He was blinded.
Blinded by the light. The white walls. The hazy circumstance; being kidnapped and thrust into this room made Pigma Dengar's mind go slightly haywire as his beady eyes attempted to find a focal point.
And oh, there he was.
"Pigma." his former captain snarled. "I'm only going to ask you one time. Ya hear me? One. Time. And you WILL answer whatever I ask of you..."
His chameleon friend was with him as well, as his damp switch-blade made itself comfortable atop the swine's smooth, fleshy forehead.
"Or we can give it to you again..." the sadistic wingman sneered.
Ooooh, not again. The red gashes were to turn into burning scars that would never truly heal. Three times did the blade go across his head, and with his meaty hands tied behind his back, all the pig could do was feel the discomfort of the trickle of blood going down the side of his face and drip down to his shoulders.
"Whaddya want, O'Donnell?" he mustered, barely opening his mouth. The lupine became his focal point, yes, but he would rather still be accompanied by the blank walls at that point.
Alone.
With no blood trickling.
Instead, Wolf leaned in closer; Pigma could feel the lupine's warm breath moisten his snout.
"You know EXACTLY what I want." Wolf growled slowly; Pigma, from the corner of his eye, noticed drops of blood make their way down his cheek while the wing-man even more firmly adjusted his blade.
"It appears as though Corneria has been disturbed by some new, bizarre force..." the chameleon hissed. He then pivoted his head closer to Pigma's ear, and whispered, "Would you care to tell us about it?"
Pigma shrugged in defiance.
"I dunno what cher talkin' about."
Shink.
"AUGH!"
Yet another extension to one of the three gashes that went perfectly in between his ears. His teeth clenched together, droplets beginning to gnaw at him.
"I think you do." Leon made the swine tingle with the sharp words that shot through his ear, slowly but effectively.
He hated him. That God-damned chameleon was the reason he was here, sitting before them in agony he could do nothing about. The lizard just so happened to be the lupine's closest ally. So happened to put everything else first. So HAPPENED to have a mutual despising for him that was unmatched by even his own captain.
And Pigma knew that, if Leon had the chance, he would move that knife under the flabs of his chin and end this encounter right at that very moment.
But he didn't.
He wouldn't.
Only for his captain would he not kill someone...
"Seventeen years ago, it was reported that some alien species had come from some unknown location to raise hell in the Lylat System by taking down a whole Cornerian fleet single-handedly," Wolf huffed. "And it appears as though they've come back for the whole System."
"And what're ya tellin' me this for?"
"Well," Leon chimed in; Pigma also noted that the quiet assassin was speaking an awful lot that day. Three times. Unbelievable. "Some have their suspicions about you, Pigma. It's been a year, and you have not exactly had the best of lives since you have left. Robberies, disturbances, hijacking..." Leon paused for a moment, prior to stating, "Suspicious alliances..."
The swine's ears perked at this.
"Now hold on fer a minute," he snorted. "You two don' say that me an' Andrew have some type a role in this, do ya?"
"Actually, we aren't saying anything like that," Wolf retorted, folding his arms. "We were hoping we'd save our oxygen and have you say it for us."
"W-Well, it ain't true." Pigma stuttered, letting the bright lights he was focusing on form spots in his vision. "I ain't know nuthin' about no aliens. Aliens don't exist; it's a conspiracy made by the government, I tell ya."
"Venom's government, correct?" Leon sneered.
Pigma paused, blurred pupils flicking towards the scrawny chameleon. Only from a corner of his view could he see the boiling, fuming hatred in his eyes, slowly leaking from his face; his composue was always stellar...but how long could it last, really?
"Whaddya mean by that, Powalski?" It was the first time he directed him by name. At this, the chameleon took the floor.
"Star Fox has recently apprehended Oikonny and the few squadrons under his control, and have encountered a creature known as an 'Aparoid' almost right after fighting the mech Andrew was piloting on Fortuna. Andrew did not flee for Venom when the mech crashed, call for back-up, or even attempt to step out of the mech and see the creature for himself, but instead called an unspecified log number of a passenger ship. Now tell me," he gripped his blade tightly. "Why is this? Is it not curious that Andrew was not injured? That he was fine? That he did not call his home planet first to report the casualties and ask for the current status of his men," Leon emphasized his words, almost spitting at the pig, "But he instead. Called. You?"
Silence.
Pigma closed his eyes, the blackness turning into multiple, incomprehensible colors, thanks to the fluorescent bulbs above him. Gathering his thoughts, he pieced together the call:
(*)
Pigma. The Star Fox team is currently scuffling with the Aparoid creature.
"Are they really?"
Yes. It's incredible. McCloud actually appears flustered...the creature is stronger than anticipated!
"How strong?"
Strong enough to make the toad forfeit! Now the vulpine has no enemy shield!
"But Toad can die from anything, ya know. It ain't that impressive, Oikonny."
True, true. I fought him before; I should know... B-But this, oh this is interesting: you know the bird?
"Yeah...Lombardi. Wut about 'im?"
He got hit by a meteorite that the Aparoid summoned! He's out! My God, he just got taken out by this thing! Amazing! That creature just took out Star Fox's best avian!
"Aw, really? Damn, I actually like 'im; he almost killed Lizard Boy that one time..."
I know, I know. B-But Pigma! This Aparoid, I...I don't even know what to say about it. It's so powerful! Think of the possibilities with this creature! If we can harness its energy, we would be unstoppable! This, oh this creature is-
"...Incredible."
Yes...incredible, indeed.
(*)
"It wasn't no big deal," Pigma grumbled. "I barely know much 'bout it."
"Care to tell us what you do know, then?" Wolf balanced his weight on his right foot, which perched itself on the edge of Pigma's rock-hard chair that made his body tense up the longer the lower half of his body remained still, as forced.
After yet another pause, Pigma shrugged.
"Oikonny studied up on 'im. He left the team ta go and find where those creatures lived, and once he found 'im...he..."
"He...what?" Leon tilted his head slightly, glancing at a different angle of the swine's gashes.
"He took yer money, gave me a share," Pigma sighed. "An' used the rest ta fund fer a bomb."
"A bomb."
"Yeah."
"And he used the bomb to..."
"Destory part o' their homeworld...and it all went ta shit from there. A vengeful bunch, I tell ya."
Leon ground his teeth, stating, "So the Aparoid race was quiet for seventeen years...but Andrew decided to cause a system-wide invasion-"
"Ta see wut they could do. If they were really as powerful as he thought."
Wolf let in a breath through his nose. He heard through the Sargasso Base that the ins and outs of the Lylat System were thrown mercilessly into a pit of "glowy spiders that'll mess you up" and "purple moths that will kill yer ship if ya let them," and Star Fox was assigned to kill them.
All of them.
The glowy spiders were to be thrust off their webs by the waving of their sticks, while the purple moths were to be seperated from their lights and smushed to the ground with the tips of their shoes. But how can you annihilate an entire species if you know nothing about it?
How can you unleash something so powerful if you knew nothing about it?
"But he knew exactly wut he was doin'," Pigma cut through the silence. "He wanted the power, an' so he got it fer his own. He was amazed by how powerful that Moth was...he knew it was the start of somethin' huge. He wanted this to happen. He always gets what he wants..."
At this, Leon swivelled his other foot, stepping before the swine and placing the shiny, red blade under the flab of Pigma's neck. Wolf's good eye glinted at this as he straightened up his position.
"Including you," Leon let out a low growl, eyes like daggers stabbing the whites of Pigma's repeatedly. "And our code."
Oh yeah. That code.
The code that started this war.
(*)
He heard the boss speak of the code to a few ruffians that doubled as his guards, and took action one hour before their duty. The primate met him there, as he slunk in to retrieve every deposit, every raid, every single living cent inside that vault. Oikonny chuckled, promising a hefty spot in his council, which was to earn Pigma payment far more extensive than what Star Wolf was to ever retreive from any high earning official.
Andrew ran for the colony that beckoned him, what he spent seventeen years admiring.
Meanwhile, Pigma was cornered.
The chameleon found the swine in the safe after the alarms throughout Sargasso went off and his thorough noticing of the ruffians never quite showing up to the post as planned. (Bribery apparently worked with them, too.)
What followed was Pigma, heaving on the ground, seeing red liquid trickle from his throat after being kicked repeatedly by the metallic, sharp tip of his captain and wingman's boots. The wingman's in particular felt sharper, more hateful, more deadly. He wanted him dead. He hated betrayal.
The chameleon hated him. Greed. Betrayal. PIGMA.
Wolf told him to get out, and he got in with Andrew. He stood by his promise...
But here's a taste for now, Pigma.
He bought himself a ship that always broke down, and flew as far away from Sargasso as Wolf and Leon could stand for.
Andrew bought himself a bomb that caused a war, a bigger one that no single team could possibly bare.
Together, they formed chaos.
Their own team.
And they didn't have to fight alone.
(*)
Pigma chuckled.
"What's so funny, bitch?" Wolf peered at Pigma, whose snarl that curled into a menacing grin appeared unsettling to some, confusingly obnoxious to the other two in the room.
"Nuthin'," Pigma answered. "Just laffin' at ya two, is all. Yer too stupid ta get information now. They're unstoppable, and soon, we will be too. I will be."
"YOU'RE too stupid to be led on like this." Leon replied stiffly. "You do not honestly think that this was Andrew's brightest hour, do you? He screwed over his own empire by letting these things loose! Has he not realized that?"
"Ya don't geddit, do ya? He knows wut he's doin'! But you two never do! That's yer biggest flaw," Pigma clenched his hands together, stroking the rope. "Ya don't know true power if it hits ya 'cross the head!"
Wolf and Leon pursed their lips. There was no point now.
They knew Andrew had some part in it. He prepared for it. He studied on it. He was ready to watch the world burn in the name of his deceased uncle.
And Pigma?
"We'll become the ultimate existence," Pigma laughed, blood drying against his flesh. "Yer too stupid ta not obey us...obey us...obey."
He was gone.
*()*
Panther Caroso stared at the pictures littered across the dashboard of his captain's Wolfen. They were courtesy of the not-so-confidential Star Fox team, who were shocked themselves to see the transformed swine.
The Aparoids turned him into this.
The greed. The ship. Temptation. Oikonny.
"Caught up now?" Leon stared over Panther's shoulder. The feline whirled around in surprise, still trying to get used to the chameleon's stealth.
"W-What?" Panther stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "I-I..."
"Panther."
The new member of Star Wolf turned around to see his captain, who took the pictures from the dashboard and shuffled them in between his sharp, clawed fingers. All he stated was, "We wouldn't have hired you if we didn't think you could do it. You aren't greedy. You get it, and you listen. And we're all in hell right now," Wolf made him think of the smoke billowing from the skyscrapers of his home planet, wincing at its sudden vulnerability and inability to defend from spiders and moths. "And we need you to help us get Lylat out of it."
"All you really need to do in order to not end up like him," Leon gestured at the disturbing images, which left burn marks in the rookie's brain. "Is simply...obey us."
Obey.