if the plane could have stood the impact. She'd be dashed to pieces on runway.
Great. She'd just traded one type of fiery doom for another. Perfect.
But...maybe not. Could she jump to safety as soon as the runway drew near? Granted, that put her at the mercy of the air pirates, but the Iron Vulture was a huge, complex structure. Surely she could hide in some corner until the opportunity to steal another fighter arose?
She'd come to Scat's aid instinctively, her gut reaction as their leader to protect her crew at all costs. She'd thought she was prepared to die, if need be. And, during the split second between when she saw Scat's plight and when she'd responded, she had been. But during the agonizingly long moments she spent in her crashing bird, watching her death rise up to meet her, she realized she wasn't. She wanted to live.
She worked her way out of the plane's harness.
***************************
"NO!!" Dixie shrieked, watching in horror as Sal's fighter slammed into the Vulture's landing bay, erupting into a twisting ball of flame. "Sal!"
She dove out of the safety of the cloud she'd been hiding in, determined to avenge her fallen friend.
The air pirates, having assumed the decreasing amount of enemy fighters in the sky was due to the fact that there were none left, had all but left the skies by the time Sal went down. Those still out failed to notice the two Tigercats desperately racing to intercept a wounded third. The few that noticed the third barely bothered firing on it.
One of their shots was lucky, slamming into the fighter's propeller and splintering it. Ducking the hurtling fragments, Dixie suddenly found her charge aborted and her plane a poor glider. As she struggled to bring it level, a CT flew in close, matching her speed and angle and placing their pontoon close enough for Dixie to grab.
Grab it she did, clawing her way up the fighter's side to greet Patch in the cockpit.
"Come on," her multicolored friend hissed, "Let's see how many of those sons of hamsters we can take with us!" she yelled, banking for the Vulture.
***************************
"Wait for me, Patch!" Scat yelled, throwing her throttle open to catch up with the commandeered fighter.
Meg caught up to her before she could reach the CT, though, and forced her to the left. When Scat screeched in protest, the Siamese merely held up her hand."We'll gain nothing by barging right on in," she cautioned. "But if we sneak in, we can take them by surprise."
"But Sal-""-Sal had enough time before that crash to've thought of a way out." I hope, she added silently. "Patch can get away with flying straight at the Vulture because they'll mistake her for one of their own, but if we try that, we'll get shot down - I'm sure the Vulture's guns are still being manned. But I've been in the Vulture before - I know my way around her maintenance tunnels. I can lead you to the bay."
Hazel cut in over their conversation. "Sounds like a plan to me. Count us in!"
Scat scowled, but conceded Meg's point. There was no point in getting killed before they even reached the pirates. She grudgingly nodded.
"Good," Meg said, climbing to a higher altitude. "Follow me. We'll land on her roof. There's an access door near the tailfin."
***************************
Karnage cast a disapproving glance at the burning wreckage as he guided his tri-wing in for a landing. The fighter had struck the middle of the hinged joint that controlled their ability to open and close the huge airship's "beak." He sincerely hoped the joint hadn't been damaged - it was extremely hard to repair.
Nevertheless, this fight wasn't over. Though he doubted any of his men had noticed, the monoplane's pilot had abandoned ship an instant before her fighter slammed into the runway. As she was nowhere in sight, she'd probably landed amongst the crates of stolen cargo littering the bay's sides. No matter.
He set his fighter down a good distance away from the other CTs - protecting it both from attacks and the careless mistakes of his idiotic crew - and leapt out, sword drawn. Wherever the fox was, she was on his turf now, and it would doubtlessly be only a matter or minutes before he found her.
****************************
Summoning every last bit of courage she had, Sal leapt from the cockpit, rolling as she hit the runway to absorb the force of her impact before bolting for the relative safety of a cluster of crates scattered along a far wall. Or at least that'd been the plan. She'd barely rolled to her feet when the fighter slammed into the runway behind her, exploding in a rain of fire and shrapnel. The force of the explosion knocked her off her feet, hurtling her toward the crates. Airborne, she tried to curl into a ball to protect herself from the deadly shrapnel, screaming as razor-sharp bits of white-hot metal grazed her side and bit into her leg seconds before she slammed back-first into one of the heavy crates. The impact knocked her out, and she sprawled to the ground.
****************************
Meg opened the outer door carefully, eyes searching for even the slightest hint of life. But the corridor was deserted. As well it should be, she thought to herself, motioning over her shoulder to the others. Karnage's pirates had all landed in the hangar bay - the Vulture's upper runway was for emergency or water-based use only.
Protests aside, Scat had heeded her advice and followed the Siamese to the roof of the great airship, landing on the strip between the two rows of vertical propellers much as they had landed on the trimotor earlier. Not to be left out, Hazel had put the Albatross down behind them - with mere inches to spare between her wingtips and the huge propellers - and now she and Ears also followed Meg into the belly of the Vulture.
Meg paused, trying to remember the shortest route from here to the main bay. It was difficult - she hadn't been on the Vulture in years, not since she was a cargo hauler. Karnage had captured her plane, but she'd escaped from the brig and worked her way back to the bay, liberating first her cargo, then her plane. For all her imposingness, the Vulture had one major flaw - her air ducts were huge. For people accustomed to using such weaknesses to their advantage, it was quite surprising for the pirate ship to have such a system. True, it could prove useful in a mutiny or losing battle. And many of the ducts were so battered and rusted that they wouldn't hold even a child's weight, let alone an adult's. But still...
She shook her head, remembering the route she'd taken. As she and the others made their way through the ill-lit corridors, the sound of engines and the smell of burning fuel gradually increased. Meg punched out a rusted grate and hoisted herself into the weathered duct; the others followed suit, tailing her until she stopped over a floor grate.
Clustering around the grate, the four peered down into the Vulture's great hangar bay, stretching out a good four floors below them. From their perch, they could see the flaming wreckage of Sal's fighter. Instead of dousing the blaze, however, the pirates below seemed intent on searching amongst their cargo.
"What are they doing?" Ears wondered aloud, brow creased in confusion. A fire aboard an aircraft was not something that generally went ignored.
"They're looking for Sal!" Scat ventured, hope shining in her eyes, "She must've gotten away!"
"Yes..." Meg nodded, scanning the hangar for their captain. This far above the floor gave them an excellent view of the bay, and her sharp eyes caught sight of the tan figure soon enough. "There she is! By the crates there!"
Below them, their leader stirred, slowly coming to. The sighs of relief from the duct's occupants, however, were cut short as a blue-uniformed fox made his way towards the crates. Karnage gave no impression of having seen the vixen, but he was still much too close to her for her crew's comfort.
"We've got to do something!" Scat yelped. "Quick - we need a plan!"
****************************
Sal came to slowly, gradually opening her eyes and pulling herself into a sitting position. Oh, how her head hurt. She doubted there was enough aspirin in the world to relieve it. She started to stand, hauling herself to her knees before a bolt of pain shot through her left side. Clutching her side, she sank back to the floor with a moan. She'd hoped the shrapnel hadn't more than nicked her, but the gash in her side told her otherwise. Wincing, she tried again.
****************************
Karnage wove through the crates, searching. Most of the wooden boxes were no more than waist-high, but a several were shoulder-height and a few more were even stacked. He'd have to lecture the men on proper storage techniques.
His ears pricked up as the slightest of sounds echoed behind him. Whirling, he found its source a few crates over, her head bowed in pain as she clutched at a rather nasty-looking gash in her side.
He flashed a predatory smile. "Well, well, well..."
Her head snapped up, eyes wide with surprise and - yes, and with fear. She leapt to her feet, only to tumble backwards.
****************************
Sal yelped as her left leg collapsed under her weight. Blast it! The same bit of shrapnel that had torn into her side had also ripped through her leg, slicing through her tendons. There was no way she'd get away with putting much weight on it.
Karnage knew it, too. He advanced on her slowly, and she scuttled backwards, gathering her legs under herself and hopping to her feet unsteadily. Putting a hand on the crate beside her, she tested her injured leg, limp-hopping back a step as she drew her sword.
****************************
Karnage was impressed. She carried a sword! And here he'd thought he was the only pirate that did that these days. He grinned. "Don't suppose you actually know how to use that, do you?"
She fell back into a fighting stance - well, as much as she could without putting weight on her back leg - flicking her tail behind her. "Don't suppose you'd like to find out, eh?"
"Still fighting?"
"Still breathing. And since I doubt you'll let me off this ship alive, still fighting. Your move."
He led with a thrust, which she parried, knocking his blade aside and backing away. He attacked again, only to be blocked again. Circling, he tried to catch her off guard, lunging at her with an assortment of short, quick thrusts. Again and again the blades clashed together, and again she limped back a step.
She was good, he'd give her that. Well-trained, but by several different swordsmen, as she had no set style. Again he lunged at her, overstepping a bit, and again she fell back. That's when it dawned on him. "You're not attacking."
"No," she shook her head, "that was never my intent."
By now, the rest of the pirates had figured out what was going on, and had formed a semicircle around the two of them, blocking the rest of the hangar. The corridors behind her were unguarded, but then there was no reason for them to be - as injured as her leg was, she couldn't make a run for it. There was no escape. And yet she still fought. Or, rather, defended.
"You're merely delaying the inevitable," he reminded her.
"Maybe so, but I'm kind of enjoying it. You're a very worthy adversary. I've never fought a better swordsman. And I've fought a lot of 'em."
"Flatterer." He lunged at her.
She hopped to the side, parrying the thrust. "No, seriously. I was part of a fencing troupe for a while. They were really into championships and stuff." She wrinkled her nose. "Not much money in that, though. And the judges were always a bunch of pricks more concerned with form than skill."
Karnage grinned. His ego really didn't care if it was being stoked intentionally or not - flattery and genuine praise were worth the same, as far as he cared.
He lunged at her again, sword slicing the air in a series of rapid thrusts and feints. She parried and countered them, hopping back as he closed in. Her left hand kept closing over her dagger, and she had to keep reminding herself that, first off, she wasn't attacking Karnage, and that, second, even if she was, she'd need both legs to dart under her parrying and land a hit with the small knife.
She was tiring. Well, so was he, but her injuries were also taking their toll on her. Her reaction time was slowly increasing, and she was breathing heavily. He attacked again, a relentless barrage of quick strokes designed to make anyone fall back.
She blocked the attacks as best she could, hopping and dodging away from those she couldn't intercept in time, but he merely increased the intensity of the attack, forcing her back. The tactic worked, as she was so focused on the rapidly-swinging blade that she forgot not to weigh down her injured leg. Her stride faltered as she tried to shift weight off the leg as it buckled, and a well-timed swipe not only knocked her off-balance, sending her sprawling to the floor, but also tore the blade from her grasp.
It clattered to the ground somewhere behind her, and she rolled out of Karnage's path, determined to retrieve it. She tried to sweep his legs out from under him as he ran past her, but succeeded only in tripping him up a bit. She scrambled for her sword as he recovered, and hadn't quite gotten a firm grip on it as she rolled back to parry an angry attack. The parry worked, blocking the blow, but sent her sword aloft once more, leaving her pinned on her back, with a sword tip at her throat and Karnage standing over her.
So, this was it. Her mind raced, trying to conjure up a way out of this situation - there had to be a way out, right? - but she could only lay there, propped up on one elbow, cornered with the fact that she'd run out of time. She gulped.
****************************
"SAL!!!" Scat screeched in horror as the fox's sword sailed from her grasp.
Normally, her teammates would have shushed her, for fear they might be heard. This time, however, they were shouting with her. Oh, there was no question that the pirates below heard the feline's shriek or the others' cries. But they had little time to react to them, however, as before most of them registered the noise, the cats dove through the grate, claws, swords, and firearms unsheathed.
Meg brought her sword down with both hands, slamming into something - or someone, she really didn't care to look - and immediately pushed off, katana sword slicing through anything and everything in front of her. Scattercat preferred her guns, and emptied half a clip before she even hit the ground. The least lethal of the trio, Hazel stuck to kickboxing, booting her way through the melee. Above them, Ears dangled from the swinging grate, caught on a bit of wire but firing on the pirates all the same.
Patch and Dixie were suddenly there as well. Unable to maneuver a CT in the close confines of the hangar, they had opted to hide until an opportunity presented itself, and charged to their captain's aid. Pirates stepped in before they got there, of course, and the fighting began in earnest. For all her sweet appearances, Dixie was a mean fighter, scratching and kicking and biting like a rabid animal while Patch steadfastly demonstrated just exactly how well women could fistfight, boxing like no one's business.
****************************
Sal took advantage of the distraction, batting Karnage's blade aside and scuttling backwards, trying to haul herself up while dodging the captain's renewed attack. Her back hit the solid wooden wall of a crate all too soon, though, and while it gave her the leverage she needed to stand, it also left her cornered. Back against the wall of crates, she drew her dagger. True, it wouldn't help much, but it would buy her the time she now needed to negotiate her crew's safety. Would they never learn to follow orders?
She dodged Karnage's sword, pushing off from the crates to dart forward, swinging the knife in a swift arc as she did so. Startled by the sudden attack, Karnage jerked back, narrowly avoiding the blade.
Sal used the momentary reprieve to turn her attention to her crew. Close enough to be seen, they were nonetheless too busy fighting Karnage's men to help her any. She caught a glimpse of magenta. "I thought I told you to run!" she yelled to the cat.
"We weren't about to leave you!" Scat returned, tossing her gun aside. She was out of ammo, it would be of no further use. No matter. Claws and teeth bared, she lunged at the nearest pirate in the melee.
****************************
Above them, Ears wasn't doing as well. She was exposed, dangling from the grate above the floor, and was desperately trying to pry herself free as bullets ripped through the air around her. Either Karnage's men were lousy shots, or they were just enjoying watching her squirm.
A lucky shot slammed into the grate, nearly knocking it loose. Ears' struggles to regain her balance as the grate rocked wildly from the impact only put more strain on the rusty grate's hinges, and it finally tore loose, dropping the rabbit into the fight below.
However, unlike her comrades, who had the benefits of feline agility and grace, she botched her landing, plowing through several pirates and bowling Hazel over. Which was unfortunate, for as she fell, Hazel knocked Patch off-balance - and, as Patch had been fighting back-to-back with Dixie, jostling the cream-colored cat as well. Patch fell, but Dixie struggled to keep her balance, stumbling forward a few steps before regaining her footing. Unfortunately, her momentary distraction gave Dumptruck the opportunity he needed, and the big bulldog hoisted her off the ground by her shirt collar, holding the thrashing feline at arm's length so her blows fell short. She screeched in fury.
****************************
Sal's head snapped around at Dixie's screech, and Karnage used the distraction to his advantage, striking her wrist with the side of his blade. She yelped in pain, reflexively dropping the knife and grasping at her wrist. It took her a second to realize her wrist wasn't injured, and she flexed it curiously, casting a puzzled look in Karnage's direction.
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The rest of the Tigercats, meanwhile, had been surrounded. Dumptruck still held the hissing Dixie several feet off the floor; Ears, Patch, and Hazel were still on the floor, kept there by a tight circle of pirates and their knives. Scat was the only one still standing, whirling around to claw anyone that got too close to her.
Or at least she had been. Hearing Sal's sharp bark of pain, she burst forward.
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"NO!!"
The shout rang out from the cluster of pirates, which had quieted as their combatants had been subdued, and both Karnage and Sal looked to its source as the tan cat fought her way through the crowd and into the open, darting for the two captains.
Her charge was cut short, though, as a speckled blur darted from behind one of the crates, catching her left arm and circling around to secure her right even as she whirled to face her attacker. Alex was faster, though, and slipped his right arm under hers, catching her in a full nelson before she knew what was happening. She yowled, struggling to free herself and ignoring the pressure on her neck.
Her tightened his grip, lifting her slightly off the ground. Her struggles lessoned a bit. "Let's just let them handle this themselves, eh?" he suggested, only to be hissed at in response.
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Across from them, Karnage watched the scene intently. The leopard had a firm grip on the cat, but that didn't stop her struggles. She thrashed about, determined to break free. The other cats had used the distraction to get to their feet and fight their way to the front, but Roxy and a few others held them at bay. He turned back to the fox before him.
"Loyal bunch, aren't they?"She smiled wryly. "Yeah, but disobedient as all hell." Her smile faded. "Let them go. They're no threat to you. Just let them go."
Karnage cocked an eyebrow. Not a threat? He didn't need to look around the hangar to see just how true that wasn't - in addition to those they'd shot down in the battle, this bunch had cost him at least a dozen men in that short-lived little ambush of theirs. And if the belligerence they displayed now was any indication of their loyalty to this fox, then the vengeance they'd doubtless try for later was not something he was about to risk. "I think not."
He raised the sword to her throat.
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Scat screeched with renewed fury. "No! Stop! Don't-!" she shouted, struggling to break the leopard's hold.
She was doing a good job of it, too. Not willing to do her any serious harm, he loosened his grip a bit, concentrating his strength on her shoulders instead of her neck. Unable to escape the hold and come to her captain's aid physically, she lashed out verbally.
"Stop it! Please! Don't! It's not Sal's fault! She didn't go after your stupid shipment, I did! She told us to stay away from it, but I didn't listen! You hear me? I disobeyed! I mutinied! Sal and the others were just trying to stop me!"
"Scat!" Sal snarled angrily, "Shut up!"
"No!" she shouted back, ignoring her captain's growl, "Look, you can have the gold back, okay? But don't take this out on Sal! It's not her fault!"
Karnage turned his attention back to the fox he still held at sword-point. "And just how much of that is true?"
She glared at him, flattening her ears back and growling angrily, refusing to reply. But that answered his question just as well as a spoken reply would have. It was all true. And yet, as their captain, she was determined to take full responsibility for her crew's actions. He smirked. She was even protecting a pirate that had disobeyed a direct order. That was something even he wouldn't do.
He turned to the pirates holding her crew at bay. "Toss them in the brig," he ordered, pausing to consider something before pointing to Scat, "But give that one her own cell."
"No! Wait!" the tan cat shrieked as Alex dragged her out of the bay, "What about Sal!"
Don Karnage watched after the cat's retreating form before turning his attention back to the intruder in the now-empty hangar bay. "I'm still thinking about that."
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Sal had tensed as Karnage ordered her crew away, expecting the finishing blow that came an instant later. What she hadn't expected, though, was that the attack came not from Karnage, but from behind her, as a strong pair of arms caught her in a bear hug, covering her muzzle with a rag.
The kit fox's struggles weakened and she slipped into sleep, sagging backwards limply. Roxanne removed the chloroform rag, looking to her captain for further orders.
"Put her in a holding cell on the other end of the ship," he decided, "while I think this over. Just make sure her crew doesn't find out."
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