Number One Fan
By Esteban T. Rodriguez
Prologue: A Brief History Of Time
You really gotta to hand it to these Krozoa, Fox McCloud thought to himself as he trudged to the large pillar-like structure. Who else would have thought of using wind power in the place of an elevator system. Granted the thought of just having wind propelling you to kingdom come was a bit unnerving, but it was efficient.
Fox flinched as a gust of wind hit him at a right angle to the direction he was traveling. Then, the rain began to pelt him, causing his fur to muss. Today was getting off to a rough start.
Rubbing his arms to generate heat through friction, Fox shivered as he approached a large mesa, with a crystal in the center. Looking up, he saw something he couldn't quite make out inside the crystal. He rubbed his eyes and looked again.
What he saw took him completely by surprise, for inside the crystal was a beautiful vixen, with bright blue fur, a cute upturned snout, and a tribal outfit that revealed far too much by Cornerian standards. A small smile graced her jowls as if she were sleeping and dreaming of pleasant things like sunshine or new aircars or looking pretty, or whatever it was that girls thought of.
Fox felt his mouth hang open like an idiot, but at this point in time, he didn't care."Wow..." He murmured to himself. "She's beautiful..."
And then, without warning, a spectral blue figure lanced out, orbiting the crystal. The ovular shape of what could be considered a head identified it as a Krozoa spirit, leaving Fox to ponder on just how to release the spirit inside himself he carried. Invasive as the procedure was.
But as he thought of this, his gaze wavered to the lovely vixen who the Krozoa who appeared to Fox identified as Krystal. (Damn ironic name if you ask me, Fox thought.) Somehow, all the aches and pains of the last few days, the fears and feelings of hopelessness of the last few months, the harrowing experiences of interstellar war of the last few years, and the sorrow and hardship of Fox's whole existence seemed to evaporate, leaving him light as a cloud and feeling just fine. "What am I doing?..." He whispered, happily.
That answer came from an unfriendly realm called reality. in the Stern form of Peppy Hare. "Peppy here, whaddarya doin', Fox? Release the spirit and get outta there. Peppy out."
Fox had known Peppy a long time. Long enough to know that if that was the tone to be used, then he wasn't too impressed. "All right," Fox said. "I'm going."
And Fox left to test a theory he had to release the foreign Krozoa spirit inside him, but not before stealing one last loving gaze at Krystal.
Approximately four days later, Fox found himself back at the same place. The only differences were that the rain was harsher, his Arwing stood by, the tyrannical General Scales had been defeated by some netherworldy figure and there were now six Krozoa spirits orbiting Krystal's transparent prison. But, unlike what the giant Krozoa had promised him, nothing happened to release Krystal.
"What's going on?" Fox demanded. "You said this would save her!"
If anyone was listening to the vulpine's protest, they completely ignored it and proceeded with infusing Krystal with the Krozoa spirits available. Fox's adrenaline skyrocketed; he knew all too well the stretch of the spirit's release, the extra weight that it added to the mind and how one could go mad if they had two minds in their head at once, let alone seven. Fox shouted "No!!!!" and rushed up the mesa to act.
But it was too late. All six spirits had been absorbed by Krystal, whose eyes (A fantastic shade of turquoise, Fox noted.) shot open and released all spirits at once, into a large Krozoa statue head that faced her, yet looked on as statues tend to do.
Fox winced, imagining the pain involved with such a venture, but implored the girl to wake up.
She opened her eyes, groggily, and then looked down; just as the crystal prison she was held in shattered, allowing gravity to have its merciless plunge, all seventy stories of the Krozoa Palace to the subbasement.
Like a coiled spring, Fox leaped out with the magic staff he held and jutted it out for her to catch. Krystal did indeed catch it, and hauled herself up onto the ledge. It was then that their eyes met for the first time, and Fox's innards turned to jelly. He found his hands holding the staff sweat, his legs buckle and he felt a swell in his heart.
The only thing that remained unaffected was his mind, that screamed at him to get a grip, for the statue that had been injected with Krozoa spirits had begun to move under its' own power.
"I am reborn!" A deep, menacing voice shouted. The same voice that had overruled General Scales, that Fox recognized from somewhere. "The mighty Krozoa God! Kneel all those that stand before me!!" The voice dissolved into maniacal laughter.
"We will never kneel to you!" Krystal shouted back. How she got to be by Fox's side was a mystery to him, but there she was. Snatching the staff he had. "Give me that!" She demanded.
"Hey, wait!" Fox said, taken by surprise. That, and the staff and he had been through a lot together. He'd grown rather fond of it. "Well, thanks for nothing." Fox crossed his arms. "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be standing here at all."
Krystal seemed not to hear, but whispered to her staff, as if greeting it like an old friend. She then pointed it skywards, bursts of concentrated fire magic streaking to the retreating, spacebound Krozoa head.
Looking on, Fox thought no, could have sworn he saw something on the underside of the damn thing. Something he remembered all too well, as if something from a nightmare. He hurried to his Arwing and took off after it.
Dodging the debris field that had been created with the Planet Sauria's separation, Fox confronted the head, only to have it turn about to reveal a face and pair of hands he recognized.
"I've been looking forward to this day, to see you again. Fox McCloud!"
"Andross!" Fox gasped, not believing what he saw. This couldn't happen. The ape couldn't be here, now...
When Andross' mad ramblings about the destruction of the Lylat System came to a close, Fox snapped out of his trance and fought the disembodied head one last time...
Krystal, Fox decided two days later, had a funny way of thanking someone for saving her life; follow them through their ventures and attempt to repay the debt. Krystal had gone through several simulations for combat-testing already, perhaps in an attempt to still say thank you.
Fox, however didn't mind. It didn't matter how weak-legged, how clumsy with his speech he became when he was in her company, or how his innards turned to jelly whenever she so much as cast a lovely glance at him.
Fox had felt this only once before, but that was a long time ago. It had been lonely, admitted, but whenever he looked into those lovely blue orbs, he felt himself at home, as if a weight had been lifted from his heart.
There was just no mistaking it. Fox was in love with Krystal.
And for now, everything was just right in the world. Well, if you didn't count all the Aparoids that remained between their homeworld and Corneria.
End of chapter
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