Darkness. Simple blackness sits within an isolated room in a remote location. Not a sound, not a ray of light flashes into the empty void.
Suddenly, a florescent light flickers to life. In the shape of a box, an image begins to appear. The image begins to walk, then run, then duck to avoid a speeding bullet. It pulls out a blaster and begins rapid-firing, taking down five opponents. The coast clear, the image is on the move. Though difficult to see, it seems to have a copper tint, and from behind a tail wags.
Suddenly, a hand touches the screen. The image is up close, revealing the marksman is a...fox?
"Yesss..." a harsh, cold voice hisses from the abyss. "You cannot run. You cannot hide. You cannot escape your fate which I bring to you. Your time has come."
"Oh no, oh no. This is baaaad!!" A hysterical frog stomps up and down the main section of a floating ship. It's early, too early for all the screaming. This is proven as an angered avian storms out of his room.
"What the hell, Slippy? What's your goddamn problem??" The bird rubs his tired eyes, his sleep stolen from him. "What can possibly be happening at 1:30 in the morning??"
"Falco! He needs our help!!" Slippy is now close to tears, his shrieking increasing in volume. Falco is fed up with the frog. "Slip, if you're so worried," he says, pointing a blue wing towards the door, "go help him."
"Are you crazy? I'll get killed!"
"Well, since there's nothing you can do, SHUT UP!!" With that, he slams the door in the frog's face.
Meanwhile, the constant hysteria woke up another passenger – Krystal, a blue fox. "Slippy," she sighed. She always tried to be nice to him, but this was too much. "I know you're worried, we all are, but we have to just wait."
From Falco's bedroom came the response, "Pssh...worried? About him? He'll never get a scratch from 'em, I'll bet." With that, Krystal retreated to her room with a few final comforting words to Slippy, and after ten minutes he retired to his room as well.
The next morning, Krystal was awakened by the sunlight through her window. Squinting to adjust to the sunlight, her blue irises widened as she remembered last night's episode. Wonder if he's back? she pondered as she wandered into her bathroom. After showering and getting dressed, she went outside. Slippy was still in his room, but she heard voices coming from the kitchen.
"Ah, man, I wish I was there! That sounds like a blast!" Falco's voice boomed. The other voice was quieter; Krystal barely heard it. She tiptoed in and snuck up Falco's buddy he was talking to.
" Hey!" She gave them a tap on the shoulder.
"Ahh!" Their gold fur stood on end, and they turned around to her. Soon, she was face-to-face with bright, emerald eyes, full of confidence, passion, and...surprise. "Krys, you scared me!" he breathed, flustered.
"Fox!" She gave him a big hug, which he returned. "How was your mission?"
"Yeah, sounds like you had a hellalotta more fun than we did," Falco sighed. "Slip was waking us all up again, worried 'bout your hide."
"Oh, that Slip..." Fox shook his head, smiling. "Well, the mission was alright. The usual...escaping bogeys...going to answer the the General...finding his whole place swarming with these freaky thugs-"
"Whoa, wait, what? You got ambushed?" Falco cut in.
"Well, yeah. And the best part was that nobody was around, so I had to do it all by myself." Fox shrugged, as though this kind of thing happens all the time, which it sort of did.
"How many? What were they like?" Krystal curiously asked.
"Oh, I can't remember...they came in packs of four and five, there were like twenty of those...and there were these three huge ones at the end, which really was not fun at all. One even got a scratch on me." He rolled up his sleeve to show a huge gash reaching from his forearm down to his elbow.
"Wow, they sounded pretty menacing." Falco seemed upset, he wished he could have smashed those guys up like Fox got to.
"Yeah, it was weird. They were all like black with red faces, but they sorta looked like...I dunno, they had long faces with beady black eyes, and their bodies looked like they were covered in sludge. They had no feet, it was like they were floating. And they were all really tall, too," He tried to remember all the details.
"Well, ya know, they may not have been that tall," Falco stated, "because you're kinda short." He grinned, but stopped when Fox gave him a look.
"Anyway, I was unable to find the source of where they came from. When I went to go into the General's office, the door was locked. I tried to find help, but nobody could be tracked on the comm channel. Finally, a sergeant came on line and told me they would investigate deeper, and they'd call if the needed help from us."
Just then, the alarm sounded. "Right on time," Fox muttered as he pressed a glowing red button protruding from the wall. A sleek projector came down almost invisibly from a panel in the ceiling, and an image of a rushed, confused husky faced them.
"Starfox Team, this is Command." He saluted, and they returned the action. The barely-conscious Slippy half-walked, half-stumbled into the kitchen and faced the screen. "We need your help. Thanks to your investigation last night, we've realized the General has gone missing. We have searched everywhere, but to no avail. However, our scouters did find a note on the chair in his office. We are sending via hologram to you now." A blinking inbox indicated the note had transmitted successfully. "After reading the note, we need all of you down here right away. We're counting on you." With that, the line disconnected.
Fox clicked the inbox icon, and a message popped up. Silently, Fox, Falco, Krystal and Slippy read along:
Well, here we are. If you are reading this, your General is more than likely in our hands. He is not our main target, rather, we have another. The General is being used as simply bait, like a worm on a fishing rod. But the true one we're after would never have fallen for our little trap. Exactly why we didn't go for him in the first place. But we do know one thing – when our desired target tries to retrieve the General, we'll be more than ready. Heed closely what I'm about to say, Fox McCloud. You cannot escape what I will send to you. Your time has come.
When everyone finished, they turned to look at Fox. His head was bent, his hands made into fists. He was trembling with fury. "Everyone," he finally said. As he turned to them, they saw the blaze light up in his green eyes.
"Let's rock n' roll."