NOTE and SLIGHT SUMMARY: This fan fiction takes place almost directly after the ending of Star Fox: Assault, but does not act as an explanation for the events of Star Fox: Command. Unification of Enemies is an alternate storyline, exploring the possibility of Star Wolf joining Star Fox on the terms of the partnership recently experienced twice in SF: Assault. Please read with an open mind and don't condemn me for following my own storyline instead of one from the series. THANK YOU.

(Oh, I guess I should mention that this chapter contains mild language. If anyone is offended by this, it probably wouldn't be a good idea for you to continue. As for the rest of you, please enjoy the fan made fiction.)

Chapter One: Morning of Alteration

A barrage of flames filled the empty space, growing in size as the cool metal combusted oh so suddenly. Streams of laser fire whistled as it was forced out the loaded cannons, echoing its fatal trail in the headsets of those who were destined for impact. One, two, boom. Another pilot was taken by the fiery death that was assigned to him the day he jumped into a cockpit. Though, no tears were shed; this was a battlefield.

The rush that was truly fitting for those who were still two seconds from death, those who stood on the ever-so fragile line that their lives had drawn, was provided generously, especially to one certain pilot. A falcon who was covered by beautiful, and rarely seen, blue feathers, with patches of red feathers erupting spontaneously all over his body. He was truly a sight; a force to be reckoned with, for to him, this was just another day in the park. His name is Falco Lombardi, and his piloting skills could be compared to a work of art; swift turns, beat-skipping rotations, and smooth descends and ascends formed the outline of his flight cycles, while the streaks of blinding light cascading across the empty pockets of space made the withheld stars glisten brightly.

Falco's face curled into a crude grin, one typical of his character. He was toying with these pilots, these rookies; they acted as if they had never been trained to use their wings! In fact, the gifted blue falcon was quite disappointed with this; there was no fun to be had when your enemy is the equivalent of a burning ant under the intensified ray cast down upon it by a magnifying glass that was held by the hand of a cruel, yet innocent, minor. Despite this, though, Falco was rather thankful. At least he didn't have to bust his butt for today's paycheck. Nope, this mission was easy sail-CHIRP CHIRP!

Falco looked around with a dumbfounded look invading his face. 'What the hell was that?'

WAKE UP! The sound came again, just as unexpectedly and swiftly as the last. CHIRP CHIRP! It rung inside Falco's head, distracting him from his mission. WAKE UP! A scowl grew across the annoyed falcon's face. CHIRP CHIRP! He banged his cockpit's control panel just in time to-

"-WAKE UP!"

Falco sat straight up in his bed; his wonderful battle in the skies had been a dream. The scowl from his dream still inhabited his face, with his current attitude being further illustrated by his half-drawn eyes, which were filled to the brim with crust, and a hanging mouth, obviously too stiff to shut properly. With one smooth rotation of his arm, Falco wiped his sweaty forehead, forced his alarm clock to quite its persistent chirping, and fixed his jaw. After realizing that this chirping was not his usual alarm, Falco inspected the alarm clock, concluding that someone had snuck into his room last night and sabotaged the damn thing, setting it to an even more spectacularly annoying wake-up call than usual and set it to an earlier time. The non-stop pools of sweat that dripped down his feathers was a clue that the culprit had also turned the air conditioning off.

Falco wiped his eyes bitterly and peered across the room, seeing a poster of Fox that read, "Glad you decided to wake up, slacker! I need you to come down to the briefing room, pronto! (Bring your confidence with you.)" A small signature followed, saying, "With love, Fox."

"That jerk," Falco murmured. "He ruined my internal monologue..."

The covers of the bed were cast into the air, slowly floating down to the floor. The exhausted falcon took a deep breath and puffed up his feathers, sending a quick chill down his spine. His body took over this action immediately, tucking the feathers into a more comfortable pattern, making the muscles, curves, and odd little features of Falco's body become more noticeable.

Falco swung his legs over the side of the bed and scooted himself to the edge. While continuing to mutter to himself, he opened a drawer on his nightstand recklessly, causing a loud bang to echo through his room, and collected his clothing for today; a pair of boxers, loose, leather jeans, and a belt. There was no shirt to be found in the drawer, but the avian just shrugged and slammed the drawer shut, quietly promising that he'd do his laundry later with a two half-hearted fingers crossed behind his back.

The first thing, upon entering the bathroom, that Falco took part in was the organized, and highly respected, sport of "looking at yourself in the mirror". He searched his body, looking for any possible defects in his feather lining, then followed the outline of his figure, making sure he hadn't gained any unwanted slab around the waist. After slapping his hips with satisfaction, Falco proceeded to the shower, turning on the water so that it could warm up while he placed his cloths over the side of the counter of the sink. Though, after feeling a sweat drop slide down between his eyes, the avian decided it would be in his best interest to take a cold shower today. The knobs were adjusted accordingly as he jumped within the confines of the shower stall, leaving his cloths lying unattended and unorganized.

It took about two seconds for foolish avian to jump hysterically out of the shower, desperately grabbing for a towel to cover himself with while hollering, cursing, and what not. His feathers recoiled in every which way while the glands housed below them screamed in protest of the frigid hell that they had just been put through. A few breaths became physically visible within the bathroom as the commotion slowed to a halt, with Falco standing there, half-naked, fully shocked, and more fluffed up than a cat that had been touched from behind by a ghost.

Once his heartbeat and feathers were, once again, under his control, the valiant falcon decided to try his hand at a cold shower once again, this time approaching it with caution and at a slower pace. First his left foot, then his whole leg, followed by the right foot, right leg, and so on. Once fully submerged into the water, Falco felt as if the messengers themselves in heaven were casting ice from the deepest oceans surrounding the polar ice caps on Corneria. It was truly a test of the body, though, once his skin started warming up, as they usually did when he was tired, the freezing water became much more bearable. In fact, it was actually quite enjoyable. While the water was not arousing in the least, it was certainly more comfortable once he was used to it, as it was absent of the stinging trait hot water could be associated with.

Twenty minutes later, Falco was already out of the shower, completely dried off, and finished with his daily grooming. The only thing left to do was to get dressed, but the avian decided to take a bit of time to embrace the freedom his body enjoyed when not constrained by clothes. Upon locking the door, and setting the lock with a timer, Falco began stretching, relieving the stress in his muscles and ridding these very muscles of the knots that were embedded into them the night before. Focus was first applied to his legs, which were almost always were restless when he woke up, though, would you expect any less of the legs attached to the bird who always sought an adventure?

After Falco's legs had received their bit of time, Falco moved onto his mid drift, loosening his belly (abs) with a series of exercises, the most commonly known one being crutches, which were performed on top of a new towel that was laid across the bathroom floor. The avian got up after finishing with his belly and moved onto his arms, pulling them across his chest, reaching toward the ceiling, and twirling them in little circles as he held them horizontally in the air, quickening his heart beat as he forced himself to keep them levitating in the air.

Falco released a relieved breath after putting his arms back down to his sides, then continued onto his neck, the last target for these stretching exercises. Thirty seconds of rotating his head in a circular motion both clock-wise and counter clock-wise passed, just in time for the little click, which sounded off when the door was unlocked, was recognized by Falco's ears. With a disappointed sigh, he began pulling on his cloths.

Now fully dressed, or as close to being fully dressed as he could be without a shirt, Falco viewed himself in the mirror once more, making sure nothing was out of place. Satisfied with the results of his grooming, the avian left his bathroom and quickly made his way out of the stuffy room, slowing his steps down gradually as he continued down the hall. The thought of grabbing a quick cup of coffee crossed Falco's mind, but he figured he should just hurry to the briefing room instead. Fox was, most likely, already PMSing-to-the-max as it was.

As if flying through the air, Falco weaved down the hallways, passing through rooms quickly as his steps quickened in pace, eventually growing from the degree of power-walking to sprinting. The patterns engraved into the walls passed by seemingly at the speed of light, as did any objects lying around. However, no one that inhabited the Great Fox was present. This was a good thing, as it signaled that Fox wasn't calling Falco into the briefing room to complain about something, such as missing items that happened to wander into Falco's room, the over-consumption of food, or whatever else usually set off the overly strict vulpine.

The briefing room came into view, which was obviously to be expected, though, Fox did as well. He stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall with a smug look on his face. Falco automatically assumed this was because his rigged room, which cheesed him off. With his finger jabbed accusingly at Fox and feet skidding to a stop, Falco yelled, "Where do you get off sneaking into my room and messing with my stuff, Fox?"

Fox's smug look failed to deteriorate upon hearing this. He only snickered and looked into Falco's eyes sternly, explaining the motives behind his actions, "If I hadn't messed with your stuff, you would've never woken up in time for the meeting, though, I see you had to cut corners with your uniform to make it here on time." Fox removed himself from the wall and walked over to Falco, standing directly in front of him. "You're a genuine sleeping beauty."

"Wait..." Falco's facial expression quickly shifted from anger to confusion as he ignored Fox's comment. "What meeting?" His expression then changed back to anger as quick as it had changed from it. "Why wasn't I told about this meeting!?"

"Well," Fox played with the hairs on his chin. "It actually came about at the last minute. Really, it was a surprise for all of us."

Falco glared over at the wall, wanting to clear his mind of Fox's face so that he could think straight for a second. 'A surprise meeting, eh?' If the surprise part was actually truthful, this meeting could actually be a briefing of a new mission, hence the fact that is was taking place in the briefing room. Though, this thought was soon discarded by the avian. Despite how much it excited him to get a new mission, he doubted it'd be something very big. After all, it was only mere days ago that the Aparoid Queen had been taken down.

'Hm...maybe our paycheck finally got here.' This had a better possibility of happening, but it was unlikely that Fox would call a meeting just to announce that their paycheck arrived. Usually, meetings revolving around money were about Star Fox's bank balance and where the current money was going; these meetings were planned and announced, at least, a few days in advance.

'Maybe we're obtaining a new member...' Once again, Falco shot his idea down. Obtaining a new member would not only bring in a whole bunch of paper work, as well as the purchase of a new arwing, more groceries to feed all the crew members, and a week's worth of uniforms. The blue falcon couldn't see anyone on the team wanting to go through that mess, especially since the team would end up having to cough up the money for the aforementioned expenses.

Rubbing the back of his head in frustration, Falco sighed, "Care to give me an idea of what I'll be dealing with when I walk through those doors?"

Fox grinned, "Let's just say it's one heck of a surprise."

Falco shot him a half-skeptical, half-freaked out glance, then proceeded through the doors. Nothing too out-of-the-ordinary; Krystal, Slippy, and Peppy were there, but there were a few more seats taken up. 'Wolf and Panther? They're here? Then that must mean...'

The truth hit Falco like a two-ton truck; his jaw practically made a hole in the floor with how hard, fast, and low it dropped. Falco nearly fainted, but got himself together before dropping lifelessly to the floor. He recovered quickly, going from the appearance of a shocked drunk who had been kicked out of his favorite bar to that of a seriously pissed-off house wife that just found her husband cheating on her in their own bed. Falco jabbed his finger through the air again, tripping over his words as he tried to spit them out. After roughly thirty seconds of stuttering and sucking-in badly needed breaths, he managed to say, "What the hellis he doing here!?" Emphasis on the word "hell".

The being he was pointing at, and having a melt-down over, was none other than Leon Powalski, his arch nemesis. Leon calmly blinked at Falco with a crooked smile stretched across his face. His curled up tail twitched with excitement, he had obviously been waiting for the moment for "that glorious falcon to barge through those doors and just fall apart". This sight amused him greatly. "Now, now," Leon placed his arms up on the table in a tepee-like fashion, gripping both hands with each other so that he may make a suitable resting spot for his chin. "Is that anyway to treat a guest?"

Falco got his act almost completely together, but couldn't find the will to lose his timeless expression. It was clear that seeing his nemesis sitting across the room in his domain had a rather strong affect. "Guest?" Falco's beak clicked in anger and surprise. "What's he talking about?"

Krystal scooted her chair over a few inches, due to Panther sitting next to her and meowing persistently, then she responded to Falco's question, saying, "Star Wolf came to us, requesting to come aboard and talk."

Fox came up from behind Falco and grabbed his shoulders, pretending to massage them. "They then requested to hide out with us for awhile," Fox continued Krystal's explanation. "Seeing that they helped us in a bind just recently, and that their ships were complete trash when they came to us, we had no choice but to allow them to stay."

"Hide out?" Falco asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, hide out," Wolf interjected suddenly. "While we were away helping you clowns, the men I hired to look after our hideout decided to take over the place and, to add insult to injury, they came hunting us down for the rewards placed on our heads." Wolf slammed his fist on the table. "They were waiting for an opportunity like this for God knows how long."

Falco brushed Fox's hands away, obviously not in the mood for any joking around. His mind was digested the situation, obviously having a hard time believing such a decision was made without his consent. A new question was then flagged in his mind, "Why didn't you wait until I got up up to decide?"

"Cause we decided to vote on the matter, and the vote came out 3:1, with Slippy being the one who opposed," Fox broke off just as Slippy nervously laughed and sunk into his chair.

"In other words," Leon continued the sentence with a cackle. "It wouldn't have mattered if you voted or not. The verdict would've been the same."

"Hey, shut your mouth, lizard boy!" Falco felt his body heat rise dramatically.

"Yes sir," Leon gave Falco a left-handed salute, catching a cold stare from the avian.

"You two, knock it off," Panther said with a slight growl in his voice. "Your bickering is, no doubt, upsetting Krystal."

Krystal peered at Fox with a look that screamed, 'Can you believe this guy?' A question which had an obvious answer. Falco started pacing around in circles, blissfully blocking out Panther's further comments, which questioned Slippy's gender, and the ensuing conflict. His mind racked itself for possible explanations of why his fellow pilots allowed this to happen. The obvious possibilities, drunkenness, loneliness, and insanity, crossed his mind, but were not accepted as an answer. Though, the more that Falco thought about it, the more it seemed reasonable. Star Wolf had saved their asses a few times on the previous mission and their ships were definitely going to end up completely totaled after the explosion that occurred. Truly, Fox was too kind-hearted to turn other people away, even enemies, when he receives a chance to help them out of a tight situation. It was naive and stupid, but it was the right thing to do, which made Falco hate himself for disagreeing with his commander.

After clearing up his thoughts and forcing himself to accept Star Wolf's stay on the ship, Falco stood straight up, and, for the first time in ages, made himself look professional. Everyone noticed this, and turned their attention to him as he spoke, "While I know I will completely miserable with Star Wolf aboard," Wolf's eyebrows lowered as a frown crossed his face. "Especially Leon." Leon smirked as he cracked his knuckles. "I'm willing to accept the fact that they're gonna have to stay with us, possibly for a long time."

The shock, which had been held by Falco when he entered the room, now was transferred over to the warring members of each team. Leon, however, just continued smirking. Fox, the first to recover, confronted Falco, saying, "Well, I hope you'll hold this attitude, cause we've already decided on the sleeping arrangements." Fox scratched his noggin, then lifted a finger up, obviously remembering the agreement. "Krystal will move out of her room and move into my room with me, allowing Wolf and Panther to stay in her room, leaving you with Leon."

Falco nearly lost it right then and there, but the overly satisfied look from his adversary that sat only twenty feet away forced him to coupe with this new found problem. Though, the avian found it hard to control his mouth, which abruptly blurted out, "Why me?"

Fox caught Falco's drift, taking it seriously, "Well, I honestly couldn't imagine Leon staying with Peppy or Slippy. No doubt, they'd cramp his style."

"Naturally," Leon chimed in as he waved his hand in circles as he left his seat and moved across the room, toward Fox and Falco.

"But," Falco looked over the guests. "Why can't Wolf stay with me?"

"Apparently," Fox answered. "He likes to be in control of things, even if it is a small room. So I figured I might as well just give him a room with one of his cronies. So, that leaves you with either Leon or Panther."

As a last stitch effort to see if God would be good to him, Falco peered over to the table, glaring at Panther. The feline had placed a rose in his mouth and was flexing his muscles proudly, obviously intending to get Krystal's attention. "I guess I'll stick with Leon, then," Falco admitted with a sigh.

"Oh, come now," Leon said, now standing next to Falco. "You make me sound like a burden."

"Give yourself some credit, lizard boy," Falco looked into Leon's eyes. "You're much more than a burden."

Leon cackled, "Well, whatever I am, I'm yours now!"

Falco winced at this exclamation, resenting it despite how true it was.