Hey there everyone! I'm Ex-Shark-Virtue-005. I first wrote this fic way back in 2004. Then I rewrote it in late 2006 to early 2007. And I'm rewriting it again in 2012. I've cleaned it up a ton from the original. I put the entire story in third person instead of switching point of views. I've also decided on when it takes place in the series and it takes place about a year after the events of Star Fox 64 so that makes Fox nineteen years old. I'm pretty confident that I know where I'm going with this story this time around and I promise I won't update this story when I decide to rewrite it after five some odd years.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Fox or the characters. I just really enjoy playing the games.

Happy Reading!

Chapter One: Things go wrong, very wrong.

'Where is that damn distress signal,' Fox McCloud thought to himself as the sky got darker. He and the other members of the Star Fox team had already been searching Fichina for about two and a half possibly three hours searching for a distress signal and they had gotten nowhere. "Dammit! What the hell!" Fox swore as his patients grew thin.

"Wow Fox, two swears in one sentence. That's a new record for you. Let me copy this down, date: August third, nineteen ninety-seven, planet: Fichina, time: fifteen hundred thirty-three hours, event: Fox McCloud swore twice in one statement."

"What you heard me!"

Falco just laughed at the reply, "Calm down McCloud I'm only joking." He assured his younger teammate. "The reason I called is because Slippy needs your help…again. Apparently he ran into a few pissed off natives with really shitty ships."

"Alright," Fox responded as he located his teammate not too far from his position, "I'll see what I can do." Before going to aid his teammate, Fox rolled the sleeves of his tan jacket down. He was feeling rather cold but he figured that it had something to do with the sub-zero temperatures outside of his Arwing.

Fox followed Slippy around but it was going to be impossible to get the "natives" off him if he didn't hold still. He turned on my com-link, "Slippy!" he screamed, "Hold st-" Mid-sentence he was cut off by a severe wave of dizziness.

"Fox are you okay!" Slippy asked.

Fox couldn't respond. He needed to do everything he could to keep himself from blacking out.

"Hey Fox are sure you're okay?" Falco called, "You don't look so good."

Fox was still far too dizzy to respond. And he knew that it would only cause his teammates to worry about him more.

"Come on Fox," Falco called, "What's wrong?"

Finally the dizzy spell began to subside and Fox was able to open his eyes and contact his worried team. First He checked the Arwing's status just to make sure everything was in order. He didn't understand why he felt so sick all of a sudden. He thought that maybe something was wrong with the oxygen tank on his Arwing, but everything was in order.

"Hey Fox answer us already!" Falco screamed over the communicator, "You have us scared half to death! Don't do that to us!"

"I didn't mean to scare anyone," He replied sheepishly.

"Than what was that thing you pulled off a few minutes ago, huh McCloud?" Falco sneered back.

Fox knew he would have a hard time lying about that stunt he had just pulled, "I was having trouble with the Arwing's controls and communications line." He lied. The dizziness may have passed but his head was pounding.

"Are you sure Fox?" Slippy asked, "Everything was in order before we left."

"I'm sure," Fox responded, "You might want to check it out when we get back."

"If you insist."

Further up ahead, the team came across another group of "natives" however for whatever reason, probably the pounding in his head, Fox could only take out two maybe three of a group of ten. "What the hell is wrong with you today Fox! We're supposed to destroy the enemies not let them pass unharmed!" Falco screamed, "Pull yourself together!"

'Must he scream?' Fox thought as he held his head a bit. He had an almost migraine-pitch headache and having Falco scream at him through the communications line wasn't helping at all.

A few minutes later his communicator beeped again. He was starting to get really fed up with Falco but he knew if he ignored this call the odds of him being forced to retreat were high. He got ready to fire some witty remark at Falco only to find that Falco was not the person contacting him. It was Peppy.

"Fox I don't think you should be out here. You don't look like you're feeling too well." He said "Are you okay."

"I'm fine Peppy." Fox replied. Peppy was right. Fox wasn't feeling all that great. However General Pepper was counting on them to find that signal. He wasn't gonna stop because of a slight headache.

Five minutes later Fox was starting to regret not telling Peppy the truth. He was really starting to feel sick. His "slight" headache was pretty much a migraine now. He just had to hold on just long enough to find the signal.

Fox soon found that that he was wrong, very wrong. The "distress signal" turned out to be some kind of base and the "natives" were definitely not friends of Corneria. He thought an assault would be easy until a huge battleship stopped them.

"Shit that thing's huge!" Falco yelled, "You sure you're okay Fox, because I can handle this one."

"I'm fine Falco, I can handle this," Fox replied trying not to sound too confident. 'Who am I kidding,' He thought to, 'I know I won't be able to do this, but I have to try.'

"Whatever Fox," Falco answered, "Just don't pass out on us okay. I don't think you would want to get captured by them."

The battleship was similar to something that Fox had fought once before only with less firepower. He had to fire at the wings and bridge of the large battleship while minding the countless gun turrets on it. He found it easy enough to fight until the ship fired a blast of energy at Fox.

"Watch out Fox!" Falco screamed.

Fox couldn't move out of the beam's path in time and got hit almost full blast. When the beam stopped, Fox was barely conscious and every alarm in his Arwing was going off. "Get outta here Fox!" Peppy screamed, "We can't afford to have you get killed! Go back to the Great Fox or land somewhere away from the battle. Falco will take your place!"

Fox turned to either head back to the Great Fox or find somewhere safe to land until his teammates could help him. However a few of the larger more heavily armed ships took a liking to him and started shooting at his already heavily damaged Arwing. "Peppy…" Fox called weakly through a private line, "I need help. My ship can't take anymore damage and…I can't take much more either."

"Hold on Fox," Peppy answered quietly. He could tell that the younger pilot was struggling. He had known Fox for his entire life. And he knew well enough that the younger pilot wasn't feeling well at all, "I'm coming."

Before Peppy could go to Fox's aid, a stray laser blast hit the engine of the Arwing dead on, causing Fox to lose total control of his ship. Normally, he would have tried to regain control of his ship, but he didn't have the strength or the energy to fight the ship's controls. He tried desperately to keep his eyes open despite the darkness that was threatening to engulf him.

He tried to make a general idea of where he would crash land amidst the blaring alarms and his hazy, fading vision. And to his dismay he would probably crash just behind enemy lines. But Fox never saw what happened next. He gave into the darkness that was consuming him and the last thing he knew before losing consciousness was several voices calling his name.

Well there it is. The third (and hopefully last) version of chapter one. If you've read the last version I hope you enjoyed the revised version and if you're reading this for the first time, I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you thought! Until next time, see ya!

15:33 hours is 3:33 in the afternoon.

Ex-Shark-V-005