Chapter 1
Wolf found himself swimming through a world of infinite blackness, as if floating in space. He could not remember why he was there or how he had gotten there. He felt as if he were without form. He attempted to move his arms, but he could not feel them. It was the same with his legs. Even attempting to blink produced no result. Nothing, nothing but darkness all around him. He wondered if he was dreaming.
But if you are in a dream, nothing can physically hurt you. So why did Wolf feel a small but steadily growing pain in his head? Other little sensations returned. Despite severe numbness, he could feel the vague outline of his extremities. His arms, his legs, his tail. He made another attempt to move one of his appendages. It took a tremendous effort merely to move his arm half an inch. It was like they transformed into lead after he went unconscious. However, it slowly became easier the more time passed. His tail flicked. He felt his fingers opening and closing into fists.
The rising pain accompanied the return of his senses however. He felt a tremendous, dull pain coursing through his entire head. Trying his best to ignore it, Wolf attempted to notice the other sensations. Something wet slid through the fur along the side of his head. Slowly, he moved a hand to his skull, directing it to touch the unknown substance. The fingers came away wet, and he moved them in front of his black nose. Wolf took a few sniffs. A coppery smell came back: blood. Was it his own blood coursing down his head?
He started to feel the sensation of gravity, not to mention a force pressing hard into his shoulders. Wolf began to realize he hung upside down. Why though? How had he come to be here? He tried to open his one good eye again. This time it worked, revealing nothing but a vaguely brown blur in the middle of the darkness. He felt as though he were trying to look up at a light from the bottom of an ocean, with only the faintest of rays piercing into the depths. Wolf blinked several more times to clear his vision. Each time, it was like he'd swum just a little bit closer to the surface, with the image becoming clearer.
With a few more blinks, he realized he was looking down at dusty brown earth. Wondering how he could be hanging over it, he slowly turned his head back and forth. Around him he saw metallic walls, broken glass, and a smashed control console directly in front of him. Sounds began to come back too. He heard the faint whispering of wind outside…along with the crackle and pop of flames.
"Wolfen…" Wolf realized he was inside his Wolfen. No…not his Wolfen. A Wolfen II. Given to him by…who was it again? Andross. He found it difficult to recall the name for a moment, for some reason. Other details came back. He recalled being in a battle just before now. He'd been fighting Star Fox. A growl escaped Wolf's lips. It hit him just then. He'd been fighting Star Fox, and he'd lost. That's why he was here on the planet Venom, in this upside down, smashed lump of metal that used to be the most high tech fighter in the Lylat System.
He'd lost. Wolf couldn't bear to say that out loud, but once that thought entered his head it held on tight to his mind and it would not let go for anything. At least it gave him a surge of energy to not merely hang there. With renewed vigor in his limbs, he reached downwards to the latch holding him in his seat. With one click, Wolf briefly found himself in freefall. He reflexively threw out his arms to defend his face, but all the same he crashed into the dirt with a hard impact, completely knocking the wind out of him. It didn't help that he landed on top of his holstered blaster pistol, which pressed painfully into his flesh. Whimpering, Wolf lay there curled up for a time, his breath coming back in ragged wheezes. The fall hurt him worse than he thought it would, and the sand felt warm, soft, and comforting now that he laid upon it.
After resting a bit, Wolf summoned up the motivation to move, and pushed off against the ground, raising himself into a sitting position. While the wreckage of the Wolfen II covered him and prevented him from seeing the surroundings, he could see light in a hole in the twisted metal off to one side. It was just big enough for him to crawl through it. Grunting, Wolf went prone again and started to slink through the debris. The sharp pieces of metal and glass raked across his flesh as he moved, with the black leather flight suit not providing much protection against it. Still though he pushed himself onwards. If he was tough enough to survive crashing a fighter into the surface, he could put up with some cuts and scrapes. The light grew brighter as he dragged himself towards it. Wolf almost felt like he was crawling out of the earth itself with how long it took. Eventually he hauled himself through the final hole, stumbling out into the dirt. He dusted himself off and rose to a stand, with pain shooting through his joints like electricity. Still, he bore it and forced himself to look around at Venom.
Monoliths of dark green stone stretched upwards towards the muddy red clouds. The face of Andross adorned the top of each obelisk, leering out at nothing in particular but more brown sand. Turning around, Wolf looked back at his fighter. His mouth dropped open, amazed that he'd managed to survive being inside that wreck. It looked like a giant picked up the Wolfen II, crushed it in his hand like an empty soda can, and then casually tossed it here. Tongues of flame licked here and there on the smashed ship, although with the small flames Wolf didn't think there was any danger of an explosion. The area around the cockpit looked mostly intact though, explaining his survival. Alive. Still alive, Wolf thought. What would he do now though?
A loud explosion rocked the ground behind him, pushing Wolf to his feet from the shockwave. He lay on the ground, dazed at the sudden breaking of silence. When Wolf finally managed to collect himself and stand up again, he turned back around. A dome-like structure of green metal stood in the middle of the obelisks, with flames gushing out of it like a geyser. Even though he was far away, Wolf could still feel the immense heat. He had to raise up one of his arms in front of his face to block the light.
Over the roaring of the flames though, he spotted a single ship flying upwards out of the blaze into space. The light silhouetted the craft, showing the outline of an Arwing. Fox McCloud. Wolf couldn't see the pilot, but he just knew it couldn't be anyone else but that kid. Yeah…the kid who'd shot him down. Twice. An intense anger ignited within Wolf's dark heart, spreading through his whole body to the point where he wondered if he might spontaneously combust from the sheer fiery hatred that coursed through himself. He found himself hating McCloud so much he couldn't do anything but stand there shaking, his good eye narrowed to a needle point on the Arwing disappearing into the storm clouds and up into space. He clenched his fists so hard that blood started to drip out of them and onto the sand. Wolf stood there motionlessly for another few minutes or so, staring up into the sky. It was rather like the stone faces of Andross frozen in their scowling expressions.
Sighing, Wolf let his head hang down, the bottom of his muzzle pressing against his shredded black flight suit. He felt like that was enough time to spend stewing in his complete and utter anger for McCloud right now. Hatred wasn't going to get him out of here. That dome that he saw exploding was the entrance to Andross' underground lair. Since it was now merrily burning with the flames and smoke shooting high into the sky, Wolf figured that McCloud just killed his boss. And with Andross dead and his army torn asunder, Wolf also figured the Cornerian Space Navy would be on its way shortly. They'd be looking for survivors, just like himself. He needed to get off world and fast.
But where would he go? Andross' lair here wasn't near much of anything except for a creepy stone temple with monkey statues. Wolf sure as hell wasn't going to go that way. He stroked his chin, looking around as if hoping an answer might come to him. Eventually he turned a full 180 degrees, looking back at his wrecked Wolfen II again. That reminded him. He'd been fighting alongside his fellow wingmen: Leon Powalski, Pigma Dengar, and Andrew Oikonny. Were they still alive, like he was? He decided to look for them before leaving the area. Strength in numbers and all that.
Wolf walked back over to his Wolfen II, and poked around the wreckage. There was something he needed to get before he left. When merely looking around didn't turn it up, he started to pick up pieces of metal and toss them aside. Some of them were quite heavy, and in his weakened state he strained hard to pick them up and move them. Several more minutes of digging finally turned up what he was after though. A military case in olive drab laid before him. Wolf quickly undid the latches, exposing an oversized blaster rifle packed in shaped gray foam, along with spare batteries. Wolf quickly collected the long gun and slipped the extra batteries into his pocket.
And with that, he took off walking through the obelisks and hoping to spot other wrecked Wolfen IIs like his own. His wingmen all went down before him and the entire dogfight took place in this one area, so Wolf knew they had to be close by if they were still around. However, the area sure did feel a lot bigger now that he found himself forced to walk around it on foot. Wolf trudged across the sand and rock, the rifle hanging heavily on his neck from its strap. It felt more like a yoke at this point. All of his joints still felt stiff and inflamed from the wreck. He felt tired, hungry, and thirsty, with an echo of pain shooting up his legs from every step. His head still pounded from that impact too. It had been several hours since the last time he'd gotten to have a meal, and he didn't have any backup supplies with him.
Wolf looked up at an obelisk that he was walking towards. It looked so tiny from here. But since Wolf knew how tall they really were up close, that meant he was a very long way off indeed. They were all so, so far apart, highlighting exactly how much ground he had to cover. It would take at least an hour or two just to walk from one obelisk to another, let alone check the entire battlefield for his compatriots. Wolf wondered if he was on a fool's errand doing this. After all, even if his wingmen were alive, what if they'd decided to run off just like he did? He could be walking around here for days and never find them. Those were days he didn't have, between the lack of food and water and the approaching of Cornerian Space Navy.
Sighing, Wolf came to a stop, sitting down in the sand. He removed the blaster rifle's strap from around his back, laying it on the ground next to him. Wolf rubbed the back of his neck where the strap had been digging into it, wondering what he was going to do now. The obelisk off in the distance didn't look like it had grown any taller since he'd started walking over to it. Something caught his eye about it though. Did he see someone standing on top of the pillar, even from this far away? Frowning, Wolf picked up his rifle, adjusted its scope to the maximum zoom, and turned it towards the top of the stone monument. No one was there. Probably just his imagination, Wolf figured.
Wolf got back to walking again, but he thought he heard a slight humming sound behind him growing in volume. Turning around, he didn't see anything in that wasn't there before. But he thought he still heard the sound growing stronger. It sounded like it was coming from above. He looked up into the ever-present storm clouds hovering close to the surface on this planet. Wolf spotted a little speck moving amongst the clouds, gradually growing in size. Probably a ship of some kind. But whose was it? Bringing up the blaster rifle again, Wolf looked through the scope to see if he could spot an identifying mark. The ship looked like a transport shuttle of some kind, with most of the body made up of a long, fat cylindrical fuselage with smaller wings. It was dark, but Wolf thought he saw the emblem of the Venomian Army, showing a silhouetted version of Andross' face.
Wolf smiled, breathing a sigh of relief. He was saved, at least as long as that aircraft saw him. Wolf pointed his long rifle straight up and fired off a few shots, the laser blasts flying far off into the sky. The ship immediately reacted, turning and heading right for him. As it got closer, Wolf saw the ship mostly had white paint with reddish orange stripes running along the sides. Within minutes it was coming down towards the ground, kicking up dust around Wolf's feet as the landing thrusters engaged. With a loud thump, it touched down onto the sand.
A boarding door popped open on the side. Even as the steps lowered, a spider monkey wearing red battle armor rushed down the stairs, holding a blaster carbine in his hands. He ran over to greet Wolf. The monkey pushed up his visor, exposing his hairless face but also showing a healthy mane of black fur.
"Wolf O'Donnell? You all right?" He looked very relieved upon seeing Wolf.
"Still in one piece," Wolf smiled, tapping his own chest with a fist. Feeling his worries quickly melt away, he kept talking. "You found my wingmen?"
"Don't know, I'm afraid." The spider monkey's smile faded. "There's other ships out there looking for them. Cornerian fleet's closing in too. We need to get out of here." He started walking back towards the shuttle's door and waved for Wolf to follow.
Frowning, Wolf quickly fell into step. "Can I talk to the other rescue shuttles?"
"No, I'm sorry." The monkey shook his head. "Can't use our communicator right now." The spider monkey jumped up the boarding steps two at a time, with Wolf running after him. "The Cornerian fleet's listening in for Venomian transmissions, hunting down whoever's left. My name's George, by the way."
Wolf felt a chill rolling down his back. Even if they were all scumbags and criminals according to the Cornerian government, Wolf respected his teammates and he didn't want to leave them behind. Meanwhile, he entered into the shuttle. It was about like any other shuttle: door up front leading to a relatively small cockpit, with the rest of the craft taken up by a few jump seats along the walls and a large empty space to hold cargo. George quickly sat down in one of the jump seats and buckled up.
"I want to keep looking for my men. Can we search some more?" Wolf jumped into the seat across from him and buckled in as well.
"No time. Cornerian fleet's almost here." George shook his head, sighing. "They're gonna be landing on the surface within the hour. If we don't leave now, their radar's gonna pick us up. Game over if that happens." Meanwhile, the boarding door closed up. Immediately thereafter, the shuttle shuddered as it lifted off the ground. A humming noise signaled the landing pylons retracting back into the body work.
Wolf sat there silently, feeling torn. George was pretty clear about the situation. But leaving his fellow Star Wolf members behind…it was unacceptable. He quickly unbuckled himself from the jump seat and walked towards the front of the shuttle.
"Where you goin'?" George called out, but Wolf ignored him.
He slid open the cockpit's door, looking around inside. A gorilla in the pilot's seat turned around to look at him. He looked very confused by Wolf suddenly bursting into the cockpit.
"Get out of that chair." Wolf jerked a thumb back at the cockpit's exit. "I need to find my men."
"No time Wolf!" the gorilla echoed George. "We gotta go now!"
"I'm not leaving anyone behind." Wolf stared down the gorilla with his one eye. "Now… Get. Out. Of that chair."
The gorilla nervously shook his head.
"The hard way then," Wolf reached out and started to undo the gorilla's seatbelt buckles. Meanwhile the gorilla fought back, trying to push him away.
"Stop it Wolf!" George came in from behind, grabbing Wolf around his back and trying to pull him back into the cargo bay.
However, Wolf stood a lot taller than George and had the muscles to match, so it was a little like an eight-year-old kid trying to restrain a bodybuilder. Even with his reduced strength, Wolf simply grabbed George's hands, undid his grasp, and then turned around and pushed George back into the cargo hold. Wolf then slammed the cockpit door shut and turned the locks closed, preventing him from interfering.
He looked back at the gorilla, only to see through the windscreen that they were already up into Venom's storm clouds and quickly leaving the obelisks behind. The gorilla kept glancing between Wolf and the view ahead, almost looking comical as his head kept turning back and forth.
"Turn us around now." Wolf reached into his side holster and pulled out a blaster pistol, pointing it at the gorilla. "Don't make me use this." Meanwhile George banged on the cockpit door, trying to get back in while his distorted shouting filtered in through the metal.
"Look!" the gorilla cried out. "This is crazy! Didn't George tell you there are other shuttles searching for them?"
"But you don't know if they found them."
"It's the best we can do right now!"
"Not good enough." Wolf holstered his blaster, before taking his seat in the other chair in the cockpit. "I'm calling the other shuttles."
"But the Cornerians will pick up the transmission! They'll find us!"
Wolf ignored him. He'd have to get out of the pilot's chair to stop him after all, which obviously he wouldn't do. Wolf started tapping commands into the communicator, looking for the frequencies necessary to communicate with the other shuttles. He quickly started scanning the frequency for the nearest ship, but heard the pilot making a sound next to him. Wolf looked up just in time to see the gorilla towering over him, holding a fire extinguisher in his hands. The gorilla slammed down the bottom end of it into Wolf's right temple, bringing the infinite blackness back once again.
A/N: I've been in a very long writing slump. There's this huge fanfic I'm working on called Hazardous Contents, and it has a very complicated plot. In fact, it feels like the plot's evolving in my head day by day. Because of that, I don't want to post it until I'm most of the way finished. There are too many little details to account for to post it chapter-by-chapter. However it's hard to keep up the motivation if I've got nothing to post and can't get any feedback. So at the suggestion of K.S. Reynard, I've decided to try my hand at writing a chapter-by-chapter fic. I've never finished a fic when I posted it this way, but maybe this'll be the exception.
I will say I was initially against this idea, but I just haven't been able to get anywhere on Hazardous Contents and I really need to do something to get the motivation back. This might be the answer I'm looking for. I actually wrote and proofread all of this in just one evening, and the words flowed very very easily. It was a lot of fun
