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Games » Star Fox » Greatest Of Three Evils: Act1: A family affair
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Author of 19 Stories |
A/N: I started using the spell checker before posting this….. holy crap, it's all I can say is… holy crap. I ran the spell checker on Word 2003 and, after 15 minutes, I'm only on the 5th page. There are sixty-three. Yeah… it's that bad. But I wrote this story so dang long ago that someone SHOULD expect it's not going to be perfect. Between the grammar and spelling, I was really not going down the right path as a writer at the time.
Then, it took several years for me to learn something else… weak verbs, adverbs and having twenty '-ing' words to make a sentence stretch longer for a higher word count… But I'm learning how to be a better writer in my modern pieces.
Also, I have the sequel, all 102 thousand words, completely finished.
DOES ANYONE WISH FOR ME TO POST IT?
Well, I will if at least one person wishes to read it.
Anyway, just to get this last sixty-plus pages posted for those that wanted to read this story, I decided not to sit down and edit it, because then it would simply never get posted. At least now you can read it as I wrote it… And now you'll see that I've been evolving as a writer since I wrote this. ANYhow, thanks for reading if you've read it… thanks for finishing if you finish it.
Take care!
-k (2007)
Chapter -8-
The True Colors of a Dark Claw.
Fara Phoenix, Daughter of the CEO for the space corporate "Magnate" was gone. She left no body and no fighter to put into her casket. Her only memorial would be a stone, and an empty box of which to symbolize her death, at her Funeral procession back on Corneria.
Fox's eyes were shut, shut as tightly as he could close them. His mind was where he'd saved her once before. Before, when times were simple, and the StarFox squadron was a group of poor mercenaries, a band of pirates to imperial Venom ships, back on Papetoon...
"That's the biggest trash compactor I've ever seen... Time to take out the Garbage!" A confident Fara Phoenix made her way across the green fields, pulling up, to open fire, when suddenly she was nailed by the rounded particle fire of an Ion Cannon.
"Fara, you're hit!"
"I...I must have blinked back there!" but with a hint of confidence in her voice.
"This is no joke! Bail out!"
"It won't do much good! We're surrounded by Imperial Forces!" She replied, wearing a grim smile.
"Trust... me, Fara. Eject! NOW!" Fox wasn't going to let this girl die. He'd only just met her, but there seemed to be something about her...
"I hope you brought your Catcher's Mitt!" This was the last thing she said, before her Fighter exploded underneath of her. The Cockpit ejected from the fighter's hull, and an anti-gravity flap popped open, slowly lowering the ejected Seat towards the earth, and towards imperial force ground troops. It was then, that Fox swooped by, catching the pole between her ejection seat and anti-grav flap, in his wing manifold. The weight was something that the Arwing wasn't used to, let alone designed for, but Fox made it work.
He simply couldn't understand why it couldn't happen this way again. The Pilot's fist balled up tightly, and connected with the hull plating of his Arwing, as he stood there on a silent flight deck. Peppy, Falco, Slippy, Seether, and the teens all stood, watching in silence. Krystal watched from the catwalk, as her new friend was going through incredible rage at such a loss. McCloud picked up a toolbox and threw it against the Arwing's hull, causing a loud noise as all the metallic tools clattered to the floor.
"Goddammit, we don't need this, Fox. We need our Leader strong and ready to fight." Falco's words went on deaf ears. The angry Pilot Commander picked up a wrench and hurled it into the bay doors, his eyes filled with rage. As he turned around, he met the sudden impact of Falco's Fist. He wasn't ready for it, and it caught him off guard, as another blow landed into his stomach, causing him to double over. Falco packed quite a wallop when he threw a punch, and he knew it was for the best... again.
Fox wrapped his arms around Falco's waist, trying to tackle him to the ground, but Falco's next blow would put Fox out. Lombardi brought his elbow to the back of Fox's neck, just above the spot between his shoulder blades, and the vulpine lay still on the floor. Everyone in the room was wide-eyed except Peppy and Slippy. Falco drew his arm back once more, but Peppy had to stop him. The Pandorian couldn't let this continue.
"That's ENOUGH! Just... put him in his room for a while." Peppy sighed softly.. He was getting too old for this, after almost 10 years, and didn't have the time or patience for these antics anymore. This wasn't the Papetoon hide-a-way. It's not like Peppy was 36 again. It's not like Fox was 18 again. Times have changed, and Peppy wasn't going to let Fox have a back lash of an old Temper, just because he lost a pilot. But what could one do? It's almost as if she used herself to save GreatFox, and the Team's home. It's almost as if she did it to save the rest of them. If only she could have... or would have.. ejected...
If eyes are the windows of the soul, then hers possessed neither life nor light. Her fishnet top hides just enough to intrigue while giving enough away to tantalize. But she doesn't draw the eye, typically. Why? Why bother? Lylatians are like strobe flashes. One second alive, the next gone, living lives that vary from glimmers to supernovas. But occasionally, very occasionally, she finds some one just interesting enough to share company with... and her story.
Tonight, her Story had the attention of Dr. Andross and Dr. Laura Baker, and in turn, they would tell her their own tale. A complacent little smile touched the muzzle of the lone fighter pilot, her pupil-less eyes slowly lifting once more, shimmering a reflected mood in them. Hues of sunswept crimson seem to dance in those shining orbs, which could easily cause hysteria in some men, simply with a gaze.
"I take it you would do this for us, in exchange for our services?" Andross' voice was of serious tone, and pleasant business mannerisms. The woman nodded slowly, resting her arms along her knees, causing a slight clinking sound, due her amount of Golden bracelets, which adorn her ebon fur from elbow to wrist.
"Wish I, an exact genetic duplicate of mine-self. In, however, masculine form. Realize, do I, how simple shall it be to only change the Gender, but I do assure thee: Mine DNA strand is indeed, quite lengthy. Such is so, as that it may require more than a simple diskette for thine storage. In return, destroy your arch-enemy, shall I. A simple task I assure of thee." Her words were well placed, and well pronounced. It was simply spoken "correctly" and yet, her method of dress puzzled both Doctors. Andross gave a slow sidelong glance to Lauren Baker, who furtively looked about, before placing a pensive finger at her lower lip.
"I agree to your Terms," Dr. Baker finally said. She glanced to her Partner, who nodded in agreement.
"Very well. I require of thee, a Transportation method to Corneria. Begin mine mission at such a place as his home, shall I." Her voice was quiet, and dry. These whiskied tones of her voice sent chills down each Doctor's Spine, with every syllable. If only these Venom Dictators knew what they were getting into...
"Do you require a small amount of the Cornerian Currency?" Andross offered, stroking his white bearded chin.
"Indeed I do; Quite so." With that, her eyes fluttered shut, and her mind was filled with the scene of a quaint rancher style home. A garage door was open, a nearly rebuilt family sedan sat within its maw. She knew right where to start.
"Ready, am I. Provide thy chariot." She slowly rose to her feet, and waited for Andross and Lauren Baker to provide their transportation, each ape quietly stunned that she was ready to start so quickly.
"As you will," Andross began, but was quickly cut off.
"My Will, is that I shall. Proceed, please, but remember this. I am here for Krystal. You don't get her, she's mine." For the love of the Lylat Goddess, this woman was creepy. Beyond comprehension, beyond words.
Dear Mrs. Zyro Ethington:...
She quickly turned the letter upside down. She wasn't ready for this. She knew that it would make her a widow, if she'd read it, and she wasn't ready for that. Quickly walking across the room, Natha thumbed a brown box on the mantel above the hearth, and ran her fingers over the pair of Nova Medals found within. STOP IT. A deep breath was finally drawn, and she walked back to the Sofa picking the inked parchment from its place on the cushions.
Dear Mrs. Zyro Ethington:
It has come to our attention that your Husband has not returned from active flight duty, along with a second of his squadron. While he is not considered to be dead, his status is "MISSING IN ACTION". In the possibility that he is a prisoner and not a negotiable Hostage, we will keep you posted further. We regret to inform you that there has been no communication to his whereabouts, however. At this time, we ask that you do not speak to the Press upon this issue. Thank you.
Secretary of IDC,
Sharon Fairmont
Natha's heart suddenly exploded in hope. They didn't think he was dead. They had to have a reason why NOT to expect him dead. There had to be some sort of sign or some sort of military logic behind assuming he was a Prisoner of War, and not a Corpse.
Now if she could just get some sort of proof of that. Her eyes read the sheet once more, then paused, as she caught something. Two of his squadron had been captured... that meant one was wondering around, possibly having information on what happened to him.
Time to pay a visit to a well connected friend, and find herself a Lion's Fire Pilot.
"Jackpot, Slippy Toad."
"You know it," The frog replied.
Flipping through another set of photo images, Slippy began to use a light pen, making notations to each photo, before setting the computer up to print them out. That done, Slippy hopped from the chair, running to the Printer. He waited, hands outward, as the machine began to make a noise. Finally several glossy sheets were ejected into the Paper Trey, which Slippy was quick to snatch up.
"Fox is gonna trip," Peppy said with a chuckle. "Shall we?"
"Let's," The frog replied with a grin. Together, they walked down the corridor, and off the bridge. Stopping in front of the Range room, Slippy and Peppy both picked up a set of Ear Muffs, and proceeded inside. Several of the booths were occupied, and Krystal could be seen through the plexi-glass, in the adjacent room, with Snowy. They seemed to be engaged in a sparring match, and Fox wasn't with them. Turning their attention back to the Range, Peppy began walking behind each of the Booths, until he stopped behind Fox.
Two quick shots put a small pair of holes through the paper target, hanging on a clip at the end of the wire, fifty yards out. Another quick burst of shots netted another three small holes in the Target's neck area. Fox maneuvered the pistol only a degree, from left to right, putting two pairs of holes into the Target's chest, where a lung might be.
The next booth over, Falco was drawing upon his Target, using the blaster. Seven Well placed shots drew a "smiley" face over the Target's mouth area. Another two shots put one hole on either side of the Target's chest, then another 14 shots drew two "Horse-Shoe" shaped marks just under the chest.
"MUST everything have Tits, Falco?" It was the voice of Fox McCloud.
"EVERYTHING should have tits, it would make the world a better place," Falco said with a smug grin.
"Good times, man. It would give us something ta look at, huh?" Murphy chimed in, from the next booth over. Finally, Falco just shot a line of about 10 shots, from left to right, at neck level, until the Target fell into two pieces, the majority of the paper target falling to the floor, out in the middle of the range area. His blaster suddenly enlarged, the chamber popping up, and the clip storage unit, in the handle, sliding open.
"Weapons dry," Falco muttered.
"Fox! Need your attention," Peppy finally said, his arms folded. He was standing behind both Fox and Falco, and waited as they both turned to face him. Fox pulled his hearing protection from his ears, and a set of goggles from his eyes, putting them down and motioning with his right paw for Peppy to explain what was up.
"We found it, Fox. We found their Defense spot, and we know how to turn off the force field, and we know how to get in." Peppy wore a grin; one that put a look of satisfaction onto Fox and Falco's faces. After this whole thing with Fara, both were in a dismal mood, but with Falco always trying to lighten it, for Fox's sake. This would be the turn of events the team needed. It was time to mount an offensive.
"Display Interior," Slippy said, into a microphone on a small device in his right hand. Instantly, the exterior vanished, leaving pictures of 6 floors, one basement, with duct work between the first floor and the basement, and up along the walls and between floor level 2 and 3; 4 and 5. Finally one set of ducts went above Floor 6, along the ceiling.
There was a large satellite dish apparatus upon the roof, still visible, even with the change to internal view.
"Notice here, on the Sixth Floor, there's a c-c-computer station that you can see is linked directly to that Satellite dish on the roof. There's a G-g-generator on the sixth floor, which means they expect their attackers to hit the basement or first floor, instead of air-bombing it. They apparently think the 6th floor is the safest, which leads me to believe there's a force field around the outside, guarding it from aerial attacks. Any questions so far?" Slippy's voice was serious for once, and much less hyper or chatty sounding.
"I take it we're going in by foot?" Murphy asked quietly.
"This is where it gets tricky," Slippy replied. Pressing a button on the little hand-held device, the building's roof opened up, and several rockets shoot out of the roof, adjacent to the satellite dish. Each of the memberes frowned, watching the rockets dissapear out of the holo-projection.
"They're gonna try and shoot GreatFox out of the sky, and they're going to launch fighters to protect the missles, so we can't shoot them down. But, of course, we'll have to shoot them down, and that's that. There are only 6 missles, then whoever flys will need to clean up the fighter screen, before we can come pickup our people on the ground. Basically we have to do this by foot, go up 6 stories, fight them by ground, and same with air... The easiest way to get through their defences is by going straight into them, and fighting it out. There's no way to sneak or cloak or anything stealthy. Just g-g-go in, guns blazing, and get the job done, then plant explosives upstairs, d-d-deactivate the forcefield from inside, blow the place skyhigh and get out." Slippy folded his arms, after placing the remote control unit on the table.
"How do we get out? Walk out on the ground floor? Go alllll the way back downstairs to get out?" Falco asked, leaning up towards the holo-projection slightly.
"Get up to the roof, and an extraction fighter will come pick the ground party up. Or we'll use a LandMaster...Then we hit the b-b-button to activate the planted explosives, and blow it sky high." Slippy leaned back slightly, into his chair. Everyone was silent. Except for Kit, Lee, and Murphy.
"Paper beats both of your rock. Best two out of three?...Ha, Sissors beats paper, both of us got Sissors... one more?" Kit said with a grin... he'd beaten both Lee and Murphy, but Murphy also beat Lee one of the times. Now Lee and Murphy turned to one another, pumped their fists three times, then both held out a fist. Each frowned, then tried again, this time Lee held out his middle and index finger, and Murphy made a fist. Grinning, Murphy Anderson brought his fist down ontop of Lee's hand.
"Guess I'm walkin, this time." Lee turned to Slippy and put his paw into the air.
Slippy gave a perplexing look, waiting for Lee to explain. "Alright, I'm going into the building. Who's going with me?" Lee looked to the rest of the group, and waited to see who'd be joining him on the ground.
"This will be dangerous by ground or air. In the air, You'll have missles to shoot down, that MUST be shot down, and you'll have fighters swarming you. On the ground, it's no better, with guards ordered "shoot to kill" more than likely." Peppy's voice this time. He was the voice of reason, many times over. Now was one of those times.
"Well let's narrow it down, by seeing who is excluded. We can't just abandon GreatFox, while she's being shot at. I'm staying, so I can provide Satellite information. Peppy's staying. What about you Krystal?" Slippy asked, turning to face the blue furred vixen.
"What do you think, Fox? Need another person on the ground?" The blue furred beauty inquiered.
"No. I need your help on the StarBase, because you're going in with me there. So stay here while we do this, and start to study the layout of the base. You can start with Photos we took of the outside, to find a way in, then once we knock this shield generator out, you can start doing sensor sweeps of it's interior and plan out a map. You'll be joining me on that one if you like, but Let's not get penalized for having too many players on the field, this early in the quarter. Falco? You flyin or on the ground?" Fox rattled off commands with ease, and it was times like now, where he took control, that Krystal liked most. She wasn't sure why, it was just something about it, in a heroic sense.
"I'm always flattered you need my help, McCloud, but I think I'll be more effective shooting missles out of the sky," The Avian said with a smile. Who puts a Falcon on the ground with a gun, and expects a successful mission? Now the group looked to Seether and Snowy.
"Well?"
Snowy smirked, folding her arms. She knew exactly what to say, but waited for Seether to answer first. David Seether's right wing lifted and he pointed upwards, indicating that he'd be better in the sky, as Falco said. Both Avians would fly, Kit and Murphy would Fly.
"I think I'll be the brave one, join Fox and Lee on the ground. It's obvious the boys will need my help and handy trigger finger," She said with a smile.
"And the heroine makes her choice, there we have it folks," Peppy said with a chuckle. Snowy simply preened, and stood up from the table, ready to get underway.
Following suite, the rest of the group stood up as well, and each got into their group, making plans of where to meet, to discuss what the plan of action would be.
Fox, Lee and Snowy all headed for the weapons locker room, while Krystal Peppy and Slippy all made the decision to head up to the bridge and get started on their work. This left Seether, Falco, Kit and Murphy standing alone in the briefing room.
Ain't that your girl, Mac?" Murphy turned to Kit, pushing his paws into his jacket pockets.
"Yeah, but I'mma let her do what she needs and wants to do. I don't wanna see her killed, the way Fara was... But she's her own woman, and I can only honor that. She's alot better with a pistol then I am. Hell I've seen her get out of some tight situations before," Kit admitted to himself, outloud.
"Don't worry kiddo, Fox'll keep her alive. You have nothing to worry about," Falco said, patting Kit on his shoulder. Seether folded his wings across his chest, and nodded to Falco's encouraging words.
"Fox seems like he's protective of his team-mates. I'm sure he'll keep a close eye on Lee and Snowy."
"I dunno Dave. In the past, if we had a ground mission, whether it was by tank, or by foot, Fox always went alone. But he'll NEED the extra fire-power on this mission," Falco said.
"Don't worry, They got Fox's back, and Snowy and Lee know how to stay out of the way, when it comes to stuff like this. I'm one of those types that like to run out and run the ground operation on my own, and they've always complimented my work. Neither of those two ever step on yer toes, I think they'll have that place in a pile of rubble right quick." Kit seemed quite sure of his team mates.
Infact he trusted them more than he trusted his Uncle, although not to say he didn't trust Fox McCloud. It's just that he's worked with Snowy and Lee on things like this before, and knew what they were capable of. Kit had complete confidence in his team mates.
"What's all the fuss?"
"Not sure yet, you see anything?"
"Just the scuffle down the end of the aisle, but I can't make out what's going on," Carson replied.
At the end of the hallway, there seemed to be shouting, and the sounds of combat. A pistol blaster was fired and a group of guards rushed passed Zyro and Carson, heading towards the scuffle. More shouting was heard, followed by another two blaster shots being fired.
"Sounds serrious. Jail break maybe?" Zyro said, hope growing in his heart.
"Get them! Kill them!" Someone shouted, from down at the end of the Cell block row. Another volly of blaster shots rang out, one of them zinging down the aisle, passed Zyro and Carson, until it hit the opposite wall, leaving a scorch mark.
"No! Get them!"
"Quick, find a way to open the cells, we'll overwhelm them!" Someone else shouted. The sound of someone being slammed against the bars, down the hallway, was heard loudly, followed by more blaster shots. A moment later, two squads of Lizard guards ran by Ethington and Collievera's cells, heading down the block towards the disturbence. Suddenly the area was filled by a deafening collection of blaster shots, which lasted several moments. Silence followed.
"That sounds serrious," Carson Collievera said. After a moment, both pilots could smell the acrid smell of burnt flesh, and knew that whatever happened, the Jail Break had obviously NOT been successful. Carson gave a sidelong glance to his commander, and frowned.
"Dammit, that may have been our only chance," Zyro said, slumping down onto the Bench, at the back of his Cell. Carson remained quiet, still sniffing at the air. It was the smell of burned fur and flesh, Lizards don't have fur, which narrows it down to who apparently won.
"I wonder how Natha is holding up," Zyro said quietly. His eyes were closed, and the palms of his paws were pressed against the bench, his body quite tense.
Finally, Carson stepped away from the Bars and sat down on his own bench. It wasn't very comfortable but it had been his bunk for the last near-two-weeks, and he was getting quite used to it.
"I could use a nice shower," The collie said, with a sigh.. His leader glanced up and chuckled grimly.
"Me too," Zyro Ethington finally replied.
He'd gone through the ringer today, from answering to a Pilot's wife about where to find David Seether, all the way to having a meeting with the Prime Minister in regards to the status of the StarBase which was now much closer then it was only a week and a half ago. Reports indicated that the Starbase was just outside of Macbeth's orbit, and was projected to be around Titania next. If it wasn't for that Pilot's wife being an E-6 rank, he might not have even given her the time of day. Then again, she was the same girl who, as a cadet, helped solve the mystery on the Narconi 4 mission. He owed her a favor, out of respect, and couldn't turn her away.
"Sir?" there was a knock at the door.
"Enter," Pepper sighed softly.
A young woman slipped in, removing her cap, and stowing it under her arm. The smartly dressed female crossed the General's Office and placed a Holo-Vid projector onto his table. She lifted her right paw, and saluted until he returned the salute, then spoke.
"Incomming Transmission, Sir. We've traced it's Origins from Venom, and beyond that, to Macbeth, on an alternating frequency, SIR!" She waited for him to dismiss her.
"Hmm, Andross is trying to trick us, by bouncing his transmissions from planet to planet, thinking we won't be able to trace him? You're dismissed Chief...Barrington," Pepper said, after glancing from her rank to her name, above her right breast pocket. His gaze dropped to the holo-vid projector, pressing a small button after his office door had been shut. To his suprise, Andross's head was the one to pop up, above the projection emitter.
"What do YOU want?" Pepper sneared.
"Ah, General Pepper of the Interplanitary Defense Council. A Pleasure once again, as always."
"Yes, as always," Pepper smirked.
"Very sneaky, sending in a second Marine dropship, you know..." Pepper's heart cought in his throat. Andross' words sent a chill up his spine.
"They're all dead, except for three from the first ship, who are in holding cells, awaiting bio-weapon expirimentation. Please, next time? Send better specimans for me, would you?" Andross's face tugged into a grin.
"What's the nature of this Call, Andross? To boast, or do we have a real purpose?" Pepper said, trying to have a little bit of attitude. He had to play it cool, and put on a strong front, in the face of his adversary.
"Yes, simply to Gloat. You know, unconditional surrender would spare the lives of Billions. I don't need to remind you that resistence is quite rediculous. However, Cornerians are strong in Spirit, so I do NOT expect you to give up. Our conversation is at it's end, General. Be sure to pass the word on to your Prime Minister... 8 of his Military's marines are dead. I'm still upset about The Krazoa planet, and IF I take it out on Corneria? My appologies." With that, the holo-projection emitter went dim, and the image faded away. Time to contact StarFox and raise the Price, not to mention giving them the "Go Mission" command. Afterall, they would be completly on their own now, and more money would make sure they didn't back down from the job. But first, Pepper stood up from behind his desk. He'd have to take a trip over to the Prime Minister's Office building, and get permission for the raise of Price, to offer StarFox.
"Hey." Fox licked his lips aprehensivly, glancing about for a moment, in a furtive manner, before looking back to her.
"No reason to be Nervous, I'm alone this time," her eyes lowered for a moment, then locked with his, a soft smile placed upon her maw.
"So, uh... What do I owe the honor of your visit?" Fox finally spit out. He seemed nervous, most, when he was in a situation where his team was near, because he didn't know how to act around Krystal, when they were in the area. He placed the object back upon his dresser, and moved over to the bunk, and settled down on the edge.
"You know I'm a pilot Fox?"
No reply.
"You know I'm a linguist, Fox?"
"I didn't know that, no," He said quietly.
"Yes, It didn't take me very long to learn the language of the race on Dinosaur Planet. I know a great deal of other languages too, Fox." her paw was gently placed against the side of his maw, her smile was gentle, relaxing.
"I'm not much of a linguist, myself. Without one of Slippy's translators, I'd have been in trouble. You'd teach me a different Language some time?" Fox asked, a little more confident than before.
"Well I teach one thing at a time, and before I teach you the Lexicon of another civilization, I should probably teach you the Language of love first," Her smile wasn't quite devious, but her eyes most certianly were.
"I, Uh... " Fox was blushing now. It was hard to see the red glow of blood in the face with a fox, as their fur covered it up, But it was there. However, a rise in temprature and a light sweat usually gave it away, regardless. Krystal could smell the scent of his ... well not exactly fear. She couldn't help but simple giggle.
"You're... you're laughing at me?" Fox said with a frown, sliding off the bed, and walking back towards the dresser.
"No, no, no. Silly."
Gods how Fox melted at that word... Silly, what was it about that word, that made Fox turn into a puddle of mush? What was it, about the way women say it, that captivated Fox? He didn't know, but it made his heart melt into a puddle of goo. It was hard to control the situation when his heart was a puddle in the heel of his left foot. Wondering about that, he gave his left foot a little shake, more or less, to amuse himself.
"What... are you doing?" She said, giggling again.
"Being...silly?"
"Oh most definatly Silly. Goober," She folded her arms this time and waited to see what he'd do next.
"Jesus, they're chewing me up and spitting me out," Seether hissed into his communicator.
Kit finally opened fire, when he was close enough, and ripped into one of the enemies behind David Seether's Arwing, vaporizing it quickly. Now Murphy was on the scene, shooting at one of the Yellow fighters as well. Falco on the other hand, was keeping the fighters off of Kit and Murphy's tale, while they went to help Seether out of his situation.
Two enemy fighters were quicky dispatched by Murphy.
The wolf chanted his quote line, under his breath, while Kit got behind another, his crossheirs lighting up. Ripping into it's engine casing, until the fighter exploded, Kit did a little victory barrel roll, flying passed Seether, giving him a thumbs up, not that they could see one another in the cockpit.
"Got one on yer six, Mac."
Quickly, Kit hit the braking thrusters, stopping all forward momentum, letting the fighter fly passed, and into Kit's cone of fire. Mashing down on the blaster button, at the top of the control stick, another sick volly of twin blaster-fire ripped into the backside of a fighter. However another one swooped down directly behind Kit's craft. Punching the Afterburneres, yet with his throttle on zero, Kit's fighter launched forward. McCloud quickly spun the fighter around, as it hurtled through the void, backwards, lining up the nose cone with his "Predator". A quick flash of blaster fire destroyed the cockpit of his adversary, causing it's burning hull to cruse right passed Kit's floating fighter.
"What the hell do you call that little move?" Falco crowed.
"Uh... thee ah... Sit-n-kick. Ja-like it?"
"Show off like yer Uncle huh?" Falco smirked. But after a moment, it faded into a smug grin. The kid had originality in his moves, and Falco respected original tactics over anything, especially tactics that worked.
"Yeah, Smooth moves, kiddo. Smooth moves." Falco finally added.
An hour of the simulation fighting went by, before each of the four stepped from the unit, stretching. Each of them decided it was best to head to bed, to get ready for the next day's assult on Macbeth, and made it a point to get up early and run one more simulation, on advanced mode, with the A.I. all the way up, for a challenge. This of course was an unbeatable setting, and there was no way of winning, it was just a matter of how long one could last before being blown up.
Yet it was still the decision of the group to play a no-win situation in the morning, before they GreatFox arrived to the destination. Both Aviens could see merrit in these two kids, and their unpolished raw talent, which could easily be harnissed into fine fighting skills. Both were more then confident to fly with these teenageres. Of course both had huge Egos about their own abilities as well. Tomorrow would be the real test.
With that done, Slippy put the wielding gun down into the engine casing, and spot wielded over the brackets, then tossed the gun down onto the cushion on the ground, below. Lee stuck his right foot into the engine casing, and put his weight on it, to see if it was good and solid. Once satisfied, Slippy began to hook it up to the power supply relay. Lifting both of their masks, Slippy finally took a long breath, and in his squeeky high-pitched voice, spoke to Lee Markett.
"Ready?"
"Yeah, man. Let's see how it reacts with the Cloaking apparatus," Lee's voice rang out, in smooth whiskied tones.
"Hop in the cockpit, and flip the switch," Slippy said, placing a digital amp reader against the G-Diffuser's power cell, in waiting.
Lee lept over the canopy, landing on the nose, then turned about, wedging his fingers under the glass and lifted it. Sliding down into the seat, the Cabbit pressed the ignition switch all the way in until it clicked. The engines began to glow, and idled; orange heat was visable from the thrusters. Slippy's power reading went up into the Green area, but not beyond, causing him to grin.
"That new alternator I b-b-built was perfect, it can handle both units, try using the cloaker!" Slippy ordered. With that order, Lee pressed a button that was in the left side of the dash, where a freshly drilled hole had been made earlier, and a small purple button had been installed. The light reflecting unit caused the Arwing to blend in with everything else in the Bay, including Slippy who was sitting ontop of the Hull, causing the Hull to bleed green, a foot around him, in every direction. His power level indicator never lost a single bar.
"YES! That's it! Now we just have to get it to work with the afterburner from that Chi-fighter. They're the same size, I've already measured them," Slippy said looking up from his meter, and pulling it from the engine casing. Lee wiped his brow, standing up in the cockpit to look at the frog through the canopy which was open. Afterwords, Lee reached down and pulled the kill switch.
"The unit is about a half-ton. We could probably get it tomorrow, after the mission, before the StarBase run, that way Fox has something to fly in with." Slippy's voice was full of antiscipation.
"Yanno, I think we could Finish it by then, And if you already measured'em, and they're about the same, we'll use the Chi-fighter's more powerful thruster but let's make sure the Arwing can handle the force, first, right?"
"No, that G-diffuser is beefed up, It'll handle twice what the Arwings engines could put it through, g-g-guarenteed," Slippy replied. The two continued to talk about how to best go about re-building the Arwing, before heading off to bed, The chronometer said 01:30 in the morning, and both knew they had to get up early...
"Lights: up, dim." Slowly the room began to fill with a dim illumination, and Fox glanced down. He saw that Krystal had fallen asleep upon his chest, her head tucked under his chin, slumbering peacefully. His heart began to beat rapidly for a moment, before he took a deep breath, and forced himself to simply take in the sight of her peaceful rest upon his chest. He knew he could live with this, most definatly.. Both were still dressed, and he'd have to shower soon, but he decided to give Krystal a little more time to sleep. Slowly he slipped from between her head and the mattress, laying her head down on one of the pillows, but it caused her to stirr, and stretch. Her Tail was quite fluffy, as she'd taken all the bands out of it, before bed. They were all resting on the night stand, and she reached for them, as she began to sit up. Fox frowned appologetically, having woken her up. Krystal stretched lightly, then turned about, swinging her ankles over the side of the bed, and put her feet on the floor. Fists were pushed upwards into the air, and she yawned in the cute way that women do, innocently and niavly tantalyzing the men in the area, by arching their backs, and jutting out their chest and shoulders. Fox got chills down his spine from this, and blushed under all that fur.
Once the two finally got up and got their day started, Krystal went back to her quarters to get showered and get herself into some Cornerian clothes, while Fox got himself some breakfast. Walking down the corridor, he passed Slippy, who was carrying a basket of dirty laundry down the hall.
"Mornin," Fox mumbled.
"Heya. Peppy made breakfast, it's sittin on the table," Slippy replied, and kept on walking. Fox made a right, down the hall, heading towards the small Galley, which was on the right side of the hallway, he needed only to follow his nose from here. Opening the swing doors, Fox sat down infront of a bowl, parusing the steam that rose from it, then the plate besides it, sniffing at the air. The scent of the cooked meat, and Orange Juice, and other breakfast favorites caused him to salivate, but at the same time, his mind was wondering to the upcomming day's mission.
The Strange part of the Breakfast, was that Diane "Snowy" Rosen, and Lee Markett sat across from him, and nobody else was present.
"What's going on here? Did Peppy ask you guys to breakfast or something?"
"Nah, I think it's just a coincidence," Lee said quietly, stirring a bowl of grits.
Fox tilted his head, then ran his fingers back through the milky strip of fur that rested upon the top of his head. As he did that, several strands stood up awkwardly, as if to indicate that he had a mean callick. Snowy stretched lightly, casting her look from one pilot to the other.
"Will you cut it out? We're not dying today, for chrissake." Her voice seemed confident and that, in itself, was reassuring. The group continued to exchange light pleasentries, before Falco walked in, a headband around his forehead. He was dressed, and his leather jacket was slung over his left shoulder, as he stopped infront of the table.
"Hey guys, mind if I hang with ya's, while they fuel our birds?"
"You're gonna patrol this early?" Fox said, tilting his head slightly.
"Nah man, not just yet. Just gettin' ourselves ready. I hear we'll be infront of Macbeth in about Four hours... I was hoping to get started around then. But Hey, I also heard Seether got a call from Corneria today, from his Team Leader's Wife."
"Damn, He tell her that we're going in to get those guys and we're using his help?" Peppy asked from behind the grill, which was on the opposite side of a small windowless frame, in the wall, overlooking the rest of the room, and two tables.
"Dunno, man." Falco replied.
It was right about then, that there was an announcement over the main P.A., that Fox had a Communique waiitng for him, on a private line, from Corneria.
"Communication for FoxMcCloud on secure channel, marked urgent" Rob's slightly monotone voice said. A slight sigh, and McCloud made his way over to a terminal, across the room, and pressed a few buttons on the keypad, until Pepper's vissage graced the small Six inch screen. Minus his hat, and Jacket, Pepper was wearing a uniform shirt, with four bars upon each shoulder. But this morning, Pepper also sported thick dark aviator style sunshades, like he used to wear back in the days of StarFox's First Andross mission.
"General Pepper. Ah, to what do we owe this eh, communication, Sir?" Fox offered a slight smile.
"Fox, Our Marines were destroyed. This is Serrious, and I understand if you'll back out, because you will NOT have support. However, I've gotten permission to raise your Price, and I will let you name your increase." General Pepper's offer sounded pretty sweet, and while Fox wanted to talk it over with his crew, he knew that it wasn't polite to keep a General waiting. He folded his arms for a minute, as Falco, Snowy and Lee looked on... Peppy, on the other hand, simply listened with those large ears...
"Well, General. We're still living pretty well off of the last paycheck we've gotten, from Dinosaur Planet's Mission. So now it's time to see where we go from here; Does the team only take missions that we absolutly need, when we know it's a near-impossible odd, or do we get Greedy, and reach for the Cash, knowing we have no backup?" Fox thought outloud. The General stayed quiet just for a moment, to let him decide.
"We'll take it. But I'll think about our Fee, after we destroy a power supply station on Macbeth, this afternoon. The Generator that runs the facility is on the Top Floor, the rest of the Facility runs the StarBase, and we plan to simply blow the entire thing to smitherins, and go from there. It won't give us the element of suprise, but we don't have an element to work with, with that thing up and running." Fox folded his arms for a moment, then placed his left paw behind his head for a moment.
"I'm sure you can pull it off, Fox. I've seen you do much harder... Pepper Out!" And with that, the Video display faded.
"We'll be rich, I promise," McCloud said, slyly.
"If we're gonna get greedy, might as well get, while the gettin's good," Falco agreed.
"Come back to me, or I'll be upset," She said with a gentle smile. McCloud, on the other hand, seemed completly out of his wits, and his equalibrium nearly failed. A dizzy spell came over our hero's head, but he quickly shook it off, and smiled in return.
"I'll do my best..." He gave her a soft, gentlemanly's smile, and slipped into the LandMaster's Hatch, for departure. The tank's engine rumbled to life, and Krystal backed away, until she was far enough away, that Slippy could activate the force-field, to keep the atmosphere different from the Vaccum of Space. Double bay doors began to open, and the mammoth Blue dust covered surface of Macbeth opened up before it. The LandMaster began to roll forward, to the edge of the GreatFox's fligth deck, before thrusters on the underside of the tank flaired to life, lifting the boxy vehicle from the edge of the GreatFox's flight hanger, and into the depths of space, towards the planet below. From the Belly of the Beast, to the Fires of Hell below, the LandMaster tank decended quickly, firing it's bottomside thruster every so often, to slow it's decent from becomming too sharp.
Some of the Arwings were grey with large blue rotating vertical wings. Some were a sleek color of black, with yellow tinted, or purple tinted rotating vertical wings. Each of the four had long silver stabalizers, jutting out from behind them. Falco and Seether exchanged glances for a moment, as Seether's Chi-wing was sitting across the bay, scorch marks upon it's once-shiney hull.
"You sure you want to fly an old dinosaur like this?" Falco said, with a grin.
"What the heck, I heard these were state of the art once... Of course I heard hand gliders were once state of the art, too," David said with a devious little grin.
"Ha ha, Very funny, I'll have you know we've defeated Andross three times in these hot little puppies. And they STILL get all the girls," Falco said with a smirk.
"That's not what I've heard girls say about them. They kinda resemble a giant-," Seether was cut off by Kit, now, who decided to speak up.
"They blow the wings off of those old boxy medium-fighters anyday. Besides, it's the Pilot, not the machine."
"Well said, kiddo," Falco said with a grin.
Each of four pilots slid down into the seats, closing the canopy, and igniting the thrusters. Each of four fighters in it's own booth, which was a flame retardent heat-shield for maximum thruster buildup. Falco's fighters shot out of the bay first, followed by Kit, Seether and finally Murphy. The large dusty blue shade of Macbeth opened up before them, and there were recieved by a welcoming party as they broke through the atmosphere. Laser fire broke the clouds, as four shiney fighters approached them, then slipped through the thick fluffy puffs of white, recieving another volly of shimmering laser fire, which screamed passed Falco and Murphy's cockpits, and up into the void of the early evening sky. Of course it was the back-side of the planet, and this hour on Macbeth was twilight, facing away from Sol, the center Lylat Star.
A soft pink hue would make the shiney hulls of the enemy fighters an easy target, as Falco was the first to lock onto the center fighter, of an enemy formation. Opening fire, he blew the team leader into pieces, sending shrapnel chunks outwardly, and into the hulls of the flanking team members, one of which went out of control from it, smashing into the port side of another adjacent fighter, sending both into smoke and ultimatly a mountian side down below.
As the team began to near the planet's surface, something cought Kit's eye, and it made him quickly pick up the headset communicator, and pull it over his head.
"Falco, what the hell is that thing down there, heading up towards us?" A moment of silence went by, as Falco didn't, yet, have an answer for the young McCloud, until the object was much closer... it's glistening yellow hull gave it a shimmery optical illusion kind of look to it.
"...Phantron." Falco only uttered this one word, under his breath, as he finally saw what it was. With that very mutter, Phantron seemed to dissapear... and re-appear as Three units, all firing heavy laser fire into the team's direction.
"Yeah... Alright, When is it time to make sweet sleep to my bed's mattress..? When I can look back behind me at this day, and know I've lived through things like that, I'll be great," Lee said, zooming up on a picture of the yellow-hulled-belly of Phantron, which was quickly expanding into a snake-like preditor, then shrinking once more, in an optical illusion of some sort. It would suddenly break into Three seperate pieces, and blaster shots would simply fly right through two out of three of it's pieces. However it's return Blaster Fire appeared to actually scorch the Four Arwings swarming the little yellow beast. Finally Lee looked back up from the moniter, and leaned upwards, to speak to Fox in a more personal tone.
"If either of us die, or if both of us die, I won't have you acting the way Kit did about Jeremy, or the way you've been acting about the Lady Pilot who died a few days ago: ...Fara Phoenix. You've got to move on without us, and realize that we were in over our heads, and go on with life, because sitting here burning about it solves 'jack'. Sulking over something, blaming yourself, and feeling guilty gets you no where. Heros? Fine, but today, let's just be men... Let's just do a job, and keep going if one of us ..yanno..."
"What are you talking about?" Fox said, looking to his left, at Lee.
"I feel guilty because if my dumb ass gets wacked on this mission, I know you'll blame yourself. Kit's the same way. I won't have you putting blame on yourself, just because I was shot. Word?" Lee placed his elbow upon the dash, leaning along Fox's left side, waiting for the answer he wanted to hear.
"Fine. If you die, I'll simply say 'darn, he shoulda stayed home.' Is that what you wanted to hear?" McCloud seemed annoyed with the fact this kid was helping his pain. He didn't want his pain helped, he liked his pain... his pain made him who he was, but at the same time, the hurt from Fara's death was beginning to dissapate slightly.
"Mah man," Lee said with a smile. With that, he patted Fox on the shoulder and went back to his huddled position next to Snowy, infront of the top-rear-display moniter.
"Almost to the Surface... Any second now. Get ready, we're gonna take alot of shock..." Fox said, in a distant tone. Almost as if he was speaking more to himself, then to the kids.
The Land Master tank finally slammed down upon the bluish tinted dusty covered surface of Macbeth's upper hemesphere. Thousands of miles spread out in every direction, with only one minor flaw in the horizon, to the west. Upon landing, the LandMaster's digital Compass was displayed upon a small moniter to Fox's left. He rotated towards the flaw in the horizon, until the small "W" was facing upwards, "E" was on the bottom, "N" was on the right, and "S" was on the left. Using the turbo boost, the Tank shot forward, Fox giving it full throttle, before it could slow down. Up ahead, the Flaw in the horizon began to take shape into a building of some sort, and as they grew ever closer, it was obvious that the structure was a massive Facility of sorts.
"Is... is that it?" Snowy said to herself.
"Yep. That's it, boys and girls. I'll have to hide the Tank, and we'll huff it, on foot."
On the computer screen before the Rabbit, the words "Communication Dropped" read out in red letters, with a note in smaller font below, giving the details of the above message.
"You think those kids are gonna be alright with F-fox?" Slippy finally asked.
"The question is, are those Kids with Falco and the other Avian, going to be able to pull their weight?" Peppy countered. This posed an interesting question indeed, as they were flying StarFox purchased equipment, which StarFox's squadron was liable for, if it got destroyed.
"Argh, it's the one on the left, this time!" Falco grumbled into the Mic.
"Alright, gonna go after that one," Murphy said. His fighter swooped out from a diagonal angle, sending two smartbombs into the side of the large Bot. This however, was quite successful, as Seether was opening up with a volly of concentraited blaster fire, on the yellowish bot now. Finally it shut down, it's illuminated eyes growing dark, and it began to fall into the planet's atmosphere.
"You know, the first time we fought that thing, it fell out of the sky like that, and we had to fight it again to get to Andross... I don't think it's done, just retreating," Falco mused, outloud. Not a moment later, and his proximity detection alarm went off, causing him to glance down at his sensor reading.
"Vacation's over kiddies, they sent more bad guys," Seether said with a smirk, punching the afterburners, screaming passed Falco, to engage the oncomming fighters.
"I don't know how much more punishment I can take, I'm getting kinda iffy about my shields," Murphy suddenly said. Falco gave a look of disgust, knowing that he'd have to babysit for a while longer, while Fox got the job done, down below.
Leaving a few of the chain links cut, in the fence, and careful to step through them, Fox put his heavy voltage gloves and cutting utinsil back into his backpack. The three scurried across the grounds, careful to avoid the automated sentries that hovered back and forth waiting for any sign of motion detection. Once they got up to the building itself, all three put their backs up against the wall, and started walking along the wall towards the nearest building enterence.
"Now, Lee, you've gotta stay outside, and radio me if any actual guards start to swarm from anywhere, so I have time to figure out what the hell to do. Snowy? You're with me, but I'll need you to guard the Stairs because it'll be my only escape route, after I blow the thing." Fox gave these instructions, glanced down at Lee's automatic fire rifle, checked it to make sure the saftey was off, and gave Lee a respectful nod. He was only about 4 or 5 years younger than Fox, which wasn't much. At least 4 to 5 years older than Kit and the rest of the Darkclaw kids, and he seemed to have his head screwed on tight. Fox held up his fist, until his knuckles met Lee's knuckles, then Fox and Snowy dissapeared inside the facility.
Once inside, Fox pulled up the blueprints on his wrist-mounted PDA. The corridor went for another 150 meters then broke left where there would be an immeadiate intersection. To head straight would take them to the closest staircase. Proceeding down the hall, Snowy walked backwards, glancing over her shoulder to Fox, so that she could better watch the direction that they came from. Fox came to a stop at the intersection, Snowy's back gently pressing against her boyfriend's Uncle's back, both of them keeping their pistols aimed up in the air. Fox glanced around the corner, first left, than right, keeping his ears perked but hearing nothing. He kept his pistol up in the air and dashed across the intersection, heading straight across, staying in the same corridor. Snowy followed, keeping her pistol pointed downward at a 45 degree angle, and dashed across the intersecting corridor after Fox, then stopped, her back against the wall.
"Go half way up the stairs, so you're not seen. Wait for me, and make sure anyone that passes doesn't see you, and anyone that takes the stairs is shot. I need you to do this, and stay alive, Got it?" Fox and Snowy's eyes met and locked. Snowy looked at Kit's Uncle in a knowing way, that he would be the Family to save Kit's sanity, from feeling abandoned one day.
"Sure thing. Alright go blow this thing, So I can get back to the hanger, and talk to Kit," Snowy said with a slight grin.
"You like him don't cha?" Fox actually made it more of a statement than a question. Snowy nodded her head, admitting that such a statement was true.
"Yeah... But leave it to me to tell him, if ya Don't mind," She conceded.
Fox reached out and messed up Snowy's fur with his left paw, almost in an old fashion "noogie" style. She smirked at the Pilot, and darted half way up the staircase, hiding far enough up, so that people walking by the stairs wouldn't see her, so long as they didn't have a reason to take the steps.
Fox walked back down to the intersection, and after glancing at plans, made a left, heading down the hall, towards one of the fire-exit doors at the end of the hallway. He stopped before the double doors, and turned right, glancing upwards at the vent in the wall. Reaching into his backpack, he pulled out the same little utinsil that had cut the fence so easily, outside. This time, he pressed two small buttons then placed the head of the tool against one of the bolts of the Vent. It took a moment before the bolt began to turn counter clockwise. It was one of Slippy's inventions, and worked like a tractor beam, but not nearly as powerful. It had the power to grab at small objects only a foot away or so. Gripping a bolt had the same effect, he could use it to grab the bolt and turn it, no matter how tightly it was soddered into place.
The other handy gadget built into the tool, was a cutter beam that could pierce most surfaces, and was powerful enough to scratch a diamond. Fox finished the last of four bolts, and lifted the grate off the wall, and stepped into the shaft, pulling the vent back over himself. Using the little tool to get two of the bolts back in, Fox was able to make the vent secure enough that it would fool someone who simply walked by, which was good enough. Now for the tricky part: Climbing six stories in a vertical ventilation shaft.
Using suction cup paw and knee-pads, Fox began to proceed up the ventilation shaft, slowly and quietly. His right paw pressed against the shaft wall, and he pulled his knee free, at an angle, and lifted his leg, then pressed it agianst the wall, hoisting himself up by the power in his thighs. Another half-meter. He was nearing the Third floor, when he heard something from the vent shaft grating above his head. Slowly pulling himself up to it's level, he peered out at the sight of two talking lizards, in an argument with a scrawny chimp, wearing a backwards Hat.
"You cheated," One of the lizards hissed. The chimp looked outraged, and stormed out of the room, while the lizards seemed to quarell with one another about the best way to "deal with cheaters". Finally they both left the room, and Fox was able to continue on.
Lee Markett stood in silence, knelt down in the doorway, when something cought his eye. There seemed to be a streak of white across the sky, but it was too dark to be a shooting star. Squinting off into the distence, he saw the object connect with the ground, about two kilometers away. Whatever it was, it was larger than an Arwing, but smaller than...say an Imperial Scow freighter.
"Alright. Status Report," Falco ordered.
"Another Seven fighters down," Seether replied with confidence.
"Iced Nine m'self," Kit answered, trying to keep the emotion of victory out of his voice, as not to jinx himself.
"I've gotten three this time, but I'm not sure just how useful I'm going to be. Bad times, man. I may have to jettison my engine core," Murphy admitted with a sigh.
"We can't afford to lose an Arwing, so head back to GreatFox. Have Slippy get started on repairs, so we can use your help again." Falco's order was rather impartial and serrious toned.
"Understood, Returning ta base," Murphy grunted. With that, he gave a tap of his afterburners, and full throttled his way back towards the GreatFox.
McCloud pulled out his bolt device and started to undo the bolts to the ventilation grate, when out of no where, he experienced a dizzy spell that coulda sent most men tumbling back down the shaft. His body gave out on him, and the only command he could give to it, was to hold on tight, until the pins-&-needles passed. His free hand still holding that tool tightly, as not to drop it six stories down the shaft, Fox switched it to a cutter beam and finally just cut the grate open, and crawled through, collapsing on the ground. To his suprise, the entire floor was deserted.
"Guys, uh, I'm on the 6th floor, any sign of heavy resistence yet?"
"Nothing outside, all the sentries have taken some strange new orders, they're not patrolling right now, they're just following the fence parimeter," Lee replied.
"Uhm. I noticed that a digital display in the stairway has lit up with some sort of Venomeeze stuff, But I can only make out the simple words. Would anyone on GreatFox be able to translate it?" Snowy followed.
"Let me check, I think I'm seeing the same display up here, this place looks like it was abandoned or something, almost. It's real quiet," Fox said, knowing better than to add "too quiet" at the end, because it jinxes anyone who says it.
"Fox? Do you have your moniter headset with video equipment on?" Krystal's voice had replaced Peppy's.
"Uh...n...no i didn't take one of those... The first shape looks like a V with the letter K facing straight down,under it, like an X with a line straight through it," Fox explained. After explaining the first letter, he explained the rest until Krystal was pretty sure of the message.
"I think you've been comprimised. IT says... "evacuate facility, this is not a Drill, leak of poison gas on some of the floors, I can't tell which numbers they are by your description. Do they know you're there?" Krystal asked Fox, looking worried.
"SNOWY, LEE, GET OUT. This Mission is bust, GET OUT, go BACK to the tank!" Fox shouted into his wrist-band communicator. He'd still have to blow the joint, but he couldn't have the kids near the building, especially with armed lizards running out the emergency escapes. Not listening to their replies, or Snowy's long winded reply about the lizards that went down the steps to get out, earlier, and the actions she had to take to exit the building a bit ago, Fox continued on.
Pulling a resporator over his muzzle was the first act. He'd have to find something better for poison gas, but he couldn't get at his air unit, as it was back at the tank. He quickly unloaded the backpack of Plastique explosives and wadded them over the computer control booth, and the adjacent generation unit. Quickly, he made his way across the room to where there were bolts in the ceiling, that were about twice the size of his fist, and stood on a chair to put a wad there.
Once he set the explosives up, and readied them for detonation, he got his remote control out, and began to set that up as well. Finally he pulled the trigger in, and all the LED lights on each of the devices set into each of Seven wads began to blink. There were three lights. First a RED one that said "INACTIVE". To the right of that, a light that said "Error" which was yellow, and finally the one on the far right was Green. This one was labeled "ARMED". All of them were now green. Fox needed only to RELEASE this trigger on his remote control to blow the entire station.
It was a two step process. The Trigger, when depressed half way, would blow the first four plastique explosives mounted around the Generation unit and computer. These were only powerful enough to blow out a wall or demolish a room. The second three explosives were put onto the floor, and celing. He even got wad on a support beam that ran like a piller through the entire base, from top floor to basement, which would collapse the roof. The power of the second three explosives, which would be deactivated when the trigger was completly released, were powerful enough to level a city block.
Fox knew that if he was shot or killed in anyway, his mission would not be bust, which was the reason for having the trigger set up this way. Running towards the staircase, Fox kicked the double doors open. The staircase was illuminated in bright yellow. McCloud could hear Krystal yelling at him over the wristband communicator, but he really didn't have time to stop and listen. His breathing was light, and because he was running and his heart was beating hard, his legs wern't getting enough oxygen, and he could feel them starting to cramp up. There was, however, no alternative: he couldn't take deeper breaths because it might kill him before he got to the bottom.
As he neared the third floor, he could hear the sound of a child crying. It didn't make sense to him, but he knew that was the sound of a child crying in his ears. He rammed the double doors open with his shoulders, stairing down an empty aisle of the third floor and simply gawked as the sound echoed off the corridor walls. He turned back to the staircase, as if trying to make up his mind, but found himself face to face with... Leon! His nose scrunched against the end of a blaster barrel, and the chameleon gave a wry grin, his eyes unblinking.
"You're Dead! Falco put you down years ago, I saw it myself!" Fox exclaimed. Leon almost seemed to roll his eyes, pushing the barrel harder against McCloud's nose. Fox knew he could die now, and if the blaster didn't kill him, the bomb or gas would, so he held up the detonation trigger, and smirked.
"You kill me? I drop the trigger. You won't walk away from that," Fox started. As soon as Leon's eyes lowered to the detonator, and his jaw opened to speak, Fox lifted it up quickly, smashing it into the side of Leon's head as hard as he could. The over-swing sent Fox tumbling down the staircase, towards the second floor. Leon was no where to be found. The Pilot picked himself up and bolteded for the second story level, and around the staircase, heading for the first floor. He was almost out, and would leave the image of Leon to get blown into dust and ashes.
Up ahead, he could see the double doors of the exit, but the hallway seemed to contort around him, and he felt only an inch tall inside the mammoth coridor that stretched for miles upwards and outwards. His eyes fluttered shut, as he bolted forward, until his face collided with the double doors of the exit, and his body spilled out into the grayish dust of Macbeth's soil. His fist was tightly wrapped around the detonator, but his visual sense of reality was warped.
"Fox!" Lee shouted. Both he and Snowy ran to his side, and picked him up. Snowy hooked Fox's left arm around her shoulder, and Lee taking his right arm around his own shoulder. They carried him to the fence, and started hauling him through the previously cut hole, when he lost consciousness and dropped the detonator's trigger. This of course caused the entire facility behind them to explode in such a manner, that the force flattened the fence and knocked out the generator unit that caused the fence to be electrafied by touch. The trio all fell to the ground, as the force of the blast sent chunks of stone hurtling over their heads.
"The tank isn't much further," Snowy started, helping them both to their feet. She guided Lee to help her pick Fox up once more, carrying him towards the bolders up ahead, the Tank was hidden behind. Snowy opened Fox's left eye and noted how dialated his pupils were.
"We've gotta hurry. I'm not sure, but he almost seems as if he's been poisoned or if he's on some sort of hallucigenic ...something or other. Can you drive a tank?" She asked.
"I'll learn," Lee said with a slight grin, looking forward to the challenge.
"Question is," Lee continued, "can I land it on GreatFox's flight bay."
Fox lay slumped over and weezing, his head ducked down, his arms up over chest level, draped over Snowy and Lee's shoulders, his feet dragged the dusty ground. His eyes lifted up slightly, able to see the approaching boulders, in the clearing. His lungs were burning and his skin was starting to itch, from all the toxins that were in his fur now.
The hatch was unlocked and opened, and the Cabbit and Leopard began to lift Fox's burning aching body up into the hatch. From weezing, his muscles wern't getting enough oxygen, and it caused them to cramp up, painfully.
Once inside the LandMaster, Lee settled down into the pilot's seat, that feline-like contrasting tail sliding down into the tailhole built into the chair, and tucking those lengthy tall rabbit ears down, to close the hatch. Snowy strapped herself in, after making sure Fox was secure.
"What's this in his hand?" Snowy asked quietly. Lee glanced back over the backrest of the Pilot's seat and raised a brow.
"I think it's... the detonator. Fox how do we blow the building?" Fox was unresponsive to Lee's question, he simply continued to weeze and fought to inhail his breaths. Finally, his right paw lifted, and he dropped the Detonator to the floor, causing the trigger to be fully depressed. By the time the remote control unit hit the Tank's floor, The building beyond those large pair of boulders, was beginning to collapse, the roof caving in on the fifth floor, which collapsed down on the fourth floor. The weight caused the second and third floors to collapse down onto the first floor, until the entire facility was a huge pile of burning rubble.
"Alright, we've got afterburn boost on the throttle stick, we've got hover boosting over here, on the panel, I'm going to wager it's this one, and we'll use both... so hold on." Lee glanced back to Snowy and the slumped vulpine pilot, before mashing the Hovering booster key, causing the tank to tremble, and suddenly shoot upwards into the sky. Several thick red streaks passed across the sky, from the ground below.
"We're bein' fired on. Wonderful," Lee grunted.
Glancing down at the moniters, he could see that there was nothing but dark smoke comming up from under him. Drifting forward into the thick plume of smoke was the easiest way to stay camofladged until they were up into the atmosphere.
"Uh, GreatFox, this is Lee Markett team commander is down with need of immeadiate medical treatment, I repeat, team commander is down; I could use some help landing this toy on your bay deck, instead of punching a hole up through yer belly," Lee said with a relaxed tone in his voice.
"Ya sound confident that you can do this," Slippy replied over the dashboard communcation radio.
"Good to hear. Alright. I've got "UP" under control, now how do we navigate?" Lee said, still looking around the controls.
"Just go up, and we'll come and scoop you up. However we have a problem, the fighters are swarming up here and are still quite numerous, we can't get the GreatFox in close enough to get you, you'll have to re-land on the planet and wait," Peppy's voice chimmed in, over the radio.
"Uh... I don't have enough gas for a second take off, and I didn't know I had to ask, so... Special arrangements?" Lee glanced back over his shoulder to Snowy once more, then back to the dashboard readouts.
"Negative, Landmaster, We're not sure the LandMaster can withstand atmospheric t-t-tempratures, hot or c-c-cold," Slippy spoke up once more.
"Well I really didn't, uh... know this. We're approaching an altitude of one kilometer, with not enough fuel to land, not to mention a welcoming party down below," Lee said, still trying to familurize himself with the dashboard.
"Stand by, Land Master," Slippy continued, in reply.
"Land Master, This is Slippy, I'm incontrol of the Helm, and i'm commin' to g-g-getcha, so sit tight, and keep comming," The frog said, with renewed determination in his voice. Normally he'd back down from such a dangerous stunt, but Fox wasn't here to fly for him, and he knew GreatFox better than most, so it was up to him.
"HA! Another Kill for Seether!" The red feathered avian gloated.
"Another Kill that Seether will have to go get for himself, since FALCO obvioulsy shot it down for him," Falco shouted back, over the ships communicator.
"HELL NO, he was MINE," Seether hollered.
"In your dreams, I fired first, so my shot hit him first," Falco said with a smirk.
"But you were further away, so mine hit him first, Loser!" Seether wasn't going to let it go, either.
"BOTH of you, GROW UP, I'm not going to lose my friends because you two are squabbling over a kill, you can argue over your BlackBox flight recorder LATER," Kit shouted, looping between both Avians, and passing between them, to head into another dogfight. Falco quickly followed after the young McCloud, and opened fire on another squadron of incomming enemy fighters. Continuing to hold tightly onto his pride, Seether turned back, and headed towards another group of fighters, alone, opening fire.
"He really thinks he can take on six fighters by himself?... HEY DAVE, Don't go and get our fighter trashed buddy!" Falco said, first to Kit, then in the attention of Seether.
"Screw you, Lombardi. You're just jealous that I can take out more fighters, without the help of my Wing Commander," David shot back.
"Long fall below us," Lee said, watching the altimeter and the exterior temprature guage. He cycled through the varrious methods of temprature, from Kelvin to Celcius, until he found the measurment that he was used to. "Stupid Cornerian metric system," Markett groused quietly. The air was far below freezing tempratures now, lifting into the stratosphere. He could see the thick steam of his breath rolling out before his maw with every breath, and glanced behind him to see that Fox and Snowy were the same way. Fox's breathing was much more erratic now, as if his breathing passage was constricted or something.
The temprature read -50C. But it slowly began to rise until it was holding firmly at Zero. Breaking into the mesosphere, at 49 km over the surface, the temprature began to drop once more.. this time in a dramatic manner, to -80Celcius. (-112F).
"We're about to enter the thermosphere before long... and it's going to get hot..." Lee said, looking back to Snowy.
Then, before Lee's very eyes, Fox suddenly slumped over, held up only by his seatbelt restraints. The hot breath of steam compleatly dissapeared, and he was motionless. Snowy was extremly quick to react, pushing the button across his chest, to release him from the Belt. She forced him somewhat onto his back, sideways in the chair, so that his upper body was only slightly elevated. It would have to do. She quickly pushed his jaw shut with her left paw, and placed her mouth over his nose, and began to blow oxygen into his body. Her paws and mouth began to itch from whatever was in and on Fox's fur and clothes. She ignored the irritation and burning and continued to force fresh air into his lungs. Depending on the person, recessitation was different. With apes, and the gorilla line, it was mouth to mouth. With Canines, however, it was far different, and mouth to mouth wasn't an effective method. Snowy continued to keep her mouth clamped over his nose for a moment longer, breathing oxygen into his lungs, before she reached to check his pulse, which went from a fading rythem to a complete standstill.
"Dammit!" She brought her fist up above her head, and pounded it down overtop of Fox's chest, with all her might. She wasn't going to let the only family member of the man she loved pass away. She had to do this for Kit as much as for Fox and herself. Fox was unresponsive. Another rush of adrenaline mixed with fear swept her and she punched Fox McCloud in the chest once more, as hard as she could. Suddenly his body jolted upwards, as he forced himself to draw a breath. His muscles no longer ached, from that lack of Oxygen. It was to the point where he could hardly feel his fingers and toes.
"I imagine you're all cramped up right about now, but don't give up," The young 'Snowy' Rosen told him.
"Actually...didn't... notice," Fox whispered, with a thin smile.
"His body's going into shock from whatever that toxin did. It's constricting his breathing," Snowy explained to Lee, before turning around, to a corner. She stuck her finger down her throat, and forced herself to throwup into the back corner, until she couldn't taste the poison in her mouth anymore, and knew that it had been clensed of her muzzle. Lee glanced over the back of his chair, staring at her for a moment, but went back to the Pilot controls, without so much as a question of why she did that.
She could explain how stomach acids and enzyms would nuralize and wash the toxin from her mouth after having her lips wrapped around Fox's muzzle, to Lee at a later time. The teenage Leopard quickly ripped part of her sleeve from around her wrist, and began to dab it into her mouth. With that she began to use it to wipe Fox's nose off. Glancing down at the fabric, she noticed that there was a light tint of green and knew that it was from what had settled onto his fur, from running through it, back on Macbeth's Now-collapsed Facility. Next she folded the cloth back, on itself. Another lick, and she started wiping his mouth to try and get the stuff away from his breathing passages.
"How much further?" Snowy finally said.
"Dammit, Diane, I'm trying. GreatFox is comming to get us, they don't think we can survive in the extreme tempratures. LandMaster wasn't designed for it, but the fighter cover over Macbeth isn't cleared up yet," Lee explained.
"You know, we helped carry him. Our jackets will have to be tossed in Detox, heck, we might have to take a detox shower when we all get back, This stuff is pretty yucky. I just wish I knew what it was, so I knew what was up against," She grumped, outloud.
"We're entering the exosphere. We'd better hurry up, they're at 160 celsius... (330F) and climbing quickly. It looks like they're 100 kilometers above the surface, in the next 100 kilometers, the temprature'll rise almost 800 degrees Celcius (1,300 degrees), and that thing can't handle much over that," Slippy explained to the Rabbit standing behind him.
The LandMaster did NOT appear to be in good shape. Ontop of that, they seemed to be taking fighter fire, causing it to sway. Slippy could see the path it was veering from, the projected path they'd continued on, marked by a dotted red-line automatically drawn on the screen, and many other things, right to the percentage of their shields.
"Sweet Goddess, People. Someone get these fighters off our backs!" Lee ordered in a stern tone of voice. Seether and Kit broke persuit of their own targets and swooped back towards the Land Master, opening fire on the swarming targets, that were looping and firing at the tank, persuing it as it continued upwards, away from Macbeth.
"Dammit dammit dammit," Lee heard Falco's voice over his communicator.
"What's wrong?" Kit had replied, followed by Seether's snearing voice, "He's been shot one too many times, heh!"
"Quit arguing, you two!" Kit replied.
Lee looked back at Snowy then shrugged. Apparently she didn't understand just what was going on between the three pilots either. Another well placed shot rocked the tank causing it to spin slightly. Finally Lee pressed the "Talk" button, and spoke calmly into the comm.
"IF... we don't get our priorities straightened out? You'll have THREE corpses to write an epitaph for. I want to hear cooperation on the parts of everyone, because The last thing I want to hear before I explode, is NOT the incompetant arguing on behalf of two grown men, one of which is Military. You have all day tomorrow to aruge, so on behalf of Fox, Diane and myself... pull it together." Lee was stern, yet patient with his parental-like speech. After a moment of silence, Peppy's voice was heard on the Comm.
"Well said, Lee. We're almost upon you. However, you'll have to try and meet us half way, so we can reach you with the tractor beam." Peppy's voice was the last one spoken for the next ten minutes. In that time, Lee had to wait until the tank's light spinning had them facing GreatFox. Suddenly he mashed the afterburner, causing the LandMaster to lerch forward. Once the afterburner's were exhausted of Fuel, the wing-less LandMaster tank began to spin once more. The GreatFox looked as if it was turning upside down, then right side up, spinning counter-clock wise, as the tank approached.
A yellow warning began to flash on the dashboard, causing the rest of the panel to illuminate in yellow, as well. They were out of fuel. Lee glanced to his proximity display, noting that they still had 80,000 meters before they were within tractor beam range, and the Tank wouldn't hold it's altitude. It wasn't large enough, high enough or fast enough to maintain orbit over Macbeth, and began to decend slowly. The altimeter was only dropping by a few hundred meters per minute, not in any kind of wild freefall, but the drop was fast enough to cause the hull to heat up. The thermosphere was unbelievably hot at only 200 Kilometers above the surface (about 125 miles).
The unbarable heat was magnified by fur and thick clothing, and the trio seemed grim. Finally Lee raised his voice to Snowy, while watching the looming GreatFox as it grew closer out of the corner of his eyes.
"So uh... What's a Female have in common with a roll of Toilet Paper?" He finally said.
"Uh. ... I can't possible imagine, Lee," Snowy panted. A droplet of sweat fell from the tip of her nose, and hit her knee. She was already soaked from sweat and her clothes were droopy and sopping, causing her to murmur a "gross" or a "yuck" every so often from it.
"They're soft, and cushy, and sensative, but they take alot of crap," Lee said with a grin. She chuckled, which would have been more if it wasn't for such a grim situation, but the joke was funny enough to make her smile, and reminded her of one herself.
"So uh... Usually this is a joke I tell other girls, but What do men have in common with a zip-locking baggy?"
"Uh... Fill me in," Lee said, watching as the numbers decreased, on the distence readout.
"They're strong and durable, but you can always see right through them," She replied. Lee had to chuckle, rubbing the front of his face with the backside of his right paw.
Both of them gave pause, to look down at Fox, who was near unconsciousness. Lee handed Snowy a clean orange work-rag that was under the dashboard. She knew what to do with it, and started to towel Fox's face, gently. She dabbed under his chin and the side of his muzzle, and above his eyes.
Lee glanced back down at the proximity readout. He was nearing that goal of 10,000 Meters. Another streak of red passed the tank, causing Lee to shutter.
"I can't tell what's going on out there, so if this is it, then, Uh... Yeah.." Snowy looked down. Lee pivoted the pilot seat around to face her, and used his left paw to lift her chin.
"You won't tell anyone I told you this, But Kit Loves you. OR is in love with you, so Snap out of it," Lee told her. She gaped, and suddenly the red lighting completly dimmed out leaving them in the dark. There seemed a sudden relief from the heat, that left both in silence for a moment.
" Did we fall through the atmosphere? I don't think so, but," Lee wondered out loud.
"If we hit the ground at ten million miles'n'hour I'm going to kick you for telling me before I could do anything about it," Snowy said with a smirk. Suddenly the LandMaster shook hard, then came to a rest, and a single display moniter lit up. It showed a bright flat silver color. Under a moment of scrutany, Lee realized it was the flight bay Deck.
He reached up and popped the hatch, lifting his head through the opening. The LandMaster was steaming, and he could feel the heat radiating off of it.
"C'mon, we made it, let's get the hell out of this thing!" Lee exclaimed, as Slippy and Krystal ran out onto the flight deck, waving their arms. Lee turned his head about, in the hatch opening, to watch them, with raised brows.
"D-d-d-don't c-c-come out yet, you'll b-burn yourself, j-just c-c-close the hatch ferra minute, okay?" Slippy stammered, excitedly. Lee did as he was told, locking the hatch, while Slippy got the Emergency Flight Deck hose and doused the Tank's hull, causing a thick plume of steam to gush upwards.
Finally, Slippy placed a rubber slide tarp up against the Hull, resting over the side of the Tank's steamy silver siding, that reached up to just under the Hatch port. The lid popped off, and Lee started to help Fox out of the Tank. Finally McCloud's body began to slide down the rubber shute, until Krystal and Slippy recieved him, and helped him up, into a weak stance. Lee and Snowy came out quickly, stripping their jackets and tossing them onto the floor.
"Quickly, get him out of his jacket and clothes, we gotta get him in DeTox, and get him into medical. C'mon let's go, strip him down, and burn his clothes!" Lee said, running up to Slippy and Krystal. He was the first to grab Fox's shirt, ripping it, each of the buttons popping off. Slippy began to help, balling the shirt up and throwing it away towards the Land Master. Krystal helped by throwing his jacket and scarff towards the LandMaster, and quickly helped Slippy and Lee get him out of his pants, until he was only wearing his briefs. Slippy and Lee quickly started taking him towards the DeTox Chamber. Snowy and Lee went with Slippy and McCloud. Krystal glanced from Fox, back to the LandMaster he came from.
The Hull was scortched, and steam was pouring off of the exterior. The Treads had all melted completly off except for in small patches where they seemed to have cooked to the front and back roller wheels. The large barrel protruding from the front of the LandMaster was warped downwards, from such intense punishment, and would never fire again. The tank was totalled completly. It would never be anything more than scrap metal.
"Falco, return to base man, you're almost done, brother," Kit hated the fact he was ordering Falco Lombardi to return to base but... regardless there was no reply. Falco's fighter screamed across the sky, his afterburners glowing bright red.
"Falco?" Kit only said the word, quietly.
Suddenly Falco's fighter collided with Seether and his opponent, with a large explosion. Kit suddenly opened his throttle, and headed in that direction, at a high speed, trying not to panic.
"Dave?" No reply.
As the debris cleared, Kit could see the shattered hulls of three fighters, two of which were arwings. Kit punched his fist against the dashboard of his craft, in anger.
"Kit?" The Teenage McCloud's ears perked up, as he scrambled to locate the source of the signal. It was an ejected pod that was obscured by a chunk of Falco's trashed hull, and the voice belonged to David Seether. Strangly Kit felt at least some slight relief that one of the men was alive.
"What just happened?" Seether asked in a confused manner.
"I think .. I don't know, I think Falco went out of control and I don't know..." Kit shook his head, remembering Falco using his Afterburner moments before the impact. He really couldn't understand what the heck he just saw, and what the hell just happened?
"Is... Is Falco...?"
"Looking at the wreckage of shrapnel that used to be his fighter, I'd say he's pretty dead, We better hurry back and talk to Fox, I heard he was injured on his mission, or something," Kit replied, dispatching three more fighters, before heading back to get Dave Seether, so they could get home, and get far away from Macbeth.
"Oh..."
Lauren Baker stood at the doorway of her personal laboratory, tight lipped, and angered. She was holding the casualty reports of both sides in her hand, and upon this report, read "FARA PHOENIX" and "FALCO LOMBARDI". She was obviously annoyed, as she went into Andross's personal quarters and handed him the small screen that held the list.
"Fara and Falco are dead?" Andross said with a brow raised, showing slight concern. Baker nodded and took the display chart back and shook her head, patting it against the palm of her hand, before finally deactivating the chart. The small unit went blank.
"Looks like if we want a StarFox Clone we'll have to go for Fox McCloud, Peppy Hare, or the Frog. With Fox being the only one that flys for them anymore, It'd be easiest go simply Clone Fox, and use his twin to help us." Andross agreed to Laura's last statement, knowing she obviously had this quite planned out. If only Andross knew she was cloning him, to keep as her lover, and dispose of the real one. She finally sighed, and settled down on the edge of his bed, with a slight groan.
"What of the one that helped him on Dinosaur Planet? The blue Vixen," Andross offered.
"I believe her name is Krystal. We don't have a last name for her. If we can get her off the GreatFox, we should use her to our own ends; she'd make a proper clone," Laura said, with a devious smile.
"Yes... a Proper Clone... We should mount an offensive against GreatFox, when they less-expect it," Andross agreed. He knew, now that Macbeth's Forcefield generator was down, that GreatFox and McCloud's group would soon attack. Once they started their attack, GreatFox would be defensless, and he could move the StarBase to Venom's Orbit, have it re-shielded, lock McCloud in, and attack GreatFox in search for the girl... Krystal.
The guard stared at Falco, who in-turn kept his smirk. The Guard offered a grin in return.
"What you grinnin' at, Butthead?" Falco inquired.
"You. The Great Bird Pilot from Corneria... working for Venom," The guard said quietly.
"Psht. Your mom," Falco chuckled.
"MY mother layed SIXTY-TWO eggs. I NEVER met her NOR cared to," The Lizard snapped.
"You're such a shyester," Falco replied with a sigh.
"If you do not quiet that insolent beak, I'll stifle it for you," The lizard retorted.
"Shaddaup, Butt breath," Falco said, laying back on the mattress.
It was boring anymore, to be here. One of these years, Fox would rescue him... how swell. He was irritable from sitting here since almost last week now. In the cell block row behind his own, was an aisle full of prisoners. He recognized one of them, but couldn't place a name on the face. Not only that, but they didn't have guards, just Falco did. He thought back to the incident that got him in here, and scowled, reminding himself if he found that retard, he'd kick them in the tail. Heck, he couldn't believe he was duped, but it was a pretty ingenious plan, even for Andross. And now? Falco was sitting here, getting riddled with parables from a stupid Lizard... Not to mention in great pain.
Another pair of Armed brown lizards brought one more Venom uniformed Green lizard down the hall, shoving him into the cell next to Falco. However, this time, Falco didn't sit up, he just kept his winged arms behind his head...
"Jimbo, Your son's going to be alright. But we came pretty close to loosing him, that Toxin caused mild nurological effects, and stopped his breathing. But... We were able to save him. He's been growing close with Krystal, but still morns his friend Fara Phoenix. You brought him up really well, he's a good kid. I just wish he could have gotten to know you better, the way I knew you," Peppy spoke outloud quietly, then looked down from the picture.
"Where...?" He murmured to himself.
Was he robbed? What IS this? Where's the mess?. His room was completly spartin and tidy in every way. He ran his paw back over his head, looking down at himself. Clad in nothing, uninhibbited by any Garment, Fox simply frowned thoughtfully, wondering how he got into his own bed, and naked as a Jaybird to boot. He went for his closet, opening it to scroung around for...
"Holy cow," He couldn't help but gasp. All his pants were hung up, and well folded, all his shirts were next to that, three silver jackets hung up carefully next to that, and all color coded. His shoes were all neat upon the closet floor, side by side, in little rows.
"What the," He gave pause and knew he wasn't being alert... He finally took down a pair of pants and shirt, and quickly got dresed, after finding that his dresser drawers were all completly arranged in a neat little order, right down to folded boxers and briefs.
"For the love of the Goddess, what just...?" He muttered, as he opened the door to his room, slamming flat into Krystal. They both collapsed to the floor, Fox landing on his tailbone, Krystal landing on his stomach, draped unceramoniously across Fox's right ankle.
"I see you're up," She said with a slight grin, pushing herself up with her paws, and sitting up on her knees, to look him over.
"Yeah I... did... you... Clean .. my..?" Krystal began to giggle at his shy inquiry, causing him to offer a "confused face" but she knew darn well Fox knew it was her. So instead of answering his question, she nodded and shrugged, and finally spoke once more in that rich dialect Fox came to adore.
"You don't have to thank me, Fox. It's fine. It gave me a reason to be Nosey, you know how us Girls can be. Fox could feel his face rising in temprature, and crossed his eyes, with a slight grin.
"You're so silly!" She grumped, wacking him on the shoulder with a swing of her paw. Suddenly she leaned forward, and wrapped her arms around him. "Glad you're alright, you know. I was worried, after you didn't wake up for two days and," She started. However Fox interupted her after hearing he'd been out for two full days.
"THAT long?" He exclaimed. Now many things were running through his mind, from worrying about attacking the StarBase before they got shields back up, to getting those hostages out and the pay it would net.
"Fox, listen.. listen. Falco was killed, but we're not exactly sure what happened. All we know is he fired his Afterburners going in for an attack, we think his controls locked from damage, and he slammed into an enemy fighter and Seether's fighter. Both Arwings are destroyed but Seether ejected, so he's alive..." Krystal's voice was soft, sullen.
"I just..what? Falco's confirmed KIA?" Fox quickly got to his feet, tugging his shirt down, tightly. His right paw was offered to Krystal, who took it, and stood up with a frown. She nodded slowly and sighed softly, knowing that Fox wouldn't take it overly easy.
"We're leaving today. That base is going down," Fox said, grasping her wrist and heading towards the bridge. Usually Fox stormed off to be alone in a time like this, but this time, Krystal's paw was captured, and hand-in-hand, he lead her up the corridor, until they reached the bridge. "REPORT," Fox said in a clear voice, as he passed Slippy, then Rob, and stopped infront of the helm controls, facing Peppy, who sat in his chair beyond.
"Fox? You're awake? I... oh.. yeah, uh, The CoreBase is still defensless. We didn't wanna tackle it without you, because only Fool's rush in, but I, uh, uh, mean... " Slippy seemed to stammer, in shock that Fox was up and about, and his normal self once more.
"What about a team, we..." Slippy was interupted by Fox's quick orders being fired off one after another.
"We've got the kids. They're battle proven, and good in combat, plus we got Seether. I need you to keep GreatFox defended, and I need you to be here, so you can use the GreatFox's sensors to download maps and blueprints, when you get them. Peppy, I'm taking Krystal because she's valuable ground support. However, I need you to stay here, and destract Andross if he calls to try and be friendly. I know he doesn't care about negotiations, i just want you to stall him. While his back is turned, we'll be robbing his Jail cells. Rob," Fox turned about to the robot, who straightened up.
"Prep the Arwings for immeadiate launch. I need you to whip up that Gravity bomb clone that Andross used to open the blackhole in the asteroid belt, with. I want it attached to a Nova Bomb in my Arwing. After we get out of there, I plan to stuff it into the Core Base's port side vent. I've had enough of this, it's time to put an end to this jerk's monstrosity. Peppy? Ralley up the kids, and Seether; I'm planning to land these Arwings out this thing's wall, like a fly. Then I want to use metalic boots and suits, and go in by foot. Slippy? You're in charge of getting those suits ready, because we'll have to wear them in the cockpit, minus the kids. They're going to provide fighter cover. Rob? Get those three Spare Arwings ready, if the kids have to return to base, I want them to go right back out in a fresh Arwing, because I don't want my ride being shot off Andross's wall!" Fox finally stopped and burried his right fist into his left palm.
Each of them paused for a moment, to digest their objectives, and each nodded. Fox turned to Krystal, and kissed her cheek gently. His lips brushed her ear, as he whispered to her. Once she went off to carry out whatever Fox's last order was, Slippy departed the room, followed by Rob and Peppy.
"So, uh... Rob," Slippy started. However, the machine knew full-well what his creator was about to ask, and played back the audio clip, after Self-EQing the mix.
"Gas your ship, Krystal. You'll land with us, but you'll be our ride back. Kit, and Seether are going in too, and i'm leaving my Arwing on the outside of the base; I plan to self destruct the Arwing, to prevent them from launching any fighters, so You'll be my ride back. Don't worry, we'll get payed so much, we'll be able to afford new arwings," Fox's whispered voice had said. Slippy and Peppy looked to each other and frowned.
Peppy, of course, was the first to speak, "He's being reckless. That fighter's alot of money, and he really thinks he can take out Andross this time." Slippy nodded in agreement.
"Ante' up." Five clinks were heard, as each tossed a white chip into the pile. They mummbled to one another for a few minutes, David reaching to draw a card from the pile, while Murphy placed his cards on the tabe and muttered "Good times" to himself.
"Yer fulla crap, Murph." Snowy replied, dropping her cards face up, on the table with a sigh. "Fold."
Kit's eyes glanced side-long to Lee, who put one of his cards down, and drew another, then leaned back into his chair.
"Wanna sweeten up the deal?" Murphy said, turning to David, while pushing a few blue and red chips out into the pile.
"You're crazy, kid. That's suicide for you." Murphy shrugged and put another red chip out into the pile.
"Screw you," David Seether snorted, putting his cards down, face up. Two Pair. Two Queens and Two Sevens'. "Fold, ya little crap." Seether snorted again, then sniffed the air, folding his arms.
"I guess we're starting a club," Snowy said to David with a grin.
"Yeah."
Kit was next, putting just as many red and blue chips out into the pile, to match Murphy.
"I call yours, and raise you double," he replied, then put the same amount of red and blue chips out, to double his pile.
"Fold," This time it was Lee. Peppy watched in amusement, arms folded, leaning against the open doorway.
"This time, it's between you and me, Anderson," Kit said with a devious grin.
"Dammit. I fold," Murphy Anderson sighed, putting his cards down. Full House, Three Kings, two ace's. They all glanced down at his cards with wide eyes, it seemed the grey wolf wasn't bluffing afterall. "What the hell do you got, big shot?" Murphy grumped. Kit reached out and pulled all the chips into a pile infront of himself, and smiled.
"Nothing really, just a pair of red jacks, nothing really good," Kit said, laying his cards down with a triumphent grin.
"You lyin little crap," Murphy sneered.
"Oh you sunavabish little bluffer you," David said, but grinning, obviously impressed by Kit's poker face. Snowy shook her head, and Lee chuckled. Finally Peppy walked into the room, until he was standing before the table, looking at each of the five pilots, and having pleasant memories of back when he flew for Corneria, sitting around the card-table until he was on duty. Looking to each of them, he finally raised his voice for them to know he needed their attention completly.
"Listen up, boys and girls. Fox woke up," He started, noticing that several of them went wide eyed, with delight. "HE feels it's time to strike, and that the only oppertunity to attack may be now, while that CoreBase hasn't gotten a new force field up. This may be our one chance to strike, so let's make it good. The plan will be simple," Peppy continued.
"We all launch, except for me and Slippy. We'll have arwings for all Five of you, and you'll provide cover to Fox, Krystal, Kit and Seether who are going to enter the base, and get the people out. We have access codes from Corneria, that will seperate the lower half of the corebase. We know for a fact these codes work, and our plan is to comindeer the lower section of the base, and blow the top hlaf into pieces. There is no drop ship, so our only alternative is to make sure we don't have any stow-a-ways on our hijacked ride back to Corneria. Seether, Kit. We're landing the Arwings on the outside of the base, and using magnetic boot suits to penetraite the Starbase. The rest of you guys will have fighters fully loaded to take out the enemy cover, and make sure the three landed arwings and shuttle pod arn't shot off the Base's surface. There are THREE spare Arwings for you to re-dock and switch into, if you're damaged or out of smart missles and nova bombs. Snowy, Lee, Murphy, there are only enough spares for you to switch once. If you switch because you're out of arsonel, we'll reload your first fighter for you to come back for. If you have to switch fighters, because of extensive damage, you've got only one more chance, with the new one. We can't Fix a damaged Arwing fast enough to pull that kinda stunt. Anyways, Kit, Seether, meet Slippy, Fox and Krystal in the locker room downstairs. Murphy, Snowy and Lee, you guys meet Rob on the flight deck. Don't die, make this time count. You guys are fighting for your wing commander, but he won't be there to help you guys out of a jam. As far as I can tell, this is the big Climatic Finish, so let's make this a hell of a Finalie to walk away from," Peppy said. It was a long winded pep talk lecture, but he knew they could handle it.
Kit glanced to the other four, and gave his chip pile a little hug, and grinned to each of them, "Stay alive, because I plan to take the rest of your money later." Snowy grinned, and went to kiss him on the cheek before departing with Lee and Murphy.
"Don't die, Diane," Kit said, suddenly serrious.
"Don't die, Kit Karamak McCloud. You come back to me? And I'll come back to you," She said with a soft smile, then grinned slightly. "You think about that little kiss. And if you walk back into my life when this battle against Andross is all over? I'll give you another. Maybe one you wont' forget," She said, placing her paw against his muzzle gently. Her smile was soft and graceful. With that, she turned to follow Lee and Murphy out of the room, and down towards the flight deck.
"Damn, McCloud," David said. Kit looked to him, questioningly. "You know she loves you, why don't you just go tell her you feel the same way, just incase. I mean she gave you a parting kiss to think about, you go give her something to think about, go boy! Get to it!" Dave said, with a shove to Kit's shoulders. He quickly followed the trio down the hall, in persuit of Diane 'Snowy' Rosen.
Peppy patted Seether on the shoulder with a paternal smile, that simply seemed to say "Good job," Without a single word spoken. The Avian understood Peppy's look, and nodded with a light chuckle.
"Someone had to tell him to just "Go For It". Alright, I better head down to the Locker room for suit up," He said, patting Peppy on the shoulder with a winged hand. He left, leaving Peppy alone at the Card Table.
The Rabbit picked up the top card, letting fate decide what it would be, or if it was a sign of any sort. Ace of diamonds.
"Works for me," Peppy said under his breath, and departed the bunk room for the Bridge.
"Collievera, welcome back to the world of the Living," Zyro said without so much as a glance.
"Yo." Carson said, his voice seemed phlemy. His paw was raised to his snout, and he cleared his voice, until the dustyness of his voice was cleared away.
Suddenly something cought Zyro's eyes. Two rows over, was a tall Blue Avian, with a circle of red feathers around his eyes. Not many Avians had that easily distinguishing feature about them, infact Zyro could only think of one. He walked to the bars, and peered through them, squinting.
"F...fal...," Zyro cleared his throat, and shouted to the cell two rows over. "FALCO LOMBARDI?" Well, that got the attention of at least a third of the cellblock... And the Avian. He walked to the back side of his cell, wrapping his winged hands around the bars, peering through it. Those shackles that adorn his ankles linking together with a foot and a half of chain, rattled as he approached the opposite end of his small cell.
"One of my adoring Fans?" Falco hollared back, but not nearly as loudly.
"Zyro Ethington!" Zyro yelled back.
"Who?" Falco's return seemed full of perplexity.
"You know, The guy who had that Binomium thing during the Narconi Mission, Then I was the Pilot that took down that Sector Y Jelly Fish that covered the Titania defense station!"
"Uh... Sure. How long ya been in for?" Falco said, simply dismissing the kid, having no clue as to who this guy was.
"Three weeks, You?" Zyro hollared back.
"Just over a Week. It'll be my second week day after tomorrow," Falco said, setting down onto his bunk. "How long, between the last dinner and Lights out? I havn't been able to really count it faithfully," Falco said. Now Zyro's interest was beyond peaked. He felt that Falco had the same idea he did and grinned giddaly.
"Why, you get hungry for a midnight snack, before the lights go out?" Zyro asked, ignoring several "Shushes" from neighboring inmates, who havn't woken up all the way just yet.
"You know it, man. So any idea how long all that stuff is?"
"About two minutes for the service, and about Fifteen minutes before the lights are out, may I suggest the pourage? I know it's thick like bubble gum, but I hear it's healthy to get you out of a jam, if you're hungry for that midnight snack," Zyro replied.
Falco decided he liked this kid, and wondered how gusty he was, with a slight grin at an incuring thought.
"So you ever tried the Midnight snack idea?" Falco finally asked.
"Ah, I might tonight. When my stomach gets locked up, I've heard it's just what you need to get out of that hunger jam. Just sit it aside, it doesn't go bad or anything," Zyro said, then settled down in his bunk... Damn, 16 hours to go, before the next "lights out".
"Well I gotta jet, kid. Enjoy dinner, I think I pissed my Personal Guard off," Falco hollared and the Cell Block grew silent once more. Zyro walked over to Carson and spoke in a discreate quiet whisper. Carson's ears perked up, and he leaned against the cell bars.
"Take your dinner tonight, and when the guard leaves, I want you to smear it on the lock, before they close the gate. Just smear it over the locking mechinisim, and make sure it's gooped on there good. Those stupid mindless feeding guards.. -I've got to wonder. They're completly void of thought, You can just tell," Zyro said. Carson looked confused as to why they'd be smearing that grainy crap on the door, but nodded and made a mental note of it.
"We ready, kiddies?" Fox said with a chuckle, glancing at his wrist chronometer.
"I was ready 7 HOURS ago, when we started getting measurements done for these stuffy suits. Let's kill somethin!" Seether crowed. Fox opened a visual channel to Seether's fighter, and had planned to make a face at him, but the visual of Seether was that of a reflective helmet, and a stuffy silver body, from the shoulders up. One couldn't even see his face. Fox lifted his gloved hand and put his paw infront of the camera, offering the One Fingered Peace Sign. Seether was motionless for a moment, before returning the gesture.
"With love, Foxy," Seether said, while keeping the gesture on Fox's moniter.
"Cute, children. Are you boys ready?" Krystal's voice chimmed in. Fox and Seether both seemed to stiffen up, and the visual channel was closed.
The Large bay doors began to open up, with warning lights glowing to life. The large red Flood lights all around the hanger began casting the bay into an etheral crimson glow. A plethoria of stars dotted the sky, beyond those large bay doors sliding appart. Each Arwing was snug in one of Four Booths, Krystal's ship on the edge of the deck. The shuttle pod began to lift from the ground, and it's engine thrusters began to glow from orange to blue. She began to move forward until she was clear of the bay doors completly.
"Alright Dave, Kit. Count down for launch," Fox said.
Behind his Arwing fighter, a thick partical buildup of blue hued heat began amassing in a thick ball of azure. Fox's fighter was the first to shoot foreward, leaving a light scorch mark against the back of the Metallic booth's Booster Shield. Following Fox, Kit and Seether shot out, respectivly. Fox tugged back on his stick, flying above Krystal's ship, Kit and Seether dropping down below her, then looping around, until they were in formation around her.
"Alright, Let's wait for the other three," Fox said, slowing his throttle down enough that the others would be able to catch up, before they jumped into hyperspace. The infamous blue anomoly of Sector X was to their left, the small blue dot that was MacBeth was up ahead. Fox lifted his paw, putting his thumb infront of his eyes, until his thumb blocked out Macbeth. Then slowly he lowered his paw, Macbeth was nearly the same size as his thumb from this distence.
"Alright," Slippy started, "We've got 9 Arwings, You're obviously in the first Six. Trryyyy to bring at least a few of them back, they're not ch-ch-cheap."
"Don't let your desire for vengence to cloud your mind, you've got to stay sharp," Peppy added.
"Alright team. I've never led a strike force of this size, and I don't plan to start today. I'm not comming to save anyone, and GreatFox will be right behind us, until it's close enough that your replacement fighter is only a hop skip and a jump away. Alright, Everyone knows the plan, we'll break formation when we get infront of this thing. I have a plan of my own to take out the Launch bay on this bad-boy, so bare with me, until after I land. Jump-coordinates inputed, everyone?" Fox asked...a pause, then, "Alright. Mark!" Each of the Seven Fighters pushed their HyperDrive engage key, and Slippy activated the HyperDrive for GreatFox, causing each of 8 vessels to jump into the folds of Liniar Space-Time.
Weaving straight between the folds of Liniar Space, they zipped through the Lylat System, and within 90 Seconds, all dropped out of Hyper Space. The return to normal Time-Space caused the pillars of light to dissapate in each Pilot's eyes, and for their pupils to re-dialate.
"Break formation and Open Fire, let's provide a nice destraction for everyone," Lee said. Glancing into his Aft-View screen, he could see that GreatFox was several Kilometers away, having dropped out of Trans-light speed a second before they did. Lee and his team spread appart, going after different vent shafts, opposite to where Fox and his Coterie would need to land. Flea-Fighters immeadiatly began pouring out the Hanger bay on the side of the large metallic rock. Simultaniously, several squadrons of fighters uncloaked, having StarFox and the DarkClaws completly surrounded.
"Dammit! They were ready for us! Alright, let's take plan B into effect," Fox shouted to his own team. This is where Slippy's hardwork went into action. Each of the Three Arwings and the Shuttle pod dissapeared, powered by the old Chi-Fighter's cloaking device.
"What the hell? Star Fox squadron dissapeared off my scope," Murphy said to Lee and Snowy.
"No clue man, Just keep the fight up," Lee replied.
"Well, let's tear these guys up, initiate bright-fire!" Snowy said after that. Each of the three Arwings pointed into the direction of a different cluster of enemy squadrons, and fired several Nova Bombs outward in their directions. The several Nova bombs hurdled towards the first wave of fighters and exploded, quickly vaporizing a great deal of them, depleating their numbers greatly. Now at least the Three Arwings would have a chance, against such a numerous opponent.
"Keep moving, so they don't get you! Loop if you got a lock on yer Six!" Lee shouted, pulling away from his team mates.
"Let's get Crazy!" Murphy called out, punching the afterburners, and immeadiatly tearing into the first group of fighters that came into his cone of fire. "Good times!" He shouted, disentagrating the first two fighters and causing a third to fly out of control and spin clockwise. It slammed into another enemy fighter, causing both to explode.
He brought the Arwing down ten meters from the opening of the Launch bay, and shut his Arwing down. Now only one LED light was flashing, on the dashboard, which was labeled "ARMED". He opened the canopy, and began to climb out of the anchored Arwing, and switched on his magnetic boots, feeling his body suddenly drop down from the Arwing's hull.. down to the Comet sized metallic surface of the Core Base. With that done, Fox lowered the intensity of the magnetic boots, and started to take off, across the surface, to meet up with Krystal, Kit and Seether with lunar strides.
It was easily a ten minute run to catch up with Krystal, Kit and David Seether, but the space was necessary. Fox pressed a button on his wrist, and spoke into the mic on the side of his jaw.
"I need someone to fire a dumb-fire air-to-air missle at the Hanger Bay, but don't get too close when ya do it. Do it now," Fox said, approaching his team, and stopping amongst the faceless mirrored helmets, glancing at each Member's visor. It was as if he could see into them, but knew he wouldn't be able to. Lee turned about, after blowing another adversary into the stars. He loaded a dumb-fire "point and shoot" missle into the tube and shot it directly at the Hanger Bay. The Cabbit looped back into a 180, heading away from the Core Base. Lee's missle exploded with a little orange burst... followed by a sudden explosion that rocked the entire Core Base.
The guard turned around and glanced down at his wristwatch, then answered, "Thirty Minutes."
Suddenly the entire room began to shake roughly, until Falco found himself stumbling to the floor. The shockwave knocked both guards over, who quickly scrambled to their feet, and ran off down the hall, to report to their battle stations. Falco had already started to figure out the whole deal... The Idiot Lizards who served the grub were simply servent clones, with no intellegence. They were drones. That ment they wern't trained to fight, so if there was an attack? Falco knew he'd still get fed, and now there would be no guards to watch him, which was a plus.
"Detonated a Torpeedo built into my Fighter," Fox said after securing the channel. "Alright, Maintain full radio silence, with my team, unless it's an ABSOLUTE emergency and it's nothing you can tell Slippy or Peppy about," Fox exclaimed, then turned the volume down on his wrist band controls, and slid the metalic panel back over the buttons until it clicked shut. He raised his right paw and made a fist, pumping it up and down, to give them the sign that it was time to go.
They followed Fox to a small ventilation shaft, three feet wide. It was covered by a small welded grating, which was only a small job for Fox's blaster pistol. David raised a gloved hand motioning for them to enter the pipe, as if to say he'll take up the caboose. Kit raised his hand as if to say "Family First," And Fox raised his paw to the pipe, as if to say "Ladies First". Krystal looked around herself at the three extended paws, motioning to the Pipe's enterence, and fought the urge to slap each of them "high 5" and walk away, but this was a time for absolute serriousness, and put her paws on the rim of the pipe. She began to crawl into it, deactivating her metallic boots. With that, Fox and Kit made their way in, and David brought up the end of the line.
They climbed about 75 meters into the base, until Seether turned about and pulled his blaster. He quickly opened fire on the Pipe they were inside of, heating it. He turned on his magnetic boots, putting his foot against the orange metal and, pulling his legs forward, he tucked his knees agianst his chest. With this tidey manuver, Seether pulled on the hot metal until it started to bend inward.
He repeated the proceedure using his blaster pistol, which took several minutes of concentraited highpower blast to heat the pipe interior. He repeated the proceedure, until the pipe was nearly collapsed. Finally he brought up his boots and activated the thruster in the heels, and simultaniously used his blaster on the nearly-collapsed pipe, until it was completly sealed air-tight. David quickly shut the magnetic treds off.
His thrust boosters were completly out of fuel, as well as his pistol, so he tossed it back at the collapsed pipe that was now welded shut. The pistol fell back against him, and slid down the pipe until it was stopped by Krystal, who put her paw down on it, to catch it from heading down the pipe further and possibly give them away. Gravity was obviously a little strong here, simulating Venom's large gravity pull.
Finally, the group reached the bottom of the Pipe, which opened up into a garbage disposal system, that was completly powered down. There was an interesection that split several directions, one towards the Trash Compactor, one that went towards the multiple incomming garbage shoots throughout the base, and the pipe leading out to space, where they'd come from. Fox punched up some keys on his wrist band and waited.
"Alright, I'm going to upload it to his PDA," Slippy said, addressing Rob.
Ontop of that, there was no longer a Dropship, and this would be Fox's way of making one. Finally reaching so far into the Pipe, Fox stopped and settled down into the pipe, putting his feet up on the wall of it, his back against the walling of the pipe, opposite of his feet. McCloud spread his ankles appart three feet, and pulled out a cutting tool, starting to cut a square section between his ankles, using his foot placement as a measurment of how large to make the cut. A soft blue flame with shimmering orange sparks reflected off Fox's Visor, casting a bright reflection back onto the pipe interior. The team waited patiently until he finished the last cut, then put the tool back into his pack.
The Pilot drew his feet back, and used both heels to kick the side out of the pipe. From the thickness of the piping, the inch-thick block moved a few centimeters, until it would only need another slight push to knock it free. With it still in place, but now loose, Fox pulled out another tool, with a large suction cup on it. He quickly applied some sort of gel to the cup, and pushed the rubber cup against the rectangle pipe piece.
Mashing the rubber cup on until it was flat, so the gel was touching the metal surface, Fox began to use his feet to push the block forward again until it slipped out of a fresh Rectangular hole. He quickly and stealthfully lowered the pipe piece to the floor in silence.
Fox was the first to take off his helmet, and the other three followed, all stowing them underneath janatorial supplies. McCloud began helping each of them out of their suits, then Krystal helped him out of his. Once they were free of their previous garment, they hid the suits in a janitor locker in the back corner of the room.
"Why couldn't we just hide them up in the pipe?" Kit asked.
"It's a garbage shoot. If someone upstairs throws something away, it'll pass through that pipe, on it's way to the trash compactor. Then once the trash is compacted nice and tight, they just jettison it out into space, from the Pipe we entered through."
"We... were just... in a Garbage shoot?" Krystal asked, in dismay.
"Uh yep." There was an awkward moment of silence, as the team hooked up utility belts on their waists, with the necessary tools for their mission.
"Wonder how the kids are making out, out there," David finally said, after debating whether or not to break the quiet. Fox gave him a slight nod, while soundlessly getting his gear memorized, so he could grab the right tool in a moment's notice. Finally the group donned night vision, propping the goggles upon their foreheads, for now. Fox pulled his PDA out, and started searching the grid for the nearest power relay, and plotting himself a course by foot. He lifted his paw and made a motion for everyone to split up, and quickly darted out of the janitorial closet, his mission clear in his mind.
"Don't you got a battle to fight pal? What're you botherin me for?" Falco sneered.
"We don't TRUST you, bird pilot."
Great. They don't trust him, so they're sending a guy all the way down here to watch him in the middle of a battle. At the same time, Falco felt honored that Andross would give him such special attention. He reached to his chest, to rub his feathery fingertips against the stitches over the flesh of his chest, underneath a cluster of blue feathers, then winced. Another few minutes went by and the Lights went out, at their regular time. Complete pitch black.
Falco went back to his bunk and grabbed his pillow. It was special medical treatment for being stabbed, one would suppose, as other inmates were pillow-less. He dumped the contents of his dinner on the floor, quietly, and wrapped the pillow around the bowl, then broke it to pieces against the floor, now muffled by the thickness of his pillow. The bed may have been rock solid, and there were no sheets (of which one may hang oneself with, to try and end their prisoner days), but the pillows were pretty thick.
The bowl on the other hand, broke into elongated, curved fragments. One of the pieces, the second longest of the eleven fragments, was slightly curved and sharp at the end. Falco left the pillow ontop of the rest of the pieces, after using his fingertips to find that perfect one, then slowly stumbled his way to the cell gate. Wrapping his free hand around the gate bars, he slowly slid the gate open. His plan had worked. The gummy nature of the food had kept the locking pin from sliding, and the gate remained unbolted, in the mechanical lock device.
Falco quietly praised himself, before lifting both his hands out for the guard that stood infront of the cell door. The lizard opened his mouth to scream, but his throat felt choked, as through strangling hands held him in a deadly grip. Was he being asphyxiated? No. No sound emerged from his throat.
In an instant that seemed to go on almost forever, the guard felt a coldness slide through his clothing, piercing his skin, an icy pain that slipped between his ribs deep into his chest.
The deadly object, the vice of his ending; the unidentifiable hating evil - plunged into his heart, and the lizard felt himself begin to die. Then, as the last vestiges of life drained from the lizard's body, he could hear something... Far back, in the faint remnants of his consciousness, he heard laughter. The laughter grew louder, mingling with the ice-cold pain until there was nothing but numbness. And for the lizard, his short-lived terror was at an end.
Now to meet up with Zyro, Carson and get the hell out of here...
There was a water pipe directly above their head, which ocassionally had a blue circle painted around it. This was the cold water for the entire floor, and Fox turned to Krystal, waving his paw forward. She followed him, and the pair headed down the next corridor, and to the end of the next hallway. They stopped at a dead end, and Fox placed his finger over his lips, to gesture for her to 'not even breath'. He held his paw out to her, for her staff, and waited for her to hand it over. She finally, although reluctantly, placed the staff into his paws, and stepped back.
McCloud glanced up at where the celing passed overtop the dead end wall. There was a good two feet of space between where the pipes dissapeared overtop the wall, and Fox knew just what was beyond it. With Krystal's staff, he planted the end into the floor, causing the end to glow blue. Without a second thought, he suddenly launched himself upward, pole vaulting up into the crawl-space between the top of the wall and the celing.
Fox dropped the staff back down to her, then began to crawl back into the wall, for a bit, following the blue marked pipe until he found an electrical conduit, and panel. Flipping the goggles over his eyes, which rested down over the top of his muzzle, Fox quickly switched them on. Once activated, his paws reached out to the panel, pulling the door open, and grasping for the switch that was thick and large, filling his padded palm with its cold metallic size. Pulling down hard, Fox could finally feel the large lever sink into the lower position with a satisfying "ka-thunk".
That phospherescent green began to illuminate brighter and brighter until a solid sheet of neon green had Fox's eyes adjusting. He turned away from the panel, back towards the direction of which he came, the green dimming just a bit in the center of his view. Taking the shape of a dark-green square, with a lighter shade of green about the sides, it looked like a tunnel through his night vision. Crawling forward, Fox quickly scampered forward until his crawling space opened up below him. He lept down to his feet, crotching down at the end of the drop, knees properly bent to absorb the impact. McCloud glanced up at Krystal, rising to a stand. She too, wore the night-scope over her head now; the entire floor was pitch black.
Kit Karamak McCloud was crouched down, perched upon a file cabnet. He'd crawled up into the heating system, to follow it to the electric box for this entire floor, and he couldn't seem to find it. Now here he was, inside some sort of Laboratory, perched upon the file cabnet which had broken his fall, from the heat vent above his head. The regester grating was laying on the floor, and he was holding his breath. Two Lizards outside the room, were discussing what the noise could be, before kicking the door open. He could hear them argue about what to do if there was an enemy inside, and it made his head spin with frustration.
The File cabnet was adjacent to the door, snug up against the wall. Finally the door swung open, slamming into the side of the cabnets, and Kit waited for them to storm into the room, guns lifted. Now he was behind them. They walked right into the middle of the room, not seeing him upon those cabnets, behind the wide open door. Kit reached to the left, and gave the door a nudge, until it was only ajar, then lept from atop the filing cabnets, tackling both lizards to the floor. There were two silent blaster shots, and a pair of loud groans, then an insuing quiet.
Kit checked each lizard for security cards, access keys, weapons and any other devices or items. One had a pack of ciggerettes and a lighter, a pistol in his hand, and an access card for the next level up. The other guard had a key card for the next floor down, and the rifle in his hands. Kit swiped both, looking them over with a frown.
They wern't anything like his CO2 pistol and BB rifle. This wasn't anything like Papetoon. Each weapon was a great deal heavier, and more solid, then the fake ones used back home. Kit's thoughts quickly went to his foster mother, and he sighed softly, knowing she had to be having a coniption right now.
"You stupid boy. Why couldn't you let yourself live a normal life," Kit quietly scorned himself... But before he could finish lecturing himself in those exact words that Jena, herself, would have used to repremand him... He realized what he was saying, and paused. WHAT was he talking about? THIS is where it was all at, the thrill of playing hero gave him a buzz that he would never forget. Finally, Kit made his way from that office, and ran down the hall, following a pipe with a red circle, along the celing. Kit knew the hot water pipe would lead him right to the main power relay for the entire floor, and if he was going to accomplish his task, he'd have to hurry up and get that electricity off, and find David.
Several moments went by and Seether still haddn't found the end the hall. Another few lizards ran by, as the base was rocked again, by another volly of blaster fire. The avian knelt down close to the floor, staying behind a set of double doors, and a trio ran by, heading to wherever their orders would take them. Footsteps were heard behind him, and he began to spin around, unable to do it quickly enough, in a crouched position. His eyes widened as he saw who it was, his beak dropping open.
"YOU!" Suddenly the lights went out, on his floor.
"Seether?" Kit dialed in his frequency, and spoke into the wristband communicator.
Static crackled over the piezzo speaker, in reply. Kit pushed his In-Ear moniter in, with the tip of his finger, and pulled his paw back infront of his chest, dialing in the command for the communicator to send the frequency to his Moniter. With that done, he took off down the crawl-space, and dropped to the floor, heading back up the hallway. Where the hell WAS that avian idiot?
Suddenly, a group of six lizards ran out into the darkened room, opening fire into the inky tendrils of shadow, that embraced the room so well. Krystal placed the staff's end into the floor, launching herself across the room at one of them. Her foot connected with the Lizard's arm, causing him to drop the gun, simultaniously bringing the staff up and into his jaw.
The little brownskin creature really wasn't ready in the darkness. The Attack easily dropped him to the floor and he was unable to regain his equlibrium, pinned underneath her foot. She spun the staff about, catching the adjacent lizard in the back of the head, thrusting the pole left, then right, catching the other in his stomach. From her meditated training, she was able to knock him clear across the deck, and into the nearest bulkhead with a single swing. Fox took the other three out with carefully placed shots of his blaster, which released gushing green light over his night vision's phospherescent visual glow.
"Right. Cleaned house, you know," Krystal said, pushing the staff into the slot in her backpack, causing the pole to extend, then shrink. Fox pointed out a hallway, after glancing at his Personal Digital Assistent, for reference.
"If we're going to split this base into it's battle section, we need to find the secondary bridge, and blow the locks, controlled by the Bridge on the top floor. Once the Core is exposed, we'll let GreatFox and the kids take care of the rest, we'll escape and I'll detonate the G-bomb. Let's go," Fox said. Krystal blinked twice, running after him.
"G-bomb?" She seemed somewhat confused.
"You'll see, If Andross gets away or survives, he'll still be stuck in the blackhole. Better to trap him, if you can't kill him, and Lord knows I've tried," Fox said, long windedly.
"Alright, you know the drill, find all the important sounding functions, and label them in Cornerian for me, then we'll get this show on the road. While you do that, I'm going to fling my wooden shoes, Sabo, into the machine, get me?" Fox said with a grin.
"Wooden shoes, Sabo?... into the machine?" Krystal blinked twice.
"Hence, Sabotage," Fox replied. He began to climb up into a heating vent, with his blaster tightly wedged into his left paw.
Krystal stood alone. She unrolled a strip of the tape and placed it overtop a venomeeze collection of letters, reading "clear moorings", and wrote in the Cornerian translation. This would be her job for the next hour.
"Yeah? You got a G-Diffuser? Let's see you do this," Lee snapped, pulling back on the stick all the way, and going into a barrel roll and immeadiatly breaking port. To his right, the lizard kept straight, unable to pull off the tight manuver, while in a loop. As the Cabbit pulled away from his persuer, Snowy came from behind to blow the Venom ship appart with a well placed blaster buildup shot.
"Good times, man," Murphy sudden uttered, taking out another Lizard, himself.
"Alright team, check in... What's your Damage Report?" Lee finally said, after finally picking off that fighter squadron with a few well-placed blaster shots.
"Everything is good," Snowy said.
"It's all good, bro. Not a scratch on me, Infact... dammit. slight damage to starboard stabalizer," Murphy said, his cheery tone growing angry, as he'd taken a bit of enemy firepower right in the middle of his little speech.
"Good enough, let's go for another round, then we'll head back to the base and start pounding on it again. After that we can..." Lee was suddenly interupted by a massive explosion. It's shockwaves alone jolted all three Arwings. The attention of each of Seventy-four fighter pilots was now on the StarBase, which began to seperate into two parts: one a massive 2/3rds larger than the other piece, which seperated from the bottom.
"Alright, they've done it. New plan, keep the fighters away from that bottom piece! Stay away from that top piece, I think they're gonna try and detonate it or something!" Lee's voice was sharp and clear, with every word well spoken, like always.
Each of the three Arwings doubled back for the base, flying between the pieces, trying to take out anything that may look like an antenna, tractor beam mount, or just anything in general.
Meanwhile...
Wolfe O'Donnel of all pilots, stepped from the first fighter. He was a man who defied all odds, from flying with an eye patch with no depth perception, to living through the wreck of his fighter 8 years ago. He gave a tug at the bottom flaps of his aviator jacket, then turned back to the second fighter.
Leon lifted his head from the canopy of the second fighter, dismounting his fighter, beyond him, Andrew, a skinny little ape dismounted. The fourth fighter canopy slowly lifted, and two choclate paws reached from within the cockpit. Lifting herself from the cockpit by the strength of her arms only, she jerked her head to the left, causing those mocha tresses to spill around her shoulders. Dropping down to her feet, the dark furred coyote lifted her head to the gentleman. She'd been the replacement of the dead Pigma Dengar, who wound up getting his own in the end, as betrayel was the worst sin to pay for.
"Are we ready, Emery Jasmin?" Wolfe said with a smug grin. She gave a nod, and drew her Phase Pistol, setting it to "Kill".
Wolf glanced to Leon and Andrew, and pointed for them to take the hallway to the left. Then he waved Emery over, and motioned to the hallway on the right. The four pilots broke into teams of two, with an "S&D" mission, to kill anyone they find.
"It looks like we send Rob down there, and get some side arm," Peppy sighed softly. He frowned thoughtfully then turned back to Slippy.
"Send a message to Fox and Lee. We've been boarded."
It was between these two girls, that the better and more rightous of the two had been chosen. Krystal allowed Emery to live, and thus humiliated her, so now Krystal's death would have to be a personal one. However, since joining this team, she had Wolfe O'Donnel trying to get in her pants with every step she took, and she was running out of patience.
It's not that he wasn't cute, or wasn't worth her time, or that she wasn't interested in him. It's the fact that he was the Lacky for a moron dictator. She could never respect a man who held such a beautiful vendetta, and so much wonderful contempt and wielded so much power and talent, and yet bowed before a man who constantly lost his battles, no matter how many planets he conquered.
Then there was Wolfe's team. Leon wasn't overly dull. But the other guy, Andrew... Now here was an Idiot coward. Sure, he had the desire to try and be a little shadey, but put a gun to his head, and he wet himself. She'd heard their first pilot, the one she replaced, was just as bad, if not worse.
Emery glanced to her side, watching Wolfe quietly. He was knelt infront of a door-lock panel, dilligently trying to overide it. Sinful silky furred legs came into his view, as she placed a steletto heal upon his hip, leaning down with her palm pads upon her waist.
"Need a lady to fix such for thee, sweetheart?" She said with a delicious little smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
"Don't get your panties in a bind, honey. I'll have it in a Jiff," He replied with a smirk. "And get those blasted things off my hip, they're sharp, yanno!" Wolfe groused. She removed the spike of a heel from his hip, and placed it back upon the floor, well balenced upon them. O'Donnel grunted once more, and continued to tap the wires together, until finally the door slid open.
"Ladies first," Wolfe said, gesturing his paw outward, to the door.
"I think he broke my hand!" Andrew shouted, as he tried to kick Rob in his metallic shin.
"I don't think... this is working..." Leon said in that aloof, rather 'matter-of-fact' tone. His blaster was running low on ammunition, and Andrew was being completly useless. Leon felt absolutly embarrised, and finally stepped back away.
"Let him fight us, Wolfe and Emery won't be long... There can't be more of these things on board, and this one won't last much longer," Leon continued, putting another few shots into Rob's metallic head, before Rob reached out and grasped Leon by his knee, lifting him up high into the air.
"This can't be happening!" Leon exclaimed, flipped about upside down. That thick green tail slapped against the back of his head. Rob's middle section began to spin, but the top and bottom of his body, waist up and waist down stayed stationary. Andrew and Leon watached for a moment, as that center of Rob's waist revved up into close to Five thousand Revolutions per minute, then suddenly his Upper body connected with his waist, and Leon was flung around the room at break neck speeds. It all happed so amazingly fast, and Rob let the lizard go, sending him into Andrew, causing both to topple over from the increadible impact.
"I dare not say I'm beaten," Leon groaned. He glanced down at Andrew who was motionless. Having had his fall broken, Leon sat up, and looked around for his pistol. Not able to find it, he finally darted from the room, leaving Andrew and Rob to themselves. He'd have to head back to the ship for his other gun; he was pretty sure he'd need medical attention.
"It looks like Krystal isn't on board. It says here in the ship's log that she was part of a landing party used to infultraite the Core Base. We'd better get back to our ships and contact Andross, let him know that the attack may just be a clever rouse to hide a rescue party," Wolfe said, looking up from the display readout on one of the moniters.
"Damn. Very well. Then complete, is our mission," she agreed.
"Don't tell me these idiots leave this place empty while they're out flying. That's completely ludicris," Wolfe spat. Apparently he'd been loooking forward to killing something, and it showed in his voice.
"Silence, Wolfe. Once we've returned to that of Andross... start looking for Krystal on board, shall we. At which time, thou mayest have all the fun one so wishes with her, before I remove her pretty little head, quite so?" Emery said.
The lift came to the bottom of the shaft, and the two departed, with Emery still talking, "And after her death, No longer shall Andross have ways to revive himself. Take his head, shall I. At which time we would be able to..." Slippy and Peppy couldn't hear what she was saying after that, because they turned the corner, heading towards the hanger bay.
"Man, ja hear that, Peppy? We better get a hold of F-f-fox," Slippy stammered quickly. He and the Pandorian Hare dropped down into the elevator, taking it back up to the Bridge, in a hurry. When they got there, they were suprised to see that Fox's vissage was waiting for them on the View screen. Slippy pressed the "recieve" button on the communication's panel.
"Guys, I've got the base appart. I'm going to get ready to detonate the Gravity bomb," He said.
"Fox, We were just boarded. I wasn't able to g-g-get a hold of you until now, b-b-but they're about to leave. Star Wolf is still alive, I saw Wolfe O'D-d-donnel and some chic and they are out to kill Krystal!"
"W..w..what?" Fox stuttered, "Just what I need to see... Starwolf: The biggest parody squadron and thorn in my side," Fox's face grew angry, but he hid the rage fairly well.
"I'm going to wait until they land, and I'm going to blow that StarBase to hell." Fox suddenly closed the communique, leaving Peppy and Slippy to silence. A few minutes passed and Rob, the trusty Robotic aid came in, littered with scorch marks... Slippy would have his hands full when this was all over.
"Yo, dude, you still there?" Falco hollared.
"Falco? Yeah, it's Zyro. My wingman and I are both here," Zyro replied. Falco followed that voice wincing with every step from his knife wound, until he got right infront of it. He gripped the bars and used all his weight to push the heavy gate open. Like his, the food was thick enough to trick the locking mechanisim. With every step, Zyro's ankle chains rattled in harmony with Carson's Chains. Falco groaned, slapping his forehead with his right hand.
"Pick them up, and we'll make small steps, c'mon let's GO," He grunted.
"Mah man. Let's get the hell out of here," Zyro said, reaching out until his paw met the guy's wing. Falco, Carson and Zyro began their descent up the aisle in the pitch black, exchanging small-talk using their voices to keep their barings of location until suddenly Falco was stopped by something.
"F...Falco... Lombardi?"
Oh yeah, he knew that voice. He knew that voice so very well. Apparently it knew his as well. He started to growl quietly, and spun around to the voice.
"What the hell do you want?" Falco demanded.
"Falco? What the hell are you doing here?" The feminine voice asked.
"Well let's see, after you brought me to this crap-hole, I decided to stay because I like this vacation resort SO much."
"What are you talking about? I've been here for Four Months, and I havn't seen you in EIGHT years!" It was the voice of Fara Phoenix.
"W...what? You mean to tell me that wasn't you back there?"
"Back where! Don't you know what's going on here? They're cloning us and using our clones to take over the government of Corneria. They've not yet captured Pepper or the Prime Minister, that I'm aware of, but that was the plan, to my understanding," Fara explained. She then added, "Besides, you need my help to get out of here, Vulpines can see in the dark, you can't see squat, get me the hell out of here!"
It was David Seether. He'd gone down fighting, to stop a troop of lizards from disarming the bombs on the mooring clamps above the celing, and his expired body lay upon it's back, motionless.
"Dammit. I'm sick of loosing team members, Let's find Kit and start tearing the lizards appart then we'll get back to the bridge," Fox said. Krystal nodded in agreement, but first, she knelt down besides David Seether's motionless form, and used her right paw to close his eyelids. She quietly said a prayer, then placed her staff on the ground, leaning her weight on it, while standing back up straight.
Just then, there was a plethoria of oncomming footsteps from down the hall. Fox and Krystal's ears perked up, as they heard blaster fire accompanying the mighty cascading footfalls. Both vulpines dipped into an adjacent hallway, looking out around the corner to see what the commotion was.
Kit McCloud was at a full run, as he bursted around the corner. They could see him through the phospherescent green, and make out the fact that he wasn't a lizard. He slammed his shoulder into a wall, comming around the corner, and used both his paws to push off the wall, so that he wouldn't loose his momentium from running. He bounced off the left wall and went around the right corner like a pinball.
Fox stepped out to grab and pull him around the corner, but before Fox could act or react, Kit saw him up ahead and immeadatly shouted.
"GET BACK! GET DOWN!" Fox suddenly saw what Kit had in his hands, as the image in green became more clear. ... A stolen enemy Granade. Kit pulled the pin and dropped it under his feet, as he bolted further down the hallway towards where Fox and Krystal were. He quickly dipped into the intersecting hallway, across from Krystal and Fox, and covered his ears, both Krystal and Fox McCloud doing the same. An explosion rocked the entire hallway, putting cracks all along the floor, and a crater at ground zero.
Three vulpine noses peeked around the corner, then three heads, a blue one, two redish orange ones. Each of them were gazing through a set of high density Shabanguan's High Definition Night Vision goggles, and waiting for the smoke to clear. Most of the Lizards were vaporized, the rest were laying scattered along the hallway.
Kit thrust his fist up in the air, and jerked it down, lifting his knee at the same time.
"YESS!" he hissed in celebration.
Fara got around the other side of him, while Falco put both his hands upon the man's neck, quickly stiffling him. Zyro reached out and covered his mouth, gently letting those chains to the floor, and Fara reached down to his hip to grab his gun. With a quick motion of his hands, from left to right, Falco quickly dispatched the lizard and left him slumped.
The hallway behind Fara was illuminated, and she motioned with her paw for the other three to follow. She held the Pistol upwards, while tiptoeing down the hallway. The gun was set for STUN, and she left it that way, as it wouldn't drain the battery clip as quickly to use it in 'Kill'. The group paused at the next intersection, and waited quietly as a group of heavily armed lizards ran passed.
Once the coast was clear, Fara quickly melted the chains between Zyros ankles, then the ones Carson wore. Quickly, she led the group across the hall, and to the stairs.
"Alright. When I was brought down here, after my Physical they'd drawn blood at, I was awake. I passed a weapons locker at the top of this staircase. Let's load up, and get ready for a little battle, I'm pretty sure our Fighters arn't here, and this isn't going to be easy," She explained. Everyone nodded.
Up the steps and to the immeadiate right, the group stopped infront of the weapons locker, letting Falco be the one to open it, while Fara covered the group with her pistol. Once inside, Zyro stepped within and began to pass out flashlight mounted rifles, pistols and frag-granades.
"Is there any way to lower the yield on these granades? I don't want to blow the place up, just cause a bright flash and noise," Fara asked.
"I'm not sure, But I think it's possible. Carson? Your major was in demolitions and diffusing them right?" Zyro turned to the Collie, along with Falco and Fara's attention on him now.
"Yeah, that was my secondary. Let me see one, I'll see what I can do," He said, taking one of the Frag-granades into his paw. He got a screwdriver out of a tool kit on the second shelf of the weapons closet, and started to unscrew the bottom portion of the granade. He poured the powder on the floor in a neat little pile, leaving only a fraction in the container. With that done, he passed the granade to Fara, and another screw driver, and the screws. Then he started on another. She got the hint and started to reassemble the granade.
"It's just enough magnesium to be used as a FashBang. It'll stun someone. As long as you cover your ears and look away, you'll be fine," he explained. Fara finished the assembly and started on the next one that Carson handed her, putting the finished product into Falco's hands.
Falco put three into his pocket and handed Zyro three. Fara got two for herself, and Carson got two full power Frag Granades for himself. That was the entire stockpile, 10 granades. The group moved out into the hallway, well armed now.
With all the powder on the ground infront of the weapons locker, Carson ripped open a flair, he'd found on a shelf, and tossed the flair to the ground. He glanced back at the other three and jerked his head to the right. The team understood and went down the next hallway on the right. Carson lifted his left foot, and gave a kick to the flair, sending it into the pile of powder on the floor, and dove into the crossing hallway, with his friends...
"Ah ah ah, I don't think you want to do that, sssoldier boy," The brown fleshed reptile hissed. Fara gasped, glancing back in the direction they were originally headed in, to see that a group of Lizards stepped out into the hallway. Zyro grabbed one of the flashbangs in his fist, keeping it concealed for now.
"Dammit, it was an ambush!" Carson cursed.
"Yessss, how cleaver. When we round up you and Fox McClown, We'll be taking you to the execution chambersss," The lead lizard said with a twisted smile, standing in Falco's flashlight beam.
"Turn off your flashlights, guys, and close your eyes," Zyro murmured with a smirk, pulling the pin on his flashbang. Suddenly the hallway went into darkness... followed by an abrupt explosion, deafening everyone including the Four in the center of the hallway. But they still had their visual wits and knew it was comming. Being prepaired, they flipped their flashlights back on and opened fire all about them, mowing down the 8 ambushing reptiles, leaving their dispatched enemy to resemble the vestiges of a battle ground.
"He said Fox was onboard. You think he came to save our sorry butts?" Zyro asked, turning to Falco.
"Ungh, I guess. Fox McCloud come to save us, gee, How swell is that? Of course he owes me from a little thing back on the Dino-planet," Falco said with a grim little chuckle, keeping his wing planted over his chest, weezing slightly.
"You helped him recently in the same way?" Carson swung his rifle to the left, the attached flashlight beam panning across the empty deck.
"Different time, Different planet, but the same ole Fox McCloud still needed my help," Falco replied.
"Same ole Falco," Fara suddenly said, with a smirk. "Now let's get to work, and clean this floor of vermin, so we can get out of here," Fara concluded. She turned the next left, the hallway opening up into a large corridor, with three lizards up ahead.
"After them, no witnesses to the jail break!" Falco shouted. The other three ran after the lizards, opening fire. Falco wasn't quite so quickly to follow, with that wound, however.
((note to self, switch back to Fox and Krystal with Kit, who get in on some action of their own. Write a scene with fox and krystal using Krystal's martial arts attack, dahn diju, (check for spelling on that term) and Kit getting in on some of the action too... they Do NOT meet falco and the group until the next paragraph, below.)) (Edit note, 2007: I never wrote this part. I suck!
Fox, Krystal and Kit all paused.
"What the hell was that?" Kit hissed.
"Sounded like an explosion, and it was too close to be something on the outside," Fox concluded. A trio of armed Lizard guards passed their hallway, heading towards the stairs. Each of the three vulpines knew they were headed to investigate what the commotion was all about, and followed suit.
They followed the guards to the top of the staircase, and peered over the balcony, only to be suprised by a bright flash of light, and a deafening crack of sound. Fox and Kit were far too stunned to notice the blaster fire that followed, but Krystal's quick reflexes helped her keep some composure. Finally after the effects wore off, Fox and Kit turned their attention back to the staircase, just in time to hear footsteps heading up the flight of stairs towards them. Fox adjusted his night vision quickly and pointed his pistol upwards, as the three of them crouched down behind the walling at the top of the stairs.
Fara, Falco, Zyro and Carson emerged from the staircase, Their rifles trained on Fox and Company, who in turn had their pistols trained on Fara and her coterie.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Fara suddenly shouted at Fox.
"Now? You choose to mount a rescue party NOW?" Falco demanded.
"Fox McCloud I presume?" Zyro said with a slight grin, although suprised what the lizard said earlier was true. A long silence followed.
"Y...You're both alive?" Fox finally gasped. It was finally over. He knew he could head to the secondary bridge, and detonate the Gravity bomb now. He had enough of a team to clear out the rest of the lizards on the saucer section, and that it was finally over. He raised his left paw, and pressed three buttons simultaniously on the wristband...
"Heading back to mine ship, am I.. Meet up later, shall we, if such is to be so," Emery said. She'd have to get some things done, before heading back to the Starbase. She watched from her cockpit, as Wolfe and Leon headed back around to the half-destroyed hanger window, on the side of the base.
Suddenly it happened. A great rumble, so awesome that the shockwaves alone destroyed several surrounding fighters. Onboard, a cacophony of screams, filled with shock and suprise eminated throughout the Core Base.
Some Lizards were trapped within the bulkheads, from the shift of space time. Others were trapped inside of the floors. Others still were torn appart. The entire base exploded in on itself, as a mammoth rift opened up within the center of the corebase, matter sinking into the new massive rift of anti-matter...
And then there was nothing. A newly collapsed warmhole, so unstable that it only stayed open for a moment, before re-sealing itself. In the blink of an eye, there was a flash followed by a gigantic nothing. It had swallowed the fighter cover, Emery Jasmin's cruiser ship, along with several mammoth Asteroids... the battle was finally over, Emery Jasmin had watched all of this from her fighter cockpit, suprise on her dark furred maw. No where to go now...
Prologue
tying up loose ends...
"Daddy...?" The rain was gushing over her, causing her ears to lay flat, and the fur of her chin to droop almost like a beard, to match her tail which was dragging the grass. Yet she was a sight for sore eyes, regardless. His expression was blank shock. His eyes were wide, his jaw fell open, and he didn't know if he was seeing a ghost. Boy.. did she have a lot to explain... Afterall, Not only was she alive, she was resigning from the Military to go Mercinary... and... just... so much to explain. She'd already spoken with Pepper, and knew what he was about to send Fox to do next and it would be one heck of a mess without her.
"Where we headed Fox?" Krystal said, with her paw behind her head.
"Home, Krystal. Home," He replied, reaching out to capture her free paw, and from here, they'd head back to that little Rancher and transfer the ownership from James to Fox McCloud.
With Andrew being held on Corneria for Crimes against the planet, Fox was comfortable knowing he'd stand a quick trial. That would mean it was most likely over, and he could concentraite on investing his money or something, and living with Krystal. There was still the little thing about finding answers about her parent's death, but Fox would gladly be the one to help her.
Fox and Krystal stood together at the large window, paw in paw, watching as GreatFox was being refueled. Both had decided it was time to spend a little more time together, before going to search for answers to her Parent's death together.
"Ahem... Mr. McCloud?" Fox and Krystal turned about, to face the voice.
"The General will see you now," The private continued, followed by a salute. Fox returned the salute to the man, then motioned for him to lead the way. The two foxes followed him down the hallway to a connecting corridor. Military insignia decorated this particular hallway, and different Military pilots were in civilian clothing, some had duffle bags over their shoulders. Finally the Private stopped in front of an office, and opened the door for both Fox and Krystal.
Stepping inside, there was a coke machine in the far corner, and a round table in the middle. General Pepper sat at the end, the letters "IDC" on a large plaque behind him.
"Ah, Fox. A Job well done, on a Great Mission. Every missing person has been accounted for, and those who didn't make it have been given a proper funeral paid for by the Military," Pepper started.
Fox gave a nod, and pulled a chair out for Krystal, settling down into an adjacent one. Pepper drew his sunglasses from his nose and set them onto the table, reaching into his pocket for a fresh Lolly pop.
"I've transferred the funds into your bank account... Minus the price of Four new Arwing fighters, at Military Discount Price of course."
"Thank you, Sir. Always a pleasure to do business with you," Fox said.
"Indeed. There's one small loose end to be tied up," Pepper continued, "The Gravity bomb? It wasn't powerful enough to create a stable hole. But we're not sure it was anything like the one used in our Meteo Asteroid belt. I expect a full report on THAT later. We're not sure if Andross is still alive, or what the deal on him is. If we find anything on his whereabouts, I'll be sure to let you know."
Fox nodded slowly, and reached across the table to shake Pepper's paw.
"Where ya headed now, Fox?"
"Home, Sir. I'm headed home. Things are changing. I've got Family now, a white picket fence, and a lady," Fox replied.
"Don't let your skills get rusty, McCloud. I'll be contacting you if we need you again," Pepper said with a grin.
"I'm not sure I'll be able to help you right now, General. I have unfinished business to take care of and Krystal has answers to find. We're heading back out to the wormhole in the Meteo Asteroid belt, and I'm going to bring him in, and collect the bounty on his head. This time, it's a little personal," McCloud said with a frustrated sigh.
"Do... do you need anything?" Pepper seemed shocked.
"We'll be purchasing the new model of Arwings with our latest paycheck, who's your personal military Manufacturer? I want to send Slippy that way so we can get something a little more customized," Fox offered a slight grin.
Pepper frowned for a moment... obviously the Four Arwings he just offered were lacking in their needs, and being empathetic to their needs, Pepper finally conceded a nod...
"Mom?"
Her head lifted. It was difficult to draw her eyes from the picture, but she managed to do it. As those tear-swollen orbs lifted from the picture and frame, she would find she didn't even have the breath to gasp. She set the picture down onto the bed, and rubbed her water soaked orbs with her paws, then ran across the room to embrace Kit who was standing in the doorway next to Snowy. Behind him, Lee Markett and Murphy Anderson stood in the hallway, both looked weary. She embraced him tightly, holding him closely to her.
"I... I'm getting married mom. I thought I'd bring her home to meet you and... uh.. Mom: Meet Diane Rosen," He finally said, hugging his step mother in return.
"Hi," Diane started with a slight blush, "You... you can call me Snowy," She said to Jena.
"A pleasure to meet you, Snowy," Jena said, embracing them both. She wasn't even going to ask where Kit thought he got the money from, to pay for a wedding, but she'd find all that out later. She'd learn of his heroic deeds with the StarFox team, and how they paid him on the side, under the table, to get his life together, all over dinner. For now, she was simply glad to have him home and alive.
"It's so good to see you," Natha said, slanting her lips across his; her paws embracing her husband. She could never explain how much she went through, and how much worry burned in her heart, for the last near-month. A husband would never understand what a Wife feels in her heart, and what she feels when she misses the one she loves.
On the same level, Zyro's wife would never understand the burning desire he had for his wife. That same burning desire to go through all obstacles, and to face all challenges, and to stand in the face of life and death, to return to her arms. She'd never understand the perils of his fight, and the details of his plight to make it home to her. She'd never understand the sacrifice it required to surpass all evils, to make it back home, the way Odysseus longed to return to Penelope from Troy's Trojan War. And neither would understand how much the other one loved their spouse.
"That's it, baby. Come to Zyro," he said with a quiet smile.
"Oh... you... idiot," She said softly into his ear, with a smile in return. Here they were, standing on the cold, sterile flight deck, visible air emanating from their maws, with only one another to keep them warm.
"Let's go home, Zyro," She said. Zyro nodded and kissed her softly, taking her paws into his own.
"Let's go home."
THE END
Written between December of 2002 and April of 2003.
If you read this far, thanks.
If not, I'll get better; I don't own a spell checker yet
I will have a sequel soon (Edit: It's been done since December of 2004)
